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Ally Nguyen

White

Period 1

16 May 2022

Reflection

When I compare my freshman year self to me now, it is evident that I have matured and

understand more. The same could be said for my growth mentally and intellectually. As I

reflected on my work from the last four years, I realized that my writing has improved

tremendously and my thought process has as well. In freshman year, our very first piece of

writing was an argumentative essay on the book Fast Food Nation. The entire essay was only 3

pages with no evident introduction or conclusion paragraphs along with subclaims that seemed

too similar to each other, causing them to overlap. I must have also been terrified to use longer

quotes because my three quotes were only 1 to 2 sentences. The warrant was clearly lacking as I

summarized most of my quotes, but there was an attempt of pulling out from the quotes to lead

to a bigger idea. Comparing this paper to the Seminar paper we did for the AP exam in

sophomore year, I showed some improvement with the amount of evidence I was using; I

paraphrased a lot of the information from the articles as well as including full quotes into the

entirety of the essay. I still had similar subclaims which caused some overlapping in this paper,

but overall, there was improvement with the warrant and evidence used. I pulled out more

information from the quotes to adapt them to what I wanted to prove in the writing, making the

warrant stronger and proving my argument better than the Fast Food Nation paper. In freshman

year, we also dipped our toes into analysis, characterization, and theme with the book To Kill a

Mockingbird. I did an analysis on the character Atticus and said he valued safety and equality.
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The quotes I used did prove this, but it would have been stronger if I pulled out words and

phrases from the quotes or if I followed the S.O.D.A. steps to further emphasize how Atticus had

these values or principles based on what others say about him or what he does. Two years after

freshman year, my themes for the books Slaughterhouse Five and Brave New World and the

movie Clueless in junior year were better refined as it was more than three words and I used

other parts of the book and film to develop my ideas like diction, camera angles, lighting, and

symbolism. From constantly working on my skills on theme, diction, characterization,

symbolism and argumentative essays from freshman, sophomore, and junior year, I was able to

include all these skills in the senior paper on Hamlet and the social issue. My theme for this

paper connects to the quotes used through the analysis of diction and symbols throughout the

play which also resulted in a stronger warrant. At the end of my senior paper, I also concluded

with deeper ideas presented in Hamlet and how that connected to society as a whole, whereas

before in recent papers, the ideas were presented, but only slightly, leaving the ideas

underdeveloped. Not only did this show growth in my writing, but also in my mindset as I

explored how the world around me works and about my own values and principles. My papers

have shown progressive growth from my 14 year old self to my adult self now and I continue to

use the skills of characterization and analysis whenever I watch new movies or shows. I am able

to understand characters and why their values and morals lead them to their actions through

becoming a better writer and reader.

I have grown in multiple ways throughout high school and have gained multiple skills

that will forever impact me throughout my entire life. Although I have improved in analysis,

sentence structure, characterization, and theme, my tone and choice of words are still similar as

to how they were in freshman year. Looking back at all of my assignments from readings, to
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essays, and then to presentations, I felt nostalgic, proud and very appreciative of the education I

was able to obtain and the person I have become. My four years at University High school will

always have a big contribution to who I am as a person.