In the beginning of the year, I took Honors English to expand my knowledge of literature. Over the course of the year, I was not disappointed. Along with reading literature, I learned a lot about writing literature, and how it applies to my own life. Specifically, I learned three major things. The research papers showed my weaknesses in organizing and creating strong arguments. The literature I read taught me how to tolerate different opinions. And, from writing throughout the year, I learned how to write, even when I didn’t feel like it. Transition
None of my research essays this semester were above a B. I had a recurring weakness in each one of them. I struggled with organizing my ideas into strong arguments. I would throw an opinion out…show more content… As a result, I wrote whatever came to my head. I started off by saying “Billy Budd is a prime example of innocence ve malice” (Billy Budd In-Class Essay 1). However, instead of providing reasoning for my claim, I went on to talk about something completely off-topic; claggart and his evil plan. I said: “Claggart, the deprived, was swallowed up in his malice. His evil plan resulted in his death” (Billy Budd In-Class Essay). That had nothing to do with the struggle between innocence and malice, and how it connected to Claggart and Billy Budd. I didn’t organize my ideas because I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t come with a plan. Another example was my Whitman vs Dickinson essay. My reasoning was not strong enough to support my claim. I made the claim that Dickinson uses rhythm and rhyme to convey her theme. However, my reasoning for this was as follows: “Just like she did with imagery, she used rhyme to convey the way in which she felt about death in the poem” (Whitman vs Dickinson). How did she feel about death? How did she use rhyme to convey this? How does this compare with whitman? Those were the questions I neglected to answer when only providing surface-level reasoning for my claim. In…show more content… Usually, I would write whenever I was “in the mood,” felt enlightened, or “when the time was right.” My only focus was to try to make my papers as perfect as possible. However, I knew no matter how hard I tried, there would always be something I could have done better. So trying to be perfect, but knowing that I couldn’t be, made me not want to try at all. However, over the course of the year, I learned how to find ways to motivate myself to write. For example, when writing the creative nonfiction, I was very intimidated by it. I needed a way to motivate me to stay on top of it. So I decided to write about a friend. This gave me a purpose instead of just “getting good grades.” So, I told my friend, as soon as I finish, I would let him read it. This encouraged me to write the best I possibly could. My favorite phrase was in the intro when I said “But most of all, I listened with genuine interest; seeking to learn more, and testing to see if my intuition was correct” (The Encounter 1). That phrase sums up how I felt about the entire paper. I was curious, and I wanted to learn more. This curiosity helped me to write and to ask questions. I pushed aside my perfectionism, and wrote just to write. This creative nonfiction, in contrast to my research papers, received an A. In that moment, I learned, that I write better when I have a purpose other than just trying to be
