Alexis Eason

Reflection
When I first began creating pieces for this course, I had a hard time identifying
rhetorical devices within the passages; however, as I have been exposed to more
examples of each while unintentionally memorizing the most basic concepts of these
terms, doing so has come easy to me. Not only did I struggle with simplifying
elementary principles, but at times, when forced to provide evidences to justify my
position towards a particular subject, I struggled while my response were more so based
on personal experience and thoughts gathered from an introverted mindset. At this point
in the year, I was unable to think as others would and my works were more complex than
necessary; therefore, misunderstanding of the overlying purpose was puzzling to
comprehend. As a writer, I perceived myself to be in need of greater development of
skills such as clarification of main ideas presented within the pieces that I wrote as well
as a and clearer and more simplistic demonstration of the purpose. However, over the
course of the year, I have gained a bit of insight and I have gradually grown to be a better
writer as I no longer face hardship when brainstorming original ideas. As for my
strengths within the development of my pieces, I have exceled in organization of my
ideas presented and the use of strong language and a varying syntactical structure. In
addition to this, I no longer find myself using words which possess awkward
connotations and will alter the entire meaning of a piece if misinterpreted.
In reference to my skills as a reader, I can recall having difficulty understanding
complex terms which were thrown into the passages that I was required to read. Because

this was a major issue for me, I found an efficient method for understanding what I read
even when there are a few terms that I dont know. I discovered that reading the
surrounding words of the misunderstood text is quite helpful along with knowing the
authors purpose and pointing out the main ideas of the excerpts. Over the course of this
school, I have also sped up my thinking process and the amount of time that it takes me
to write an essay has greatly shortened. Many of the changes involving the ridding of my
weakness have occurred unintentionally through rehearsal, memorization, and familiarity.
My thought process is definitely more organized and can be better understood by the
audiences of my pieces.
If I were given the opportunity, I would have taken the time to read The Scarlet
Letter, because the first time that we were assigned the novel, I couldnt understand the
complex language within the story and it was hard for me to understand the role of each
character whom was introduced. For years, Id heard people discuss the book and for this
reason, I plan to read it once more on my own. If I could do something the same, I would
have read the Native Son again while this novel was extremely thought-provoking,
moderately paced, and realistic.
Since the beginning of the year, I have grown in some areas org reading, writing,
and even thinking. By the time I graduate, I hope to speed up the pace at which I read and
write. The thing that I found the most challenging was this portfolio because it was
extremely tedious while many of the pieces that were required of me were not written to
the best of my ability when assigned, so I had to put in a bit more work. The
accomplishment that I am most proud of would be getting through all of these years of
school and passing all my sols.

Language defines thoughts because it affects the way that you substitute certain
words for those which you are more comfortable with, and the better you are with a
certain language, the greater your thought process while appear in the eyes of others. As
for culture, people tend to speak more of the language which is related to the culture or
that which is expected of them to use. And lastly with identity, when we hear people
speaking a certain language, we automatically try to fit them into a particular category.
Language is also aligned with how one speaks and presents their ideas. In accordance to
identity, if you speak softly, people are more likely to judge you as kind, whereas if you
are boisterous and tend to speak inappropriately, people will have a negative impression
towards you.
Learning is a part of the life long journey because the more knowledge that you
acquire, the better people will think of you and the more intelligent you will be judged to
possess. Each day, we witness a new idea, and with this, we may share what we have
learned; good or bad, we tend to impact others when we share acquired information.
Over the course of the year, many things have changed and in the heat of the
moment, I am still finding myself. I am aware that there is still a lot that I must discover
about the outside world. While being in AP Language, the way that I speak and present
my thoughts is definably more proper and people are more likely to judge me as bright or
intelligent. There are so many terms and writing strategies that I have picked up simply
from the act of rehearsal. In some ways, I have changed for the good, while in
others...much more the opposite direction. Throughout the duration of the year, I have
lost some motivation, but gradually, I am discovering ways to cope with the outside
environment and growing strong enough to not always be overwhelmed. I believe that I

have conquered many fears while I am a bit more assertive and expressive of how I feel
or what I want. Despite everything that has happened this year, I have grown and when I
almost gave up, I realized that this was not an option.