Writing Wrap-up essay

Throughout all of my writing this year I did not improve or decline in any of the traits of writing steadily. For the most part, ideas and organization have been my best traits. They are A’s or B’s in most of my papers. In one paper my ideas were a D and organization was a C. All of the other traits were A’s and B’s in that paper though. This was in the profile paper which was the paper that I had the most trouble with in the significance of my subject so it affected the ideas. Voice and convections have also always been an A or a B. I don’t really understand why they seem to stay the same. My guess would be that I spend more of my time trying to improve ideas.

The most confusing trait of writing for me is sentence fluency. My rating for it always seems to be A or C. I don’t understand why this would change so much while the others stay mostly the same. I also have trouble with trying to improve sentence fluency. The other traits seem to be much more straight forward and easier to improve. I also do well in support and details. These are not always graded, but when they are, I usually do well.

Over the course of this year my essays have improved in ideas and support but I still need to improve on writing more developed introductions and conclusions, using more vivid details, and being able to meet the required length. For my first papers of the year my ideas were lacking in significance and support. In my last paper, my ideas were important, had evidence that supported them, and included my own input. My introductions usually include what is needed, but I don’t present it in a good way. It always comes out awkward and doesn’t make much sense. By the end of the year this had improved a bit, but I think I still need to work on it more. I also have trouble with conclusions. Sometimes my papers don’t include much of a conclusion and the just end. When there is one, I have trouble summing up the paper without repeating the introduction. I don’t explain things that I say enough that need to be explained in the conclusion either. This has always been a problem for me.

I sometimes have trouble with details and meeting the required length. I don’t do well with details most of the time. They usually are not descriptive enough or there is less than what is needed. My descriptions are sometimes too repetitive which is not good either. Details are not always that important, but I think that I should get better with them for the times that they are necessary. Another part of writing that I have trouble with is meeting the required length of papers. I don’t know why I that I am not good at this. I think it is mostly because I condense my information too much and don’t support or explain my ideas as much as I should. I think that this will probably be the easiest part of my writing to improve on, if I am correct about why I don’t meet the length requirements.

The feedback I receive usually matches my understanding of my writing. I agree with people when they say the way I say something is confusing and can easily be misinterpreted because I do that a lot. I used to not agree with this because I thought my writing was fine the way it was. I changed this after I started getting comments about the way I said something being awkward or someone misunderstanding it. Now I read it out loud and little mistakes like that are obvious. The way I evaluate my writing has also changed since the beginning of the year. Like I said before, I usually read my paper out loud so I can catch some mistakes. I also read my writing looking for things like ideas and support and not just grammatical errors. I think that my writing has overall improved as a whole because of this.

By the end of next year I want to be able to write well developed and understandable conclusions and introductions and improve my sentence fluency. To improve my introductions, I will spend more time putting them together and make sure they are organized well. For conclusions, I will make sure to explain everything well and try to pull all my information together at the end. To improve both of them, I will also get someone else to read them and tell me what they think my point is and if anything doesn’t make sense. To improve my sentence fluency, I will spend more of my editing time looking for mistakes in sentence fluency and try to make sure my sentences don’t sound too repetitive. If I am able to accomplish all of this, then I am sure I will be able to improve my writing as a whole.

Common Errors List

Ambiguous Pronouns: pronouns without clear antecedent (He looks tired.)  

Not using question mark (Are you going to watch.)

Using it’s instead of its: (It held out it’s hand.)

Using effect instead of affect and vice versa: (Your drinking problem will effect your health.)

Using who instead of whom: (She is the daughter of who?)

Double possessive: (That dog of Bob’s is ugly.)

Outside Reading

I didn't get any reading done for Eargon, but I have been thinking about it. I have noticed it before that the main character or hero in most stories is some person who seemed to be of no importance before the story began. They also almost always have no parents for some reason. I don't understand why it is usually like this. Do some people easily relate to this situation so they enjoy reading it more?

This Kind of makes me wonder what some of these stories would be like if you changed the background of the main character. You could make them rich, have parents, and lots of friends. I wonder how little changes like these could influence the whole story.

Poems: 73min
Song Analysis: 20min
Harry Potter: 60min

"Dark Turn of Mind" by Gillian Welch

This song's meaning seems to change a lot. Through most of the song the author talks about a dark turn of mind in a way that I feel as it is bad. He then ends the song with, "And some girls are blessed with a dark turn of mind." This completely changed the meaning of the song for me, and having a dark turn of mind seemed like it could be bad but is also a blessing. I believe this gives the listener the chance to decide what they think a dark turn of mind means.

I also think the tone of the song changes a lot. The beginning sounds sad and depressing when it says,
 "Take me and love me if you want me
   Don't ever treat me unkind
   'Cause I had that trouble already."
In the middle then, the author says nightmares are lovely even though most people would say they are horrible. It also says, "And leave me if I'm feeling too lonely," which seems kind of sad and like the opposite reaction to the way people deal with loneliness.

Outside Reading

The more we read poetry, the more I am understanding it. I still think that it is a bit odd, but it makes more sense. The poem I analyzed for my blog post was a little short, but I saw the patterns being used and writing techniques. I was a little annoyed when the author changed perspective in the poem though. I was reading about the boy being whipped and then he said "My" and I got really confused because up to that point it was in third person.

I also read some more Eragon, but I never have much time for it. In it, the dragon is still growing very fast, but he realizes he knows almost nothing about dragons. When he gets the chance, he goes to see Brom, a man who lives in the nearby village who always tells stories of dragons. He is hoping Brom can help him learn something. His whole conversation with Brom was a little awkward for him because he had to hide his emotions when Brom said certain things and make up excuses for the questions he was asking so Brom wouldn't know he had a dragon. That made it kind of funny to read.

Harry Potter: 100min
Poem: 43min
Eragon: 21min  

"The Whipping"

The poem I chose is "The Whipping" by Robert Hayden. This poem uses  repetition of the same word a few times. It starts with, "She strikes and strikes..." I think that this makes the reader think that the boy is being hit again and again and again. The same happens later when he says, "the blows, the fear worse than blows that hateful." This gives the same picture as strikes, but with the fear and hateful, it makes you think of the scared child being hit by the mean hateful woman. The last time is when it says, "it is over now, it is over." This shows the relieved child that he is no longer being beaten, but it also shows the woman that is realizing what she just did and how she may have gone too far. It changes the view of the mean woman to the mistaken woman who took the beating too far. This is also supported by a part at the end that says, "avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear." This may have been why she was beating the child so hard, because she was letting out maybe anger that she has held in all her life.

There are also some other techniques that the author uses. He uses irony at the beginning when he is saying how the woman is whipping the boy while announcing her goodness and his wrongs. This is ironic because whipping a child seems like a wrong but she says how she is good. This also goes along with her bottling up her anger from something that happened in her life because she could be saying how she was good but something still happened to her. Another technique he uses is switching the boy and he with my and I. By doing this it could show how he is thinking about when he was whipped while he is watching it happen to someone else. It makes it seem like he wrote the poem about his own childhood experience but made it about someone else.