Common Difficulties Encountered in Academic Writing - Essay Example

Reflective Essay Writing is all about expressing one’s feelings and thoughts in textual form. In writing, the presentation of ideas needs to be organized to have an effective writing work. It requires that a person is literate to know the symbols used to create words and to combine these words to form sentences. Unlike speaking, writing is a formal and planned act of communication that requires basic knowledge in spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and sentence structure. One has to follow writing rules in order to come up with an effective paper. More importantly, one has to stay focused in completing a writing task. For me, writing can be really difficult at times because the act itself is solitary. It comes from within us. We concentrate on planning and thinking how to transform our complex thoughts into an organized written text. For instance, when I write argumentative essays, there are abstract concepts that I need to explain using my own words and this makes writing difficult for me. Sometimes, I would find myself staring at a blank paper for hours because I do not know how to start the topic I am working. I would have difficulty in coming up with solid arguments for my essay topic. Even though I have read a lot about the theme of the essay, I still have trouble translating what I have read into writing. Worse, when I get to start writing, I would it difficult to end the topic. It is as if I am going nowhere when I start my writing task. Moreover, in the middle of the work, I would get distracted because sometimes I would be confused in grammatical rules especially when I construct complex sentences. Also, the rules in punctuation and spelling would confuse me a lot, especially when I would try to write longer sentences. Indeed, I am very conscious with all the technicalities in grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary when I start to write. However, amidst all these difficulties I encountered in writing, I have remained patient in re-writing and editing my drafts to come up with a presentable essay. I have learned that there are methods that would make writing easier for beginning writer and that is to have a plan. In this class, I have learned the process of pre writing, writing, revising, and editing in order to get my essays done. Pre writing would mean that I have to jot down all the ideas I have, regardless if my ideas are correct or not. Writing an outline would then help me in organizing my thoughts and ideas. Once the outline is done, I would follow its structure and simply let all other ideas flow. Correction then comes after writing the paper as this will be the time I would consider to revise my work. However, this writing technique is not as easy as it seems. There are times when it gets really difficult to construct sentences and organize my ideas in an outline. Also, from time to time, it would occur to me that I do not necessarily have to follow my outline. I also realized that revision is also a difficult process because it might entirely change the order of the paper that I have already started. Other problem areas that I need to address when it comes to my writing is still the language problem. Being a non-native speaker of English, I recognize that I still need to work hard in order to master the technicalities of the language. I admit that my vocabulary is still limited which makes it difficult for me to understand highly academic words. I mostly encounter awkward phrasing when making sentences and I deal with unconventional grammar when I write complex sentences. However, having these writing difficulties does not mean I did not achieve my goal to write effectively. The fact that I faced the challenge in writing the essay assignment was already a big achievement for me. In all three writing works, I am proud to say that I have given myself to sit down and stay focused in finishing the essays. It is fair to say that because of the time and effort I have put on my works, I have done all my essays well. If I have rate all my works, the first essay entitled “A Self Appreciation: My Personal Stereo” will be ranked first because the content is very personal to me. The other two essays about Wal-Mart and P2P is ranked on the average because they present general views on the topic, which means a lot of research were done to complete the work. Having said these, my assessment for my overall writing capacity will be average because I have yet to master the writing craft. Even though I am proud of my three essays, I must admit that I spent considerable amount of time and effort just to remain focused in finishing the work. With that, I admit that these are just one of the many areas I need to work on. I need to practice more to improve my grammar and vocabulary. I need to read more books in order to enhance my creativity and writing style. I need to enhance my critical thinking to help me create a credible piece of work. In this class, I have realized that indeed, a big part of writing is decision making. A writer needs to decide what gets into the paper. A writer makes his choices on how to construct a sentence and paragraph. As a complex task, writing leads us to decide for ourselves on how we would be able to plan and create a writing piece. As a result of this writing process, we would be able to understand and discover ourselves. For instance, in writing this piece, I have discovered that there are still many things I could learn to hone my writing skills. It is a craft that needs practice, focus, and effort to master it. Read More