shelby+beasley+1st+essay-+good+writing

Shelby Beasley Writing1310 What “Good Writing” Means to Me  Everyone has different opinions about all sorts of things. One of those things is what good writing means to us. To me, good writing is a little harder to find than it is for most people. I’m not a big reader, so you have to really get and keep my attention in order for me to call a work “good writing.”  I have come to my definition of “good writing” over the years of people and rules influencing me. There are some rules that all of my English classes have taught me, and there are some instances where people in my life have influenced me. There were also some instances where people tried to influence me and just couldn’t quite change my mind about what I thought “good writing” was, and still is today.  Good writing to me is a piece of work that is well written and organized. There should be no grammatical errors, as well as no spelling errors. Another main thing that a work has to have is sense. The paper or book that you are reading should make clear sense without getting too wordy. All of these qualities are equally important to me when finding “good writing,” but there are three more details that are more important to me than the rest.  My three main concerns with “good writing” are that it has to be really interesting, use descriptive words, and it has to make me feel some sort of emotion or connection. Like I said, I’m not a big reader, so if it doesn’t keep my attention, it doesn’t matter if there are grammatical or spelling errors because I won’t read it long enough to notice. Another deal breaker for me is using descriptive words. There is nothing like reading a good book that really makes me feel like I am smelling what they are smelling, seeing what they are seeing, or tasting what they are tasting. The final, most important quality to me is it has to make me feel some kind of emotion or connection. When I am reading a book I like to imagine how I would feel if I were in their position, or what I would do in their circumstances. The authors have to give me enough detail that I will be able to feel some kind of connection to what they or their subjects are going through or have been through.  Many people influence what we believe to be good writing. My senior English teacher, Mrs. King, tried to convince me that novels like __Lord of the Flies__ by William Golding and poetry like __Annabel Lee__ by Edgar Allen Poe were good writing. I agreed with her in a sense that, there are no grammatical errors and they usually make sense; however, my problem in completely agreeing with her was that I didn’t find the poetry or novels we read in class to be the least bit interesting. Someone that has influenced what I agree to be “good writing” is my best friend Selenia. She also agrees that there should be no grammatical or spelling errors and that it should be interesting and make sense. She introduced me to Lurlene Mcdaniel. She kept telling me that her books were so good that I just had to read them. I put it off for a while, and then I finally decided to give in. Once I read the first book I was really shocked that she was right.  The title of the book was __Don’t Die, My Love__. The book was about a teenage football player named Luke. He was dying of Hodgkin’s disease. Luke was in love with a girl named Julie which subsequently was his football coach’s daughter. When Luke initially found out about having this disease he didn’t really want to talk to anyone, including Julie. Finally he shook it off and spent his last little bit of time with Julie, taking a trip to California to see his uncle get married.  It was an incredible book, and of course there were no grammatical errors. It used such great detail and told such an interesting story, that I actually was crying by the end of the book. From then on Selenia, as well as Lurlene Mcdaniel have influenced me on my idea of “good writing.” Both of them influenced me on “good writing” because Lurlene writes what I consider to be “great writing” and Selenia first introduced Lurlene’s books to me.  The writers in the chapter have mainly reinforced my ideas of good writing and how it is accomplished. However, it made me look from a different point of view about writing strategies. A few of the authors said that all of the rules can sometimes cause writers block. I never thought about writers block in this perspective. Nevertheless, I completely agree with their assumption. So many times I have tried to start an essay or paper thinking about all the rules and could never seem to get them out of my head long enough to get the paper started.  One author that I strongly agree with on writing techniques is the author of “Shitty First Drafts,” Anne Lamott. I seem to have the hardest time trying to write the introduction to my papers. The rules say that you are supposed to have a really catchy first paragraph and I can never seem to find the right words. Anne Lamott states in her article that in order to get started you sometimes have to make a really bad first draft in order to get to the starting point in your paper. Occasionally you may just have to start writing and see where it takes you.  Many people and rules have influenced me on what I belive “good writing” is. From English class to friends I have been influenced. When reading this chapter I didn’t feel like my idea of “good writing” was wrong, or unlike the authors opinions of good writing; although they did somewhat change my thoughts on writing strategies. Everything can’t always be perfect the first time. It takes planning, drafting, free writing, revision, and much editing. In order to have a good work you just have to take your time and let it come to you.