May 19, 2017

My dearest DiSomma,
For my reflection letter I have chosen my Personal Statement, Into the Wild Essay, and
Juvenile Justice Essay along with process work from my Racial Profiling Paper, Bullying
Research Paper, and my Brave New World Essay. From these works, I will reflect on what I
learned about the importance of having solid evidence, flow, my need to improve on works cited,
as well as complementary commentary for evidence.
My top three essays I have picked are my Personal Statement, Into the Wild, and my
Juvenile Justice papers. My favorite of those three would have to be my Personal Statement. I
received a 98 out of 100. I loved that it was a very iceberg based paper loaded with anecdotes.
It was a chance to write about ourselves and express that everything dealt with in the past
prepared me for the rough road of college and life ahead (Personal Statement). The end of first
semester finished off with our Into the Wild essay. One of my least favorite books (no offense),
but luckily I received a 100% (yay!) on this essay. Ive learned that books, although written long
ago, can still have standing to society today. People nowadays can feel as if ...an outcast never
feeling at peace being a part of society (Into the Wild). Second semester I wrote an
argumentative paper on Juvenile Justice. The topic was life sentencing or those under 18 who
commit murder. I loved every aspect of the assignment and the controversy that came along with
it. Besides enjoying it tremendously, my essay was not my best work; I was given a 92% (my
lowest grade of the year). I love to write, about almost everything, and although this year was
full of mostly academic and book based essays, I enjoyed every moment.
My abilities to write academic essays has developed nicely. Evidence charts can be a
pain, as much effort goes into them. For my Racial Profiling essay we had to fill out multiple
pages of pieces of evidence. I found it incredibly helpful when it was time to actually write the
essay. An essay that was fun to write was the Bullying Research paper. A touchy subject, of
course, but the articles and cases that we got to dig into were interesting. The last paper that
closed off the year of ERWC was Brave New World. Such an interesting book, yet hard to read.
For this essay, we did many activities and questions that I found so helpful and interesting. I
love to dissect text, to better understand and provoke thought, and the process work you gave us
was perfect for that. Prep work is always useful (even if it seems pointless at times), everything
you assigned us had a purpose.
Improvements have been greatly done in areas of my works cited, thesis statements,
pulling evidence, getting rid of filler words, and annotating. As a writer I have obtained the
knowledge of how to better articulate my sentences and maintain flow between evidence and
commentary. I used to just highlight what I thought was important in an article. Now I know
how to pull from an article or passage correctly thanks to our Bullying Research paper and
Juvenile Justice essay. Overall, this year as an ERWC student has been a great experience to
learn how to conclude a solid essay.
A few of my writing strengths include evidence and commentary alongside my
weaknesses of topic sentences and works cited pages. Albeit I find it difficult to start a
paragraph, I am quite good at wrapping it all together like a present. Its my belief that endings
are always more important than beginnings, so maybe thats a reason as to why I am so well
voiced in conclusions. Works cited has always been confusing to me due to the different parts
and sections that goes into the creation of one. Commentary has always come easy to me, as I
have opinions on everything (lol). Strengths and weaknesses make a writer who they are, and
there is always room for improvement.
At the beginning of the year, I was unable to do a proper works cited. I had always used
websites that would do it for me. Which I later learned turned out to be wrong, oops. Luckily, I
got a So good!! from you on my Juvenile Justice works cited that was written at the end of first
semester. I went from not knowing how to do a works cited to being able to form one from
scratch.
Personally, I trust that I have an understanding of critical reading skills. One of my
favorite things to do in the world is read all kinds of books. Because I read, I feel as if my
vernacular is up, and sometimes above, par.
Skills I have obtained in this class will definetly be used when I enter English in college.
Ive learned more than just how to write a solid paper; I have learned how to speak smartly and
kind and those skills overflow throughout all classes as well as life. I feel as if I are fully
equipped for academic reading and writing I am going to encounter in college.
Mrs. DiSomma, I would like to thank you for all you have done for me the past 2 years.
You have been more than just a teacher, but a confidant and friend. I cannot express how much
you have impacted my life. I hope I am more than half of the teacher you are. You ignite
passion and thought and I am forever grateful for the knowledge you have passed down. Natalie
is such a happy little fireball, and Julia may not look so much like you, but she has the same
sarcastic lil attitude we all know and love haha. Thank you for all you do DiSomma! I appreciate
you more than you know.

With love,
Gabriela Sergi