Paul Johnson Jr.
4-30-12
English
English has always been one of my favorite subjects since the 1st grade. I've always enjoyed writing wether it was poetry, papers, homework, whatever the case was I enjoyed it. I love jotting down thoughts in my mind because it's like a sign of relief for me. When I was in middle school, I really didn't have trouble writing papers in eight grade. Althoug, I did have trouble with fixing certain tools in my papers. I didn't think that those problems would be a big challenge for me so I overlooked them. When I arrived to ninth grade, I didn't really think that it would be any worst than eight grade. But I had another thing coming. After the first paper, I got a huge wake up call, and knew that it was time for me to step my game up.
Over the course of the year, in English class, we have written many papers that dealt with many different interesting topics. The types of papers that we did were Research Papers,Global Issue Papers, Profiles, Literary Narratives, and Literary Analyses. Some of the papers such as the Research papers, Literary Narrative and the Profile assignments weren't that difficult for me. Those three were actually easier for me because my eight grade teacher use to make us do different types of papers and critic types of papers like these. So, I already had a vision of the paper, and wasn't really stressed about it being new to me. I also enjoyed writing about my mother's career as a teacher, my struggles with writing styles, and the anti-death penalty. These topics were some that Dr. D gave us the chance to select out of. And when we were doing them I chose them because I enjoyed having the opportunity to choose a topic which is interesting to me. Although, my bad habits from my eight grade year came back to haunt me. I had a difficult time with conventions in these three essays. I did a poor job with using an effective voice and using particular conventions. Now I've gotten rid of these bad habits and only use certain techniques such as cognitive and affective approaches to help develop my papers.
Also I had a difficult time with the Global Issues Paper, and the Literary Analysis Paper. I didn't really have a good feel for how to develop a strong thesis and facts that actually back up the statement. I always had to start over and over again when it came to my thesis statement for both papers. And this carried over to me having trouble with my organization. I was uncertain where to put certain facts and I was kind of stressed. The Literary Analyses for example was the paper that I lost points on in these three areas because I had a difficult time when it came to supporting the whole topic. I also think that it was harder than the Global Issues paper because it was a paper that I wasn't that familiar with.
One particular thing that really got to me, was adding your cited sources inside your Global Issues paper. Every year, I've did papers on research and thought that this was going to be like any other one i've done in the past. Although, I didn't realize that citing sources would have been difficult for me. The different ways that you had to cite the sources by the places that you collectted the information from was defintley a struggle. I was putting certain cited sources in the wrong format which could've cost me points off on my Global Issues Paper. Although, I'm glad that we had a chance to go to Dr. D for help because that sure did benefit me. Now I know how to cite the sources from magzines, books, newspapers, web pages, and etc. way better.
From reviewing all of the papers that i've completed in the past, I've noticed that I have three strong strengths and three weakenesses. From the general comments that I've recieved, I noticed that my strengths were in Sentence Structure, Word Choice, Ideas and Mechanics. I felt that with the Profile, Literary Analyses, and the Global Issues Paper I did a good job drawing interest with my ideas in these three papers. And I also supported them well which lead to the sentences flowing together quite nicely. Although, I also noticed many weakenesses as well. I often have errors in my papers with Organization, Voice, and Conventions. I've been struggling with organization sometimes because I feel the need to talk about so much. And I often seperate important information into the wrong places. I also lose control of my voice sometimes. I didn't have that buisness like approach when presenting. I had a laid back type of approach which wasn't very affective at all. Also there were certain little punctuations and grammar that i needed to tighten on. Although with the the help from Dr. D, I'm learning from these mistakes and improving my self into a stronger writter.
Last year, I didn't take the WRAP test at all last year. I took a differetn types of test, btu i feel way more proud of myself this year because I did way better. I got 4's and 4.5's on every category except conventions. I feel that on some sentences i tried to fit too much information and it ended up leading to fragments. But I feel that I did a good job with Mechanics, Word Choice, Organization, Overall Development and Sentence Structure. I think that all of these scroes were high because I had an interest for the topic. It was so much easier with having a interest for the topic. I expected the scores to be this way because i felt as though I've achieved my goal in getting rid of these the old habbits I had before highs school, and developing better ones. Which will improve my skills.
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