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.)