Reflection

The first piece of writing I chose for my blog was writted after reading The Scarlet Letter, I wrote an essay discussing the effects Pearl had on Hester Prynnes life. In this piece my goal was to have a thesis and support and explain it with examples from the text. II thought this was a very creative idea that I think will help develop my writing skills as a student. The next piece I wrote this nine weeks was the nature essay, on the concept of transendentalism, concerning the philosophers Emerson and Thoreau. A large part of my writing this nine weeks had to do with making connections between ideas and a piece of literary work. For example in my Emerson and Thoreau essay I was showing how the idea of transendentalism can be reached in our world today by citing examples in my life. I like to write, so this class has been very enjoyable for me. In this class my favorite thing that I have learned is how you can pick any random object and find ways to compare it to a character in a novel. I have also learned many different ways you can begin your essay to catch the reader's attention, and have them clued in on the topic of your writing. I have also learned how when you include quotes in your essay it strengthens your voice, and adds even more support to your statement so the reader will agree with you.
While writing these pieces, I made many revisions to my work. In the Scarlet Letter I made many changes to make it flow more easily, and to clarify my opinion.I also added a part saying why Hawthorne included Pearl in the novel. Click for revision. At one point I sad all mothers love their children no matter what, and since in some cases that is not true I changed it to most mothers love their children no matter what. in second paragraph. If you click on the next link it shows where I added quotes to better support my opinion. In my nature essay I added details about the leaves around the lake. click here I also added more description about how the quote about windy gap related to me, and how my feelings were similar. here Then, in my conclusion of the nature essay, I just moved the sentences around, like the sentence referring to the Anne Frank quote became my last sentence. Then I added a sentence summarizing Emerson and Thoreau's ideas. Overall, some changes I had to make in all of my pieces were things dealing with commas, and keeping everything in the same tense.
Reading through my classmates bl0gs, I noticed the talents that many people had for writing. One person's writing that particularly stuck out was Erika Verbeck's. In her Transcendentalism Essay her voice was very strong. She also did a great job of getting her opinion accross. http://erikaverbeck.blogspot.com/ Not only did I look at Erika Verbeck's blog, I also looked at Erika Burton's blog. I then proceeded to read her piece on the Scarlet Letter. In this piece she used a good many quotes to prove her point. Her writing also had a nice flow going, which made it easy to read, and enjoyable. This is something I would like to add to my pieces. http://http://erika-burton.blogspot.com/ The next blog I read was Stephanie Moreheads. I read her personal narrative, and thought she did an excellent job. She used the brushstrokes in her piece to give her writing more flare and meaning. I want to start making sure to use those in my writing to make it more effective. http://http://stephmoorhead11.blogspot.com/ It really helped me to read other students compostitions because it gave me many useful ways to improve my writing.