Reflection on timed writing

I am unbelievably happy this week because of the peer editing done on our timed writings. Throughout my AP courses, it was essays that I needed to grow in and getting any score above a six was amazing for me. So, this week when both of my peer editors gave me scores above a six. Being able to go over our other timed writings has shown me what I need to work on and how to fix the problems. I still need to analyze my claims more, but over the past timed writings I have fixed the problems with using 1st or 2nd person and fixed the majority of my issue with staying on topic and not rambling. Another factor that may have helped make this past timed writing so much better was that I really enjoyed the prompt. I liked the story and I had a real connection with it because I could trace many elements such as diction, tone, and definitely imagery. The story is about overcoming goals to follow your dreams and I feel like everyone can connect to that. It will probably not be until the next timed writing that I figure out whether or not I did so well because I am truly growing in my writing or if it was my enjoyment in the prompt that made my paper so much better.

Allusion presentation

I was working on my Allusion presentation this weekend and I realized that most woman in literature have a horrible reputation. There are many pieces of literature which revolve around woman empowerment, but more often than not there in a woman that is evil and ruins a man's life. Though this is but a reputation, it is woman like Delilah that give woman their bad reputation. Delilah lied to and seduced Samson and then tried to ruin his life for a bribe. She lead him on and used him. This theme is reoccurring in movies and television shows, as well as in literature. In movies such as Step Up 3D, the girl is sent in by "the enemy" to find out secrets to take down the hero. However, in modern adaptations of the story, most woman fall truly in love with the hero and they can't go through with their mission. Woman in the bible however follow two stereotypes, the saint and the sinner. They are typically prudes or prostitutes. In history there is no gray area in which woman can be both. Delilah obviously fits under the category of the seductress and a woman like Esther or Mary (the virgin) would fit under the saint category. I understand that some woman are the heroines, but generally woman aren't given much space to move in their stereotyped roles in literature.Why is that?

This week in lit class we worked on our timed writings. Both of the students who graded mine gave me a five. Though a five is a very good score for my first timed writing, in my opinion, I would like to get my papers up to a nine. It's almost comical in my timed writing that it was mostly simple errors that were made. I was very brief in my analysis and I expected such problems; however, the grammatical errors that were made and the major usage of first person narration were a surprise to me. I was not aware of the small errors I make when I'm writing under pressure. I've written AP essays many times and they've all been under pressure, but the prose essay was more difficult to take in, in a time limit. Having to read and annotate the passage and then write an essay that is well thought out and grammatically correct is a very intimidating task to be put forth in one class period. My one question that keeps running through my head is, what happened to make it unacceptable to use first person in a formal essay? What caused it to be considered so informal?

Application of close reading techniques

While we were doing the close readings in class I started to get more and more interested in it, because it gave the words of the novel new meanings. So, while I was re-reading my favorite book, The Hunger Games, By Suzanne Collins I wanted to apply it. This is the passage I decided to try analyzing:
"As soon as I’m in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath
of arrows from a hollow log. Electrified or not, the fence
has been successful at keeping the flesh-eaters out of District
12. Inside the woods they roam freely, and there are added
concerns like venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real
paths to follow. But there’s also food if you know how to
find it. My father knew and he taught me some before he
was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There was nothing
even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake
up screaming for him to run."
The first thing about this passage that I noticed was that she refers to the animals as "flesh-eaters." I thought this might be important because she speaks of them as though they are in-human or zombies. The  animals are supposed to be thought of as dangerous and evil so the people of District Twelve don't want to hunt in the woods illegally. Also I thought it was interesting that when talking about her father's death, she says that he was "blown to bits in a mine explosion." The way she says it has a tone that is disconnected. It's as if she doesn't care, when in reality her mood is trying greatly to accept her father's death. She is trying to get over his death by pretending she doesn't care. I can tell she wants to accept his death because she follows her last statement by saying, "Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run." The close reading techniques we learned in class really can be applied in other novels and now I can't stop close reading in every reading i do, even on my own time. Thank you Literature class!