Felipe Daniel Urzua-Alvarado

Portrait of a Writer (Final)

Writing is not a thing that every person in the world likes but indeed it is a thing that people
need in order to make it. In my personal experience sometimes I like writing sometimes I
dont. When Im required to write my attitudes toward writing are positives but in other
cases they are of laziness. I think most of the time when we are required to write five or
more pages we face more mental issues rather than knowledge issues. We thing it is bigger
than our capability. Writing should not be forced because when this is, it transforms the
beauty of writing into something out of order and ugly. In this essay I will inform how I see
my process of writing and how I see myself as a writer not only to my audience but to me
as well.
I dont consider myself to have incredible writing abilities but I would describe them, being
honest, to not be really good but neither really bad. I can defend myself when it comes to
writing. When Im writing I see myself as a communicator. Every time I write I always try
to inform or tell something that I want to say. Writing should not be forced because when
this is, it transforms the beauty of writing into something out of order and ugly. A key
moment that shaped my attitudes toward writing was when I moved from Mexico to the
United States. When I was in Mexico I didnt write that much. Since I came to the United
States I started to write a lot so in the beginning I was having a lot of trouble. I started to
hate writing because in my whole life I was never required to write but with time and
practice I started to realize how I need writing and how effective to communicate it is. Also
coming from a Spanish-speaking country to an English-speaking country was a key factor
toward myself as a writer. Writing in a different language impulse m to write more and to

try to write better because these things were going to help me in learning faster the
language.
A writing that I truly enjoy is Persuasive Writing. Im fascinating with this type of writing
because I see it as a free-write writing where I can say everything I want. This type of
writing gives me the opportunity to communicate the audience what I think. Persuasive
Writing creates an atmosphere of freedom where I can express myself to the reader without
being judge. The writing that I dont like is Narrative Writing because I dont have the
enough imagination or inspiration to create a story.
My writing process for me is pretty good. I think the writing process should be the priority
number one of a writer because the outcome will be either good or bad depending on the
writing process. Every writer should analyze his/her writing process to see what they need
to improve. When Im asked to write first I analyze very careful the subject and the prompt.
I make sure I understood clearly what Im asked to do. Also I have to prepare mentally and
physically. I write better when I have my mind clear and when Im not tired or hungry.
When I have to write really long papers I give myself the amount of pages I have to do in
days. For example, if I have to write an essay of ten pages I would start eleven pages before
the due date. My cousin, Kristian, taught me this and explained how important it is to not
procrastinate. If he had to do a twenty page essay he would start twenty-one days before the
due date so he could do one page per day so he didnt stress out. So when it comes to write
moderately long papers I write them over the course of several days.
My high school teachers taught me every single rule that I know. They teach me that before
I start writing I have to brainstorm. Then I have to make a thesis statement with three

arguments that support my main claim. If I dont have a thesis statement I cannot start
writing because I find it so hard to write without an introduction paragraph. After I have my
thesis statement I can now start writing my intro and body paragraphs. Each body
paragraph needs to have a topic sentence and arguments that supports the topic sentence. In
my conclusion I have to include my thesis statement.
Rules sometimes are beneficial and sometimes they are not. The idea of having a thesis
statement helps me to write with more order and clarity. In the other hand, writing with all
these rules sometimes block me from writing what I want to write. What it means to revise
the final outcome is to see if we are not getting out of topic. For me, when I am ready to
revise I read the whole thing two or three times and if something is not fitting together with
all the pieces I change it or delete it. Also I check for punctuation and grammar errors. At
the end I focus on fixing the structure of my paragraphs.
Writing should not be forced because when this is, it transforms the beauty of writing into
something out of order and ugly. The purpose of creating this essay was to write about the
things I do when it comes to write. Knowing what we are doing right or wrong helps us to
write better and to create a stronger structure of writing so when we want to communicate
something our purpose will be clear as the water to the audience.

SESSION 1: At the Library of UTEP. 11 am. There was someone behind of me and
someone next to me. The room was in complete silence. My phone is on the desk but I have
it on vibrate. Im writing my draft on paper.
1-5: I printed out the assignment so I start reading it carefully. I analyze it and then I start to
think about what Im going to write. I decided that I will write as Im following the
questions. [GP], [RD], [RQ], [OB]

6-10: I start to think about my introduction. Im having trouble starting so I begin to just
write. [PS], [I]
11-15: I pause for a moment to think about my attitudes of writing. I start writing but I can
see that Im erasing a lot. I stop for a moment because the lead of my mechanical pencil is
breaking a lot. I think about which types of writing I truly like/dislike. [RR]
16-20: I start to analyze how my writing process is. Also I write about how I prepare to
write. I got distracted a little bit because the guy next to me started to laugh. [T->W]
21-25: The next question I found it easy because the day before I was just talking about
something related to the question. My cousin Kristian explained to me how he would write
long papers. [WS]
26-30: I stop for a moment to read what I have. I dont know why but I made some weird
faces. Something was not making sense so I start to erase things and rewrite them. I take
out my phone and I start to go through Instagram. [RR], [RE], [PH (-)]
31-35: I get back to work to think about all the rules I carry. All those rules come from my
High School teachers and only one teacher comes to mind, Mrs. Balazs. I remember that
time where she was making fun of Mexicans. Because of her is that I try to write better
because her rude comments were like a motivation for me to do better. [WS]
36-40: I try to finish the paragraph I was working on because I realized that I have class so
I didnt want to be late. After Im done with what I had I start to revise for little things. I
realize that Im almost done. [RE], [C]
SESSION END
SESSION 2: Same place same day. 3 pm. There was only one person behind me. Again the
room was in complete silence. I see that being in complete silence helps me to write a lot
better. Phone on desk; on vibrate. Only took 15 minutes, in the last session I was almost
done.
1-5: I reread everything I have. I erase only one thing so I rewrite in a better way. I analyze
the questions I have left. [RR], [O], [RQ]
6-10: I stop to think about what it means for me to revise. Mrs.Adame comes to my mind. I
remember she telling us to revise always for little things and then for big things. She was
one of the best teachers I ever had. She was my ESL teacher. A program for people who
didnt know English that well. [PS],
11-15: Im done with my paper. I revise everything. I start to erase and change some things.
I pack everything I think Im done. [RR], [RE], [C]
SESSION END

Autoethnography
Writing is a key element for people in any professional career. It is essential to have a
strong writing because it becomes easier when we want to express ourselves. The best way
to achieve this level of writing is to do an autoethnography to analyze where we need
improvement. I recorded myself writing my process of writings to see how truly my
process of writing is. In this essay I analyze the recordings of my process of writing to see
how my actual process of writing is to see if its the same as the one that I described in the
video.
As Im analyzing my recordings I can see a lot of things in my writing. I think the biggest
thing I see happening in my writing is that I stop writing a lot to change and rewrite ideas
or thoughts. In my Portrait of a Writer I said that I first write the whole paper down and
then at the end I come back to make revisions and editing but I can see in my recordings
that I had this idea of my writing wrong. I can see that I pause so many times that my
effectiveness in writing starts to decrease gradually. It is a problem that I would like to
correct as soon as possible. Also a pattern that I see occurring a lot in my recordings is that
I tend to stop to reread and analyze the topic. I see that when I stopped writing was because
I didnt knew exactly what I was writing about so I had to reread the question I was
answering. Another thing that got my attention is that having my phone where I can see it is
a huge distraction for me. As I was watching my recordings I saw that every time I would
check the time in my phone causing me to lose focus on what I was writing.
I noticed also that where and when I chose to write affected my writing process
tremendously. For example, writing in the library of the school helps me a lot to write more

efficient. I have less distractions and the desire of writing is bigger because Im just
focusing on the assignment. Writing in other places such as my house is way harder. In my
house I have the temptation of quit writing and start to play my guitar or the drums. Also in
my house my family is always distracting me so I stress more because the words are not
coming out and then it comes to a point that I dont want to write anymore so I quit.
Writing at school benefits and impacts my writing for the better.
The first step of my writing of process is to analyze cautiously the prompt. I read two or
three times the question so I can get clearly the idea of what Im about to write. Its
impossible for me to write about something I dont clearly understand. Then I begin to
brainstorm about the topic. After Im done brainstorming I create a thesis statement. Having
a thesis statement is a lot easier for me because now I can just talk about it in more detail.
For me, writing a thesis statement is the hardest thing to write. This is a habit that I noticed
I do in the video and in general so its the same in both my general process and my actual
process.
After I have my thesis statement with three reasons to back it up I start to write my
paragraphs. In each paragraph I describe each of three reasons more at detail and with
examples. Before I started this project I had never done observations on my writing process
not because I didnt care but because I was never asked to do so. I thought that I would
always do revision and editing at the end but I realized that these two happen throughout
my writing. My actual writing of process in some parts is the same as I think of it but in
other it is different. This project made me realize that I need to put in some work in some
parts of my writing process. I have the habit to check for errors while Im writing my

sentences. This habit affects my writing process in a bad way because it pauses my
moments of inspiration which sometimes leads me to writers block.
At the end I write my conclusion and it needs to have the thesis statement on it. In the
conclusion I kind of give a short summary of what the whole essay was about. Usually my
conclusion is not more than 5 sentences. This whole process I got it from my years during
High School. We were required to write in this type of format because the STARR
demanded that from us. My teachers would tell us that if we followed this plan we were
going to easily pass the exam. This type of exams would put a lot of pressure in me because
not only you had to write in the exact way they wanted you to write but also they would
give you only a certain amount of time to complete the whole exam.
As time passes I always learn something about writing new. I think my process of writing
will never be the same because as Im going through school Im learning about some
practices that I do are wrong. For example, when I was in high school my teachers taught
me that my thesis statement could only have three ideas or examples to support my main
claim. Now I avoid that rule and if my thesis statement needs to have more than three
reasons I dont hesitate to put more. Something that I got from my current class of English
is that I cannot limit my writing.
A strength that I consider I have now as a writer is that try to write with order. My thesis
statement helps me to achieve this particular thing that makes my essay look more
professional and understandable. Another one would be that I check always for grammar
errors. Not having any grammar errors is a priority in my writing. In the other hand, a
weakness that I can see that I now have is that I always try to follow the same rules or
plans. Sometimes these rules and plans instead of helping me they push me back from

writing. Theres been cases where they lead me to writers block. My process of writing is
really similar to the students and professionals in the way that sometimes rules such as
revising too much can hurt my writing instead of helping it. For example, I can relate with
Sylvia from Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of a Language: A Cognitivist
Analysis of Writers Block by Mike Rose because I also put a lot of work creating my first
paragraphs. I cant start to write my paper if I dont have my first paragraph.
My actual process of writing in some things is the same as the one I described in my
Portrait of a Writer and in other things it is different. This project made me see things
about my process of writing from a different perspective. It was really amazing to
experience how my writing is than how I taught it was. All these things we do in class are
helping me because every time writing for me is becoming more natural.