6. Create goals for you writing next year. How will I reach these goals?
My goals for next year are to improve on my writing skills so I can at least be proud of my work. For example, I want to know all of the literary devices and dramatic/poetic terms. This way I will be able to be able to easily analyze poems. That may not be a great achievement, but I just want to understand the lines from plays like Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The way to achieve these goals is to study and memorize the terms. To others, it sounds really hard. But I can make Quizlet cards out of the terms and memorize them. I learned that using Quizlet is an effective way of learning words.
What I also want to do is to understand the significance of the book that I am reading. When I read the Lord of the Flies, I hardly understood the content, nor fully understood how the book was connected to human nature. My next goal is to understand a book well enough to say it loud. It seems like a hard goal, but I know how to reach it. What I will do is annotate more and re-read the lines I annotated. This way, I will be able to answer questions on tests and quizzes, and be able to talk more in group discussions. During my freshman year, I barely talked unless it was about relating topics to another topic. So I also want speaking more in class to be a goal for me. I hope will be able to reach these goals next year.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Post 5: Areas to work on
5. What areas do you still need to work on? Why are these areas important?
The areas that I still need to work on involve analyzing poems and laying out an outline for an essay. These areas are important because without an outline, it's hard to know where the information goes. For example, before I wrote an outline on the Scientific Revolution, I just wrote out the essay. I learned that an outline was required, and I had to redo the entire thing because the information was scrambled. I couldn't even tell what I was writing about anymore.
It's also important because when poems are analyzed, the reader can then understand the approach the poet was going for, or what the poet was trying to say when writing the poem. For example, Macbeth, a play written by William Shakespeare, includes embedded slant and end rhyme. I barely knew how to paraphrase them, much less understand what the actors were saying. I learned how to somewhat understand the lines, but I feel as if I still need to work reading the lines entirely. I will try to ask my future English teacher how to read poems, as well as how to make my own outline without asking for help.
The areas that I still need to work on involve analyzing poems and laying out an outline for an essay. These areas are important because without an outline, it's hard to know where the information goes. For example, before I wrote an outline on the Scientific Revolution, I just wrote out the essay. I learned that an outline was required, and I had to redo the entire thing because the information was scrambled. I couldn't even tell what I was writing about anymore.
It's also important because when poems are analyzed, the reader can then understand the approach the poet was going for, or what the poet was trying to say when writing the poem. For example, Macbeth, a play written by William Shakespeare, includes embedded slant and end rhyme. I barely knew how to paraphrase them, much less understand what the actors were saying. I learned how to somewhat understand the lines, but I feel as if I still need to work reading the lines entirely. I will try to ask my future English teacher how to read poems, as well as how to make my own outline without asking for help.
Post 4: My Strengths as a Writer
4. What are your strengths as a writer? Be sure to provide specific evidence and to use the language we’ve developed in class.
My strengths as a writer involve writing about my past, writing based off of observation, and having my diction have an impact on my entire paper. When I write about my past, I like to write explicitly, never leaving out a single detail. For example, the Personal Narrative was written about when I went on a skiing trip with my family. I wrote in phrases like 'a white blanket' or 'crunching in the show'. I love to write like this because it appeals to me and sometimes anyone who reads my blogs or papers. When I write based off of observation, I see an object and describe what it is, how it came to be, and what was it made for.
For example, I once wrote about a flower in my background last summer. It was a tiger lily, and I described it as golden brown in the middle with neon orange streaks spreading out like splatter paint. The gardeners planted the lily there a couple of months ago, and it had just bloomed. Another example would be the journal I used to write to express feelings. It was pretty much the equivalent to a diary. I once wrote about a duck I fed bread to in the park. When the duck got too close, he bit my hand, leaving me with red bite marks for the rest of the day. While writing in my diary, I punctuated every sentence with an exclamation point. That labeled me back then as a dramatic person. But in the middle of my freshman year, I learned of a term called diction. Diction is a choice/use of words when writing. It helps a writer make their paper more dramatic. I learned how to properly use diction by using the right situation to write the words down. I hope that I can improve more on other literary devices in the future.
Post 3: Improvements as a writer
3. What have you learned about yourself as a writer this year? What improvements have you made in your writing since the beginning of the year?
As a writer, I have learned that I was terrible at writing a passage, much less an essay. This was because I used never care about my work, thinking that no one would care to look at my writing. And since I got so many negative points on my essays, I just gave up on trying. When high school came along, I was handed an essay right off the bat. I didn't know what to do, since I started to care during 8th grade about my grades. I wanted to improve, but I didn't know how. Then a couple of friends of mine suggested going to the Writing Center, saying that they could help me with my assignments. As previously stated in my first blog, I had three visits to the Writing Center. And the more I visited, more I improved.
The improvements that I have made throughout the year mainly had to do with my essay writing skills. I read many books, but I never knew how to write like that. I didn't even know what exactly a thesis was. So the assignments that Dr. D gave me really helped me branch out and become more confident in writing papers. I learned how to started my papers with the information of what I'm writing about, and end with my thesis statement. I also learned where to place my arguments within my paragraphs, and to back up my arguments with evidence points. I have come a long way from being the writer I used to be. To sum it up, I have really improved as a reader. I hope that I can improve more next year when I am a sophomore.
Post 2: Who am I as a writer?
2. Write
a portrait of you as a writer, now. This could be a vivid account of
you physically writing, or it could be more abstract (“I am a writer
who…”).
I knew from the very start of my freshman year that I was a writer that liked to write with imagery. I loved to vividly describe every detail in my blogs, and thoroughly enjoyed using details in my Personal Narrative paper. Another example would be when I wrote about medieval job occupations in World History. I was writing as an herbalist writing in her journal about her day. The herbalist would have to write as if she was in the medieval times, when serfdom existed. It was a fun assignment. I liked the assignment so much that I drew a picture of me as a herbalist. I also love to write about World History because it gives me an excuse to learn about the past. I also get to write about history in my own words. Something about that is thrilling for me, because learning is something I enjoy. For example, I was happy when I got to choose my topic for the Research Paper. The topic that I chose for the paper was the Scientific Revolution.
The Scientific Revolution was something I wanted to write about, because it allowed me to express my feelings on how humanity, mainly the Europeans allowed religion to make up 3/4 of their lives. I understand if the Europeans wanted to worship a god/goddess, but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't blame all of their problems on God because a religion. Another example would be when I wrote the paper on the World Wars. During my research for that paper, I learned about many important events and strategies for conquest, such as the Schlieffen Plan. This plan was created by a man named Alfred von Schlieffen. Schlieffen planned for Germany to conquer France and then conquer the Soviet Union. But the British soldiers stopped the Germans from conquering the land, and this caused multiple alliances to arise, such as the French-Russian alliance. Eventually, World War I started. I love to write everything with detail and historical events. That's sort of why I love past fantasy novels. I hope that one day I can find a job that allows me to make more these historical novels.
I knew from the very start of my freshman year that I was a writer that liked to write with imagery. I loved to vividly describe every detail in my blogs, and thoroughly enjoyed using details in my Personal Narrative paper. Another example would be when I wrote about medieval job occupations in World History. I was writing as an herbalist writing in her journal about her day. The herbalist would have to write as if she was in the medieval times, when serfdom existed. It was a fun assignment. I liked the assignment so much that I drew a picture of me as a herbalist. I also love to write about World History because it gives me an excuse to learn about the past. I also get to write about history in my own words. Something about that is thrilling for me, because learning is something I enjoy. For example, I was happy when I got to choose my topic for the Research Paper. The topic that I chose for the paper was the Scientific Revolution.
The Scientific Revolution was something I wanted to write about, because it allowed me to express my feelings on how humanity, mainly the Europeans allowed religion to make up 3/4 of their lives. I understand if the Europeans wanted to worship a god/goddess, but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't blame all of their problems on God because a religion. Another example would be when I wrote the paper on the World Wars. During my research for that paper, I learned about many important events and strategies for conquest, such as the Schlieffen Plan. This plan was created by a man named Alfred von Schlieffen. Schlieffen planned for Germany to conquer France and then conquer the Soviet Union. But the British soldiers stopped the Germans from conquering the land, and this caused multiple alliances to arise, such as the French-Russian alliance. Eventually, World War I started. I love to write everything with detail and historical events. That's sort of why I love past fantasy novels. I hope that one day I can find a job that allows me to make more these historical novels.
Post 1: Writing Center Refleftions
1. Reflect on your writing center experience(s) in the second semester, whether you visited for the research paper, your revision, or both. What was the focus of your meeting, and how did you use this meeting to move the piece forward?
During my freshman year, I visited the Writing Center three times, each time being for a paper. The first time I went, I was writing my literary analysis for the Lord of the Flies, a book made by William Golding. My problem with this paper was the thesis and the points, pretty much meaning I messed up in writing the entire paper. The writing fellow who helped me in revising this said that I would have to restate my thesis in order for it to make sense, and make stronger arguments to connect to the thesis. My 2nd meeting was for my research paper. The research paper was a huge assignment given to me by Dr. D and Dr. Kuhn, my English and World History teachers. They said that I could choose any topic that I wanted and say why that event was important to World History. This paper unfortunately had a terrible outline, so I had to write out my paper with more description than arguments. I went to the Writing Center in order to learn how to write my paper properly, not wanting to make the same mistakes from my literary analysis.
During my freshman year, I visited the Writing Center three times, each time being for a paper. The first time I went, I was writing my literary analysis for the Lord of the Flies, a book made by William Golding. My problem with this paper was the thesis and the points, pretty much meaning I messed up in writing the entire paper. The writing fellow who helped me in revising this said that I would have to restate my thesis in order for it to make sense, and make stronger arguments to connect to the thesis. My 2nd meeting was for my research paper. The research paper was a huge assignment given to me by Dr. D and Dr. Kuhn, my English and World History teachers. They said that I could choose any topic that I wanted and say why that event was important to World History. This paper unfortunately had a terrible outline, so I had to write out my paper with more description than arguments. I went to the Writing Center in order to learn how to write my paper properly, not wanting to make the same mistakes from my literary analysis.
The Writing fellow that helped me said that I should be using transition sentences to connect the paragraphs together. He said that I should also restate my main points and end with a good wrap up sentence in order to make a good conclusion. My final visit to the Writing Center was for a World War Comparison essay. This essay was to write about the causes or consequences of both World Wars and how they were different or the same. I wanted help on a better conclusion because I couldn't find a good transition sentence. The writing fellow that helped me not only helped me find a good conclusion, but also helped me revise a couple of points that were connected to the thesis. I was glad that I went to the Writing Center. If I didn't go, I probably would've failed all three papers.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Blog 1: About Me
Writing is, to many others, is scribbling down sentences in a specific way. Others believe it's something that is required to do in order to gain credits in a class. But I believe that writing is an art in which you organize words in a specific way. These words can later be judged for their quality. My name is Megan Nguyen, and I am a writer in training. For the past year, I have been writing in order to become better in terms of writing. And to show you my progress, I have made a portfolio. This portfolio a collection of blogs that I have written, to sum up, my year of learning to properly. For example, I have written research papers, narrative essays, and other blogs made in my other blogger account. This portfolio will describe how I have learned from these pieces of writing, and have learned how to become a better reader. This will also show the revisions that I have made to one of my pieces of work, and what I did wrong. I hope that my portfolio will inspire future writers in training to strive and become professional writers.
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