9th Grade Writing Reflection Rough Draft

Justin Rogstad

Dr. deGravelles

Block 4

4/29/12

9^th Grade Writing Reflection Rough Draft

                In my ninth grade year I have written many papers and essays. I have written more essays this year, than I have in all my other years of school put together. I believe it’s time for me to really sit down and reflect on my past writings this year.

                The first paper I wrote this year was “Publisher’s Tee”, and I must say I wasn’t a very strong writer at the beginning of the year. I was missing little mistakes that I shouldn’t have. Little errors like missing an apostrophe when showing possession and missing a question mark when the sentence was a question. Those small mistakes made me wonder why I missed those. The next paper I wrote was the “Cole Kennedy” which was a profile assignment on a person or place. This essay was significantly stronger than my first paper but I was still not very strong in my writing. I made fewer mistakes but still made careless mistakes like sentence fragments. One thing in common with my first two papers was the length. I remember struggling with length and having writer’s block often.

                Now in my third paper this year, I wrote a paper called “Addressee Unknown”. For this assignment we wrote a literary analysis on a short story of our choice. When reviewing my paper I noticed that this paper is where I started seeing my strength in my writing show up. I made fewer mistakes than ever, and I began to miss things that were not little careless mistakes; they were more reasonable mistakes than before. The length of my writing increased dramatically. This was the longest paper I had written in my entire school career so far. That is until I wrote my fourth paper, “A Nuclear North”. This assignment was to cover a global issue that is affecting the earth and to analyze it. This paper was almost five and a half pages. I thought this was unbelievable when I was writing this. Overall this paper showed my strength in writing. I only messed up on one thing in this entire paper basically, and that was the citations. I guess I just forgot how to cite.

                For the most part I agree with the grades I have gotten on my papers. The feedback this year has been really helpful and is one of the main reason my writing has progressed this year. I knew that my stronger aspects of writing were mechanics, organization, and word choice. Those aspects were shown in my writing this year. I however knew that support and sentence structure were lacking quite a bit. I will have to practice and work on those aspects to make my writing great. I now know that when I focus on my writing that I should look more closely at the aspects I am lacking in and pay less attention to what I am good at.

My writing has been decent throughout the year. What I believe will help my writing become better than decent make revisions more, and I should read my writing more carefully to try to locate all my mistakes so I can make my writing the best it can be. The main things I should work on is citations and just be careful of careless mistakes. If I find remember to make these adjustments, my writing will be at its highest potential for this year.

                 Next year in English II, I already know that writing will be tougher on me. I decided to make some goals for the future. I plan to practice writing with as much support and sentence structure I can to try to focus my skills to the lacking aspects of my writing. Before I write each of my papers next year I will be sure to review notes I have gotten this year, like “The Traits of Good Writing”. Another goal I may carry out is I might try to rewrite some of the papers I wrote this year and have people proof read and give me feedback. This way I can strengthen my writing skills and get a feel for good writing.

                My writing this year has been a beneficial experience that I will keep with me for the rest of my writing career. I hope that all this goal setting and planning will pay off in the long run. I also hope everyone else got as much out of this year as I have.

                 

Common Errors List

Common Errors List

-Comma Splice- A variety of run on sentences that occur when two complete sentences are joined with an unneeded comma.

My Error sentence: “We had already spent forever on the writing part, now we had to draw pictures. To top it all off I am terrible at drawing now, imagine how bad I was in 1^st grade.

Literacy Narrative

-Fragment: When a sentence is not a complete sentence and lacks some variables.

My Error Sentence: “Helping each person to feel good about themselves, even when they mess up.

Profile Assesment

-Inappropriate use of slang- Using slang when the reader may not understand what it means.

Error Sentence: “…stepped up their game…”

Global Issues Research Paper

-Apostrophe with possession- An apostrophe can show ownership when placed with a noun.

My Error: “Publishers Tea”

Instead, I should write:

Publisher’s Tea

Literacy Narrative

-Commas for belter understanding- When a sentence opens up with an introductory word it is very helpful to the reader to place a comma after the introductory element.

My Error Sentence: “As the years have progressed…”

Global Issues Research Paper

The Death Cure

The Death Cure
James Dashner
p. 62-123
Fri-60mins
Sat-40mins
Sun-50mins
4/16/12-4/23/12

The Death Cure

I finally got my book in after ordering it about a week ago. This book is called The Death Cure, by James Dashner, which is the third book in The Maze Runner series. I started this book with high hopes, because the other two books, The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials, were so great. One thing I noticed in the third chapter was the point of view was changed from 1st person, which was told by the main character Thomas, to a 3rd person omniscient. I think Dashner did this to kinda show what both characters in the scene were doing at once, let the reader imagine the scene.

I have some ideas on what this book will further bring. Well in one chapter towards the end of their book, some guy told the Gladers that they will be getting their memories back. But before they did, some of them declined the offer which surprised me. That made me think that that might backfire on the group and that will cause a big shift in the plot. I could be wrong, but I'm excited to read more.

The Death Cure
James Dashner
4/16/12
Sat: 80 mins
Sun: 70 mins
Total: 150
pages read: 62

"Firework" by Katy Perry

Song Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TI18KxwbMk

For the song analysis I found the song "Firework" by Katy Perry. This song popped into my head when Dr. D first assigned this assignment. The first literary devise I found was right in the first verse.

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again"

With this verse I saw a simile being used. Like a plastic bag was what stood out to me. I interpreted the simile because it is comparing the person to a plastic bag using the word "like." I took this simile's meaning as when you feel like a plastic bag, you feel sort of disposable in a way. I also thought it could mean that you are ignored. I found another simile in the verse right after this one. When she says "Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin" refers to the person thinking of themselves as invisible to someone or something. That's how I perceived this simile. 

There were many examples of anaphora, for instance the line "Do you ever feel" is repeated multiple times at the beginning of the verses. I found one example of a personification in one of the lines.
"If you only knew what the future holds"
This is a personification because the future is an inanimate object and therefore isn't actually able to hold something.

Born to Run Reading

Well I continue to read the novel, Born to Run, because it's such a great book. As i was reading they brought in a character named Ann. She, I'm guessing, is in the more modern continent of Europe.  Though it was never stated directly, I can infer that she is from Europe because of the timezone and the way she acts. So far I'm not quite sure what here purpose in the story is, but I'm hoping i'll find out soon.

In some of the chapter pages, the author has put quotes right below the chapter heading. These quotes are from numerous amounts of people and i don't know who they are. They must be famous in some way. Most of them have something to do with running though, so maybe they are from famous runners. I wonder if there is a way to find out the point of some of these quotes because they are a little confusing sometimes. Oh well, they must not be the most important thing in the book.

Christopher McDougall
132-216
Sat. 70mins
Sunday. 40 mins
Monday. 40mins
4/2/12

My Papa's Waltz Analysis

The poem My Papa's Waltz, by Theodore Roethke, is a poem about a child being carried to his bed by his father with his mother watching. One of the first things I notice was the use of a rhyme scheme. The last word of every line rhymed with the last word in the line after the next. This gave the poem a kind of rhythm to it, which made me interested in the poem.

The way I saw this poem was that the boy liked his dad carrying him. Though there are words that kind of contradict my interpretation. Death, dizzy, battered, scraped, and beat were all words that had some sort of sinister feel to them. I wonder why Roethke added these words. I also started to wonder if the Waltzing could be a metaphor for something. I just don't quite know what at the moment.