wrap-up

Monty Travis

Writing wrap-up

English 1

Dr.deGravelles

            Every year in English we wright papers and they are graded.  I always feel like I get better as the year goes by but this year I felt like I have improved on my writing a lot.  This year by far has been the hardest and most writing I have done in a year I have done in my years of school.  It was hard and sometimes I did not want to do the work but in the end I am gad I did. 

            Spelling has always been hard for me, especially before I did all my papers on the computer.  Even when I type my papers I get words mixed up or wrong.  Pear editing has always helped me with this.  This year we did a lot of pear editing which helps.  Also what helps me is making a lay out of the paper before I wright it.  This helps me make my paper proportional and make more since. 

            We did several papers this year that delta with quotations.  In my comments on my paper I had a hard time with them.  I did not realize this until I looked at all my paper’s comments side by side.  This is one of the goals for next year that I want to work on.  I think this will help me a lot to spend more time on quotations when my papers require them. 

            The global issue essay was the hardest assignment this year for many reasons.  One is because it was a really long essay.  The other reasons were because we had to do research on our topic and use noodle tools.  The length of the paper was the biggest challenge for me.  This is also a small problem in my other papers.  This is another goal I would like to set for next year.  Another thing in the global issue paper has not giving enough background information.  If I had done this it would have helped the length of the essay and also gave more information. 

            Turnitin.com has helped a lot this year too because you can see all of your comment on papers and also see the papers right there on your computer at all times.  This year was a good year for improving my writing I thought.  I hope I can improve nest year even more. 

Common errors

1.              Spelling

2.              Quotations

3.              Essay length

4.              Commas

5.              Support of the topic

6.              Better titles

7.              Word choice

Reading 4-21-12

I read 150 minutes of Time Machine.  I read 38 pages of this book.

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

When I first read this poem I got the message that this persons father gets up early in the winter on sundays.    He gets dressed and talks about his hand, how they are cracked.  Then the narrator gets up and is afraid about how the anger in the house.  She says "Speaking indifferently to him".  To me this mean she is very carful with her words.  She also talked about love but I cannot figur out what that means.  

In this poem I see personification with the hands and how she talks about how they are they ached for labor.  I also see enjambment throughout the poem.  these are the only literary terms I see in this poem.  I class I would like to discus what they mean at the end of the poem by saying "what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?"

Free reading 4-9-12

I have spent all of my 150 minutes and more working on the homework due April 16 in English.  I have spent about four and a half hours on these homework assessments.  I am writing about this not to complain but I do not know what to wright about since I did not have any free reading this week.   Before I knew we had all of this home work over the break I did a little free reading in my book Animal farm by George Orwell.  


I did not read very much but I found out that the man on the farm is seeing treatment for drinking all the time.  This is very hard for him and is struggling to get sober.  He is still seeing things outside his window and nobody will believe him because he is drunk, this is why he is trying to get sober.     

"My Father's Garden"

I picked the poem "My Father's Garden" by David Wagoner.  I picked it because the tittle seamed interesting.  It is about a place that makes hot rolled steel.  The graden is not a garden that you would normally think of.  It is a graden of steel scraps.  The narrator refers to the stuff in the scrap yard as flowers in a garden.  At the end they talk about how he brings "lumps of tin and sewer grills as if they were his ripe prize vegetables.

I see a lot of personification in this poem.  He talks about how the steel is like flowers and he takes things home like prized vegetables.  There is also some consonance in this poem.  (like "cannons and cars")  The poem is mostly personification between the unreal steel and the real flowers.  I also can see a little imager in it.  (like "gears and cogwheels With teeth like petals")

free reading

This week I continued to read Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I have found out more about the book but it is getting off to a very slow start.  I have spent all of my 150 minutes reading this book this week.  I have only read about 30 pages though.  As I told you last week the farmer is seeing strange things outside his window.  I also predicted that it was because he was drunk.

Most of this I found out to be true but not all of it.  He went for help in the town and they told them that it is just because he is seeing stuff and they cannot help him until he gets sober.  I am at the point now where he is trying to stop drinking.  I think it will be really hard for him to stop drinking.  I also think he will be able to do it at the end of the book and find out what is outside his house.