Thursday, April 26, 2012

This Year's Writing


          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.


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