SWA 1

Nicole Smith

Professor Mikhaylova

English 102, Section 111

10 January 2012

SWA #1

Experiences in Writing: Choice vs. Assignment

            Ever since I began writing papers, I’ve had many varied experiences in the writing process.  At many times, I have hated my writing experience and had a hard time completing the paper. The papers that seemed the most relentless to me were the ones where the topics were assigned. When I was given a choice on a topic, the papers were easier to complete and more enjoyable. My best writing experience was when I was given an open-ended assignment where I was able to write about something I’m passionate about.

            My best writing experience was my Senior Mastery paper for my final project as a senior in high school. For this assignment, I had to research a topic throughout the entire year, teach a class on it, and present it to a panel of judges. I also had to write a large research paper on it. This assignment took a lot of work, and a lot of research, but I loved it. It was so good because I was able to present anything I wanted. I chose a very abstract concept, and it made the writing process very interested. My paper was titled The Ascetic Appeal of Live Dance vs. Dance in Film. This research was so interesting because there was no information that was directly related to my topic. I had to combine most of my information from a large diversity of sources. I changed my viewpoint several times throughout the paper every time I came across a different source. I think this paper was so exciting because I was so interested in the topic, and because I felt like it would be insightful and refreshing to the reader.

            My worst writing experience was in English 101 when I had to write a review paper on Paradise Lost. The main reason it was so bad was because I had an awfully hard time reading the book. Writing a review on a book that is extremely difficult to understand is terrible. Also, I felt that the topics my teacher gave me were hard to write about and confusing. I did not enjoy the writing experience at all and I’m lucky that I even got a paper written. I ultimately received a decent grade on the paper, but only because I struggled to do my absolute best on it.

            I think that papers are not the best past time in general. Most people would prefer to be doing other things with their spare time than writing papers. Besides this, I have had somewhat enjoyable experiences writing a few papers. Papers in which I’ve been able to openly chose the topic have been much more tolerable than assigned papers. The papers that I’ve been able to write on my own have had the most impact on me due to the valuable information I learned while researching them. I hope to have more papers like that in the future.