Month: November 2025

During high school and throughout the beginning of the semester I had no idea how to peer review. All I was taught to do was to look for grammar mistakes. However, throughout the semester I have learned that’s not what it Is at all. Ive learned that peer review is getting an opinion on your piece from the readers perspective. I have learned a ton from peer review this semester because although I’m only getting feedback on one piece, it reminds me on what I could fix in future pieces, for example the amount of they say vs. I say in my pieces. Although I don’t have examples of comments from my first writing piece, a lot of the comments were where I should add more source voice or my voice. During the second essay I felt although my piece was a lot stronger. I figured out how to find evidence to match my ideas and not limit them. some of the comment I received were focused on transitions and ways to make my ideas clearer.

Hearing someone else’s opinion on my writing has been really helpful because it lets me know if my ideas are clear and understandable to the reader or if I could rephrase things and make them better. I also found reading others work to be interesting because it shows you ideas that are creative and might not have thought of. When I was reading Emilias draft for the second essay she used an example of Newtons Law which really got my attention because it wasn’t anything I was expecting to see. I thought it was really creative and interesting to see the many ways she hooked the reader. Below is an example of Emilias work.

Reading her work also helped me reflect on mine and where I could improve. sometimes when reading others work I realize areas I might have missed or forgotten about like sources I needed or examples. I look forward to getting feedback on my essays now because it has taught me to be confident in my work and having others read it and I’m getting genuine feedback.

At the beginning of this semester, I had a lot of reading to do for my classes. I had a textbook and lots of work for every class. It was stressful to manage. Something I learned that helped me was active reading. In class we learned how to preview texts and understand what we were looking for. Another thing that helped is reading any questions or prompts I might have to think about prior too, so I know the purpose of why I’m reading. These minor changes in my mindset have helped me be more attentive to the text. Another skill I have learned throughout the semester that goes with active reading is annotating. Annotative the text is a huge help because it reminds me what the text is saying without re-reading the whole thing, and also helps be make personal connections to the text that I can use later in projects.

These were my annotations for “The Hawk” by Brian Doyle even after we talked about it as a class. Before going over it with the class I didn’t have a good understanding of the text and I had a hard time seeing all the different perspectives. After going over it with the class I Understood the perspectives, but could explain where they came from myself. This shows how personalized annotations can be to remind you what you are reading and make that personal connection. As we started learning about the different types of annotations and how to preview texts, I had way more understanding of what the writer was saying and the deeper meaning of it.

Here, you can see different annotations such as (Ext) where I extend on the authors ideas or (Ch) where I challenge them with my own perspective. Learning different types of annotations has really helped me break town texts better and understand the deeper meaning. Understanding the reading better through annotations has also helped me response to reading questions. The text I felt most connected to had to be “Joy” by Zadie Smith because it dives deep into personal aspects of her life and what joy really means to her. This helped me realize all the things that I consider joy in my life.

This image shows a reading response to Smiths piece that demonstrates a good understanding of the text. I achieved this through active reading and annotating.

At the beginning of the semester, I wasn’t confident in my writing. I wasn’t sure how to structure my paragraphs or make strong sentences. When it came to writing I would write down all my ideas in paragraphs and not pay attention to the organization or what point I was trying to get across. An example of the first time I felt confident in my revision was the first essay. Below is an example of my unorganized, scattered introduction.

Throughout the semester, I participated in writing lab. I found this to be very helpful because I learned about essay structure and how to make my claims clear. My writing had no specific focus, but I learned that through organization and structure my writing can be very strong and get my ideas through to the reader. My biggest area of revision is my thesis. I never understood how to properly write a thesis and the purpose. In my revised version, my thesis makes a clear argument and takes a stance.

My final version of my introduction clearly introduces all of my sources and my thesis takes a clear stance. This gives the reader context about what they are reading and how I feel about the topic. Another thing I used to help build better essay structure is the “They Say I Say” book. It provided a lot of detail on how to make my writing stronger. Now, I write down all my ideas and then take some time away from my work. When I go to revise, I look at each paragraph and figure out what point I was trying to get across, and make a claim for each paragraph. This helped me center each paragraph and help me find the personal examples and evidence I would use.

The argument in my essay is, joy is an intense and difficult emotion to manage. However, it is necessary in our lives. Altering the way we address challenges in our lives can help us see the joy in sorrowful moments. In my essay my strongest argument supporting my thesis is the passing of my grandfather. I chose this example because relating joy to a passing isn’t normalized, but it should be in some ways. For how extremely devastating and heartbreaking loss is, we only feel these strong emotions for the people we love. When I remember my grandfather, I remember all the good times I had with him, and the forever lasting impact he has made in my life. I remember when I was little, I used to sneak up the stairs in my grandparents house and try to scare him while he was laying in bed watching tv. This memory is so funny to me because I thought I was being sneaky, but when I was old enough he admitted he always knew I was there, trying to sneak up on him. My grandfather always brought our family together and growing up that is something I’ll always be thankful for, when our family is together we can always look back on how joyful he was. He was strong and determined. I see characteristics of my grandfather in my dad, and I am extremely glad that I have had my grandfather as such a good role model in my life and that my dad is one too. Whenever I think about my grandfather there’s a pit in my stomach knowing I’ll never see him again, but a reassuring feeling knowing that I’ll never forget him. He’s always in our family, because he built our family and brought it together. My dad has also impacted the way I think of this, he has always said he wants us to remember him for the good times we have had. Instead of the loss and pain the family endured. I think this is my best argument because the people you love make a lifelong impact and the pain of loss is like no other, but it’s worth it to love someone and experience and reflect on the joy they have brought you for life. My evidence most definitely supports my argument and I believe the other examples I use also support my argument and go well with the evidence I chose.