Kadin Cariaga-Sayegusa

Dr. Malashewski

IB English HL

8 March 2024

In the last reflection, I referenced how my rudimentary writing skills grew exponentially

over the course of the first semester. This quarter, my writing has not made the great leaps and

bounds of the previous. However, more of the fine tuning and little adjustments that I have

worked on this quarter have elevated my writing that much more instead of reshaping it

completely.

One example of my work that best demonstrates this improvement is my Glengarry Glen

Ross dialectical journal for act one. In this assignment, a lot of the tools for analyzing have been

improved over the course of the quarter. In semester one, I had made significant strides in my

analyzing and critical thinking skills than that of my sophomore year through the work of How to

Read Literature Like a Professor. This quarter, I had made strides not through the teaching of a

book, but through practice. In semester one, I would have looked over many of the symbols or

hidden significances of certain parts of the play. This quarter, I have allowed myself to have a

background understanding of the historical landscape of the time (ie: reaganomics) in order to

create a more insightful and in depth analysis of the dialogue between two characters. This

understanding was the foundation of uncovering more and more of these meanings in the play

that built on top of each other to give me the most information I could have.

Previously, I had set a goal to improve on my dialectical journal entries. With the

previous paragraph I can confidently say that I have improved on the writing that is expected of

me. However, the expectation of my writing, especially with dialectical journals are constantly
increasing with the more and more practice I have. That is why I will continue to work on the

writing I submit for my dialectical journals next quarter as well. These dialectical journals are

checkpoints for my analysis and understanding skills throughout the novel. Without them my

conclusion writing for the end of the novel with either core concepts or inquiry papers would not

be up to par. I will improve on my dialectical journals in three ways: passage selection,

analyzation skills, conciseness. Improved passage selection will make analysis easier as I would

have more to write about and important things to say, rather than stretching a thought I have to fit

a narrative. Analyzation skills are a fundamental part of literature, therefore with improved

analyzation skills for the journals, my overall writing as a whole in other endeavors will also

thrive. Lastly, I had used a lot of words that could have been cut out, or have been more precise

such as: this and that. To clean up some of my messy writing will overall make my entire piece

look neater and clearer. Without the clutter the reader of my work will have an easier time

understanding the same ideas in my head that I am trying to put down. In conclusion, I would

like to continue working on my dialectical journal writing skills, as I believe they are a weakness

of mine, and they are very important to my writing.