Topic: In this reflective essay, I'd like you to describe and introduce yourself as a writer. Some questions you may want to consider addressing in a paragraph by paragraph structure that flows: What's your style? What's your strength? What do you think you need to improve? What is your goal?
What sledgehammered me first when I first saw this topic was the question: “Who am I as a writer?” There have been some essays that I tried to tell the readers of what kind of person I am in general. But as a writer? What is writing to me in the first place?
To me, writing essays is like having a personal conversation with my neighbor. Although I did not write many essays, when written, they were usually about my childhood memories. If not, they were about my personal thoughts and daydreams on issues that many people are interested. Because I couldn’t write professional essays, I wrote mine just as how I talk with my friends, families and teachers.
That, of course, is the style I think as my strength. Instead of blurting out overly-sophisticated vocabularies that are like Latin to most people, I happen to write in everyday language. Although it may not be always intended, I am proud that I use easy words that many and most of my readers would understand my essays. Sometimes I feel pressured by assigned essay topics; but using casual language helps me out a lot. When I imagine myself talking with my friends about the topic, it comforts me and makes me start typing.
Picturing myself chatting with my buddies enables me to think back on some incidents of my life related to the topic. When we chat, we talk about what happened prior in our life related to the ongoing subject. While laughing, sometimes sobbing, on what happened to others, we feel relieved and entertained. Well, that’s something that I think important when writing. Personal experiences that are credible makes the readers think in my shoes, if my attempt is successful. However, it is a hard fact that people feel more for childhood memories more than expert analysis on the same subject. That is another strength that I believe to have.
I have an experience in making me believe this as a strength. Once, I had a chance to write about what X meant to me. Most people wrote about the variable used in math, but I had a different memory about it. Actually, not only it was different but it was shocking. I was having dreams about endless red X painted on the faltering shacks with old people staring blankly at it........So I got to work. I wrote my participation in charity activities, and the uncomfortable truth I had to face. While I was chatting fiercely with microsoft word about this childhood experience, the essay was finished. I was proud of it. Not because it was a essay with perfect grammar (oh when will I have one), not because it had concise yet soul-vibrating figurative language, but I really felt for the people I met. I meant that essay to be like a piece of comfort from a neighbor. At least for a short period of time, I thought my talkative style of writing was a useful tool to discuss those matters.
I have an experience in making me believe this as a strength. Once, I had a chance to write about what X meant to me. Most people wrote about the variable used in math, but I had a different memory about it. Actually, not only it was different but it was shocking. I was having dreams about endless red X painted on the faltering shacks with old people staring blankly at it........So I got to work. I wrote my participation in charity activities, and the uncomfortable truth I had to face. While I was chatting fiercely with microsoft word about this childhood experience, the essay was finished. I was proud of it. Not because it was a essay with perfect grammar (oh when will I have one), not because it had concise yet soul-vibrating figurative language, but I really felt for the people I met. I meant that essay to be like a piece of comfort from a neighbor. At least for a short period of time, I thought my talkative style of writing was a useful tool to discuss those matters.
But is this casual way of writing always beneficial? Obviously not. I consider myself pretty amateur and unskilled at writing, although I try to put some effort when practicing it. I’m not a native speaker whose mother tongue is English. When I write the way that I talk in English, it is sometimes quite problematic. The expressions that I use are sometimes only comprehensible by Koreans. Or, grammar mistakes pop out much more frequently than they should. When my readers become aware of these, the communication that I want becomes weakened.
There might be more weaknesses of strength that I possess in writing. Maybe I don’t acknowledge some critical flaws when putting essays down. However, I try to solve these weaknesses, put more momentum on my strength to reach my goal. What is my goal? My goal is to convince and touch people who read my essays even when they never met me before. It would be great to have the ability to make strangers comfortable to each other, and talk sincerely about personal, yet interesting topics together. That is my sole goal for practicing writing.
