1. What do you consider your best work this semester? Why do you consider it your best work?
- I would say that my best work from this semester would be my creatively written short story. It is a fiction genre story that I just made up. I consider it my best work because I had really great usage of dialogue and details within the story. I developed a couple characters and made the plot and everything work. It all ended up blending together. I feel like when I read my short story it is a professional story because it just sounds really great!
- I would say that my best work from this semester would be my creatively written short story. It is a fiction genre story that I just made up. I consider it my best work because I had really great usage of dialogue and details within the story. I developed a couple characters and made the plot and everything work. It all ended up blending together. I feel like when I read my short story it is a professional story because it just sounds really great!
2. What specific skills do you feel you've honed (or at least developed )? Choose specific examples from your best work (words, phrases, establishment of tone or mood, for example) to illustrate these skills on writing.
- I believe a great skill that I have honed during this class would have to be being better at dialogue, using lots of word choice, and using creativity. One specific work of mine that I believe I used great creativity would be in my short story titled "Love Struck in the Middle of Competition". This is a little excerpt from the text, "She was a woman of average height with beautiful locks of gold flowing in the wind. Standing beside her was her charming but stern co-worker who was almost twenty-four years old. His name was Scott Carson, he was a nicely built, hardworking, and busy man"(Nitz 1). Another work of mine that shows very good dialogue would have to be my Dialogue #4 Activity titled "The Power of Disagreements in Friendships". This is a piece of dialogue from this work,
“You better watch your mouth MaLoreigh, but I’ll just do this instead.”, Katelyn gestured to her cute mug. “Oh and this little mug means nothing to me.”, says Katelyn as she picks up her mug and tosses it at MaLoreigh’s feet and shatters. “By the way this picture can die for all I care because it’s not of me anyways.”, Katelyn says as she throws the picture frame as well.
Overall throughout this class I have learned many different techniques and have grown in my writing skills. I feel like I can write anything I want and when I want. I love this Writer's Workshop class, it was definitely not a waste of my time.
- I believe a great skill that I have honed during this class would have to be being better at dialogue, using lots of word choice, and using creativity. One specific work of mine that I believe I used great creativity would be in my short story titled "Love Struck in the Middle of Competition". This is a little excerpt from the text, "She was a woman of average height with beautiful locks of gold flowing in the wind. Standing beside her was her charming but stern co-worker who was almost twenty-four years old. His name was Scott Carson, he was a nicely built, hardworking, and busy man"(Nitz 1). Another work of mine that shows very good dialogue would have to be my Dialogue #4 Activity titled "The Power of Disagreements in Friendships". This is a piece of dialogue from this work,
“You better watch your mouth MaLoreigh, but I’ll just do this instead.”, Katelyn gestured to her cute mug. “Oh and this little mug means nothing to me.”, says Katelyn as she picks up her mug and tosses it at MaLoreigh’s feet and shatters. “By the way this picture can die for all I care because it’s not of me anyways.”, Katelyn says as she throws the picture frame as well.
Overall throughout this class I have learned many different techniques and have grown in my writing skills. I feel like I can write anything I want and when I want. I love this Writer's Workshop class, it was definitely not a waste of my time.
3. Explain, in detail, the process you used for creating this portfolio.
- Over the course of this semester I noticed that I was really creative with what I created while writing. When writing I like to create a unique character with somewhat of a unique background story, look, and awesome name. I like to make the story completely my own because then you can tell that you created the story. Creativity is a very awesome technique that is important in a piece of writing. This portfolio holds all of my works that I believe were created very well. The reason I chose the theme for this website as little sticks with some flower buds is because when I started this class I was like a plain stick with not a lot of experience with writing for fun. But now, during this semester I have grown little buds at the ends of my sticks because I am slowly becoming better and growing into what I need to be. So throughout my site I have little blurbs of flowers just to show how I have bloomed throughout this class in my writings. |
4. What are your weaknesses as a writer? Provide examples from your works.
- Some of my weaknesses include not knowing where to put punctuation within dialogue, using the same word over, and accidentally having too many run-on sentences. Within everyone of my dialogues I usually mess up where the period goes or where the comma goes. It is just a big error of mine that happens a lot. Sometimes when I start a whole new paragraph I start with the same word as the first paragraph. Or sometimes I will use the same word at the start of the next sentence. There are also many times where I keep rambling on with details and nonsense that my sentences just being to run-on for too long. Here is an example from my short story "Love Struck in the Middle of Competition" of a run-on sentence of mine, "To get ready for the next day of work or competition as she would call it, she took a nice relaxing walk home to her cozy, tight, and obnoxious apartment" (Nitz 2). Another example of one of my weaknesses is using the same word over a lot in my Mind Bender Story: "The Tradition of UNO at Lunch", "Then since we are the three musketeers, we took our cute first day of school picture together so that we could post a new one on Facebook. Then we said "See y'all later", because we all had lunch together which would be in a couple of hours" (Nitz 2). I started the first sentence with the word THEN and then I used the word THEN on the second sentence. Overall, I really need to work a couple things while writing now and in the future.
- Some of my weaknesses include not knowing where to put punctuation within dialogue, using the same word over, and accidentally having too many run-on sentences. Within everyone of my dialogues I usually mess up where the period goes or where the comma goes. It is just a big error of mine that happens a lot. Sometimes when I start a whole new paragraph I start with the same word as the first paragraph. Or sometimes I will use the same word at the start of the next sentence. There are also many times where I keep rambling on with details and nonsense that my sentences just being to run-on for too long. Here is an example from my short story "Love Struck in the Middle of Competition" of a run-on sentence of mine, "To get ready for the next day of work or competition as she would call it, she took a nice relaxing walk home to her cozy, tight, and obnoxious apartment" (Nitz 2). Another example of one of my weaknesses is using the same word over a lot in my Mind Bender Story: "The Tradition of UNO at Lunch", "Then since we are the three musketeers, we took our cute first day of school picture together so that we could post a new one on Facebook. Then we said "See y'all later", because we all had lunch together which would be in a couple of hours" (Nitz 2). I started the first sentence with the word THEN and then I used the word THEN on the second sentence. Overall, I really need to work a couple things while writing now and in the future.
5. In what area of writing do you feel you have made the most improvement on this semester? How did that happen?
- I believe that an area of writing that I have made the most improvement in is with placing a setting, adding description, and causing imagery. I have noticed that I am a lot better at these things and I can notice it in a lot of my works from the past semester. Here is an example of me placing the setting in my short story "Love Struck in the Middle of Competition", "It was a beautiful day in Atlanta, GA with rays of sun shining about the city off of the flashy buildings. There was no cloud in the sky, and birds were chirping like nobody was listening. With such a beautiful day you wouldn’t think that their were any stressors amongst anyone, but there were two people struggling with anxiety in the busy downtown crowd" (Nitz 1). Now, here is an example of description being used in the same short story, "She knocked on the door and was welcomed inside by a bunch of smelly drunks. The place was covered with all sorts of bottles and cans amongst the floor, and there was a couple pieces of broken glass. It looked like a tornado had swept through" (Nitz 2). This next example is of imagery from my Mind Bender Story: "The Tradition of UNO at Lunch", "Well it’s almost the first day of school once again just like every September where all the stores are almost empty of school supplies, and everyone is trying to find the perfect first day outfit. The freshmen are nervous about starting high school and we seniors are just ready to graduate and move on in the world. Teachers are just wishing for a little more of a break before they have to deal with all of the difficult teenagers of our generation" (Nitz 1). These three things are what I have really improved with over the semester. |
6. What grade do you feel you have earned this semester? Why, specifically?
- I feel that my grade should and always should be an A. I have turned every writing assignment in on time when it was due and created it with the best of my ability. I have worked really hard with creating the works that I have produced and I know that I deserve a really good grade. Also this whole semester I have had A's for my grades in this class. I really loved this class because it stretched my writing ability and I know that I deserve the best due to how much time and effort I have put into everything I have done for this class. All my assignments have received A grades and nothing less. Overall I believe that I have earned an A for this semester due to all my hard work that I have put within.
- I feel that my grade should and always should be an A. I have turned every writing assignment in on time when it was due and created it with the best of my ability. I have worked really hard with creating the works that I have produced and I know that I deserve a really good grade. Also this whole semester I have had A's for my grades in this class. I really loved this class because it stretched my writing ability and I know that I deserve the best due to how much time and effort I have put into everything I have done for this class. All my assignments have received A grades and nothing less. Overall I believe that I have earned an A for this semester due to all my hard work that I have put within.