WRITING portfolio
3 Goals
vocabulary
I will use a versatile set of words in my writing. Whether it's using new scientific words or using extravagant words to describe things that are happening. For example, in my In class essay, I said: “Taking a break is one the most important things you can do to sustain your brain.” In the sentence, I use plenty of general words/phrases such as “one the most important”, “things” and do. Those phrases could be replaced with more descriptive ones like “an important”, “exercise” and “practice” instead. To do this I will need to expand my vocabulary so I can use words that I may not know right now in my writing. To do this, whenever I use a general or not quite right word I’ll look at synonyms for that word. If I look at the synonyms I can learn new words and what they mean, as well as associate, those words with the ones I don't want to use anymore so that I get used to using them.
Structure and Organization
I will improve my organization and essay structure. Essay structure is very important to how easily your writing is understood. A good essay will supply background knowledge before making a statement so that the reader can understand it. In contrast, in my college essay, I start off by saying that I “had started to figure things out” without really stating any problem. I also need to improve my paragraph sectioning. Usually, when I wright I don't really think about how my writing is going to be divided up into paragraphs before I start, so I end up with absurdly long and short paragraphs. For example one of the paragraphs in my in-class essay was about 300 words. To improve I just need to think about these things before and while I write.
Next level topic sentences
I will Improve my topic sentences, and make them into “Next Level” topic sentences. To pull the reader into a new paragraph or the introduction of the paper you need to have a hook and connect. A good topic sentence connects to the paragraph before it before discussing new material. It acts as a kind of check-in re-establishing where you started from. A conclusion should do this too, except connect back to the introduction. When I wright I sometimes have trouble connecting everything together to one topic. For example, even though I tried to make a connection back to the intro in the conclusion of my in-class essay, I still didn’t use the same metaphor or theme to do it. It felt like a conclusion, but it didn’t feel like the conclusion to a paper written with that intro. To fix this I will Identify a theme to tie everything together before wrighting the whole paper so that I don't have to manipulate it after it’s already written.
