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Kandace Keddington

English 1010

Personal Writing Analysis

15 September 2019

The People Pleaser

If there’s anything I hate the most in this world, it’s cleaning my room. It’s boring and

monotonous and I would pretty much rather do anything else. I’m the type of person who gets

really distracted when cleaning and organizing because I get intrigued with items that have been

lost for years. Whether it’s my old DS, Playbills from previous plays and musicals I’ve been in,

an old journal, or even assignments from elementary school. Whenever I find things like this I

can’t help but read them. As I have read various assignments over the years I have noticed

similarities. After analyzing various papers, journals, stories, etc. I have realized that I am a big

people pleaser when it comes to my writing. I am sure to get the job done and get my point

across but I still have to add little sarcastic comments and fun tidbits just to give a potentially

boring paper the official Kandace stamp. I am not afraid to let my personality show through my

writing.

A distinct characteristic of my writing all across the board is little sarcastic or funny side

comments that I make just to lighten the mood. In my 9th grade English class, around

Halloween, we were assigned a paper where we were to write a scary story. In the spirit of

Halloween, I took this assignment very seriously. I based my story off of Asylum 49, a popular

haunted house in Tooele. Most typical scary stories are eery but not the ones that I write. Part of

my story read, ¨When we got into the asylum the only thing I could focus on was the annoyingly
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overbearing smell of disinfectant. It was so bad it started to give me a headache, and since I was

already in a bad mood this was definitely not going to make it better. In order to go inside, we

had to fill out this big form with our phone numbers, signatures, and all that jazz because it was

that haunted ​and they didn’t want to be responsible for any mishaps​. W
​ hen our tour guide finally

got there, we were getting ready to start and he mentioned that somebody would be chosen to

win a special prize at the end of the tour. It was then I decided to perk up slightly because I

wasn’t going to do all of this crap for nothing.¨ (Keddington ¨The Asylum¨ 1)In this quote, you

can see that I add little sarcastic comments as if it were actually me telling the story. You can

really see my personality shining through when I say things such as ̈all that jazz ̈ and ̈I wasn't

going to do all this crap for nothing.¨ These are things that I would likely say in a regular

everyday conversation. When I write, especially when I was younger, I try to use ̈more

approachable ̈ language so that people don't feel bored when reading my pieces. This really

shows that I am not afraid to let my own personality transfer onto the page.

When I am writing, specifically for school, I try to make everything I am saying sound

way made appealing than an essay should sound. In 5th grade, our huge project of the year was

where we had to pick one of the 50 states and do a huge project based on that state. Part of the

project was an essay we had to write just about the state in general. Part of my paper reads,

“Obviously Georgia is a wonderful place to visit or to live. In my opinion, it is one of the best

places to go in the United States. I guarantee anyone who goes to The Peach States will have a

blast!!!” (Keddington “GEORGIA” 2) I had never been to Georgia at the time and I still have

never been to Georgia, yet I still try to make it sound so legit because I wanted to have the best
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essay and prove to my class that I truly had the best state. 5th grade me was quite the competitor

if I do say so myself.

My journal is a very similar but different story. When I am writing specifically for

myself, I don’t worry as much about pleasing other people because let’s be honest, who else is

going to see it but me. Since I am not as worried about what other people will think about it, I let

my personality shine through even more than I typically. I have been trying to keep a journal

lately because it helps me keep my thoughts collected and it has been really nice and even funny

to look back at the things I’ve said. An excerpt from my journal reads, “I did some minor digging

on that account and found out that he is a SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL! WHAT?! I WAS AND

STILL AM ​SHOOK​!” As we can see, I am really not afraid to embrace my true teenage self if I

am only writing for myself.

A person’s writing can be so personal yet so detached at the same time. I feel like it is so

important for myself personally to be able to express myself through my writing. I have become

more aware of how personal my writing is to me as I have been in high school but looking back

at previous pieces of mine, it was refreshing to see that I’ve always been this way. Even when I

am writing an essay, I still try my hardest to at my own personal stamp to everything that I write.

Then I start multitasking and do whatever I can to make sure that people will enjoy it. When

writing I like to think about if I were to go back and read my piece at a later point in life if I

would be entertained by it. This relates back to myself liking to make my writing my own. I

think that it is important for everyone to have an outlet. Next time we are writing, no matter what

it is, it is important for us to reflect who we are in our writing.

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Works Cited

​ erald Wright Elementary School. 2012.

Keddington, Kandace. “GEORGIA.” ​State Project. G

Print. Appendix C

Keddington, Kandace. “Journal.” 2019. Print. Appendix B

Keddington, Kandace. “The Asylum.” ​Halloween Stories​. Cyprus High School. 2016. Print.

Appendix A