My ultimate goal as an English graduate student is to become a professional, published author. While an undergraduate student, I made the horrible mistake of self-publishing. This unthinkable mistake occurred out of ignorance and lack of knowledge about writing, editing, and publishing. My mistake ended up leading to a negative review where the reviewer essentially called me out on my numerous grammatical and word-misusage mistakes and lack of understanding of basic English composition. Such a mistake make me lose interest in writing of becoming a best-selling author. However, all of this occurred while still being naïve and without a proper undergraduate education in English. The events of my self-publishing and the negative review, therefore, led me to double major in psychology and English, providing me with several creative writing courses where my first written stories were brutally destroyed by peers and professors. My undergraduate degree in English provided understanding of basic story form, plot, and characterization. Additionally, it imposed understand how to appropriately edit my writing. Upon graduating with my Bachelor’s degree, I still did not have a solid grasp on the creative writing process and how I could best write my stories. I did not want to limit my writing to what I learned as an undergraduate and be ignorant to how much a graduate degree could help me grow.
After the constant nightmares about my self-publishing and lack of confidence in my stories, I decided to focus on a graduate-level study in writing. Having this background in the study of English will give me the skills and knowledge to write effectively. This degree will provide me with more exposure to challenging texts to study and write about. The experience will serve as a way for me to become confident in my writing and to learn how to take criticism in a way that does not dampen my goal of becoming a published author. My graduate education will elevate my knowledge and skills. By having a better understanding in the study of literature, rhetoric, and writing, I will be more equipped to effectively portray my fiction stories, provide stronger arguments in scholarly papers, be able to effectively revise and rewrite drafts, and center my writing on the intended audience. My success in graduate school, beyond grades and graduation, will come from what I do with my fiction writing.
To me, graduate school represents a revival; it is an opportunity for me to finally cut ties with my naïve, uneducated self and become a professional, educated writer. Graduate school will fortify a strong sense of who I am as a writer and to not allow a poor review of my writing to stop me, as it did to me before becoming and undergraduate English major. In my graduate studies, I will research fiction writing and invest time in studying different creative writing genres. I will focus my graduate studies to fit my writing style and genre preference. My interest as a writer is in young adult science fiction and contemporary dystopian literature. I will utilize my studies to gauge my understanding of these genres and take as many creative writing courses to help me present my ideas and stories to my peers. With their feedback, I will be able to assess what I need to work on as an up-and-coming author.
I will continue my graduate studies next semester, taking six hours of course work in the spring semester, taking three course hours in the summer, and six hours in the following fall semester to complete my degree by the end of December 2019. Upon graduating, my goal is to walk out of the program more knowledgeable of the writing process in order to become a more effective academic and fiction writer. Professionally, I seek a degree in English to build my credibility as a studied writer. I seek publication of my current writing project but need more growth and experience about the writing process in order to draft the best versions of my stories.
H. J. Ortiz 