Summary Of Becoming A Writer By Russell Baker

In his essay, “Becoming a Writer,” Russell Baker explains how something you love can turn into a daunting task. Baker explains that while he loved writing, and even considered himself a writer, he still dreaded his English classes in High School. He felt the assignments were dull and procrastinated to complete most of the assignments. This continued until almost all the way through his third year of High School, towards the end of the year Baker was assigned to write an informal essay based on a list of topics. The night before the assignment was due Baker finally pulled out the homework sheet and started perusing the list of topics. While most seemed boring and uninteresting his eyes froze on the topic “The Art of Eating Spaghetti” and he started to recall a wonderful memory of his family gathering for a spaghetti dinner at his Uncle Allen’s house. He was so overwhelmed by the happy emotions and vivid imagery that this memory brought he decided to write about the

Though Baker is passionate about writing his writing assignments always fell short because he found English assignments “dull and baffling” (Baker, 1982). He describes writing that when writing an English assignment he “went at them like heavy labor, turning out leaden, lackluster paragraphs that were agonies for teachers to read...” (Baker, 1982). But when Baker chose to ignore the rules of writing an essay and wrote about an experience he was passionate about it reflected in his writing. This can be true about many things in life, whether it is writing a paper or cleaning your car. If a person is proud of their vehicle they are more likely to keep it clean, maintained, and thoroughly waxed. If a person is not happy with their vehicle or doesn’t care about it the vehicle is more likely to be dirty and dusty with a stack of soda cans in the back