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Am I a bad writer?

Discussion in 'General Support and Advice' started by FuelsMySong, Apr 20, 2017.

  1. FuelsMySong

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    Teachers in high school and elementary school always praised my writing. Usually short stories or poems, sometimes papers. However, in university, my research papers get piss poor marks, I even failed one once. But also in university, I wrote for the school blog (mainly about social justice issues) and my supervisor for that job seemed pretty happy with my articles although the articles have not been released yet. so i guess my question is does getting bad grades on writing assignments mean you're a bad writer? I have been told I have a talent for writing but my marks don't really reflect it. Could it have to do with the medium as well? For example, I may be good at writing short stories but poor at writing scientific research papers. I just think of different artists like are good photographers also usually good at drawing? What do you think?
     
  2. deepwaters7

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    I'm sure your writing is fine
    This may be true, I haven't seen any writing so I don't know for sure. The two are very different writing styles. I, personally, am probably better with the research paper writing, whereas I'm not very good with short stories and, especially, with poems. I'm writing this assuming you are doing poorly with scientific paper writing.
    If it's english you started doing poorly in, it's just the way writing is marked. The content doesn't matter too much, it's mostly specific things in the writing they look for(at least here)
    Probably not much help, but it's all I have
     
  3. FuelsMySong

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    It's actually psychology and political science. I can write an english or history paper just fine so I guess i am just better at humanities than social sciences. Why o why did i major in psyc? lol
     
  4. Dryad

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    People say I'm good at writing essays, philosophical papers, articles, even short stories, but I know I'm really bad at poetry. Also schoold usually have a very certain way they want the assignments to be carried out, so maybe yours is just different from what they expect you to do.
     
  5. Wagram

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    You can be good at writing withoug being good at everything.

    I know I'm good at poetry and short stories but philosophy texts leave me with really bad grades because I just can't write them right.

    Don't think you're a bad writer because of grades. Grades as a whole are overrated.
     
  6. Aspen

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    I was a Psych major and an English minor. Scientific papers are not the same as writing fiction or essays. What kind of feedback are you getting? If all you have to go on is a grade, can you make a meeting to talk to your professor about how you can improve? Does your school have a writing center where you can have someone talk a look at your paper before you even turn it in?
     
  7. Worker Bee

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    Even though I have a fairly scientific mind I am much better at writing poetry and stories.

    I have always had trouble with reports and essays/exam answers. I know one of the reasons was that I couldn't always be objective and see both sides of the argument. For example during an English exam I had to analyse a poem. And I can't stand poems that don't rhyme and I simply couldn't get past it and write a considered review.

    I would definitely talk to your professor it may not be your writing as such but maybe the structure and how you present the facts.