When And How Did I Learn To Write A Paragraph?

The question was asked in our 9/21/10 class. We were supposed to go home and think about the question and then write about it in our blogs. For the last two weeks, I have let this question marinate in my mind and to answer the question I would have to say that I learned to write by practicing the jargon of the field that I am writing for, and then mapping the structures of what I intended on composing. In other words I became interested in poetry because I was a self proclaimed poet/songwriter, so to get better I read such poets as Giovanni, Angelou, Baraka and Dunbar because I felt as though they related to me the most. After reading their works and studying the structure, I started using my own words and putting my own experiences into the same amount of stanzas and before I knew what iambic meters were I counted syllables so that I would have a similar flow with the great lyrical gods and godesees that I emulated so much.

As far as writing music video treatments, I fell in love with a PA(Production Assistant) for Classic Concept Productions who simply got tired of running errands and taking orders, so when he decided to develop his own film reel, I volunteered to write all of his treatments for him. Elated with the idea, he dug up dozens of old music video treatments that won contracts. Some were used by his former boss Lionel C. Martin aka The Vid Kid, Paul Hunter, Hype Williams (before they became the biggest directors in the urban film industry, they both started at Classic Concepts) and I started studying the formats. At first I sucked so bad, but as I started reading about film production I became more familiar with the jargon and started winning contracts for FishGrease Films. Yes that was the name, don't look at me I didn't come up with it-lol-.

By the time I got to LaGuardia Community College, I knew that I was a persuasive writer because I wrote treatments for a living, but when I realized how many types of college papers there were I became a bit frightened that I would not be able to deliver the results that were expected of me. Even though the papers that I handed in received passing grades, I thought I would have to be a better writer if I wanted to ever levitate myself to become a movie script writer. A month into my second semester at LaGCC, I started making regular appointments at the writing center and a tutor by the name of Marie helped me to write clear sentences and paragraphs. Once I started getting better grades I started tutoring my French African brothers and sisters (from the African Club) in English and that act was the catalyst that made me fall in love with English as a discipline.