Eng1_writing Assingment 2nd Draft

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Gopal Singh October 21, 2008 Professor Heather English I My Writing Woes – 2nd Draft I’ve always hated writing. The whole process of finding a thesis statement and writing transition paragraphs is quite unpleasant. I am also prone to writer’s block. For instance, right now, I simply do not know where to start and what exactly to write. Well…now that I think about it, there was one moment in my life when I actually liked writing. I was a wee little boy back then and had won the monthly “Inspector Write” competition. But, my joy at winning was short-lived after I went through a series of writing failures –the most drastic failure occurring in my sophomore year at high school. I begin my tale of woe with a happyscene of a little boy skipping from school to home with a fancy certificate in his hand. He can imagine the look on his jealous sister’s face when he flashes the certificate in front of her face. He can also imagine the look on his mother’s face when she smiles her crinkly smile and posts the certificate on the fridge. This skipping and smiling little boy just happens to be me. I was in first grade at that time and had written my first grand paper ever. The paper was titled Lion in the Jungle. It was abouta lion that lived in the jungle. When my teacher, Miss Hefferman,read my paper, she thought I was a genius. She put a sticker that read “A Pulitzer Prize Paper!” on my story and included a tiny smiley face sticker as well. All the kids loathed me when they saw the twostickers I had gotten on my paper. I felt really special, especially when Miss Hefferman announced that I was the monthly “Inspector Write” winner. I didn’t know what or who Inspector Write was, but I did knowthat I had won something. MissHefferman handed

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me my certificate. My eyes welled up with tears when I saw my award. It was printed in black ink on normal printer paper. “I’m sorry, we don’t have enough funds in our budget to buy certificate paper,” Miss Hefferman said in a soft voice, thinking that I was upset by the cheap quality of my certificate. “No,” I replied in a shaky voice, “It’s not that…It’s just that…It’s just that…It’s so BEUTIFUL!” That piece of paper was going to change my life, I thought. I imagined entering into a writing career. Maybe, I could be journalist or a novelist or even an editor! The possibilities were endless. But my precious dreams were shattered after first grade. Every year, the writing tasks I was assigned in school became harder and harder. Every year, my grades for those writing tasks became lower and lower. Soon, I became frustrated with writing. I would often take my old and now rumpled certificate out from my memory album and gaze at it for hours, hoping to receive some inspiration from it. The magic seemed lost. I didn’t know that this magic was dead until my sophomore year. Sophomore year, I had English with Ms Heffermane (no, she is not related to Miss Hefferman). Ms Heffermane was a nice teacher, but she didn’t know how to manage our coursework. We were always loaded with classwork and homework. We even had something called out-of-class classwork, which I will now describe to you. The day our out-of-class classwork was announced, I had a terrible ear infection. I sat in the back corner of the classroom with my ear resting on a warm towel I had brought from home. I was extremely grumpy that day because my ear was insistently ringing. Now I knew why some old people were always so grumpy. I felt a surge of sympathy for my mean, old neighbor, Pops, who was always complaining about his “darn ol’ ear.”

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I leaned over my desk to catch on to what Ms Heffermane was saying about our out-ofclass classwork. Why couldn’t she just call it something simple like homework or project?! “Your out-of-class classwork…RRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG,” I winced as my ear throbbed with pain, and leaned further to listen to Ms Heffermane’s low, feathery voice, “….write journal entries for every…RRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG… write three essays: reflective, informative, and allegory… RRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG … due two months from now… RRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG …you will be reading Lord of the … RRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG…for this book report…” “ –Lord of the Rings!!!! ...RRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG…” I excitedly thought while clutching my throbbing left ear which wouldn’t stop ringing. I remembered watching the movies with my sisters at the theaters. They were awesome. I was so excited I tuned out Ms Heffermane’s voice, which I was having trouble hearing anyway, and began to fantasize about what I would write for my allegory. I decided that I would have to begin reading those big heavy books right away – two months was not enough time. That afternoon, I sped to the public library and checked out all three of Tolkien’s Lord of the Ringswith my sister’s currently “missing” library card. Then, I went home, curled on the sofa with a blanket, and began reading about Frodo’s dangerous journey to Mordor. From that day onwards, I was always excited to come to my English class. I never knew English teachers could be so cool. My other friends were reading boring academic books written by long-dead people from the 19th century. I felt lucky to be in Ms. Heffermane’s class. In class, I always wanted to show off what I read about in Lord of the Rings during our weekly out-ofclass classwork discussions, but most of the time I was confused about what everyone was talking about. Who was Piggy? Who was Simon? Was I missing out on something? I was too embarrassed to ask for clarifications so I assumed that maybe I hadn’t gotten to that part in the book yet.

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At home, though, I was an expert on Lord of the Rings. Besides memorizing Sam and Frodo’s journey, I had memorized Aragon and the rest of the fellowship’s journey as well. I had even taken some precious time out of my free time to visit the library again. This time I checked out The Middle Earth Dictionary and a book on elven languages (my sister was still on the search for her missing library card, by the way). I was so engrossed in the books, that I finished all my writing assignments on time without any help from my sisters! The day we had to turn in our reports, I proudly walked to the front of the class to put my coveredreport on top of all the other ones. The report was titled “The Ring that Ruled Them All.” “Interesting title,” Ms Heffermane smiled. I smiled back, shrugged my shoulders, and walked back to my corner seat. The following day, Ms Heffermane asked me to stay after class. I felt super-special because she hadn’t asked anyone else. Did I really write a Pultizer Prize this time? I was going to worship my crumpled certificate when I got home. Maybe I could have it framed and put on an altar. When the bell rang for the next period, I eagerly walked to the front of the classroom where Ms Heffermane was grading papers. “You wanted to talk to me,” I reminded her. “Yes,” she responded, “it’s about your essay…” I smiled really wide, expecting the compliment I was awaiting for. “I –I mean we –have a problem with it,” she corrected herself, “you wrote about the wrong book. Did you not have enough time to read the one I assigned?” The smile turned into a frown. What is she talking about? I asked myself while she was talking. Pssshhhh...I did have time to read lady! I read all three books, including The Middle Earth Dictionary plus Learning the Elven Language for Dummies! “But you told us to read Lord of the Rings!” I insisted. “No, I said Lord of the Flies” she corrected, placing emphasis on the word “flies.”

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“That’s a ridiculous title!” I exclaimed. Ms Heffermane looked at me like she wished shecould have stuck to her previous dream of becoming a 5-star Chef instead of an English teacher. For the next half-hour, I was ranting about how we should have read Lord of the Rings instead of Lord of the Flies. This fly book was clearly an imitation of the most fantastic piece of literature ever written on the face of Earth –Lord of the Rings. When I was finally done sharing my experience with the book, Ms Heffermane sighed and told me I had two weeks to redo the report. “I’m letting you off this time, but no more pranks,” she warned. I wanted to tell her that she was the one pulling the wool over my eyes, but I decided that in the current situation I was in right now, it was best for me to shut up. After school, I checked out Lord of the Flies and began to read itas soon as I got home. I only went as far as the first page and then began snoring. I procrastinated on the project until the last moment, and stayed up until morning, when the annoying birds began tweeting, writing about the fly book. When I got back my report from Ms Heffermane, I knew I had lost the writer’s touch. It had a big read “D” on it –“D” for dumb. When I sulked back home that day, I watched the flames lick my “Inspector Write” certificate. ~Moral: The talent one loses can never be reclaimed.~ Revisions/Decisions I have changed the story completely. I started all over again. This time I actually took time to write this story. I free-wrote my first draft.