English 1 Scholar

When I first came to Hill, I thought that English was one of my strong subjects. Little did I know that was only due to the letter grade I had recieved in the class, mainly boosted by insane extra credit points. My writing was honestly a horrible mess. The biggest problem I had was length. My pieces weren't eight pages long because I was so smart and had so much information to relay. Instead, I would just keep repeating the same thing over and over again in just slightly different wording. The wording was so different that it would seem like I was presenting a new topic, but I really wasn't. When I went back to editing my papers, I refused to delete more than five words that I had written because I had thought they were all so good. My previous English teacher just large "X's" all over the paragraphs and refused to explain to me how and what to edit. Thus, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to editing.

 

On the other hand, I seemed to have fairly strong critical reading skills. In middle school, reading books was one of my favorite things to do. My previous English class consisted of reviewing similies, metaphors, irony, hyperbole and many other figures of speech day after day. Once in a while we would practice applying these skills to short stories and novels through annotation. Thus, I had lots of practice coming in to Mr. Ide's class with critical reading and it was easier for me to apply and analyze the content I read.

 

Throughout this year in English 1, I have pretty much learned how to write all over again. I built from the bottom up, as I started out with hardly any writing skills. During the first term when I wrote a lot of narrative pieces, I had a lot to say to a new teacher who didn't know me. The problem was writing that down in a concise manner. Mr. Ide taught me a whole suitcase of skills that I feel have helped me to create pieces of appropriate length. Alternating short and long sentences, creating shorter paragraphs, and using short and sweet vivid imagery all helped my writing to improve. 

 

Editing based off of Mr. Ide's comments and my own opinions also improved my writing not only in the first term, but throughout the rest of the year. By ignoring my writing for a week and then going back to it, I realized that there was a lot that could be taken out, moved around, or better said in order to more appropriately accomodate the FCA's.

 

These skills helped me a lot when I began to write analyzes. Continuing to read as much as I had time for outside of school and carrying my critical reading skills from one year to the next, I didn't have much of a problem understanding the content. However, it was difficult to effectively explain to the reader what I knew. I couldn't just write down every single thing that was running through my head and turn it in. What I decided to do for many of the pieces I wrote this year was to write down everything I might ever want to say, and then go back to edit, cut, and reflect upon the piece down again and again until it was ready to turn in. The revision process was definitely one of the most helpful skills that I gained in English 1.

 

Ending the year, I now know how to write a convincing argument, get a writing piece from a Type 1 to a Type 4, and read a novel for appreciation of other authors' works. Figuring out how to write a rebuttal, claim, warrant, and reason gave my arguging skills some definite hope. I can go from a five minute free write to a four page paper in a week. I know the steps I should take to make it the best work I can produce. From edits to reflections to printed copies to novels, English 1 has taught me numerous invaluable skills I will never forget.