Word It Up

Initiate Struggle

It had always been hard for me to express my feelings. Convert my opinions and ideas into words felt like the most difficult challenge I had been through.

Depressed Boy on Wall by DepressionProject

Growing up I was always the quiet little boy of the group. The children in my neighborhood used to get together in front of Merinito Plaza and have the longest discussions about the most diverse subjects. Even though I had endless comments to add to the argument; I rarely opened my mouth. Blaming it on my timidity, I believed it was a temporary thing. However as time went on and I got older, the same expression issues remained. I remember once in Third Grade the teacher asked us to write a short essay about what we had done over the past weekend. While my classmates were writing about how much fun they had had at the local fair or how spectacular it was to visit the zoo with their older siblings, I made a drawing of my Dad and my Uncle fishing. That was the only way I found to describe the mental pictures I was having. Obviously my grade was not so high on that specific assignment. Indeed, that weekend I did go fishing on Luzia Island with my Dad and my uncle Felix. I sure enjoyed the journey but how could I put my excitement in words. That was always the big issue.                    

Will school help me?

My Teachers would always say “Joao, don't worry about it, you are still a child and you are not a professional writer."
In Middle school they would give us suggestions and examples of how a well written essay should look like. We would read all kind of books from Romantic Novels to Old English Poems. In High school they supplied us with strategies and techniques that could help us improve our writing. Nevertheless I was not writing nor speaking fluently. Getting to college you realize that everything they have taught you in the previews years is not enough which means that you are not actually ready to the college writing not so ever. In fact I believe I have written more in these two first weeks of college than in my whole senior year of high school.

Reaching for

So what if they asked me to write the same short essay about last weekend's journey. Would I be able to express myself effectively?
Well, after reading chapter 3 of Axelrod and Cooper's Concise to Writing I became aware of the steps I should take if I were willing to write a profile. I learned that description is extremely important in writing and that if I wanted the readers to get my point I would have to provide specific details of the place. I was there, I witnessed everything but the readers were not; they do not know how deep is the ocean or how grassy are the mountains in Luzia Island unless I tell them so. As a writer I must be able to put into words the description of everything I had seen and how I felt about them. According to what I read on Description of People and Places (Axelrod and Cooper 2010, 72) the evocation of the senses is a great way to describe people or places. If I wanted to write a sentence describing the feelings and sensations of the walk I took across the island it would be somewhat similar to…

Sunset on the Malaysian island of Borneo. Angela7dreams photo. CY.C-B

 "The noise of the gusty wind touching the loose stones conjoined with the breathtaking sunset made me shiver as I climbed the sloppy mountain…"