30 May 2016

Dear Mrs. Sanchez,

For my reflection letter the essays I have chosen to reflect on are: Two Worlds as One, Revolutionary
Planet, and Verbal Tornado. I also want to reflect on my process work such as, the claim for racial profiling,
evidence charts for Into the Wild, and an outline for the food proposal. From these essays and processed work I
have learned about annotating the text, creating a thesis, finding evidence that supports my claim, relevant
commentary, and reading the text. This year I have identified my strength while writing essays is my
commentary. However, my biggest weakness when I wrote was properly integrating my quotes. A new skilled I
learned in ERWC was how to correctly format my work cited pages. An area in my writing that still needs
improvement is my comprehensive reading abilities. The goals I have for my writing skills is to have stronger
conclusions and use stronger evidence to support my thesis.
The three essays I chose to reflect on in ERWC are, Two Worlds as One, Revolutionary Planet, and
Verbal Tornado. Two Worlds as One is the title for my Brave New World essay that I wrote second semester in
April. The essay is comparing the world state and the society we live in today. The purpose of this essay was to
prove that our worlds were more similar than different. The evidence that best supported the similarities was,
In the world state drugs are used to change their thinking, You look glum! What you need is a gramme of
soma (Huxley 60). In both worlds our society uses drugs to change our moods. The second essay I chose was
Revolutionary Planet; this essay was written first semester in September. The main purpose of this essay was to
reflect on a certain aspect of your life. The aspect I focused on was my experience in Rwanda. My life was
changed, The emptiness and brokenness within me reflected the existence I falsely portrayed. My life will
forever and always be altered because of a miniature country in Africa. The last essay that I want to focus on
is, Verbal Tornado. This essay was a research paper I wrote second semester in February. The essays thesis was
about bullying occurring within schools between students, teachers, and faculty members. Evidence that
supports the thesis is, young boys story about bullying, I was cornered and attacked. I was pushed to the
ground repeatedly. I tried to get away, but I could not...I was scared for many more days following this attack,

and I was scared about what was going to happen to me next at school (Walker). The three essays chosen have
all been different types of essays and for different audiences.
Prep work is the beginning steps in creating papers. The prep work that I want to focus on consist of
evidence charts for the novel Into the Wild, racial profiling claim, and the outline for food proposal. The Into
the Wild evidence charts impacted my writing through analyzing the quotes when reading the novel. I quotes I
wrote down throughout the 18 chapters were used in my writing. The quotes proved my thesis that I believed
Chris McCandless was a lone wolf. McCandless was alone in nation, He wanted to prove himself that he could
make it own his own, without anybody elses help (Krakauer 159). This activity improved my writing skills
because it allowed me to have structure and focus on one thesis while choosing the quotes. The second piece of
prep work that impacted my writing abilities was the racial profiling claim. The racial profiling paper was an
argumentative paper; I argued the believe that racial profiling is unconstitutional. The paper was proved by the
4th Amendment, The 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution ensures the rights of all citizens securing
themselves, house, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Racial profiling is a clear
violation of a citizens privacy without probable cause or a warrant. When I wrote this claim it allowed my
paper to be clear and direct of what side I was arguing. The last prep work I want to emphasize on was the Food
Proposal outline my partner and I worked on first semester. The paper we prepped for with this outline was for
the angle and the direction for school lunches. The outline consisted of our thesis and evidence to support the
angle we proposed. We proposed, To improve the school lunch program at Tesoro high school, there has to
regulations: on calorie count, allergy sensitive food, price, and most importantly the quality of the food. Our
school lunch system should be provided by private donors and interest groups not the federal government. The
thesis was easily proved with the help of this outline because of the organization of the quotes and evidence
used. The outline helped me immensely because it had a structure with the evidence below of the thesis making
it clear. The prep work I have wrote this year has made writing more simple. Prep work is different from one
another but helps write all different kinds of papers.
My writing this year has improved immensely because of these five skills: annotating the text, creating a
thesis, finding evidence that supports my claim, relevant commentary, and reading the text. Before I took

ERWC my thesis would be open ended and I would hardly be able to prove it in my essay. But this year I
improved on finding evidence that would support my thesis or claim. My thesis for the Into the Wild essay was
that Chris McCandless was a lone wolf. Chris McCandless was nothing more than a lone wolf; he was a
transcendentalist who sought out a life for himself. That was my thesis for my Into the Wild essay; this skill
was helped by also finding good quotes within the book. The skill of finding evidence that supports your claim
has improved my writing. This quote support my thesis, He wanted to prove himself that he could make it own
his own, without anybody elses help (Krakauer 159). Having evidence that is relevant to the thesis in a paper
is necessary for all paper. I learned it was better to research my evidence before I wrote my thesis. Another skill
that impacted my writing throughout this year was reading the text. In the beginning of this year I would skim
through the text and not read the text thoroughly. This school year I became a professional for reading the text
and finding themes and important quotes to use in my paper. When I read Brave New World it became easier to
understand the novel when I analyzed the text. The compare and contrast chart helped me read the text. Im so
glad Im a Beta (Huxley 27). This quote has a deeper meaning than just Im a beta. That quote represents
pride and a sense of purpose for the Betas in the novel. Reading the text is more than just staring at the words on
a page; reading the text is reading and understanding the meaning. Another reading skill I improved on in this
class was annotating text. First semester I would annotate articles and papers just for the points. But when I
began to draw my own conclusions and write down questions I had that was when annotating impacted my
writing. Annotating text helped me because it would allow me to think about the information and make my own
opinion. An article I annotated this year was, Abuse of Power written by Alan Mcevoy. This article was a
source in my research paper, I define teacher bullying as a pattern of conduct, rooted in a power differential,
that threatens, harms, humiliates, induces fear in or causes students substantial emotional stress (Mcevoy). I
annotated this article which helped me choose my topic for the bullying essay. The last skill that I improved on
the most would be relevant and strong commentary after the evidence proving my claim. This school year my
commentary would be whatever was on my mind it would hardly support the evidence. But I realized the
commentary would only help the paper with my creative opinions and analysis. An example of my commentary
is, Racial profiling puts a halt in the progression our country has made from our history of profiling. The

unconstitutionally wrapped within racial profiling is degrading to where America grounded our roots into liberty
and the land of the free.This piece of commentary supported my racial profiling essay I wrote. This
commentary was creative and supported my thesis of racial profiling as being unconstitutional and not
necessary. I strengthened my commentary throughout every paper by re-reading the sentence then reading my
thesis to make sure it made sense. All of these skills have impacted my academic abilities because of this class.
These five skills were what I focused on the most this year and will help me be a better writer when I go off to
college and the real world.
This year I have developed many skills for writing. However, I have excelled in two skilled, writing
commentary and my MLA format. Two skills that I have struggled with and still need improvement would be
properly integrating quotes and writing relevant topic sentences. MLA Formation is an extremely impeccable
skill it is used in most every paper for college and later on in life. MLA format is the usage of: 12 print font,
Times New Roman, double spaced, certain header, page numbers, and 1 inch border around the paper. Every
paper I have written in ERWC has used MLA Format and I have always received a perfect score on the rubric
for MLA. The heading consist of my name, teacher name, class name and period, and the date 1 June 2016. The
second skill I have excelled in this year was commentary. Commentary is my own opinion after the evidence
that supports the thesis. My commentary has improved on every paper; all my commentary is unique to the
evidence and helps explain the thesis. Throughout the school year I have continuously struggled on integrating
quotes into my papers. I never knew when or how much to write before I entered the evidence quotes. The
introduction to the quotes is usually where I messed up. The next skill I did poorly on was writing relevant topic
sentences for my body paragraphs. Relevant topic sentences is the first sentence of a paragraph that is a brief
explanation of the paragraph. My relevant topic sentences would usually be irrelevant to the rest of my
paragraph but would be a hook. These two skills that I did not do super well on are still needing improvement
for my future papers in college. My strengths of writing commentary and properly doing MLA format have
helped my papers immensely. I will continue to polish and refurbish my writing skills in all aspects so every
paper I write will be fabulous.

Before I took ERWC I did not know how to write and format a Works Cited Page. Second semester I
wrote a research paper on bullying in schools. Research papers require tons of evidence from online sources and
books. The evidence I used had to be valid and from a reliable source. Before this school year I was unaware of
difference between a reliable and unreliable source was. I had done work cited pages before and I would never
ident the beginning of the sentence nor would I ever look who published it. This year I also learned when using
an internet source I had to choose a website that was reliable such as a .web, .org, .gov, or .edu. This is the
correct format:
Johnson, Melinda. Empty Plates: Kids Are Being Bullied to Skip Lunch at School. US News,
US News. 24 August 2015. Web. 21 February 2016.
I used to only copy and paste the URL for my work cited. I use to know very little about work cited pages but
now I know every detail of how to properly do a work cited page.
Critical reading is much more than just reading the text; it is understanding the authors message and
drawing a conclusion about the text. I have improved a lot this year on my critical reading. I have been able to
see the theme in the books we have read. The novel Into the Wild is a wonderful example of my critical reading
skills. This novel focuses on Chris McCandless story about traveling into the unknow. The novel also focuses
on his emotional experience. While reading the book I began drawing conclusions and creating my opinion of
the main character and why he traveled into the wild. The quote chart is an example of my critical reading
skills. He wanted to prove himself that he could make it own his own, without anybody elses help (Krakauer
159). I choose this quote because it supported my thesis that I believed Chris McCandless wanted to be alone
and isolated from society. Chris McCandless set out on a journey with a purpose to full fulfilled and when he
finally left everyone behind he felt complete. Critical reading is a skill I have improved on because of
annotating articles and using quotes as evidence in my papers. There is still room for improvement for my
critical reading skills.
This year in ERWC I learned a lot about writing and reading and analyzing all kinds of text. I have
learned a lot of skills that will be applicable in college. In this course I have wrote all different types of papers.
These different kinds of papers have prepped me a lot for my college english classes. The amount of annotating

and the depth of commentary I have written in this class has also helped my writing abilities. There are high
expectations for students in college to write wonderfully and this class has definitely prepared me. The skills I
have been taught this year will further be used in all of my classes. Analyzing and annotating text are the main
skills that will be applicable to my major. Understanding the text and having my own opinion on evidence is
essential to writing. I believe I am 100% ready for academic reading in college. The writing in college I believe
I am prepared to my fullest but still need improvement. I love reading, I always have loved reading ever since I
was a little girl. I have read all different kinds of novels and scholarly articles. I enjoy reading that is why I
believe I will be prepared for academic reading in college. My writing is at college level now but of course
there is always room for improvement. My college professors will teach me a lot about writing too. The only
reason I am not fully confident in my writing abilities is because of the struggle I have with integrating quotes.
This class has taught me a lot more than I expected. All of the busy work and different kinds of essays have
helped prepare me for my college classes. ERWC is a unique class; I am happy I switched into this class.
Sincerely,
Sarah LaBonty