My freshman year in English class could be compared to a roller coaster ride: sometimes I felt like I was on a long, slow climb up an impossibly steep hill; other times I was on top of the world, and nothing could stop me. This portfolio shows both the highs and lows of my journey through English I, beginning in September with my first one chunk paragraph and finishing in May with my epigraph essay. The first one chunk we did was very challenging for me; I did not understand the process and could not tell the difference between concrete detail and commentary. I also had a weak conclusion, and repeated rather than restated my topic sentence. Now that I have done many more, I have mastered the one chunk paragraph! The second selection in my portfolio is an essay comparing two websites about one of my favorite authors, J.K. Rowling. I described the information on each website and concluded which would be better to use as a resource on the author. My third selection is two paragraphs showing

the difference between formal and informal writing. I learned that depending on who you are writing to, and what your purpose is, your writing should be either formal or in- formal. Word choice and tone are two of the ways to create these kinds of writing, and using the right ones is important to getting your message across. My fourth entry is a paragraph contrasting two of the fight scenes from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. I was supposed to show how Shakespeare created two different moods for the scenes, but I only wrote about the action of the fighting. Finally, I have included my epigraph essay based on The Secret Life of Bees. While I understood each of the epigraphs, I did not link all of them to the appropriate events in each chapter. For example, I thought the epigraph on communication had to do with Lily and the Boatwright sisters, but more importantly, it had to do with information being withheld from May.

While the ride has not always been a smooth one, I have learned much and enjoyed my freshman English year. I particularly liked the chance to act out some of the Shakespeare scenes, and when we played vocabulary charades. I learned the most from writing the one chunk paragraphs, as I was able to take something from the text and combine it with ideas from my mind. I believe my epigraph essay is the selection which best represents me as a writer, partly because it was the last assignment we did, and also one of the longest. I am confident that I will continue to move forward and grow as an English student, and look forward to three more years!