Its Had Its Ups and Downs

My writing experience has been one that has had its ups and downs. There are probably more downs though. Yes I did write some papers in middle school but I don’t consider those to be beneficial since they were so long ago and expectations change so much over the high school years. Each year throughout high school I mainly had one or two papers that were considered pretty serious or important papers. I was enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at my high school for my junior and senior years. With this program each student had to write an extended essay. This essay could be about any topic that you could think of that would make sense to write a research paper on. My topic was psychological arousal and its effectiveness in team sports. In order for this paper to be considered complete and not worthless it had to be backed up by facts and case studies. This required a lot of online research in databases to find studies that were relevant to my argument. This was the most professional and extensive paper I have been required to write. It also had to be 3000-4000 words therefor being the longest. I have also had to write numerous book reviews and analysis of characters in novels. I will be honest and say that I do tend to procrastinate but sometimes it just has to be that way due to the enormous amounts of other schoolwork that I have to complete. Not saying English takes a back seat or anything. When I write I try to be in as quiet of a place as possible. I have tried listing to music before or having the television on but those things usually tend to distract me. When I am in complete quietness I can process thoughts better and put them down on paper easier. I try to only focus on writing when I am writing. If I am doing something else I only get distracted and it takes me twice as long to write something. I have made some good grades and some very bad ones on writing assignments. I wouldn’t say it has been a bad experience but it hasn’t been great either. I have learned many useful techniques throughout the last couple of years that have been helpful in my writing career no matter what grade I received.