Nanowrimo

Context and Reflection

I chose an excerpt from my Nanowrimo piece. I chose this piece because I wrote this near the beginning of the year, so I still had poor writing skills. When I read this piece unrevised, I found my descriptions were weak. After I revised it this piece looked better. I think I got better at revising too. I think my writing improved a lot this year compared to last year.    

The Piece

James woke up when he heard a knock on the front door. He opened his eyes and looked at the clock besides his bed; it was 4:49 in the morning.

He heard the knock again.

“Why would anyone want to come to my house this early in the morning?” he wondered. He decided to ignore it, but the knocking became louder. Finally he climbed slowly out of the bed and quickly got dressed. Then he opened his bedroom door.

The house was still dark, it felt empty and cold. James turned on the light and started to climb down the stairs. The steps creaked under him as he took every step. He thought about going back to bed once or twice, but the knocking didn’t stop. So he kept going until he climbed off the last step.

His parents weren’t awake yet.

“Of course,” he thought. “It’s 4:50 in the morning, why would anyone be awake.” He walked up to the door and he reached his hand to the door handle. The knocking stopped. For a second he stood still, and then he opened the door.

No one was there. It was still dark outside, and the cold morning air made James want to go back inside. He looked down at the doorstep and found a small envelope laying there. He hesitated, then he bent over picked it up.

The envelope was completely blank. He opened the envelope and saw a piece of paper and a small golden key inside it. He tipped the mysterious objects onto his hand. He looked at the key first; it looked old, it was very simple looking, but he had a feeling that he was going to use it later. So he shoved it into his jeans pocket. James then looked closely at the paper, and he saw writing on it. It said;

Dear James,

I want you to come to the house on the end of the street by 7 o’clock. Use the key that was in the envelope to open the door. Do not let anyone know about it and make sure that you’re not being followed.

             It didn’t say who it was from or why James has to go there. He took the envelope back to his room and sat on his bed staring at the note. He decided not to tell his parents about the letter since it said not to tell anyone.

 

About the Author

My name is Ryuki Yamasaki and I’m 12 years old. I am a 7th grade student at Dewitt Middle School. I love fantasy books so I wrote a fantasy story. Compared to last year I think my writing skills have improved. Last year I used to have many run-on sentences, bad spelling and bad grammar. I was also really bad at describing too. Now I don’t have run-on sentences, decent spelling and grammar. In my whole Nanowrimo story I think I did a pretty good job describing things. 7th grade has made me a better writer.

 

 

How I've Improved as a Writer

Liana Raguso

Period 4

Part 1: Context and Reflection

For my final exam I chose to revise an old reading reflection. This was an assignment given during state test season, and we were supposed to write about the most entertaining book we had ever read, and recommend it to classmates as a good book to get rid of stress during state tests. I chose this piece because I thought that it was already pretty good, but some parts of it could use a little cleaning up. I mostly just clarified some of the plot summary and varied the sentence structures when I gave my opinion. These changes make my piece easier to understand and more fun to read.

Part 2: The Piece

The funniest book series I have ever read is probably The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare. The books are, in order, City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire.These books are about a group of people called Shadowhunters, who have the blood of angels. Their job is to kill demons, and protect mundies (non-Shadowhunters). There are also werewolves, vampires, faeries, and other creatures, which Shadowhunters don’t attack (usually). A while back, a Shadowhunter named Valentine wanted to kill all non-humans. He gathered a loyal group of followers called the Circle, and they attacked the other Shadowhunters. The Circle was defeated, and it was thought that Valentine had committed suicide. However, now it seems like Valentine might not actually be dead, and might be on the rise again. The protagonist is a teenage girl named Clary Fray, who witnesses some Shadowhunters killing a demon while she's at a club with her best friend Simon. This makes her question the reality of her mundie way of life, but she convinces herself that nothing is wrong. Then a few days later, her mother disappears and Clary has to work with Shadowhunters to get her mother back. She goes to the Institute, where the Shadowhunters live, and meets some Shadowhunters (Jace, Alec, and Izzy) and their teacher (Hodge). And it turns out that Clary, who has lived her whole life as a normal girl, is actually a Shadowhunter, and that her mother is nowhere near what she seems. Eventually, this series goes from mystery to pure fantasy, when Clary's goals start to shift from finding her mother and going back to her normal life to protecting the Shadowhunters from a threat within their own organization.

Frankly, I don't think this series is particularly good. In the first three books, almost every plot element is copied from other popular series (mostly Harry Potter and Percy Jackson). For example, the whole thing about people with special powers passed down through their bloodstream and a secret underground world of magic with werewolves and the like is a little too Harry Potterish for me to fully enjoy, and the way that mundies don't see this world is a little too much like Percy Jackson. The way that Clary finally finds the location of the Mortal Cup is just a little too similar to how Harry finds the Sorcerer's Stone, and the battle on the ship is like the Percy Jackson ship battle. The most striking similarity between this series and another is the concept of Valentine and the Circle, which is almost completely copied from Voldemort and the Death Eaters in Harry Potter. The second three books in the series are a little more original, but I don’t think they should have been written in the first place. The series was originally supposed to stop after the first three books, but it was just dragged out. None of the books are particularly well written-- there are lots of tiny inconsistencies. Characters who had one belief in one chapter will suddenly have the opposite belief in a different chapter. A device called the Sensor is used in earlier books and completely forgotten about in later ones. A character is described as acting a certain way, then proceeds to act in exactly the opposite manner. And throughout the whole series there seems to be too simplistic of a divide between good and evil.

That being said... these books are VERY funny. The dialogue is witty and amusing. These books are action packed, so the reader is never bored. The characters are funny and you can relate to them, even if they're not completely 3 Dimensional. There are just so many moments that make you laugh out loud. These books are the kind of books you can't put down. Even after reading them, and recognizing that they weren't actually very good, I wanted to start reading them again. And again. These books are an extremely enjoyable read. So my overall analysis? These books aren't good. They won't be remembered ten years from now. They're not even original. But if you want something to read to relax and laugh after a state test, these books are the books for you.

Part 3: About the Author

Hello, I’m Liana. In general I am a pretty good student. Over the course of this year, my writing has improved a lot. Last year my writing was a lot more formulaic and boring, but this year I have become more comfortable with putting more of my voice into my writing because of Ms. Cernera's encouragement. A huge thank you to Ms. Cernera for giving me a great year in English!

Shakespeare Is Fresh

I choose this because Shakespeare is fresh in my mind and I might as well keep doing it. I also choose it because this is the hardest project I ever done. 

Revised

The revised pieces of my writing is mostly me fixing minor mistakes and i had to choose 1 different example for the insult the insult video. 

About the Author

A little about myself I like playing video games, reading, and hanging out with my family. That it.

Shakespeare In Modern Culture

Shakespeare has his own unique language. His proof? In his plays. I think Shakespeare does influence modern culture. How does he influence modern culture? Through modern language. One example of how Shakespeare influenced modern culture is in the video “Insults By Shakespeare.” In the play “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare uses the insult of biting your thumb. You must be thinking “How is that an insult.” well back in Shakespeare’s time biting your thumb was like flicking someone off. and even if how it was done changed it still is used in the same way. Another Example of is the word Swagger from the video “10 Words Shakespeare Invented.” The word which is used a lot in today’s culture first appeared in Shakespeare’s play “a Midsummer night's dream. In the play the word did not mean you were cool like in today’s culture.  It was used to describe a foolish man. This connects because even though the meaning changed the word is still very much alive. As you can see Shakespeare really did influence modern culture today’s language and culture.

My friends house

Olushiana Gbengbe

Last week I went to my friends Shylynns house. Before we went to her house we went to Ithaca Kids. Ithaca Kids is where you get out the house and have fun with older people. so we went to Ithaca Kids and we played this game were we had to get the most rhyming words that when with, Green, Leaves,yellow, etc, we won and we got a point. Another game we played is that we had to answer questions about Saint Patrick Day. Nobody really knew about that day so we just guessed on all of them. Another game we played was we had to get the york peppermint pattie off your forehead and into your mouth…….

About the author

‘

I like to play basketball,lacrosse,and sometimes i like it play football. I lived in syracuse up until 2nd grade and then i moved here. i wish i still lived in syracuse because all of my family lives in syracuse.    

Christopher Hemly English

6/19/15 Per. 9

Context and Reflection

It’s an assignment that I did after I read Me and My Shadow a poem by Arthur Dorros. When I wrote it, I did one draft before I typed it. I am showing off my ability to write poetry. The reason I’m choosing this poem is because it’s one of my best pieces of writing. My poem is titled Shadow. In the process of editing my poem, I added a new stanza. This stanza will give my poem more mystery.

    “Shadow”

A shadow is you!

It follows you outside

sometimes it disappears other times he says HI!

once my shadow died

I wish my shadow did not trick me

I wonder where my shadow lives?

About the Author

christopher hemly wishes he could talk about himself in the third person in this “About the Author” section. Sadly, he can’t. So he will do it in the first person, somewhat reluctantly. Once we offered to exile Leland, he agreed.

Will hi classmates how is your day “ps I do not care” wall I am tarubal in english. I have not improved in english.

Kenny

Context and Reflection

The assignment I chose is 10 Words Shakespeare Invented. This assignment shows my best writing because it shows that I used details. It shows that creative writing is a difficult thing to do but I was able to do it. This piece of writing changed when I added more detail. I also changed some of the grammar and spelling.

“10 Words Shakespeare Invented” 5/22/15  

shakespeare’s has influenced modern language Shakespeare’s language had a creative influence on modern culture. One way shakespeare has influenced modern culture is in his words.  For example, swagger, bedazzled and green eyed monster are his words used (10 Words Shakespeare Invented).  This shows that Shakespeare has some good words he created. Another way Shakespeare’s language has influenced modern culture is with movies.  They have made a modern day Romeo and Juliet movie  of Shakespeare’s play and more than 100 movies  Overall, Shakespeare’s language has changed modern day culture.

About the Authori,

m is name is kenny. i love  pizza,games,physical work and fun. I read more than ever this year. Nothing has changed with my writing.

“villain”

Context and Reflection

For my final exam ( *villain* ), I chose my writing on my favorite villain the Joker. I chose it because I got a 90 on this and it was the shortest writing I had. When I was revising it I noticed that I should not have gotten a 90 on it, there were a lot of mistakes.The original piece was a little less put together; I think that I was not paying that much attention to what I was writing and just focusing on getting it done. To change this I just zeroed in on the mistakes to make sure it was sure there were no errors.

The Piece

un-revised

My favorite villain is the Joker because he comes up with the best ideas, not that they are good ones. The Joker has a twisted mind I mean his own dad cut his mouth to look like he was smiling. The main reason he is my favorite villain is because he is the antagonist to my favorite hero BatMan.The joker and BatMan go at it all the time they probably will not stop fighting until they die. The joker is probably the smartest villain you will ever hear about I don’t know how but he knows so much.He has a answer to everything you ask him.

Revised

My favorite villain is the Joker because he comes up with the best ideas, not that they are good ones. The Joker has a twisted mind; I mean his own dad cut his mouth to look like he was smiling. The main reason he is my favorite villain is because he is the antagonist to my favorite hero BatMan. The joker and BatMan go at it all the time, they probably will not stop fighting until they die.The joker is probably the smartest villain you will ever hear about, I don’t know how, but he knows so much. He has a answer to everything you ask him.

About the Author

I’m DaeJahd Leckey. I love  Basketball, Baseball, And Football, but I also like Lacrosse; I did not play Lacrosse this past season but I’m hoping to play the next season coming up. This year I had a few transitions, I went from Boynton to a school in North Carolina and back to Dewitt all in the same school year. I went from school to school to school because I moved to North Carolina and went there for about a month because I did not like it, so I came back to Ithaca and I did not like Boynton so I decided I would try Dewitt. I think I will stay at Dewitt for next year; I had fun and I think I learned more. Hope to see everyone next year.