Katie Tevebaugh’s HE 3 2011 PORTFOLIO SELF-ASSESSMENT PRE-WRITING

SIMILES AND METAPHORS

The writing process is like digging for treasure, you have no idea what you will find, good bad or ugly, but once you find it and realize how to use it, it can be the best thing you have ever found.

My writing process is likerummaging in a pile of old clothes that are the memories and feels that make up my head and finding what will make the perfect outfit.

My essays are likemask and once it is ripped away from the holder of it leaves them naked and vulnerable to people’s criticism.

My writing has gone from being like an unwanted stray cat to like the cat that now I cradle and talk to about my feelings.

FREEWRITING:

  1. List 10 words that best describe your writing process.

Unorganized, Messy, Crap, Nonsense, Illogical, Boring, Un-Thought-out, confusing,

  1. List 10 words that best describe your finished drafts.

Neat, well thought out,

  1. Develop one of your similes above into an extended metaphor.

When writing I look through a pile of dirty old ideas, thoughts and memories. Trying to find the perfect fit, the perfect look, the very look I want to get across to my peers. If it’s too messy people will look away or judge but if it’s just right, people just might ask me to help with theirs.

  1. What are the strengths of your finished drafts?

The ideas that I end up writing about always mean a lot to me. They aren’t just first thought essays, they are the type that I had to throw away multiple before it to get it just right. And ever then I feel as if there is something more to be done.

  1. What are not the strengths of your finished drafts?

They could be given more time to process that final thought. Due to me being very critical to my essays I usually don’t come up with an idea that I would like to pursue until the weekend before. I let my mind flow onto the paper but there can always be work to do, I wish I would have had more time.

  1. Which essay do you like the best? Why?

I would have to say my favorite essay is the “How To Lose a Volleyball Game” because at the time that I wrote it the volleyball team that I was a part of had a lot of people that thought the same way this essay thought. Because I try to stay out of most conflicts that do not affect me directly I wrote this essay to get some of my frustrations out.

  1. Which essay do you like the least? Why?

The essay that I liked the least would have to have been the augmentative essay. I didn’t like this essay due to the plethora of facts and logic that had to be used. I enjoy writing creatively rather than logically. And that essay was a whole lot of logic.

  1. Which essay was easiest to write? Why?

For me no essay is defiantly the ‘easiest’ to write, they all had their flaws and difficulties. And the way I write my papers is I just rant on and on, until I find a topic I can elaborate into a two to three page essay. This sometimes includes going back to something I wrote the first day and realizing I just spent a week on something I have no intention on writing about.

  1. Which essay was most difficult to write? Why?

For me the American was defiantly the most difficult. At first I had no idea what to write about. I was American, but I didn’t know what to write, did that mean I’m un-American. I got very frustrated with the essay and almost gave up. Until I realized there are different stages in what we see as an American.

  1. Which 2 of your essays are most similar? In what ways are they similar?

I feel as if my family essay and American definition are the two essays that are the most similar when it comes to thought processes and internal debate that occurred in my head when deciding on what to write these particular essays on. Both ideas did not sprout until long after the essay was supposed to be written. They both brought a great deal of stress into my mind.

  1. Which 2 of your essays are the most different? In what ways are they different?

When it comes to style, tone, and syntax I believe that my free choice essay and the argumentative essays are the most different. The free choice essay is very sarcastic, demining, and un formal. While the augmentative essay is very straight forward, formal and logical.

  1. What part of the writing process are you really, really good at?

The part of the writing process that I feel like I am really, really good at would have to be the style of my essays. I feel as if, once I get a good topic, I can really explode the whole essay and really make it my own.

  1. What part of the writing process are you less good at?

The part of essay writing that I am not so good at is the time constraint. I have to be given enough time to find out what I really want to talk about, and that usually takes up the whole time because if I don’t my essay will turn out uninspired and unwanted by the general society. If I do have enough time I believe that I could really succeed forward with my writing.

  1. How would you describe your authentic voice? How is this voice different from your inauthentic voice?
  2. Is the content of any of your writing similar? If so, why do you think this is the case?
  3. Of the 6 traits of writing—Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions, which trait is your strength? Which trait do you need the most work strengthening?
  4. Imagine your semester in Honors English III as a road trip you took with your writing. Where did you start? Where were you expecting to end up? What surprised you along the way? Where do you want to go next?
  5. Imagine your portfolio as a road trip your audience is about to take with your writing. What do they need to know about the itinerary? What should they expect to see along the way? What should they bring with them?
  6. How has your writing process changed this semester?
  7. How have your written products changed this semester?