Thoughts on the First Semester

Over the course of the semester, I have progressed incredibly as a writer. I have learned new writing techniques and expanded my vocabulary over the course. I have developed my writing from learning how to fix common mistakes and by looking at my peers' writing pieces to see what else I can incorporate in my writing. I have improved in mixing in specific quotes so it doesn't sound choppy. Doing this makes my writing more professional and easier for others to understand. I have learned that longer quotes don't necessarily help the discussion of a writing piece. Another way I have improved my writing is providing a more organized analysis for my quotations. I now know exactly what to discuss with specific quotes and how it connects to the bigger purpose of the piece. One thing that I need to work on is providing a introduction that highlights the purpose of the piece and why it has impact. I will need to learn from my peers on what specific things to include in my introductions and how to connect it to the thesis effectively. Another thing I must improve on is my reasoning section for my writing. To fix this, I will practice utilizing specific strategies to help me empower the purpose of my writing. I am proud of some of my blog posts because of the creative writing styles used. Despite some of the grades, I felt like those posts were some of my best works. The only thing Ms. Nagi could do to help my writing progress even further is to alert me if I could improve in one area or another.

Date	Topic	AP Score	Strength	Challenge
9/4	SR Fiction Essay	3	Organization of evidence gathered.	Don’t summarize story  No SAQ
9/4	SR Nonfiction Essay	4	Thesis was well answered	Analysis needs to connect together
9/17	SR Nonfiction Essay rewrite	5	Intro and conclusion were strong at addressing topic	Quotes need to flow together  No SAQ
10/1	Origin Quickwrite	3	Discussion of topic and thesis	Analysis and quoting needs work
10/22	Puritan Essay	4	Quotes were effective and reasoning was well thought out	Thesis was lacking important detail and not well organized
11/1	Independent Novel Short Response	3	Well written introduction and conclusion	Quotes need to be more organized and impactful
11/14	Crucible Short Answer	4	Thesis was well worded, and quotes were appropriate	Analysis did not help argument that much

12/5	Liberty Argumentative Quick write	3	Conclusion was strong at analyzing points brought up	Quotes were too long and not impactful
12/13	Satire Quick write	3	Quotes were used efficiently and appropriately	Analysis needs to empower purpose
1/13	Gatsby Test Short Answer	4	Thesis was well written and very organized	Analysis needs to empower purpose
1/22	Social Concerns Final Exam Essay	4	My thesis writing and quote embedding is strong	My analysis of my writing is weak