Assessing your Strengths and Weaknesses

Until this point, I have never been given the opportunity to deeply analyze the strengths and weaknesses of my writing skills. Now that I have taken a more in depth look at my writing skills, I have discovered a vast amount of necessary information about myself and my learning process.

I see myself to be a good rhetorical writer. If given a specific topic or standpoint (as long as its somewhat interesting for me ) I can easily convey my message. Since rhetorical writing is to be seen as delivering an overall structure, it is easiest for me to understand. I personally write with the overall structure of my paper in my head and just free write until I feel I have delivered my point.

When it comes to critical reading and writing, I don't feel that I am as skilled. Its hard for me to see a point in an abstract way when I'm so used to seeing it in a conventional way. I don't mean to say that I'm an uncreative or shallow minded person, I just prefer to discuss points that I already know and have a firm stance on.


My writing process is pretty basic. I usually begin with thinking about how I want to sound within my writing, what points will I be getting at, and how will I conclude. I jot down bullet notes quickly and begin to free write. Excessive planning slows me and confuses me.

Knowledge of conventions is probably my weakest points. I typically assume I'm a punctuation and grammar rule pro, but the truth is that my I've usually got my rules confused and wind up with numerous errors in my writing. At times when I try to have a more sophisticated tone in my writing, my sentence structures more become baffling than intellectual. My "table manners" of writing are not the best, but I'm constantly looking to improve them.