Samantha Power

Ryan Gallagher
AP Literature
25 May 2010
Portfolio Reflection
The past year of writing has been one of trial and error. I have poorly
analyzed, summarized text, and received threes on essays. But through AP Literat
ure and Composition, I have been able to see the meaning underneath important li
terature and comprehend text more clearly and concisely. My writing has improved
in more than one aspect â I have avoided plot summary, received higher grades on
my pieces, and learned to analyze like one might in a critical essay (like the o
nes we read after Jane Eyre and Hamlet). I have had pieces that I am proud of, a
nd pieces that could have written much better, but in the end I am a better writ
er for the experience I had in AP Literature.
In analysis, my strengths lie in visual art. The highest grade I receive
d in this class was a 92%, on a paper that I wrote toward the very end of the ye
ar on a popular graffiti artist, Banksy. It was my masterpiece. Twenty pages tot
al with annotated bibliography, pictures, and writing. My analysis, in combinati
on with my description, was done clearly and accurately. I have learned more abo
ut this manâ s life, his art, and his career than I have learned about anything els
e this year. I also had fun writing this paper, which makes me believe that that
is why my writing had improved so much for it. An essay written previously in t
he year, another visual art piece, was a page taken from Tom Phillipâ s A Humument.
The essay was not my best work, but it was better than others I wrote even late
r in the year because that was also one of my favorite essays to write. I had tr
ied to pull up various skills that I had lost over the summer from AP Language a
nd Composition course the year before. Those were helpful even when analyzing li
terature, though I barely thought about it. The benefits coming from taking that
course previous to this one was that I had already known what to pick out and a
nalyze â similes, metaphors, hyperboles, all of these literary terms that I needed
in order to do well on multiple choice and Question One questions on the AP Exa
mination.
My weaknesses were far greater before taking this course, but now they h
ave been limited. In the beginning, my writing was mediocre. I was struggling to
work from non-fiction writing to literature. The harder the text was to compreh
end, the more difficult it was to analyze. When reading Hamlet later in the year
, the group discussions were the most help. In combination with â No Fear Shakespea
reâ and the Student Run Discussions, I was able to learn the text in a more compre
hensive manner, making my analyses clearer and easier to understand. If I was ca
ught up in what the plot simply was, then I would summarize instead of analyze i
n my papers. With plot comprehension, my writing became better. When continuing
throughout the year, I began to enjoy the literature we were reading, making it
easier to pick apart and learn more thoroughly. A Scanner Darkly and Hallucinati
ng Foucault were two independent reading books that were easiest to analyze with
out problems. The text and plot was easier to grasp and that made it easier to p
ull it apart and see what the author was doing underneath. Once I understood Ham
let, it was also the case.
Throughout this year, my writing and ability to analyze have been improv
ed. The piece that I chose to revise in my portfolio was an analytical blog post
for Waiting for Godot. By adding a stronger thesis, and connecting it to eviden
ce that I had already found, strengthened my argument for the piece because I no
w know, at the end of the year, what is stronger and weaker as far as my pieces
go.