Nelson Okunlola

Ms. Wagner
English IV
19 January 2017
Reflections on Essay Writing
Poetry
The biggest struggle writing about poetry is I worry about
misinterpreting the poem. Because I worry, I read and reread the poem so
many times just to understand it that I lose time to look at the techniques
used to develop the poem. My essay on the semester exam offered a
summary of the poem (mostly accurate that the speakers were both
concerned about the passage of life without achieving goals), but didnt
analyze the techniques that the prompt instructed me to analyze. I could
improve my skills by reading more poetry for practice and discussing them.
This would give me more confidence about my interpretations, improve my
speed of understanding, and give me more time to focus on how the author
made their point rather that just what poin they made (which I know is
important too because the prompts ask about the meaning of the work as a
whole).
I did write a stellar thesis though by mentioning the work, the author,
the tones, the narrative situation, and the point the authors made. The top
scoring essay had better body paragraphs though. They went into a lot more
detail quoting the images, details, and metaphors that were used. Then
explaining each ones meaning and significance to the titles of the sonnets. I
completely missed the connection between autumn and the age of the
speaker in Mezzo Cammin, for example. I also misinsterpreted the image of
the shore at the end of Keats poem. Having read the student sample I know
that
Passage
I would reflect on the passage analysis essay in a similar fashion
looking at the specifics of what I did and what the highest scoring essays do.
FRQ3
And finally, I would reflect on the third free response question
challenges, successes, skills the best essays have, and what I can do to
improve.
In a separate document, revise/write the essay of your choosing according to
the prompt. Follow MLA format (sans Works Cited).