My Writing Experiences

I am a freshman transfer from University of South Carolina Upstate. I was accepted for the spring and have been looking forward to coming here for a long time. Last semester in my English 101 class we spent a lot of time doing short papers and rhetorical analysis’. Our focus throughout the semester was on the book How Does It Feel To Be a Problem by Moustafa Bayoumi. The book focuses on five young Arab Americans and their struggles with race in America today.

My greatest accomplishment in last semesters course was definitely when we shifted the focus away from Bayoumi’s book and were able to write a research paper on a topic chosen based on our own interests in controversial topics today. My paper focused on teens and the influence the media has on them. I felt since I was so interested in the topic I could really find good sources about what I wanted to talk about, and then give my input as well.

My best writing experience was in high school when I took the Language of Media class offered by my school. I had a very interesting teacher who gave us fun activities in class to learn about what goes on behind the scenes in the media. For writing in that class we had a lot of opportunities to write what was on our mind. For me writing should be about expressing your own feelings, and this class gave me the chance to speak what was on my mind instead of being assigned what to talk about. My worst writing experiences come from when I am assigned topics to write about that include learning about them first. I have not had very good luck in writing about things that I do not have interest in. I was affected most by my Literature of Media class because I learned how to write my own feelings and that it can be fun, rather than tedious.