Over the course of the year, we have written two main essays. The first essay was during our primary unit of the Alchemist and the second essay was written in our recent unit of Julius Caesar. Both essays show my strength and weaknesses as a writer as well as my writing improvements over the last couple of months.
The Alchemist essay was easier to construct since we had almost more than 3 weeks to complete it and was not done in 80 minutes. Therefore my ideas and content were much more developed than those in the Julius Caesar essay. My Alchemist essay in general made sense and looking back, it seems like I really knew what I was talking about. Since I had a clear understanding of my topic and knew what I was talking about, I was able to include interesting little details and voice that spiced up my writing. I provided good quotations and examples from the book, which I then backed up with how they related to my ideas of a particular topic.
In the Julius Caesar essay however, I did not have that much time to check and go over my ideas, so some of my content was not fully developed and didn't quite make sense at times. I had to be fully prepared to add examples to my writing and I had to have a clear understanding of the topic so I could write in in about 70 minutes. Since I looked at a different perspective than most of my peers, I had to have a stronger persuasion skill. I knew the topic well and was willing to add interesting and relevant details as well as examples to back up my ideas. Overall I think I brought across understandable and developed ideas in both of my essays.
My organization for both essays was pretty good. Once again since I had more time with the Alchemist essay, my organization, topic sentences, transition sentences were very strong. I had an o.k hook at the beginning to grab my readers attention. It was not great but it was pretty good. I also had a very clear thesis statement and all of my long body paragraphs also had a clear topic sentence to introduced the reader to the topic I was going to talk about. When I added a quotation, I always backed it up with how I thought that fit into context and I also tried to have a strong conclusion. However on the Julius Caesar essay my organization was kind of all over the place. I had a confusing thesis statement but I did have good topic sentences for each paragraph. However I was missing some transition sentences and my conclusion paragraph was not as strong but since I didn't have a lot of time, I couldn't go back and "polish" my organization up.
I think that overall I did grow in my writing skills however that doesn't really show in my two essays. This is because, like I said above, I had more time to develop my ideas and look back to revise in the Alchemist essay than in my Julius Caesar essay in which I couldn't revise and look back on. However when I look at small things such as detail and change of sentences, I do realize that I have improved and grown a lot as a writer. I will continue to learn from my mistakes and do my best.
One SLR that I think I use whilst crafting my essay would be communicating effectively. In order to write a good essay one has to impact the reader. I have to have good voice in my writing so it wont be too boring or too over the top. I also have to be clear about what I am saying and whilst looking back and reading it in my head, I have to be able to make sense of what I am writing so that the reader will too understand what I am talking about. In order to come across to a reader and communicate effectively one has to know what they are talking about ad go into depth with their writing. By thinking in depth and writing with voice, I think I communicate effectively to my reader whilst creating an essay.
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