Exploratory Narrative Analysis

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

After analyzing many of my written works, I highlighted my writing weaknesses along with notable strengths. Evident in my earlier works, my vocabulary was more basic and was not as powerful unlike my more recent essays. Seeking to improve, I started utilizing words I learned during the year

Ever since Hunter Jordan died, Ruth and James were heavily affected. In order to combat this, they both use different ways to grieve over his death. To begin, Ruth, James’ mother, rides her bike to grieve for her husbands death. To show proof, James says, “She would ride in slow motion across our street… It was her way of grieving,” (7). As one can see James believes his mother rides her bicycle to grieve for her deceased husband. In addition, James also notes, “it was something [the bike] my stepfather found on the street in Brooklyn and hauled home a few months before he died.” (5). To explain, James says that his stepfather found the bike and brought it to Ruth a few months before he died, so Ruth uses it to remind her of her husband. Furthermore, another way Ruth grieves is in church. James says, “she would occasionally do something in church that I never saw her do at home… she would bow down her head and weep.” (50). As one can see, Ruth cries in church to grieve for her husband because if her kids see her, they would think she is crying because God makes her happy.

In my ePortfolio, I have gathered a series of my writings that I have completed over the course of this semester. Overall in this entire course I have learned a great deal of material that has pushed me to become a better writer. From my past courses, I have noticed that I am not the strongest writer but I do try my best. With Professor Knox’s tough grading system, he has given me drive to bshow my potiential as a writer. I feel as if my knowledge has increased a significant amount on the following topics/concepts and I support each claim with the correlating artifacts 1) Writing process Artifact 1-Writing Log 3, (2) Discourse Community-Artifact 2 Assignment 2 Partner Review, (3) Rhetoric Artifact 3- Assignment 1, (4) Genre Artifact 4- Reading Notes Week 10; and (5) Critical Thinking, Reading, and Research—Artifact 5--Assignment 5. Every assignment has shaped me into a more developed writer and has prepared me more for ENG 280.

The reason I am writing to you is to explain my development throughout the semester in the Advanced Composition course at Washburn University. The semester consisted of critically analyzing my selected story “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisneros through four assignments, the exploration paper, the reading and writing paper, the annotated bibliography, and the academic research paper. The semester began with basic lessons on general writing rules during class and progressed into a much more complex course, including lessons on expansion and development of evidence and supporting details, as well as the argument of the paper as a whole. Although each assignment taught something new, each built onto the last and helped transition my progress through each paper.

By six o’clock, Ryan and Esposito were tired of digging into the lives of both Amy Dehner and Hayleigh Brynn, and Beckett could see them squirming in their chairs. They were itching to leave and head home, and she was beginning to see the appeal as well. There wasn’t a whole lot more she could do, and she wanted to have more information for when she questioned Hayleigh. All three detectives had agreed that they would wait until the morning to question anyone, hoping to build up evidence that would allow them to be more specific in their search.

This year, we have written several essays; all of which I have learned something new to help improve my writing. Looking back at my writing from the start of the year to now, I have encountered substantial improvements in my ability to form an effective introductory paragraph, my ability to use different types of phrases and my development of examples. “My Summer Reading Essay,” written earlier in the year, demonstrates my lack of knowledge on writing an introductory paragraph, using topic sentences and developing examples. However, since the beginning of the year, I have begun to see improvements in essays like “Major Works I” and the “Joe and Claire Narrative” that include more effective introductory paragraphs, the use of different types

When I confidently swaggered into this room on the first day, I was certain that I couldn’t improve any more than where I was at that time. On September 3, 2015, I thought that any piece I wrote would be deserving of a four. I was clearly mistaken. Reviewing the pieces written from September to now, it is difficult for me to process the fact that I was the one who wrote these seemingly mediocre stories and essays, and yet I thought they were excellent. The growth of my writing, along with all my language arts skills, has grown exponentially from September to now. This paper should be rewarded a four because my writing style has been enhanced, along with the vast improvement of my reading, speaking, and technological abilities, from all the

What has been the best strategy that you guys have used throughout semesters to stay on track and make sure you aren’t missing anything?

“Soda,” Darry began, “call the fuzz.” I walk over to the heavy phone and lifted it, just like lifting the hood of a car. My mouth is getting drier by the moment, as if I was in the middle of the desert. Every minute feels like hours and I can tell that Darry is getting desperate for Ponyboy to come home because Ponyboy hardly misses his curfew.

This Reflective narrative will be based on how I tried something new and how it affected me in my future. The reflective narrative will be based on a time, I tried to eat better. When I did this I worked and eaten better with my Dad to accomplish this goal. When I tried this experiment I felt that I could try more things like going to the gym to work out and going running on the track. Or using different ways to learn in that subject in schools.I learned that trying new things could affect the way you think on different things. I don't think that I should have ever given up on this goal, I should have been pursuing a goal like this for the next few years to come. In my future I will keep trying new things like this goal to help with my body

There are many key aspects to giving a strong narrative and by hitting some of these it allows the ready to really get into the story you are telling.

Over the course of the past few months I have learned that writing for college differs from writing an assignment for high school. During this semester I have had the chance to be challenged as well as grow as a writer. I have written various types of papers; These papers have ranged from memoirs to research papers. Different papers serve different purposes. For example, a research paper serves to inform, while an analysis paper serves to take a deeper look at a work or character. Nonetheless, each paper requires a different approach, and has compelled me to take the different skills that I have learned in class and incorporate them into the paper. Throughout this course I have acquired skills that improve my writing and communication skills. Through these assignments I have learned how to properly cite sources, incorporate outside sources into my writing, as well as analyze information to strengthen my argument.

Throughout the course and the entirety of my life, I have striven to become more and more thorough at writing in any given scenario. This first year in writing proved to be one of the most difficult I have faced and with that new and better experiences have taken place shaping me into the writer I am today. And yes, I do believe myself to be a writer. This self-proclamation becomes necessary and fitting to me the more and more I read the essays throughout the course. The course did not act merely as a passage to get me writing but more of a treasure chest full of information that gave great riches in the heat of writing and developing for the future. This gave me a certain satisfaction with how I write my essays and more importantly the sparkling new ideas I now had to incorporate and fiddle with. The silver of this treasure chest was the simple creation of a thesis that addressed the entire paper while still leaving room for growth and expansion in the essay. And the most prominent or the gold was the purpose, the purpose found itself coming to the forefront quickly and triggered me to write to entertain and inform my audience while keeping them thoroughly engaged. While I grasped most of the wealth in the treasure chest I still couldn’t take it all. As I wrote I realized that I moved forward in writing without ever looking behind me to remember and bring back old points which could have enhanced my essays. Alongside this was my use of evidence bouncing from point to

Though different from the other two essays in that it was written with greater time constraints and without a real drafting and editing process, the initial in-class essay titled "It Came Out From the Blue" is a strong example of my writing at the beginning of this course. It was interesting to analyze both a painting and a story using the same basic through-line, and I think that I provided a clear thesis that is then well supported by the arguments of the body paragraphs and the evidence provided in them. There are, however, some errors in the mechanics of the writing and some points I think could do with greater clarity, and though I did not find this especially difficult I definitely feel that I benefit from more ample time to re-read, edit, and revise my written work than I had in the composition of this essay.