Which of your pieces was the most enjoyable to write? Give three reasons and explain?
My short story was the most enjoyable essay to write because through creating my own short story, I was able to express daily issues that typical ICS students faced in school in a humorous, transparent and relatable manner. One way my story reflected daily issues faced by typical ICS students was that it portrayed the popularity hierarchy in a realistic and relatable manner. Arthur, the junior year student, was insecure about his popularity status: he felt ashamed that he did not have 1000 followers on Instagram; He felt sad that he was not part of the most popular social cliche; He felt disappointed that he did not have any leadership position in ICS. The fact that he got rejected by his crush, Jill because he wasn’t popular enough furthered showed how life in ICS can be less enjoyable if you are not popular. Another way my story reflected daily issues faced by ICS students was that it brought up the negative impacts of procrastination and poor time-management on a student’s academics and commitments to school activities. Arthur, just like me and many other people, get distracted when they do homework so as a result, it took them forever to get their assignments done. And our inability to manage our time wisely has led to us and Arthur (the character) being unable to fufill our responsibilities in clubs and other tasks we have committed ourselves to. Lastly, my story involved failed-attempts by high school teens to attract members of the opposite sex. Through including funny but slightly explicit detials of Arthur stalking Jill, such as having Arthur screenshot Jill’s bikini photos posted on instagram, I was able to myself and the audience laugh at the plotline of the story. And my portrayal of teens looking for love can be considered realistic when considering the fact that it is really common for ICS students to stalk others, particularly those of the opposite sex, on social media platforms such as facebook or vsco.
Which of your pieces was the most challenging to write? Give three reasons and explain?
Aside from being the piece that I enjoyed writing the most, my short story is also the piece that I found the most challenging to write. I found it the most challenging to write because It took me a long time to plan my sotry. One reason why it took me a challenging time to plan my story was because I did not know how long should my short story be. Some short stories I have read in highschool were just 2 pages long. But for some, they can go up to 15 pages in length. When I first planned my story, I did not whether to write it 3 pages in length or write it 10 pages in length. I mean, making my short story long provides enough time for tension and suspense to build up yet it creates too much unnecessary detail. And making my short story short does not allow enough time for tension to build up but it prevents my audience from getting bored. And it wasn’t until i have one day to submit my assignment that i had no choice but to shorten my story to just a few pages. Another reason why my short story was challenging to write was because I attempted to make my story funny even when I do not have a humorous personality. I drafted my story in a way that seeked to present daily issues of ICS students in a funny but realistic manner. Yet not having a funny personality, I did not know for sure whether certain details of my plotline are actually amusing to my audience. And because of this, I wasted a lot of time constantly changing details in the plot such that the new revised details would look more ‘humorous’. One last reason why I found this piece challenging to write was because I found it hard to develop a unique sense of voice in descriptive essays. The reason why I couldn’t develop a unique sense of voice in this short story was because I 100% copied the writing style of ‘Owl Creek’ in my story. Growing up, I never read short stories and fictions outside english class and so as a result I did not really have much chances in reading and developing my own story-telling skills. By the time I reached junior year, I literally had zero skill in descriptive writing. And in order to bypass this descriptive short story assignment, I had no choice but to fully copy the devices and techniques of Ambrose Bierce such that my short story would sound good and sophisticated.
What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? Explain.
One strength I have in writing is that I express a lot of dramatic emotions in my pieces. And this expression of dramatic emotion can be seen in my essays throughout the entire semester, with one example of this being in my Princeton University entrance essay – ‘The moral obligation of living in a democratic society’ – In order to exaggerate the moral obligation for democratic countries to promote freedom everywhere, I used phrases such as ‘divine mission’, ‘arduous fight’ and ‘gospel of democracy’ to stress the importance of such moral obligations to members of democratic countries. One weakness I have as a writer is that I write with poor grammar. And this is evident from the fact that throughout my college writing essays in quarter 1 I got mostly ⅖ to ⅗ for mechanics and grammar.
What have you done to develop your strengths and minimize your weaknesses as a writer? How successful do you feel you have been? Explain.
One thing I have done to develop my strengths as a writer is to read other great pieces of writing and learn from them. In Quarter 2, I read the short story ‘Owl Creek’ in order to help me write short stories that express emotion, action and vivid imagery better and more expressively. By reading ‘Owl Creek’, I had improved to write more eye-catching and dramatic short stories: I made vivid descriptions of story scenes in order to bring out the atmospheres and backgrounds which contribute to the mood of the plotline and the tone of the story in general; I incoporated the inner dialogue of key characters such that their attitudes towards the external conflict of the plot and their struggle with their own internal conflict can be portrayed vividly and emotionally because we see their internal dialogue in first person; I made sure I included sudden plot twist such that the ending would not be one that the reader would expect to happen.
One thing I have done to minimize my weakness as a writer is to use Grammarly in my writing. During October, Mr. Nollan recommended me to install Grammarly in my chrome extension such that when I type I would know and be able to correct my grammar mistakes. After installing Grammarly, it became clear that I made fewer grammar mistakes in my papers. Another thing I have done to minimize my mistakes is to take the SAT Writing and Language Test class. Since the SAT Writing and Language Test is all about knowing how to use grammar properly, therefore by preparing myself for such a test on grammar I too can subsequently improve my grammar on college writing papers because my knowledge on the usage of grammar has improved after I took the SAT course.
What kind of future career or field of study are you considering? What kinds of writing might be important in this career or field? Explain, giving specific examples.
The field of study I am considering is Anthropology or Psychology. Though descritive essays like short stories are not necessarily needed in this field, knowing how to write expository essays is an essential skill in my degree. Expository essays are essays that present a balanced analysis of a topic. Because of their informative nautre, writters of expository essays must know how to articulate their ideas in a clear and concise manner. They also have to know how to use professional research, statistics, and facts to back up their analysis on issues. One specific example of how expository essays are important in my field will be the research papers university students do in Anthropology or Psychology coures. Particularly in UK universities where students learn mostly by conducting their own research, being able to present and organize their research in expository essays is definitely a great skill to learn as these students are graded mostly by the quality of research papers they hand in.
What advice would you offer the College Writing teachers as they plan this unit for next year? What might be some
additional pieces of writing to add and why? How was the timing and pacing? Did you receive enough feedback? Did you receive enough instruction and input so you knew how to do each assignment? You can make specific comments about specific assignments here. What did you like or not like and why? What would make this unit more student-friendly, provide more learning, or make it more interesting? Explain.
One advice I would offer to college writing teachers as they plan the units for next year is to be more flexible on what type of essays students chose to write. Since students in our class have a big variety of interest and career goals, therefore it would be better for students to focus on imporving writing skills that are important in their careers of interest. The timing and pacing is just right. And we received enough feedback on our papers by which Mr Nollan not only gives us helpful editing suggestions but also scores us on different writing traits such that we know what traits we can improve on in our next writing papers. Instructions for assignments are clear and the class in general is very satisfying: Wordloads are resonable for a regular class; Grades are reflective on a student’s language skills; Class routines are flexible enough to enable students to help each other improve their writing.
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