Assignment/Activity Title Thoreau-Crane Essay Skill Writing Critical easoning

Year Freshman Portfolio Category

One assignment that pushed me to analyze different perspectives was my Thoreau-Crane paper. The comparative essay between Thoreaus Walden and Cranes Maggie; A Girl of the Streets was one of my first major high-school assignments and I became very dedicated and determined to achieve a final product that I was proud of. This essay would prove to be e tremely challenging yet interesting. !y writing s"ills have greatly improved since I first began writing the essay as I learned that to convey my thoughts on paper and get the result I wanted# I would need to put in much more time and effort then I was used to doing so before. I would usually procrastinate on huge projects before# especially in middle school# not even "nowing where to start# but for this essay I am glad I did not wait to the last minute as it re$uired a lot of wor" and commitment. To create my paper# I first read only the %conomy chapter of Walden and then all of Maggie. &fter doing so# I analyzed the similarities and differences in tone between the two authors. I found this part to be the most challenging and overwhelming step of the writing process# for I did not see any obvious connections between the two boo"s and it too" me a while to find subjects I thought I could compare. In order to find these themes# I had to loo" further into the messages the authors were trying to convey and thin" critically. &fter some time# I pic"ed out my three topics' self-reliance# simplicity and philanthropy and then created my thesis statement. (hile writing my essay I was forced to reevaluate my original ideas as I found getting my thoughts across rather difficult. I rewrote my paper a few times before finally turning it in. &fter getting my first draft bac"# there were many suggestions and side notes# along with my entire conclusion being crossed out. I reread everything and fi ed all the mista"es mar"ed on my paper. %ven though I got an & on my first draft# I "new that there was still a lot of wor" to be done on my essay to ameliorate it. (hen turning it in for the second time# I was confident that I had done the best to my abilities. !y final grade was a high &# which is so far one of my proudest academic moments in C&) and demonstrates how I have grown as a writer. If I were to re-do the Thoreau-Crane essay# I would focus even more time on my thesis and conclusion as those are typically the hardest points of a paper to do well on for me. The project taught me how to write at a higher level and because of it# I feel much more prepared for future challenging assignments. I am proud of the final product I turned in# which was my goal going into the writing process.

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