the alchemist
Bob Ray
5/20/13
Essay Reflection My first year of high school has been challenging. My world literature class’s writing assignments were the most challenging. There were many things that I find difficult but I had to make adjustments so I can improve as a writer in high school.
At the beginning of the year, I struggled most in the analysis part of the essay. The analysis made up most of the point value of a paragraph. In the Maus essay assignment, my paragraphs were made up of mostly summaries instead of analyses. At the beginning of each paragraph, I used the topic sentence as a summary of the paragraph instead of referring back to the thesis statement. For example, in paragraph two, I wrote, “At the beginning of chapter three, Vladek’s insists that Art should finish everything on his plate upsets Art”, and the majority of the paragraph was even more of a summary than analysis. The analysis part of my essay was a big problem at the beginning of the year; I got a lot of points deducted as a result. I have improved my writing since the beginning of the school year by mainly reading the directions carefully and referring back to the rubric as a guide. For example, I lost five points on my Maus essay because I did not read the directions carefully. On the rubric of the assignment, it asked me to write a student goal, but I did not write the goal down. If I have read the directions more carefully, I would have received a higher grade, and after all, they were five easy points. Reading the rubric more carefully has helped me grow as a writer tremendously. While I was writing my research paper, I would always refer back to the rubric and make sure that I’m following directions and answering those guideline questions. It had helped me greatly because I think I would have received a much lower grade on my research paper if I did not refer back to the rubric and follow directions. I learned that if I want to be a successful writer in high school, I
5/20/13
Essay Reflection My first year of high school has been challenging. My world literature class’s writing assignments were the most challenging. There were many things that I find difficult but I had to make adjustments so I can improve as a writer in high school.
At the beginning of the year, I struggled most in the analysis part of the essay. The analysis made up most of the point value of a paragraph. In the Maus essay assignment, my paragraphs were made up of mostly summaries instead of analyses. At the beginning of each paragraph, I used the topic sentence as a summary of the paragraph instead of referring back to the thesis statement. For example, in paragraph two, I wrote, “At the beginning of chapter three, Vladek’s insists that Art should finish everything on his plate upsets Art”, and the majority of the paragraph was even more of a summary than analysis. The analysis part of my essay was a big problem at the beginning of the year; I got a lot of points deducted as a result. I have improved my writing since the beginning of the school year by mainly reading the directions carefully and referring back to the rubric as a guide. For example, I lost five points on my Maus essay because I did not read the directions carefully. On the rubric of the assignment, it asked me to write a student goal, but I did not write the goal down. If I have read the directions more carefully, I would have received a higher grade, and after all, they were five easy points. Reading the rubric more carefully has helped me grow as a writer tremendously. While I was writing my research paper, I would always refer back to the rubric and make sure that I’m following directions and answering those guideline questions. It had helped me greatly because I think I would have received a much lower grade on my research paper if I did not refer back to the rubric and follow directions. I learned that if I want to be a successful writer in high school, I