reading conclusion

During the year I have not read much for free reading, but in class I have read a lot of books which I wouldn't have read otherwise. I have enjoyed some of them, but my favorite books are always about survival or outdoor themed story lines.

Next year I think I will do better about outside reading because I have heard that there is less homework, so I should have more time to read. I have advanced as a reader this year because I can almost understand poetry and I see story lines more clearly.

My reading for this week is:
wed: 1hour 15min.
Thurs: 45min.
sat: 30min.

MacBeth

In MacBeth, I think that out of lady MacBeth and MacBeth, lady MB seems to be the most power hungry and I think that she wants the power more than her husband. Currently, she is probably eager to become more powerful, but maybe nervous that someone will find out about what she and her husband did.

MacBeth, on the other hand, is the more anxious of the two, and is very nervous about what he did. MacBeth seems to also feel more guilt from his actions than his wife, which might be because he actually killed the king, but I think it is just his personality.

Writing WrAP up

Allen Singletary                                                                                                                                             4-30-2012

Dr. deGravelle                                                                                                                                                     Block 2

Writing WrAP up

               

Throughout the year we have written several different papers in English class, and in all of them I have seen similarities relating to weak and strong points of my writing. Out of all of the different sections including: organization, support, sentence structure word choice, and mechanics, my best in all of my papers was word choice and organization. My worst seemed to always be sentence structure and organization, while the others, such as overall development and support were always somewhere in the middle.

                My strongest point in nearly every paper was my word choice because nearly every time I was describing something in writing I would get a positive comment on the clarity of the description. I was glad to see that feedback because whenever I read I usually find that the setting and descriptions interest me the most out of all the different aspects in writing. I am also a very visual person and tend to picture the characters and landscape when I read, so that might have helped me be clearer.

                The worst points in my writing are usually sentence structure and organization, but in the wrap test it said that sentence structure and support were the most lacking. In the wrap test support was probably lower than usual because we don’t get to research the topic and this could have caused some uncertainty when writing. Organization is one of my lows because if you know me you probably already have realized that I am not exactly a very organized person, so when I write my ideas and thoughts come randomly in short bursts so it is hard to organize them on a timed assignment. Finally, my absolute lowest point in every paper I have ever written is my conclusion. When I try to write conclusions it feels unnatural because lots of the time I feel like I'm repeating what I just said in the body.

                The rest of the aspects of my writing will sometimes vary in quality, depending on the subject or point of the paper. Usually the things that vary are my introduction and just following instructions. My introductions used to be my lowest point, but I figured out how to keep them relevant and interesting. Following instructions is also in the middle because I will start out knowing exactly what I'm doing, but as the paper goes on I stray farther from the original point and I lose what my main idea was going to be.

                This year I have improved a lot on most of my writing, and a lot of it is due to getting a tutor, but my best improvement seems to be organization and maybe word choice. I learned how to read my own writing and find the “foggy” spots where my organization has caused something to become unclear and my vocabulary has improved because I learned some words from my tutor. This year I do think that Dr. D has graded me harder than my past English teachers, but I have definitely learned where I need to work on my papers the most. I still need to work on my conclusions more than anything, but at least I have still improved in my other areas of writing and I now know to look more carefully when using the rubric to grade myself. Overall my writing has improved and I know not to procrastinate as much when writing essays, so my freshman English year has been positive.

Common Errors:

More creative titles: The title of my personal narrative was, “Personal Narrative”, I need to make sure that I come up with creative titles for papers.

Book titles: I need to make sure I put correct title formats and not just quotes like, “Hatchet”, by Gary Paulsen.

Hyphens: I need to use hyphens on things like, “fast paced”

Sizes: unlike I did in the profile paper, I need to find different ways to tell sizes

Commas- I need to put commas after prepositional phrases such as, “Off to my right is a stream”, which should be, “Off to my right, there is a stream”.

Transitions: I need to make sure my transitional phrases flow well with the thesis

Possessive apostrophes: I need to make sure I show possession, “the dogs bone” should be “The dog’s bone”

Dispatches

For my outside reading book I am reading Dispatches by Michael Herr, which is about a soldiers experience in the Vietnam. The book feels like I am watching a movie and you really feel like your there. Mr. Karpiak also showed me some maps and diagrams that give me more of an idea of the setting. I even watched one of my dads war shows so I have a really good image of whats going on.

The main character has been through several firefights by now and they are described in the book to look just like the ones on tv. So far the book is pretty interesting even though I barely ever have time to read, so its nice to sometimes get to read at the beginning of Dr. D's classes.

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

I chose this poem because the title reminded me of deer hunting on the weekend since it is always winter. When I annotated the poem, I focused on the writers use of adjectives to emphasize a certain feeling. The author repeats words like cold, early, morning, labor, splintering, breaking and cracked that are harsh words which make a vivid image in the readers mind.

I also noticed how the author makes the main character seem lonely and unrecognized for his time and effort. The man wakes up every morning and repeats the same pattern of getting dressed and working. The weather is so cold all the time that his hands are chapped and chronically sore from cutting the wood in the cold. The point seems to be that the father is very nice and works hard for his families happiness.

english projects

Today during study hall I was discussing with Mr. Karpiak what he thinks would help me get a good grade on the english projects that are due this week. So far I think that my partner and I will do pretty much the same thing for both. We will have a painting that will represent something in either the book or our paper, and we will have a power point to explain the meaning of it.

I was wondering if anybody was thinking of doing something similar, because I really don't know what anybody else is doing. My main concern is that the presentation will not be long enough or something like that. I hope it all works out and everybody does well because I really need to get a good grade.

Dispatches

Dispatches is a book I started reading a few days ago. It is about a soldier and his experiences in Vietnam during the war. I haven't gotten very far into it, but it is very detailed so it makes you feel like you're there. I have read a lot of other war books, mostly on world war 2, but this is the first one that I have read on the Vietnam.

The author seems to focus on the danger of the helicopters so I think that it may be important later on in the story. The book is good so far, and I will probably find some more books by that author because it is good for outside reading.