This portfolio showcases three of the in-class essays that I have produced. I decided to order my works in the way that I did because this order represents what I enjoyed working on starting from least liked to most liked. I wanted to end with my favorite work, my poetry, because I want readers to finish going through this portfolio with a small look into my personal life and into where my inspiration and writing style may have came from.
My formal writing style is very different from my creative writing style. In my formal writing style, I am very picky when using scholarly words and terms. I do not want to use surface-level words. I am working on expanding my vocabulary to do so. I am also aware of grammar, such as using the correct punctuation marks when needed and if a certain sentence is too long or too short. When I am writing a formal essay, I tend to get lost in the prompt. I will typically pick one topic to write on, but then I feel that I begin to ramble and to include material in the essay that may not be relevant to the prompt or to what I am trying to say. I will also get distracted very easily if I can’t put into words what I am trying to say. When this happens, it is, in a way, evident in my essay because the rest of the essay may seem like it is starting to derange from the original path that it was on.
My creative writing style is similar to, yet different from my formal writing style. In both styles, I am careful with my grammar and word choice, but for different reasons. When I am writing poetry, I strive to use figurative language that can leave room for interpretation by my readers. I typically do not use grammar in my poetry, but when I do, I want it to add meaning to the message of the poem. All of my poems come from my own experience or from a friend’s experience told through their perspective. I do not focus on rhyming because it takes away focus from what is being said in between the lines, although I may unintentionally rhyme.
When I start writing, it is usually close to midnight because this is when I am most focused. Most people are sleeping or starting to drift off into their own world, so there are few distractions. If I am really passionate and know about the topic, then I can easily write a couple of pages in a small time frame. However, if it is an assignment that I do not really care about and am just doing it for the grade, then I typically wait until the last minute to start working on it. I feel as if my best work comes at the last minute, when I am under pressure and under a deadline. I do not have time to overthink what I want to write, so I jump straight into it, and the words seem to flow one after one another.
Being able to have people with other perspectives read my work and give me constructive feedback has really developed my writing and strengthened my writing skills. Through feedback, I realized that there are things that I do in my writing that slightly hurt my writing. I am now able to pick out these trends and notice them more quickly and efficiently. As a writer, I hope to publish some of my more creative works and build a name for myself. I further want to help young writers who may struggle with writing or want to pursue a career in writing. I want to be able to start an organization doing this while publishing creative works of my own for others to read and pull inspiration from.