Frongillo 1

Cobi Frongillo
Mrs. Hoffenberg
English 11 Honors- E Period
09 June 2014
Writing Portfolio: Overall Reflection
I have never been particularly strong at writing, especially with critical reading of novels.
However, one thing I have always done well is improve. In my eyes, this year was no different. I
took on greater writing challenges that I had ever encountered and I came out alive, each time
learning something new. However, I have never been very good at reflection, perhaps because it
scares me. I hate to reread my essays or even to edit my drafts. Each time it is a struggle to
review my own work. That is why this writing portfolio assignment was so helpful. The project
has forced me to review my work to increase the rate at which I improve. Reflection on the past
is the key to progress into the future. Looking back through my portfolio, I have learned a great
deal about myself as a writer. I learned my strengths, my weaknesses, and what I need to do to
move forward.
My strengths have always included arguing. I find great enjoyment in a strong debate,
creating an argument and building a defense. I love it so much that I have joined the Mock Trial
team, the Model UN, and created my own debate club. I even enjoy debating others about
English books. Though I often struggle to get my ideas down on paper, I still consider it one of
my largest strengths. Even in my first major essay of the year, the truth paper, I formed a strong
argument, between three separate readings, for the connection, as time progressed and continues
Frongillo 2

to progress, between reason overtaking faith and the increasing focus on the individual. Although
my thesis could have been worded better, the idea behind may have been the strongest part of my
essay. In my Crime and Punishment essay, I had a similarly strong idea as I was the only one in
the class to point out the connection between education and morality. In both those essays, a
good progression was the key. In most of my essays, I scored well in the framework of my
argument as well as the concept. Another strength of mine is my grammar. I have never really
struggled with grammar as I have always enjoyed reading and have picked up much of the
patterns from that. I rarely have common usage errors and my punctuation, with the exception of
placing the commas outside the quotation marks in my first essay, is usually near perfect. With
these strengths, I can usually write myself a half-decent essay; it is the rest that remains
inconsistent.
My weaknesses, as stated throughout this project, are mainly related to the critical
analysis of the texts using quotes as evidence. The majority of my teacher comments are the
teacher asking how so? after a generalization. As stated, I have decent ideas yet I often fail to
fully prove them through my use of quotes. For example, when I made an intriguing connection
in my Crime and Punishment essay between Marmeladovs associations of smarts to the absence
of alcohol, I failed to elaborate and fully develop this point. Often, even in my independent
reading essay, I would use quotes to merely restate the plot rather than help my argument.
However, this is an aspect of my writing that is continually improving. I also have a smaller
weakness in wordiness. I sometimes struggle to convey my message in a concise manner. For
example, when I point out Raskolnikovs extreme depravity of thought on education, a wordy
and confusing phrases that hurts the readers ability to understand my point. The final large
writing weakness of mine, which is less related to the content of my essays, is procrastination. I
Frongillo 3

do not particularly enjoy analysis writing and I often put it off to the last minute, sometimes
resulting in minimal time to review and improve. Luckily, I am able to recognize these aspects of
my writing as weakness which will hopefully allow me to make stronger decisions in the future.
Going forward, I recognize the great importance of writing. I will never stop trying to
improve my writing skills, even boring quote analysis. Above all else, the writing has taught me
that I can write. Now, it is up to me to put in the effort to fulfill that potential on a regular basis.