How I ‘Mastered’ Academic Writing

I feel that I never mastered high school. I wasn’t a very serious student back then and I barely passed.  Maybe one of the main reasons was because we didn’t do the types of writing in my high school that I have had to do throughout my college career. I may have written personal narratives along the way, but I don’t remember writing expository, argumentative or research-based essays in high school.

As an older returning student in city college it was my passion that helped me. I was excited about being an Asian studies major and wanted to learn all I could about Asia. Writing was easy for me because I wrote mostly from the heart.  I remember being a very expressivist writer in my initial papers at city college and it was surprisingly getting me through. Then I hit a little snag when I got a paper back from my Asian American history professor. I had gotten a B rather than an A this time. I went to my professor’s office hours to see what I need to do to turn my paper around. That is when I got introduced to thesis statements. It was a struggle grappling at first with the idea that I had to have a thesis in my paper to prove my arguments. I clearly remember writing my first thesis and what a challenge it was, but then once I figured it out it was like someone had given me the golden ticket. This sparked my passion for writing even more. Then I had to take English 101 and I realized that there was more to college writing than just thesis, I discovered that writing essays was a whole process. I missed the mark on a few of my first writing assignments, but through trial and error I became a better writer. I will always remember my English 101 professors end comments on one of my A papers. She said, “Your argument is strong and well supported through evidence and analysis.  I have no comments for you on this paper.” I was so happy at that moment and that returned essay felt like a trophy to me.

I feel that I continued to grow as a writer after transferring to university. I remember misunderstanding one of my professor’s instructions for one of the first papers I wrote at that level. I freaked out because I had to rewrite the entire paper. I realized the importance of understanding the prompt and asking questions when I was not clear about something. I also had issues with not enough reflection and redundancy in my papers at times. I would have to say that office hours have always been a benefit to me as a writer. Those initial instincts of going to the professor and asking how I can do better have always helped me improve as a writer. My professors were always open to me during office hours and would give me constructive criticism that really helped me write better papers. I noticed that I wouldn’t do so well when I got too confident and rested on my laurels. I remember taking a graduate seminar and going to office hours due to a poorly written paper and my professor saying, “Michael this is not your best work.” It was then I knew that to do well I had to revise and edit my papers carefully before I turned them in. I went on to work in my universities writing center because I thought it would be good experience and I knew I wanted to go on to get my master’s in teaching English to speakers of other languages. I think teaching other students about the process of writing has continued to help me improve as a writer. Currently, I work as a reading, writing and study skills tutor at the Learning Assistance Center and it continues to help me in that regard.

Writing as a graduate student was also a bit of a challenge for me at first. One of the difficulties I faced was all of the new vocabulary and metalanguage of my department.  I also found it a uncomforable when I learned that I had to write papers in APA for TESOL. This was a format I was unfamiliar with, but I feel my previous writing experience and guidance from my professors has helped me adjust to just about any writing situation. However, I would have to say that at the graduate level I haven’t received as much of a hand hold in office hours as I did in my undergrad, but I guess that is to be expected since we are graduate students after all. This just makes me thankful that I did have professors that would give me constructive criticism about my writing and answer my questions throughout my early academic career.