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 Summer Reading 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.
22 comments:
1.My favorite aspect of this assignment was that we could rewrite our papers over and over again with Ms Rotter’s comments to make them almost perfect and if we forgot to put something the first copy, we could always add it into out next copy. My least favorite aspect of this was having to rewrite sentences over again because looking at the same sentence too many times would make me rethink my whole topic.
2.The academic strengths I have that allowed me to write this paper were that I could use educated words and not just simple words. Also I could arrange paragraphs and sentences so they would fit together perfectly.
3.The greatest obstacles for writing this paper for me is finding quotes and finding a place for them in the paragraph. I also dread writing the introduction paragraph and thesis sentence because that is the sentence that tells the reader about the whole essay. Conferencing helped me overcome the thesis statement because Ms Rotter guided me though what I should focus on in my thesis. Next time I write I could defiantly like to conference because it helps me arrange all the thoughts I have in my head into a great thought that could take me very far.
4.Something that I still need to improve in my writing is organizing my paragraphs better. This is not something that needs to be discussed with the class because my class mates usually do a great job with that, it is just my personal weakness. I will try to improve this by making a better and more detailed outline.
1. My favorite aspect of this paper also was the fact that we got to rewrite the paper over again as we needed. It gave us a chance to hone our essay into a decent respectable paper.
2. One strength that I had going into this assignment is that I'm a pretty good writer. Also, I do a lot of creative writing, so I'm pretty good at analyzing and finding symbols and themes in stories.
3. My greatest obstacle in writing this paper was that I wasn't really all that enthusiastic about it. That hinders me a lot in my writing.
4. I still need to work on putting my thoughts into more coherent, organized sentances.
1. My favorite aspect of this assignment was how thoght provoking it was. I didn't like it at the time, but it made me think beyond what any other English paper would require. My least favorite part was practically having to read the book all over agian to find quotes.
2. I think my best academic strength is that even if I am struggling with an essay, and other people wouldn't put alot of work in because they don't feel like it, I try my hardest.
3. The greatest obstacle to writing this paper was the lack of interest I had in the book itself, and when I at first read it I didn't pay alot of attention to it. In the future I will read more thouroughly.
1 I also liked that we could rewrite the essays. It was a nice way to learn how to write a better essay.
2 My academic strengths were coming up with symbols and meanings in the story that related the allusions the story made.
3 I had a hard time with my opening and my conclusion and organizing my thoughts.
4 I think organization and structure would be a good thing to work on as a class.
1. My favorite aspect of this assignment was that we could edit our papers as many times until they were perfect. Your comments helped me improve my paper a lot and they also helped me make my points clearer. My least favorite aspect of this assignment was trying over and over again to make a topic sentence and follow through with it for every paragraph.
2. The academic strengths I have allowed me to use advanced vocabulary to make it sound more interesting and the ability to put just enough information to make my points clear.
3. The greatest obstacles for me were making a good topic sentence for every paragraph and following through with it the whole time. It was also difficult for me to work quotes into my paper. Your comments made it much easier for me to rework the quotes and add more information to have them make sense. Conferencing with you also helped me with my paper because you helped me make my points much stronger which made my paper a lot better.
4. Something that I still need to improve in my writing is coming up with a good thesis and following through with it throughout my whole paper. For some reason it's always difficult for me to follow through with it no matter how much information I have. This weakness doesn't need to be discussed with the class because that wouldn't really help me or make a difference for me. It's something I've always had trouble with, I just need to sit and think about it more to come up with a better thesis.
1) My favorite part of this process was it made me really think about what I was writing about, which I believe made me a better writer. My least favorite part of the process was the fact that we had to write a book on this essay because I did not really enjoy reading the book when I read it.
2) I think that I had a pretty good understanding of the book, and I think that am able to understand most things we read. So because of this it made the essay decently easy to right.
3) The greatest obstacles to writing this paper was that it was time consuming to write. So concentrating on the essay for long periods of time got very boring and I started to feel like I was making no sense. To help me out I just would work on the paper in stages so as to not repeat my self too many times.
4) I believe that I need to work on my organizations within paragraphs to make them sound better. I plan on handing in my essays early so that you can check them to see how my structure is.
1. My favorite aspect of this paper was that we could rewrite to get a better grade. It helped me realize my mistakes and how i could improve. It showed me a better way to reorganize my paper and make my thoughts more clear. The comments helped me develop my paper into becoming an A instead of leaving it a D. Revision will always help me into making my paper become a better piece of writing.
2. The academic writing strengths i had to write the paper were many details. I also was able to put in a lot of content to help relate to my argument.
3. One obstacle to finishing this paper was trying to make my thoughts clear. I also had to show strong evidence to support my argument and point of view.
The techniques i used to overcome the obstacles were breaking down each paragraph separately and making them easier to understand and provide more evidence so that it would relate to the argument.
It was helpful because now i know what i need to do to revise and develop my paper into a good piece of writing. I will use this technique next time i write so i can understand my thoughts as well as convince myself that the argument makes sense.
4.I still need to improve the organization in my paper. I need to make it flow together. Also making a strong argument with strong evidence and explaining it clearly. Improving it personally i will have someone read over my paper to see if it makes sense to them. I will also break it down into parts. Trading papers with the class is a good idea to gain other ideas and see how others write and construct their papers.
1. My favorite aspect of writing this paper was being able to improve our papers by using not only Ms. Rotter's comments, but also comments from our classmates. It helps a lot to receive tips on how to make your essay better from someone who is not writing it. There was a lot of help we could get during the whole process. My least favorite part was having to put so many quotes in our papers because I find it hard to incorporate a lot of quotes into one paper.
2. My academic strength is when I get stuck on a paragraph, I can leave it and come back and have a whole new idea that makes it even better. I am better at writing something, then starting something else, and going back to everything to finish it because by the time I get back to it I have even better ideas that support my essay even more.
3. The greatest obstacle was beginning the paper, because when I have so many ideas I never know where to start. I usually just write anything that comes to my mind then I go back and switch paragraphs and revise it more. When I make a good outline for a paper it helps me a lot because then I know where all of the information belongs.
4. I need to work on my transitional sentences. I never know how to end a paragraph, how to start a paragraph, how to go from my own writing to a quote, or how to end an essay. My sentences tend to leave the reader confused because they change subject too fast. I always try to concentrate more on transitional sentences and I focus on making them better. We have learned as a class about transitional sentences but we never really learned how to construct them ourselves, so it would help to have a better understanding because they are very important in a paper.
1.My favorite part about this assignment was that we were able to rewrite our papers more than once. It truly helps and improves the quality of our papers.
2.The academic strengths that I have which allowed me to write this paper were spelling, grammar and sticking to my central theme throughout my paper.
3.The greatest obstacle while writing this paper for me was incorporating quotes throughout it. It was different to find quotes which were related to my thesis and finding a place for them in the paragraph. The techniques I used to overcome these obstacles were mostly outlining and conferencing. Outlining helped me organize my thoughts better. Conferencing with Ms. Rotter helped me with transition from paragraphs and the overall flow of my paper.
4.I need improvement with the organization of my paragraphs. I need to also improve my papers by making a strong argument and having strong evidence to explain it clearly. My papers should be written so that anyone could read them and understand what was happening and what I am arguing. This may be a common weakness within the class, so maybe it should be addressed.
1.my favorite aspect of the assignment was being able to write the essay multiple times so you could read it and help make our essays better. My least favorite part was importing quotes because i am bad at it.
2.My academic strength that helped me write the paper was comparing the bible stories to A Separate Peace.
3. Importing quotes was the hardest part because it made my paper seem rough and organizing my paper because I hopped around a lot.
4.I need to improve on writing structure. I will improve it by having other people read my paper and make comments so i can go over it and fix it.
My favorite aspect of this assignment was our ability to rewrite our papers after having feedback from you. It definitely greatly improved all of our grades and showed us the ways we could sort through our ideas and make them better.
I think my strength is that I can describe with detail what it is that I am writing about. I could be wrong, but I think I can be persuasive at times.
For me, the greatest obstacle to finishing this paper was the last revision. I had all of the comments and suggestions given by you, and it was like my last chance to get it right. I literally just stared at my conclusion paragraph for about twenty minutes before even writing anything, when I was writing my last revision. It took me awhile to figure out how I could actually tie all the thoughts in my essay into one, complete idea.
I think I need to work on staying on topic. I usually tend to stray to whatever idea comes to mind, sometimes missing the point of my whole paragraph. I also need to focus on writing a topic sentence that shows what the paragraph will be about. These problems could be helped by waiting a couple days and rewriting on my own, just like you suggested when we first started this whole assignment.
1. My favorite aspect of this assignment was that we got the opportunity to rewrite our essays until we felt comfortable with it. My least favorite part of this assignment was that it was very time consuming.
2. Some academic or writing strengths I have that allowed me to write this paper are thesis statements, conjuctions, keeping everything in order, details, and including the author and his purposes in my paper.
3. The greatest obstacles to finishing this paper was to make sure I had it done in time and to incorporate quotes in my paper that were specifically talking about my points and explaining those quotes. The organization was also confusing at first. Conferencing with Mrs. Rotter and having other people look at my essays helped me. I will use them the next time I write by after I'm finished I will have other people look at it to help me and give me suggestions.
4. Some things I need to improve on in my writing are the organization of my paragraphs and topic sentences. This may be something we should address in class because it seems like these are common problems throughout the whole class. The instruction should probably be explaining how to do it then showing examples and having the class try some examples as well.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/gov_christie_retired_teachers.html
There is alot tension between the NJEA and Governor Christie. He refuses to even have a meeting with the president of NJEA to come up with a resolution. This just shows how close minded he is.
1. My favorite aspect of this assignment was being able to write the paper multiple of times, which helped me realize what we did wrong. This helped us revize our papers to the best of our abilities.
2. The strengths that i have that helped me write the paper are that I can take the teachers advise and use it to my advantage, to write an A worthy paper.
3. The greatest obstacles to writing this paper were probably trying to relate the book to the bible. For the fact that when you did so you had to make sure that what you incoorporated in the essay was relavent to the bible.
4. What I still need to improve on in my writing skills is grammer and organization.
My favorite aspect of the assignment was that we were able to rewrite our papers so that we could better improve our writing. It helped bring up our grades on the paper and taught us a better way to organize our thoughts.
I think my strength is finding the right quotes to put into my essay and using them in the best way I can.
The greatest obstacle I had while writing this paper was the rewriting for the last time. I had to make sure that I understood all of your comments and put them to better use in my paper. I had to take apart one of my paragraphs and manage a way to add everything that was in there throughout the entire paper. I needed to work on bringing my thoughts all together.
I need to work on staying on topic. I tend to jump around a lot in my paper as the ideas come to me. I'm not very good with organizing my thoughts and it shows in my writing. I need to take some time and try to figure out first what it is I'm trying to say, because even though it seems to make sense to me. It might not to the reader. I also need to work more on my thesis statements, I haven't been able to manage writing a clear cut statement. It takes me a few attempts to get it right.
1. My favorite part of the assignment was... I don't really know. Probably how hard it make me think. It helped me get the hang of that kind of thing a little more, writing essays and analyzing like that. My least favorite part of the assignment.. It's tied between how long it took and how I had to change everything each time I rewrote it. First it took a lot longer then I expected.. While I was writing the essay I pretty much had to ignore all my other assignments in all my classes to get it done in the few days we had. I was working on it every day though, very hard. And it was kind of irritating that I kept having to change everything, including my order and theme. But that's all part of the process, I guess.
2. I focused a lot on thesis and intro/conclusion a lot last year.. That really helped.
3. The greatest obstacle for me was staying on track and trying to fit my points made into my thesis. Organizing the paper took a lot longer then it should have.. For some reason it took me an unnecessarily long amount of time to figure out how I was going to write it. Outlining and writing the essay out on paper first really helps me.. Like a lot. It helps me get my thoughts together and sometimes while I'm doing it I think of a good point or two to use. Also, writing the introduction last what extremely useful.
4. Somethings I definitely need to work on are organization, logic, and structure. I have a lot of issues but those are the worst. The only way I can really improve is taking my rough drafts more seriously and reading them through more thoroughly. I definitely think grammar and structure are things that should be brought up in class. A lot of people seem to have problems with these.
1. My favorite aspect of this assignment was being able to rewrite the essay many times. This allowed me to really develop my ideas into more complex thoughts.My least favorite part was putting quotes into the essay because that is my weak point.
2. Some writing strengths i have that allowed me to write the paper are using conjunctions, ordering things correctly, and analyzing my ideas more.
3. The greatest obstacle was going in to depth with my thoughts in the essay. Conferencing helped because it gave me more ideas to write about.
4. I still need to improve organization and quotes. I plan on improving this with practice on essays.
1. My favorite aspect of this assignment was all the chances we had to rewrite our papers. I didn't like how sometimes when addressing your suggestions I felt like I had to change my whole paper.
2. I think my strength is finding things from the book to support the topic of my paper.
3. Personaly I have trouble with sticking with my original thoughts. I always end up contradicting myself one way or another and everything just gets a little wacky. Usually free writing for a little and then getting help from my brother or someone helps me so I guess I will just stick with that whole scene.
4. I still need to improve on organizing and the whole grammar thing. I will try to practice writing grammatically correct and get some help with that structure problem of mine.
1. My favorite aspect of the assignment was that i was able to make my paper as good as possible by re writing it a couple times.
2. The academic skill i used to write my paper was my ability to analyze which helped me find symbolism in the story.
3. My greatest obstacle in finishing the paper was making sure that everything flowed smoothly. I think learning better transitions eventually solved that problem though.
4. I still need to improve on the way i order things in my writing so it doesn't seem like i am just saying random unconnected facts.
1. My favorite part of the summer reading essay was probably just coming up with all the points to my argument. I enjoyed re-reading A Separate Peace and finding pieces of information to help me in my essay. My least favorite part was having to write an opening and closing paragraph because I never like doing that, it's difficult and I can never find an un-awkward way to word it.
2. I think that one of my strengths with writing is how I'm pretty decent at making a paragraph flow well, without it sounding choppy and awkward. This helped me with articulating ideas I had to write about.
3. Thinking of how to start and finish up the paper were obstacles for me. I basically just stared at the screen until I came up with something to say that didn't sound completely idiotic in order to overcome this challenge.
4. I think organization is something I need to improve on. As I was writing my essay I noticed how some of my ideas were out of order. I could probably work on organizing them better and presenting them in a neater fashion.
1. My favorite aspect of the paper was that I got to keep revising and rewriting it, and I got to confrence with Ms.Rotter as some of my classmates so I could build ideas. My least favorite part was the quotes, because we needed alot of them.
2.My academic strengths that helped me write the paper were the use of conjunctions and my thesis statement.
3. The greatest obstacles to finishing this paper was figuring out what to wirte next and to think deeper, which was difficult because I'm not very good at reading between the lines. I mainly confrenced with others and got more ideas so I could use those ideas in my paper.
4. I still need to improve on thinking deeper and I need to be more organized in my papers, because my ideas are usually all over the place. I plan on working on this my outlining better and practicing.
1.My favotite aspect of this assignment was that we were able to rewrite it numerous times.
2.My academic stength that allowed me to write this paper was the ability to find symbolism.
3.The greatest obstacles was thinking of a topic then actually sitting down to explain said topic,outlining help with this obstacle.
4.I personally need to work on organization. I just need to stay on topic because i tend to drift when im writing and then im unable to relate back to my topic.
Post a Comment