Midterm Assessment

I think after taking English last semester I have improved on organizing my papers. I have always had plenty to say I just did not always have a way to organize it all. I think I have somewhat also improved in my grammar area that I always struggle with! I take a lot more time reading and rereading my papers to edit grammar mistakes. It also helps to have someone else check your paper as well! Which, sometimes is easy to do and other times I cant find anyone! I still think I have a lot of improvement to do in the grammar area, as well as organization. There is always room for improvement, well that's how I feel at least. I also still want to improve on cutting down my papers a bit. When I am giving a page length I would like to be able to stick to it and not run over at all. BUT, I am taking one step at a time!

Journal 4

This semester, I have gained many skills in my writing. I have learned how to take a close reading and relate it to the "bigger picture" of the novel/literary work, like we did in Inquiry 1. This was the first time I've had to tie a close reading back to a central theme in a formal paper. This skill will definitely come in use in my future, especially in my writing, because it is important to have textual support to prove the analysis. Another important skill I feel I have improved this semester is being able to focus in on a single theme of a literary work, specifically, Fight Club, in Inquiry 2B. This is an extremely complex novel, especially because of its random events and numerous themes. It was difficult for me at first to choose a single theme because of the many overlapping aspects in the novel and because I was unsure what was actually happening at certain points in the novel.

However, I have much to improve on for the remaining weeks. I feel as if my writing is unclear at times and I want to improve my clarity. Also, I want to work on the organization of my papers because the way a paper is organized greatly affects the quality of the paper, and I usually don't know what way will be most efficient in getting my ideas across to the reader.

Journal 4

During english 112, I feel like I have accomplished becoming a better writer. For inquiry one, I learned how to analyze a novel and that there was more to it then just summarizing the book. I learned about gender roles and how society stereotypes males and females. For inquiry 2a, I learned how to look for articles and find reliable sources to incorporate into my paper. I am still working on inquiry2b and am discovering different ways to write a paper and through research I can include more to my topic. My topic I am working on now is inquiry2b and I am writing a paper on "Dear John." I am learning a lot about war and relationships through this book and this love story is about a relationship that has fallen apart because of war. I am also learning more about September 11th through researching it and I didn't know I could possibly learn anymore about that event, but I am learning little details. I still want to improve my writing skills and be able to have a strong argument for inquiry2b.

Journal 4

What have you accomplished? What do you still want to improve?
So far this semester, I feel like I have accomplished a lot. Through the first inquiry I have learned more about how to do a close reading and truly how to analyze a novel. Before completing that assignment I mostly knew how to summarize a text without looking deeper into the meaning behind the novel. As I continue writing my inquiry 2 I am learning how a culture and a time period shape a text and how knowing the background of a piece of work can help a reader to understand the meaning behind it. However I still have a few things I want to improve on. One important thing is my workshopping skills. I have the most trouble fixing my first drafts. I feel like once I write a paper I can't find a better way to follow the prompt or rewrite my essay.

Journal 4

Midterm Self-Assessment: Consider your progress at this point in the semester. What have you accomplished? What do you still want to improve?

Due: Thursday, March 3

"Taming of the Shrew" and "Ten Things I Hate About You"

One of my favorite film adaptations would definitely have to be "Taming of The Shrew" by Shakespeare and "Ten Things I Hate About You". In the "Taming of The Shrew", a father of two daughters desires for them to get married to husbands. Bianca, the youngest daughter wants to marry before her older sister, Katherine. Although, Baptista (the father), won't allow Bianca to be married without Katherine getting married first. The man that wants to marry Bianca finds Katherine a suitor so that he can marry Bianca.

In "Ten Things I Hate About You", there is a similar but modernized plot. It is the same in that there is a father and two sisters. The younger sister Bianca wants to date a young man but her father won't let her before her older sister Katerina starts to date. Once again, Bianca's man finds Katerina another guy who ends up falling in love with Katerina.

The film adaptation changed the setting of the story, making it set around a modern day high school and using modern day language. I believe that they made it this way so that they would get attraction from a large teenage audience who feel as if they could relate to the romance and drama of high school in the film. Although, they did keep pretty much the same plot as "Taming of the Shrew". I believe they did this because the plot is interesting and they knew that with a few tweaks they could attract a target audience of teens and it would end up to be a popular movie. This tells me that reading a text with a context in mind is important because the reader can then expect how to picture the story as they are reading it and are able to relate to it more easily. Without knowing that "Taming of the Shrew" was set in Shakespeare's era, the reader would probably be confused and wonder why the characters are speaking the way they are and wonder why the young girls were getting married at such a young age. Keeping a context in mind helps to make sure that the reader isn't confused and knows exactly what to expect from the story.

My favorite film adaptation was probably from a book called Eragon, the first of a series of 3 books written by Christopher Paolini. I read the book a long time ago and loved it, but forgot all the details. I think this is the reason i was able to enjoy the movie so much. I heard from other friends it skipped some details, but from my memory it followed the plot well. The director followed the book as closely as possible so the general plot was kept the same. Though it is hard to navigate a 400+ page book down into a 90 minute film, so some details did get left out. This book is about an egg, a dragon egg that will only open for its destine human. Sometimes it will even wait thousands of years. The egg falls in the hands of a farm boy who opens it. His destiny is to be a dragon rider and save his world from the tyrannical rule of Galbatorix. This book is another one of those stories depicting a normal boy becoming a hero, but I think the reason I enjoyed this story so much was because of how unique all the details were in making this boy great. I had never heard of a "dragon rider" before and in all other books dragons are always something feared by humans, not ridden. Then when the movie came out, it followed my memory of the book quite well (because of the fact that I forgot some of the details from the book) and depicted the story line as I had in my head. Now i am hoping they make a movie out of the other two of Paolini's books.