Writing. I’ve never considered writing one of my passions or strengths per say, but I do enjoy expressing myself and getting my feelings out by writing from time to time. One of my strengths is creative writing. I enjoy being assigned a general topic to write about, and just letting my ideas spill out onto the paper. I believe having an interest and having fun with what your writing about is essential to a successful paper. Adversely, I struggle when it comes to writing boring research papers about a topic I have little to no interest in. Another writing strength I have is being concise. I am usually pretty good at writing an entertaining piece without being redundant and repetitive. One writing weakness I have is my vocabulary. I would like to have a broader vocabulary than I do; I believe that would enhance my writing greatly. A second weakness I have is organizing paragraphs. I have trouble deciding if I should continue writing on with the same paragraph, or split it up and begin a new one. I’d really like to improve on that because it would give my writing better flow as well as improve the clarity.
How do I improve these weaknesses? I have always heard that reading more advanced pieces of writing, such as the New York Times, enhances vocabulary. I could read those types of articles and books with advanced words to help boost my vocabulary. The second weakness is a more difficult one to solve. Maybe if I get my writing constantly critiqued by someone who knows I have this problem, I will begin to get it. Furthermore, The Norton Field Guide to Writing seems like a great resource. We will probably go over something along the lines of this during English 15 this semester.
Music lyrics definitely inspire me to be a better writer. Rap in particular. How artists get their meaning across while keeping a flow that’s pleasing to hear really interests me. Mac Miller is one artist that really impresses me. He raps about positive topics and having fun, rather than gangs and violence. His words just flow, and his upbeat personality can be heard in almost every song. He has all this and is only a year older than me. Here is a link to the music video of his new song, Frick Park Market. Everything I explained about Mac is extremely evident in the video. This is unrelated to the writing aspect of the song, but it is a sickkkk video.
Jay-z is another rapper that I am a huge fan of. In fact he is my favorite rapper and a role model to me. I’ve always loved him because not only does he have great flow, but his lyrics are meaningful. Contrary to popular belief that are rappers are stupid hoodlums, Jay z is a multi millionaire and extremely intelligent. Here’s a link to a song off his relatively new album with Kanye West, Watch the Throne.
To use a cliche (only because it's totally apt and I'm too lazy to be creative right now), you totally hit the nail on the head when you say that good writing can only come out of a genuine interest in the subject manner. That's because exigence is all about a real desire, a true compulsion, to respond with language, right? So, if you have no desire, no real purpose, it's so forced and awkward. And also, along the lines of what Ann Lamott writes, good writing is about the truth.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you like the Norton Field Guide so far. I think it's a fantastic resource that offers lots of really concise and useful information in terms of how to think abut different writing assignments, from conception to editing.
Thanks!