Semester One Reflection

         My interest for reading has not changed, but I am doing less of it. It havn’t put aside the time to find a book and read it, so hopefully I will be getting a lot of casual reading done over winter break. I haven’t had much time or motivation to try out writing for fun as well. Coming up for ideas is easy for fiction, but much more difficult when I am writing about myself or to fit the assignment. I think my worst piece of writing was the procedural analysis. I was difficult to find a good subject, and the one I chose made it difficult to write well. I was right to say getting better will just take practice.

My essays show me getting more comfortable with writing. I’ve done a great job at keeping a “flow” to my sentences. My sentence structure and ability to transition from one idea to the other avoids awkward phrasing. It has been difficult to expand on ideas and fully get them across. There is a gap between knowing what I want to write about and fully expressing it on paper. I simply lack content. I will come up with what to write in my head, but forget about it before I can include it. The planning stage needs to be a constant process, so I can include more and not end up leaving anything out.

Moving from telling to showing was difficult at first. It is a difficult concept to describe, but

I’ve slowly improved at identifying the difference. The subject and purpose determined how easy it was. The argumentative essay didn’t allow much room for showing, and required a lot of direct speak. The college essay and narrative are strange mix of both, as some ideas were more difficult to show than others. Despite how much I ended up disliking the subject I picked, I still believe I did the best job at this in the procedural analysis. Getting used to the planning process also made writing easier. I’ve always written drafts, but I now know it’s much more than revising. Previously, the writing process seemed vague. I enjoy the direct and logical approach to wiring a step by step process allows. Each step expands off of the last, so each section of the essay gets worked on at the same time. Prewriting collects ideas, the initial draft organises them, the next drafts expand on the ideas, and the final draft cleans it all up. This allowed me to improve the most at organization. Previously, I would start writing and hope it was coherent lator. I enjoy the more structured process.

In my own biased opinion, my best piece of writing was the persuasive. Given the amount of time and effort that went into preparing and including each piece of information I researched, it was the most satisfying to complete. The effort really shows. My organization is on point, the subject is fully fleshed out, and the purpose was, at least in my own mind, achieved. My favorite paragraph of the piece was the conclusion. It was assertive and well argued, while wonderfully summarizing the essay. My least favorite paragraph in the essay was the shortest. I don’t believe I explained my arguments as well as I could have, so the persuasive purpose suffers.

The most difficult essay to write was the procedural analysis. It was different from anything I’ve written before, and outside my comfort zone. The purpose of the essay was to entertain, so I tried to be humorous. As I did, details were lost in translation, and the essay became pretty incoherent. The steps I chose came off as confusing and awkward.   It took a lot of rewriting to get it to it’s sub-par state it is now. The subject I picked didn’t help at all. I haven’t actually been to a buffet in years, so it took some creativity to come up with the steps on how (not) to behave at a buffet. Again, this lead to vague writing.  Next time, I will pick a subject that I am already familiar with in some shape or form. More careful prewriting and drafting may help with avoiding inchorency.

The essay I want to revise is the College Essay. I enjoyed the subject; I really do enjoy working at Worlds of Fun. The purpose was fun; It’s quite the unique challenge to try to brag to a college without coming off as arrogant. This essay brought a intense challenge in balancing showing and telling. For most of the essay I showed very well, and was great writing. In other parts, it was blatantly telling. I would want to revise those parts to instead show. It was hard to accomplish given the ideas I was trying to express (i.e those that would seem impressive to a college). The only way I can improve is practice. The more writing I do, the more familiar and comfortable I will be at showing. Telling simply comes off as bland and unexciting. It’s only stating the obvious. Showing can make the same ideas exciting, and overall has a better effect on the reader.

I can describe this semester in three words: writing is hard. Deep down, I may still have the aspiration for writing as I did in elementary school. I gave up when I realized I wasn’t good at it, and thought it must be a talent that can’t be improved. This semester, however, I have learned not only what makes writing good, but how to put it into my own. I realized that I still can come up with good ideas, now all I need to do is form them. I have learned, and began to put into practice, the importance of showing and not telling, as well as how to use the writing process. With what I’ve learned I can improve. By improving, my aspirations for writing can be renewed.

Windsor - My Reader / Writer Proflie

 

  When I was a child my experiences with reading mainly consisted of me exploring the various picture books scattered about the house. My first memories of reading are being read these books my parents and preschool teachers. Before I could even read, and even after I learned, one book I especially liked was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff. The pictures were fun and the story was engaging.  It wasn't until I started school that I learned how to understand the words that when along with the pictures. Ms.Foster was both my kindergartener and first grade teacher at Ridgeview Elementary School. It's in her class I have the most exceptional memories of learning how to write. The neatness of Ms.Foster's letters always captivated me, and she was an inspiration the got me interested in the aspects of writing. Alas, there was a great deal of frustration when I could hardly get the letters between the lines. Just a couple a years later, though, I remember writing my first short stories. One in particular I was proud of was about a family that got sucked into the T.V,  and they escaped by turning the power off. My teacher complimented me for my work, telling me to remember her when I become a famous author. This encouragement, and my enjoyment of reading on my own, gave my first idea to what I wanted to be when I grew up: an author. 

    Unfortunately, this is not an aspiration I've stuck with. I decided that it wouldn't be the most rewarding profession for me. My interest in reading, however, hasn't diminished. I read almost daily, and I particularly enjoy fantasy and action-focused fiction. I enjoy books imaginative plots and unique characters. Inspired by these entrancing stories, several times I've attempted to write chapter books on my own time. I go into a story exited to write. I'm good a coming up with creative ideas, and setting a captivating tone, but my stories don't go anywhere because I get intimidated by excessive plot details. Before I start writing anything, though, I make a plan. For fictional stories, I come up with a good plot outline in my head, and try to incorporate any extravagant ideas. For essays, I want to make sure I have all the research and background knowledge organized before I dive in. When I'm writing, I'm ninety percent sure in what I am going to say. However, when I reread what I had just wrote, I always find a lot of problems. This ability can be beneficial for essays. Since they're short, I can read over it four or five times to make sure I have everything right, and when I have nothing else to fix, I call it done. For stories, on the other hand, rereading over and over just makes me lose confidence and forget how I planned to continue the story. I always get snagged up by sentence structure. I like any piece of writing to flow. So I repeatedly revise until the tense matches up, and so the comma placement and sentence length give a nice rhythm. In essays, it's especially difficult. I have to make sure I smoothly transition from one piece of information, to the explanation, to another peace of information. I think getting better at essays gets simply requires practice. The more I practice incorporating information and the more I practice explaining it, the better I'll be at insuring it flows. For my stories, I need to be able to focus on what I am writing in the moment, and not worry about future plot details or the grammar of what I've already written. I should wait for the second draft. Maybe I should take some advice from the writing I enjoy myself. Good fiction writing to me is writing the causes emotion. If a book can make me excited, fearful, or sad for it’s characters, it’s a good piece of writing. As for nonfiction, I appreciate a work that I can understand what information it's relaying or what point it's getting across without having to reread it.

    Past high school graduation, I will move on to college. I imagine the amount of writing I do will be far greater, and, depending on the class, will have to be more technical or creative. Past college,  I will hopefully have accomplished becoming an engineer. During the job, reading and writing may be no more than a tool. I imagine it will be a lot more technical and information focused, so my essay-writing skills will come in handy. Though I doubt that I'll ever stop reading for fun. I will always enjoy exiting fiction stories. One day I hope to be able to finally finish writing a chapter book, even if by then writing fiction is just a hobby.