A Mode of Writing I Want to Teach

One of the modes that I would like to teach is the narrative. I want to teach this one because it is probably my favorite mode and think it could be one of the more engaging ones for my students. It is engaging because it allows students to tell a story about themselves. I know, in my academic career, whenever an assignment involved me directly (my thoughts, opinions, views) I was much more excited to do it!
I think the narrative will help my students in the "real world." The narrative gives my students an opportunity to express themselves, an opportunity a lot of them don't feel like they have. By teaching them how to write narratives, you show the students on outlet. They now have a skill they can use to organize their thoughts and feelings.

My Academic Experience

I remember my learning of writing to be very structured. The teacher would assign an essay, we would have to turn in a rough draft and then a final copy, that was about it. I don't remember us really doing any work with these papers before we handed them in.
In high school, is when I got my first taste of how I envisioned teaching writing. It was more step by step and we did a lot more work with our papers in class. We would spend days just brainstorming ideas and researching. Then we would spend days, collaboratively working on revising our papers. When the paper was assigned, it was weeks before the final copy was due because we spent so much time developing and improving it.
Funny thing, when I think about learning writing, it was always this big assignment too, like a five page paper or something. We never just took time to write little essays or even journal on a daily basis. It's like the teachers were saying of it isn't big then it's not important.
I want to encourage my students to write everyday, even if it is a quick five minute journal entry. I think that is the only way to really hone your writing skills, is by practice.

My Preferred Method of Composition

Actually getting started is about the hardest thing in the world for me. I have all these ideas running through my brain, but have no idea where to start or how to get them down. So, lately, I have been consciously making an effort to just start writing and worrying about how it sounds or the organization of the piece later.
I am definitely one of those people that has to start at the beginning though. I know a lot of people that can start writing the body of the essay and then go back and write the intro., but I cannot do that (this could be one of the reasons I have trouble getting started).
When writing a paper, of any kind, I usually make a quick outline on paper of how I see the paper going. This helps me visualize my ideas and organize a little better.
Another thing I am horible at when it comes to writing, is the revision process. I use to just quick read over the paper once and look for any grammar or punctuation mistakes. As I started writing in college, I realized that most papers go through at least three revisions and it goes way beyond just grammar and punctuation. This is something I continually try to work on and practice.

My Autobiography as a Writer

I have been thinking about this a lot. I don't remember exactly how I learned to write. I have always had a passion for writing (and am pretty good at it if I do say so myself)! :)
I remember doing a lot of grammar and punctuation work in elementary school and junior high. I also remember going over how to construct a piece of writing, introduction, body, and conclusion. It wasn't until I got into high school that I remember my teachers encouraging me to explore my creativity with writing (if that makes any sense).
Once I was allowed to be creative and not necessarily be confined by the five paragraph essay format, is when I really started to love writing and realized I was pretty good. The one thing I struggle with as a writer, is the professionalism of my pieces. I tend to write very casually, I write like I speak. I have tried to work on making my pieces sound more professional or proper throughout my college career. I think it is important for my students to be confident writing all kinds of different pieces and look forward to helping them learn!