Prompt #1

The many strengths and weaknesses I have are never-ending when it comes to writing, but I'll try to narrow them down for you. Two of my strengths as a writer are my creativity and my ability to bring things to life off of the page. When I have a blank page, I get to writing and sometimes I can never stop. At times, in my high school English classes, my teachers would give me the most interesting topics. The only thing I had a hard time dealing with was the limit on words and pages I was given. I could write for hours if the topic was something I was passionate about. I put my all into what I write.

My other strength, bringing things to life, is very important in writing. If you want to keep the reader interested, animating and making them feel like they are in the actual story is the way to go. I can use words to describe situations in my writing that will keep the action or passion going. It makes a piece of work exciting and keeps the reader turning the page.

Two of my writing weaknesses are not knowing when to stop writing and my use of grammar. As I said before, I am very creative, but sometimes that can lead to not knowing when to put a capsule on what I write. I tend to run on and on about a subject and I do not realize that I repeat myself. I try to get my point across, but it ends up coming out as a bunch of nonsense. It is a habit of mine that I have been trying to break for a while now. My use of grammar can be horrible at times. I have the most trouble with punctuation more than anything else. Knowing where to put a semicolon or comma can be confusing for me and it is one of the things I want to work on while I am in this class.

Specifically as a writer, I'd like to improve my skills of getting strictly to my point. I don't want to drag my writing on. If there's something I'd like to prove or a subject I want my readers to understand, I don't want to ramble. I need to state the problem, the information surrounding it and how to fix it. To make this improvement, I could create an outline of my writing to narrow everything down. This will help me because I'll know what I want to say without throwing topics together sloppily in one piece of writing.

I can already tell that this is an interesting course. Looking at our schedule for the semester and the way the class is set up, I know that I am going to enjoy it. I think this course will help me improve as a writer because we have so much freedom in the class. Our minds are not just restricted to those four walls. Going outside the classroom and looking at other pieces of art could give us ideas on what to write and how to present it.

A piece of art that interests me is actually a music video. I was sitting here racking my brain on what things I've seen and what I consider art is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaasJ44O5lI&ob=av2e In my opinion, art is anything you see around you and this music video by Beyonce shows that. I encountered this music video when I was surfing the net and watching youtube videos. It evokes passion and love in me. I love the song, but the visual piece inspires me because of the use of lighting and effects in the video. It merits the term art because it's something we've never seen before. This was drawn up in someone's head and they brought it to life with the help of the right people. It brings out emotions when you watch and I think that any piece of art can do that.