What I have learned about myself as a writer this year

I have grown as a writer this year and have learned details about my vocabulary and sentence fluency. I've learned that my vocabulary is mediocre and is rarely complicated or fancy. I do not see the point in fancy vocabulary because in my eyes, when somebody uses those kinds of words, they are trying to seem smart. When people use that type of vocabulary, it does not necessarily mean they are smart. I have begun to mature in my sentence fluency since last year, learning that I usually do not use proper sentence structure until I go back and edit my writing. I have also learned that to me, the most important part of writing is the editing process.

I have learned that writing does not take too much time for me, but I see others struggling with writing taking them too long. For some reason, putting my thoughts onto paper or into a Word document does not require much effort from me. I have learned that I make many grammatical mistakes in my first draft. I usually finish a paper thinking I have little to no grammatical errors but when I go back to read it, it turns out that there are many mistakes. I have grown to enjoy the rough draft stage of writing because I do not need to worry about editing during this stage.

I am a writer who

I am a writer who enjoys reading his own writing because I can say "Hey, I did that." I am a writer who tries his best to use proper grammar. I am a writer who does not enjoy showing others my writing due to my insecurities about putting my feelings and beliefs out there. I am a writer who does not enjoy most academic reading but I do enjoy reading on my own time. I am a writer who is never confident in his writing and double checks his work over and over again. Finally, I am a writer who thoroughly enjoys writing for most assignments we have done.

My goals as a sophomore writer

Going into sophomore year, I would like to be much more thorough when I write. I usually try to sum up what I am writing because I don't want my writing to bore the readers. Through experience I have come to learn that doing this is not helpful at all and I should add more details to what I write in order to improve it and keep it engaging. This will be one of my main goals since I have lost plenty of points because of the inability to provide enough detail in my writing.

Another goal of mine going into sophomore year is to become a better proofreader. After I am finished with a writing assignment, I always proofread it multiple times. Even after proofreading, there are still grammatical errors in my writing. I have tried multiple strategies including reading my writing out loud and reading it in my head several times, but none have seemed to work completely. I would like to try and become a better proofreader next year by paying attention to details and checking for punctuation errors.

What I need to work on as a writer

As a writer, I need to work on sentence structure more. When I write a sentence, I feel like I use effective word choice and fluency. Then, when I proofread it, it turns out to be choppy and ineffective. I have learned to proofread my writing multiple times from trial and error. If I work to structure my sentences better, I can make my writing flow more smoothly.

I also need to re-learn how to use quotations. When I write a quote, I will put a comma in the wrong place about half of the time. I always get one or two points taken off of major writing assignments due to this, and I need to change it. I am aware that since it was taught to me in the past, I am responsible for it when I write. This is why I need to become better at quoting to improve my writing.

My strengths as a writer

I believe that I have many strengths that have grown over the school year while writing. For instance, I have learned through the personal narrative paper that I should "show," not just tell what is going on in my writing. I understand now the importance of MLA formatted citations, formatting after working with my research paper, and attempting to properly cite all of my sources. I have learned and become confident in the use of in text citations, which I did not know existed before this year.

As we went over different forms of plagiarism and how not to plagiarize, I learned how to be careful while using paraphrasing. Through my own experience as a writer, when I am unsure if something needs to be cited, I always cite it anyway. I also learned that I can plagiarize my own work, although I do not quite understand that. Overall, the explanations in class about how to avoid plagiarism have helped me write without questioning myself and have made me a better writer.

My second semester writing

As the year has gone by, I have yet to visit the writing center for my second semester requirement.  I feel like I completed my research paper to the fullest of my capabilities and I believe that my writing has drastically changed for the better throughout the school year. I am planning to visit the writing center as I am finalizing my portfolio project. They writing fellows were extremely helpful when I visited them for the "Lord of the Flies" writing assignment. I believe that the writing fellows will also be helpful while I revise my personal narrative with them.

Comments

JordonianRApril 27, 2017 at 8:15 PM

I agree that all people are capable of lying and betrayal because of simple human nature. I also believe that power does not necessarily bring happiness and often causes stress.

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JordonianRApril 27, 2017 at 8:22 PM

I also can not remember a time I betrayed someone or if somebody betrayed me. I disagree with the fact that everything happens for a reason, but i'm not religious and don't have much input on that topic. Good post Joe.

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Why women are as violent as men and why anticipation is bad.

I strongly disagree with the statement that anticipation is a good thing. It will always get somebody's hopes up, resulting in the person over-hyping the future in their mind. Anticipation is also a bad thing because it causes great disappointment when something doesn't live up to its hype. Anticipation always leaves me on edge until the day the event happens and it bums me out because it let me down. It is never a good thing unless everything you anticipate will happen.

I disagree with one part of the statement that women are more compassionate. I don't really believe either way about women being more compassionate than men because I don't have experience with it, but I do believe that they are just as violent as men. It is hard to say this without being called sexist, but I do not really care if you take this the wrong way anyways. When women hurt men, they do it with the cheap excuse of "You cant hit me, I'm a girl!" I do believe that it is inappropriate to hit women, but this statement is preposterous. If a man hits another man and says " You can't hit me, I'm a man!", then they will get a swift uppercut to the jaw. In my lifetime, many girls have hit me or pulled my hair when I annoyed them because they knew I couldn't do anything about it. This proves how women are just as violent as men, but with the cowardly mentality that they will never get hurt in return. 

Pieces of Writing this year

After writing various assignments for English class this year, I feel like I have grown stronger as a writer. My worst piece of writing was the personal narrative at the beginning of the year. That was a miss instead of a hit. I didn't understand how to use imagery effectively and struggled with "showing, not telling" writing. As I learned more and wrote my research paper, I think I did well. I provided strong arguments to help my thesis and structured it to the best of my ability.

I also believe that I did the best I could have on my Lord of the Flies writing assignment. I described how the belief in the fictional beast created so much conflict during the story. I used evidence from the book to back up my thesis, much like in my research paper. It was definitely a hit instead of a miss. Overall, I am satisfied with my growth as a writer this year and I am ready for sophomore year writing.

Comments

JordonianRApril 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM

I can relate to your procrastination. I always do my blogs on Monday nights.

JordonianRApril 13, 2017 at 6:58 PM

I watched both of those shows as a child. They were a major part of my childhood.

Reading Strategies

Because we are reading a challenging book, I have developed a sort of system for reading it. For every page, I jot down notes in my notebook at home. I do not write on the pages because when I go back to read different pages I find it hard to concentrate with all of my markings and whatnot on the page. This is why I chose to do reading responses instead of annotations. Whenever I see something I find important, I write it down and write why it is important to the side of it. This has helped me stay organised without having to create distractions for myself when I go back to read a passage later.

I have also tried to note down what I think will need to be written about in the reading response I write. Whenever I see a broad topic brought up that is left open for debate in the book, such as Jaja's hurt finger, I write down what I believe happened before jotting down what I should write in the response. This has helped me be prepared for the days that a reading response is due. It prevents the responses from taking too much thought and effort while I write them because I have already put that thought and effort to use in my notes.

My most precious childhood possession

My most precious childhood possession was my first pocket knife. I had asked my parents for years for one, but they said I might cut myself. Eventually they got me one when I joined the boy scouts in first grade. It was a tiny blue knife. It seemed like it was never sharpened, but it didn't stop me from whittling with it. I spent about three hours making a spear with it and then threw the spear at a tree.

This item was important to me because of the amount of time I had tried to obtain it. My parents were right about it being too dangerous for a kid my age, though. I was whittling a stick, and accidentally cut a gash out of my wrist. I had not been paying attention and dropped the stick before moving the knife. I hid the scar from my dad so he did not take the knife away from me because I was being careless. I learned that my parents were right about things having to do with safety most of the time by doing this to myself.

Comments

JordonianRApril 7, 2017 at 6:16 AM

I have also relaxed less as I grew older. My parents always considered Sunday a day for relaxation, but i didnt listen.

JordonianRApril 7, 2017 at 6:14 AM

I agree with what you said. I do not understand why America has to be involved, though.

comments

JordonianRMarch 31, 2017 at 9:58 AM

I agree with your view on the 2 party system. Because of arguing, nothing gets done within each party.

JordonianRMarch 31, 2017 at 10:03 AM

I agree that global warming is probably not caused by humans. It could be happening, but it is not as big an issue as many think it is.

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Immigration Ban Article

In a political article written from what Sean Hannity said on his TV show, he talks about Trump's attempted ban on Muslim immigration. I chose this article because this topic seriously bothers me in everyday life. I live in constant fear of terrorism and I am constantly worrying about what to do about it if I am put in a terrorism situation. It interests me how some people do not agree that there would be many American deaths if this ban is not put into process. The main points that he makes is that the judges that stopped this ban are trying to jeopardize the lives of the American people, and that they have no right to stop his ban.

Although I do not agree that these judges are intentionally putting American lives at risk, I do agree that they are. I do not believe that there is a large portion of the Muslim population that are terrorists, but I do believe that a tiny amount of them are. This is not close to arguable, and since a tiny amount of them are, there will be many American deaths if the people in charge of our country keep letting Muslims into our country. Although some might argue that we should let them come in to the country anyways to improve our lives, this is not worth the thousands of American deaths that will occur if we allow them to come in to the country. I do not completely understand whether or not these judges do or don't have the right to stop this ban, but I do not think it is relevant. Overall I agreed with most of his points, but I do not agree that the judges stopping the ban want to jeopardize American lives.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/02/07/sean-hannity-alt-left-judges-lawmakers-play-games-with-president-trumps-travel-ban.html

Comments

JordonianRMarch 23, 2017 at 8:40 PM

I cant wait for the summer too. I also have trouble with focusing on homework.

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JordonianRMarch 23, 2017 at 10:44 PM

I understand how long some track meets can take after being in track in Middle school. I agree that nobody cared about competing in middle school track.

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What I have learned during the year

I have learned that I procrastinate frequently. During the first quarter, I feared high school and turned in all my work ahead of time. As the year has gone by, I have grown lazy as a student. Instead of turning something in before it is due, I wait until the last day to do it. This has become especially hard to do when I have research presentations due and have one night to do them. I have realized that this will not work out for me anymore.

During the second quarter, I decided to put off studying for tests to the last two days. This reflected poorly on my scores and overall grades. As I am going into the fourth quarter, I am planning to study well in advance for tests and quizzes. I have also learned to do homework in advance too. I will also help myself out by doing some work at school during tutorial and study hall.

Reading Response

I have been reading a book called Asylum recently before we received a new book to read in class. It is set in modern day New Orleans, which U have been to many times. This made the book more interesting to me because some of the locations in the book were places I had seen in New Orleans. The main character, Dan, is trying to determine whether his relatives could have ties to a local mental prison. His adventures into the Asylum with his friends ultimately leads to his repeated arrest. Although Dan is shaped to be a courageous character, he is sometimes described as cowardly by the author at some points in the book.

The author adds suspense to the ends of paragraphs and chapters to cause the reader to want to read more. He mentions how Dan is being chased by a man and ends the chapter there. Instead of just telling the story, the author provides colorful imagery of each scene. He describes sights smells, and sounds. The descriptions of sounds create intense scenes and makes the book more terrifying. Overall, Asylum is an entertaining book due to its imagery and terrifying scenes.

Comments

JordonianRMarch 9, 2017 at 8:06 PM

I would like to have a family tradition of going on vacation during break. I also have had my ears popped on an airplane.

JordonianRMarch 9, 2017 at 8:09 PM

I have also debated with my self whether or not to eat a piece of king cake. I know it is unhealthy, but I eat it anyways.

Mardi Gras Vacation

Each year for Mardi Gras, I go to New Orleans with my family. My family always invites some of their friends to meet us on Sunday to see a parade called Thoth. My dad is in the parade and throws me a bag of beads when he goes by. We stay at the Hilton hotel near the Riverwalk mall. The best part about staying at the hotel is that it is connected to the mall and it is less than a minute's walk to it.

We also go to another parade called Bachus after the first parade. We meet the same people to go see it and find a spot at the end of the parade route. The reason for this is that the people in the parade will throw more things to you if you are at the end of the route. They do this because they are not allowed to leave their float with any throws left at the end of the route. Each year I enjoy Mardi Gras and Mardi Gras break.

Song

I have chosen to annotate one of the song options called Umbrella by Rihanna. It was written about two people who could trust each other through tough times. It is based off of friendship and being with them on rainy days. It is mentioned in the song that "Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other". This explains how she will stick with her friend and enjoy their company even when things aren't going so well.

The song is also about how life puts forth challenges. It suggests that friendship helps people overcome these challenges. It says "When the world has dealt its cards, If the hand is hard, together we'll mend your heart". This means that when the world presents a problem, she will help her friend get through it and feel better inside. This song was made in a positive light about how friendship helps people through tough times.

Vocabulary words

For this blog, I will explain how to use some vocabulary words in sentences. I chose to explain the word invigorate. It means to give strength or energy to something or someone. For example, I could say "John's afternoon coffee invigorated him in order to complete his work day". I also chose the word amnesty. It means to grant a pardon for a certain wrongdoing.

 Amnesty can also mean the willingness of a government to overlook something, like a certain crime. For example, the president could grant amnesty to a group of people who committed a crime. Lastly, I chose to define the word indulge. It means to give in to something, like a craving. For example, you could indulge your craving of a food by eating it.

Warm Winter's Day

As I sit in my living room writing this blog
I sit on the sofa seeing warm winter's fog

Here in the south we receive no snow
Never is a time when green grass does not grow

Ever since leaving I sure have missed
That Colorado cold white snowy bliss

I begin to think after taking a shower
About how much has happened in the world during this hour

Like how people up north get to stay
In a winter wonderland

While I sit here
On a warm winters day

Blog Comments

JordonianRFebruary 9, 2017 at 9:40 AM

I understand the struggle with in-text citations. I either forget to put one, or put the same one twice in a row regularly while writing my paper.

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JordonianRFebruary 9, 2017 at 10:04 AM

My conclusion isn't finished also. I need to add a few more sentences onto it.

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Why Plagarism Rules are the most important part of a Research Assigment

My research drafting was tedious and overwhelming. I learned a little bit about how to write a research paper because I was drowned in busy work the whole time. Although I could not focus too much on learning how to write a research paper, I learned that I need to read over the rubric multiple times because I forgot to put my works cited page in my submitted draft. I had already put it on my document that I wrote my first draft on, and decided to put it into the properly formatted template. I accidentally didn't highlight the works cited list to paste it in and I received half credit on the whole assignment.

I also learned that MLA citations are not actually usable. I know that they are somehow the "proper" way to format citations, but it is incredibly difficult to find the source through them. I could not locate one of my sources on the database I found it, so I pasted the MLA citation that I had on Noodle Tools. The source would not pop up, and I lost an important document I could have used in my project. I have learned that you should copy the actual URL of each document so you can find it, but show your teachers the non-usable MLA citations in order to not be a "plagiarist". I understand that plagiarism is a serious problem in the world, but I do not believe that MLA citations should be the proper thing to use.

Reading Response

I have learned more about Junior as a character as I read more of this book. I learned that he is not afraid to say what is on his mind when he insults the genius kid from science class. He uses harsh language which makes the story more entertaining in my opinion. Another thing I learned was how poor of an education that Junior is getting. There are teachers like Mr. P who sleep during class. There are also teachers who do not understand their subject because of the lack of teachers at his school.

I also found it upsetting that Junior has had to walk home. I wondered how his family car breaks down daily and still runs occasionally. As a student at Episcopal, I would also have to walk about 22 miles to get home. I do not understand how his parents wouldn't freak out if Junior didn't get home after 2 or 3 hours after school. It makes me feel sympathetic for Junior due to his regular hitch-hiking schedule after school.

The Difficulty of Finding a Topic for a Free Post

Throughout the first semester, I have found it difficult to choose a topic to write about. Therefor, my topic this week is the difficulty of choosing a topic. When I am given a free post assignment, I have no idea what to do. This is challenging because I have to create writing that my classmates might like to read, and is school appropriate. Due to the fact that this is school writing, I have to change my tone of voice and point of view.

I would choose to talk about politics, but the school has already banned free speech about that. In hopes that I will be able to create more quality free posts in the future, I have taken my time this week to explain my struggles with topic selection. I would also like to talk about my personal issues, but they also are inappropriate. I am planning on choosing a topic for the next free post assignment, and thoroughly enjoy creating these blog posts.

Reading Response

Overall, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian has been surprisingly entertaining. From my own personal experience with required reading for school, the books I have read were very boring. The diary is very enjoyable to read and I understand the point of view of the narrator. I found it hilarious when Junior threw the book at his teacher. I did not understand his response to the books being outdated, though. It might just be me, but I do not care if my books are old and even if I did, I wouldn't be provoked enough to throw the book across the room.

I enjoyed the description of Mr. P. I enjoy how there are pictures that give the reader an entertaining understanding of how characters or scenes look. The fact that Mr. P was normally asleep during the class helps the reader understand what type of teacher he is. When I first read that Mr. P. had his nose broken, I felt bad for the man. After learning that he used to beat Indian children, I felt that he deserved it.

Comments

JordonianRJanuary 26, 2017 at 8:17 PM

I also agree that I feel better when somebody is having w worse day than I am. I also agree that we do not have enough time to complete homework.

JordonianRJanuary 26, 2017 at 8:22 PM

I think we have a lot of work at Episcopal but I have gone here my whole life so I can not compare different workloads. I also feel like I never have enough time to relax.

My research topic

For my project, I am studying the spread of Islam. I am explaining how Islam spread through force as well as the spread of word. I have developed a timeline in my note cards of how Abu Bakr and other Muslim army commanders took control of parts of Europe and Northern Africa. My sources explain how the armies caused the rapid spread of Islam in the Middle Ages. One of my sources describe the overall role of Islamic Women.

The women make pilgrimages to the Holy Land and mourn the loss of loved ones. My other sources describe how the persecution of Jews and Muslims in Spain made the religion stop spreading in some regions temporarily. One source gives a timeline of laws passed against Muslims and Jews in Spain.

What I learned in the First Semester

During the first semester, I learned how to become more organized. During school, I used to take notes and cram them into my backpack. After losing several homework assignments by doing this in the first semester, I gave learned to make binders for each class. This has allowed me to know where my papers are at all times.

I also learned how to organize my work on my laptop. I used to use one folder for all of my notes on my computer. My teachers showed me how to make google drive folders for each subject. It keeps me from having to search through two quarters of notes to submit an assignment. My first semester has taught me how to effectively use my computer without losing my work.

Winter Break

My winter break did not meet my expectations. For one, it was hot and muggy on Christmas Eve and Christmas. I was also sick for multiple days during the holidays. I didn't get a cold or a normal sickness, but I inhaled smoke from a fire in my backyard. It damaged my throat and I was coughing for days after.

I decided to try to cure my coughing problem. I drank lemon juice and honey that I heard would help on a YouTube video. It would only work for ten minutes at a time, so it was not effective. After I recovered from that, we decided to set off fireworks on out street. My mother told my dad not to buy fireworks, but he didn't care and bought them anyways. We set off three large boxes at once and I got sick again because of smoke it created. We then received emails from our neighborhood complaining about who set off the big show of fireworks.

Research

My research process has gone smoothly so far. Besides accidentally deleting some of my work, I have been able to complete my annotated bibliographies on time. I have also used my time wisely while creating notecards and have most of my World History notecard assignment done. I enjoyed learning about women's roles in Islamic culture. I found out that they are involved in their own pilgrimages to Mecca each year.

Finding reliable sources on a database was difficult. Most of the sources on the database I used are definitely reliable, but the idea of being limited to the school databases was frustrating. There were not too many results when I searched for my topic on the Gale World History database. I understand that we are required to use it because the articles published in it are credible, but I also think that limiting us to those databases prevents us from finding information not presented on those databases.