Essay for English

     My work on writing over this school year has been a lot of fun. I think the reason is because we got to really pick our topics like for the literary analysis and for the world issue or global issue paper. Also, the wrap essay was a good one to, and even though it told you your topic, the topic we had was perfect for me. My writing really has been fun and I think that I have done averagely well on this writing. Many people thought it was so stressful and boring, but I actually enjoyed it and liked the essays.

     Now that I have looked over all my feedback from the wrap to all the other essays, I get a good understanding of what I did well on and what I did not so well on. First of all for all the essays, I saw that many people including the teacher thought I had very good word choice and voice. This is because I used hyperbole and very sophisticated words such as imminent and even paraphernalia. Also when I looked through my writing, I had a lot of comments that talked about my great enthusiasm which was supposedly shown throughout all my essays including the wrap essay.  Lastly, when I looked through my papers, an important thing I saw was that when I looked through my peers' comments and then through my teacher's comments, they were completely different. What I believe is that many of my classmates did not fully read or take their time on putting good and helpful comments on my essays.

     My essays have been pretty good like I have said, but what really bothers me is that a lot of the times, I get low scores in Ideas. Out of all the essays, not one has a high score on Ideas, and this can be worrying. What I am generally missing in the Ideas category is the good, vivid, and complete details, which really contribute to making a paper one that is great. Also, I have a lot of errors in Punctuation, and that is especially having to do with quotations. I really had trouble with quotations and it was hard for me because quotations were used on just about every essay except for the Wrap. Lastly, the biggest error made by me in all of my essays, was individual organization within a paragraph of any of my essays. I think the reason it was tough was because a lot of the stuff I said within a paragraph should have gone to a different paragraph, usually at the beginning.

    Now that I look at my feedback more closely, I see that my understanding for the feedback is limited. What I mean by this is that a lot of the errors I made were because I did not really know how to make them right. So, for example, my works cited list was not indented in the second line because I did not know how to do so. Now, for some of them though, I swear I knew how to do it , but it did not come out right, or I really didn't know how to do it, and I was just thinking so. An example for this would be when I thought a semicolon would used in a manner that is only supposed to be used for normal colons. Finally, my ways of evaluating my writing has changed dramatically, and I have to credit that to Dr. d and her continuous amount of work she put onto us. Even though many people don't won't to do it, it really helps and causes us to see our mistakes and nice work that is in the piece.

     I would really like to set a whole bunch of goals up for next year, but I know I can only accomplish so many. First of all, I would like to set a goal that states that I should practice writing at school and at home on my free time. The plan for doing this goal is to cut out free time in my day at home and instead of watching television, I would go and write a short essay. My next goal would be, to organize my writing better for next year, and to make sure I look over every single comment I have on any paper I write. The plan I have for this, is for me to put every essay or writing assignment in a folder or separate binder away from any other class items. Also, the plan I have for looking over comments would be to, every time I write something, store it away safely, and make a note on it for me to remember that I need to look over the comments for it.

     My writing has been a joy to do and has been a joy to look over the feed back given. I hope to carry these feedbacks into my next year at Episcopal because I know it will help and encourage me to write better, more thought out essays. Lastly, I want to improve on multiple things including the Wrap essay because I could always do better on the Wrap, since I have taken it 3 years in a row.

   

Reading Response on Outside Reading

     My book is the Maze Runner by James Dashner and it is one to read. Right now, I am about to finish the book and see that the book is even more interesting than I thought. Thomas is now, stepped up and currently, where I stopped, he is stuck in the maze with his friend Alby, and Minho. This book is really interesting because of the way it is told, and the way it is told is by a narrator and quotes are put in for Thomas and the other characters.
     Also, I read in the book, and found out a ton about the Greviers and what they look like. The Greviers are creepy figures with fur and metal covering them, and they have no distinct head of bottom. These things also have mechanical arms that do different things, like one has a needle for stinging people, one has razor sharp claws, and another holds some sort of scary object. This thing probably sounds scary and it is, so I only recommend this book so far, to people interested in suspense, adventure, and horror.( not that horrific, just a little creepy.)



I read 150 min of outside reading. 150 min was done during all of easter break.

Song Analysis for Umbrella

     The song that I chose for the analysis is Umbrella by Rhianna and Jay Z. First of all there are many techniques that are being used and the first one is enjambment. Enjambment is when a line break comes in the middle of a sentence. This technique is used by when you see the lyrics or listen to them there is a pause in the middle of sentence and this is why. Lastly, the effects that this technique causes is that it causes the song to be more fluent and sound rythmic. Next, is stanza becuase there is a bit of it, and a stanza is a series of lines that is usually a recurring pattern. The way this is used is by since the song is so long that there has to be breaks in the lyrics for the chorus and other things. So the song has periodic breaks. The effects this causes is that it makes the song not sound like it is in one breath and it makes it sound more relaxed instead of sounding rushed.

      The next technique that is used would be consonance which is just the repitition of consonant sounds. So, the way that this is used when there is an end to any line there is a consonant rhyme with the other consonant either above or below it. The effects this causes is that it makes the song sound definitely more rythmic and makes it sound morelike a song and not like just words that are out there. Finally, the last technique used would be internal ryhme which is rhyme between a word within a line and another either at the end of the same line or within another line. This technique is used in the song by in some of the stanzas are examples of internal rhyme. The effects this cause is that is makes the song sound different and not so organized, meaning that the song has many different parts to it.

Blog Post for childhood poem

     The poem that I chose for my poem was called, "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke. The major techniques that were used in the poem were, stanza, assonance, consonance, and meter. In the poem, stanza was used by the poem being one that has a recurring pattern. For this poem the pattern was that each verse was four lines, and that this poem rhymed. Also the effects it had in the poem were that it made it easier to read and made it less complicated. Secondly, is assonance which was used by every other line being a rhyme to every other line. An example is the first and third line, where it says breath and death. Also, the effects it had were that every last word of every other line rhymed, which made the poem sound fluent and well organized.

     Also in the poem, was consonance, and it was used by the same as assonance. What I mean is that every other line rhymed and instead of it being for vowel sounds, it was for consonant sounds. An example is line 6 and line 8, where it says shelf and itself. The effects that this made in the poem were that it made the poem sound very well when read, and it made it song sophisticated. Lastly, is the technique called a meter and more specifically, it is an iambic meter. This means that the poem repeats a single basic pattern. So, this technique is used by there being in the poem, a specific rhythm in each verse. That rhythm is that every other line rhythms with each other. The effects it has in the poem are that it makes the poem look like a perfect stanza, and that it makes the poem a masterpiece. Finally, these techniques contribute to my interpretation of the poem by making me believe that this poem took time, and that this poem was very well thought up.

Outside Reading Post

     My outside reading book is called The Maze Runner by James Dasher. The main character of the book is a young boy named Thomas. I have been reading and since I have read, there is something interesting that happened. In my book, I read that there was a half alive girl that appeared in the Glade from the elevator. The weird part is that that is the first girl to appear in the Glade and that, she appeared 1 day after Thomas appeared. Also she is somewhat pretty from Thomas's view and she is very pale and skinny.

     In the book, the head people help this random girl out and she is eventually fully conscious and normal. People thought that Thomas should know her or she should know Thomas because they appeared one day apart. Thomas says though that he doesn't remember her. Not until he actually gets a closer look, does he somewhat recognize her. I really like this book and I hope to read more of it. I need to find out if there is a sequel.


I read 150 min of outside reading.
I read 90 min during school week, 30 min during weekend, and 30 min for poem.