Reflecting on the Year

Dear Reader

At the beginning of this semester I did not think I was a very good writer. This was especially true when it came to writing English papers. I am good at writing papers that are factually based for things like social studies. I like writing document based papers because you use a lot of the information that is provided for you and then add in other information that you know. This was the case with the paper we wrote about chocolate I liked writing about how the chocolate was made and did not do a very good job at writing about how the chocolate tasted. I described this in my reflection on the paper. I knew that I was not very good at writing fictional essays as this was pointed out to me by Miss Moony my sophomore year. This year I learned about the different types of writing one can do and how to write them. I learned that one can write a how to paper as Tim and I did about how to annoy someone.  I also became more comfortable incorporating dialog into my essay. This is shown in my seven deadly sins paper. In addition I learned that writing about how someone looks can make the reader feel more connected to the story. This is shown in my paper about coach Howlet. Also in that paper I learned a lot of different words that can be used to describe people and how they look. When describing someone it is better to use words that are not as commonly used to describe something.

In this class I learned more near the end of the class when we were not writing so many papers but truly learning how to write. I learned how to write an introduction and conclusion at the end of the cases. I believe that these two things are the most dramatic things that I have learned during this class. With introductions I learned that there are a lot of different types of introductions one can start a paper with. The introduction does not have to be a summary of what the paper is all about. Some of the different types of introductions one can use is to start with a quote, an anecdote, or an open ended question. All of these techniques draw the reader into the essay. With writing conclusions there are not as many different techniques for writing them as introductions but you do not have to simply summarize. At the end of an essay you can tell a short story or make a prediction about the topic your essay is on. In my blog I have two different posts, one dedicated to introductions and one to conclusions. I believe that the introductions and conclusions in these posts are better that the introductions and conclusions in my previous papers.

Most of my reflections before the essays I honestly talk about what I thought of the papers. For the most part I am not in love with any of my essays. Before my seven deadly sins paper I discuss what I could have done better on the paper and what I did not like about it. I then go on in the next post to revise the paper. This is the general pattern of my blog I reflect on what I could have done better on the paper and then in the next entry I go and fix it.

Allie