Conclusion

Going over the blogs that I have written, I have come to realize that when I write I tend to write about things that I can relate to. Within every post that has thus far been posted by me, I can find some deeper meaning that ties in with the story of my life. Whether it be through something that I found resembles me through a piece of literature, or a random topic that I was lead to with Mrs. Gilman's instructions. This blog has all truly been about who I truly am, the opinions and feelings that I have toward people, writing, books, etc. I looked back through all my post's and saw just how my writing has changed and improved, yet it has stayed the same. In the sense that it is still clearly me, throughout the year I still have made it possible to stay true to who I am by finding meaning that relates to me within everything. I learned about myself that probably like most people, I like to write about things that I've experiences. For example the blog where we got to write about our first childhood memories. Writing about things that interest you, writing about something that is known by you to be a fact is easier and more interesting than writing about something like a book or poem, that could have many meanings. Even though having to discover and prove what you believe to be true may be more interesting. I believe that not only writing personal things that are filled with imagery and emotion, but reading them is something that people would much rather want to do. Another blog that was a personal favorite of mine to write was the blog that we got to describe our best friends. Looking back, the way that I wrote wasn't as well formed, and basically not as good as it is now. Rereading it I caught my mistakes right away, and got a little bit frustrated with myself for two reasons. The fact that I had made those mistakes, and the fact that I now, months later want to go back and rewrite it so it sounds better. Over the course of this year I have written a lot about books and plays that were being read during class, I have written about essays, and questions that I may have had at the time of reading the books and plays. I do wish that there would have been more opportunities to write about things freely, like the things that I talked about above. I feel like we spent a lot of time focused on something completely set up. Writing about something that only had one category to fall under. Looking back, I wish now that we would have been able to write more freely about things that interested us. May I suggest that in the future you throw in more open ended blog subjects? Some people, like me, really enjoy writing about things more freely. I personally don't like feeling so tied down, that is something that is emphasized in essays. That is the conclusion, to this seemingly endless blog.

Essay Writing

I feel that my essay writing abilities have gone from a five on a one to ten scale to a now maybe eight and a half or nine. Throughout the year I have learned a lot about writing a good essay. As far as literary analysis goes, I believe that I know what's going on. I think literary analysis is extremely beneficial when writing a paper of a novel or play. It helps you to thoroughly understand what your reading and why its important, or relevant.

I feel like my essay as is doesn't have a very strong conclusion, or very good three fold transition sentences. What I have written is good, but could definitely improve, which I plan on doing this weekend with the extension that Mrs. Gilman has given the class to make it better. I think that at this point my paper is only a B grade.

Summer reading list

For my summer reading list there are two specific books that I have heard good things about, the first book is My Sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult. The book was recommended to me by Nikki Herbison, she said that even though it's very sad it's a great read. Another book that is on my summer reading list is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was recommended by three of my friends that don't necessarily like to read but said that it was a great book.

Culture Shock

Taylor Swift's song "Love Story" is all about being in love and has direct references to the play "Romeo and Juliet" In the beginning of the song Taylor sings about how she is Juliet and the person she "in love" with is Romeo. She starts with "I'm standing there, On a balcony in summer air, See the lights, See the Party, the ball gowns," These lyrics are in direct reference to the play. In the play there is a party and Romeo goes beneath Juliet's window/balcony and they talk. References to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is used all over still; in many different ways, most of the time showing "love".

Extra Credit Blog

I suppose that when I started in Honors English in the beginning of the year, I thought that it was going to be a piece of cake, I'd done very well in my English classes all the years before freshman year. I was set, and confident. I'd never anticipated that I would be needing to memorize and recite poetry in front of the class though, speaking in front of the class is a weakness for me, nerves over power my ability to function. Oh boy, then we have diagramming sentences... well, I don't have very nice things to say about this topic. I think that diagramming sentences is no fun at all and it takes a long time, knowing where to put certain words off straight lines, dashed lines, or weird looking lines is not easy. I must say, that just flies right over my head. All in all, I think that I've learned a lot from Honors English, and I'm glad to have taken this class. Just not so glad that I had to read the novel Great Expectations (I would underline the title but I can't figure out how, bear with me) in my opinion that book was really boring and hard to get through. How to Kill a Mockingbird (yet again, bear with me) was a better book, and one that I liked.

G.E. Skit Prep

The first idea for a skit that I have is, the part in the book where Pip is walking on the Street and Trabb's boy comes frolicking along. I think that it would make a good short skit, because it would be entertaining and fun for the not only the people watching but for the people acting it out also. My second idea is where Miss Havisham catches fire and Pip tries to slap the fire off of her, i think this would be a good thing to perform because watching people flail around pretending to be on fire is something that I personally would start laughing quite hard at. Finally the last part of the book that I think would make a good skit is when Pip first meets Miss Havisham in her dark and desolate home, with her bride's dress still on and the clocks all stopped at the same time. This scene would be interesting to see how the actors would interpret it.

Questions about Great Expectations

I guess one of the things that I didn't really understand in this chapter was in chapter 44 on page 387 in my book. What i don't understand is why is Pip asking Miss Havisham to pay the rest of the money needed for Herbert? I understand that he is trying to help make things right between Mathew Pocket and his family, and help her understand that they are not like the Pockets lurk around Miss Havishams house. But I'm not sure why he is trying to get her to pay for Herbert's Business.