In my opinion, English has been the most interesting class I’ve had these past two years because we’ve had such a fun time learning new concepts and discovering them in different ways. Both of my teachers from both years had a fun way of breaking down the concepts and helping us understand them a little better. I’m writing this to show how much I have grown and transition from 7th grade to 8th grade. I’ve chosen 2 assignments that showcase my strengths and weaknesses from 7th grade and another that shows how I have improved in 8th grade.

The first assignment that I chose was a persuasive essay from last year that about whether to drink bottled or tap water. I argued that its better to drink bottled water because its much safer. Although I got an A on the assignment, I feel that my weakness in this assignment was my introduction because I didn’t really start off by introducing what the topic of the essay was going to be. Instead, I started with a short anecdote that explained why I chose bottled water over tap water and it included no evidence. However, one thing that I feel was a strength for me was my ability to cite my sources properly and not plagiarize but rather to pull sentences from the text and summarize them in my own words. In my opinion, this assignment shows that I am a critical and creative thinker because I used texts from different sources and I analyzed them to find the best pieces of argument to use in my writing so that I can persuade the reader.

The second assignment that I have chosen is an assignment from this year which was an argumentative essay about whether San Diego should use recycled water or not. I chose to argue with the side of using recycled water rather than imported water because it would save the city more money. In my essay, I felt that the introduction was done well because I started with introducing the topic to the reader and that my sources were well cited and well explained. I do feel that my weakness in this artifact was the counterargument because it sounded a little redundant and repetitive. I could have used more evidence from the texts to support why some people might argue my opinion. Another weakness of mine was the conclusion because even though I restated the topic I didn’t explain and elaborate more. I would like to think that this artifact again shows that I’m a critical and creative thinker because I used my my texts to help support my essay.

I think that in 7th grade, my introductions, counterargument, and citations weren’t properly done because I wasn’t exactly sure how to make them sound well. This year, however, I’ve improved in not only my citations, intros, and counterargument, but also my reasoning with my evidence because of the fact that I was able to look back on my mistakes from last year and was shown how to write them well. At the moment, I do feel that my conclusions still need a little bit of help for high school but that they’re very close to being just right.