Sheehy English 9

Now that you’ve had your first two essays returned (assuming you handed them in), I’d like you to take a moment to think about them and to think about how you might improve at writing essays.

Notice that I said think about improving at writing essays, not think about improving that essay. In a sense, you are thinking about how you could improve at writing that one essay, but the idea is to generalize your thinking so you can get better at writing. Your goal is less to write a good piece than it is to become a good writer.

So the first thing I want you to do is read over any comments I put on your essay and the scores you earned on the rubric. Figure out what went well and what went wrong. Then turn to your blog and write about it. Tell us where you did well and what you’ll need to improve for next time.

When you tell us what went well, quote from your essay. Consider putting your strongest paragraph right into your blog article. If you do not have a full paragraph that was strong, give a line, like a topic sentence or an attention grabber, and explain to us why it is strong.   Don’t cut this article too short. I realize the temptation is to jot two sentences and quit. I’d like to see 5-7 sentences of reflective writing and a quote from your essay.

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Image attribution:

Original image: ‘FH000006.jpg‘  by: Bernd Brägelmann

You have now studied the basic construction of a story and the basic construction of an essay. How are they similar and different? Please identify examples of when each one would be the best form of writing to use. Considering that readers of your blog may not know what you’ve done with essays and stories over the past month, explain in your article how you have written both formats in the last couple weeks, and how the two pieces you wrote ended up being different but also similar.

In a sense, I’m asking you to weigh in and cast a vote for the best way to write, but I want you to consider different situations instead of simply declaring one better than the other.

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Image Attribution:

Original image: ‘Don’t forget‘  by: Sue