Miranda's English Blog

  Prompt Response: I have always worried and thought about other people’s opinions of me. In general, I feel as though society places pressure on people to act a certain way and share the same beliefs and opinions on certain subjects, even if they are very minuscule, unimportant topics. Because of this, I feel like I often change the way I behave around certain people. For example, whenever I spend time with my friends who I have known for many years, I often make more jokes around them and express a lot of my personality, however when I spend time with people that I have only recently met I tend to be slightly more quiet and reserved, as I fear that they will judge me if I act a certain way. In other words, why do I speak less when I am around people whom I don’t know very well? It is to save myself from creating a bad impression of who I am. Summary and Reflection: In class on October 14th, we continued to learn about rhetorical devices. One of the devices that we learned about w...

  Prompt Response: I agree with the antithesis that we spend more time connecting online rather than in person. I often find that I generally have more time to text and call my friends compared to hanging out with them in person, therefore I am usually able to keep in touch with them mainly through technology and social media. I think that technology has greatly influenced the way people communicate and build relationships because it has made it much easier to meet new people and make connections with them. I have personally found that I’ve been able to build relationships with people and learn more about others simply by accessing various social media platforms. Overall it seems as though we are constantly linked together, yet chronically lonely.  Summary and Reflection: In class on October 13th, we continued to learn about several different rhetorical devices. While our teacher read out loud in front of the class, we followed along in the books that we were given to us. I fo...

  Prompt Response: A time when I exaggerated a statement to make my point stronger was when I was lecturing my dad on driving. My dad has a bad habit of riding to close to other cars, even at high speeds on the highway. To express my concern to him, I told him that if he wasn’t more careful then he would get me and my brother killed while he was driving. Although I didn’t actually believe that he would kill me and my brother with his driving, I told him that he would to really get my point across that he needed to be more careful when driving. I do think my exaggeration made the overall message more effective, as I noticed that my dad became a much more cautious driver after I expressed my worries to him. Summary and Reflection: In class on October 12th, we began to learn about rhetorical devices. Our teacher went through a slideshow that discussed the different types of rhetorical devices, and we followed along in a book that he provided to us. We also completed some activities th...

  Prompt Response: One thing that I did well on my essay was constructing a thesis in which I could argue for and support. I also think that I successfully was able to use commentary to connect my evidence back to my overarching thesis in the argument. While I do think I found it generally easy to write the essay, I do think that I could have written less in some areas. I feel as though I wrote too much in some areas, which took away some of the time I could have spent revising and editing my essay. To ensure that I score 6/6 points on the next essay, I will use my time wisely by ensuring that I only write the necessary amount that I need to and use the rest of my time to my benefit by editing my essay and trying to score the sophistication point. Summary and Reflection: In  class we started an assignment that involved creating poem. We were instructed to create a digital poster that included elements such as images, along with a poem that was displayed in the poster. I found ...

  Prompt Response: A conversation that changed me was a debate that I had with my APUSH class. In class that day, we were debating about the categories in which different foods would fall into. During the debate, I found that me and my classmates had very different opinions and we viewed things from very different perspectives. Although the topic of the debate was not a very deep or seriously meaningful topic, it still opened my eyes to how differently people can view things, and how each person has their own unique perspective. Because of that, I would say that this conversation changed me in the way that I was able to learn more about my peers’ perspectives and the way we all think. Summary and Reflection: In class we continued to analyze the poem. As we did so, we noted the figurative language that was used in the poem and how it contributed toward the author’s intended purpose of comparing the poet to an acrobat. We did this activity by filling out a worksheet that contained se...

  Prompt Response: I once had to write a poem for an assignment for my 5th grade English class. Although I cannot recall the exact instructions for the assignment, I recall finding the assignment to be very challenging for me. This is because I have always found it difficult to create a poem, as I do not write poems often and I do not enjoy writing poems. Therefore, I found the writing process to be very long and difficult. I would say that I was not extremely proud of the poem that I had made at the time, but looking back on it I believe it was still a decent poem. Summary and Reflection: In class we read a poem together and analyzed it for its deeper meaning. We found that the poem was comparing the poet to an acrobat, as the process of writing a poem is somewhat similar to that of crossing a tightrope. This experience was quite helpful as it allowed me to practice analyzing texts and identifying how they may use figurative language to express the main message.