Journal One

As a college student, I have obviously written an abundance of papers on various topics of different lengths. One thing I have learned from all the writings I have done is my strengths and weaknesses. In junior year, what was a weakness for me became a strength. I had a teacher who was very big on research-based papers. That was a weakness for me until I did a bunch of them for her and research papers are now a great strength of mine. I have done research papers on authors and their books, historical people and their contributions to the world’s history, scientific developments, and (most proudly) about the creation of Levittown, Long Island. Both of my parents were born and raised in Levittown. I was able to do research on a piece f my family history. To go the extra mile for the paper, I interviewed my grandfather who lived there as well as his neighbors to see their take on the development of the cookie-cutter town. Another strength of mine is, depending on the type of paper, it is easy for me to organize my thoughts and get them into words. I can very easily organize my thoughts with research papers and interviews. When I have a structure for the paper, I can usually write a good paper easily. I have been inspired to write well by multiple things, including authors, historical events/locations/people, and music. One of the authors who has inspired my writing is James Patterson (http://www.jamespatterson.com/). He writes crime novels beautifully and I wish I could be able to write even half as well as him. When visiting family in Levittown, I had an epiphany about what to write for a history paper (http://www.levittownhistoricalsociety.org/history.htm). Whenever I listen to any song written by Jack Johnson, I am inspired to write (http://jackjohnsonmusic.com/home).

However, two of my weaknesses are writing science-based lab report type papers and creative writing. Neither of them have ever been easy for me. Lab reports I have been able to write and get god grades on them but they have always been a struggle for me to start and finish. I love the sciences and I am a forensic science major, chemistry option but unfortunately writing lab reports is never easy for me. I can understand the topic and what needs to be done but getting my ideas down coherently is not easy. I eventually get it done and receive a good grade but it is never easy for me to do so. Creative writing just never works out well for me. I have a good imagination but I can never put it into words that make a good story, which to some extent frustrates me. My imagination is good but I can’t put in on paper. To begin getting better at lab reports and creative writing, I will use this class to write more and more types of each. Repetition is the surest way to get better and more comfortable at writing creatively. Also, in my chemistry lab, I will have lab reports to write so I will use that class to get more comfortable and more easily write lab reports.