Initiating Event

My Journey from the Wild to Domestication

As a lion transported from its natural habitat adapts to life in a zoo, I adapted my unruly writer's voice to follow formal writing conventions and enhance my writing as a whole. Every essay I have written this year in ninth grade English has significantly impacted my writing skills in a positive way. As a writer, I have improved my arguments, organization, and grammar skills.

My below-par thesis statements compromised my arguments. In the very first essay I wrote this year, my thesis statement was: "After reading All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg, the reader can conclude many literary devices were used to describe the narrator's hometown" (Lander Diagnostic). This essay was written by hand, and I attempted to write in italicized font to distinguish the title of the piece. Now I know to underline the title when writing by hand. Also, I provided no genre or road map in the thesis. I fixed these errors when I wrote my mid year essay with the thesis, "In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the author uses similes, diction, and imagery to establish the setting" (Lander OMAM). Here I provided a proper TAG, road map, and used correct notation for a title in a hand-written essay. My thesis statements have gotten stronger this year, which advances the quality of my arguments.

The conclusion sentences I was writing at the beginning of the year were a disastrous part of my organization. "Snakes are notorious for their venomous reputation, and the author compares the terrain of his hometown to a snake to show its unforgivingness" was the last sentence in a body paragraph I wrote at the beginning of the year (Lander Diagnostic). This is not a conclusion sentence by any means because it says nothing about what the paragraph is mainly about. Instead, it gives only analysis to a previous quotation. A proper conclusion sentence would be, "The imagery used shows all five scenes what the setting is like" because it gives no analysis whatsoever (Lander OMAM). This sentence summarizes the paragraph that was about imagery being used to establish the setting. My organization within my essays got better with stronger conclusion sentences.

I have always had a bad habit of using second person voice, which devastated my grammar. When I wrote my diagnostic essay, I used second person voice in the sentence, "This choice of comparison almost makes you pity the panther, as you would a crying woman" (Lander Diagnostic). By using second person voice, I broke one of the formal writing conventions. With the sentence, "If someone is driven to suicide, they would experience lots of hate from others" I used third person voice with the words "someone" and "they" instead of the word "you" associated with second person voice (Lander Short Story). My grammar skills improved greatly when I stopped using second person voice and followed formal writing conventions.

After getting used to their new environment, a lion starts to feel more at home, as I have in my writing. Even after improving so much, my goals for next year include perfecting grammar and using more varied sentence structures. My arguments, organization, and grammar have significantly improved throughout my ninth grade year. However, I could not have done this without my wonderful teacher-my lion tamer.

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Honors Reflection Essay