Ideas and Content
In my writing, I always check to make sure my ideas and content are clear, relevant and thoughtful, and this shows more in My Alchemist essay than my Julius Caesar one. In my Alchemist essay, my ideas and content were appropriate and interesting. The ways I explained the character traits of Santiago, particularly honesty, that I thought were most important to his journey showed connections that weren't very evident in the story. I dug a bit deeper in the book for this content and still made it appropriate and thought-provoking. However, my language explaining this content in my Alchemist essay was limited, and therefore didn't show the message as well as it could. However, my Julius Caesar essay did not include much impressive ideas. I found that the ideas were repetitive and undeveloped. My idea that Antony thought the conspirators had to be killed in order to let Caesar's spirit "move on" could be more detailed and developed, and so could the rest of my content. I feel that my Alchemist essay could represent more advanced ideas than my Julius Caesar essay.
Organization
The skill I desperately need to work on and use in my writing, organization, is used more effectively in my Alchemist essay than my Julius Caesar essay. In my Alchemist essay, appropriate organization is evident because my topic and conclusion paragraph relate and agree with each other. The thesis statement is included in both, and the sentences around them are clear and concise. Superior organization in this piece could be achieved by having transition sentences that make the essay flow smoothly. In my Julius Caesar essay, my organization was acceptable. The essay was easy to read, thanks to subtle transition sentences, yet due to the lack of agreement between the first and last paragraph, I think the readers would be left confused. I think I forgot to include my thesis statement in the conclusion paragraph, due to the short time span we were allowed in which we needed to write the essay. My Alchemist essay would be a better model of organization than my Julius Caesar essay, although it is something I need to work on in my writing overall.
Personal Growth
I think that the circumstances of which each piece was written by caused my Alchemist essay to be of better writing than my Julius Caesar essay. For my the Alchemist essay, I succeeded in writing a better piece because of the relaxed time and environment I had while writing. Brainstorming and writing were spread out among classes and home, so I had a long time to develop my ideas and make them evident in my writing. In class, everyone was relaxed while typing and that helped me focused and writing at home is always a comfortable experience. In the Julius Caesar essay, though, we had less than a full class period to write our whole essay so the environment was totally different. Usually, I work hard and well under pressure, but I think I hadn't prepared enough to be totally confident about my ideas and approach to Antony's motivators. The time lengths and environments in which we were to write our essays effected my performance on them, making the Alchemist essay succeed the Julius Caesar essay.
SLR Reflection
I think the SLR "Learn Enthusiastically" is necessary to be able to construct a well-crafted essay. I always find that if I don't chose things to write about that I don't have an interest or passion for, I end up despising writing for it and as a result not developing it as much as I could. I think that this is what happened with my Julius Caesar essay, as I didn't enjoy preparing for it. In order to have a great essay, the SLR "Learn Enthusiastically" is mandatory to access.
