WRITING ANALYSIS.
Strengths.
This year, I think that my strengths were really displayed in creative writing, because I enjoy writing unique twists, plot points, settings, and characters. Last year I put an emphasis on improving my narrative writing rather than focusing on persuasive or informative forms of writing. I've found that creative writing is more flexible when it comes to plot structure or characters, which also makes it more adaptable and unique when developing a story. However, I did enjoy the debate because of the different strategies and research that's collected in anticipation of what the opponent might say and the excitement of debating itself. Every year I continue to improve my grammar, but this year there was more of an emphasis on specific forms of grammar and sentence structure that I enjoyed, because it allowed us to learn new tips and tricks to editing our writing in increments which also made it easier to remember than when we learned in previous years. Weaknesses. I think that my weakness lies in formal/informative writing because of the research it entails as well as its non-flexible structure when it comes to presenting evidence and connecting it to the points that I'm making. Especially when this process is repeated multiple times, the writing becomes monotonous and repetitive, particularly if the topic isn't a resolution I support or a subject that I don't have a real interest in. I still struggle with test taking when it comes to English, especially analysis of tone, author's purpose, or structure. This year I tried to improve on the methods that I use to analyze text, but I find it difficult to identify the "best answer" under the pressure of time rather than the reasoning that makes the most sense the me at the time, especially when it comes to interpreting figurative language in poetry, because the meaning can often be open ended or confusing if not looked at through the proper lens. However, as I branch out and begin to write more I can see patterns in the writing that I see in my own and can also apply tone and new forms of figurative language by seeing it in context. |
Most Improved.
The areas that I most improved in would be creative writing and my speed of test taking, which has improved due to work in class and taking the PSAT, PreACT, and ACT, which are all timed tests, which has also helped me improve my speed of writing. I worked really hard to expand my vocabulary and adapting a more flexible writing style this year to include more synonyms for words that I commonly use and new ways to change my paragraph structure to vary sentence length. I also delved deeper into creative, abstract writing, which I found that I have more interest in than informational writing because it allows me to use the vocabulary that applies to sensory description to direct the plot or the reader's emotions. I find this more interesting and that makes me more motivated to improve in these areas in the future. Goals.
Next year, I want to focus on improving my grammar and vocabulary further as well as working on my formal writing as a greater focus next year. I want to sound more eloquent in my writing by utilizing word choice and rhetoric more this year, which would help me with persuasive writing as well. I really want to pick topics that I'm interested in to write about which would also help me improve my writing by giving me a greater drive to find evidence that I can find fascinating. Establishing tone and mood in my writing will also be a priority of mine because of its importance in character and world building and impacting the reader's emotions. |
SCARY STORY PROJECT. OCT 27.
"Tokyo Sunrise."
This assignment was to write a narrative that focused on building suspense through the use of rhetoric and word choice to write a "scary story," this included picking a theme or a fear and finding a creative way to express it through the account of a character. We utilized writing methods such as dialogue and plot progression to build tension in the story and for the reader. I learned that writing in a way that produces suspense while not writing in a manner that drags out the storyline until the reader loses interest and that to write an effective horror story, the resolution of the plot is minimal to none, following a long period of rising action and a climax with a certain twist that triggers the height of emotion in the characters. If I were to re-write my scary story, I would add more description and sensory details that highlight my character's fears and flaws and also add more to strengthen the climax of the story. I was really pleased with my ending, because it reveals the twist of the story and also shows the deeper fear of the character, rather than just the superficial, physical fear of the tsunami. I think that I would also make the paper longer, I felt like the page limit was a little restricting to the point that I tried desperately to keep it short enough by cutting out some details that I thought were important to the narrative.
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COLLEGE RESEARCH PROJECT. NOV 8.
Yale University.
The college research project was an assignment where we had to find reliable information on ten different subjects that discuss the history, description, requirements, academics, and environments of a college/university of our choosing using the college's website or other reliable resources for college awareness week. Along with the written paper, we also made a colored pennant with the school's logo and/or mascot and established date. During presentations, I learned about dozens of other universities that are both out-of-state and in-state, including a variety of Ivy Leagues, international schools and colleges with religious affiliations. With the information about the college's ambiance and academics, we also had to report the average GPA's and scores for standardized tests which was also interesting to explore where my grades and SAT scores are compared to more prestigious universities. Were I to do this project again, I'd spend more time researching information about applications, career services, and application materials as well as practicing the presentation side of the assignment. I would add more about the environment around and outside of campus, finding more unique details about nearby museums and any events that happen annually.
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PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE. DEC 12.
The Internet-of-Things.
For this assignment, my partner and I had to construct and perform in a public forum debate, based on the advantages v. disadvantages of the Internet-of-Things relating to decreased personal privacy, against another pair of classmates. This included writing up the details of our case and doing necessary research to prepare for the rebuttal and rapid fire rounds. During this project, I had to learn about every facet of the topic, including the parts that defend our negation as well as counterarguments to better support our claim and refute our opponents' main points. We also had to learn about the structure of a public forum debate, including the time provided between rounds and how to flow properly to record as much of our opponents' constructive as possible. If I were to do this project again, I would probably spend more time preparing for the rebuttal and rapid fire rounds with more statistic to support our claim, as well as focus on finding logical fallacies in our opponents' arguments and utilizing the fallacies to better support our points. I would also put in more statistics to back up our main points in the actual constructive so we would have more information to work with in later rounds, while shaving down the quotes to the most important details to make sure that we can stay within the time constraints.
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SOPHOMORE JOINT PROJECT. DEC 21.
Population Calculation Program.
The sophomore AOIT joint project was a collaborative project between English, programming, and APES to calculate multiple different population statistics based on data gathered from Wake County in 2016 and 2017 using the programming language, Visual Basic. We had to design the program to be easy to use while also integrating multiple forms of user friendly interfaces and obtaining the correct answers based on the data provided. I really liked the appearance of the main window, with the use of GroupBoxes and ListBoxes to makes the layout more adaptable and the multiple form windows which allowed the user to only input data for the specific calculation that they desired and also allowing them to perform all of the calculations, if needed. While writing the program I had to transfer data from the input windows to the main form and also change the property names of the objects to prompt for the correct data. Some things that I disliked about my program was the lack of intuitiveness when it came to population density and not taking into account the unit of measurement of the original input. I could've remedied this by including a drop down or checkboxes to determine the desired output(s), which would have required objects on the form as well as multiple conversion calculations for the standard types of units (kilometers, miles, acres, hectares, etc). This project really emphasized the importance of a program's intuitiveness and ability to be user friendly. While debugging the code, the process of entering and re-entering data became tedious and monotonous, which ultimately led to frustration if the calculation ran into a bug.