Alchemist and Julius Caesar Essay Reflection
Ideas and Content
My ideas and content for both the Alchemist essay and the Julius Caesar essay were appropriate because I knew the topic well. ‘I shall remember: When Caesar says, ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.’ This was said by Antony in the very beginning of the Julius Caesar play. You can see that my idea on what to write about was very clear because this quote of Antony’s showed how much he loved Caesar and it foreshadows how he will react when Caesar was killed, which is a good quote because this was my main idea to write about. “If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” I chose this quotation to start my Alchemist essay because I thought this sentence that summarized the whole story, especially what the boy was going to go through to achieve his goal. My writing could have been better if it was more interesting and detailed. Also, I think I should have reasoned more critically on why I chose the quotations to relate to the main idea of the essay.
Organization
I started both essays with a quote from the book. ‘Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar!’ I chose this to start my Julius Caesar essay because these were the last words that Caesar said while falling down to the ground in front of many Romans, and because this was a great hook to start the essay. In my Julius Caesar essay I did not have a very strong/clear topic sentence to tell the reader what he or she is going to read through out the paragraph. But I did have a very strong conclusion. I brought back the two driving factors in my conclusion, which were ‘love,’ and ‘revenge.’ This was a good way to remind my readers and end my essay because it summarized my ideas. “If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” This was my hook sentence for my Alchemist essay, I chose this because it summarized the whole story in just one sentence and because I thought it would hook the reader’s attention at once. My Alchemist essay was the total opposite of my Julius Caesar essay. I had good topic sentences but I did not have a strong conclusion that summarized my ideas. I think I should always read my essay over and over again before handing my essay in. This would make me look for errors that I have made.
Personal Growth
My grade did not grow but my understanding of my writing grew. Although my grade got lower I had the chance to really know my weakness and noticed some improvements that I have accomplished from the first essay. I had improved a lot on knowing my topic well and writing a strong conclusion that summarizes my ideas. But I think my grade went down because I had a limited amount of time to finish my essay. However, I have realized that I do make a lot of repetitions, and my writing is not clear/all over the place.
SLR
When you craft an essay I think the SLR ‘Communicate effectively,’ helps you the most. ‘Communicate effectively,’ is what helps me as a writer and what I need most improvement on. When you write an essay the main thing you need to focus on is if your essay will send a clear message to your reader that you are trying to send and if it did send the message/clear message that you were trying to send it is a well written essay. If your essay did not send a clear message, it means that you did not have a good essay. Since, ‘communicate effectively,’ is what I need most improvement on; I always use that SLR when I craft an essay, so that my writing meets the standard where a reader gets my message easily.
My ideas and content for both the Alchemist essay and the Julius Caesar essay were appropriate because I knew the topic well. ‘I shall remember: When Caesar says, ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.’ This was said by Antony in the very beginning of the Julius Caesar play. You can see that my idea on what to write about was very clear because this quote of Antony’s showed how much he loved Caesar and it foreshadows how he will react when Caesar was killed, which is a good quote because this was my main idea to write about. “If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” I chose this quotation to start my Alchemist essay because I thought this sentence that summarized the whole story, especially what the boy was going to go through to achieve his goal. My writing could have been better if it was more interesting and detailed. Also, I think I should have reasoned more critically on why I chose the quotations to relate to the main idea of the essay.
Organization
I started both essays with a quote from the book. ‘Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar!’ I chose this to start my Julius Caesar essay because these were the last words that Caesar said while falling down to the ground in front of many Romans, and because this was a great hook to start the essay. In my Julius Caesar essay I did not have a very strong/clear topic sentence to tell the reader what he or she is going to read through out the paragraph. But I did have a very strong conclusion. I brought back the two driving factors in my conclusion, which were ‘love,’ and ‘revenge.’ This was a good way to remind my readers and end my essay because it summarized my ideas. “If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” This was my hook sentence for my Alchemist essay, I chose this because it summarized the whole story in just one sentence and because I thought it would hook the reader’s attention at once. My Alchemist essay was the total opposite of my Julius Caesar essay. I had good topic sentences but I did not have a strong conclusion that summarized my ideas. I think I should always read my essay over and over again before handing my essay in. This would make me look for errors that I have made.
Personal Growth
My grade did not grow but my understanding of my writing grew. Although my grade got lower I had the chance to really know my weakness and noticed some improvements that I have accomplished from the first essay. I had improved a lot on knowing my topic well and writing a strong conclusion that summarizes my ideas. But I think my grade went down because I had a limited amount of time to finish my essay. However, I have realized that I do make a lot of repetitions, and my writing is not clear/all over the place.
SLR
When you craft an essay I think the SLR ‘Communicate effectively,’ helps you the most. ‘Communicate effectively,’ is what helps me as a writer and what I need most improvement on. When you write an essay the main thing you need to focus on is if your essay will send a clear message to your reader that you are trying to send and if it did send the message/clear message that you were trying to send it is a well written essay. If your essay did not send a clear message, it means that you did not have a good essay. Since, ‘communicate effectively,’ is what I need most improvement on; I always use that SLR when I craft an essay, so that my writing meets the standard where a reader gets my message easily.
