Allie Elam
Mrs. Crawford
12/3/12
Conclusion
Through this assignment I learned a lot about myself as a writer. After getting
assistance through peer editing and help from Mrs. Crawford, I learned how to improve
my grammar and sentence fluency, which had been greatly hindering my well-structured
idea development and vocabulary. I received the most help with my Scarlet Letter essay
and my Dream essay. There was only an excerpt from my Scarlet Letter essay presented
in this, but even that small selection received a great deal of attention to make the
sentences flow smoothly and flawlessly. The initial work was rather choppy and did not
convey the message as well, due to the structure of the sentences. On this occasion I took
advantage of peer editing more than teacher help. In my Dream essay, I began with a
vaguely worded and indirect paper that did not make much sense, nor did it fully address
the prompt given for the essay. I initially sought the help of peer tutors but I was not
satisfied with the improvements made. I then sought the help of Mrs. Crawford and we
transformed the paper into something that was much more effective in conveying a
message to the reader and that was void of the prevalent grammatical errors. As a result
of all of the help I received to improve my writing, I became aware of the things I mess
up most and how I can fix them on my own. Over the next semester I will focus on such
things as grammar and sentence fluency to make myself a better writer on my own. I still
intend to seek the guidance of my teacher and peers after I create a rough draft but my
hope is to eventually become less dependant upon that.
In creating this portfolio I also developed a deeper understanding of my essential
question, “how do different people’s approaches to solving their personal obstacles affect
the outcome?” The protagonists in the books Night Road, Scarlet Letter, and Survivor
allow themselves be victims of their obstacles and spend much of their lives thinking
lowly of themselves and not fighting for a better position. This causes them a great deal
of disparity and suffering throughout those years. Huck just decided to pick himself up
and step out of the problem and this allowed him to grow and develop with conflicts
other than the huge ones looming over him in his hometown. One thing that all of these
characters have in common with how they solved their problems is that they learned a lot
about themselves and those closest to them as they dealt with the dilemmas they faced.
Through these lessons, they came up with solutions as to how they could find a place in
which they are satisfied and could feel accomplished about the things that they had
overcome.