Term 2
For my term 2 writing samples, I have included parts of essays that stand out to me and college board FRQs to show my writing development. In term 2, in order to improve my writing, I wanted to focus more on patterns in literature and nuances within a story in order to expand the complexity of my theses statements. Since I have learned and practiced the basic components of writing in Term 1, in Term 2, I wanted to improve on the sophistication and line of reasoning within my work.
December 9, 2019
Rossetti - Remembrance
In this essay, we had to complete a timed writing assessment about a poem written by Christina Rossetti. I wrote about the concept of remembrance and its relationship with the speaker and the audience. After writing, we were instructed to give ourselves a grade, revise our work, then re-grade ourselves. My revisions are written in blue.
November 24, 2019
Ideal Timed Writing
For the Ideal Timed Writing assignment, we were instructed to read and annotate and excerpt and answer a prompt under no time constraint. By doing so, this activity was meant to allow us as students to dive deeper into the meaning behind a piece of writing and present our full analysis of the piece to the best of our ability. I found this activity a lot easier than writing a full essay under a 40-minute time constraint, and thought it was a good way to practice our essay-writing skills.
Term 1
In my Term 1 Writing Samples, I have included pictures of my writing as well as small explanations and commentary regarding what I wrote. The writing I collected for Term 1 includes College Board writing assessments and in-class timed writing assignments. Through this work, you can see how my writing has improved over the course of each Progress Check, and what I still need to improve on for future works.
December 2, 2019
Unit 3: FRQs
In Grendel, by John Gardner, Gardner includes Grendel's internal thoughts and emotions and relates them to human characteristics in order to manipulate the sequence of events in the story; by doing so, Gardner portrays Grendel as a sad, misunderstood creature, rather than a heartless monster. Grendel is a novel that focuses on the life of the monster, Grendel, and the sequence of events that leads him to massacre a large group of humans. In the original story, Beowulf, Grendel is known as a dangerous, evil being, however, this novel is written to challenge such interpretation. Gardner manipulates the story of Grendel to portray him as a being with the same thoughts and emotions that humans have. For example, at the beginning of the novel, Grendel spends his night in the forest, blabbering at the moon and describing what it feels like to live an isolated, lonely life. These universal ideas of isolation and loneliness connect to human characteristics and help the audience empathize with the painful emotions Grendel feels. In addition, when Grendel is looking on at the humans in the bar, talking amongst themselves, and he is shunned by the humans who see him, Gardner touches upon the universal idea of envy and companionship. Grendel desperately wants friends and others he can talk to, and by describing his internal heartache in a human-like way, Gardner is able to change the norm of how the character is traditionally perceived. By manipulating the sequence of events to include the painstaking emotions and internal dialogue of Grendel, Gardner is able to change how the audience perceives and interprets his character in a more empathetic, relatable way.
In the first part of the college board Unit 3 FRQs,
October 27, 2019
Unit 2 Progress Check FRQs: 1
This is another CollegeBoard Unit Progress Check about a poem entitled, "Relations". In my analysis of the poem, I said that the contrast within familial relationships depict the impact societal gender roles have on the structure of a family. I used multiple quotes from the text to support my thesis statement, and ended my writing by connecting my evidence back to my thesis statement. I am really proud of this progress check because I received a 6/6 on it when it was graded in Collegeboard. This assignment is proof that I am using what I am learning in class to improve my writing.
Unit 2 Progress Check FRQs: 2
This writing sample is of the poem, "Double Dutch", which I have provided my annotations for in the "Annotations" section of this website. This poem prompt was to make a defensible claim regarding how Pardlo uses simile and metaphor to convey a complex image of the girls. Due to a misreading, I assumed the girls described in the poem were children, however I still received full credit on the paragraph I wrote regardless of my mistake. From now on, I will try to read more carefully, and not make assumptions about the characters described in the poem unless something is explicitly stated. In my interpretation of the poem, I said that Pardlo uses simlie and metaphor in the poem to show how creativity can completely change a simple situation. I believed that characters in the poem were children because typically, children are the type to play double-dutch. However, in order to improve my work, I could have extended my thesis statement to describe it as "people in general".
October 21, 2019
This is one of the college board writing assignments in which we were asked to analyze and discuss an excerpt from the story, "Claire of the Sea of Light". I have included the annotations for this excerpt in the annotation section of this website. In my writing assignment, I was asked how the author uses rhetorical strategies to establish Claire's complex perspective, and in my writing, I said that Danticat used descriptive imagery and a shift in height between setting to establish Claire's perspective of a child yearning for freedom. Typically, heights close to the sky, such as mountains, represent freedom and a place closer to God. Danticat uses this knowledge in order to effectively emphasize Claire's feelings while at home compared to her new life on the peak of the mountain.
October 21, 2019
This is a CollegeBoard FRQ assignment in which I was asked to write a paragraph in which I make a defensible claim regarding how Robinson uses literary elements and techniques to convey the significance of the setting for the son and his father. In my writing, I said that Robinson used abrupt sentence structure and descriptive imagery in order to convey the significance of the setting. "Gilead" is a story of a son and father traveling together during a drought, looking for their grandfather's grave. The complexity of the setting comes from the descriptive imagery of the graveyard they pass, which serves as a description for what their grandfather's life was like: he lived in a small, ambiguous town living a dull and bleak life. "Gilead" is an example of an FRQ that I struggled on to understand the meaning of, and it took me a couple times to read it over before I could start to understand what was happening.
October 16, 2019
This thesis is an example of work that was notably strong, since it received a gold star. This is a thesis from the play, "A Doll's House," which interprets the relationship between the main two characters, Torvald and Nora.
October 16, 2019
Unit 2 FRQ: 1
This writing sample is from the Unit 2 FRQ Check on Collegeboard. The prompt of this assignment was to make a defensible claim regarding how MacNiece uses poetic elements and techniques to convey a complex understanding of the significance of Sunday morning. In my interpretation of this poem, I said that MacNiece uses motion with his word choice and negative tonal shift within his writing in order to convey a complex understanding of Sunday mornings. Compared to my Unit 1 Progress Check, my Unit 2 FRQs received a much higher score, now that I was able to get a feel for what these progress check assignments would be like. This FRQ is an example of how my work developed compared to my last graded assignment, and is proof of growth within my writing.
Unit 2 FRQ: 2
This writing piece is the second half of the Unit 2 FRQ. In this writing sample, I analyze the poem "Spring and All". The prompt for this assignment was to describe how Williams uses poetic elements and techniques to convey the speaker;s complex perspective on the approach of Spring, and I said that Williams does so by using personification and tonal shift within stanzas. Personally, I was a big fan of this poem and thought the descriptive words and imagery painted a really imaginative scene. Unfortunately, I lost a point on the evidence/commentary portion of this grade, simply because I did not have enough time while writing to fully incorporate more evidence from the text. However, there is a much greater improvement compared to the last timed assignment we did, and I am proud of the progress I made in my writing.
October 5, 2019
This is a timed writing based of the poem, "Lives of the Heart", in which I discuss how Hirshfield uses structure in order to convey the meaning of the poem. This ties into the poem structure notes in the "Study Notes" section of the website.
September 30, 2019
Unit 1 Progress Check FRQ: 1
This writing sample come from our first unit progress check on short stories. For this unit check, we had to answer multiple choice questions, then complete two FRQs in 50 minutes. This unit check served as a wake-up call to me for what the AP exam is going to be like; I struggled with the time limit and need to work on that limitation come time for the actual exam. In this first FRQ, I read and analyzed an excerpt from the story, "Hitting Trees with Sticks". In my interpretation, I said that Rogers conveyed Cecilila's complex perspective by writing in the first-person. I struggled a bit from my first Unit check, however, now I know what to expect when completing these assignments and can improve my future work.
Unit 1 Progress Check FRQ: 2
This writing sample is from the second FRQ of the Unit 1 Progress Check. In this FRQ from the story, "Elsewhere", I was asked to analyze how McClure used setting to convey Zita's complex perspective. In my interpretation of the work, I said that McClure utilized senses, such as sight and smell, in order to convey the complex perspective. In order to help the reader relate to the main character, Zita, the author wrote in a very realistic way so the reader could insert him or herself in the story so they could better understand the world from Zita's perspective. I also struggled a bit while writing this FRQ, since I was still not used to the time limit, and failed to finish my FRQ. However, this way, I have room for improvement for future FRQs I write, and can learn how to pace myself within the time constraint.
September 17, 2019
This writing sample is from the poem, "Hawk Roosting". The assignment for this writing sample was to analyze how the author used structure in order to convey the message of this poem. In addition to this being a writing sample, it also has peer-editing on it which is associated with collaborative feedback on the term reflection sheet.