Expanding Your Skills as a Writer

        Not everyone can be born gifted writers. I know personally that I was not. Writing can often be very intimidating with it’s due dates a grades. I have always suffered from severe writer's block and struggles with brainstorming. In chapters 19 through 24 I read a lot of information that I already knew, but had forgotten.
      One of my favorite and most helpful techniques mentioned in the writing that I actually use is performing routines that support thinking. When I really need to brainstorm, think, and evaluate, I often chose to do that on a walk. Walking gets me in a very analytical mindset, and I could brainstorm and rack my thoughts as long as I could walk. I found it very interesting to read about because I never thought of routines to support thinking, I just knew walking helped me think. I also found it interesting to read about building list and free writing. I learned to do both in tenth grade english and use these techniques not only to write, but to study for all of my test for all of my courses. Almost all of my brainstorming comes out in the form of a list or map, and free writing to me is usually a very effective brain dump. I use free writing often when I write poetry too. Another technique that caught my eye was brainstorming with groups. I have not brainstormed with a group in an educational way since early high school, but I believe it to be very effective, and now that I have been reminded of it, I hope to be able to brainstorm with groups often. I feel that brainstorming with a group is very effective because you have so many thoughts to get out in a group and you may be reminded of something you have forgotten. Also other students ideas can act as triggers for your own ideas.
       I related to these techniques because I use a few of them in my everyday life such as routines that support thinking, I use this to think of my school work, bills, and personal issues. I use building list and free writing in my everyday educational life, such as studying and writing, and I learned these techniques in tenth grade.
       However two techniques that really stuck out to me were visual reading and to anticipate objection. Both of these techniques I have always known about but did not learn the true importance of them until tenth grade AP Psychology. I learned that pictures helped me remember what I had read and help trigger other thoughts related to the pictures and readings. I also learned to always write anticipating objections. If you write anticipating objections then you already answer many questions that may be raised by your paper. Being one step ahead of the game is always better than being a few steps behind, so it benefits you to put in the extra effort to answer the questions that may arise.
      As I mentioned I often struggle with writer's block so the section about writer's block was helpful to me. The two tips that really stuck out to me were limiting distractions and breaking your project into parts. I already do both of these but I never realized that I did them intentionally. I need a quiet space away from other people and technology to complete a task to the best of my ability. I am easily distracted to it is better for me to be alone when I work. However, breaking up a project into parts is even more important to me. I brainstorm and complete my project in parts. It is very helpful to break down everything you need to get done and thoroughly research, think, and write about it.
      I found our reading this week to be very helpful with understanding the writing process and showing tips and techniques to really get you thinking and getting your papers started, and more importantly, completed! To me the most helpful techniques are limiting distractions, breaking up your project, group thinking, free writing, and performing routines to help support thinking. I feel as the reading was very insightful and provided many techniques to help out when you are stuck in your writing and research.