Wow! What a journey you all went on. Many of you edited draft after draft, reworking your ideas and revising your stories, writing a creative, logical, interesting, and consequently powerful paper. I feel privileged to have been a part of your process.
But you are not done yet. It is time to think about your journeys, consider what you have learned through the Senior Essay. Answer the following questions below. Also respond to any questions asking for clarification of ideas.
1. What was your favorite aspect of this assignment? Your least favorite part? Explain.
2. What academic or writing strengths do you have that allowed you to write the paper? Explain.
3. What were the greatest obstacles to finishing this paper? Thinking of something to write? Organizing paper? Starting writing? What techniques did you use to overcome them? Free writing? Outlining? Conferencing? How were they helpful? How will you use them the next time you write? Explain.
4. What is something that you still need to imrpove in your writing? Grammar, logic, organization, structure? How will you plan on improving it personally? Is this a weakness that we should address as a class? If so, what sort of instruction will you need? Explain.
33 comments:
1. a belive this assinment was interesting i really liked the way we got to listen to other ppl storys it really inspired me. I also liked how we got to redo the essays
2 i belive i im not a fraid to share every detail and this helps me become a better righter
3 when i first started this paper i honestly did not spend much time on it. but when i realized that i was close to getting a better grade i worked with miss rotter to help me acheve a higher grade. THis was a very intersting topic for me so the essay was not too hard for me.
4 i belive that i need to take more time in my essays I plan on takeing my time on my next essay
Tim (and class),
You are correct. Being able to open up and write about your life truthfully and accurately is a strength.
I also think that most writers just need TIME to revise their papers. At this point in you writing careers, if you are handing in first drafts still, you probably will not receive good grades because it is not your best work. More time should be used to revise work than write it. That is why you need to ensure you allot time to review your work.
I am glad you are learned this valuable lesson.
1- My favorite part of the assignment? I don’t have one. I hate sitting in the computer labs (Though I am appreciative of the time allotted to us to work), I hate writing essays on such personal topics, and I really don't enjoy conferencing with teachers. Still, it was one more day that we were not watching The Office or analyzing literature. (Which, honestly, I don’t mind either, but it’s nice to have a ‘free day’.)
2- I think neither my academic strengths nor my academic weaknesses had anything to do with quality of my paper. It all came down to my ambition, which is admittedly low, and my lack of topic.
3- My greatest obstacle was thinking of something to write about. In fact, I still do not believe that I have a valid topic.
4- I do not think I could make a value judgment from this assignment. It is not indicative of the sort of paper I generally write.
1. My favorite part of this assignment was us as students having to get "real" with ourselves and write aobut things that have happened in our life, whether they be good or bad. My least favorite part was having to find the strength in us to actually write the paper.
2. I have strong writing skills and always try us us vocabulary words I have learned in the past to make my paper better.
3. Starting the paper was the hardest for me. It took me many nights to finally start it off the way I wanted to. It was hard for me to have and intro that was emotional but still told the story. I used conferencing to write my paper. Working with Ms. Rotter really helped me to clean up my essay and use more details. These tools will help me next time I write a paper because I learned more how to write in alot of detail.
4. I need to work logic, and organization in my future. I need to be more organized when I write so the essay flows and can be read easily. I don't think this needs to be addressed as a class because this is my personal problem, and if I have a question, I can ask Ms. Rotter on my own time.
Karl Marx,
You raise some interesting points. How could the assignment be framed better to help you out? What could I change (besides topics which are based off college essay questions).
How can I make conferencing work for you? In college, that will be a huge part of any course so I am interested how you would like it to be done.
Look forward to response!
Samantha,
I thought your paper was wonderful; I saw such growth as writer through each draft. That is why I uphold revision so dearly. It gives you an opportunity to work at writing and improve.
I am glad you took the time to think for many nights before you began writing. Many people never do that, instead rushing into a topic that they don't like, ultimately feeling stuck. Never be afraid to stop and think.
Rotter,
I don’t think you could have framed it any better. We were given an excess of time in which to write our papers and plenty of opportunities to revise them. My problem stems not from your teaching methods, but from my penchant for procrastination. As for the topics, I understand, you do not have full control over.
The problems with conferencing are none of your own fault. I’m just an awkward person. It’s not that they’re not helpful, I just can’t say I enjoy them.
1. My favorite part of this assignment was being able to rewrite your own story and improve it for the better. I also liked that you read the class the A papers. It gave me some good ideas on how I can improve my essay.
2. I don't believe I am a very good writer and don't like writing essays at all but, in my paper i tried to tell the truth about my family and me in as much detail as i could.
3. Probably the hardest part of writing the paper was thinking someone else was going to read a story about yourself or family. What helped me most was making an outline on what I wanted to write about in my essay. Outlining my essay helped me organize my ideas and how to shape my essay.
4. Something in my writing i need to work on is having structure to my essay. I also need to prepare myself for the timing. I am a big procrastinator when it comes to any type of school project and need to take my school work more seriously.
1) My favorite aspect of this assignment was that we were able to write about anything we wanted and that we could re-write it as many times as we needed. My least favorite part of this assignment was that we had to make it a certain length.
2) A writing strengh that I have that allowed me to write the paper is that I have the skill to make a paper flow and not to go off topic.
3) I think the greatest obstacle in finishing the paper was to be able to put yourself out there and talk about something personal. A technique that I thought helped to overcome this obstacle was to conferencing because it helped me know that I was getting better every time I re-wrote it and it aslo helped push myself and write what I really wanted without caring. I would like to use this technique in the next time I write because when I used it this time it got me a good grade, so I plan on trying to conference at least once with a teacher to look over my paper.
4) Something that I still need to improve in my writing is to organize the paper better so it is easier for me and the reader. I do think this is a weakness that we should address as a class because I think that everyone could use a little more organization in their writing. The kind of instruction that I think will help is a worksheet with some examples that shows us how to organize a paper.
1. i didnt really have a favorite part of this assignment, writing essays is not my strong point. my least favorite was choosing a topic because nothing much has happened to me in my life.
2. i think that i have an interesting and different way of writing a lot of thing essays i do and that helped me because senior essays need to be different and leave an impression.
3. the hardest thing for me to write this paper is to choose a topic and provide good details. conferencing has really helped me a lot and i continue to do that. next time i will begin to write my paper sooner.
4. you cant really be perfect in anything and i feel like i could improve on just about everything. i might write some practice essays to improve on my weaknesses like this its a personal issue and not so much a class thing.
1. my favorite part of the papers was being able to re write them. i liked this because it helped me become a better writer by fixing a paper.
2. my writing strengts are that when we get a topic i try and find a lot out about it to write a good paper
3. hardest part of the paper was the begining. it was hard to have a good story. but confrencing helped me make my story better
4. i need to improve my grammer mistakes. what i can do is re read
papers better
1) My favorite aspect of this assignment was finding the strength in myself to want to write about someone or something that affected me to a point that it makes me wanna become a better person. My least favorite was having to rack my brain to try to think of how to put my story into words without breaking down and losing sight of the topic.
2) I honestly never thought I was really good at writing essays but I suppose that redoing it a few times improved how I went about rewriting it every time.
3) The whole paper was an obstacle. Thinking of how to start it off in just a paragraph, then adding how it came to be, how it affected me and why it makes me wanna pursue that career was all just one big obstacle. When we got this assignment, I automatically knew what I wanted to write about, that much was easy. Getting it going and making it organized was a challenge.
4) Logic is the main thing I need to work on. My structure needs improvement as well. I need to work on wrapping up my introduction without going into the second paragraph subconsciously. None of this needs to be addressed in class though. I won't talk about my personal life in front of a bunch of kids who probably won't understand where I'm coming from.
Nicole,
Outlining is a great skill. It helps you develop your idea first so you don't feel stuck when you write.
Perhaps you might procrastinate less if you break it into smaller pieces, you know, work a half an hour at a time on a paper so it never become overwhelming??? What do you think?
Catherine,
I look forward to conferencing with you on other papers. I noticed after each one, your paper improved greatly. What about the actual conferencing helped you? How did it enable you to improve your writing?
Dan,
Each draft is a practice essay. That is why you need to devote the time to the assignment. Are you going to hand in another draft?
Nick,
What will you look for when you edit your papers to ensure your grammar is correct? What mistakes do you tend to make?
Jessica,
Wow. I am glad that this assignment enabled you to do that.
A paper will never be perfect the first time you write it. Your logic will improve each draft that your write though. Actually, every weakness you express will be addressed by simply revising your paper. Each draft of Senior Essay shows that. And I look forward to conferencing with you to provide you with that opportunity.
1) I guess I liked being forced to evaluate myself, its always fun having to look deeply at the reasons behind why anybody acts the way that they do, myself included. I would say my least favorite part was the fact that all of the subjects asked about influence, when I feel that I am mostly influenced by decisions that I made on my own accord, rather than being influenced by an outside source.
2)I guess the fact that I learned to listen to my teachers helps me for writing papers, in the sense that I am able to listen to their criticism, and improve my writing with it.
3)The greatest obstacle I had in finishing the paper was actually coming up with something to write about. As I said before, I dont believe that I was modivated by outside sources, and thus finding something to write about was relatively challanging for me.
4)I need to improve on the flow and over all structure of my essays. I plan to improve on this by simple repitition, doing essay after essay, then, over time, my writing skill should improve
1.I liked being able to rewrite the paper as many times as we needed, and the individual attention you gave each student. I didn't like the fact that the essay was given so early in the year.
2.I have a strong vocabulary, and write interesting sentences.
3. it was hard to compress my story without tainting its meaning. It was hard for me to organize my paper correctly.
4. I need to be more organized when writing.I think many other people may have this issue to and it may help alot of people if we go over how to improve o this
1. My favorite aspect of the assignment was that I really grasped an understanding of how my story really influenced my life. Also how I have grown from what I went through. My least favorite part was all the drafts I had to do , but it helped in the end.
2. My academic writing strength that allowed me to write my paper was that I was not afraid to be open and share all of the personal details of my family.
3. The hardest of the essay for me was knowing that other people were actually going to ready and know what happened to me. To help me write my essay I just kept going over it again and again with Ms.Rotter conferencing.
4. Something I need to improve on in my writing is making things flow together and making sure I check my grammar will improve this by taking my time when I read over my essay, and trying to connect the pieces. I don’t think I need anything from class I just need to critique my own writing more.
1. My favorite aspect of the assignment was that I really grasped an understanding of how my story really influenced my life. Also how I have grown from what I went through. My least favorite part was all the drafts I had to do , but it helped in the end.
2. My academic writing strength that allowed me to write my paper was that I was not afraid to be open and share all of the personal details of my family.
3. The hardest of the essay for me was knowing that other people were actually going to ready and know what happened to me. To help me write my essay I just kept going over it again and again with Ms.Rotter conferencing.
4. Something I need to improve on in my writing is making things flow together and making sure I check my grammar will improve this by taking my time when I read over my essay, and trying to connect the pieces. I don’t think I need anything from class I just need to critique my own writing more.
1. My favorite part of the paper was being able to rewrite them.I beleive it has given me better skills to write, before i was not a very good writer.
2.My strentgh is coming up with really good ideas but i have a hard time expressing them in the paper.
3.The greatest obstacle to finishing my paper was organization. Free writing really helped give me good ideas but i failed to put them together my ideas were all over the place in my paper.
4.The most important thing i need to improve on is organization.I know i have good ideas but i always tend to mix them up in the wrong parts of the paper. Next paper i intend to take alot more time instead of doing it last minute.
1. My favorite part like every one else was being able to conference and re write the essay that helped me to see how to work my essay
2, i think my writing strengths are the beginning and end points
3. the hardest part was bridging the gap between beginning and end
4.i believe i need to work on my essays structure
1.) I loved how I got to keep redoing to essay until I got the grade I wanted. Also I really enjoyed listening to other peoples papers and seeing what their lives were like growing up. My least favorite part was having to come home everyday and rewrite my paper because it came to a point where i ran out of ideas. In the end it was well worth my time.
2.) My writing strength that allowed me to write my paper was the fact that I actually was able to open up about my life for the first time. I wrote a deep paper that really expressed my feelings and proved to myself that I could do it.
3.) My greatest opstacle to finishing this paper was all the effot i have put into this paper. I really tried my best to give this essay all I had, and to make it my best work. It took a lot of time, but conferencing with Ms. Rotter was a big help. She helped me come a long way from the beginning of my paper to the end. This is going to be very helpful in my next paper because I'm going to be able to write better from all the advice i was given on my Senior Essay.
4.) I still need to improve on my opening and closing. It takes me a long time to grab somebodys attention and it takes me a long time to think of something really catchy. I plan to improve on it by contining to write more essays and reread my essay until i know I've got the reader hooked.
1. I dislike having to write about myself in high regards. I liked that it didn't have to be long
2. I don't know
3. I didn't like writing about myself. I didn't know how to word it properly.
4. Organization, I tend to ramble about nothing for paragraphs
1. I didnt have a favorite part for this assignment and my least favorite part was just writing a paper in general.
2. This allowed me to express the strength of being able to be truthful and straight forward with the assignment.
3. My greastest obstacle was writing the opening because it was difficult to start out the essay. The only technique I used to overcome this is just reworking it over and over. Next time I write I will keep redoing the assignment to make it better.
4. I need to improve with organization. At first, my points were all over the place, but redoing the paper helped me fix this.
1. my favorite aspect was the ability to redo/revise my essay because i found it very helpful in developing it.
2. My strengths that allowed me to write this paper includes my opening and closing. this is because it was easy for me to write the general idea of the essay.
3. currently my greatest to finishing this paper is writing the body paragraphs. i'm finding it difficult to find examples and add substance to the essay. i am using conferencing to overcome this because fixing it has helped me come up with new ideas.
4. i still need to improve on writing my body's and adding detail examples. i will improve this by brainstorming more.
My favorite part of this assignment was that it gave us a chance to really express important things in our lives and use the skills you have taught us in writing o really take our storys to the next level and make them have more feeling. What i didnt like was just picking one moment ing our lives.
1. my favorite part of the assignment is how the subject of your paper is open to anything. i feel that this allowed me to be more creative when i wrote my paper and it let me pick something i feel strongly about.
2. i feel my strength in this paper was how i was able to be honest and put my true feelings on paper.
3. the hardest part of this paper was acually sitting down to write the thing. with a million thoughts running through my head i had no filter and wasn't sure what to write. i overcame this by just writing whatever came to mind and revising it later.
4. something that i definately need to improve on is my grammar, but thats alright we don't need to go over it or anything.
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