Personal writing experience in my entire life

In this essay you will write a story of your writingexperiences—it could be in both your native and second or foreign language(s). Consider your entire life, including pre-school years, and do not limit yourself to school experiences. The experiences should be arranged in chronological order.

Writing Sample 1

A Writer’s Autobiography

“Sit still, concentrate on your book, and recite the poems!” Three consecutive orders came out from dad’s mouth. I was only five years old then. It is not likely for a kid like me to memorize these poems while just being able to recognize a few characters in them, let alone the meanings that the poems were trying to convey. I whispered in mind, but was too afraid to answer back. More often than not, I would pick up my astronomy book after he turned around and left, browsing fascinating pictures in it and dreaming to be a scientist. Being naturally rebellious and naughty, I often incurred my parents’ blame. Though I did not memorize as many poems as most “well-educated” preschool kids did, I clearly remembered what dad always said– The reading you do now is fundamental to the writing you will do in the future. Writing has the power to change your life. Of course, I had no idea of what my father meant at that time.

I first touched writing when I entered elementary school. All my six school years barely left any impression on me in terms of writing, except that my parents kept forcing me to take special writing training sessions while I was reluctant to. Dad insisted on his words as always. And I was still perplexed at his words after six years, with no affection for writing at all.

In my 7th grade in junior school, things did change. I fell in love with writing as if it happened all of a sudden. Believe it or not, it was my math teacher who gave me the motivation to write. She shared Xi Murong’s poetry selections with me. Most of the poems were about love. That was the first time that I had ever so closely contacteda person through her words. That was the first time I actually felt a person’s sadness, daze and wistfulness for love through her words. That was the first time I had an impulsion that I should write down something to express my true feelings, to record what I had perceived. I started writing poems myself, even though they were not perfectly rhymed. I began to observe the world around me. I eulogized the color green, for it revealed the essence of life—to strive. I wrote a story about an injured bee struggling in sands to call for the equality of lives. My papers got published. Writing changed my life in a way that enabled me to possess an insightful view of my life itself.

In my 8th grade, sciences officially stepped into my life. When science and writing, my two lovers, came to me together, I could not embrace them both. I struggled for a while and accepted sciences as my “wife”, while writing was miserably degraded as my “paramour”, who I could only meet once a month. I no longer had sufficient time to write romantic poems or essays, because all essays were suggested a formal format so as to ensure a decent score in the exams.

As most underground loves do not last long, neither did mine with Chinese writing. Due to exceptional performance in math and sciences during junior school, I was selected into a special student group with intensive sciences study in high school. Sciences classes and homework squeezed most of my spare time. Gold cannot be pure; man cannot be perfect. I was not capable of handling science contests and writing simultaneously. No matter how furious my Chinese teacher was when he commented my essays as hollow, tedious and lacking humanity; no matter how often he accentuated the importance of writing in college entrance examination, I ditched writing, even without pain. Love came, and love’s gone. My romance with Chinese writing came to a sharp end at the start of my last high school year.

In the summer of 2007, I was honored to be admitted to Cornell Summer College, and enrolled in English as a Second Language program mainly because I was more adept in English writing than my peers. English writing did change my life. It changed my life track. I produced six papers in six weeks there in Cornell. My instructor seemed never willing to stop writing on my paper, highlighting my shiny ideas and correcting my misusage of the English language. We freely exchanged our ideas about English writing during conferences. His big smiles always expressed his recognition of my work. Day by day, my English writing skills got enhanced little by little, and my confidence in English writing got augmented. I still remember all the researches I did when I attempted to work on a comparative essay about the differences between American and Chinese college education systems. If it were not for this essay, I would never discover how much I admired college life in the States. Later, I abandoned my parents’ wishes of getting into a top university in China; instead, I picked up my pen and let my ideas flow on application essays for US colleges. I opened a window for myself to see the world. Since then, my life track has been twisted, and I have set out for a new journey.

Here now at Purdue, I have been exposed more to professional writings such as building up a resume, composing a cover letter, and writing letters in business format and tone to my potential employers and school administrators. Still, there are a great many to learn about various writing formats and styles. My journey just gets started, and it smoothly goes on. By the next time when writing changes my life again, I wish I could share my achievements and joy with everyone.