For the majority of my life, language at home and language at school have always been two completely separate worlds, in my experience. At home, literacy and language in general simply consisted verbal communication -- whether it was telling stories or catching up with the family -- there was no need to be a skilled writer. While at school on the other hand, writing was one of the most important skill sets at times, and while I was in high school the only time writing became important for me was while I was in school. This was a very unfortunate truth for me at the time.
Because of this, I never felt it to be necessary to my future to properly learn to write and therefore I constantly struggled. This has taught me how critical motivation is to becoming a good writer. It took me all the way until senior year until I truly gained the motivation necessary to learning to write academically. It was the struggle of not knowing how to write pitted against the demand and necessity to be able to write, during my senior year, that finally led to me buckling down and teaching myself. Albeit, there is still much progress to be made in my journey to become a better writer.
I think what you went through is common today with our generation. We don't learn how important it is to write until late into high school. For me personally, I have seen a great need for strong English teachers in middle school and early high school. I think English teachers could inspire kids to want to write.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel when it comes to writing. When I was younger I had the hardest time with grammar. However, luckily I had good teachers that motivated me two write academically not only about boring topics, but also interesting topics similar to the writing project we are working on now. I enjoy being the person telling my story the way I want to tell it as long as it is coherent to my readers. I know I always hated having to diagram sentences in my middle school English classes. I now know why this was an important milestone because in high school I was expected to be able to put together coherent descriptive sentences. I personally would like to thank all of my English teachers and professors for their help in making me a better writer who can communicate properly any ideas I want to share with others formally and informally.
ReplyDeleteI spent the majority of my childhood learning both cursive, which is rarely used apart from signatures and how to type. The problem I always seem to find is how to properly format a typed paper, I was always taught how to format the references perfectly, but the paper itself I was never fully taught. I can say I never really had the problem with disconnect of writing because I wrote many papers throughout school, but my disconnect was how to format them correctly. I'm still learning today what to do and what not to do.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I agree with you in that writing has taken such a back seat in many young people's lives in the recent years. Writing is such a necessary skill to have in so many fields, not to mention in life itself. I believe it is our duty to keep up with our writing and not fall behind in such a crucial area.
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