Dear Peers,

            Writing is not the most straightforward thing. Before you start to write, you must first sit down and brainstorm the topic you want to write about. Having a draft is, in my opinion, one of the most crucial aspects of your writing. Simply said, it simplifies our lives and ensures better paper flow. I used to hate having to write for any of my classes when I was younger. But as soon as I arrived home, I was always itching to get writing. I believe that the majority of individuals find it more difficult to write a paper for a class simply because it will be graded, which is the main cause of most of our school-related stress. But I then had a thought: what if I started writing my school papers in the same style as how I write for fun? That is what I first did, and enrolling in this English course undoubtedly aided in the development of my writing.

            Let me start off by just stating that English isn’t my first language. I grew up in a Spanish home, a Dominican home at that so my Spanish was never proper either. I also had Dyslexia which was worse growing up. Writing and continual reading were both necessary forms of practice. It was a blessing for me to have access to a group of people who were eager to help me improve my literary abilities. As a result of all that writing practice, I’ve developed a love for just writing for fun—from making up scenarios to reflecting on my own day. I developed the practice since I felt it would be the most beneficial for me as I start college.

            When I started High School, that is when I started to fall into bad habits and writing became more of something that felt forced upon me. I procrastinated all of my essays; I brought stress upon myself and that’s when I started to hate English classes and writing in general. I always had to tell myself “If you don’t turn in your essay, you’re going to get a 0”. That’s when my relationship with writing became toxic. It became something I had to do with no love because without it, it’ll leave an empty spot in my grades. But when Senior year comes and COVID-19 hits, I had nothing but time to dedicate to my writing and I found the love again. But, just like when you break a leg and have to go to physical therapy in order to recover, I had to go through the same process. I had to enter “writing therapy” and learn different techniques in order to get to where I was before.

            Then college came and just when I thought I had mastered my writing, I am shown that I have not. I was taught more effective ways of becoming a better writer than I ever was and it was thanks to this class. My first paper for this class is one that I will never forget because of the struggles I went through. It was a Rhetorical Analysis paper based off of a social issue that is happening and I chose to write about the pink tax. It was a topic that I had just learned about right there and then there and so I spent so many days just researching about it and getting familiarized with it. Then after that, I had to really continue getting to know what a rhetorical analysis is. I went from a first draft, then a second, then a third, and finally my result to my final paper.

            My second paper was my opinion editorial. I decided to stick to my Pink Tax topic and dive deeper into my opinion about the fact that women products cost more than men. This essay came pretty easy to me because I felt strongly about my stance in this topic. But this essay is also the essay I had the most fun with because I got to bring some of my creative writing in play. I got so used to talking about my own opinions alone, that the words came easy when it came to writing essay number two.

            Now the third essay went hand in hand with the difficulty from the first writing. This was an Inquiry Based Research paper which meant more investigating the topic I chose. I decided to talk about birth control because it was something that I genuinely wanted to research more about. I made this essay fun for me. I met with the writing center which was really fun just getting to know another person’s opinion about not only the writing but the topic itself. My stance on this essay was to go contrast birth control and it was challenging to research because birth control has been very normalized and only a “few” amount of women were affected by it negatively.
The techniques that this English class offered, were more of a help than anything I tried to do on my own. We used peer review, one on one conferences with the professor, listed out ways we could prepare, and even help us navigate the web. These were consisted throughout the whole semester and we know that with consistence comes the making of habits. That was exactly what happened. When essay number one came, I was nervous and didn’t know how to properly research, get into that college writing level, and didn’t even know how to structure my essay. But came along more practice and more essays, not only for this class but for all my other classes, I started a new habit. A new habit of having people proofread my essays before I hand them in, of drafting so many times, and even making lists of things that need to be included.

            This class was my “physical therapy” and now it is over. I can go on into the world and continue to practice what I had been taught to practice in here because if I don’t, then I will be back to square one!

Sincerely,

Sarah Garcia