Marissa Crespo

Mrs. Anderson
AP Literature Writing Portfolio Reflection
November 18, 2016
In this AP English Literature class, I have adopted a new way of brainstorming which has
helped me generate ideas/arguments for homework responses and essays. During the
10-minute-free write-without-lifting-your-hand-from-the-keyboard activity in September, I
learned that

always typing forces me to think, draw conclusions, and make connections. My

stance on my 10 minute free write topic in the beginning was entirely different from my stance
at the end of the ten minutes because writing without taking a break was as if I was
debating/having a conversation with myself; my opinion was changing because I was forced to
think of the subject at different angles to continue to have material to write about. When I am
not sure of how to attack a prompt, I just begin to write. Through that writing, I develop my
ideas and create a thorough argument for my claims. For instance, in the L
ord of the Flies
commentary notebook entry in this portfolio, I approached the prompt as a free write. I began
the prompt thinking
that Holden should read Lord of the Flies; however, as I continued to write
trying to argue that point, I realized my arguments were weak and that Holden should actually

avoid Lord of the Flies, so, mid-response, I changed my argument. Having this free write
technique as a backup plan when I cannot think of how to respond to a prompt has actually been
really useful and productive for me.
In addition this, I have learned how to analyze the most difficult poetry. As a notorious
poetry hater, having to read and understand even the most simple poetry is very challenging for
me. In this class, I have learned to not focus too much on understanding the big idea of a poem
first; if a poem is complex, I discovered that analyzing specific parts/stanzas of a poem and
piecing together those analyzations could actually lead to understanding the purpose of a poem.

Analyzing typically overlooked aspects of a poem such as point of view, linearity, atmosphere,
and finding the turning point and the speaker are new and constructive ways to approach a
poem (especially when

they are as ambiguous as Ghost in Heaven) which have made poetry less
daunting for me.
Furthermore, reading commentary/essays written by professionals on a particular book
to better understand the purpose/plot/characters is a tool from this class I definitely plan to use
in college. The commentary can serve as reliable reasoning and evidence for claims I make in
class discussions, short responses, and essays thus allowing me to find evidence from sources
other than the book I am analyzing. In addition to this, reading commentary introduces different
ways to analyze a text, its characters, and purpose which enhance my comprehension thus
helping me draw new conclusions and form fresh arguments.