Tuesday, October 11, 2016

First Quarter Reflections

I think I have started English II about the same place that I ended English I.  Last year, my main area of focus was learning how to effectively use textual evidence to support my thesis and use specific words from the thesis and the quotes throughout my analysis.  I think that I have been doing a pretty good job of this so far in English II.  One thing I need to work on is shortening my analysis.  Especially in in-class essays, my commentary tends to be lengthy and repetitive.  I need to learn how to use more concise but equally effective wording to get my points across.  Also, I would like to get faster at writing essays in class.  Often, in in-class essays, I have to consciously sacrifice the quality of my writing in order to complete the essay on time, which really annoys me, because I know I am a better writer than my repetitive essays may reflect.  These two goals go hand-in-hand, in that shortening my analysis will hopefully also shorten the amount of time it takes me to write my essays.

In my short story/poetry essay, I think I did a good job interweaving comparisons between the short story and the poem throughout my entire essay.  Also, I think I successfully connected my analysis back to my thesis.  One thing I definitely need to work on, which I mentioned before, is being less repetitive (Note the irony in that sentence… :D)  This leads to my goal for my next essay: shortening the length of my analysis sentences, lessening the amount of sentences needed to get my point across, and being less repetitive with my writing.

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