ASSIGNMENT I WRITING MY STORY
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My Writing Journey
My journey through writing has been a long and laborious one that I would equate
to a long walk in the wilderness. I have never written a piece for pleasure; rather, all of my
writing has been with the purpose of fulfilling an assignment through course work. Early
on in high school, I was introduced to writing assignments to fulfill course objectives in
which I was able to do but not without much trepidation. I have never been taught formally
how to write but have always written in a manner in which I would speak while answering
or addressing a certain topic. Possessing a calm and non-confrontational demeanor, I tend
to write in a more passive tone versus an active tone. I also tend to do a lot of explaining in
my writing to make things very clear. I have been told through feedback that my writing is
too wordy and to cut back. I have incorporated these suggestions into my writing as time
has progressed.
My writing journey accompanied through my educational journey has taken me past
high school, into college at the associate degree level and now to the graduate level.
Unfortunately, the transition from high school to college did not provide much more
formalized teaching on actual writing skill or technique. Writing, for me, has always felt like
a tedious job. I have taken opportunities to improve my writing skills to become a more
powerful, engaging, and effective writer. The last opportunity was visiting writing labs on
campus to assist with writing. Although helpful, these were very short sessions limited to
30 minutes and focused on a particular assignment versus technique overall. My
educational journey has been somewhat confusing when it comes to perfecting writing
skills as it seems that each professor has their own style of writing with the way they like to
approach writing; therefore I find that I have been pulled into different directions “trying to
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get it right”. I would love to learn writing skills that will “get it right” every time when you
follow the basic writing rules.
My writing journey in the professional world through my career has been very
purposeful and has always been right on target. I have no issues when creating writing in
the work world as I am speaking to a different audience where instead of waiting to
determine if I meet the mark or not, I am in the driving seat and take full responsibility of
delivering a product that will be clear, concise, and explanatory so that anyone of my staff
can pick up the piece, read it and have no unanswered question after being exposed to the
piece. If I can take the level of confidence and authority in my writing from my professional
work world to my academic world, I think I could approach writing with more confidence
and command of the subject matter of the topic I am delivering.
I am looking forward to the subject matter in this course that can help build my
skills as a writer as I approach more research topics specifically in creating strong evidence
or arguments for a particular stance, which I have not mastered at this time. Common
feedback received by former professors at the graduate level has included comments about
(1) active versus passive voice, (2) information being too vague, (3) need to make for a
stronger argument, (4) need to add clarity to writing, etc. I fully intend on mastering
writing so that I can be launched to a different level of performance. I plan to publish some
of my professional pieces in the future specifically the research pieces. I have gone back
through many of my writing pieces developed from academic coursework and feel they are
publish worthy but I want to be a bit more confident prior to taking that leap into the
publishing world.
ASSIGNMENT I WRITING MY STORY
Unfortunately, the feedback I have received from some masterful writers, in their
own right, particularly at the doctoral level has been negative, intimidating, insulting, and
discouraging. I feel the feedback has been more focused on APA style of writing versus the
content of the writing itself. I hope to change the negatives that have been started into
positives. As I go back through my writings in comparison to my colleagues and class
mates, I don’t see the difference and am then left puzzled. I fully embrace progression
through development of skills and hope to become equipped with more tools that can
propel me into the future of writing at a higher level to a broader audience in my specialty
of healthcare. I am excited for this opportunity to participate in this course. In speaking to
the audience of my peers for this online class, my take away through my educational
journey is to NEVER give up and to NEVER let anyone tell you that your work is not good
enough or strong enough. You just have to be WILLING to work harder at it if it does not
come naturally to you.
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