Academic Writing for Adults Class - Essay Example

Academic Writing for Adults Class As a requirement for this course, I face the task of writing this essay, with the aim of convincing its reader that I am worthy to join the Academic Writing for Adults class. Otherwise, I understand I would have to take the Writing Workshop, which offers a more intensive training for students who have exceptional difficulty with their academic writing. I believe that I do not need to take the Writing Workshop. Far from experiencing “writing anxiety,” I have a strong interest in writing, and my personal goal is to learn how to write more effectively. I believe that Academic Writing for Adults will be a good venue in which I could pick up pointers for improving my writing style. I understand that the course is for academic writing, which will provide me a greater opportunity to express myself better through my writing for the purpose of passing my courses, maybe even get better grades. In my youth, I had moderate difficulty in writing; I believe, though, that it was not so much because I was afraid of writing, or because I did not know how to write. At a young age, there appeared to be little to write about. I felt that I had not experienced as much as I had to in life, for me to gain enough insight to write about things. Of course, it was different about lessons. When needed, such as in an examination where essay writing was required, I usually could find enough to say, in order to create a decent-enough essay, and was confident in writing. When the type of writing is about impersonal things, such as subject matter that comes from lessons or a book, I have had little problems in writing. You might say that these are things that could be studied and memorized, then repeated when it becomes necessary to do so. Student’s last name However, when the requirement is to write about my personal insights and to venture my own opinions, I sometimes grope for the words that I must put together, in order to express what is formed as a concept in my own mind. Because of this, I feel that my problem with writing is not so much in the area of spelling or grammar, but one of a higher level, dealing with the finer points of writing, and the techniques to convince and entertain the reader. Now that I am joining an adult class, I feel that I have had more experience and more insights that I think are worth sharing. From my exposure to the outside world in the course of growing up, I have picked up a bit more vocabulary, even a bit more of the idiomatic expressions and common sayings that may be useful in forming my own statements and expressions. Needless to say, the more advanced means of communication has helped a lot in providing all of us with a ready source of information. Social networking, for instance, gives us all a chance to write to countless people in the world, to exchange ideas and to interact at a personal level in a manner that enriches us. This technology was not available to me in my youth; for this, I believe the youth today are in an enviable position, to be able at an early age to write and communicate with everybody else in the world and to grow together as a global community. I may be going beyond the scope of a mere academic writing course, but I believe that writing is the key to reaching out through a more permanent medium than just conversing by speaking. Sometimes it is easier to get a message through by talking, because when we run out of words, we can use gestures and body language to get the message through. Writing is different, because one has to put down in a sheet of paper what one wants to say, without the use of facial expressions, body language, or other actions. The reader has only the words that the Student’s last name writer has put down on paper (or electronic medium) in order to grasp the message the writer wants to convey, in the way he wanted to convey it. The course if for academic writing, I understand. Eventually, though, I hope I could develop my writing skills to the point of experimenting in some literary writing. I have a keen sense of self-improvement, of taking on new challenges and exploring how much I can achieve. It would be wonderful if by my writing, I could leave a legacy by which I may be remembered by my family and friends. That may be a long way off, but the adult writing class is one step that could lead to better grades in the short term, and greater things in the long term. It is easy to see that I have no problem with the basics of writing and communicating in English, in particular with spelling and grammar, so I feel I do not need to take the Writing Workshop. After all, it is a course limited to ten students, and it would benefit someone else who needs it more than I. In the Academic Writing for Adults class, I hope to revisit those things I have learned before but have forgotten. I also have high hopes for all the new things I will learn through this class. I hope I am given the opportunity to do so. Evaluation: This essay was easy to write in so far as it deals with myself, so I know everything I have to write about. It was difficult to write also because it dealt with myself, because writing about oneself entails the risk of being judged by others. Even if I had more time, however, I would not change much about this essay. I cannot tell if the writing in this essay reflects me at my best, because it is a portrayal of me as I see myself, which as we all know tends to be biased. What I do know is that I have written with my best lights, and this is what I offer the reader. Read More