case study: writing for other classes vs. writing for english

So far this semester, I’ve only written papers for English and one recently for my Jazz class. For my jazz paper, I had to be a reporter for Time magazine and write about the life of Louis Armstrong. For this paper I simply stated lots of facts about Louis and discussed how he changed the face off jazz. My writing for English is much more personal. I can be myself more and put more of myself into my English papers. When I think about the other papers I will have to write this semester, like the history paper I have coming up, I expect my writing to be very formal. For my history paper I have to pick a historical document and write about how it came to be and what it was for and all that good stuff. I’m not really looking forward to this paper. I think it will be pretty boring and I don’t think I’ll be able to put much of myself into it. It will still be my style, but a very formal version of it. I’ve really enjoyed the personal and creative freedom I’ve had thus far in English 110. Oddly enough, my writing has been less formal than the stuff I did in high school. And I’m really digging that aspect of English. When I’m writing papers for English, I am able to brainstorm and put my own original thoughts into it. Whereas for jazz and history, I mainly just take notes and turn them into my own words. Of course I can put my own perspective into those papers, but English papers are sort of special in a way. When I have a good topic that I’m passionate about, I can pour myself into the paper. But if I’m not into what I’m writing, it isn’t as good.