Assignment/Activity
Title—Thoreau vs. Crane Essay Year— Freshman
Skill— Writing,
Reading Portfolio
Category— Critical Reasoning
In
English class, students had to read two well known books, analyze them in
different assignments, and eventually write a organized and well thought out
essay comparing the two books, Maggie: A
Girl of the Streets, by Stephen Crane, and Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. Crane’s novel explored the life of
a young girl growing up in the Bowery of New York City, at the turn of the 19th
century. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden gave
a personal account of the author’s two-year stay living in isolation, away from
any people or distractions. The two books were very different, and both were
intriguing in their own way. The essay required for the two stories to be compared
and contrasted over the author’s ideas of self-reliance, work, and
philanthropy.
This
assignment scared me when I first read what was to be done, and I was
intimidated by how difficult the text of Walden
was, and how there were so many ideas interlaced in one story, in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. There
were many steps taken to slowly approach this essay, the first of which was a
simple outline. My ideas were scattered and needed work to be complete and make
sense, and this made the idea of writing an essay even more daunting. I had
five sentences’ in my outline; each was an idea for a different topic in my
essay. After I turned in my outline and received a grade, I thoroughly examined
the comments Dr. Simel had written on my paper. After talking to her and
understanding her advice, I felt more confident in writing my essay.
The
next step was to write my first draft. I knew it was not very good, but I tried
my best. After a peer edit, I wrote my second draft. This was going to be my
final grade, and I struggled with writing it. The format had to be in the CAP
style manual, which I was not familiar with at the time. After learning the
correct format, I had to edit my first draft to create my second draft that I
would turn in. I worked diligently on it, and spent many hours rereading the
text of both books to find strong evidence. I turned in my essay confident, but
I was discouraged to see that I got 20/30 points as my final grade. I was very
disappointed by this, and I knew I wanted to change it.
I
talked to my teacher, and got lots of really good feedback on how to change my
essay to receive a better grade. I learned that if at first you don’t succeed,
it is important that you try again. I rewrote my essay, and took in
consideration what I had talked about with Dr. Simel. When I got my third and final
grade back, I was happy to see that I had improved to receive a 26/30, six more
points than I originally had.
This
assignment made me grow as a person, and it demonstrated the weaknesses I have
as a student. I learned to be more aware of how my topics connected with each
other, and how I needed to be careful that my thoughts made sense, and did not
counteract other ideas. I realized
that even if I work really hard on an assignment, there will always be room for
improvement, in my ideas, evidence, sentence structure, and overall writing.
This essay made me feel very proud that I could improve so much on an
assignment that I was at first scared by. The struggle of writing an essay for
an English class seemed impossible at first, but when I was finished, I knew
that I had grown into a student that could tackle any essay in the future. If I
had to do it again, I would not be intimidated by the idea of writing an essay.
I would go in with full confidence and come out as a stronger student, as I did
in this assignment.
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