Formal Essay 1 This formal essay was an essay we had to write about the book we read as a class, The House on Mango Street by, Sandra Cisneros. We were given two prompts and were able to choose from either one to write the essay on. The two prompts were, how has the main character changed throughout the book and, what is the main theme of your book? The prompt i chose was how did your character change throughout the book? i received a 2 on this essay. The reason I got a 2 on this essay is because i was very repetitive and i used on going sentences. I also did use very wise word choices so the whole essay sounded awkward when others read it.
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Timed Writing 1 This Timed Writing was an essay we had to write about our first book club book, which was Dear Zoe by, Phillip Beard for me. We were given two prompts and were able to choose from either one to write the essay on. The two prompts were, how has the main character changed throughout the book and, what is the main theme of your book? The prompt i chose was how did your character change throughout the book? i received a 2 on this essay. The reason I got a 2 on this essay is because i was very repetitive and i used on going sentences.
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Timed Writing 2 This Timed Writing was an essay we had to write about our second book club book, which was Bless, Me Ultima by, Rudolfo Anaya for me. We were given two prompts and were able to choose from either one to write the essay on. The two prompts were, how has the main character changed throughout the book and, what is the main theme of your book? The prompt i chose was how did your character change throughout the book? i received a 2 on this essay. The reason I got a 2 on this essay is because i was very repetitive and i used on going sentences. also because i used poor word choice which made it sound awkward to others.
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Timed Writing 3This Timed Writing was an essay we had to write about our class read book, which was Into the Wild by, Jon Krakauer. We were given a prompt to write the essay on. The prompt was, What can be learned from the McCandless' Story? I received a 2 on this essay. The reason I got a 2 on this essay is because one, I didn't complete the essay within the allowed time frame and two Poor word choice and i used past tense words throughout the whole essay.I was very repetitive and I used on going sentences. Something i might want to improve on is to stop using past tense words.
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Timed Writing 4For our final timed writing we were to write about our final class read book, Outcasts United by Warren St. John. The prompt I chose to use was what positive impacts have on individual characters as well as the fugee community? I received a 3 on the timed writing. The weakness of my essay was I used past tense words and I was embedding the quote. Some of my strengths are I had a good structure and I chose my quotes well.The things I want to do next year to improve my writing is to stop using past tense and re-read to look for grammatical errors.
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Reflection
I have learned a lot of things this school year about writing essays. One of them is to have a good structure; another is to use present tense. In my first timed writing, one of my strengths was that I followed the prompt and didn't get off track. Since it was my first timed writing I didn't know how to format it and I went all over the place. I had many weaknesses in it. The things I struggled on were I did not have structure to it at all; I needed to have a better format. Another was my paragraphs were uneven; some had many ongoing sentences and others were 3 or 4 sentences. I also had a lot of grammatical errors in it. In my first timed writing I struggle with repeating myself as well. From the beginning of the year to the end of the yea I think my writing has improved so much more. I have good structure and I use good quote selections. Although it’s the end of the year and I've had many times to learn from my mistakes I’m still struggling with some stuff. Things such as, Grammatical errors, writing in past tense rather than using present tense, and embedding my quotes incorrectly. At times I still use awkward wording in my times writings, I think that this is what keeps me from doing good on them. In my head it sounds good, but to others it may not be the best way to write a certain sentence or use a certain word. I think I have improved on my writing structure well. For example in my first time writing my paragraphs are all jumbled up and not in format. I have a weak grabber and no conclusion paragraph. Now that it’s the end of the year I have improved a lot. I have a good structure the format of it helps me to make sure I include everything I need to. Writing was never a strong suit for me but now that I can easily write in a way that makes sense to me and others I feel like I can write better than I usually do. Next year I am going to try my best to write in the present tense and to stop using awkward wording. Next year I am going to work on improving my structure because that something that can always use fixing.