Humanities 12th Grade
Writing Goals
Goal 1: Developing a plan. I will improve on developing a clear plan for my writing. It will help me to improve if I was able to get all my ideas out and then organize them to where they make sense. This will help me develop a clear stance on a prompt with ideas that support what I am trying to express. In my college essay, the ideas did not flow logically. They were not addressing the prompt, they needed to be further explained, and they were organized in a confusing way. It made sense in my head because I knew what I was trying to say, but when someone else read my paper, the ideas were coming up short. If I were to first make a writing plan(which I haven’t done since 7th grade) my ideas would be clear and I could organize them in a logical manner. Rather than trying to shuffle ideas around after my paper is complete, I could start out with a writing set up that made sense. This will allow me to focus on my strengths in writing, rather than worrying about if my ideas were disorganized.
Goal 2: Showing a clear purpose or audience. Often when I write the purpose of the essay is hard to grasp. I quickly jump from one perspective and purpose to another without fully describing what I am trying to convey. In my paper about naive cynicism I said, “In order to have a healthy view on the world one needs to break the cynical lense…” My whole paper was describing why the cynical lense was harmful, the final thoughts described Why it was important to do this, but gave no answer to How this was to be done. The purpose of my writing was to tell the audience to break the cynical lense but I did not achieve that. My intent was half-baked and hard to understand until the very last paragraph. If I were to clearly tell myself the purpose of my writing before I begin, I would create a much more concise and clear piece of writing.
Goal 3: Linking my ideas together. In similarity to my other goals, the use of my ideas in my writing needs to be more clear. Although each paragraph I write may make sense individually, they lack clear togetherness that is important for a piece of writing that flows and make sense. I included the following paragraph into my college essay. “I never noticed the intricacies in sand until I grew up. Rather than playing in the waves for hours, as I did when I was younger, I can stare at the sand and wonder about where all these particles came from.”This paragraph did not connect with any of the others, it didn’t answer the prompt, it didn’t talk about why I should be let into college. It’s paragraphs like that one that make my writing choppy and incohesive. In order for my ideas to flow together I need to only include ideas that are relevant to the piece of writing and strengthen the main idea. If every paragraph I write doesn’t connect to the previous one, then my writing will not improve.
College Essay Reflection: I learned a lot when writing my college essay. As this is a piece of writing that is very personal, I was able to see how my writing comes together with one idea. I re-wrote my essay twice before I found a topic that I liked, I was very proud of the final topic I came up with because it was out of the box and I was able to write very well about it. It is hard for me to edit my own work and see the flaws in it, but after this project I grew in my ability to edit my own work. I read my essay over and over again until I couldn’t find anything else that was wrong. I then consulted with my peers and Lori to get further feedback. My interest in this essay was strong and that led to me truly wanting to compose the best piece of writing I could. I edited the following sentences “It’s easy for me to think that I am just another human… In 7 billion people the life of one girl doesn’t stand out amongst the millions of faces, but now I look at humans the same way I look at sand. Each one with their own different story, each one so complex I can’t begin to break down every moment they have been through to become the human I see in front of me”. I changed it to, “It was simple, natural even, for me to think of myself as just another human. In a world bustling with seven billion people, the life of one girl rarely stands out among a million other faces. My incapacity to see the uniquities and depth present in everyone and everything led to a rather primitive understanding of life.” After feedback from a friend and a teacher, I edited it to address the prompt better and sound more natural when one reads it. All it took for me to create this intense and effective editing process was to care about my writing. Especially since the quality of this essay influences my acceptance to college, I needed it to be the best it could be. When I cared, it wasn’t difficult to read a re-read the essay about 50 times, it was important. When I care about what I am writing, I can create a beautiful piece of work.
Goal 1: Developing a plan. I will improve on developing a clear plan for my writing. It will help me to improve if I was able to get all my ideas out and then organize them to where they make sense. This will help me develop a clear stance on a prompt with ideas that support what I am trying to express. In my college essay, the ideas did not flow logically. They were not addressing the prompt, they needed to be further explained, and they were organized in a confusing way. It made sense in my head because I knew what I was trying to say, but when someone else read my paper, the ideas were coming up short. If I were to first make a writing plan(which I haven’t done since 7th grade) my ideas would be clear and I could organize them in a logical manner. Rather than trying to shuffle ideas around after my paper is complete, I could start out with a writing set up that made sense. This will allow me to focus on my strengths in writing, rather than worrying about if my ideas were disorganized.
Goal 2: Showing a clear purpose or audience. Often when I write the purpose of the essay is hard to grasp. I quickly jump from one perspective and purpose to another without fully describing what I am trying to convey. In my paper about naive cynicism I said, “In order to have a healthy view on the world one needs to break the cynical lense…” My whole paper was describing why the cynical lense was harmful, the final thoughts described Why it was important to do this, but gave no answer to How this was to be done. The purpose of my writing was to tell the audience to break the cynical lense but I did not achieve that. My intent was half-baked and hard to understand until the very last paragraph. If I were to clearly tell myself the purpose of my writing before I begin, I would create a much more concise and clear piece of writing.
Goal 3: Linking my ideas together. In similarity to my other goals, the use of my ideas in my writing needs to be more clear. Although each paragraph I write may make sense individually, they lack clear togetherness that is important for a piece of writing that flows and make sense. I included the following paragraph into my college essay. “I never noticed the intricacies in sand until I grew up. Rather than playing in the waves for hours, as I did when I was younger, I can stare at the sand and wonder about where all these particles came from.”This paragraph did not connect with any of the others, it didn’t answer the prompt, it didn’t talk about why I should be let into college. It’s paragraphs like that one that make my writing choppy and incohesive. In order for my ideas to flow together I need to only include ideas that are relevant to the piece of writing and strengthen the main idea. If every paragraph I write doesn’t connect to the previous one, then my writing will not improve.
College Essay Reflection: I learned a lot when writing my college essay. As this is a piece of writing that is very personal, I was able to see how my writing comes together with one idea. I re-wrote my essay twice before I found a topic that I liked, I was very proud of the final topic I came up with because it was out of the box and I was able to write very well about it. It is hard for me to edit my own work and see the flaws in it, but after this project I grew in my ability to edit my own work. I read my essay over and over again until I couldn’t find anything else that was wrong. I then consulted with my peers and Lori to get further feedback. My interest in this essay was strong and that led to me truly wanting to compose the best piece of writing I could. I edited the following sentences “It’s easy for me to think that I am just another human… In 7 billion people the life of one girl doesn’t stand out amongst the millions of faces, but now I look at humans the same way I look at sand. Each one with their own different story, each one so complex I can’t begin to break down every moment they have been through to become the human I see in front of me”. I changed it to, “It was simple, natural even, for me to think of myself as just another human. In a world bustling with seven billion people, the life of one girl rarely stands out among a million other faces. My incapacity to see the uniquities and depth present in everyone and everything led to a rather primitive understanding of life.” After feedback from a friend and a teacher, I edited it to address the prompt better and sound more natural when one reads it. All it took for me to create this intense and effective editing process was to care about my writing. Especially since the quality of this essay influences my acceptance to college, I needed it to be the best it could be. When I cared, it wasn’t difficult to read a re-read the essay about 50 times, it was important. When I care about what I am writing, I can create a beautiful piece of work.