What kinds of writing have you done over the years in school? What has been most satisfying? Instructive? Useless? Why?

           The most satisfying pieces of writing that I have ever done would have to be any of the papers I wrote for my Spanish literature classes. The process itself was arduous, and my satisfaction came not from the content necessarily but rather the sense of accomplishment coming from writing in a tongue not one's own. The first hoop is understanding the reading on which I have to base the writing. This involves a complex process of consulting  historical documents, morphological analysis of vocabulary, and many trips to the bilingual dictionary. (This was in the days when the Internet was new. I have since discovered all of the wonderful bilingual dictionaries online!)
              After a basic grasp of the literary work is gained, the next step is going to the literary criticism, also in Spanish. Next comes the game of finding the main points that I can link ultimately link to a thesis. In some of my compostion classes I have read articles that seem to look down on reliance on form, but for a second language writer having these forms to hold on to is a lifesaver. Once I have arranged my points according to these forms,  I make more trips to the bilingual dictionary and the Spanish grammar text, as well as many consultations with native speakers.
            Needless to say, writing in el castellano,for me, was the Olympic games of writing tasks. I feel like I have won the gold medal many times over. ¡Sí se puede!