“Rethink Possible,” states Att‘s slogan and in my mind, myself. This slogan gave me what will power I have today to succeed in writing. In the beginning of my writing years I had no idea what was to be expected. Now I look at my skill which I see is well improved from around fourth grade to now freshman year. As a writer this semester I came in with many weaknesses but throughout the year drastically gained strengths, and now I see in my future many new goals I have for myself as a writer.

As a slowly progressed through the year of eighth grade I noticed many weaknesses, along with into freshman year they were reoccurring. These weaknesses are still being improved, and new ones are emerging. Freshman year is crucial and my teacher, Mrs. Hartjes is the one that pointed out to me all of my many different weaknesses, “Plan, Then write” Dustin Wax_1. I don’t like planning I just want to usually get it done as quickly as possible and in many of my writings such as my Art and Me essay where most of my mark downs were in the organization section I see I’m not organized, but I hate wasting time when I think I can just get it done because in my mind the skies the limit and I can say whatever I want, yet my problem is that when they give me a topic I don’t know much about its hard for me to find a center point where it can be good but still be me. Another Example would be in my Hero essay, I thought that I had it all planned out in my head so nothing needed to really be written down so I never wrote it out as well as I could’ve. It turned out a “C” isn’t as great of a grade after all. One of my other weaknesses has to do with me not being well timed out. I see that I am well skilled but my weaknesses are what put me down. One weakness that drags on for so many years is “Pacing [myself]” Wax_1. I don’t think pacing is a skill you can learn, but depending on the person you are maybe it’s easier. In my hero essay I just threw things together and never really took the time to make sure it made sense, than I saw that I didn’t do a good job even though the person I gave it to liked it I still think it could’ve been better. I’ve never been taught how to take my time and pace myself, which is why in my Analysis essay I did so bad, because its all finding quotes and I didn’t take my time to find the perfection I needed to get me that “A” I wanted. I think that I have this problem also because I’m unorganized and I don’t like to just take the time I want to just get it done because I think I’m smart enough to just do it.

As a freshman writer I think I also have many skills that have been taught to me by my fabulous English teacher, because I see without her I would never understand what I am doing. Even though I had my teacher to help I also came in with lots of skills already like “Fix [my] mistakes later” Wax_2. I can’t really pace myself I just want to keep going but after someone has shown me what I’m doing wrong I can fix my mistakes easily and make it better than it was before. This skill helps usually when we get a chance to re-do our writing or when we do critique groups. I think that the most effective way is critique groups because not only am I seeing my mistakes but others too, so then I know exactly what to be looking to fix in my essays. In my Analysis essay I wish that we would’ve had more time, because I know I could’ve done better I had to the time to revise it and find my ground. Like in my hero essay I made changes but not enough to make a huge impact on my grade. Things like these I wish we would go back to the middle school way where you write your rough draft, revise, have two others revise, than type the final draft. Although fixing stuff is one of my strengths I don’t ever have to deal with getting into trouble because when I look up stuff I “don’t plagiarize” Wax_2. My most effective way not to plagiarize is to take notes instead of trying to put it in my own words. It’s easier for me to do this because if I put it in my own words it’s just going to be a mix up of what they already have down which is still plagiarizing. Even though this is what my teachers taught us I never wanted to get into trouble so I did it my own way which is what made it one of my huge skills that I have in writing, like in my Analysis essay instead of plagiarizing I put in quotes, but I never used to know that that’s the way to write so I’d just take down some of what they said and that would make it easier to put it in my words. Also for our Hero essays we looked up other peoples essays and got an idea of what a good essay looked like and instead of just taking their ideas I took notes on what to write about which made my writing a little bit more effective.

This leads up to some of my major goals for next semester which really depend on whether I take writing camp. This is because at a writing camp they help with your skills and weaknesses which would defiantly help. For this next half of the year one of my goals would be to “Meet the requirements” Wax_2. I think that I have this goal just because our teachers give us what they expect to be done and as long as were meeting their requirements that you’re guaranteed a “B”. With this goal I hope to boost my grades and also just have better writing skills in general. I don’t think writings hard, but I do see that I need some work on it. In my latest analysis essay Mrs. Hartjes gave us a check list and I never used it, I know there is a reason she gave it to us and maybe if I would’ve used it I would’ve gotten a better grade. Also in my hero essay we had expectations to meet and I never bothered to care much about them, now I know that this will be better if I pay attention to what is required of me. I know what I’m capable of but without setting major goals and seeing what I’m doing wrong I will not succeed in life and I want to be on the top like I used to. People don’t set very many goals and neither do I but now I am going to set goals and be prepared, so my next goal is “Use deeper knowledge to clarify and enrich [my] writing” Wax_3. I want to have this as a goal because I know I don’t put much detail and don’t go into depth with my writing. Writing is important to me, I just don’t think that people need to know every little detail, but I see that I need to do this to be a better writer to improve my skills and have amazing works of art when I’m done. Having all my new goals will better prepare me for the next semester and to be aware of what I’m doing wrong and what I really have to focus in on. My hero essay was very important to me and if I would’ve went into really detail I know I would’ve gotten not only a better grade but also gotten more tears out of my grandmother and not only her but my other family that read it. Different essays have different needs and in my analysis I think that I needed to pay more attention to the detail and characters and would’ve done much better. I see that I have many goals that I need to follow instead of what I’m already doing.

When I look at myself as a writer I see many different weaknesses that I came in with but now I know I have more strengths, but I still want to improve so I set many different goals for myself. What’s your writing standard?