Felix Suavillo

04/11/23

Advisory

Reflective Essay

Throughout my junior year of high school, one assignment stood out to me. It is related to

a class that I took that I was not great at, but it had a great teacher. Baker's 1983 argument was

the first writing assignment I had for my AP English Language class. I liked it very much and it

gave me a grasp of what college writing would be like. I was excited about it because it was

going to be my first AP Class.

Music has been my passion, but on the other side, writing assignments, and historic

literature also have a nice place in my mind. I was excited about this assignment because it was

the first writing assignment presented to us. I chose this piece to represent myself because it gave

me a rough try on how I was doing with AP writing. The prompt of this interested me, which

talked about the differences between a large and small mind. Overall, every reading piece Dr.

Coburn gave us, was really interesting, though I did not like the old English prompts. I prefer

something more related to today’s society and the world.

The second reason I chose this assignment is its relation to analysis. Analysis with

English prompts is fun and challenging to do, though some might be too hard for my liking. This

prompt was just about right and I could get a gist of the prompt and what the author was trying to

say. It feels good reading about different authors’ opinions and such. Learning new linguistic

vocabulary truly helped me when transitioning into AP Literature. With that, the class and this

assignment were really helpful in jump-starting my brain to become a linguistic intellectual.

 Ultimately, this assignment meant a lot to me due to the significance it had to my past.

Analyzing modern prompts was fun to do and this piece truly represented my learning during AP

English Language.
Felix Suavillo

2/18/22

AP Eng Lang

Per. 1

Baker (1983) Argument

In Nicholson's "The Size of Thoughts" Baker discusses the differences between large and

little thoughts. Thoughts are created by us and can differ from small or large. Baker states that

“large thoughts depend more heavily on small thoughts than you might think.” During the focus

of the topic, I agree with Baker as large thoughts depend on small thoughts.

To begin, you must first consider or even do anything tiny. Thoughts begin as small seeds

that eventually grow into larger ones. “Once completed, it will leave us filled with large, calm

truths,” says Baker. A thought cannot begin with a huge thought. While exploring new concepts,

your brain must grow. Thoughts are based on what comes first, which is why they are so reliant.

Baker then provides excellent analogies to back up my main point. The claim itself it’s

even ironic. Having something large depend on something small is ironic. In the prompt that was

picked, there is a lot of that. “Large thoughts, too, disembellished of and abstracted from the

small thoughts that diversify their surface, become sheer and indigestible.” They're comparing

their thoughts to food. This means that enormous thoughts can be difficult to comprehend on

their own, but breaking them down into smaller pieces, like a cake, can make them easier to

stomach. The cut-up cake in this example represents little ideas. There are a number of particular

parallels here. “Velvet feels smoother than chrome,” and the looks on “infinitesimal hooks on

horsehairs that draw from the cello string its lavish tone,” are all excellent parallels between

large and small thoughts.

 Finally, Baker's method of reasoning is somewhat distinctive, but once properly grasped,

they create excellent analogies. Baker's question includes particular examples and personal

experiences to back up his main point. Small thoughts might be regarded as the seed of larger

thoughts. In this scenario, I maintain that large thoughts are more dependent on small thoughts.