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Nicholas Milem
Ms. Ingram
U Write 1101
10/28/14
Portrait of a Writer
The portrait of a writer or what encompasses a writers skills and talents is different for
every writer and every reader. Every person who has read or written a work of literature has a
basic understanding on what distinguishes a successful writer. Where some skills are universally
known to make a good writer some are located in more of a niche category unique to a certain
writer or reader. A writer does not have a set definition, but rather a pleather of unique and
different understandings. Writers to some may have surpassed Shakespeare where to others
they have not completed grade school. My portrait of a writer may differ from others but
entails my strengths and weaknesses as well as my personal style.
My style of writing differs from others mainly in the sense of my formality in the sense
of my written work. This formality has largely been influenced by my conformation to the
writing styles desired by my teachers in high school, which most writing is written in an
argumentative essay or other forms of essays. Certain strength is derived from this style of
writing by presenting a narrative that can be composed into many forms of literature. The
essence of the literature I compose can be easily modified into many forms of writings such as
formal letters, essays, and even forms of creative fiction work. Weakness of the writing is also

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discerned from this formality, as difficulty in creating an engaging or interesting work is created
essentially by the formal nature of my work. Where for non-fiction work this formality is superb
and can communicate ideas effectively; fiction written in this tone and style could struggle to
receive readers due to the dryness of my works. This form of writing has been the bulk of all
works I have completed in my high school career and has carried over into my college writing
courses due to similarity of assignments I am used to completing.
This sort of writing presents many challenges dealing with my creation and continuation
of my works to my liking. In order to effectively start and continue my train of thought I must
contemplate what my work will entail in its entirety. This process can tend to take longer than
normal, due to my tendency to continue writing once I begin and create on continuous stream
of thoughts rather than stop whilst writing. This habit has a beneficial reward by allowing me to
complete works in a respectable amount of time and almost always complete essays in the
allotted time frame. Where this tendency has its draw backs is while not stopping to
contemplate what I am thinking or writing the latter parts of my essays often are lacking in
forms in respect to the beginning of my work. One area that is affected by the decline of my
writing towards the end of the draft is my vernacular and choice of vocabulary. As the work
progresses my vocabulary tends to shift towards a less formal choice of words due to my lack of
mental preparedness for the later parts of the narrative.
Qualities of a writer that I appreciate most or consider most important is sentence
structure and vernacular. Such qualities can either make the work a great piece of work or a
less than reputable one. Vernacular is largely important to myself in the sense that a writer

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must create a work that he or she is proud of and puts themselves entirely in. With poor word
choice the environment that the paper creates is one with little interest for the work and thus
negatively influences my thoughts concerning the work and the writers style. Also the word
choice is essential to creating a work that is understandable by means of what point the author
is trying to convey, further supporting the need for good vernacular.
The idea or concept of the skills of what a good writer contains is different for each
person and cannot be exactly justified by one answer. Whether the work is a formal essay or a
flowing narrative, each writer has their own ideas on what is needed to compose a great peace
of literature. Many different ideas can be discovered by others in order to create a wonderful
writer by realizing and understanding the certain values individuals have pertaining to the
composition of literary works.