Patterson 1 Grant Patterson M.

Marley English 1010 2 December 2013 The Long Road to Writing Success A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away . . . there was a poor college student that had developed a writing philosophy and that brings us here to today. It was a long journey through my writing to get where I am today, but it has been worth it. Today I am a professional writer. My writing identity would be creative and wordy that is strongly faith based. The single most important device in writing would have to be the thesis of the text, whether it is stated or inferred. Writers face many difficult challenges and conflicts when they write. An example of a conflict I encounter in my writing would be the length requirements and how my writing is usually too wordy for a reader to enjoy. The first component of my writing philosophy is my identity as a writer. Over the eighteen years I have developed my identity as a writer has evolved from a young malnourished specimen into a blossoming sunflower. As a writer, my identity would best be described as creative, humorous, and Christian based. Creativity is just natural to my writing, for example, I often find myself drawing comparisons and creating metaphors with abstract ideas. The creativity in my writing often helps keep the reader interested and make them crave more of my writing. The humor often found in my writing lies within my personality as a crowd pleaser. I am the type that can absolutely not stand unhappy people. I have to find a way to make that person crack a smile even if they feel miserable I can usually change the way people are carrying themselves with just a few funny notions. From growing up in church and moving across the state of Tennessee, my writing has deep lingual roots and Christian beliefs. As I read and

Patterson 2 interpreted Peter Elbows Inviting the Mother Tongue I found that I often include language that is native to my East Tennessee heritage. I also tend to include skills that I developed in East Tennessee due to the fact that I lived there when writing was emphasized in the curriculum. I tend to deviate from the prompt and I find a way to include personal information and beliefs. Whether the prompt calls for it or not, around 25% of my papers will include a belief or faith that expresses my Christian background. The next part of my writing philosophy is what I believe to be the most important part of a piece of writing. The single most important component of writing in my opinion is the thesis statement of the text. Stated thesis statements are the most commonly used and usually include the nucleus of the writing directly. This commonly used form of a thesis statement is highly effective and gives the audience a solid reference point to use as the audience reads through a work. Personally I find inferred thesis statements to be more powerful due to the simple fact that being inferred forces the authors audience to not only read, but interpret and think fully about the piece as a whole. Now for the challenges and conflicts I face as a writer. My work is often wordy and sometimes I include irrelevant information that can distract my audience. Another challenge I have as a writer is the use of a comma, I have never in my life had another element in my writing deduct as many points from my writing grades as I have seen with my misuse of commas. Usually my work is wordy due to a length requirement set by an instructor. My work usually degrades itself when I am assigned a length requirement because I ramble and use dead weight to assure my paper meets the length requirement. The irrelevant information that I include is usually to make an analogy or form a metaphor for the entertainment of my audience. Often times I insert irrelevant information in my writing to boost the word count for my length

Patterson 3 requirement needs as well as my comical relief. My comma misuse is not due to a misunderstanding of the rules. I have terrible habits of listing ideas throughout a work. My listing problems spawn from my first encounter with the standard five paragraph essay. Early in my development as a writer, I found myself listing ideas and statements in an opening paragraph. I only did this because my fifth grade English teacher insisted that the proper way to organize a writers thoughts is through lists and transitions through his/her paper. Another way I misuse commas is when I attempt to form compound and complex sentences. This problem originated during my junior year of high school in AP English III. My 75638 year old teacher deducted points off of every one of my assignments because I repeatedly failed to include variations in my sentence structure. To this day I still have not mastered the art of the complex sentence . . . Thanks ancient teacher. Today, I face these conflicts and challenges in my writing by trial and error. Now that I have genuine college professors to oversee my writing and inform me of the mistakes I make. Hearing professional feedback will show me exactly how to fix my writing flaws and help develop my writing further. The advancement of my writing is clearly a vital part of my lifestyle as a professional writer. In the future I plan on seeing my writing conflicts and errors to diminish even more due to my advancement in school and my enrollment in more difficult courses. In conclusion, my writing has developed over the years from a basic and seemingly boring source of entertainment into a creative, humorous, and Christian based source of information. The most important part to the machine known as a work of writing is the thesis of the paper because it is the heart that pulses throughout the writing. The challenges and conflicts I have developed through my writing timeline are habits, but can change with the help of my

Patterson 4 professors here at Middle Tennessee State in the future. I am no longer just a professional writer. I am now a Philosopher.