My Two Major Habits

Here it is, the first essay I have written as a college student and the way I feel about my writing has not changed. For this essay, I chose to talk about how finding a subject you care about is key for me when writing and for life in general. When it comes to essays, I could revise them countless times and still not feel confident in the finish product. Since writing is not my strong suit, I’m typically the first to criticize anything I write even if I am proud of the work I put into it. This piece has a large amount of revisions yet I feel that I have not really changed anything. Considering this is the biggest piece I have written in class so far, it has to be picked apart because it holds so many of my poor writing habits.

                Here comes my laundry list of problems and habits that showed through with this essay. While I do feel comfortable enough in the class to write freely, I will always have to write essays as formally as possible. I cannot break the five paragraph model even if I tried. I have been taught that an essay is not complete unless there is an opening and all that other stuff. Reading other works in the class made me realize that the five paragraph structure needs to be forgotten about at times. Without it, writing becomes almost unpredictable because the reader is not expecting the worn out arrangement of an essay. Another major problem I have is not being able to get my point across without sounding vague. In my head, I want to be straightforward but I feel that writing should be wordy and sophisticated. With this thought process, I tend to repeat myself in different words or just trail off without completing an idea I briefly began. I have difficulty with writing down my exact thoughts in a fluid manner that the reader will understand. Besides a few general wording revisions, I still think the point of my essay has not been properly conveyed. Sometimes I forget that the reader does not know my exact thoughts leaving them to have to decipher my writing. These are two major aspects of my writing habits that I plan on changing for the better.