About Me

1. Introduce yourself briefly. Where are you from? Where have you gone to school? What educational plans brought you to the University of Maryland, and what fields of learning or potential majors interest you at this stage in your academic career?
I am from Baltimore Maryland and attended the Friends School of Baltimore for my entire life. I am currently enrolled in the Smith school of Business here at the university of Maryland and look to pursue in a field of finance.

2. What kinds of writing have you done in high school? At UMD? At another college? Outside of a school setting?
I took many high school english classes where you would write strictly on the books you read and how the pertain to the overall meaning of the course. For example last year i took a course on why the caged bird sings and i read a few books about characters who overcame their obstacles and broke free from their "cage" in order to be successful. English 101 is my first english class here at the University of Maryland.

3. What steps do you usually follow when you write a paper? Do you outline? Revise? Compose on a word processor? What part of the writing process do you find easiest? What part do you find hardest?
When i am writing a paper i usually try to outline what i am going to talk about in the opening paragraph, have 4 of 5 body paragraphs relaying to the thesis and what i have already outlined and then i finish with a closing paragraph that emphasizes the "so what". I find that the opening sentence is also the hardest part of the paper. I can never find the right words to open with and therefore i usually go straight for the body paragraphs before i finish the introduction.

4. What kind of writing has given you the most satisfaction?
I enjoy writing on subjects that i extensively know the subject matter. I hate running out of ideas half way through a paper, therefore leading me to repeat and overemphasize points.

5. What is the longest or most challenging paper you have ever had to write? How did you go about preparing and writing it? What did you learn about writing from that experience?
During my junior year of high school i had to write an eight page paper on nuclear weapons and whether or not the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki was actually plausible. It took emense amounts of research and i found it hard to come to a conclusion.

6. What do you remember learning about writing from other courses or other writing experiences that you found useful?
Never start or end your paper with a quote. Also try to end each body paragraph with a "so what" line, what makes your ideas important to your audience.

7. Assess your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. What are you good at? What aspects of your writing are you dissatisfied with?
My weaknesses are a writing are coming through with strong direct evidence. I have trouble finding quotes and ideas from outside sources and placing them in my paper at the right moment. I would say my strongest aspects of my writing are my closing paragraphs. I feel that i can bring papers to a close easily and strongly.

8. What part of the writing process do you think you will need the most support with?
Making my sentences flow smoothly, a lot of the time i end up having run on sentences that are hard to depict. Also as stated above i want to learn how to place strong evidence into my paper at the right time.

9. If you had your choice of subjects for a research project, what issues or topics would you like to write about?
My research paper would be on something that i have immense knowledge for. A topic that i would not run out of ideas half way through. Topics that interest me are cooking, baseball, computers and tennis. Anyone of these subjects i could write freely about.

10. What do you associate with the term argument? How do you feel about taking a course that focuses on argumentation?
The term argument to me in a paper refers to how well you can convince your audience that your side of the issue is correct. It will be interesting coming up with knew ways to make your audience truly believe that you are correct and when you can do that, you have written a unique paper.