Last post I mentioned being homeschooled. During my Freshman and Sophomore years I took a Writers class at a Co-op. For those of you that don't know, a Co-op is a group of homeschoolers who gather together weekly, with some of the parents teaching classes that relate to their jobs or interests. In my Writing class, one of the things I had to do was keep a journal. Every day I would write at least five sentences about whatever I wanted to.
Confession time. That first year? Yeah, I really didn't write every day. I would usually write Tuesday, Wednesday, and then wrote the rest of the week's journals in on Sunday night (class was on Mondays). I had a ton of other writing for that class, and consequently I improved greatly. I went from not being able to fill a hand written page to writing two to three pages in Times New Roman, 12 pt, double spaced. So overall I became a better writer.
The next year in that class we worked more on quality over quantity. I wrote more regularly, as we still had journals but with the addition of a paragraph to be critiqued in class every week. That was another jump in my skills as a writer. Regular criticism and help. I am so thankful for that class. Mrs. Anderson, thank you!
Fast forward to two months ago, and I was one nervous high school grad. I realized that I needed to do something to practice my writing this summer. I had mostly just written college essays and done grammar drills my Senior year, and I needed regular writing practice. So what did I do? I started a blog. And I'm super glad I did. I've been doing that thing all writers tell you to do to improve your writing: writing consistently. And the reason is because it's out there. People read this stuff (or at least I hope they do) and in order to keep their attention, I have to improve as a writer. Good content can be hidden by bad writing. And for that matter, I need to be able to get out good content.
But along with being a better writer I consequently gained another valuable skill: basic website design. Weebly is super simple to use, but that doesn't mean there isn't a learning curve. There are so many free apps all over the web to help with this. One I used recently was Canva, a free website for basic graphic design. I made the Polyglot Theologian emblem on the bottom of this page through Canva.
Thank you for reading, and subsequently making me a better writer! Please leave comments below.
Soli Deo Gloria,
- Jonah