For this timed write prompt, students were asked to connect themes in Sue Monk Kidds

The Secret Life of Bees to social issues like gender inequality and race. When I began writing my
timed write, I felt like I was writing the 1984 research essay again, only the social issue was a
fixed topic with only one source. I think I improved my timed writes throughout the year because
as I read through all of them, this last one was much more on topic and had an identifiable and
reasonable thesis. The only issue I encountered while writing this was that there was a lot of
information I wanted to convey but I couldnt show all of it without going off topic. However, I
was still able to incorporate the important parts into the write.
When I look back at this particular timed write, I am pretty satisfied with the result. The
prompt was to relate how the protagonists story transcends ideas of gender, and I think I
accomplished that well. My standards were relatively high for this work. This is mainly because I
am a feminist and think gender equality is important. Because I am a feminist, I had done a lot of
research on gender inequality and while I wrote this piece I expected myself to be able to explain
while Secret Life of Bees transcended gender views very thoroughly. I think I met my standards
because I made a specific connection between typical views of religious authority involving
gender with the women in the Secret Life of Bees who organized their own sect of the
Daughters of Mary.
The grade I received for this timed write was an 8 on a scale of 1 through 9. I am happy
with this grade, however, had I been the teacher, I would have given myself a 7. This is because I
think of the three parts I mentioned in my thesis, I only solely focused on the first part. The other
two were not equally discussed and did not have as much content or examples in the body
paragraph. Although I reached my standards on the discussion of religion and gender, I didnt

reach my standard for this piece as a whole, disregarding content and focusing on the technicality
and topicality of this work.
One thing I would like to improve on is, as aforementioned, to be able to represent each
part of my thesis equally. When my English classes continue in future years, be it high school or
college, I want to learn different types of essays and be able to write them flawlessly. In school
so far, all anyone has ever learned is the standard form, with a hook, intro, three part thesis, three
body paragraphs, and a paraphrased intro as the conclusion. Furthermore I want to be able to
source literary text and pieces effectively so that the reader is able to synthesize the content of
the text with the theme or whatever the essay is elaborating.