Portfolio

I have created some writing goals for next year in English. One of these goals is to get better at my grammar when I write. I strive to have good grammar in my writing before anyone helps me with it. I will seek help from teachers or people in the writing center to accomplish this goal. If I get help, I believe that my grammar skills will grow greatly and my writing skills will excel. Another goal I have for next year is to visit the writing center more often. I have this goal because the writing fellows helped me out greatly in the times I went this year. When they helped me with a paper, the grade on the paper was higher than my average. I will complete this goal by making appointments with the writing center for all of my important writing assignments. This will help me to turn in my best work and to make better grades.

Though I show some traits of good writing, there are some aspects of writing that I am not the best at. One of these aspects is transitions.   I am not good at coming up with ways to start new paragraphs. I always feel like I am repeating myself or starting off my paragraphs dull. Transitions are important because they start off each paragraph and make your paper less choppy. They take a small bit of information from your last paragraph to lead into your next paragraph, Another area I need to work on is my grammar. I am not awful with grammar, and I know most of the basics, but I often find myself with multiple grammar mistakes when I put my writing into Grammarly. I often use too many commas or misuse semicolons or colons. I definitely need to work on my grammar skills because, on some assignments, someone to check my grammar won’t always be available to me. I want to be able to make sure my grammar is great without any help.

When it comes to writing, there are some things that I believe I excel in. I always find myself writing intriguing details when I know a lot about my writing topic. I enjoy filling up my writing with as much detail as possible so the reader has a better experience. Detail makes most pieces of writing more interesting to read. I include detail by elaborating on setting and characters. I also find most of my papers having good organization. I order my writing in a way that makes reading it easier. I know when it is a good time to stop a paragraph and move onto the next one. I also know where to put important information so it flows with the rest of the test. There are other good writing skills that I have, but my organization and details of my writing makes it better.

When I first started ninth grade, I was nervous about the things I would have to write in my classes. I have always thought of myself as a good writer, but I was worried that writing would get harder in high school, and I was right. Through this year, I have experienced writing assignments that were relatively easy, and some that were difficult. Through these assignments, I have learned many things about myself as a writer. I have learned that I can write easier when I get to write about a topic of my choice. Whenever I am given a writing prompt, I find it difficult deciding what to write so that my writing fully answers the prompt. I have also learned that I write more efficiently when I do not have much time to write. Due dates encourage me to write quickly and efficiently and writing quickly encourages me to check my grammar. Lastly, I learned that using Grammarly is useful to double-check my grammar because sometimes I miss mistakes that I had made.

I am a writer who thinks long and hard about what I want to write about before I can actually decide. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you can only think for so long when the due date is arriving. After I finally decide a topic, it will probably take me even longer to compose my first sentence. I ask myself if I should start off with a question, but now that I’m thinking about it, that technique is quite overused. At least my opening sentence will be better than my transitions. Eventually, I’ll compose a pretty good opening sentence, which I will most likely change a few times, but at least I have it down on paper. If I was smart enough or told to create an outline, writing the body of my paper will be pretty easy. Everything will flow onto the paper easily until I realize my paragraphs are choppy. Oh right, the transitions. “However, continuing, now”, nope those won’t work, I’ll figure it out later. I need to start my closing paragraph. How should I start ...