Most Important English Concept

It has seemed like the first quarter of the school year just flew by. A whole sixtenth of my high school career is finished. But what I know I will never be finished doing is correcting other people's writing. By far the most important skill I have leaned this year is how to properly analyze and critique my peers' works. No matter what job you have, whether you choose to be an engineer, biologist, or be invloved with technology, you will have to know how to write properly and find errors in other people's writing too. Biologists have to write scientific reports. Technical writing is very straightforward and knowing how to analyze writing for theme will not be usefull in your career. There are many things we learn in English that specifically apply to English. They don't benefit us abroad. The majority, however, can teach us to better our lives in whatever field of occupation we choose. Learning how to correctly criticize our peers falls in this catagory.

We spent numerous weeks on critiquing paragraphs, and we spent so much time on this particular skill because it is so valuable to learn. Working on helping our classmates write better paragraphs helps us write better paragraphs oueselves. Often times we are are reluctant to criticize our own work; not wanting to admit that we have our own skills that we have to work on. Realizing what others need to improve upon helps us see it in our own writing. Therefore we become better writers with skills that we can apply to many aspects of our lives.
Alena

Lobsters

Some very interesting ideas were brought up in the "Lobsters" discusion. One particular idea that really caught my attension was the comment about the colors. Most people agreed that the adjectives used to decribe the lobster's colors (mud, bruise, cadavar) were purposefuly chosen to create a mood of death. One person disagreed and said that the adjectives picked were not connected to a deeper meaning and happened to be the shades of color the author wanted to describe. The specific hues were just supposed to bring up a color in your mind; not help to create the tone or have connotation.

I certainly beleive that they were very carefully and artfully chosen to enhance the meaning of the poem. Every single word in a poem is picked extremely specifically. The three adjectives used to descibe the colors were no accident. Neither was the word choice of "herd", which was used multiple times. To me, when I hear the word "herd" I think of the Holocaust. "Herds" of people rounded up to strip and die in a gas chamber. How different is that than of "herds" of lobsters in a glass tank displayed for the pickings and an inhumane death? Not very. The tone the author created with the specific diction is very similar to that of the Holocaust. Mud, bruise, cadavar, herds. Even reading the words without context is depressing if not gloomy at the very least.

And on that happy note,
Alena

Paragraph Writing Skills

Some mistakes were made again and again in the paragraphs. Point transitions were not seperate sentences than the sentences that embedded the quotes. Also, there was qiute a bit of plot summary before the concrete details. But I did think it was helpfull to me as a writer to critique other people's writing because it is easier to see what could have more work done when you yourself did not write it. To write a good paper you have to accept the things you don't do well and try to improve it rather than ignore it.

I know I have to make my concrete details fit better and support my thesis more strongly. I can usually make a pretty good thesis, but I have some trouble finding examples that really back up the point I am trying to make. Also, I need to work on making my commentary more of my own ideas and thoughts because some of it was borderlining plot summary. I will try to improve in these places and make my next 5 part paragraph better.

Alena