Literary Analysis Skills In To Kill A Mockingbird

Some of the skills used throughout the year in English, included literary analysis skills and general writing skills. I feel like when comparing literary analysis and general writing skills, I’m my literary analysis skills are more superior. When we first started talking about analysis at the beginning of the school year, I struggled a little, but then I started to really pay attention to anything that seemed to stand out in the books and short stories we read. As the year went on, it was easier for more to notice and pay attention to the analysis of key sections of books when I read them on my own and definitely feel confident in the area. For example, when we read To Kill a Mockingbird, I felt that I didn’t really understand everything
and how it worked to be symbolism, but by the time we got to the essay we had to write based on literary devices, I seemed to finally grasp onto the subject to earn a fantastic grade on it.
However, when it comes to general writing skills, I seem to fall behind and not do as great, especially in informal writings. Because we are given more time to write former essays, I am able to take my time when writing each paragraph, allowing this to be more successful than my informal writings, such as timed writings. With timed writings, I always feel rushed and stressed, causing every writing technique to completely leave my brain. When we did our first timed writing about the passage named Toaster, the overall message just wouldn’t get to me and I struggled with writing an essay about it and ended up not doing well when it was graded. Therefore, my timed writings are not very superior compared to my other writings. Blog posts, which also count as an informal writing, are easy for me to write, but that’s mainly because I’m able to write about a subject I’m really interested in and because there isn’t an essay format that needs to be considered when writing it. Overall, there my formal writings are okay in general, but when looking closely at them, there are many small mistakes that I need to fix. My informal writings can vary from each specified writing, so my timed writings seem to fall behind, but my blog posts, for example, are
successful.
My general ability to understand texts that I’ve read and my skills in front of a group have multiple strengths and weaknesses.
Although I am mainly sufficient when it comes to being able to understand the text I’ve read in a book in both literary and informational topics, the discussion that we always have as a class definitely helps clear up the chapter or paragraph I’ve read. However, there are other times where understand what I’m reading and the group discussion just refreshes my thoughts. I feel like as a class I’m able to talk with others and we have the ability to discuss the topic, allowing me to understand more. When in front of a group, I definitely feel that I can get my points across to the class , but I sometimes stutter with my wording because of nervousness. For example, when we did the Lord of the Flies student-led discussion, I was able to present my thoughts to the class with a loud voice, but I sometimes stuttered on my wording because of how nervous I felt. Altogether, I had positives and negatives in each section, but I feel that my ability to understand texts on my own is superior to talking in front of a
group.
Based on my previous experiences, there are many goals that I plan to set forward as I move into higher English classes. When writing with analysis, I seem to miss some key points of the story or topic. Therefore, I want to pay more attention to specific texts that we talk about in class and some I find on my own. With that information, I can be able to successfully write a paper or add on to a discussion board without any difficulty. I also need to make sure that I’m always ahead and ready to talk about any subject that we needed to read about because that will be the being of my success. Also, it would be important to always know the basic structure of an essay for next year. If I know this very well, then I can be able to write timed writings and other informal writings successfully in a short period of time and in other situations. When presenting in front of a class, I plan to keep myself from stuttering and getting nervous. If I give myself a pep talk before and practice presenting in front of a group, I can be able to strongly present my findings without any nervousness in my voice. With all these goals in mind for next year, I can hopefully be able to succeed and continue to flourish in my English classes.