In high school, I was a part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. As a part of the IB program curriculum, there were many critical papers that were assigned to everyone on a regular basis. As a result, most of us usually waited until the day before the assignment was due to begin even to attempt writing. Most times whichever paper I was most interested in would be the paper I would take more time on, and thus it would be of higher quality than the one I neglected. Usually, when writing the paper, I would just write it all in one sitting, then right after I finished, I would proofread and print. There was usually no second draft involved. This was the typical routine for all subjects during both my freshman and sophomore years. My junior year however, things changed dramatically. In IB, junior year is the most important year of all because it is the year that sets you up for college admissions and it is a stepping-stone towards gaining your IB diploma. For that year, whenever I would have to write a major paper, I would usually create an outline of all the major points I wanted to address in the paper. Afterwards, I would try and write it bit by bit about a week before it was due, and then the night before it was due, I would have one of my friends proofread and edit it for me. It worked quite well for me because on each paper, I always received a B+ or higher. However, this only lasted for the first semester. After the first semester, I began to get worn out from all the stress of IB, and as a result became a little bit lazy. I then reverted back to my old ways of writing each paper the night before it was due. On one occasion, I skipped both first and second periods to write a paper in the media center because I forgot that even had a paper to write in the first place.
When writing for different assignments, my writing usually keeps the same style and tone. This was a major issue for me during high school as well. I would always get marked off on English assignments for not having enough “voice” in my works. I was never really taught how to put your own voice into papers. Therefore, when writing papers using various formats, such as crots, my paper tends to seem a little bit formal and dry. As of right now, I have the main points I want to address in my crots, but I do not have any voice in them as of yet. I hope to develop them as times goes on.
The way you write papers using an "outline" is a really good idea. Your writing has a lot of potential, and I enjoyed reading your post. Maybe you don't have "voice" because you don't write everything you're thinking. I used to hold back a lot of what I wanted to say because I believed it was embarrassing or just weird, but that defeats the purpose of writing. Here's some advice I was told by my wise teachers: for one, you can spice up your vocabulary. I told my family about these New York Times crossword puzzle books, and hopefully I'll get them this Christmas! It's not to sound smart, but if you learn the right words you can be more precise in what you mean and that absorbs the reader. Another thing is to vary the length in your sentences. My teacher used to tell me my work was somewhat a drag to read because each of my sentences would be long and usually run-on. Try adding fragments, when appropriate though. Bam! See what I did there? Ask other people what they think of your work and pay attention to other people's styles. You can become a good writer with lots of practice.
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