Digital Portfolio
EDU 614

Mary Jerzak

Agnes Scott University

Mary Jerzak

Writing Timeline

Elementary School: I learned to write the alphabet in kindergarten and learned to write cursive in the first grade. I remember this distinctly because I was not very good at it, and I continue to be frustrated with cursive writing to this day. My third grade teacher would make us copy down our daily assignments from the board, a process which must have taken at least an hour every morning.

Middle School: In the fifth grade, I wrote my first poem. I was so proud! It was a haiku or some other formal style of poem and I wrote mine about a tornado. I remember the excitement I had at the words I had put together. Unfortunately, the teacher was not as excited as I was about my poem.

High School: By the ninth grade, I was a full-fledged scribe. I wrote lots of poetry, probably emphasizing quantity more than quality. I could write poems on the spot about any given subject. As my high school years progressed, I was able to hone my skills and concentrated more on the quality of the verse. I was involved in the Dead Poets Society at my school and started to write a novel. I began entering poetry contests and even won a few. In my senior year of high school I took a creative writing class, which was really a sad attempt at a creative writing class.

College: Off I went to Oberlin College, where my best writing and learning experience would take place. I grew not only as a technical essayist but as a creative writer also. I concentrated mainly on poetry but developed some skills in play-writing and fiction writing. It was here that I grew as a person and developed an analytical mind, which would later help me in all the writing I had or wanted to do.