writing-with-sarah

[writing-with-sarah]

November 2:

I am really feeling burned out. There’s too much of everything. I’m exhausted. Just thinking about reading one chapter or article feels like such a chore.

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 30:

This was me editing my Analytic paper and Critical Review paper simultaneously so that I can celebrate Halloween with my family

Shit ur right thanks

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 26:

This analytical paper is a challenge. It is unearrhing a lot of memories and a bit of ✨trauma✨ so I keep having to take breaks from writing, but I also don’t have a lot of time to lick my wounds. I need to get this DONE.

It looks like I’m gonna have to cry my way through it, but hopefully it will turn out well. I’m a bit nervous about the direction I’m taking, though. It is a very personal paper and ever I know about academic writing says STAY AWAY FROM EMOTIONS but it can’t be helped. I’m using my self as an example, I have to be personal and emotional.

Regardless, I will come to terms with some of the topics in this paper. Healing has to start somewhere and an assignment for grad school might as well be it.

#academic writing #english #writing

[writing-with-sarah]

October 21:

I talked about my anxiety in regards of using English in front of my peers and professors IN CLASS today. I get so unbelievably nervous speaking to native English speakers in an academic environment, as if one tiny error will get me fired from the academic community when I KNOW that’s not a thing that happens.

Well, it happens, but not like that!

I think my perception of the academic community shifted when I read about the Orangutan debate in the academic literature community in regards to Edgar Allen Poe. Messy.

Anyways, it was nice to see that my anxiety didn’t affect my performance in class and that the old “fake it till you make it” technique still woks! I feel relieved that there are others who feel this way and that it is seen as a valid L2 learning phenomenon that deserves looking into instead of dismissed or chalked up as regular anxiety.

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 21:

I looked up this man after seeing the post and the sources I found say he speaks 32 languages but they were all up to 2017, so who knows! Maybe he managed to squeeze a few more languages in the last 3 years.

I found his tips on language learning interesting and pretty mich cover wjat I’m already studying, but seeing it on a much larger scale like this really throws the critical period hyposis straight to hell.

i learned there is a man (Ioannis Ikonomou) in the European Commission who works as a translator and can speak 47 languages, including 21 of the 24 EU official languages. He can also speak dead languages like Old Church Slavic (x)

#academic writing #english language #Youtube

[writing-with-sarah]

October 19:

I’ve submitted so many assignments and I haven’t had a single grade reported back yet. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing honestly. I would like to know how I’m doing. What if I’m doing everything wrong? I won’t have time to bounce back. But at the same time I’m ort of relieved. If I don’t know, I won’t get anxious about assignments and aiming for perfection to overcompensate.

I’d still like to know.

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 17:

I saw this on Twitter and gasped. I do this EVERY TIME!!! I put so much work and effort and beat myself up over word choice, grammar, and punctuation when I shouldn’t! It’s a ROUGH DRAFT! And bu the time I’m supposed to actually create my assignment, I’m too burned out. I can’t even bring myself to look at it.

I’m supposed to show progress in my writing, but I don’t give myself the chance to progress in the first place! I always feel like I have to make it perfect from the first try!

#academic writing #english #so we learned something today

[writing-with-sarah]

October 14:

I just had a meltdown with the google support lady (Khloe, bless her heart) there to witness. I lost my bibliography document on google drive at 2:30 am and went straight into freak out mode. After an intense 25 minutes of searching, I finally found it but I was spent!

Writing is exhausting and full of high stakes. I swear I feel like that I’m working out my brain! It’s so intense! An extreme sport!

It’s hard writing a bibliography because I don’t really get it. It’s one of thoes “that’s how it’s built” kinda things, but why?

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 10:

I finally found useable sources and will start writing a Bibliography … whatever that is. I don’t understand what a bibliography is. I know a summary and I know citation, but a bibliography?!? Is it a mash up of both?

We summarize and give a review? We cite first? It’s alphabetical?

It doesn’t make sense but everyone wants me to write it, so write it I will.

[writing-with-sarah]

Is this true?!?! Is everything I know a lie?

Why is it that the more I learn about grammar the more complicated it gets!!

This question might not be very important but I feel like a fool :(

Well I was talking about each and every in a presentation for my syntax class and there was an example like " My flowers are 10$ each" My teacher rushed to correct me saying that the correct sentence should be "My flowers is 10$ each" and I don't understand why?! I mean, what about the subject-verb agreement? It was kind of bad cause then I got too nervous to finish my presentation in the right way. Could you please tell me which is the grammatically correct form.

TBH I have no idea how the teacher could come up with that idea. But then again, i’m not a native speaker. I personally would say “are” is the only valid form. Maybe our followers can enlighten us on this? 

#academic writing

[writing-with-sarah]

October 10:

This pretty much sums up my writing the past week. I write it, I look at it, it doesn’t sound as bad as it was in my head, I pat myself in the back. Good job Sarah.

When I write something that actually isn't terrible

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

I got a B. I know that this was the first draft an isn’t the definite grade and that I should be proud of myself, but I am not.

September 19:

I’m writing my first graded Academic Writing essay as a second language grad student and I am freaking out as we speak. The assignment is easy enough: choose a writing assignment from any course, interview the professor about the assignment, write an essay/report abou the assignment.

I know the information, I understand the assignment, but actually sitting down and translating it into written form is challenging me. I’m using corpa to make sure that my sentences sound natural to the English language. Trying to transfer an idea I have in Arabic into English and writing it in an academic paper is trying.

[writing-with-sarah]

October 8:

Celebrating facilitating, spending time with my family, and finishing up my Analytical Exercise is hard to juggle, but I did it. I’m not done with my paper but I’m getting there.

Yes I have a presentation I didn’t start, an outline I didn’t think about to submit, and a bibliography I should be halfway through due Monday. I am aware of the ginormous amount of work I need to get done, but I am also aware about how much stress I have been through.

I need a day or two to myself. Something to energize me to tackle the workload with excitement instead of panic. I don’t want to panic, I want to enjoy the process.

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 7:

Today I’m facilitating a discussion on bilingualism and I cannot be more excited. I remember the first time I realized I might be a bilingual and not an L2 language learner during my 4th year in college in my Linguistics class. While the professor was explaining bilingualism, it was like she was describing me during different stages of my life. It dawned on me that all the times I was told I was linguisticly challenged, I was showing early signs of bilingualism and going through languaging and translanguaging!!! It was that criticism that made me shy away from L2 language usage until I was a teenager and decided to learn again.

I thought I was a language learner because I decided to learn and apply the language when the fact that I integrated the language into my everyday life is what makes me bilingual!

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

October 2:

I don’t feel as stressed as used to writing, but I still feel like an imposter. I have to remind myself that that is untrue and reassure myself that I do belong in this program, that being perfect means there is no room to learn.

I am stressed out over my annotated bibliography assignment because:

I have never written a bibliography before

I haven’t found articles

It is coming up real soon and I am running out of time

A LOT of grades are on this assignment

I am struggling between calming myself down and yelling at myself drill sergeant style TO GET STARTED!!

But I feel so overwhelmed!! There is SO MUCH to read!! Each of my courses has three readings MINIMAL a week making it nine readings average a week plus videos plus writing assignments plus forums plus comments plus suggested readings

I find myself instantly getting tired the moment I pull up a pdf. My brain sees it and just goes “nope. I already did that. I’m not doing this. No.”

I’m trying to give myself breaks in between, let my brain cells cool off a bit but mostly I end up behind on something or like this:

#academic writing #english

[writing-with-sarah]

September 30:

I have been practicing writing instinctively during my assignments. I’m mot thinking of impressive vocabulary, connecting words, or cohesion. I just start writing. I write the first thing that comes to my head and don’t overthink it. I end up with something looking a lot like a stream of consciousness. Then I separate the ideas into different paragraphs to make it easier to rearrange them. I start polishing them and making them more academic and clarity them further. I add examples if I already didn’t and make sure to cite my sources.

I find that writing instinctively is easier when I am completely alone and in complete silence. I do much better when my husband is asleep or out because I feel relaxed and know I won’t be interrupted.

[writing-with-sarah]

September 27:

I find myself fumbling while writing when I am conscious of the fact that I am writing academically. I get into my own head and words fail me. I put myself under so much pressure to perform perfectly that I suffer from linguistic hiccups and cannot recall the vocabulary I’m looking for.

I found that writing an informal rough draft helps my ideas to flow more organically. Editing it to be more coherent and academic later is easier and less distressing, but I still feel like an imposter. It isn’t true academic writing, it is informal writing made yo look academic.

I have been suffering from a bit of imposter syndrome when it comes to language learning. If I identify as bilingual, why am I claiming to be learning English academic writing? Am I cheating? Do I even qualify as a bilingual? Can I compare myself to native English speakers and writers? Am I being compared to native English writers? What if I fall short?

So many of my hang ups are from my own mental blocks, that disappear when I am unconsciously thinking about the topic.

#academic writing #english