Research Project Update

There are more steps to completing this research paper than I had originally thought. I have made progress on the preparations for my research paper. First I acquired eleven different source and wrote annotated bibliographies for seven of the my sources before submitting them on Thursday. Now we are working on notecards in World History and English that are due on Wednesday. Although finding ten sources and annotating six of them was difficult, I am in the midst of working on my notecards.

When we finish writing at least 35 notecards, we will begin gathering all of the information that we have been working on for the past few weeks into an outline. Before the end of this quarter, this project will be completed, which is difficult to believe. When it comes to my research question and stance, I'm still not quite sure as to what exactly they will be. I think that my research question might need to be somewhat refined. Overall, I think that the research paper writing process is going smoothly.

Comments Quarter 2 Week 8

Hayley- Writing Center Visit

Wyatt- If Cookies were Currency

The Writing Center

My appointment at the writing center was a turning point (for the better) in my literary analysis writing process. I met with a writing fellow last week, before I even began to write my first draft. I had not performed as well as I had hoped that I would on my outline, and I wasn't sure why. When I visited the writing center, I read over the comments that Dr. D had left on my outline assignment submission. The writing fellow helped me fix the mistakes that I had made on my outline, and I began my draft shortly afterwards.

While I was still at the writing center, I began to write my draft. After I had started my first draft, the rest came very smoothly, thanks to my detailed outline. After I finished my introduction paragraph, the writing fellow gave me some helpful tips on how to improve my sentence fluency and I began working on my body paragraphs and conclusion. The writing fellow was very helpful in that she helped me understand why certain parts of my outline were't making any sense. Once the outline became for fluent, I eagerly finished my first draft thanks to the writing center, which was very helpful.

Maia's Prompt

In my future, I don't have an exact image of what it will be like. I'm not sure what I want to do for a living, but I want it to be something that I love. I'd like to be a lawyer because I enjoy debating. I also like math and I am fairly good at it, which is why I might want to do a job that is heavily dependent upon math. I want a job that could easily support my family in the future. I know I want to have a family, which will be my number one priority in the future, as it is now.

For me to be able to say that I have had a wonderful life, I want to look back at life and have no regrets. I want to be able to say that I never did anything that was unforgivable. I also want to be able to say that I took risks that ended up paying off. I want to be able to say that I made several great relationships while in this life, and I hope to move onto the next with no regrets.

Comments Quarter 2 Week 7

Casey- Literary Analysis

Hayley- Free Post- Christmas Eve

Exams

With exams coming up, it's the most stressful time of the year. Even though we have taken exams every semester since seventh grade, I think it'll be different because we are in high school now, and the stakes are higher than ever. Colleges will be able to see our semester grades, which will be determined by our exam.  I know that some of us had classes that count for high school credit in middle school, but none us took all high school classes until our first year of high school. So this year every exam counts, for the purpose of our futures. Not only are these exams the most important exams we, as ninth graders, have taken, but these exams will probably be the most difficult exams we have ever taken.

This year I think that some exams will be the same level of difficulty as previous years, as long as we have payed attention in class. Some exceptions for me are Latin and Honors Biology. These two classes are a huge leap from Latin and Science in middle school. These two exams will include the most information. In Latin, the exam will essentially consist of everything I've ever learned in Latin. In Honors Biology, the exam will consist of less questions, which gives me a smaller margin for error. These two exams will be the most stressful, and I have them both on the same day. Even though everyone has their own specific struggles with exams, your life will not end if you do not perform as well as you would have hoped to on an exam.

Literary Analysis Update

This literary analysis has caused me to have my ups and downs as a writer. When we first started strategizing on which topic we should pick for this project, I wanted to write about something that I already had a brief understanding of. I also wanted to write about something in the book that I would interested in and something that I already had an argument for. I thought that as a Latin student, I would write about the literary device at the end of the story, the “deus ex machina.” This means "god out of the machine," which we talked about in a previous class period.

When I begin to write my outline, I struggled with finding a way to have a solid argument to support my thesis. I went to the writing center, where a writing fellow helped me improve my outline, and I began to write my rough draft shortly after. The outline has been extremely helpful so far when it comes to writing my draft. I am essentially putting all of the main points of my outline into sentence form and elaborate on those points. I am making progress on my draft, and I have not reached any significant problems when it comes to lack of explanation. I am glad that I can improve as a writer as I am writing this literary analysis.