My Experience with Writing Essays: Funny, Sad, Frustrating or ?
Write between 150 and 200 words on your previous experience with writing an essay in an in class, high pressure setting. Answer as many of the following questions as appropriate in the body of your paragraph. It is not expected (or possible) to answer them all. Choose the questions that reflect your experiences the best and expand on these. Give examples to illustrate.
What kinds of problems have you had with the organizing/brainstorming section? Give an example of something that has happened at this point.
What do you usually do first (second, third etc.) during the test? Why do you do that? Do you feel that you are efficient in your use of time?
What kinds of feedback have you received on your writing in the past? How have you tried to improve based on the suggestions your teacher has given you?
Do you have any funny (or sad) experiences while writing an essay that you would like to share with the class?
18 comments:
Although it has been a very long time since I had the experience of writing a time pressured in class essay (25 years, give or take, when back at university to upgrade my qualifications), I do still remember it was a sweat inducing experience. My problem has always been spending too much time in the planning phase, wanting to get things absolutely perfect before beginning to write. That behaviour used to crop up when I worked on out of class essays as well where my wife’s advice to me was always to say, “You’ve got everything you need so start writing already!” She was right. Of course, writing without enough preparation could also be a problem. Division of topic into sensible and logical parts is tricky at the best of times. At this level, I mostly at least hint at the division of topics that a student may use to make the standard three body paragraph essay work correctly. It was interesting last term when I used more explicit directions (in other words, I dictated the exact three topics needed). Some students did not like that, preferring to have more flexibility to accommodate their own ideas. Whatever your style, know yourself and adjust your writing to reduce the pressure as much as you can.
—214 words
It has been quite a few years since I have felt the pressure of writing an essay under a
timed clock. My number one challenge of having a time limit is to not get carried away with
the planning, brainstorming and organizing of the ideas in my head and being able to
get them into essay form and handed in on time. I use the majority of my time jotting down
notes, making “mind maps” and then clumping those scattered pieces of information into alike
topics to write my paragraphs. I then write a rough copy because I ALWAYS go over the word
count the first time. By the time this is all done I am sometimes scrambling to get the final work
completed. Although, there are times that I am the first person to finish and be out the door.
The more interest and opinions I have connected to the given topic factor into how easily the
ideas flow, as opposed to having to search my brain for the “answers”, or things to write. This
method can put a lot of pressure onto the process; however I always end up with pretty good
feedback so I stick to the approach as it works for me. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
Selena Gingrich
-218 words
(English12, October 24, 2014)
I don't remember when was the first time I wrote an essay but it was difficult and frustrating. I always had problem with brainstorming and how to start an essay. Every time I would start I would tear the paper up and had to start over again. By the time my introduction was good to go I had to explain my three body ( which would be my three points) , and conclusion. If my writing was a little messy and scratched out I had to start over to get it perfectly clean. For example,every time I wrote a paragraph or essay in Brad's class I would tear a couple paper out . By the time I was done redoing my introduction many of my classmates were done with their second paragraph which this leads to running out of time and staying overtime to finish my essay. The feedback I have received was not to put too much time on redoing my work and being really sensitive on how clean my paper looks. I am trying my best not to be sensitive and hand in whatever I have rather than redoing my work again. In conclusion, writing essay was frustrating at the beginning but now I really enjoy because the more I write, the more I get to know myself.
-218 words
Writing an essay with a time limit is a challenging task. However, my problem in class is that I spend too much time preparing and organizing my ideas rather than writing the essay; this keeps me behind schedule. Even though I usually try to divide each part of the essay writing process equally, I have never succeeded. The most frustrating part of an essay is, to trying to find a clear introductory paragraph as well as a well-defined thesis statement. The body paragraphs are also an important part of the essay that have to be supported by strong examples in order to impact the readers mind which can’t be done in a short time. I often find myself digging really hard into my head to find an appropriate illustration for each body paragraph. I remember that my former teacher Louise once told me that I should stop over thinking my writing and just try to finish it on time. Louise also introduced us “Free Writing” (writing what comes to mind) which was quite helpful in my writing. In conclusion, I don’t think writing will get easier any time soon, but I have come a long way and I owe my progress to all the feedback that I received throughout this journey.
---212 words
It is interesting to know that even great writers have a fear of writing. No wonder I have the fear. I think my imaginative ability is stronger than my organizing one: I create too many ideas in the brainstorming section, and I often fail to prioritize them, or select relevant ideas to focus on a clear theme. As a result, I go back and forth many times to see whether the theme and the supporting ideas really make sense or not. If I find the correlation is not strong, I stop there and try to enhance the ideas. And I often found myself stuck there. However, I recently found that a freewriting exercise somehow helps me get over this problem. While freely writing down any thought without worrying on a proper format or mistakes, I feel like I am relieved from the fear. I realize that my fundamental issue moving forward no matter how the writing looks like. I think I have to do more excises of completing more essays rather than making a perfect one.
--176 words
It’s hard to remember the last time I wrote an essay in class (good few
years back, while upgrading my courses), but all I could remember it
was a sweet challenge writing it in English. What I’ve learned it was to
always have a three main parts to an essay (introduction, body and
conclusion.) Hardest for me was how to start and make a good and
strong introduction. Every time before I start writing I have to organize
my thoughts and ideas, then I will write it on the paper. It sometimes
takes a few rough copies before I start writing, as well as a few
scratched pages. I do believe my time might be wasted while spending
time organizing a story, but I am doing my best to give a good result.
What I’ve learned from here is, the more I write and exercise, the
better it becomes. My teacher back in high school used to say, “Don’t
get lost in all those notes, just write what’s on your mind.”No matter
what”, I do realize what my issue of good writing is, I do need a good
method to set myself free. However there is a long ways to become a
good essay writer and I will give it a time.
Jenn Rizov
---212 words
Writing under pressure has always been a challenge, especially in a given time and word limit. First of all, in order to cope with anxiety that my writing is being time I would divide my time into sections preview, plan, outline, write and review. For preview, I would first understand the question and try to get a clear idea of what the test includes and requires. I would read the instructions and understand what it requires. This is an important step because misunderstanding a question could be costly. After previewing I would spend time in planning, I would select the question, select the order of the essay and start organizing ideas that relates to the topic and think of examples that could be useful for the essay. Next I would outline my plan for the essay. The outline would help me to have a clear idea of my structure of the essay. This would help me focus on my time and plan. I think it is a good idea to do this. Next I would write and formalize my ideas considering my audience. I would also try to give examples. Finally I would check what I have written and correcting any error I have made such as word count, spelling and grammar mistakes. Writing has been tough, but following these steps makes it easier for me to write the essay.
232 words
Problems of Writing
Writing a paragraph or an essay during certain limited time is not an easy work to most of our foreign students. We have to do a quick brainstorm, select a suitable theme, and present the content with active verbs, colourful sentences, and clear structure. First of all, during the procedure of brainstorm, when I write down the relative words and sentences, I find most of words are simple and without sufficient power. Then, after I select a theme, I have to choose the sentence types carefully, using some simple sentences, compound sentences, and complicated sentences. Furthermore, as Louise suggested us in Communication 12, I keep an errors book of English learning and try to avoid committing similar mistakes, and now I review it from time to time. Finally, I feel a little bit sad about the effective use of conjunction words. As an engineering student, I’m good at listing out things with one, two, and three, but when I write a paragraph or an essay like this, it obviously looks like awkward. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to find a series of conjunction words to connect all parts together fluently. I’m striving to make my words more graceful and attractive. -200 Words.
I recall in my home country, Kyrgyzstan, that when writing an essay main emphasis was on grammar rather than its content. We used to have in class writing for Russian language at the end of the term. We would always write essays in class, but the final essay was the most pressured as it counted towards final mark. Students endeavored to write as much as possible on paper and the main focus of writing the essay was grammar because having a single misspelling could have resulted in a mark not above A, or 5(schools used numeral grading). Compared to North American school system, ours had many flaws but it forced students to write something with aim that idea will come in process. I had a lot of problems with brainstorming as I spent too much time on it. Therefore, I just wrote anything that came in my head and embody it with my essay. When I came to Canada, I learnt that more attention is paid on how idea is expressed into paper. I tried writing my ideas and then incorporating ideas into sentence and then paragraph but it seemed as if I lose the flow of the story. That is why I will stick with my old habit of just writing and adding ideas as they pop in my head.
-221 words
My Experience with writing Essays:Funny, sad Frustrating?
My experience with writing is belong to that time that I went to University. I have studied in Germany and we had a lots of workshops. We just writing an Essay about a theme and we didn't make brainstorming, but we organized the writing. My Example of Organizing, is that I have to write about heart deficiency and I have to introduce two Medication Dioxin and Digitoxin .It was my first experience in German language.
In Canada I mostly do brainstorming first because it gives me different and interesting
ideas.I think , That I am efficient in the use of time. My feedback from the past in my writing belongs to the youth when I was with my aunt's family and my memories during this time.It was happy and sometimes sad happineses.In the school, we have to write Essays about a theme as well. My teacher correct them and "Yes" give advice about correct writing. My experience of writing that I want with the class was in English class. We have to summary the "Oliver Twist" story. I try hard, but my cousine helped me a lot.It was an entertaining Essay. I like to write Essays. It is more Funny than sad or Frustrating.
My experience with writing essays; Funny, Sad, Frustrating?
My first time writing an essay in Japanese was when I was in junior-high school, and in English, it was when I was in high school. From either types of essay writing, I’ve learned plenty of writing techniques. Since I’ve started practicing to write an essay, I’ve faced to various rudimental problems such as basic grammar mistakes, spelling error, brainstorming, and so on. At the time when I gradually reached to the level to overcome most of those problems somehow, I had the relief that I would be unrelated with essay writing issues. But few years later, when I heard that IELTS has essay questions, I had a strong despair inside me. When I first tested a sample essay question from IELTS by my own, I still remember I wasn’t able to finish it on time and had given many explanations from both my teachers and parents. However having those explanations, I was able to improve my writing skills so that I would get an adequate mark on any exams. Now whenever it comes to the time of essay writing, I recall to all advises which I’ve gotten in the past, and write with full confidence.
-196words
Writing a time pressured in-class essay is the most challenging task for me. I am an average writer who usually follows the classic three step writing approach: planning, writing, and reviewing/revising. I know from my experience how important the planning section can be. On the other hand, it has become my major problem -- I always spent too much time on brainstorming and organizing section. Sometimes it takes half of my time. I have tried to find some reasons through self reflection. The first reason is my "upside down" brainstorm process. I used to make a list of everything come into my mind first, and then summarize three supporting ideas (for three body paragraph essay) from those piecemeal details. Maybe it is a good way for out of class writing, but not appropriate for test situation. Another reason is because I wanted to complete multiple tasks during the planning phase, such as figuring out the thesis statement, and making perfectly correct sentences. Now I am trying to use "free writing" to improve my planning skill. Although in-class writing is a perpetual challenge for me, it is also valuable as a mirror of my errors.
-- 196 words
Writing an essay in class is a stressful brainwork. Writing makes me think so much, before
beginning actually to write. An interesting topic, three supporting points, and specific details are the essay essentials, which I have to brainstorm about. As I think hard, most of time,
abstract ideas fly in my mind. They all seem perfect for my work. My problem is this: How to
organize them into clear concise sentences? Especially in class writing, in a limited time, I have to finish it efficiently. My class helps me to solve this problem. I’ve found an advice—thinking and writing in a “natural way”—from the class blog. I stop thinking too board ideas, because I can’t express them all. I write commonly use sentences. It makes me write faster. On my writing in the past, I have received a helpful feedback. My teacher suggested that I should chop the sentences shorter. He was right. I’ve tried to write short simple sentences. Then, I’ve found short is better than long. Simple writing is more efficient, and has fewer errors. On my first essay writing, I incorrectly used two undistinguished supporting ideas. Although the work is challenging, writing has improved my language organization skill.
---202 words
I hadn’t had any experience in writing essays when I was studying English in high school. Frankly speaking, I hated studying English very much because I always failed the tests each time and the teachers in high school always focused on English grammars and vocabulary reciting. It made the course boring and lifeless. After working in Singapore, I went to a night school to study English for enhancing my accounting expertise. I was trained to write analytical essays, such as business letters, analyzing data, and scribbling reports. In the beginning of writing analytical essays, I had to think in Chinese first and translate them into English. This had taken me a lot of time to write a short report. The worse situation was that, most of time, direct translations made readers confused and misunderstood my illustrations. Angered and frustrated, I had found it hard for me to write reports with limited vocabularies. Having worked in Australia for six years, I gradually built up my vocabularies and was able to simply communicate with them. I wish I could learn and practise English more while studying English in Canada.
- 187 words
When I writing, no matter in class or at home, I have the problems of time tight, brainstorming, grammar and vocabulary mistakes. After getting the assignment, a lot of ideas jump out, just like the old lady always has a lot to talk. I feel panic at the thought. I understand that three topics should be enough. Then, I write down 3 ideas on the draft paper, and start to write (I know I have to start, time already tight). Sometimes I couldn’t follow my ideas that I have determined and talk something else; sometimes, I even couldn’t find out a property word to express my meaning or feeling then stay at there. My daughter said, “Don’t sit there in a trace. Typewriting everything what you are thinking as fast as possible, then edit it.” This is her experience, and maybe could help me to improve my writing effectively. In my essay, lots of grammar errors and spelling mistakes have, especially, in the class writing. The teacher reminds me to be careful. Writing is a painful process for me, but I could enjoy the sufferings, as it not only improves my writing skill, but also leads me to think about life as well.
--203 words
The last memorable essay I wrote in a high pressure setting was a grade 11 social studies exam. I was at the end of the exam on the very last question which required a full essay response. The problem was I had never really studied or really even contemplated the topic. Time was of the essence so I persevered, gathering thoughts and ideas in quick succession and finally forming a solid essay response. Even though this scenario was stressful at the time, it proves I am capable of quickly assembling an essay in a limited time. Although, something I have always had troubles with regarding essays was writing within the word limit. When I start writing I can easily get locked into one specific idea or thought and continuously ramble on about it. This becomes conflicting when you are required to reference multiple ideas or answer multiple questions in a limited amount of words. Add that there are many times that you have to write in class with no access to word processing programs and it can become a big problem. However, doing more and more assignments with word limits, I am slowly becoming better at not only writing in a less amount of space but also getting to the point without rambling.
-213 words
I faced many challenges in writing in class since I came Canada two years ago. The biggest problem was I had no idea about how to start a writing at first. In China, teachers never taught us how to write an essay in English. I didn't know what were thesis statement, introduction, body paragraph or conclusion. I just put my thoughts sentence by sentence when I first wrote in class assignment here. No structure. No organization. Nothing. After I learned the process of writing, a new problem came out. I wasn't good at brainstorming. I could only come up with three simple points during the preparation. Details often showed up later while I was writing. It made me often need to add something into the previous paragraphs, so my in class writing was often messy. Moreover, I often got stuck when I was writing as I was lack of ideas in my outlines. Because there is a time limitation, I often couldn't finish on time. However, it was improved after I followed a teacher's advice that do some "clustering" first. It drove my mind make associations easily, so I could get more thoughts before I started. Although writing in class is tough, I'm ready to take up the challenge now.
220 words
My experience with Writing Essays
Priyadarshan Dhungana
2014-10-29
Writing an essay in a limited time frame is not an easy task for me. I learned various methods to write a good essay on a test. Brainstorming and planning are some of them. However, it takes me a long time to plan which gives me very little time to write the essay. If I do not plan then, I end up not having an ample of vocabulary to express my ideas. Also, after writing a topic sentence I am unable to provide supporting details and examples. I usually get lost around the end of writing.
In the writing test, first of all I try to brainstorm and collect my ideas. When I collect the ideas related to the topic of the particular essay, then I try to make a good topic sentence. I focus on backing up my topic sentence with supporting details. After writing supporting sentences I try to give some examples relative to the idea. Secondly, I try to make a good conclusion by integrating whole ideas from previous paragraphs. Lastly, I reread my draft and make corrections on spelling and grammar to the best of my capability. In my opinion, I would be able to make a good essay with these steps, but due to the time limitation I always end up compromising on the last process, which decreases my score.(233)
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