Reflection

Thinking and Writing:

Nature- When writing my nature essay, I based my writing on my encounter with nature. I had to do this while using quotes by Emerson and Thoreau to support my reasoning of what I experienced with nature. The main idea of my essay was comprehending my positive encounter with nature and using a lot of description to do so. Both Emerson and Thoreau's quote helped support my opinion of why it was a good experience to me. In this piece, I learned that you can actually enjoy nature when you are around it.

Memoir- The writing of my memoir was fun and very enjoyable. In this essay, I had based my writing on the time I had broken my nose. The main idea of this essay was telling about my experience in a descriptive way by using things such as dialog. I also had to bring back some memories that occurred to help catch the attention of the reader. In this piece I learned how to become more creative through my writings.

The Scarlet Letter- In this writing, it was mainly written about how the letter "A" had changed its meaning throughout the novel. In this writing, I had to think really hard to process why Hawthorne chose to change the letter and why was it significant. In this piece, I learned how to use examples in the book to backup my opinions thoroughly.

Crucible Character- The essay of comparing the character Mary Warren to a bean bag was quite difficult to me. When writing, I was trying to figure out how she could be compared to a bean bag and why is this object a good comparison. I had also used quotes and examples in this piece to help sustain my thoughts in this writing. Through this, I learned to have deeper thoughts, convincing ideas, and great ways to compare the object to Mary when writing this comparison essay.

Overall, I think that the main connections between all of my pieces were not to be afraid of just relying on my inner thoughts and opinions. But by doing this, I also needed quotes and examples. Three things that I learned from this class that were most helpful are the use of imagery, complex sentences, and making sure I include my tone in my writings.


Process of Revision:

Nature- My revision in this piece were learning to add more sensory details to my description of the forest and objects that were within it. An example of this is a sentence in my second paragraph (http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcw9c6nc_8ddc76d&hl=en). It had first written, "As I walked outside, I could feel the intensity of the illuminate sun shining across my face." After then knowing that I needed more description, I added "and the brown gushy mud sliding between my flip-flops. By adding those types of revisions in this piece, it can now let the reader feel as if he/she is actually there.

Memoir- The major problem in this piece was not letting my brush strokes be noticeable to the reader. So in my revision, I had to go back and change some sentences to have adjectives shifted out of order. An example of this is the sentence in my second paragraph
(http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcw9c6nc_0gmf8d3&hl=en). At first, it had said, "I demanded that it was my turn to play next, but one of my brothers complained that it was a game only for them." But I later changed it to "Demanding that it was my turn to play next, one of my brothers complained that i was a game only for them." I also had to revise the overuses of being verbs such as: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been. An example of this was when I had wrote in my first paragraph, "I woke up extra early and everyone were awake doing there daily tasks. However, instead of using "I", I revised it to, "Waking up early, everyone was doing their daily tasks while my mom cleaned and prepared breakfast."

The Scarlet Letter- When revising the Scarlet letter, I had to revise the use of too much summary. I also had to think more by not only making observations, but drawing conclusions to support my ideas. I mostly needed to explain more why I thought something in particular was important to the novel. An example of this was in my third paragraph (http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcw9c6nc_4c2rsgw&hl=en). In this paragraph, I talked about how the letter "A" is beginning to stand for alone. In the thesis of this paragraph, I stated how when she starts her sewing business, she starts to become popular in the town. Even so, I didn't tell why this was important to the novel. I revised this by saying, "This has an importance to the novel because by her sewing, it helps to show how she and the townspeople are slowing shifting during the novel."

Crucible Character- For the revision in this writing, I also had a problem with having too much summary of the play. In addition, I had to revise staying in present tense when writing this piece. An example of this was when I had wrote, "Mary Warren was effortlessly threatened by Abigail and is broken down in the court." (http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcw9c6nc_6d6zrhf&hl=en) I changed this sentence to be in present tense by saying, "Mary Warren is effortlessly threatened by Abigail and is broken down in the court. I also had a little trouble with tying together the first paragraph, but I had help from Mrs. Turner by a suggestion of a sentence.There were not any other revisions in this writing that I had to consider.

Learning From Your Classmates:

After reading the portfolios of my classmates, Erika Verbeck , Savahnna Keown, and Melody Williams. I had learned many resourceful things about them. Erika Verbeck's writing of her experience with nature helped me learn that when you are explaining your thoughts make sure that you give great reasons and examples of why you think so. In my opinion, Erika did a really good job on giving her motives of why nature was like different situations in life. (http://erikaverbeck.blogspot.com/). I think that in Savahnna's memoir piece; she had wonderful descriptions in her story, which made you feel as if you are right there with her. When I was reading it, I could picture everything she was saying. I think that this is a very important thing needed for writing, but a difficult thing to do which I thought Savahnna did accurately. (http://savannakeown.blogspot.com/). In melody's writing of Nature, I also think that she did a great job backing up her opinions of her encounter with quotes and examples of Emerson and Thoreau.