Writing Journey

What do you remember about writing from school?

I enjoyed writing at school, especially creative writing. At my school we spent lots of time before writing, in which we would develop our thoughts and ideas. For example we would discuss, make notes, draw and gather inspiration from other texts, experiences or films. I remember writing lots of different things, like stories, poems, articles, scripts, comic strips and reviews. My teachers would always encourage us to write for fun at home. I found spellings, punctuation, grammar and handwriting quite easy, so I could concentrate on the content in my work and allow my imagination to explore. When our handwriting was a high enough standard we were provided with a handwriting pen and I felt like I had earned the pen, so I valued it and the process of writing more. We would have handwriting practice time in special handwriting books and weekly spelling tests. I enjoyed writing as an open-ended task, and I liked how your work could be open to interpretation.

I still enjoyed writing in high school, but not as much, because there were less imaginative opportunities and I found that I became less confident on my creative writing. I think this was because there seemed to be more limitations and regulations, such as writing a certain amount in a certain period of time. There was more emphasis on comprehension tasks from text books, which seemed to make writing a dull experience. However, I really enjoyed writing in year nine, because my teacher was great. She did lots of memorable lessons, such as a trip to the cinema for writing film reviews and she provided us with music to inspire our writing.