Writing Reflections - Julius Caesar and The Alchemist

IDEAS AND CONTENT

In my Alchemist essay, I displayed organized and good ideas and content. This is shown because throughout the essay, the content flows nicely, allowing the reader to understand how Santiago's traits aided him throughout his journey. I started all paragraphs with a sharp topic sentence, which shows my true understanding of the topic itself. After that, I had thoroughly explained my reasoning that supports the topic sentence to further develop the reader's understanding. Other than that, I also used quotes from the book to enhance my explanations, and I attempted to give the reader of visual of Santiago's traits by using excerpts from the book. Overall, maybe using more detailed quotes and topic sentences would allow me to improve my statement and give a clearer topic.

Comparing the Julius Caesar and the Alchemist essays together, there is a somewhat improvement in my overall writing skills, as my grade had increased. Similarly to my Alchemist essay, I had a sharp topic sentence, and a flow of explanations to keep the reader engaged, and allow the reader to fully understand my statement(s). Also, I had brought in certain parts of certain scenes from the play, and I analyzed it and explained it thoroughly to show how the parts were related to my statement. Throughout the essay, I had repetitive explanations, which decreased my grade. If I had looked at certain quotes in different views, maybe I would have had different explanations for each paragraph and I would be less repetitive.

ORGANIZATION

In my Alchemist essay, explanations were stated, but they weren't very 'smooth' as the essay went along. I didn't have a lot of transitions and sometimes the reader was left wondering where my explanations went, because sometimes I didn't seem to have explained thoroughly. Every paragraph was started with a good topic sentence, and explanations followed right after. My overall conclusion was strong, because I had summarized my statement and my ideas within a paragraph. In my conclusion, I was able to sum up why Santiago's traits enabled him to continue on with his journey. Overall, I think the place where I need improvement is smooth explanations. Get the reader engaged and get them to enjoy reading the essay and get them to understand my overall statement.

In my Julius Caesar essay, I was more organized and I understood all of my evidence clearly. This had enabled me to easily explain my evidence to the reader, making it smooth explanations unlike my Alchemist essay. My topic sentences were engaging and it hooked the readers into the essay, and my explanations were overall easy to understand and follow. The main problem on my essay was my repetitiveness, and maybe if I added different types of evidence would allow me to be less repetitive, thus improving the essay.

PERSONAL GROWTH

From my Alchemist essay to my Julius Caesar essay there is a slight improvement in overall writing and grade. This is probably because I prepared more for my Julius Caesar essay than my Alchemist essay, allowing me to be completely ready for the 80 minute write-up in class. Also, the fact that I enjoyed the JC unit more than the Alchemist unit usually enabled me to understand more, because I was more enthusiastic about it. I liked my grade for the JC essay, and I just think that I need to be less repetitive in my future essays.

SLR REFLECTION

The SLR that represents my overall growth in writing is Learning Enthusiastically. As explained above, I had enjoyed the JC unit more than the Alchemist unit, which made me want to learn more of Julius Caesar. This had helped me gain evidence to explain in my essay, and I think that's what helped me improve from my Alchemist essay to the Julius Caesar essay.

ISKL Mission Statement

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop (SILENCE) the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited and socially responsible global citizen.

I personally think that adding the silence between "Develop" and "The Attitudes" is the best way to create a void within the ISKL Mission Statement. This is because the development of students is the most important part of school to most parents as well as teachers. By adding a void between the list of development skills and the word develop itself, most parents would be eager to hear the list because they want to know whether ISKL is a good school to go to and they want to know whether their children would learn a lot at ISKL. By adding this void, you would engage with the audience and usually, you would get them to ask questions. The moment you continue on with the list, you would 'release' the audience of the void and finally understand the development skills.