Chrizna Milanes
Ms. Ha
Puente English 2, Period 6
May 20. 2017
My Journey as a Writer Throughout the School Year
During my journey as a writer throughout my sophomore year in the UC-sponsored program, Puente, I have crashed into many obstacles, both being positive and negative. Although as I got through the obstacles, it has taught me tons of lessons such as, there is never a perfect essay. In the beginning of the year I remember, through my eyes, putting a generous amount of time into my essays. Despite the fact of investing plenty of time into them, I received a “Basic” which is a C-, a barely passing grade. I scored fairly low, because I used the incorrect point of view, had many run-on sentences, and my word choice was basic. I noticed writing essays on my own, without asking for help from Ms. Ha, has caused my grade suffer. I decided to challenge my timid self to request the help of her. The outcome of my second essay was marvelous, I did not believe I could score a pleasing grade, but I received an "Accomplished," which was a B-. I believe having her tell me what needs to be taken out and added into the essay helped me find out the weaknesses in my writing.
Among the six essays I have written while being part of the Puente Program, my best one has been the one about migration. The "Biographical Essay" in relation to the book "Enrique's Journey." The reason why I am especially fond of this one Essay, is because I got to write about a person's real life experience. In addition to that, I wrote about Gladis' experience migrating, she is my second momma, my boyfriend, Roberto's mother. This essay was honestly truly difficult, because it was fairly easy to use the wrong person point of view. Even though it was difficult I did my best trying to make her experience as realistic and accurate as possible, because she wanted to read my work after it was complete. This essay was also challenging, I felt lots of weight on my shoulders, because the person I was writing about wanted to read it. All that went through my head was negativity such as things like, "is she going to get upset that it is not as accurate." Despite the fact of the pressure that was on me, it pushed me harder to work on the essay and not slack off on it. This essay was honestly the best because I struggled and went through some bumps, but at the end, I got wonderful results out of hard work from both my, high standard English teacher Ms. Ha and my sweet second momma, Gladis.
Lastly, the most challenging essay I have written in my Sophomore Year was the "Literary Analysis Essay" about "Lord of the Flies." The reason why it was the most challenging one out of six essays, was because I was in a tough time fully understanding the quotes that I chose to write about, so therefore my analysis of the paragraphs were fairly weak. In my reflection that I wrote after receiving my grade, I said, "...I was not mentally in the best shape nor is my body in its best shape physically, I was feeling like I was drowning in pool of stress." To add to all that, the time when I was writing such a difficult essay, I was in season with Wrestling, one of my most hard working sport. Being an athlete and a student was not as easy as I thought it would be. I always came home exhausted, because wrestling used every muscle in the body causing myself to exert lots of energy. I slacked on the essay and did not finish the essay organizer until the night it was due. It was truly challenging because my evidence was weak, my connections related to a different character than mine, lots of grammar errors, and I confused the reader by run on sentances and using to many other characters that were not needed. This essay will honestly have a special spot in my head, it will always remind me of how much I try to be responsible and how much of a hard worker I am, because I turned the essay in on time despite the personal things that were happening to me.
Ms. Ha
Puente English 2, Period 6
May 20. 2017
My Journey as a Writer Throughout the School Year
During my journey as a writer throughout my sophomore year in the UC-sponsored program, Puente, I have crashed into many obstacles, both being positive and negative. Although as I got through the obstacles, it has taught me tons of lessons such as, there is never a perfect essay. In the beginning of the year I remember, through my eyes, putting a generous amount of time into my essays. Despite the fact of investing plenty of time into them, I received a “Basic” which is a C-, a barely passing grade. I scored fairly low, because I used the incorrect point of view, had many run-on sentences, and my word choice was basic. I noticed writing essays on my own, without asking for help from Ms. Ha, has caused my grade suffer. I decided to challenge my timid self to request the help of her. The outcome of my second essay was marvelous, I did not believe I could score a pleasing grade, but I received an "Accomplished," which was a B-. I believe having her tell me what needs to be taken out and added into the essay helped me find out the weaknesses in my writing.
Among the six essays I have written while being part of the Puente Program, my best one has been the one about migration. The "Biographical Essay" in relation to the book "Enrique's Journey." The reason why I am especially fond of this one Essay, is because I got to write about a person's real life experience. In addition to that, I wrote about Gladis' experience migrating, she is my second momma, my boyfriend, Roberto's mother. This essay was honestly truly difficult, because it was fairly easy to use the wrong person point of view. Even though it was difficult I did my best trying to make her experience as realistic and accurate as possible, because she wanted to read my work after it was complete. This essay was also challenging, I felt lots of weight on my shoulders, because the person I was writing about wanted to read it. All that went through my head was negativity such as things like, "is she going to get upset that it is not as accurate." Despite the fact of the pressure that was on me, it pushed me harder to work on the essay and not slack off on it. This essay was honestly the best because I struggled and went through some bumps, but at the end, I got wonderful results out of hard work from both my, high standard English teacher Ms. Ha and my sweet second momma, Gladis.
Lastly, the most challenging essay I have written in my Sophomore Year was the "Literary Analysis Essay" about "Lord of the Flies." The reason why it was the most challenging one out of six essays, was because I was in a tough time fully understanding the quotes that I chose to write about, so therefore my analysis of the paragraphs were fairly weak. In my reflection that I wrote after receiving my grade, I said, "...I was not mentally in the best shape nor is my body in its best shape physically, I was feeling like I was drowning in pool of stress." To add to all that, the time when I was writing such a difficult essay, I was in season with Wrestling, one of my most hard working sport. Being an athlete and a student was not as easy as I thought it would be. I always came home exhausted, because wrestling used every muscle in the body causing myself to exert lots of energy. I slacked on the essay and did not finish the essay organizer until the night it was due. It was truly challenging because my evidence was weak, my connections related to a different character than mine, lots of grammar errors, and I confused the reader by run on sentances and using to many other characters that were not needed. This essay will honestly have a special spot in my head, it will always remind me of how much I try to be responsible and how much of a hard worker I am, because I turned the essay in on time despite the personal things that were happening to me.