Throughout this course, I have acquired and improved a variety of abilities this course through reading, discussing, writing, and critically thinking about class material. After a few years of attending Blyth, particularly Mr. Cohens English class, I no longer have to worry about writing a piece due to the consistent help of practice assignments and feedback given on work submitted, as well as setting targets and goals for upcoming assignments. This is due to the fact that I never really knew how to construct a piece of writing before undergoing Mr. Cohen's English class, however, by learning about structural methods, language techniques, and sentence structures that writers utilize embedded within their work, I now have the confident ability to produce a piece of writing that I want to submit.
For example, looking back on my first creative writing piece from ENG4U to my creative writing pieces afterwards, the change is drastic. I have learned so much about how to structure my pieces which allows me to ensnare readers in a deep story by utilizing a variety of punctuation, language and structural techniques, and sophisticated words.
Additionally, looking back on my ability to produce analytical writing efficiently with quality from the beginning of ENG4U is nowhere near my ability today. Learning how to analyze extracts from a variety of authors and journalists and identifying the techniques they embed in their writing, and the reason for it, it allowed me to vastly improve the quality of my writing.
Overall, ENG4U transformed my ability to construct a polished piece of literature. This is due to a variety of factors, such as the drastic growth of my ability to identify techniques embedded in others' writing, thinking critically, and constructing literature so it flows. This will allow me to succeed throughout life, particularly in business as it is built upon relationships and critical thinking.
1. The Muddy Trenches of WW1
This is my favourite writing piece that I wrote in ENG4U as it paints a vivid picture that plays like a movie in the readers' minds. My Inspiration for writing this piece came from the book and movie All Quiet on the Western Front as it captivates the viewer's/reader's mind in shock as the conditions are at their utter worst. By captivating on the variety of sentence types, language features, and sophisticated language that Tolkien utilized, I managed to produce an identical piece of writing. The main structural features that Tolkien embedded within his literature were third-person omniscient narration and unreliable narration in order to induce suspense in particular moments but by also utilizing personification, symbolism, similes and metaphors, foreshadowing, and more Tolkien built upon and succeeded in his intention to establish suspenseful imagery in the readers' mind.
2. Annotated Bibliography of King Lear
Before attending ENG4U, I never heard of an annotated bibliography nor wrote one. Throughout the course, I learned how to efficiently allocate second interpretations to find supporting evidence for my thesis to embed within my writing and the cruciality of ensuring the source's reliability. When locating specific quotations and articles, I found it fascinating how I was not the only person who interpreted and shared the same theories as me about King Lear. By utilizing and analyzing these interpretations and quotes about King Lear as secondary evidence to support my thesis, I was able to establish my depth of knowledge of the story. It was straightforward to allocate specific quotes and theories when Mr. Cohen enlightened the class about summarizing and reflecting on the source as a whole.
3. Anecdotal Writing on Shakespeare's time
I was also very proud of the work I produced when writing an anecdotal piece on Shakespeare's time. It allowed me to paint a picture in the readers' minds of what London looked like in Williams' era through the use of a variety of structural and language methods. As the writer, I too find this writing piece fascinating to read as it embeds the reader in their own flow of imagery - similar to a movie. By grasping a variety of descriptive methods such as similes, adjectives, gender and era norms, through the use of a first-person narration style, it allowed for me to succeed when describing Shakespeare's era.
4. Adapting Famous Writers
This assignment required me to rewrite a section of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring using the same structure methods and sophisticated words as the author, J.R.R. Tolkien. This is an assignment that I am proud of as I felt as though I was replicating an idea that Tolkien took into consideration, it made me feel like a true writer. Determining the sentence types and structure that Tolkien used was exceptionally important to match his writing style. As I adapted Tolkien's style, it allowed me to paint a suspenseful picture for the reader as I used the same techniques that Tolkien embedded in his literature.
5. Uruguay: The Rolling Tall Grass Prairies
This assignment was one of the first marked assignments of the course and was certainly one of, if not, my favourite piece that I wrote in ENG4U as it represents a deep meaning to me. My family and I when I was younger would go to Uruguay every year for a family vacation where we would surf, play tennis, football, and American handball on the beach, have asados (Argentine BBQ), watch movies, zipline, horse-back-ride on the beach through the salty sea, and travel to various locations. Going to Uruguay had deep importance to me as it was the last trip we had as a family, as my parents got divorced. When writing this piece it allowed me to remember all the fun times we had as a family and the spectacular landscape surrounding us.
My website has been ongoing since 2019, when my first post was on November 18, and it described my day at Blyth but reversed. I find it satisfying to post my own works on something that I created. I designed the website to be simplistic, sleek and calming with the choice of neutral colours. It also represents my interests as the main page consists of my interests, snowboarding and being outdoors, video games, and hockey. The images I selected were chosen for specific reasons other than my interests as Mark Mcmorris is my favourite snowboarder, Mitch Marner being my favourite hockey player, and Rainbow Six Siege, my favourite video game. My favourite aspect of my website is that it's basic and easy to navigate which allows the viewer to browse effortlessly.
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