1.

In comparing my Langston Hughes in-class essay I wrote at the beginning of

the semester to my latest Romeo and Juliet essay, I can see that I have
improved vastly as a writer in the short amount of time contained in the
second semester. In my Langston Hughes essay, I had difficulty applying my
ideas to the loop format to support my claim, as I had a hard time managing
my time to write the essay. I rushed through it, without much of a plan, and
did not produce a very strong paper. There were spelling errors, weak
evidence, blending of my supporting details, unconvincing reasoning, and
overall bad organization. I did not even fully complete the assignment, as I
did not have time to write a small conclusion. I can see from my Romeo and
Juliet essay that I was able to improve on my writing and grow. I did a good
job with my introduction and conclusion and was able to be creative to make
it more interesting. I organized my paper well, followed loop format, made a
lot less mechanical errors, and was able to use strong, elaborate evidence
with quotes to completely prove my claim. I can see that I improved my
ability to analyze literature to adequately respond to the writing prompts.
Overall, my writing has improved by being reinforced again with loop format
and being able to apply skills to complete writings in a sufficient amount of
time.
2. Some areas of analytical writing that I have struggled in this semester are
mechanics like grammar and spelling, and introductions and conclusions. I
would say that most of the faults in my writing are due to mechanics.
Although mechanics would seem to be a very easy part of writing, I can find it
difficult to sit down and look over my writing as well as I should after I finish it
because I can be impatient with this part. I try to do my best, but sometimes I
do not proof read it very well, and that is something I want to work on as this
flaw is reflected in my grades. I also struggled with introductions and
conclusions for the majority of the semester, only because we were not given
much practice with it. However, when we did them for our last essays, I think
I did quite well on structuring them and using my creativity to intrigue the
reader.
3. I think I still need to focus on spelling and grammar in my writing next year,
and become a better proof reader. I also want to continue working on adding
my own style and creativity into a paper while being able to continue to keep
writing strong and organized papers and expand my transition vocabulary.
4. I think something I have mastered is explaining my evidence and showing
how my evidence relates to what I am proving. I also think I have mastered
writing in present tense, as it now is second nature to me whenever I am
writing a paper.
5. I am particularly proud of my second in-class essay about my independent
reading book. I think it shows how much I have progressed from my first inclass essay at the beginning of the semester because I finished it in the given
amount of time and wrote one of my best papers in terms of proving my
claim and reaching all of the goals of each section of the loops. Also, even

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though I know you should not focus on the grade, I was extremely proud to
get a 100% on this essay as I think it was justified and well deserved. I really
enjoyed writing this paper as well, as it was on the book I chose and found
interesting.
I am particularly not proud of my balcony scene analysis paragraph as I think
I could have done much better on it and feel as though it does not represent
my abilities. I am not proud of it because I do not think I put enough effort
into making sure that my point was proven and also making sure that all of
the goals of my explanations and reasoning were reached and elaborated on.
I also made some silly mistakes on it which costed my grade on the paper.
However, even though it is not my best paper, it motivated me to work
harder on my future papers and fix my mistakes.
Mrs. Eatons strengths in writing include teaching loop format, giving us
thorough examples, and giving us constructive feedback to help us improve
as writers. I find her way of teaching loop format an easy and simple way to
understand how to write a strong paper that proves a claim. I also enjoy that
she shows us examples of how to apply the new skills using literature we are
familiar with so that we fully understand the new technique we are being
taught. Her feedback on our writing also helps me see what I need to improve
on to make myself a better writer.
Although I think Mrs. Eatons way of teaching writing is very good, I do think
that she could do some things to improve. For example, I think that she could
manage her time more wisely so that we are getting writing assignments
more spread out through the semester and are not as panicked to complete
them. I also think that she should manage her time so that we spend less
time looking at things we understand already and spend more time looking at
our new skills to make sure we fully understand them.
I am truly grateful for Mrs. Eatons class. While I have felt very overwhelmed
at times, I have learned more information on how to write from her in this one
year in her class than I have ever learned in the past. I am still always
amazed looking back at my writing I thought was good from the beginning
of the year or even the beginning of the second semester and seeing how
much I have improved and grown as a writer. I am looking forward to learn in
future classes how to take my skills I have learned and strong writing and add
my own personal twist and style to it to truly make it my own. I am hoping
that I will continue to improve at the same speed that I have improved this
year for many more years to come.