Annotation 1: Writers Block
Writing a paper usually happens with the same cascade of events. I get home from a long day of work or school. And want to do nothing but sit down and relax, but can’t because I have to write a long essay on something that doesn’t particular strike my interest. So I sit down behind my computer and try to start writing. But there’s a slight problem, I don’t know where to start! I’ve come down with a case of some serious writer’s block that has no cure. I think as hard as I can to try to come up with something… ANYTHING, to get rid of the disease, and still I can’t. Hour’s pass and I’m still staring at a blank document, the blinking line cursing me. So I give the essay a title to avoid staring at a blank screen. Still I can’t think of anything, now I’m beginning to lose focus and become tired. I start bargaining with myself that a nap might help the creative juices flow. Before I know it I’m face down on the keyboard with drool pouring from the corner of my mouth. When I wake up I’m surprised to see that half the page is full, I take a second look and began to read “ihgklfjhdigsbnhgfivgsjrnfvkshfnvsiknfsi”. I guess the nap wasn’t very helpful because I’m now exactly where I was when I started.
Writers block is something we all experience from time to time when we can’t put our thoughts into words. Personally there are multiple reasons why I believe writers block has such a large impact on my writing skills. The first started when I began elementary school. I have one older sister, who is a straight A student without having to lift a finger. Being as competitive as I am, I strived to be exactly like her, if she easily got A’s, shouldn’t I? I learned fast that what came easily for her required a lot more time for me. Especially when it came to English, I was a horrible reader and my writing skills required a lot of work. She tried to help me as best as she could but I was always jealous of her ability to write an incredible paper in hours, while it took me just that to think of a topic sentence to captivate my audience. Although this may not seem to have an impact on my particular case of writers block, it makes writing a paper harder because I set very high expectations for myself.
The second event that affected my writing skill was last year, when I took my first college writing class. We were given a topic to write an argumentative essay on. I worked for hours and hours editing, adding detail, and perfecting my paper to get failed for a single coma splice. I know my grammar is not perfect, but to be failed on a single coma splice seems a bit aggressive. It was almost as if the professor was looking for a reason to fail me instead of reading the content in my paper. I thought I had possibly written one of my best papers, I had even sent it to my sister to have her edit it. This incident taught me a lesson about grammar but also contributes