Wrapping It Up

Alright, time to finish this up. I've told you about what has helped me, what has hurt me, what has been hard for me, and what I'm going to be doing in the future, but what I haven't told you is how I feel about these four years of writing. A countless amount of hours has been spent on writing through my four year high school career, and I have four portfolios to show for it, even though a couple may have been thrown out...on accident. But as I'm sitting here typing, I really don't know how I feel about this four years of writing. It has been enjoyable sometimes and not so much other times. I guess I'm pretty happy about how far I've come since Freshman year, and I hope that I'll be doing something like writer's workshop in the future. That being said, I'm going to keep writing just a hobby and not something that I major in or want to make into a career. So I don't know, I'd like to keep writing but not be writing too much. For me, it's only fun when you want to write, so that's what I want to do.

Overall Thoughts on Four Years of Writing

Four years is a long time. In these four years of writer's workshop I can't say that I have learned anything significant in writing pieces. I did learn how to write poems pretty well, but no big epiphanies occurred for me through these four years. What I did learn though, was a bunch of little things that allowed me to improve my overall writing. Learning how to develop a character was probably the most important of these little things I learned. This helps because every story is going to have at least one character, and better characters translate to better stories. Learning how to use suspense to its fullest effect has also helped me improve my writing, as it keeps the reader more interested in a story. I've also learned to look at my sentence structures and shorten some of them up, because I write a lot of run-ons. Applying these improvements, as well as other little one that maybe I don't even notice, to my writing are the reason I am much better today than when I started four years ago.

The greatest catalyst of my growth is definitely all of the conferences I've had. The reason I write the way I do is because I think it sounds good. Most of the time it has to take a peer or a teacher to notice errors in my writing for me to actually see them. Because if I saw my mistakes on my own, wouldn't I not even write them? So it is mainly from the help of others that my writing has improved. Another catalyst may be that I've tried experimenting with writing styles. I think that opening myself of to different types of writing has let me try new things and learn new ways to write.

I've had some struggles over these four years too. Specifically, attempting to make my dialogue as realistic as possible in one of my pieces Senior year was a big struggle. Another part of writing that is tough for me is not writing many run-on sentences; I tend to put lots of commas in my writing. Finally, the biggest thing I struggle with, and this has occurred constantly over four years, is the inability to come up with ideas. I can't tell you how many times I'll sit at my computer for at least an hour and end up with nothing on the page. Grammar can also be pretty tough for me. I'm probably forgetting a few things, but other than that, I haven't had any other problems.

In the future, I'm going to focus mainly on continuing to try new things in my writing. If I keep doing the same stuff, I'm going to get bored with it. I also will want to continue to work on my character development. I've come a long way since Freshman year, but I think that there still is some improvements that need to be made. I'm not what else I'll be working on, but hopefully my writing will keep improving.

Comments on Stories of a Writer

This piece best shows my progress as a writer. It's not my best piece, but it best shows my improvements on areas of my writing that were weak. I enjoyed writing it, because I could relate to the feeling of having writer's block so well. I liked the plot of the story, as well as the details of the epiphany the narrator comes to at the end. I originally didn't include that, but the piece was much improved after I did. This was one of the things I learned. I don't know why, but when reading my piece, I learned to realize when something was missing. I'm not sure how I could tell, but I would sometimes be left with that feeling that something more should be added. This probably happens with everything, but it was just something I got much better at as I continued to write.

Senior Piece: Stories of a Writer

Emptiness. This was the one and only word out of the whole English dictionary that he could think of. His mind was empty. It was like a fifty foot brick wall stood between him, pen in hand, and his notebook. There was only one way to conquer this seemingly unsurpassable wall, and unfortunately he, at the moment, could not do it. Tap, tap, tap; the pen hit the paper creating a noise to break the silence of the room. Click, click, click; he became mesmerized by the fact that his pen could make more than one sound. Click, tap, click, tap. Snnappp.

“Oooo, another one,” He thought as he explored the new sound his pen had made. Following this entertainment was the soft thud of the pen falling onto the paper… He needed to focus. Writing a simple story was much harder than he thought it would be. Just then, as if God himself had wished to distract him, the clouds parted and the gleaming sun appeared for the first time that day. Rich, green leaves danced in the breeze and played in the sun’s streaming light. “Man, I wish I was outside,” he thought. “Maybe I’ll just go out for a bit.” But looking back down at the blank paper, he knew that he had to stay in his room and work. He pulled down the shades.

Leaning back in his chair, he continued to tap on the notebook. The brick wall blocking him from writing must have been getting bigger, because he was even more clueless about what to write than before. “How about I just do this tomorrow,” he attempted to persuade himself. “That’s perfect! It’s much easier to write on Thursdays anyway.” Procrastination had apparently won this battle. He jumped up from the uncomfortable chair and headed downstairs.

He could practically smell the fresh new leaves that come with spring, almost hear excited birds singing pleasantly to one another, and nearly feel the sunlight warming his anxious body as its rays seeped into the earth. The welcoming weather of spring had convinced him to go outside, and he had one foot out the door when he suddenly came to an abrupt halt. At that moment he remembered that the paper was due tomorrow, so he trudged back to the prison that his parents called a bedroom.

“How can I think of a story to write?” He wondered. For no particular reason, he glanced down at a book lying on the floor. On the cover was a picture of a camera; and that was it.

As empty as his mind had been a second ago, it now began filling quickly with ideas. Memories of old family pictures flew into his head. Then photos of friends appeared as well. His eyes began to widen as the stream of memories rapidly flowed. Into his racing mind came flashes of colors, lines, shapes, bodies, clothing, athletes playing sports, musicians performing, artists painting pictures, people laughing together, clouds lazily passing through a careless summer sky, and suns slowly setting.

With this rush of thoughts a character began to take shape. Legs appeared; long, but strong. Then a body materialized, as well built shoulders sprouted from a narrow waist, and thin arms emerged as well. A long, tan face grew from the neck, and dark brown hair streamed out from the top of her head. Green eyes formed, along with a tiny nose, mouth, and a pair of ears. She would have many friends, and live a modest life, but would have a secret lying within her. What made this secret special was that not even she knew what it was, but she would eventually need to discover it. Thoughts were coming so fast that he had to write them all down. The brick wall had been smashed, and there was no turning back. His previously deadlocked mind had found the key to open itself to the possibilities of a world worth exploring. He jotted down this explosion of ideas, finally creating another sound in the room besides the clicking and tapping of a pen.

Senior Year of Writing

This was my final year of high school writing, and I could see the quality of my writing improving. Again I had Mrs. Topham, and again, this would mean doing lots of work. But this year I felt good knowing exactly what was required from us in the portfolio. I thought this would be a big advantage, but it really was not at all. I told myself I would have the portfolio done weeks in advance, but just like last year, I was up finishing it the night before it was due. Anyway, senior year was a strong finish for me. This was the first time I had ever created a portfolio and having the confidence of knowing that every piece inside of it was strong. I spent more time writing this year than I ever have in high school, and all of that work allowed me to produce five of my favorite pieces. It didn't seem like I had any particular focus this year. I had spent the last three years improving some of the skills I was weaker at, and I think that this year, I wanted to use all of those refined skills. My storytelling had gotten much better, I was now good at using suspense, and I could now develop a character pretty well, so I wanted to use all of these in one story. This is the Senior piece I have included, but I would like to talk about one last weakness I had this year. I wanted to try new things this year, and this was the reason for my decision to try writing an all-dialogue piece. Well it wasn't all dialogue, but the majority of it was. This was very tough, and I struggled with making the conversation as realistic as possible, but in the end, I felt like I had created a good piece.

Comments on The Insides of Poetry

As I said, this was my favorite piece, and even still probably is. My thought to write this came from the interesting idea that you can look at a poem and get one meaning, and then look at it again another time and get a completely different meaning. Although it is the exact same text both times, what changes is you as a person, and that's what effects your perception of the poem. The best part about this poem was the imagery. Without strong imagery, I think this poem would be pretty bad.

This poem showed my new ability to create strong poetry. This was one part of my writing that had always been weak, and I think this piece changed that.

Junior Piece: The Insides of Poetry

When I finally got the chance to look inside,
Just a glimpse into its depths;
I saw light.
A butterfly was fluttering around,
Free as anything I had ever seen,
Flying gracefully through endless possibilities,
Revealing its radiant beauty to eager explorers.
Below, daisies smiled up at me.
Lush bluegrass envied the tantalizing roses,
Swaying lightly in a summer breeze.
I gently closed the poem back up, Careful not to disturb the harmonious atmosphere.

Pondering what I saw that day,
I peer inside again,
Hoping for piercing rays to illuminate my soul,
But everything is dark;
Gloomy ghosts drift lifelessly,
Hovering over cold, unresponsive wings.
Daisies have wilted; the bluegrass now brown.
A lone rose stands amidst death itself;
I attempt to save it but am hindered by a thorn,
Stabbing my skin.
I curse and blood drips on a poignant scene.
I slam the poem closed.

Perhaps if I revisit this ever-changing garden,
The butterfly will greet me,
And land softly on my timid finger,
Healing a sore wound,
Once created by a thorn.

Junior Year of Wriring

This was the first year I had Mrs. Topham. It probably was not even a month into the year when I realized that I would have to work harder in this class then I ever had before in an English class. There was lots of work, but at the same time, my writing improved as a result of that. I think my main focus in writing this year dealt with character development. In many of my pieces, a character would change in some significant way either from some external or internal force. Doing this caused me to learn a lot about creating a good character. There are many aspects that need to be thought about when creating a good character, and the tricky part is that every single action made by your character has to be justifiable. Everything he or she does has to agree with his or her character traits. That was what I struggled with; I think it's very tough to be that accurate.

In my Junior year, I wrote what could be my favorite piece. It was a poem about poetry, and I really like the imagery I create and the message of the poem.

Comments on David Vs. Goliath

The reason I like this piece is because a sports analysis piece is not something I usually do. I was experimenting here, and it seemed to go pretty well. My favorite part of this piece was my relation of this game to David and Goliath. The reality is that this game was very similar to that, and in my pregame analysis, I did a good job of showing that. The Patriots had every advantage imaginable going into the game, and I made sure to point that out to give the game a David Vs. Goliath aspect to it. The other thing I liked about this piece was the way I formatted it. I talked about each team separately, giving certain facts that related to this game, and then I pointed out certain areas that could be deciding factors in the game. The reason for this was so that this piece would sound similar to an article in a newspaper. Although I make the game sound like it could be very one-sided, I have to mention a few ways that the Giants could end up winning. When sports analysts write articles, they do so in hopes that people will read the articles and watch the games. If analysts said the games would be a blowout, then a lot less people would watch them.

The goal of making this piece look like an article out of a newspaper or magazine was accomplished. When looking at the writing itself though, there are areas that could have been improve. I think that I could have started off the piece stronger by relating the battle of David Vs. Goliath and the upcoming superbowl more. This would have been a place where I could have created strong imagery. I also wish that I had made the Patriots look like more of an enemy. Most people want the underdog to win, and I think I should have considered that.

This piece showed me that I could successfully change up my writing style. It wasn't my best piece from that year, but I thought it was pretty well written.

Sophomore Piece: David Vs. Goliath

Pregame:

The pursuit for perfection continues for the 18-0 New England Patriots who are looking to add a page in the history book and become the first team to reach 19-0. The New York Giants, the opposing team in the Super Bowl XLII, will be looking for revenge from their first loss to the Patriots during the regular season. They are also looking for redemption for their inconsistent regular season play. The stage is set for a heavyweight brawl in Arizona with two teams hungry for a win.

The Giants finished their regular season with a measly record of 10-6 to the Patriots’ record of 16-0, making Super Bowl XLII look, on paper, like it will be a blowout. But with gained confidence from three playoff wins already, Giant quarterback Eli Manning is without a doubt playing the best football of his life. During the regular season he was one of the main reasons for some of the Giants’ regular season losses. Eli threw interception after interception and collapsed under all the pressure of being a quarterback in New York. No one knows exactly where this new found confidence came from, but Eli has been making smart decisions and has thrown no interceptions throughout the playoffs. Wide receiver Plaxico Burress has helped Eli Manning greatly through the playoffs, catching the most passes on the team and making some unbelievable catches. Though he has been plagued with injuries throughout the season and even the week before the super bowl, Plaxico has performed very well and should be good to go for the big game. In fact, a Giant victory nearly depends on his being healthy. The Giants running back, Brandon Jacobs, also will play a big role in the super bowl. He is a scrappy, muscular workhorse who will do anything for an extra yard. On the other side of the ball, and a great aspect of the Giant team, is their defensive line. They had a total of 53 sacks during the regular season in just 16 games. With Osi Umenyiora and Micheal Strahan leading the line, the Giants’ defensive lineman will be giving Tom Brady a tough time. A weaker link in the Giants team has always been their cornerbacks and safeties, who unfortunately will be playing the best offense in the league. If they can’t find a way to cover the Patriots’ skillful line of wide receivers, the Giants will lose the game regardless of anything else that happens. They had some trouble in the first game covering the Patriots when they lost 35-38. Though that seems like a lot, the Patriots had always found a way of scoring thirty or more points every game. Tom Coughlin, the Giants head coach, has done a brilliant job coaching in the playoffs with three straight road wins and now, with the toughest game of the season coming up, he will have a chance to prove his greatness. But going against a team who has won three of the last five superbowls, the Patriots are experienced and will be ready for anything that the Giants throw at them.

The Patriots will be disputed as the best team of all time if they win this game, and rightfully so. They have dominated the NFL this year, punishing every team that has stood in their way. The Pats were caught filming the New York Jets coaches calling plays in week 1, and coach Belichik was fined $500,000. Additionally the team was fined $250,000 and the loss of a first round draft pick. The team received heavy criticism from not only fans, but even players and other coaches. After that, the Patriots have had the mentality of “us against the world.” Some may call the Patriots a dynasty, others deny their achievements because of spygate, the coach filming incident. Regardless of what people think about the Patriots’ extracurricular activities, it is undeniable that the Pats have some great talent, especially on offense. The team is led by Tom Brady, the quarterback, who plays even better when the pressure of a game gets higher. Their running back, Laurence Maroney, has not been needed much this season because the Patriots have passed the ball so much more than they have ran it. However when Laurence is needed, he performs very well. The Pats have five talented receivers, including Randy Moss, Jabar Gaffney, Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker, and Ben Watson. Having so many threats when passing the ball, it is understandable why the Pats don’t run very much.

So the stage is set; one team looking for perfection and dynasty, the other after revenge and redemption. The game will come down to three essential things: how well the Giants can cover the Patriot wide receivers, if the Giants defensive linemen can put nonstop pressure on Tom Brady, and how well Eli Manning will perform. If the Giants can do these three things well, they will win the game.

Analysis:

David stunned Goliath, denying New England’s chance for perfection in a massive superbowl upset. The Patriots, who were favored by 12 points, didn’t seem to be putting their full effort on offense. Tom Brady threw a sloppy 29 passes in 48 attempts, and as usual the Patriots didn’t use their rushing game even though their running back got the Pats’ only touchdown of the night. The Giants, on the other hand, got the job done on offense when they needed to. One of the key ingredients to a win for the Giants was Eli Manning performing well, and he had a great night. Eli continued to make smart decisions throughout the game, and eventually threw two touchdown passes to lock up a win for New York. Despite being down four points late in the fourth quarter, Eli remained calm and led his team down the field, eventually throwing to Plaxico Burress for the go-ahead touchdown with 35 seconds left. This stunning drive all but closed the game out for the Patriots, who were now down 17-14. After returning the kick, the Pats attempted four hail mary’s, the majority to Randy Moss, but in vain. An ecstatic Giants team ran onto the field to show their enthusiasm for their victory that shocked millions. Another essential thing that the Giants needed to do was put pressure on Tom Brady, and they executed that as well. The defensive line sacked him five times, and forced him into making 19 incompletions. Normally Tom Brady has as much time as he needs to throw in the pocket, but tonight he was impacted all 60 minutes by the menacing defensive line. All in all, both defenses did a great job of stopping the opponent, but it was the Giants’ offense that gave them the edge over the Patriots.

Sophomore Year of Writing

In Sophomore year, I tried to change up my writing styles. Where Freshman year's portfolio consisted of three stories of similar format, Sophomore's had different types of pieces. I even included a poem. This changed opened me up to looking at different perspectives. For example, in one piece I wrote called "Rebel," I told about an experience of a young African from Sudan that was kidnapped by Rebels and was almost brainwashed by them into becoming a killing machine. I varied my styles of writing much more than I had the previous year, and it improved as well, judging by the fact that "Rebel" was much more captivating than "The Payback".

One type of writing that had always interested me was sports analysis. I thought I could be good at this because I felt that I watched sports and was a decent writer. So my Sophomore piece that I'm showing you is an attempt at sports writing, in journalistic fashion. My idea with this piece is that this would be similar to the kind of article you see in the sports section of a newspaper.

Comments on the Payback

For a Freshman, I think that this is a good start. I told a story about something I knew, and although that might not be that difficult, I feel that the story was told well. One of my goals for that year was to work on building suspense, and this piece shows my attempt to do so. I also, throughout my four years of writer's workshop classes, wanted to learn how to tell a really good and captivating story. Stories of your experiences can often be the best pieces you write, and so I wanted to see if I could develop this skill.

Looking at this story, I can see a solid foundation for that skill. The storyline is there and I do a decent job of developing the plot. What's not good about the piece is that the story moves too quickly. In order to build more suspense and write a better story, I learned over my writing career that I should have extended the suspenseful parts as long as possible. This would have allowed me to add many more details while keeping the reader's attention because he or she wants to know what's going to happen next. And the good thing about the details is that the more of them I tell to enhance the story, the more involved the reader gets in the piece and the more he or she wants to read the next line. Overall, this piece is a nice start to my high school writing. It is a pretty suspenseful story that is developed nicely and may make you laugh a couple of times throughout.

Freshman Piece: The Payback

Pranks are always a part of childhood. Ever since I was young, I have loved to pull pranks on people. Often times, my older brother and I would come up with ingenious plans of making people (most of whom we didn’t even know) look foolish as a result of our practical jokes. My history of practical jokes have shaped me into the highly skilled prankster I am today. No one gets the best of me, and I held true to that saying on one summer night that my friends and I will never forget.

Head slightly starting to tilt sideways and eyes slowly shutting, I quickly snapped back to reality and grabbed another coke to try to keep myself awake. At sleepovers, the first person to fall asleep would often be the victim of cruel and unusual pranks. This person could not be me. All of the lights were shut off in my friend Charlie’s basement, and I was slowly losing my agonizing battle with sleep as we huddled around his computer looking at YouTube and playing games. It was 1:00 in the morning and I could barely keep my eyes open. Deciding that my friends’ activities on the computer were boring, I chose to lie on the bed in Charlie’s basement and watch some television. That is where the problem began. Televisions seem to have a subliminal power of making people fall to sleep. I gazed at the bright screen, unaware that I was being hypnotized into dormancy. My eyes started to close and instead of snapping up awake, I drifted off into a deep sleep. My buddy Tasos, who always falls asleep first at sleepovers, joined me in slumber. My friends began to look back at us and ponder ways of making us victims of their cruel and unusual pranks. They were especially interested to try and get me with a practical joke because this was a rarity; I am usually the last to fall asleep at sleepovers. They wanted to get revenge at me because I’m always the one pulling pranks on them. My friends giggled softly as they deliberated about what prank to pull on Tasos and me. When they had finished discussing, they turned off the computer to make Charlie’s basement black as night.

“Come on! Do it quickly before he wakes up.”

As I woke up to this barely audible whisper, I felt someone slightly bumping up against me. The bumping quickly vanished as I jostled a little bit. Had I been woken up by my friends trying to do something to me? I tried to look around but the room was pitch black and my eyes were still adjusting to the darkness.

“Is he awake,” I heard.

“Shut up! I don’t know, but be quiet,” another whispered.

As I became aware of my surroundings, I noticed that my lips felt like someone had lit them on fire. I touched my lips, and they began to sting even worse. It felt like 100 needles had been stabbed into them. I could not take my mind off this horrible burning. A mistake I made was trying to run my tongue along my lips to get an idea of what substance had been doused on them. My taste buds immediately detected flavors similar to scorching wasabi sauce and a rotten apple. What have my friends done to me? The question was racing through my head in the ten second time period of dead silence when my friends did not know if I was awake or not. One of my rival pranksters tried to creep up the bed to check if I was awake. The anger I felt towards my friends from my scorching lips gripped me and I knew that it would not let me go until I could get revenge.

“What the hell did you guys do to me,” I yelled at my friends, who were lurking in the dark. As I sat up, eyes now adjusted to the dark, I could see six faces looking at me and trying to hold back laughter. Clearly my friends had been caught off guard because two of them jumped in surprise. I stormed into Charlie’s bathroom thinking only about my agonizing lips and getting revenge. Upon first looking at the mirror, a stain was clearly evident on my shirt. Apparently they had missed my mouth on the first attempt. I touched it and discovered that the stain had formed a crust over my shirt. When smelling it, the stain exuded the odor of an old sock simmered in spices. My nostrils burned as the scent passed through them. I checked to make sure that the “old sock” smell that I had experienced was not my body odor; it definitely was not.

“That was hilarious! How does that stir fry sauce taste?” My rival prankster Tommy proclaimed his supremacy as he entered the bathroom. He seemed very proud of what he had just accomplished. I glanced at the stain on my shirt in disgust as he arrogantly stated, “You know that it was ten years old too, right? That stuff is gross.” Just thinking about the repulsive taste on my lips made me cringe now knowing the age of the stir fry sauce.

I would not let my friends get the best of me. Returning to the bed, I noticed that my friends had all become extremely tired. This was a big advantage for me. I also saw that they had left the stir fry bottle out after using it on Tasos and me; Another helpful advantage. A plan began to shape in my mind as I lay on the bed. I would wait until I was fairly sure that all of my friends were asleep and then get revenge by giving them a taste of what they did to me. The reason that Tasos was not going to help me with this was because he had not even woken up when they put the expired stir fry sauce on his lips and in his mouth.

The anxiety and excitement was killing me. I could not wait much longer. My mind was racing about the upcoming task. I knew my plan was flawless. If I could execute this operation in complete silence, I would have no trouble with anyone waking up.

Slowly but surely, all of my friends fell asleep. The whole basement now smelled like the stain on my shirt. When I heard three of them snoring, that was my cue. It was time to execute the plan. I got up and stealthily headed over to the stir fry sauce which they had forgotten to close the cap of. A roll of Tinfoil was left right by the bottle of sauce so I decided that that would be my weapon of choice. I quietly ripped six individual squares of tinfoil. Putting about ten drops of expired stir fry sauce on each square of foil, I knew what I was going to do next. The task at hand was one that required great skill, perfect execution, and proper timing. This was no prank for a rookie. If one of my friends woke up before I had finished, I would not be able complete the job. If I happened to miss when applying the stir fry sauce to one of their faces, I would stain Charlie’s rug or pillow. I realized that I would not have time to rub the tinfoil square with the sauce on it on each friends lips because that would take too much time to make sure that I was accurate. Experience in pranks clearly pays off when encountering a tough situation like this. After going over the game plan in my head, it was time to execute. I leaped into action. In about 20 seconds, I had used the squares of tinfoil as brushes to wipe the stir fry sauce all over my friends’ faces. I looked over them in triumph and awaited the results. They all instantaneously woke up.

“Oh my god! What’s on my face?” I heard from my victims. I couldn’t help bursting out in laughter at how clueless they were. I watched as my friends squirmed in their sleeping bags because of their burning faces. I even heard a couple shout, “This stuff smells horrible!” When I thought that this situation could get no funnier, my friend Nick, who had gotten stir fry sauce rubbed on his face, didn’t realize yet that I had done it to him as well. He stood up and proclaimed with a smirk, “Oh man! That sucks. He got you guys badly!”

Nick realized that I had rubbed it on him directly after he spoke; when he too, began to feel the intense scorching sensation on his face. No one was really that angry because they knew that I had a right to get revenge. They were very surprised; not one of my friends had even a hunch that I would get them back. To my enjoyment, it turned out that the stir fry sauce could not be washed off with water. My friends had to endure the burning for a funny 30 minutes. Their hilarious complaints about the burning and smell entertained me. All my friends could do was wait until the burning went away. Revenge felt so sweet and I knew that we would be talking about this prank for years to come. I hope that the one thing my friends learned from this experience is that nobody will ever get the best of me when it comes to pranks.

Freshman Year of Writing

I was new to high school writing this year, and had no idea that I would need to do a lot of writing each year of school. The concept of a portfolio was something that I had never heard before. When I did find out how much we would have to that, I was very annoyed. I didn't like writing that much, because I knew it meant writing about something probably boring that would take a long time. But then I found out that we could write about what wanted, and it didn't seem so bad.

With this new freedom of choosing my topic, I mostly wrote about experiences that happened to me. An example of this is the piece I've included in this blog.

Welcome To My Blog

Hello,in this blog I'm going to be evaluating my four years of writing at Lake Forest High School. It seems like it's been much shorter than than, and sometimes I am still surprised that I am a senior this year. Beginning when I was a Freshman, I have done portfolios every year of high school. The bad thing about that is that they can be really annoying and take a long time to do. But the good thing is that I can see how much better my writing has gotten over the course of four years. The difference in quality in comparing some of my Freshman pieces with my Senior pieces seems night and day. So here is my exploration and analysis of four years of writing.