This year,
I have grown as a writer more than I ever thought I could. We have written many different types of
papers, which I think has helped me, and will help me in the future. Even though I have grown a lot as a writer, I
still make mistakes. My mistakes that I
make seem to relate to each other for the most part but are slightly different
each time.
When I got
my Wrap score back I wasn’t too surprised because I have never done outstanding
on it. I got all 3.5’s and 4.0’s, which
is what I have gotten every year since I started taking the Wrap. The only thing that was different this year
is that I got more 3.5’s than I usually do, and it was on overall development,
support, and sentence fluency. I think
this is because I didn’t have much to say about the topic, and that gave me
trouble with developing and supporting my ideas because I usually do well on
those areas of writing. As I go back and
read my Wrap, I can see a drastic change in my writing for the better.
On my
literacy Narrative, Dr. deGravelles commented, “I would encourage you to strive
for more vivid detail throughout and work on some conventions issues.” Throughout this paper, I did misuse commas
and semicolons. I think I misused them
because in 8th grade we didn’t do a lot of writing mechanics. Once Dr. deGravelles had graded our papers,
she went over some convention issues we had trouble with which helped me a lot
because it included commas and semicolons.
Besides convention errors my paper lacked vivid detail.
My Profile
was one of my best papers I have written this year with almost a perfect
score. Since my last paper, I had no
misuses of commas or colons, and my paper had lots of vivid detail. I was proud to not repeat any mistakes, and
overall there were only two main things to be improved. Dr. deGravelles wrote, “I think your assessment
was, for the most part, right on, but I would still like to see more active
verbs in your second paragraph. When you
are writing dialogue, watch for repetition of words like “say.” You use “answer” and “exclaim,” which are
more specific.” These two corrections
are similar, and since I only had two issues on this paper, it helped me to be
able to really focus on those issues in the next paper I wrote.
In my
Literary Analysis, it seems like I struggled which made me loose motivation as
a writer. Most of my mistakes were
careless such as comma and colon issues which I had already been corrected in
my Literacy Narrative. Another careless
mistake is I forgot to put my citations in my turnitin version, but included
that in my paper version. This really
affected the grade of my paper, since it made me get a D in MLA/citations. If I would have included my citations I would
have gotten an A on this paper rather than a B.
My support and Organization are the only things that I got B’s in which,
for the most part, have no problem with since I usually have a lot to say. This is the same issue I had in my Wrap
because in both of these essays I struggled with words to say and ideas to
write about. I still managed which is
what gave me a B, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. Dr. deGravelles said, “Work on using strong
transitions that connect each point to your thesis rather than to the
plot. Also, make sure you are fully
introducing and analyzing your quotations, and citing them correctly (period
always at the very end).” The
transitions I used were strong, but connected to the plot instead of the
thesis. In the next paper, I had issues
with analyzing my quotes like I did in this paper.
My Global
Issues Paper was extremely hard for me.
I had trouble with citing correctly, analyzing my quotes, organizing my
information. The bad part was is that
you could tell. Dr. deGravelles wrote,
“Makes sure you follow each quote with adequate analysis – most of the words in
any paragraph should be yours. This
paper seems a bit less polished than your other work.” I had the analyzing quote problem in my
Literary Analysis. I also had some
semicolon and comma issues like in most papers I have written. What surprised me was that I had MLA
formatting issues, which I have never had before. My margins weren’t right, and my header
wasn’t in times new roman. This made me
mad because that mistake could have easily been avoided. Most of my mistakes were careless convention
and quoting mistakes that I could have fixed if I just spent a little more time
on checking and editing with my Norton book.
I have
learned a lot about myself as a writer this year. I learned that the more motivation I have,
the better the paper I write turns out because it definitely showed. Even though I can correct most of my
mistakes, many of them are repetitive.
Overall on my aspects of writing, I need to work on conventions and
sentence structure. Of course I will
still need to keep working and doing well on the other aspects of writing, but
the ones I usually get the lowest scores is on conventions and sentence
structure. Next year, I hope to have fewer
errors on commas and semicolons, keep up my good use of vivid detail, use
better transitions, and analyze all my quotes.
Common Errors List:
1.
Misuse of a Semicolon
- So of course when Mrs. Young announced to
us that we would be doing a poem project, and we will have to present in front
of my whole class; my stomach dropped.
2.
Analyze Quotations
-
“The war in Germany isn’t right.”
After the quote you need to explain
it. In this instance, you would need to
say why he or she thinks that the war in Germany isn’t right and maybe add your
opinion.
3.
Repetitive with transitions in dialogue
-
He said, “Okay. Lets go.” Then she said, “No. I already have
plans.” After he said, “Whatever.”
Instead of saying said, you can say
exclaimed, whispered, remarked, answered, replied, etc.
4.
Comma Splice
-
I just met you, this is crazy.
To make this correct you could say:
a)
I just met you. This is crazy.
b)
I just met you; This is crazy.
c)
I just met you, and this is crazy.
5.
Missing Comma
-
As I sat up in bed I realized that I had fallen
asleep.
6.
Misspell of a lot
-
alot
