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Matthew Reese
Ms. Thompson
AP Lang. Block 2 Skinny B
May 3rd, 2015
This Year in Writing
In terms of writing my year has been eventful, but not in the best way. I've only written
three complete pieces, not including the several mandated in-class essays, but the mystery
surrounding the purpose and requirements of each of the pieces made writing them quite the
ordeal. The first paper, an introspective analysis of an inanimate object that represents each class
member's personality was confusing to many members of the class because of the contrast
behind its initially perceived purpose and its final purpose as a complete paper. It was initially
presented as an introductory writing assignment, which it certainly was, but some of my
classmates took that to mean that it did not need to be either long or complex, and consequently
wrote very short, superficial essays. Fortunately for me, the assignment came during a time when
I was obsessed with analyzing various facets of my own personality, particularly my tendency to
behave differently in front of different friends, and during this time I was incapable of
superficially analyzing anything about myself. So, I chose an object that could exist in multiple
states, a ball in a cup, and wrote what seemed at the time to be an excessively long essay about
how those two items represent me. The class was instructed to focus on "showing, not telling"
and "voice", so I did my best to include both of those techniques. The final paper was moderately
successful in both respects; I maintained a consistent voice throughout the paper and I tried to
include examples of my behaviors. I also utilized extended metaphor and directly compared

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myself to the ball and the cup, such as in line 15 when I referred to a shift in my behavior by
saying "the ball left the cup."
The next paper was a mixture of rhetorical analysis and argument development that
involved the lovingly remembered short story "I Just Wanna Be Average". This paper was
definitely the most confusing of the three, and I personally did not fully understand the prompt
until several days before the submission date of the paper. The prompt we were provided
instructed us to, "using Roses voice and drawing on his experiences recounted in 'I Just Wanna
Be Average,' respond to an excerpt from James Baldwin's a talk to teachers. In my paper, I
mimicked Mike Rose's voice and referenced his experiences in "I Just Wanna Be Average"
without behaving as if they were my own to support the argument made by Baldwin in his
excerpt. I believe I did each of these things quite well, and even included a hook that referenced
the context of Baldwin's speech, particularly his intent "to discuss the role of schoolteachers in
ridding the nation of prejudice and the difficulties and resistance they would face."
The final paper was reasonably straightforward: an argumentative research paper in
which we were to take a stand on a controversial topic and support it with evidence. I only ran
into troubles when I discovered that the topic I chose is not a big point of controversy in today's
world. It was hard to find relevant evidence that supported wildlife conservation or refuted
preservation, but in the end I managed to pull together a varied list of applicable sources and
write a complete paper. Another aspect of the paper that I found difficult was taking a clear stand
on one side of my topic. I usually like to treat complex issues like complex issues and stand
somewhere between the two extremes, so I found it hard to associate myself with one side. I
ended up compromising by standing in clear support of conservation for the majority of the
paper but, in my conclusion, stating that "the best solution is to utilize aspects of both."

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Overall, the best word I can find to describe my writing experiences this year is "unique."
I wrote a few good pieces and learned some new things, but I wrote with new concerns and
learned through different avenues than those I'm used to. This year, a higher emphasis was
placed on formatting and rhetorical strategies, two aspects of writing my previous language and
literature teachers haven't really cared about. The emphasis on formatting didn't make writing the
essays difficult, necessarily, but it certainly made the grades I received for each essay much more
confusing. The first page of every graded paper I received was covered with circles and dashes
denoting areas where I'd failed to follow proper formatting procedures, and the definition of
"proper formatting procedures" seemed to change slightly after every paper. In contrast, the
emphasis placed on rhetorical strategies actually made writing the essays more difficult, not
because the strategies themselves were difficult to comprehend or because their implementation
was thoroughly checked, but because we were responsible for teaching ourselves about every
one we needed to use. Several days in class were dedicated to learning about voice and
understanding rhetorical fallacies, but that was the only instruction we received on the function
and usage of the many strategies we were required to know. I'd be lying if I said that this year
was useless, that I learned nothing about writing and that my writing did not improve; it certainly
did. If nothing else, this course has taught me that something of value can be taken from every
new experience, no matter how arduous the experience is. And, if the experience ends and it
seems like nothing has come of it, it only takes a little reflection to shine a light on its true value.