This year was a great year for me in writing. I have learned and excelled much more than in pervious years and am very proud of myself. We practiced many different writing techniques and different genres of writing throughout this school year. Even though the process was rough, I would love the feeling of accomplishment once I turned my final draft in. I would feel even more proud and accomplished when I would get it back with the letter A written on it. One thing that I think helped me excel is the feedback I got. Even though you may get a good letter grade, there is always something that can be fixed or adjusted.
Throughout the year I have improved
greatly on organization and voice, stayed consistently good with ideas, word
choice, and sentence fluency, but have been struggling in conventions. In my first paper, which was the Literacy
Narrative, I scored low in organization and voice. I organized it more as an essay than a narrative, which
is why I scored low in that, and I scored low in voice from a lack of vivid
details. I never fully knew how to change my organization techniques, which is why I have always struggled in it. With the feedback from classmates and Dr. deGravelles combined with advice from the Norton book, I really picked it up and made A’s and B’s
for the rest of the paper’s organization and voices. One good piece of advice
that was given to me about voice, was to sound like myself, but still
knowledgeable and sophisticated.
Other than these improvements, my best scores are definitely in ideas. In the Literacy Narrative, my ideas were very good because of how I portrayed myself growing as a writer. In the Literary Analysis, I scored pretty high in ideas, but I could have done better with embedding my thesis. I also received good advice on this paper about how I should try to focus on only one literary element in these papers instead of multiple. Other than ideas, my word choice has stayed consistent as well. Just because the scores are high doesn't mean I can't improve, though. I received comments on multiple papers about using more active verbs and letting people infer rather than me straight out saying something. Along with word choice and ideas, sentence fluency has stayed consistent. I make pretty good scores on this, but I don't know how to improve. I try to make my sentences sound good and flowy, but feel that I could make it even better. This is definitely something I need to research and work on.
Lastly, my conventions slowly declined in score. They went from an A to a C. The thing that messed me up was the citing. The Literary Narrative had great citations; Dr. deGravelles even said that they were almost "flawless." It started to get harder for me towards the Global Issues Paper. I was putting the period before the citation, not after it, and I also forgot some of the authors. The good thing is that all of this can be fixed. With a little help from my teacher, the internet, and the Norton book, and can create perfection. Conventions is probably the top thing I want to better myself in next year.
Other than these improvements, my best scores are definitely in ideas. In the Literacy Narrative, my ideas were very good because of how I portrayed myself growing as a writer. In the Literary Analysis, I scored pretty high in ideas, but I could have done better with embedding my thesis. I also received good advice on this paper about how I should try to focus on only one literary element in these papers instead of multiple. Other than ideas, my word choice has stayed consistent as well. Just because the scores are high doesn't mean I can't improve, though. I received comments on multiple papers about using more active verbs and letting people infer rather than me straight out saying something. Along with word choice and ideas, sentence fluency has stayed consistent. I make pretty good scores on this, but I don't know how to improve. I try to make my sentences sound good and flowy, but feel that I could make it even better. This is definitely something I need to research and work on.
Lastly, my conventions slowly declined in score. They went from an A to a C. The thing that messed me up was the citing. The Literary Narrative had great citations; Dr. deGravelles even said that they were almost "flawless." It started to get harder for me towards the Global Issues Paper. I was putting the period before the citation, not after it, and I also forgot some of the authors. The good thing is that all of this can be fixed. With a little help from my teacher, the internet, and the Norton book, and can create perfection. Conventions is probably the top thing I want to better myself in next year.
I have definitely progressed in
writing since last year. I have actually learned much more about papers and
writing than any other English class I’ve ever been in. Also, I have to admit
I’m proud of all the papers I have written this year. In some of the papers’
feedback I agree, but others not so much. When I saw the organization grade and
overall grade for the Literacy Narrative I was actually shocked. I had thought
that I tied my writing in together very nicely. As it turns out, I was doing a
different kind of paper than was assigned. The reason I thought I was doing the
right thing, was that it was about my progressing as a writer, but it was
supposed to be more narrative. Another time I disagreed was with my thesis in
the Global Analysis. I felt that it was
one of my best theses, but my comments said to slow down and make more of an
intro. I understand now that after my quote I should have eased into it more,
but I feel that my transition sentence after was very clever. Besides these
surprises, I pretty much received what I expected. It’s not that I didn’t do
the best I could in them, but that I knew it wasn’t perfect and didn’t know how
to make it any better. Overall, I think the reason I have been improving is
because I like the topics we have been writing about. Usually if I don’t like
the topic, I don’t have much to say. Since I’ve liked these topics, I was free
to adding my own flare and making each one unique.
Next year I plan to keep excelling
in my writing, and to better my citing skills. Each year I get a little better
at my word choice, and I hope to improve a lot in that as well. To conquer
these goals, I need to pay attention to Wordly Wise words and to the Norton
book. The Norton book could really help me in all subjects of writing, and I
would learn a lot from it if I would read and take notes on my weak points.
Wordly Wise could help me on my word choice if I build on my vocabulary and
really learn and know each word that we learn. I hope to become better and
succeed in my writing even more than I did this year.
- · Lack of vivid detail
- Example: In my Profile I could have described my dad more with visual, vivid details to make it come to life more.
- · Strengthening active verbs
- Example: In my Profile when describing my dad's office. If I would have used active verbs, I could have let the audience infer and visualize rather than me saying it straight-forward.
- · Cut back on “is” and “has”
- Example: In my Profile, I could have taken these two repeated words out and replaced them with active verbs. "He has blue eyes and is very smart. He also has brown hair that is wavy. His son has his smile and is just like him."
- · Slow down and explain more
- Example: "Joyce Carol Oates’ story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is about a teenage girl named Connie who is a rebel and usually knows what she’s doing with boys." (Literary Analysis)
- · Run-on sentences
- Example: "I can still hear all of the parents fighting outside of it, my cousin crying and yelling back, and my little cousins were oblivious." (Literacy Narrative)
- · Don’t use contractions in formal writing
- Example: "Even though we can't get into..." (Literary Analysis)
- · Citing techniques
- Example: "The Vatican was actually called on because it now requires suspected child abuse to be reported to the police as soon as possible. (“Irish Government Slams Vatican For Role In Abuse Cover-up”)" The period goes after the citation. (Global Issues Paper)
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