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Andrew Gregg Mr. Adam Padgett

English 1101 November 25, 2013 What Makes Writing Good? Bad? What do I think good writing is and why do I consider it to be good? It is a weird question to think about, but I had to think about all of the papers I have been writing and all of the pieces of literature I have read from the time I was in elementary school until now as a freshman in college. When I was in elementary school, my parents split up, and even though it was hard on me, it helped me grow as a writer. Most of the pieces of writing that I find interesting are ones that tell a story about a persons life or aspects of life that may have an effect on me. Naturally, I consider certain pieces of writing as bad if they are difficult to read and hard to interpret, like Shakespearean plays. A piece of writing to be considered as good or bad is an opinion based on the reader and it varies from person to person. As I think back to when I was in elementary school, I would write a lot about my home life and how that affected me as a child. My parents separated when I was five years old, and it was really hard for me to cope with. I found that when I would write all of my thoughts down on a piece of paper, I was able to go to a place where I would think critically about my life and how these life situations affected me. My father and I to this day do not have a strong relationship, and I know that has affected me as well. The reason why I choose to write about these things is

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to prevent myself from dwelling on them all of the time. I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I wrote a journal entry about the way I was feeling about my life at the time. My father had just told me a few months before that he got married to a woman I had no idea about and how that affected our relationship. At the time it was better for me to write it down, because once I wrote my feelings down on paper, a big weight was lifted off of my shoulders. It has always been hard for me to forget some of these life-altering situations, but writing my thoughts down was my way of dealing with them. When I read pieces of writing about a person talking about their life story, I feel a bigger sense of credibility and reality, which makes them examples of good writing, when I read a story that, is fiction. When I was in English 1101, we read an article called Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott, author of the book Bird by Bird. This particular article was very interesting to me because it helped me understand that the way Lamott writes is very similar to the way I write. She explained in the article that it is okay for everyone to have a shitty first draft because it will help you have a better second, third, and final draft. This article helped me become more confident in my writing and allowed me to write the first draft however I want to since I know it is not supposed to be perfect. I consider this to be an example of good writing because it spoke to me in a personal way, which made it more interesting for me to read. Another piece of writing that I find to have a mixture of good and bad writing is the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book, Gladwell writes about the different stories of successful people and how they became what they are today. One of the stories that really caught my attention was the story about the professional hockey players and how their birthday may affect their chances of them becoming professional. This is an example of good writing because

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after he made this claim he was able to explain his reasoning and helped him earn a sense of credibility. Gladwell is able to explain himself in this excerpt: The explanation for this is quite simple. It has nothing to do with astrology, nor is there anything magical about the first three months of the year. Its simply that in Canada the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1. A boy who turns ten on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesnt turn ten until the end of the yearand at that age, in preadolescence, a twelve-month gap in age represents an enormous difference in physical maturity. Throughout the book, Gladwell definitely uses a mixture of pieces of good and bad writing that all come together to create an interesting book like Outliers. When I was a senior in high school, the requirements for English IV was to read and interpret Shakespeare. I was dreading it so much because Shakespearean plays are written in Old English and they are really hard to read and interpret. My English teacher was one of the best in our school, so she really helped our class understand and interpret exactly what Shakespeare was trying to say. This is an excerpt from Macbeth by Shakespeare, the play I read in English IV: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without

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The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win I was confused throughout the entire play because I did not completely understand the context of what Shakespeare was trying to say. If it was not for my English teacher explaining every part of the play, I would have failed the test. I am sure that most people would agree with me that Shakespearean plays are practically impossible to understand and interpret, with the exception of the few people who are in love with his plays and understand them. The excerpt above is interpreted as: You are thane of Glamis and Cawdor, and youre going to be king, just like you were promised. But I worry about whether or not you have what it takes to seize the crown. You are too full of the milk of human kindness to strike aggressively at your first opportunity. You want to be powerful, and you dont lack ambition, but you dont have the mean streak that these things call for. The things you want to do, you want to do like a good man. You dont want to cheat, yet you want what doesnt belong to you Both of these excerpts came from the popular website Spark-notes, which is frowned upon by most English teachers, but my teacher encouraged us to use it to help us understand the play in Modern English writing. Even though there is some writing out there that most people consider being bad, there are some ways to help you understand it better. As a freshman in college, my perspective on writing has not changed too much from the time I was younger. I still like writing about my personal experiences and how they affect me as

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a person. My first semester has been a mixture of highs and lows, but writing has been my outlet during this time. I think every college freshman goes through different types of emotion, from happiness to sadness, since they are away from home and they have to adapt to a new environment. I have a notepad app on my iPhone and I see myself typing away about certain situations that have happened to me since I have come to college. It is also easy access for me to use since I am always on my phone and I take it everywhere with me. Writing my thoughts down is and always will be my main method of coping with difficult situations. After thinking about the different types of writing I have read or written throughout my life, I realize that the things I consider as good or bad could be different for other people. I consider writing to be an outlet for me to cope with life situations, while others may hate writing and do not understand the point of it. That is the beautiful thing about writing, because everyone has the chance to express the way they feel and if they love what they are writing about, they are going to believe they are writing something amazing, regardless of what others think. I was also able to use two different pieces of writing and distinguish between the two which one is good and which one is bad. I will always dislike writing that is difficult to understand, but writing that relates to my life in a personal way will always be my favorite type of writing.

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Works Cited SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Gladwell, Malcolm. "Chapter 1/section 4." Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and, 2008. N. pag. Print.