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Olivia Rosenberg
Dr. Courtney Werner
EN 102-26 College Composition II
2 February 2016
Professional vs. Student vs. Me
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a writer is defined as someone whose
work is to write books, poems, stories, etc.; someone who has written something. A writer can
be someone from all walks of life and backgrounds, age, and gender. Writers can be a third
grader researching about their favorite animal or explaining their favorite story or book, or a
writer can be a professional with several doctorates in language and rhetoric with multiple books
published, which received esteemed acclaim. However, these two seemingly distinct writers, as
well as other writers, including myself, share similar characteristics.
A writer, as a professional, has characteristics and ideals any other professional of a
different field should have as well. A best-selling author or poet is more than likely charming,
diligent, and hardworking. A professional author can have novels of various genres that were
edited and revised by a team and proofread and analyzed by assistants and such. Novelists apply
comprehensible and expressive words to connect numerous ideas all while utilizing a pure voice
to portray these thoughts. A writer is not just limited to being an author or novelist; a writer can
be classified as a poet, songwriter, biographer, researcher, analyst, columnist, or another kind of
writer who portrays a story that took up (or not) abundant amounts of time and late hours to
complete.
As for a regular college student, these characteristics may vary slightly. Typically, a
college student tends to procrastinate his or her writing, so yes, he or she will be up at late hours

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of the night doing their work, which may, however, cause little to no time for proper editing,
proofreading, and revision. Assignments given to a student in a basic language, rhetoric, and
writing English course contain an analytical objective, which requires critical thinking, or
extensive research on a specific topic which is expected to have appropriate citations. In some
cases, a college student writes solely for a good grade, rather than for his or her own personal
passion as a professional writer or author does. However, there are many college students who
realize their natural skill and ultimately their passion for writing while taking an English course.
Like any other student must do, I had to draft several different papers, essays, stories, and
other writing pieces throughout my years of early education all the way to college. In elementary
school, my fourth-grade class wrote, illustrated, and sent to a local publisher a book of idioms.
Starting in middle school, I experience my first full-length essay. As I got older, writing
assignments became more complex with stricter guidelines and requirements. Over my high
school career, I have been assigned explanatory, persuasive, analytical, critical thinking, and
research papers. Similar to a professional writer author or a fellow peer, I have hard working,
confident, and expressive attributes that allow me to write an exquisite paper as well as receiving
a good grade. In order to compose an exceptional paper, I had to constantly go through my
writing to revise and edit it multiple times and may even ask a peer or friend to go through my
essays to get a second opinion or to find any mistakes that I have missed. One major down side I
have to my writing style, and etiquette is my tendency to procrastinate. Although I have realized
that I work well under pressure, procrastinating late at night can hinder my optimal performance
as well as the focus on the assignment. Procrastinating an assignment can also prevent me from
properly reviewing my work and correcting any errors if necessary. Being in mostly honors and
Advanced Placement courses in high school, a majority of my writing assignments were

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analytically based, which required critical thinking in order to successfully argue my ideas and to
answer all parts of the essay question accurately and completely. Critical-thinking assignments
allow the student to use higher-level thinking as well as the developing of the skills needed for
proper critical thinking: reasoning, evaluation, problem solving, decision making, and analysis.
The characteristics of a successful writer are widespread in professional authors, my
peers and fellow classmates, as well as myself. A writer is anyone with the ability to put words
together, form a story, answer an open-ended style question, write a song or poem, and many
other different variations. The term "writer" has an undoubtedly wide-range a young child just
learning to write his or her name to a professional author with an award-winning novel series to a
founding father creating the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. A simple one word
yes or no written answer may classify a student as a writer. In my opinion, the stigma of a
writer to be only a professional with several degrees and published works should be
completely dismantled; anyone can be and is a writer if he or she believes he or she is.

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Works Cited
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. <http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/writer>.