English class these last two years have been a wonderful learning experience. I have improved in many differnt writing skills. I will be comparing two asignemnts, one from seventh grade and one from eight grade. There are various strenghts and weaknesses in my writing and I have improved since last year. I chose two essays that I wrote, ” Bottled Water vs. Tap Water Essay” and “Performane Task Essay”. I selected these assignments because you can see the improvement between the two as I improved as a writer.

The assignment that I chose from seventh grade was the “Bottled Water vs. Tap Water” persuasive essay. We wrote this essay to discuss which source of water was better based on evidence from articles provided. I highlited my strenghts in the essay in green and my weaknesses in red. The first thing that I annotated, was in the introduction of the essay. I highlited the introduction in green because I consider it a strenght in my writing. In this essay, my introduction was very detailed and I stated my claim. The next thing I highlited was in red and it was one of the body pharagraphs. I highlited it in red because it was missing detail and more explanations. Also, I only stated one piece of evidence, which made the pharagraph incomplete. The last thing I highlited and annotated in red was my counterargument. The counterargument was a weakness because it is missing a stringer rebuttal with evidence to back up my claim. Completing this assignemnt shows that I demostrated being a critical and creative thinker because I had to read various sources and find evidence that supported my claim.

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The assignment that I chose for eight grade is the “Performance Task ” essay. We wrote this assignment to persuade the reader that they should use or not use recycled water. For this essay, one of my strenghts was that I can use a variety of transitions while stating my evidence. Another strenght, is that my counterarguments have become more elaborated and I can now use more evidence to support my claim. Completing this assignment made me be an effective communicator because I can present my ideas in my writing by citing sources and using evidence.

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My writing has improved since seventh grade. Not only have my counterarguments improved, but my transitions and my grammar as well. My weakness is that my conclusion needs to include my claim and needs to be more elaborated. I can improve this in high school by practicing writing conclusions more often to understand the concept.