Throughout semester two we didn’t do as many essays as we did in semester one.

The

two essays I wrote in our second semester of junior year were one for the Gatsby final writing

assignment and the second was the personal narrative essay. Other writing assignments include

our various reading guides for The Great Gatsby, our Native American literature unit, and other

short writing assignments. In my opinion I think my best writing was done during the first

semester and I got kind of lazy in my writing semester two. Regardless I still think I had some

very strong pieces throughout the second semester.

In terms of my strengths in writing I maintained my skills in meeting length requirements

but that's also an area where I can improve. While my essays are long, I tend to write too much

instead of making sure my essays quality is better than the quantity. This is something I

developed after writing my HARE essay. Because that essay was supposed to be long, detailed

and informative I transferred the skill into English class which can be a good skill at times but in

the writing assignments that we were given didn't need to be long and detailed. They needed the

basic background information and to get straight to the point in order to sculpt a good argument.

I've also become a faster writer over this past semester. For example I wrote my Gatsby final

essay in about a day. When it was first assigned I began to make a newspaper but then at the last

minute changed it to an essay because I didn’t have the creativity to make a newspaper and was

having a hard time reaching the word count. I chose to do the essay because I knew I would be

able to write more than in the newspaper. My best work is also done when I don't feel rushed.

For example I also have a strength in quote selection but when I'm late on submitting

assignments I sometimes will pick the most convenient quote and try to use that. The strongest

example of my skills appears in my various Gatsby chapter reading guides. I selected good

relevant quotes and integrated them properly into my analysis which was short but had good
quality. I’m good at meeting essay requirements and when I use my time properly I can craft a

well rounded piece of writing.

In terms of my weaknesses in writing I struggle with things such as deadlines, making

sure I keep to my claim throughout my writing, and my word choice. When I’m writing,

especially longer assignments, the more I write the more I feel I stray from my claim. I introduce

too many different topics and sometimes my paragraphs have too much going on. I also need to

improve on my word choice by eliminating filler words and writing more structured and

complete sentences. I also need to improve on establishing more clear and complex theses. I've

found I struggle with this outside of English class too, such as in my history class. One piece of

work I completed this year which I feel lacked a lot of skill was my Gatsby final essay. It was

unnecessarily long, wordy, unclear, and was submitted a week late. I feel like that piece showed a

lot of my faults. In my senior year I hope to improve on the quality of my essays and continue to

strive to complete things in the allotted time.

In my junior year I hope to get better at submitting assignments on time, making sure

they are good quality, and expanding my vocabulary. These are all skills that I use in my other

classes besides English so it is important for me to improve them. I can use these skills in civics

next year when I have to complete the writing portion of my citizenship project.From junior

literature I will always remember the book, The Great Gatsby. I loved the book very much and it

was cool to see the movie to see the live adaptation of each character. I liked the message behind

the book and it was a very cool story to follow. Junior Literature has taught me a lot of skills and

was the class where I made the most improvement from last year. I hope to make even more

progress during my senior English class.