Journal 16

TJ Montgomery
Stephanie Gai
English 100
21 April 21, 2009

• What have you done well?
• What needs attention?
• What score do you think your portfolio as a whole will achieve?

In this class, English 100, I feel that I have accomplished many things. I have successfully written four essays that have been assigned to me in a timely manner. And within those four essays I have composed well informed introductive paragraphs and emotionally moving conclusions. Also amongst my accomplishments, are my successful uses of that cool dash thingy I that appear in fashion magazines. I have always wondered when those were necessary. And lastly, I must say that I am quite proud of acceptance of criticism. Two years ago I would not have been so pleased to know that my writing was mediocre. But I have grown and I understand that the suggestions given to me by my peers and my instructor, are only meant to help me to improve my writing abilities.

When it comes to writing and everything else in the world, nothing is perfect. This is especially true with my writing. I have always had trouble with grammar, and punctuation and even after this class, I still do. Rather than follow the rules of composition, I use tools like: commas, semicolons, and colons whenever I feel it is necessary. It’s not that I don’t respect the rules of the trade, I just don’t understand them. Another issue I have with writing is with too much emotion. While many forms of writing welcome emotion, most prompts assigned to me do not. I don’t know why but I just can’t seem to take me and how I feel out of the explicit equation. I haven’t figured out how to say “I believe” without using the words “I” and “believe.”

As far as my portfolio score, I have so much revising to do that I cannot even guess at what I might receive. But I sure am hoping for something better than a ten!