It’s been a long senior year of high school. I did the math and I’ve spent more or less 380 full 24-hour days in the halls at Lincoln Lutheran, and undoubtedly I’ve made strides in my person, learning, and in pretty much any sense of the word “growth”. But for the purpose of this Essay, I’m going to take a long, hard look at the writing of my Senior year. This writing should be the culmination of years of tutelage and practice, and as thus should be of the highest quality. This essay is where the proverbial rubber hits the road and we shall see if, in fact, my writing is up to snuff.
As I said, this portfolio is the grand finale of my storied (hehe, pun) high school writing career. Fortunately, this senior year I have been able to write in many different genres; some have been new, some have been old, and all have been a welcome exercise to me. But of all writing genres new to me, one piece that really sticks out to me is the news article I wrote after visiting Ajora Falls. See, I’d never really dabbled in the News genre before, and I figured that a restaurant was a great way to make a foray into the genre.
For starters, it was a fun experience because I got to go eat some really good food! But as I soon came to find, writing a restaurant review is so much more than that. It requires one to be engaged, because you have to be in tune with your senses to fairly review and evaluate the quality of the food. Then, I really focused on capturing the style of the genre by trying to use “artsy” words to describe food that I’ve seen in other food reviews, which was a fun new experience.
Even though it may not have been a new genre to me, another piece I really enjoyed working on was my creative piece In Days Past. It was perhaps one of the pieces this year that I devoted the most time personally to, and I feel the results really paid off. In this piece I took the same attention to detail from my news piece but instead put it into creating a strong plot driven story, while maintaining solid character development. The reason I did this was because just as there are many genres to write in, there is a wide variety of readers to appeal to. So, by writing in these multiple genres, and especially by focusing on two aspects readers look at, I can hopefully appeal to a wide audience.
A third, but very distinct, genre that is required of all students everywhere is academic writing. Even though it might not be the flashiest of genres, it takes every bit as much focus and attention to detail. But perhaps more than other genres, writing academically asks one to look at things with a critical eye. And I would say that my best example of that comes from America 451. The America created by Ray Bradbury was for him an abysmal future that America could end up heading towards. But, when I looked deeper at what he was saying, I saw that some of his fears had already been realized, we really are starting to fear offense, and are beginning to only seek false happiness. But, this is all a rant for another day (or it’s all in that hyperlink up there).
And as always, there’s room for to grow; and from America 451 to my Social Action Project Research Paper, that is exactly what happened. It’s always nice to have a well-written piece like Fahrenheit 451 handed to you to critically analyze, but it’s even more difficult to go out on your own and have to find pieces of writing to use as quality research. And with research, the critical analysis shifts from, “what is the author saying here” to, “how does this relate to what I’m trying to say and persuade?”
Earlier, I made a passing reference to putting in more time on In Days Past than a standard piece. For some reason, the characters and the story in that piece of writing, so I resolved to spend more time on it than others. It’s not to say that it’s a good habit to only work so hard on the pieces you like, it’s just how it went this time. But while working on it, I really wanted to commit to the drafting process in an attempt to better my writing. As I said, I wanted to create a story that would appeal to readers who enjoy plot-driven novels and to those who like character development. I was quick to find out that creating a piece with that balance doesn’t just appear; it takes a lot of work and effort to create.
Now normally, I would dread this long, drawn out drafting process, but for In Days Past, I really didn’t. And I think that’s because it’s a genre I really connected with and I was able to express my strong points as a writer. I know I’ve talked about this piece a lot, but truly this piece is probably my most exemplary to date, as in all of my life. I may not have read a lot of fantasy, but I love the Lord of the Rings movies and anything of the sort. So I set out to create a piece that paid homage to it, but was still original. And as I’ve said (it feels like the millionth time) that I was able to create a piece with the balance that Tolkien achieves between plot and characters. The story feels epic and grand, and I feel that it shows how engaging of a plot I can create. I might not be the best artist, or even the best storyteller on the spot, but if you give me a blank page I can grab your attention.
It should go without saying that part of any English class is reading books. The majority of books that I read this senior year in English were assigned to me and not books read of my own volition. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy them, merely it is the circumstances of English. However, twice this year Mrs. Jank (our teacher) gave us a challenge- to read at least 800 pages in four weeks. 200 pages per week might not seem like a lot, but it really does take some pushing yourself. One thing, though, that helps with pacing is finding a book that you really enjoy. I should have known based on my movie and writing tastes, but I found this year that I really enjoy the fantasy genre. The book I had the most success pacing myself by far was The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It’s the Arthurian Legend, told from the female perspective, and it really did just capture my attention and I found myself breezing through this behemoth of a book.
While the Reading Challenge is happening, we had to write reading reviews/responses to the book we were on. The Mists of Avalon is an 876 page book, so it’s the only one I had a chance to read this time around, but other books that I’ve reviewed this year have been Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists by Gideon Defoe. Part of these responses has been analyzing literary devices, or writing tricks that the author uses to great effect. In one of my responses to Dostoyevsky’s novel, I note how well he uses foils, which are characters that contrast the protagonist to highlight certain qualities, to develop Raskolnikov (the main character). And it truly was the foils that made the novel so wonderful to read.
Another thing that we often were asked to look at was the author’s craft. Craft isn’t so technical a term as a literary device, but it’s still a very important thing to be able to look at and pick out. In my response to The Pirates!, I note how much I like how well Defoe uses sarcasm. Throughout the whole book, Defoe used his sharp wit and sarcasm to drive home veiled critiques.
It is plain to see looking back that those book reviews were practice for the academic writing on literature that we had to do in the class. Earlier I mentioned my America 451 essay and said how I showed my critical thinking skills. Well, part of that is being able to analyze the text itself. To be able to think critically about the text, I had to look closely at what Bradburry was saying about society as a whole. Then I was able to take that and make connections to the American society I saw around me.
An aspect of English that I didn’t expect this year was the whole Community nature of well, life. Mrs. Jank pushed my class and I to go and experience and be involved in our community which was an invaluable lesson. She had us write about our various community experiences, and in my first review I feel that my naïevity was exposed and in that piece I learned what a community had to offer. It’s the News Article of Ajora Falls that I referenced earlier in this paper. Over that dinner, I had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Ajora Falls, Tesfaye Alibe, and that was an experience I’ll never forget. He was the nicest, most hospitable man I’ve ever met. He was all too eager to share his life story, and something tells me he doesn’t get to do that on an average day. It was a beautiful experience, and one I wouldn’t have had if it weren’t for this class.
Another thing that Mrs. Jank had us do was a Social Action Project. In short, we as individuals in the class had to identify an issue that we saw in the community around us and then go and do something about it. In my Research Paper and through doing the project, I came to understand that my time here at Lincoln Lutheran has been one that means so much to me and has helped me to be the person that I am. But also, it taught me that solutions, not band-aids help to fix things. Because through my research, I learned that tutoring three weekends in April wouldn’t help to fix anything, but instead by implementing new classroom techniques could.
Being that it’s the end of the year, it’s a good time to look back at my goals and see how I did. My first goal was to read a variety of books this year, which I would say is fair to say that I did. I branched out and read Voltaire, Mary Shelley, Dostoyevsky, and even some Tolkien in my free time. But more than that I read some satire, some poetry, and a few journal publications. So it’s fair to say I did read a wide variety of genres.
My next goal was to write a 20-30 page story. Unfortunately I didn’t fully accomplish that, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In Days Past ended up being a 13 page story in a Word document, so I really think it’s a step in the right direction (being it’s the longest story I’ve ever written). This piece, combined with all the ones I have listed above show that I am truly capable of producing quality writing, in a variety of genres.
One goal that didn’t necessarily pertain to English but more to life was to write good college application essays. Fortunately for me, it only took one to get into the college of my dreams, but it still did take some work. My personal essay Did it Rain That Day is what I submitted to Truman State University, and with some gracious editing by Mrs. Jank, I do think it was a strong piece of writing.
My fifth and final goal was to advance my poetry skills. I didn’t realize it until now looking back at the year, but I hardly wrote any poetry for class. I think the reason for this is because I already feel comfortable with the genre and really wanted to explore. I’ve done some personal drafting just to practice my craft, but it is a little bit of a shame I didn’t get to fully develop it more in class.
In our notebooks, we have a special section at the end called “Tips to Take with Me” that have various tips to remember next time we approach a piece of writing or reading. This section might reveal more about me than anything else, because every single time, my tip has been something along the lines of “draft more” or “give yourself more time”. Being frank, I simply have a good grasp of conventions and grammar, I’m a grammar nazi, so I’ve never had to remind myself to be good at those. But, I am a procrastinator who hates drafting, so I always had to remind myself to do more, which I gradually did. Then the same applies to books, I love to read and am a reasonably fast reader, I just never devote enough time. But again, as the year progressed I found a reading rhythm which helped me read more. So if anything, this year taught me not to procrastinate.
It’s been a long seven years here at Lincoln Lutheran, and I hope they are seven years that I don’t forget. Especially in terms of English 4 there have been many long nights, a lot of coffee, a lot of stress, but most importantly a lot of growth and hard work. It’s been a grand experience and one I will cherish.
Nolan Schad 