Writing [my meaning]

It is still difficult for me to say what my strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to writing. At the beginning of the semester, I thought my only *major* weaknesses were needing to keep my essay within the page limit and my inability to edit my work. I found out there were far more problems I would be confronted with this year....

These include but are not limited to style (too colloquial, too much passive voice, phrases are repeated all too often, etc) and form/format (paragraphs out of order, not cohesive, too many thoughts for so little space). Finding out these weaknesses actually forced me to fix one my original one about editing. By the end of the semester, I have formed a new method of editing. I write the paper and let it sit. Then re-read it and take out all colloquial language and passive voice. Once again, I let it sit. I repeat this a few more times making sure all spelling errors and such are gone as well. After all of that, I re-read it for cohesiveness - is there anything I can remove or that doesn't fit? - making sure the paper flows well. With all of this editing, I manage to fix the page length as well (majority of the time....) After all of this work is complete, I submit the paper (with shaking hands... no matter how much work I put in to the paper, there are always many other things that are wrong...)

So now, looking back over this long semester, I have found a few new strengths I hadn't been able to see. I have been able to mold my writing process, form, and style to fit with what is expected. Instead of being stuck in my ways, I am willing to change and have worked extremely hard over the semester to try and be exactly what I am expected to be. My form has even begun transforming into a strength! I have improved my transitions and stopped including every random thing that pops in my mind. This semester has helped me immensely. I know my style and all are still things I can improve. I will be working in the future to improve these weaknesses and maybe someday they will become strengths.

Over this semester I have gone from pleased with my writing to absolutely hating everything I did to once again pleased with my work. I know I have improved and know that I will continue improving. I will take this experience and grow from it.

Rereading my metaphor on my very first blog post made me laugh. I glanced back at it while writing this post to make sure I mentioned the right weaknesses and such. I had forgotten all about my metaphor. It seems so true. Writing as a battle. Still seems to be like that. I have to fight myself and convince myself to reread my paper just one more time in order to make it just that much better. It gets so very frustrating! I am happy I am improving and I hope someday I can find more joy in the writing process. I guess we'll find out soon enough....