Journal 1
The homework for the Academic and Business Writing course offered by Berkeley is some sort of journal with a series of prompts to practice writing, so this is where I will be posting them!
The amount of writing I’m required to do now has decreased significantly from my high school days, and even maybe my first year university days. I haven’t taken a course that requires heavy writing in approximately two years now, so the writing I usually do is creative writing, or journalling. These are very low commitment and for my personal enjoyment, and thus I feel the standards I set for myself are also practically nonexistent.
When I write for personal purposes, it’s a form of sorting out my thoughts for myself. Even if I’m trying to write something creative, it is usually writing about a situation I am familiar with, in a different perspective, so I can feel more liberated to explore my opinions with the guise that it doesn’t actually involve me. When I journal, it’s a form of therapy. Honestly, I’m not quite sure if I enjoy it because I write longhand and so it feels tedious, and sometimes my attention span feels too short to fully write down all the thoughts I have. However, I think it’s a good method to get me to slow down and really evaluate my thoughts on my current state of mind, or a situation.
Thinking of writing otherwise, however, is not an enjoyable experience. I think my academic/professional writing skills are not quite up to par, since I spend most of my time communicating in a rather colloquial manner. I think I also compare myself very quickly to peers who seem to have an easier and more elegant way with words, thus making me feel stunted and left behind, immediately. Hopefully this perception has faded in the past couple years, and I can work more on self-improvement on this skill I wish to have.
I’d like to improve on all aspects of writing, in particular creative and academic, but with a stronger focus on academic writing because this is more prevalent to me career-wise, and also the one I have the least recent practice with. I hope that improving my creative writing comes as a welcome side effect.