Letter to Block 3

Dear Classmates,

Oh block 3, at the beginning of the year there was a fog in the room. It was very difficult with all the assignments, and we didn't want any of it. We would moan, and groan, and the more we heard from Mrs. Edwards' class, the more we complained. Although we knew it wasn't going to get any easier, we tried to convince Dr. D that it was a lot of work. After she had that talk with us, it was smooth sailing. It was still a lot of work but, the work was more pleasurable because I did not have the mindset that it was all hard, and that it was unfair.

The 2nd semester had a lot of reports, and projects. Even then we had a positive attitude. I really enjoyed class after the first semester. It was a really fun year, and I wish you all luck next year!

Evaluation

   General Procedures- I have had days where I forget my pencil or do not have a sheet of paper. I always use my time in between my classes to go do whatever I need to get done. My e-mail is checked everyday, and I try to have a positive attitude as much as possible.

Lecture, announcements, whole class discussion- I try to contribute my thoughts and stay actively involved in class discussions. I always take notes, and ask questions at appropriate times.

Individual and group work- I had one issue where I did not contribute my work properly, but other than that I stay on task, do the work that is assigned, contribute properly to group discussions, and I try to do more than just the minimum for everything.

Growth- I feel that I have grown a lot in the second semester. My attitude towards the class has changed in a better way. I contribute better when I have a good attitude, and it is more fun. Also I think I have grown in the subject of paying attention to detail.

Macbeth thoughts

 So, this guy Banquo. Who is he to say Duncan was killed by us? I feel my body shake at the thought of the night Duncan clang to his life. But can he see? Lady, you help me get through but do you help me deal with guilt, or do you make it worst?

If Banquo gets killed, we will be under more suspicion. Lady, will you back us up?Should I feel guilt that we will kill my friend, and my higher power, who was nothing but nice? We hire murderers to kill, but the burden of the titles, king, cawdor, glamis, is all to much. For the simple mind.

Common errors list

Organization
Transitions
colons in general
citing bibliography
comma splices
hyphens
sentence fragments
works cited issues
italicization
sentence fluency
voice

Progressions through writing

This year, I entered 9^th grade not knowing how much writing we had to do as freshman. Then, reality hit! We had a few writing assignments in the beginning of the year. Which were nothing like the papers we had written in 8^th grade. But, it is high school, and we go to college prep. So what’s not to be expected?

The first assignment we had was a report on the novel Nation. I was quick to admit that it was my least favorite book in the summer reading books that I had read! It was a difficult essay to write, and my skills were definitely lacking in support, and fluency. As the year progressed, we began to write a literacy narrative essay. This time, it was neither the support nor the fluency, but instead organization. I noticed that as I got better at some skills, the other skills that needed tuning did not get the attention they needed.

Organization still needed tuning as the comments from the teacher came back from the 3^rd essay I wrote. She commented “but there is room to grow in terms of ideas, organization, and voice.” I had gotten past fluency, and support. Meanwhile I am learning a lot of ways to help get the skills to fix problems with those traits of good writing. The work just keeps getting harder and harder though! The profile assignment was the 3^rd essay, and I really saw some growth from the last paper, and the profile. Although what helped is I knew the person very well, so I didn’t have to do any digging for answers or more information. The next paper is all about transitions, NO ORGANIZATION!

I wrote an essay about poems. And it was fantastic except for the part where transitions come into play. As I said earlier once I fix problems, more occur, which is very frustrating about being a writer. You try your best on a piece of writing and address the areas of concern, but then only to be let down with more issues. Between every paragraph there was a note that read “weak transition”, and as soon as I reread the essay I noticed it as well! So sometimes just rereading things more than once, and having others look at it to see what they think, is more helpful than getting a paper back that says weak transition 5 times in one paper.

Overall, I can say that I have learned a lot from this year’s writing experience. It has not been easy, but it has pushed me out of my comfort zone for writing papers, and analyzing short stories. The 6 traits of good writing are still going to be in writing from here on out so I will always remember the traits. Also, as I noticed the other day, in the 1^st quarter I had trouble writing a page that was double spaced. Now I can write 2 pages double spaced really easily!

In the ongoing years I hope to exceed the limitations of writing, and become really good so that I can be prepared to go to a liberal arts college. This year was a HUGE step up from last year, but I believe that it was a good change, and that the ongoing writing projects, and one after the other papers, really does help you to become a stronger writer and a faster typer. I have seen major growth in my writing throughout the year.

Common Errors Essay

Common Errors Essay

            The papers this year are most definitely critiqued differently than previous years. The papers seem to be critiqued more on grammatical, sentence structure, and development issues. I have made many grammatical mistakes on all my papers, but one just stands out above all. That is comma splice.

            I am a repeat offender of the comma splice. A regular sentence must contain a main verb and a subject to be complete.  A comma splice is when you join two of those sentences together by a comma. The sentence may not have more than one main verb, and subject. So therefor, the comma splice was a killer for me! But, what I did do well is putting colons where semi-colons were supposed to go.

            Colons are used to introduce a list or quotation. Semi-colons are used to combine two sentences where the period has been left out. It is just to replace the period to give the sentence a more fluent flow. I would sometimes mix the two up, or I used the colon to combine two sentences if I forgot which one to put. I would always think of it like this. The colon has a comma on the bottom so it is like putting a comma in the place of a punctuation mark. And for the semi-colon I would think of it as a period since it has a double period in a sense. So I didn’t fully understand the rules to a semi-colon rule.

            Another issue of mine was hyphens. I knew that some numbers had hyphens in them, and some words. I never got when to use a hyphen other than that was how it was spelled, so I went along with it. A hyphen is used to combine a compound verb. So if the verb is not in the dictionary, you should highlight it. I followed that rule for a while until, I thought of some of the numbers in the alphabet are hyphenated. Then I thought that they are the more compound words like; twenty-two for instance.

            Other than errors, I have done some good things that goes along with grammatical errors. The indentions of the paragraphs are an everyday thing for me, but in the works cited section, indentions are hard to come by. They are very scarce in my papers. I did my works cited through a site called noodlebib, and it did not indent it so I just let it be.

            My common errors consisted of; comma splices, semi-colons, colons, indentions in the works cited, citing quotes correctly, sentence fragments, which to be perfectly honest I had no clue what it was before I had to do this essay, and hyphens. I have learned a lot from this essay and in general, about the grammatical errors that I make. I think that it will help me in the end to become a stronger writer, and also to become stronger in the grammatical section. Overall, from start to finish the only repeating issue was the comma splice. Also, looking at the papers from earlier in the year I think I have exceeded my expectations in improving from a grammatical standpoint.

4/20-100 minutes
4/22-66 minutes