MHS Senior Portfolio, part un!

My reflection paper


Looking back at past work, I do think I have grown a bit as a writer, especially in terms of say, research papers and recognizing and analyzing works in relation to symbolism. I am pained to say that I am still not the best writer in terms of writing analytical essays on the fly, when given a text I am wholeheartedly unfamiliar with as well as a text I find myself not enjoying, but when given time (say, a week) it comforts me to know that I can pound out a respectable sixteen page paper analyzing a topic, such as the assignment where we had the option of analyzing the works of a modern artist.

I have improved in analyzing text a little, I would like to think. For instance, in the dialectical journal from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that I selected for my senior portfolio, I had originally interpreted the passage as an analysis on the topic of hypocrisy; however, after a group discussion I had realized that the passage fit perfectly in a study of the techniques that Austen used in Pride and Prejudice to allow the reader to understand and experience the prejudice that protagonist Elizabeth went through when we viewed the story in her perspective. I decided to incorporate this idea into the revision of my dialectical journal for the senior portfolio, which hopefully shows the progress in interpreting and analyzing the text, as well as perhaps emphasizing the fact that one should try to be open to various interpretations of the text.

In the essay talking about the use of outdoors versus indoors in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, it shows some of my strengths and weaknesses, as well improvements. In regards to weakness, it shows once again that I’m not the best when it comes to essays that are required to be written in a short amount of time, or assigned suddenly, rather than long, analytical papers. It also shows how analyzing symbolism is more of a preferred topic of mine, since if I recall correctly, I did reasonably well in the essay, pulling out a solid B average I believe. As for improvements, the essay was written rather late in the year, and majority of my old essays have a high C or a low B average, which shows how I improved in the sense of grades; I also recall being able to write that particular faster and easier than previous essays, and being more satisfied with the outcome.

I believe the piece that shows the greatest amount of improvement, as well as one of the pieces where I’m actually proud of and shows my strength, which apparently lies in research, is my research paper; my second one, to be specific. In my first research paper, which was the poet assignment, I believe I had gotten a low B on it due to citing errors as well as other issues. On my artist paper, it shows greatly how I’ve improved, and how I thoroughly analyzed each piece of work; from the colors used, the medium chosen, the images and even the titles, I practically dived myself into research in concerns of the paper. However, the one weakness that my paper still reveals is my habit of not being able to transition smoothly from topic to topic, in a flowing, uninterrupted manner, rather than suddenly and seemingly randomly changing to another topic, or in this case, painting. I also took greater care this time in concerns to the works cited page, as well as the annotated bibliography, something I didn’t really put much effort/concern into in the previous paper. Also, another topic which showed improvement was my thesis statement; I was easily able to find a thesis statement in this circumstance, and unlike my past thesis statements, this had a strong, clear, and specific idea behind it, rather than my usual vague, indifferent stance on things.

My final piece, which was actually one of my first pieces written, was my college essay. Despite being one of my earliest pieces, it was one of my strongest in the sense that I originally wrote it in a similar style and format that I would write an editorial for our school paper, the Blue and Gold. It reveals one of the strongest strengths, if not the strongest, that I have in the sense that I feel very comfortable in writing in a more personal tone, which is understandable; it makes sense that one would become more passionate and try to write better about a topic they either cared about or was connected to on a greater level. From that, my later creative enterprises that were assigned later on in the year also reflected such, from the Wide Sargasso Sea poems to the self composed villanelle, sestina, and sonnet; it’s much easier for me to compose something almost entirely of my own or analyze a thought of my own, rather than breaking down and examining someone else’s piece of work.