The Anxiety of Writin. My Writing Habits - Essay Example

?Harris Kamran English Language Personal Essay 23 September My Writing Habits Writing is a task that is very important for me in terms of writing academic papers as part of my studies. However, I must admit, it does not come easy for me. I have many colleagues and class mates who seem to easily write their papers, and some even seem to enjoy the process of writing, but for me, it is a stupendous endeavor, and a task rather than an enjoying skill and an absorbing engagement. Through the writing of this personal essay, I not only plan to highlight my writing habits and manner, but also hope to discover what makes writing so hard for me, and what are the ways in which I can improve upon it. The kind of writing that I mostly am subjected to is academic and technical writing, owing to the classes and the courses that I have undertaken for my education. As a result, it is very formal in style, and needs to be authentic and properly referenced. Perhaps that is the reason for my dislike of this task. It is very difficult for me to get started in any paper. The beginning is often the hardest part of the paper for me. I tend to procrastinate and leave the actual act of writing for later; instead, I spend most of the time reading the source material and making notes. Although it is a good practice to thoroughly research the topic and make notes about it when writing academic papers, I make it an excuse for not doing the actual write-up. I have realized that writing the rough drafts on a paper with a pencil is more helpful for me than typing it on a computer the first time. This is because when I begin to type, I get the feeling that I am writing the final copy of the paper, and therefore, it has to be perfect the first time I type. By drafting with a pencil on a paper, I feel more free to make any amendments and revisions to the draft, as I can cross out passages at my will and generally make a mess of the draft without feeling guilty about it. As a result, I spend a lot of time writing and revising drafts, and so a simple paper ends up taking much of my time. The real ordeal begins when I sit down to type the final copy of the paper. I find myself hesitating and postponing the act. I am never confident about my writing, neither its style, nor its content. That might be one of the reasons for writing so many rough drafts first. Once I have copied the text on the computer from the notes that I have made, I leave it at that, without reading the final paper in order to find any mistakes that I might have made or any revisions that might be needed. Perhaps this is because I have exhausted myself writing the drafts, and typing the final paper is so much of a horror for me that once it is over, I do not have the heart or the nerve to go through the process of reading and revising again. Several times, due to my habit of not reading the final copy, I have ended my making many typing errors and grammatical mistakes which could have been easily avoided had I read the paper once. I believe the reason behind this is the fact that I get very conscious and nervous to get the facts write and to provide proper referencing to avoid plagiarism. This is essential when writing academic papers. I get very worried about the formalities of the paper, and in the process end up hating the actual practice of writing. I am more at ease when I am writing personal essays or fiction, which occurs rarely. However, I feel free to express myself then, without worrying about referencing and facts and figures. When writing fiction, I do not write a rough draft on a paper with pencil first; I type directly on the computer. Even if I feel the need to write a rough draft first, I ignore it, because I want to break free of the constraints of academic writing. Fiction writing gives me more opportunities to explore myself and my writing style, and to develop my interest in writing. Sometimes, I even happen to enjoy it, as long as I do not have to give it up for checking or review. This is because of my lack of confidence even as a fiction writer. When I am writing anything which has to be reviewed later, I find it very hard to begin writing. I prefer to write in parts, that is, I write chunks of text, which may not be interrelated, and once I am through with jotting down all the ideas about the pertinent topic, I link the pieces of text together so that I get a more or less coherent piece of writing. For me, it is difficult to finish an assignment that requires extensive writing in one sitting, or even in multiple sittings without breaking the monotony by doing something entirely different or reading something completely different from the subject that I have to write on. The advantage of this technique is that it refreshes me and reenergizes my writing, and breaks the monotony. The disadvantage is that sometimes I lose track of my ideas and the train of thought that I had developed, so that I have to go through the entire rough draft every time I sit down to write. To counter that, I use sticky notes and pointers to jot down the main headings and salient features of the assignment that I am working on, so that every time I sit down to continue, I just have to review those pointers to remind me of what I was working at. There are many ways through which I have tried to make writing interesting for me. I have even taken informal writing advice from my friends and teachers, and have practiced writing exercise, however, I am still horrified by the idea of writing long and windy term papers and other assignments, and would rather leave it till the last minute to in an effort to ignore the task. Although I start writing a paper fairly early before the deadline, since I know I would be procrastinating a lot, I usually end up striving to meet the deadline at the last hour because of my dislike for the task. I prefer fiction and personal writing over non-fiction, since I there are no right or wrong answers in fiction. The nitty-gritty of academic writing makes it even harder for me to carry it out. I hope to work at it and make the task of writing acceptable to my psyche. I have found out that reading a lot and writing everyday, no matter what the amount of writing is, helps towards the overall process of writing. Works Cited Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Art of Writing. U.S.: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Print. Read More