When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a writer. Of course, I also wanted to be a teacher, and astronaut, and a princess, but this one stuck for a while. Although I eventually outgrew it, I did keep a few writing techniques from my childhood. This past summer, while cleaning up my attic, I found my third-grade research paper, which screamed, “DO YOU LIKE TEDDY BEARS? I DO!”  Although I don’t begin writing assignments quite that enthusiastically anymore, I always try to start with some kind of “hook”. I was told me to do this starting in third grade, but unlike other rules of writing that seemed to change with each school year, teachers always reminded me of this technique. All of my teachers emphasized the importance of learning to write well, and I’m grateful for that. They instructed me and my classmates on techniques such as writing concisely, structuring and responding to an argument, and how to adequately explain a quotation However, not all writing teachers are in agreement. While most teachers told me to write papers as if the audience knew nothing about the subject, I had one teacher state, “I’m your audience. No one else is going to read your paper”. While some might condemn this teacher, I actually think it was a good warning about over-explaining.

Still, though, I am not sure writing is entirely something that can be taught. As the book A Sense of Style states, many professional writers feel their ability is natural rather than something they have learned. For me personally, when I was younger I felt confident in my writing abilities. I easily absorbed rules about writing and loved to make everything creative. In eighth grade, I even had a teacher read my essay to the class as an example. However, as I got older, I became less confident. I know I have a tendency to ramble and have trouble connecting bits of writing to each other. Furthermore, I usually only write papers now, so I get a little thrown off when I have more creative assignments like in this class. I still enjoy writing most of the time, and I don’t think my writing is necessarily bad, but when I read my favorite authors, I know that I want to improve my writing from average to great. I’m not sure what role writing will play in my life, but I know it is an important skill to have.