This year in
English, we have written many essays and we have had many pieces of writing
that were turned in. Some of these pieces of writing include Profiles, Literacy
Narratives, Literary Analyses, and Research Papers. Each of these genres of
writing were newly introduced. Our class spent many hours working diligently on
each paper and some of the results were great, where as others were
disappointing.
At the
beginning of the year, coming into freshman English class, my writing wasn’t
the best. I wasn't confident in it and neither were my teachers. But throughout
the year I have tried to work on my common errors such as word choice,
fragments, comma splices, the MLA template, and unnecessary commas. With the
help of Dr. D, I soon began to understand what I was doing wrong in my essays,
and i then learned how to fix these problems.
In the
majority of the essays that we have completed, my ideas and organization have
been my strongest areas. I often have trouble at first coming up with good
overall ideas, but after I figure out what I am going to do, I am fine. Ideas
and organization are the bigger things to focus on in an essay, and I have no
trouble doing these tasks. Even though sentence fluency, word choice, and
conventions aren’t as important, these are my weaknesses in papers. I normally
get low scores in these sections especially conventions. In my profile, many of
the errors contained tiny problems pertaining to sentence fluency, word choice,
and conventions.
After my
profile, there was a large curve in my writing skills. Literacy Narratives,
Literary Analyses, and Research Papers were the next essays that were assigned.
After learning what some of my weaknesses were in my profile, I soon learned
what to change. After receiving the comments for the literacy narrative, it was
obvious that I had learned my lesson from the profile. I had fixed many of the
errors that i had made before. In the literary analysis and research paper, I
learned to correct even more of the errors that were made in the profile and
literacy narritive. My ideas and organization improved even more. I had
received comments stating that my ideas were very strong and had a lot of
support.
When
reviewing my comments, there were comments about ideas and other main issues,
but as the year progressed I had comments about tiny errors such as punctuation
and word usage. Most of the time, after analyzing a rubric for an essay, and
after receiving my final grade and comments, I would agree with Dr. D’s
analysis of my work. Whenever comparing my examinations of the rubric and Dr.
D’s examinations of the rubric, our thoughts are the same mainly in the ideas
section. In the mechanics section, my opinions wouldn’t match Dr. d’s opinions
because I didnt know a lot of grammar rules. After taking in all of the
comments that i have received, i have increased my knowledge greatly in the
grammar section.
This
year, my writing has improved! I'm a new writer, with new styles and new
knowledge. As i stated before, i didnt used to be very confident in my writing,
but after everything that has happened this year in English i cant say the same
thing. I am currently much more conifdent in my writing than i used to be. I
understand many more things about writing that i never even thought about
before this year. I also didnt just learn rules, i learned how to bring the
reader in, how to make introductions and conclusions, how to make things flow
and sound well, and i also learned techniques to make my writing sound more
sophisticated. I greatly appreciate the help of Dr. D, because now i am a new
writer that is coming into writing with a completly new attitude.
Common errors List
1. Word Choice
Not using the right words in a sentence
Example: The second project however was an exact
replica of the village; it exemplified the
clear, aqua waters
2. Fragments
Not complete sentences
Example: I got an A+; the grade I had been dreaming about.
3. Comma splices
Inappropriate placing of commas
Example: Maybe reading wasn’t so bad after all,
besides it was a way of being in your own world.
4. MLA template
5. Unnecessary Comma
Example: Then around 6:30 she leaves her hometown,
and drives an hour away to work.
Notes About Writing
Wrap
On the wrap I got a 23 out of 35. My strongest parts were Overall Development,
Organization, sentence structure, and word choice. My weakest parts were
support and mechanics. I am proud of my overall score because English is one of
my weakest subjects and I did fairly well on this writing assessment. For my
organization, I first gave backup information, then I gave options and
alternatives, then I stated my opinion, then I listed pros and cons. My
word choice wasn’t a priority because I was too focused on my ideas of my
essay.
Comments
When reviewing my comments, at first in the year I had comments about ideas and
other main issues, but as the year progressed I had comments about tiny errors
such as punctuation and word usage. Most of the time, after analyzing a rubric
for an essay, and after receiving my final grade and comments, I would agree with
Dr. D’s analysis of my work. Whenever comparing my examinations of the rubric
and Dr. D’s examinations of the rubric, our thoughts are the same mainly in the
ideas section. In the mechanics section, my opinions wouldn’t match Dr. d’s
opinions because I don’t know a lot of grammar rules.
Essays
In
the majority of the essays that we have completed, my ideas and organization
have been great! I often have trouble at first coming up with good overall
ideas, but after I figure out what I am going to do, I am fine. Ideas and
organization are the bigger things to focus on in an essay, and I have no
trouble doing these tasks. Even though sentence fluency, word choice, and
conventions arent as important, these are my weaknesses in papers. I normally get
low scores in these sections especially conventions. This year, my writing has
improved greatly.
