My Portfolio

     This year I learned a lot about myself as a writer. Through writing different types of essays this year, I  have gained traits of a good writer. I have found many techniques that will be useful for future assignments. Those include time management, the importance of preparation, and organization. I have also grown in other aspects of writing but the three listed above were things I had struggled with.      Time management is key in writing a steady paced piece. I have found that planning it out step by step can prevent a lot of stress. Knowing what you are capable of completing in a timely order can also be beneficial. Preparing and brainstorming are also great techniques used in writing. I have found that before beginning a paper, brainstorming everything on the topic you are writing about can lead to a more organized paper. You can then order the facts or opinions into bullet points and eventually paragraph form. This year, especially...

     Other than making higher grades, I have many goals set for next year. One of my main goals is working on time management. In freshman English, I have found that time management is a growing skill. There are assignments that allow you time to decide how much effort you will out into them. For example, blog posts and vocabublary.com are due on Monday nights. If you spend time on the posts and earning ten thousand points rather than rushing at the last minute it is easy to receive the points. This is true for all assignments including essays. I hope to use my time more efficiently next year.       Besides time management, I would like to read more. I have found that reading more can help my in class reading. The more I catch onto patterns in books, the more skeptical I become. From reading different kinds of books and finding relations between them, I have become better at assigned posts. I hope to continue reading by setting a certain number of minutes ...

I have made great improvements this year, but there are still areas to improve in. Those being time management and meeting required lengths. Time management is something I always need to improve in. Especially in english, time management is important. I think improving it could impact my grade. If I would not procrastinate, my work would be neater and better in general. One of the biggest problems in my writing is meeting the required length. I have always struggled with this since middle school. No matter who helps me or how much detail I add, I always end up cutting it too close. I have tried many different techniques, but they are almost always unsuccessful. Luckily, my writing fellow helped me out this year and on my last paper I reached the required length. I hop to continue her techniques to better my grade.

     My strengths as a writer are perfectionism, strong vocabulary words, and pre-organization. I am a perfectionist, so when writing a paper, I am peculiar about most grammatical aspects.  When citing quotes like those from Purple Hibiscus . My projects included many quotes which had to be cited correctly.  Besides grammatical aspects, I am particular on sentence structure. I can spend thirty minutes on just one sentence.      Beginning in seventh grade to now, my vocabulary has improved drastically. I used to have a weak vocabulary but I have learned to use resources such as thesauruses. This might sound like a small thing but adding stronger terms can add emphasis and strengthen a paper. Another thing I am good at is organizing. Before writing, I try to sort similar thoughts together, making it easier to create paragraphs. Organizing thoughts or facts makes the writing process a lot easier. I found this especially important in writing the...

     I am a writer who has an eye for sentence structure and formatting. I look for details in writing including word choice. I focus on piecing paragraphs together through strong transition sentences. These are all of the parts of writing I have improved on this year. Each paper has taught me something different about the writing process.       I see myself as a much stronger writer. I am a writer who has come a long way from the beginning of the year. I started out the year with much weaker papers, but now I have developed new techniques that have strengthened my writing. I am a writer who can write two pages easily but still struggles to make four. I am a more confident writer.    

 This semester, I visited the writing center for my research paper. My writing fellow was Emma Scott Singletary. She helped me to focus on sentence structure, grammar, and the overall flow of my paper. One of the important aspects of the research paper was to create a sensible timeline. The order of the information was important in developing a well-written paper. I struggled in finding ways to piece my paper together, but my writing fellow steered me into the right direction. I think this helped to strengthen my paper even though there were a few improvements I could have made.      After receiving help, I continued to apply changes. I think that what we worked on helped me to find other parts of my paper that needed fixing. One part was strengthening my vocabulary. I found a lot of alternative words that replaced those with less meaning. This writing center experience helped me to notice things in my paper that I would not have noticed on my own. I am now more awa...