Randall's Graves Reflection 1

So far, the first chapter in Donald H. Graves book has helped me realize some things about my own writing. I find that I spend too much time trying to make revisions in the very first sentence that I write and before I know it a couple of hours have already passed by. I get easily frustrated and would rather make sense of it now than have to go back and fix it later. I think I need to break this habit because in a way, it's holding me back from expressing the ideas running through my head. It's almost like I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and I can't just leave it the way I wrote it the first time. Don't get me wrong, I do believe we must edit and revise our papers, but I will do it in the introduction alone and stay there until I like the way it sounds or it is actually conveying my thoughts.

I hope that by the end of the next two semesters I will be more comfortable with my writing. I feel that if I can become a better writer or one that is able to know some of the processes to make me or my students a better one, I will be a first-rate teacher like Graves mentioned in the book. The qualities that he gives are within my reach except for the first one because I am not highly literate and I almost never write for myself. I guess this gives me something to work on during the course of the semester.