...On Becoming a Writer Introduction How in writing I have found that many people feel the same way when it comes to writing essays for school. On the essay “On becoming a writer” by Baker (McGraw-Hill, n.d,) I discovered that even people that like writing find it difficult to write when the write environment is not in place. Mr. Baker from Virginia goes into describing how dull and boring it was to write in high school English class; trying to follow the classic writing rules to pass a class. His teacher sounds like the guy off of the dry eyes commercial with the slow, boring, make you go to sleep voice. Mr. Fleagle always ended his sermons with “Don’t you see?” (McGraw-Hill, n.d, p. 66). Points The most important point made is do what you love even if it seems to be a daunting task at times. Mr. Baker discovered after his school teacher read out loud his paper on “The art of eating spaghetti” (McGraw-Hill, n.d, p. 66) that he really enjoyed writing and that he liked how others felt about his writing. Mr. Baker liked watching people smile and laugh with the paper he wrote and it inspired him to write more. “I did my best to avoid showing pleasure, but what I was feeling was pure ecstasy at this startling demonstration that my words had the power to make people laugh” (McGraw-Hill, n.d, p. 68). Another important point that I got from Mr. Baker is to go with your first instinct when it comes to writing; your writing may catch the interest or spark the interest in others that...
Words: 642 - Pages: 3
...On Becoming a Writer 1 On Becoming a Writer English Composition April 27, 2013 On Becoming a Writer 3 The main idea of the essay is the fact that the author always had the desire to be a writer but he was faced with the difficult of writing during his time at school, his English classes were very hard and confused. The others points I found on this essay is: * The author faced and thought that only the rich people could write and that being a writer as professional did not have a good future, but even that he had begun to think about being a writer. So in his third year at college things changed for him. * When his class assigned to Mr. Fleagle, he was waiting another sad and dull year because the Mr. Fleagle was recognized as a person with no inspiration, no glare, his way of dressing or even his physical characteristics made the students in the city do not have a good conception of Mr. Fleagle. * Another important point that the author cites in his essay is he was not disappointed for a long time, because he expected an antipathetic professor. Also he cites the teacher wanted his students to like Macbeth, but the teacher didn’t know how to influence the students’ whit that passion he had for Macbeth. The author makes a citation which one the teacher always used in the classroom and is very interesting “do not you see”, the author claims it as his teacher was placed in front of students in a tone of mild surprise ignorance of them. ...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...With becoming a writer, there are many things you can be a writer for. Writers have subgenres of job types that a person can prepare, with some being more beneficial than others. Being a writer is very diverse and can be really laid back and you have more freedom than most types of jobs. With this career, it's more important to gather information relating to what a person is writing about, to have legitimacy to what their stories or articles are going over. To get this point, it's pretty much certain that to be successful as a writer, before you have to go get a college education in certain areas of study that correlate with becoming a writer. Someone who are...
Words: 951 - Pages: 4
...BECOMING A WRITER January of 2011 was the beginning of a special adventure in my life as a student. I took an English class 0890, at Utah Valley University. Now, in the last days of this class, almost four months later, I can look back and see myself with a lot of problems in my writing that needed to be fixed. These four months in this class have helped me solve many writing challenges. I am far from perfect in becoming a good writer but I have learned that hard work and perseverance can produce wonderful results. Even though I learned many things, the three man points that I want to talk about are the following: quote analysis scaffold, grammar, and research online. The first month of the English 0890 class was intense, the students had to do a special analysis writing exercise called “Quote analysis scaffold”. It is the developing of many skills in one exercise. It helps develop reading and vocabulary comprehension. After the quote analysis scaffold is made, it can be used in the essay as a hook or concluding thought. We ended up doing around ten of these exercises. After writing the quote, provided from the teacher, this analysis was made from the following steps: The first thing was to do a research online about the author and make two to three sentences, on average, about who he was and what were his major contributions to society. Second, the students had to look for unknown words and their definition in the dictionary. After this, the third part was for the students...
Words: 1292 - Pages: 6
...The essay “On Becoming a Writer” is written by Russell Baker, an author born in 1925, in Virgina. The excerpt is taken from the article “Growing Up”. “Growing Up” is a Pulitzer-prize winning memoir. The article describes the thoughts and emotions surrounding the moment that he realized his interest in writing. At the beginning of the story, Russell Bakers speaks about the art of writing and how it intrigues him. He also describes what was uninteresting about the English language, as well. He told how he found grammar to be boring and writing papers were much like completing a chore. Russell stated that reading classic novels were “deadening as chloroform” (Baker, 1982). He explained in the except that he did care to write essays because they seemed tedious to complete and difficult for others to read and comprehend in the manner that the author wrote it. I agree with this feeling because the content is usually presented in a dull manner, which causes students to lose interest in the topic. If teachers allow students to be more creative with their writing, such as writing about personal interests, I think it would make the subject more appealing. Further along in the story, Baker describes his junior year of high with his English teacher, Mr. Feagles. He tells us that Mr. Feagles was “prim to a fault” (Baker, 1982) and removed from reality with his expectations for the class. One of the course assignments was an informal essay, in which Baker procrastinated on due to his lack...
Words: 538 - Pages: 3
...In his essay, “Becoming a Writer,” Russell Baker explains the effect that doing something for yourself can have on you. For baker, it wasn’t until his third year in high school that he realized writing wasn’t as much work as he thought. He figured it would be just another year with just another new writing teacher: boring, dull, and burdensome. Baker’s new teacher, Mr. Fleagle, did not prove him wrong by way of forcing his enthusiasm for Macbeth on the students and his constant overuse of the phrase, “Don’t you see?” The class became even drearier when Mr. Fleagle assigned an informal essay with absent-minded topics such as “What I did Over Summer Break.” One such topic, “The Art of Eating Spaghetti,” surprisingly sparked images of vivid memories into Baker’s mind. Before he knew it, Baker wanted to write down his thoughts for his own pleasure. After writing away most of the night, he had no choice but to turn in his less-than- perfect paper he had scribbled out merely for himself and not as a proper essay to turn in for a grade. Baker waited two days before it was time to see his grade for the first time; Mr. Fleagle had held on to his essay to read it to the class. His paper, titled “The Art of Eating Spaghetti,” turned out to be a huge success. The class laughed, not in criticism, but in pure humor and joy. Mr. Fleagle praised the essay by stating that the essay was “the very essence of an essay, don’t you see.” In the end, Mr. Fleagle really was a successful teacher, but more...
Words: 637 - Pages: 3
...Summary of On Becoming a Writer John Powers Professor: Dr. Susan Ryan English 115 – Assignment 1 April 19, 2014 A literacy narrative by Russell Baker “On Becoming a Writer. In this narrative the author explains how he always wanted to be a writer from an early age. During earlier school years he did not enjoy English classes and thought they were boring. Because he was not interested in the classes he always waited until the last minute to complete his assignments. In his third year English class he had a teacher that all the students knew for being a boring teacher he was an older gentleman that didn’t relate with the kids and make the class interesting for the students. In the beginning of the year Mr. Baker felt all the stories he had heard about the teacher were true the class was very boring. Late in the year the students were given an assignment to write an essay and as usual he waited until the last minute to start writing his essay. When he picked his topic to write about and started writing he got very interested and wanted to start writing more for himself. Due to the requirements of the assignment Mr. Baker did not feel his paper would get a good grade because of all the added writing so he figured he would write another essay for the class. It took him so long to finish writing the original essay he didn’t have time to write another paper for the class so he turned in his original essay. A few days later after the teacher handed out the graded papers he started...
Words: 524 - Pages: 3
...On Becoming a Writer On Becoming a Writer Hewlett-Packard Dr. Muirhead 937-916-4023 Eng.115055VA013-1128-001English Composition 11/11/2012 Hewlett-Packard Dr. Muirhead 937-916-4023 Eng.115055VA013-1128-001English Composition 11/11/2012 Mike Knight The importance of becoming a writer, based on one persons of different ways of looking at things and why they are so important to the general listening that Mike Knight The importance of becoming a writer, based on one persons of different ways of looking at things and why they are so important to the general listening that On becoming a writer Written by B. Baker I chose this topic because I am in hopes that would learn more about becoming more comfortable with writing. I figure there have to some kind of tips in here that will allow me to pick something I can relate to. I am going to need all of the tips and pointers can find to help me survive this writing class. The purpose of this essay is to give us some insights on the ways of the writer and to help enlighten our thoughts and how conceive things. The other main points and their details are there to show me what writers go through and how to work with it. This is there to make my education better. I also learned that I will only get what I want to get, from my classes. This is the class that I need to get the most from. I am going to apply what I have learned from this class. I am glad I picked this topic. I am convinced that I was supposed to...
Words: 450 - Pages: 2
...Exploring Your Desires A Summery of “On Becoming a Writer” “On Becoming a Writer” is an essay by Russell Baker, who was born in Virginia in 1925. It is an excerpt taken from the Pulitzer Prize - winning memoir Growing Up. Baker shares his inspirational story and reminds students and young adults not to be afraid to explore their desires. The excerpt centers around the pivotal moment, when Baker explores his desires and realizes that he wants to be a writer. In the first part of the story, Baker describes how writing interested him, but there were so many other unattractive things about English. He talked about how boring Grammar was and that writing papers were like a chore and robotic. He even said that reading the classics were “deadening as chloroform” (Baker, 1982). Baker touches on a good point in this section. School, for a lot of students, ends up being dull and repetitious due to boring subject matter. When teachers put a little thought and effort into the subject matter and allow students to be creative, it can make subjects more appealing and help keep students interest. Baker then takes us to his junior year, with Mr. Feagles. Baker describes Mr. Feagles as a pristine, out of touch teacher, that was “prim to a fault” (Baker, 1982). For the first part of the year, Mr. Feagles class fails to spark any interest in Baker. That is, until Mr. Feagles gives the class an informal essay assignment. Baker, like a typical highs school student, procrastinates...
Words: 510 - Pages: 3
...In the process of writing of this thesis I had several individuals who helped and encouraged me along the way. First, I would like to thank God for the ability to dream the dream of becoming a journalist and giving the talent and stability to reach my dreams. I would also like to recognize everyone who gave me their time, changed their schedules, to stay focused and complete this last year of school. There are several people who sacrificed more then anyone else to help me reach my dream. A thank you goes out to my daughter Sania. You have been the built in baby sitter when I had to study and your mom was out. You have shown strength far greater then your age and I think you for being a rock in my Life. To my daughter Anara, your jokes and...
Words: 428 - Pages: 2
...People commonly ask one another, “If you could have one superpower, what would it be?” There is a wide variety of answers that could be given, but what would your reaction be if the responder replied with, “To be able to write well.” Even though being a good writer isn’t considered a superpower, there is still a lot of power in writing. Words can captivate people, make us feel things we didn’t think we could, sometimes even change our minds and hearts. I want to learn how to change my writing challenges into strengths and become a better writer. When reading an exceptional piece of writing I notice that the author usually uses a wide vocabulary, has a good setup in how the information or story is being laid out, and is typically very knowledgeable...
Words: 328 - Pages: 2
...From a young age in elementary school to now a college student, writing has changed greatly. The way you have to think outside of the box and put your ideas all together can become a challenge as you get older. In this reading it gives us many ways to become college ready writers. College ready writers can mean multiple things and it takes a lot of different skills to write at the high level. After reading this small book, I am having trouble narrowing down what is most important to me as I become a college reader and writer. One point that sticks out to me most is creativity. After reading this I can remember all the papers I have written and most of them were about stuff I had already known. Unless they were assigned to me with specific...
Words: 269 - Pages: 2
...Strategies for Becoming an Effective Academic Writer COM/150 September 27, 2012 Strategies for Becoming an Effective Academic Writer • Consider how the writing process you read about in this class differs from the process you have used in the past. What specifically have you done in the past compared to what you have read about this week? In the past I never have really created a Thesis Statement, I did not even know what one really was. I use to just run with my thoughts in my writing, I always felt I explained early in the writing what I was trying to get across. After I learned greater detail of a Thesis I went back to look at my previous papers, and I noticed I never had a thesis, it was more along the lines of a point versus explaining my opinion, but I received a grade for having a proper thesis. Another thing that I picked up on was outlining. This is also completely new to me. I always thought outlining was used to just show major points of topics and sub-topics. I have also played with this a little bit, and I have realized this does make the writing process a lot easier as I am not constantly rereading a topic to look for that important point I want to get across to my audience. In the past I have always knew what I wanted to write about, and knew how I wanted to get it across to the readers. I always thought I was a good writer as previously I have never had a Defense Attorney attack my report in a criminal proceeding; I have never left room...
Words: 1038 - Pages: 5
...Assignment #1: Summary and Personal Response Keith Louden Professor Cassandra Dettmann ENG 115 April 20, 2016 The most important point that author Russell Baker, made in his title essay, “On Becoming a Writer”, was he wanted to become a writer at the age of sixteen. He said, “that coming out of high school most sixteen year’s old didn’t think about becoming a writer”. But being a writer was the only thing he had interest in. In some obvious ways of thinking he perceived writing was done by the rich but, he considered writing not to be a job that you can make a good earning from. The notion of him becoming a writer was self-explanatory because, he already thought of himself as a writer where it gives him a sense of identity. Being that he was a skillful, and talented great writer. In his thoughts of becoming a writer he was unsure that could be a passion of his. It wasn’t until his third year that the possibility of becoming a writer took hold. By then he was bored with English, and everything associated with it. Why is that? He thought the English grammar was dull, and buffing because of the assignments he did. He felt his assignments turned out to be compositions. Meaning they was leaden with lackluster paragraphs that was not appealing to the teachers once they read them. Except for one teacher Mr. Fleagle, it was an essay that...
Words: 923 - Pages: 4
...us/question_des/ALLASSIGNMENTSENG115/1832 contact us at: help@mindblows.us ENG 115 ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 Writing Assignment 1 Summary of On Becoming a Writer ENG 115 Assignment 3.1 Determining Causes and Effects – Draft Version ENG 115 Industrialization After the Civil War Final Paper ENG 115 The Public Needs to Know ALL ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 To purchase this tutorial visit here: http://mindsblow.us/question_des/ALLASSIGNMENTSENG115/1832 contact us at: help@mindblows.us ENG 115 ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 Writing Assignment 1 Summary of On Becoming a Writer ENG 115 Assignment 3.1 Determining Causes and Effects – Draft Version ENG 115 Industrialization After the Civil War Final Paper ENG 115 The Public Needs to Know ALL ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 To purchase this tutorial visit here: http://mindsblow.us/question_des/ALLASSIGNMENTSENG115/1832 contact us at: help@mindblows.us ENG 115 ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 Writing Assignment 1 Summary of On Becoming a Writer ENG 115 Assignment 3.1 Determining Causes and Effects – Draft Version ENG 115 Industrialization After the Civil War Final Paper ENG 115 The Public Needs to Know ALL ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 To purchase this tutorial visit here: http://mindsblow.us/question_des/ALLASSIGNMENTSENG115/1832 contact us at: help@mindblows.us ENG 115 ASSIGNMENTS ENG 115 Writing Assignment 1 Summary of On Becoming a Writer ENG 115 Assignment 3.1 Determining Causes and Effects – Draft Version ENG 115 Industrialization After the Civil War Final Paper ...
Words: 1798 - Pages: 8
