1. My effective use of pacing and dialogue to create a strong story that keeps the reader interested. By using dialogue I was able to show the reader what people in my story were like without actually having to stop and explain their personalities. (TSW 6) 2. I was able to create a strong conclusion, even though it was only a few lines. I felt like the way I ended the story summarized my learning and why the experience was significant, even though it was short. (TSW 7) 3. I showed I could clearly develop the narrative. The story doesn't slow down and get boring in the middle but keeps going. I removed the excess and unnecessary information I had in the first few drafts until I finally had a stronger essay. (TSW 5)
Compared to the beginning of the year, this essay shows:
1) I've improved in my ability to write a strong and interesting story. My first few tries were kind of boring and my teacher kept sending them back to me. Eventually he helped me to see what I could take out without hurting the story. Taking the extra, unrelated details out actually made the story stronger in the end. 2) I can use dialogue well to show the personalities of characters. I used to think that dialogue was only included to tell the reader what people said. I now see that it can be used to actually tell us about who the characters are, just by the way they speak. 3) I can use descriptive language better than I used to. During the course of this class I've become better at using specific words to create more realistic pictures or imagery in the minds of my readers.