User:The Great Detective

The Robert Gonzalez Claghorn pd 2nd 5/11/09 Part II: Essay I’ve progressed a lot this year as a writer; After all I went from being a failure in honors English, to an A-student in regulars, to a B student in Advanced Placement. But no matter how much progress one makes everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses that are inescapable. Ever since I started writing I’ve been good at reading quickly, while also answering multiple choice questions with high accuracy (mostly due to my analytical mentality & luck.) Almost immediately upon completing my first in-class essay I also found my Kryptonite: Timed Writing. However as stated before I’ve improved a lot in that area, increasing my minimum of writing from a paragraph to a whole one and a half pages. As far as areas I excel in, the only one that comes to mind is daily assignments, since they don’t involve time limits; not surprisingly, these assignments also demonstrated the most effort on my part (unlimited time!)  My best work would have to be the New Gun Law Argument Essay, about a law in Texas Congress wanted passed to carry guns in their vehicles concealed. I’m particularly proud of this essay because it really demonstrated my analytical prowess while simultaneously revealing my personal opinions on firearms. It was also one of my best essays for the year scoring an 85. Things I do well in writing include using diction effectively, making good metaphors or analogies, and definitely allusions. Despite that, there is still plenty of room for my skills to improve, which is fine because if I was perfect than there’d be nothing to get better at, and it’d be boring. I definitely need to improve the visual appeal of my writing, otherwise known as penmanship. Sometimes it gets so bad I can’t read it, and on top of that I write outside the margin or over/under the lines. Then of course there’s things I have yet to learn entirely, like how to effectively write a Synthesis essay. Multiple Choice and analysis are my greatest allies on the AP exam, but I have to skip the synthesis essay. Really its just a matter of time; when I took the Accuplacer I got an eight on the essay section, simply because I had over an hour to revise, edit and perfect it. I would define myself as a casual but passionate student.