Strengths and Challenges

Writing is an activity that requires attention and devotion, especially for quality writing. It takes all the traits of good writing to create a meaningful and quality paper. Our class has done three major essays, each of which we've devoted weeks towards completing. Our teacher's guidance has made the process easier, but each and every person struggles and succeeds in different areas of writing.

I believe that strongest point as a writer is definitely my ability to turn facts into something interesting  and worth reading. My favorite essays were the literary analysis and the research paper, each of which required facts and interpretation. I did well in both of these essays, leading me to believe that I do excel in this form of writing. My weakness, however, is creative writing. I am not terribly awful at this, but I sometimes struggle with making something out of nothing. Even though my creativity may need a lot of work, my fact-based writing compensates.

Hits and Misses

We have done many projects in English I this year. Some were easily accomplished, and others were tiresome and challenging. Regardless of the difficulty, these projects were all at least somewhat entertaining. The most entertaining project this year was the research project. It was difficult, involving various activities that took effort and care to complete. The best part of this project was the research. We were able to browse an endless amount of sources find all of the information necessary to writing a quality essay. Although the research paper was incredibly entertaining, there were some parts of the year that I didn't enjoy.

For me, the worst part of this school year was writing the personal narrative. It caused me more stress than the other papers because it was our first one. I had no idea if I was doing things correctly, so I was constantly trying to correct each and every sentence, no matter how good it was. This was the first stressful thing I'd done all year, and it really got to my head. After I'd submitted the essay, I did feel better, but the feeling did wear down as time went on and as conferences continued. This year has had its challenges and difficulties, but it has also been a fun first year of high school.

Q4 W4 Comments

Robert's PH Reading Response
Gregory's Free Post

What are the most meaningful relationships in your life?

There are countless relationships that we will have in our lives. They will all affect us differently, but they will most definitely affect us in some way. Some people will make us happy and other will not. Many people will not maintain the majority of their relationships that they have right now, and those that continue to stay with us will be the most important people in our lives.

There are so many people that will tell you friends are friends and many relationships will come and go. They tell you to stay loyal to your best of friends and to not put your relationships before the people who you have known for so long. This is a decision that is a hard choice to make. I feel as if each person can balance things differently, and each can make room for relationships in a different way. The best advice anyone could receive is to be yourself and keep both friendships and intimate relationships but to be sure of what you value more.

Reading Response for PH

Purple Hibiscus has been an interesting novel to read. I have always been a little creeped out reading this book, not only because of the family problems but also the feelings it gives me. The author uses many situations that are normally not accepted in society to create an awful feeling towards the father and the government. This adds to our social knowledge creating a negative feelings towards the novel itself.

It seems as if the children's relationship with their parents is the most prominent aspect of this story. The largest part of this relationship seems to be the father's abuse towards the children and the mother. The father excuses his actions by saying everything is done for God. The children initially believed this excuse but as they grow older and are able to speak to other people, they begin to rebel against their father. These rebellions end in harsher beatings and worse punishments for the mother. This chain has not ended, and it seems as if it will continue to happen.

4/12 Comments

Tucker's Blog on Shootings
Naya's Blog

Shootings

YouTube Shooting: Woman Wounds 3 Before Killing Herself, Police Say by Maggie Astor and Maya Salam

Shootings have become a major problem in our world today. It is almost an everyday thing. This is something that we should not be getting used to, as long as we are human. The most recent and prominent shooting took place at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. The shooter wounded three people before she took her own life. The three people are injured and in the hospital.

These problems have become more prominent in the world with the rise of terrorist groups and the increasing instability of many people. Issues like these have taken countless lives that we cannot begin to count. These shootings need to be dealt with properly. Hopefully with better laws to ensure that these things will not happen because it is completely wrong for someone to lose their life because of a flawed system.