The Conclusion

In looking over my 28 total blog posts from across the year, I noticed that from past to present, I've really opened up in my writing and in expressing my thoughts. I had not really had blogging experience of any kind before this class, and so at first I didn't quite know what type of writing fit blogs well. I remember spending ages, and much too long, on my initial entries, determined to make every sentence perfectly right. As a result, at the beginning, many of them seemed quite forced and unlike how I usually write. Commonly, I would use complex terminology that did not fit the prompt and the rest of my language, in an effort to make the post more essay-like, such when I used the phrase "accumulated considerable admiration" in my third blog on To Kill A Mockingbird. Due to such things, the blog assignments felt stressful and time-consuming at the start of the year. Now, I feel considerably more free in my writing, and do not have to stop and think hard every few words, but instead write continually, which is much more enjoyable. It helps me to be able to express my style of writing and my thoughts much more easily, and while I still often strive to use more complex words, they are much more natural, and are used to help the point that I am conveying, rather than to just make the diction more formal. As said by writer Somerset Maugham, "a good style should show no signs of effort: what is written should seem a happy accident."

Another thing that I noticed upon viewing my past posts was that there were a great spectrum of different topics that I wrote about from the many different kinds of prompts that were assigned. The variety of the prompts had not occurred to me at the time when I was writing them, as I was concentrating on the writing itself. They ranged from interpreting theme statements, connecting to characters, and interpreting passages to relating to modern culture, making New Year's resolutions, and writing poetry. It was quite interesting to see what kind of ideas and notions were on my mind back then for the topics that I was writing about, and to consider how I would have written each kind of entry differently if I were to do it now. I find that as a blog writer, the types of prompts that ask me to reflect on past experiences or discuss things that I've done, rather than to make connections or identify themes, are much more relaxing to write, and thus are more enjoyable. A pretty good example of that is the blog post that I'm writing right now.

Up to this point, I had also forgotten many of the in-class activities that we did as a group in English over the course of the year. Going over my past posts really helped me to remember a great number of them, as some of the blog assignments involved discussing those activities. For instance, the unit that we had on reading and analyzing writing, such as the "Lobsters" poem and "The Knife," had slipped out of my mind. Reading my post from November on the Lobsters discussion that we'd had in class brought back a lot of memories on the subject. It caused me to remember the 5 part paragraph that I'd written on "The Knife" at around the same time, and then my experience learning about tone, diction, connotation, denotation, and many other things during the unit. I was astounded by the number of recollections that came flooding back to me just from reading one blog entry, and even more astounded by the detail in which I could remember those experiences when I put my mind to it. Looking back on the posts not only helped me to reminisce on what we did in class, but to give memories on how it felt back then, and how much everything has changed since. It allowed me to watch my journey through the year from the progression of my writing and what I wrote about. In my opinion, my blog is, if not a fully complete representation, still quite an excellent one of my year in English, and a great reminder of how much fun it was to learn, meet new people, and enjoy myself. I am thankful for that.

Memorable Assignment

While I am not very good at choosing favorites in general, one memorable assignment for me this year was the painting that I did on the novel Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut. It was the first outside reading project that we'd had for the year, where not everybody was reading the same book, and the first major art project as well. I didn't think that the artwork was exceptional, but I felt that it showed, at least to myself, that I really understood the meaning and message of the story. With certain books, I feel a great sense of understanding once I've finished them, and artwork is a good way for me to express my feelings and mental image of the story onto paper. In addition, the time of year that the project was assigned and due was, as I remember it, quite hectic for me, and so that is reflected as well in my memory of the experience.

I don't paint very often, and so I was quite pleased that my interpretation of the events in the book resulted in a final product that satisfied me. I recall putting many hours of work into first sketching the outline of the painting in pencil, choosing colors to fit the tone and mood of the book and then applying them. The colors contrasted between dark blue, purple and green on one side of the picture to bright red, orange and yellow on the other side, to represent the protagonist Billy Pilgrim's time in the respective locations of the imaginary planet Tralfamadore and the bombing of Dresden on Earth. However, one of the project's greatest values in memorability is that it serves to remind me of the quote that I chose for the painting, and the weight that it holds: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."

Experience with Poetry

In both my middle school and my elementary school before that, I have experienced poetry units in varying depths and for varying lengths of time. My earliest memory of a significant unit is from the 5th grade, where we were required to learn about and then write different kinds of poems, choose a couple, and then present them in at a recital in the evening. Because I was still relatively young, I had not had many moving experiences to reflect in my writing, and so many of mine, including a few limericks and my take on a sonnet, where solely based on humor and forced rhyming. However, there were one or two that I felt quite proud of, due to the work that I had put into them and my liking of the way that the sounded. I remember presenting my poems, particularly because I, at that young age, still felt the effects of stage fright.

At NOVA, my middle school, the poetry unit in my 8th grade year was a great deal longer, encompassing many weeks. Much time in class was spent on analyzing, researching, and discovering poetry. I associate a multitude of fun experiences with that unit, including going outside to read poetry in the sun, and reading two-voice poems aloud with each other. At the end of the unit, we each had compiled hand-made poetry books, which contained several poems of our own composition, several of our favourite poems from other authors, and a analytic paragraph on our feelings on one of the latter kind. The one that I chose was the poem "Caged Bird", by Maya Angelou, which both flowed and rhymed nicely and smoothly and had a a deeper meaning that made me think. Additionally, by 8th grade, NOVA had helped me to lose the stage fright that had once affected me, making presenting the poetry much more fun than in my earlier years.

In my opinion, poetry can be quite fun to write, but mainly only so when I am free to write in any style and manner that I wish, allowing me to express my true feelings into the writing. I most definitely don't find forced poetry, whether by my writing or another's, inspirational at all. Poetry's value to me is its sound, its flow, and what it can make the reader feel.