Self reflection: 

I think that my writing has improved a great deal since the very beginning of the course in September.  I think I started quite strong with my analysis of the two basketball poems, where I think I had solid quotational analysis backed up by substantial claims.  In the Hamlet speech essay, I wrote an essay on the speech patterns of both Claudius and Gertrude.  However, as the essay progressed I started to veer a bit off topic.  Instead of solely focusing on the speech patterns, I started to dabble a bit into the psychology of the "royal couple."  While I do thinkl that this was a good essay, it was slightly off topic.  I have to learn, especially in college, to stay completely on topic, no matter how tempting it might or might not be to explore othera areas of a specific text.  Finally, in the final essay, the Hamlet film essay, I was quite challenged at first but eventually ended up enjoying the assignment.  I chiose the Branagh and Jacobi version to compare/contrast.  This was not like any other essay I have ever written, as I only made minimal use of quotation analysis and instead focused more on the different aspects of the films: their lighting, settings, and character dispositions.  I look forward to seeing the coments on it.

As I go off to cellege next year, I realize that I need to eliminate the wordiness of my essays, while still maintaing a complex sentence structure.  Sometimes, I use flowery language, instead of getting straight to the point, which can sometimes take away from the essay.  In order for my writing to evolve, I need to eliminate these things that sometimes do not let the essay reach its full potential.

I loook forward to a great second semester!