The student will effectively use structural elements to set up progressive arguments: stylistically strong incorporation of direct support with pertinent context, powerful, controlling thesis and topic sentences, and insightful development of an argument.
Reflection
Haroun Essay Artifact: An essay on the positive and negative aspects of freedom of speech.
The subject matter for this essay was the power of freedom of speech in Itchy, Scratchy, and Marge, a Simpsons episode, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie. This was an in-class essay, and students were given the prompt ahead of time, and permitted to bring an unmarked packet dictating the format the essay was to be written in. We were also told not to plan the essay out on paper on our own time, as in an SAT situation, for example, there would be no preplanning. So, I didn’t do much to prepare for this essay, aside from going over important information in my head.
I find in-class essays very stressful, so I proceed by leaving my worry at the door and just going for it. This is was the process I followed for this essay. I did a solid job on the essay, and well in the evidence and argument areas, a surprise, as these are not usually my forte. This made me very proud, and shows my progression towards the mastering of this objective.
I think one of the strengths of this essay was its simplicity. I feel that a student can be better tested on the quality of their writing when the assignment is simpler. This lets the student’s abilities do the talking. A personal weakness on this assignment was that I failed to redraft it, having been glad to have done as well as I did when I should have striven for a better grade and a better essay.
The most challenging part of this assignment was my difficulty with analysis and argument, which, on this particular essay, I began to overcome. I think, strangely, that this step forward was a result of confidence. I understood what was being asked of me, and felt secure with my essay structure packet. One thing I learned about myself when looking back on the experience was the awesome power of confidence to so dramatically change an outcome that could potentially have been dismal, to something to be proud of.
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