Semester Essay

Prior to my junior year English class, I needed to construct a summer essay in order for my teacher to evaluate my writing skills, and to no surprise I scored a B-. Not too bad not too good. That was what I was accustomed to with grades in English. I received constructive criticism as to what I excelled at and what I needed improvement in. I took that in mind as I went on with my junior year. 
——————————————————————- During the course of the school year, I have struggled immensely with my writing. I have never particularly been fond of English class simply because I was never a good writer, but the will to learn and expand has always been there. I wanted my writing to be able to captivate an audience and force them into reading every last letter. As the year flew by with each lesson lesson after the next, I grew more confident as a writer. Soaking up the ideal of rhetoric and persuasion along the way 
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My first attempt in persuasive writing was during quarter two where I had to formulate an argument about a social subject and argue my points across to an audience. I failed miserably. I lacked content and did not provide enough examples for my arguments. It was a concept new to me that I did not understand at all. Mr. Davis then explained that in order to properly persuade an audience the use of rhetoric is essential. One must appeal to the three areas of the rhetorical triangle. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Logos appeals to reason. Logos can also be thought of as the text of the argument, as well as how well a writer has argued his/her point. Ethos appeals to the writer’s character. Ethos can also be thought of as the role of the writer in the argument, and how credible his/her argument is. Pathos appeals to the emotions and the sympathetic imagination, as well as to beliefs and values. Pathos can also be thought of as the role of the audience in the argument. With the three focal points of rhetoric under my belt I felt as if I could persuade anyone into doing anything I want. 
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As a class we have covered several different writing styles, but persuasion has been my favorite by far. As more opportunities to write persuasively surfaced, I found myself scoring higher and higher. Over the year I witnessed my writing skills grow and I now believe I am no longer the mediocre writer I was at the beginning of the year. Now at the end of the year, I will take the art of persuasion with me towards the next school year to further improve my skills as a writer.

Quarter Growth

Quarter 1: Summer Essay “The Road”

The strength of my summer essay would have to be my descriptions about a post apocalyptic era. I used my descriptions in order to captivate my audience and portray the book’s events. The essay was good in utilizing the symbolism of fire in the novel to express the theme.

The weakness lies of the essay would have to be my examples. I used great examples from within the text but narrowed it down to one example per paragraph. It was hard to be convincing to my audience with a scarce amount of examples.

If I were to write it today I would definitely include more examples to create a more convincing essay. This would help my audience understand where I am coming from when I try to explain a complex symbolic description

Quarter 2: Persuasive Essay

My persuasive essay as a whole was pretty weak. I did not necessarily develop the logic behind my arguments. I also did not include many facts or statistics that backed up my statements. Evidently it just was not convincing to my audience at all. I was pretty bummed when I received my score back (78%) as it was the lowest grade I ever got on an English essay. I realized though, that the persuasive topic was still necessarily new to me and I just have not figured it all out yet.

If I were to rewrite it today I am confident I could do a lot better. I realized the art of rhetoric is not rocket science. We use ethos, pathos, and logos in activities we do everyday. Whether it be when you try to persuade your parents into letting you our of the house or convincing your friend to do something they wouldn’t necessarily enjoy. I feel confident in my ability to persuade others and would love to tackle the assignment again.

Quarter 3: Outside Reading “Of Mice and Men”

I feel that I did a great job in describing the thought process of the characters and how they felt when certain incidents occurred, but evidently I felt as if I was summarizing what happened rather than analyzing. It did not help that I waited to do this essay until last minute and could not wait to get it over with. I don’t blame anyone for that other than myself obviously. If I would have took my time and done the essay at an earlier point I would scored a higher grade on it for sure. I also needed to develop my body paragraphs quite a bit more but that was because I tried to squeeze a bunch of information into a paragraph.

If I were to rewrite it I would definitely take my time and read over what I’m truly writing. I know now that if you don’t put 100% into everything you do your just going to give off mediocre work.

Quarter 4: Realistic Narrative

By far my best writing assignment. The best part is that I enjoyed doing it! With this assignment I was able to write about an alcoholic and describe his life as he deals with an addiction. I utilized all the narrative elements except for dialogue, which I forgot to include for some reason. Even though I left out an entire element of narration I still scored well as I was able to get my point across.

If I were to rewrite this assignment I would just include authentic dialogue as I feel the rest of my essay was perfect. I described his life, his routine, and surroundings.

Ballad of Birmingham

The poem begins slow, sweet, and loving but turns out to be devastating and fearful. In the poem the mother prevented her child from playing on the streets because she was afraid of the dangers that came with marching. She advises the child to go to church instead as she sees it as being a “safe house”. From this the audience can also depict the religious affiliation of many citizens during the Birmingham March. The mother is at ease knowing her child is at church, but then church is soon enough bombed. This is ironic as it shows the one place the mother thought her child would be safe in, turns out to be the most dangerous. The poem utilizes rhyme and meter by abusing the same rhyme scheme and playful word choices throughout the poem to establish a connection to the reader. The audience also encounters multiple visual images that are associated with the dialogue such as the girl’s preparation for church, and the explosion. The author effectively utilizes repetition by captivating the readers attention

Rhyme: The poem uses the ABCB rhyme scheme.

Meter: Speed is constant throughout and has consistent rhythm. Consistent amount of syllables throughout poem as well.

Sound Devices: uses words with soft endings, and also sounds to mark an end or pause

Google Reflection

Question: You will reflect how well Google Apps helped you engage in the study of challenging texts on a deeper level and facilitated collaboration with your peers to develop individual and group writing projects throughout the year.

Several of my teacher used Google Apps throughout the year in order to more efficiently demonstrate a lesson that needed to be taught. Google Apps has also provided me with the convenience of being able to do all of my school work simply form my iPhone. Google Apps have also saved quite a few thousand tress with students not having to buy so much paper .The ability to share documents also assists groups in being able to divide work load and being able to simultaneously work on parts along with your group members. I feel that challenging texts given in the classroom are a lot easier to understand when multiple people are providing their input and points as to why this means that. Overall Google Apps has been able to provide many students, as well as myself, with many opportunities to further their education.

A New Kind Of War

S: Ernest Hemingway who is located in Madrid during the time of the war where American troops were fighting.

O: The Occasion is during the war fought in the Guadalajara Front when Hemingway was stationed in Spain. Hemingway focuses the story on how the bombshells are nearby, areas where death isn’t considered as horrid, and his connection with a wounded man.

A: The audience are war veterans, military men involved, or any other people interested the war.

P: The purpose of the text is to portray the mood of the war. The war is described as a “strange new kind of war where you learn just as much as you are to believe” which means there are plenty of different sides to take and you have to choose for yourself in what to believe.

S: war; but is also about the characteristics of war and its affects on an individual.

Tone: Serious and straightforward. Hemingway describes the death and destruction of the war in a serious tone. Then he chooses to illustrate the events that take place.

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D: The diction he chooses has a connotation that relates to the themes and tones of war, For example, he used piercing words such as acrid, piercing, and suffered.

I: Hemingway uses imagery to describe the everyday bombings where death seems normal. He illustrates with details that allow the reader to visualize the scene.

D: The details portray the evident war and current events happening. The portrayal of the story is also filled with many descriptions covering an area where death and destruction is normal, which tells a lot about the nature of the event.

L: The story is written in a way a common man would talk. The way the story is written allows for understanding from different audiences.

S: There is a mixture of complex and simple sentences, which he uses for dialogue in the writing.