Jacqueline Ramirez

Ms. O’Keefe

A.P Literature & Composition

4 June 2018

The Next Step Into a Lifetime of Writing

In order to communicate ideas to the world, one must be able to thoroughly elaborate on such to provide their own

knowledge to the world. With the greater presence of technology in our everyday lives,sharing your ideas and knowledge

to the world around is easy with just the click of a button. Everyday we are enthralled by the presence of Facebook,

Instagram, Tumblr, and many other socially connected sites. Our lives have become based upon how many followers we

have, and how many people like how we think. However, our digital footprint lies beyond social networks. Creating

digital sites that exhibit our ideas without judgement can serve to bring a positive light to our digital path as we progress

throughout life. Thanks to the diligent work of Chicago Academy’s English team, my peers and I have been exposed to a

safe and wholesome way of launching our ideas into the world that would improve our digital footprint to the world. Our

weebly portfolios have allowed us to publish our work in a safe manner that would refrain the negative influence of

outside sources. My weebly has allowed me to see my growth as a writing dating back to my Sophomore year. My growth

has stemmed from varying word choices, greater concision in my pieces, and better organization of my ideas.

During my sophomore year I felt the need to use words that were far beyond my comprehension. Doing so made

me feel as though I was elaborating my ideas more thoroughly without using so many words. However, to my surprise, I

wasn’t using certain terms in the right way. For example, there were times when I would use the terms “detrimental” and

“whom” in a manner that made my statements very unclear. In my writing I was hoping to make a positive connotation

with my points with the word “detrimental”; however, as I came to understand and see the word more in various works

that I was able to understand the word. Also, the phrase “whom” became easier to understand after in-depth work on

NoRedInk. In my writing, I struggled a lot with creating concise statements. It was always my goal to reach at least two

pages or more. I don’t know why I wanted to achieve that goal, but I worked on using as many words as possible to fill

space. My phrases throughout my writing came off as redundant, often times. It seemed as though I wanted to remind the

audience of what I was saying. However, I can see that as the year progressed my writing became more condensed. For

example, in my Reconstruction DBQ I was able to elaborate on my ideas without constant repetition of certain ideas. I
was able to create various connections to my thesis without claiming previous ideas. Throughout the year my writing was

very jumbled. I found it hard to make connections to the various writing skills I would learn in AP Lang and my own

writing. For example, when connections to ethos, pathos, and logos needed to be used, instead of forming my writing to fit

those ideals I would outright state what I was trying to do. In doing so I would make my writing sound awkward and

forced.

My junior year writing came off as quite odd. I took a deeper approach into my language that gave me the ability

to use broader phrases in hopes of elaborating on my ideas. For example, in my “A Women to the World” essay, I was

able to hone into the persona of Frederick Douglass. In doing so, I had to take the language I was common with from his

novel, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. Doing so way my first step into expanding my word choice

throughout my writing. However, I feel as though my writing could have been less about the words I was using and more

about the message I wished to convey. My writing was, for the most part becoming easier to read as there was less

wordiness. For example, in my independence narrative I was able to explain how I became a free individual without

constantly referring to the idea of freedom. Doing so kept me from becoming redundant. In writing things such as

narratives, I grew to understand how using dialogue could help push my writing forward more. Various uses of dialogue

allowed me to organize my stories around things that characters say to one another. Structuring my writing around certain

aspects of dialogue allowed me to elaborate my ideas more concisely that in previous narratives. For example, my gender

narrative jumped around various points of a single story, but in my Independence narrative I was able to elaborate on my

story without confusing the reader.

My writing senior year has actually made me really proud! Sometimes I feel like my vocabulary could still grow

beyond the basic high school level. For example, I used a lot of basic phrasing and language in my Critical analysis essay.

I will admit, I continue to struggle greatly with concision because I have a feeling that my ideas aren't being explained

enough. My writing would often fall into a redundancy spell, which would make me sound very wordy. In writing in such

a manner I made my claims less plausible. However, I do applaud myself for trying to work to fix my mistakes from the

past. For example, I did work on incorporating various text into my work without sounding redundant in my explanations.

My organization of ideas became better. Each paragraph within an overall essay did not abruptly end like in before. For

example, in my critical reading journal reflection, I transitioned smooth between paragraphs in hopes of providing concise

evidence on the growth I gained from the use of a Critical Reading Journal.
 My next step is the wonderful world of college. As I embark on my next journey, I can take the various lessons

and critiques I gained from my writing portfolio. I will, hopefully, continue to add entirex into my portfolio to

continuously see where I can grow and where I have grown. In college I hope to learn new ways to create concise

explanation for my various arguments. I wish to continue my writing ethic as I continue to pursue my degrees in

Sociology and Criminology. I hope that my writing pushes me to work towards a law degree in the future. Writing is an

ever changing practice, there’s always room to grow. Regardless of how confident I may be in my writing, there will

always be room for me to transform andalter mywork in hopes of reaching broader audiences. However, I do applaud

myself for working hard in hopes of improving my word choices, concision, and structure.