Jasmin's Online Writing Portfolio

Thinking Through Feedback

jasmingrahamisawriter — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:54:01 +0000

After completing my final project, I had three peer editors read over my material. Since I did a chap book, it was a little easier to give feedback. My chap book consisted of more than 200 lines. The feedback that was most helpful to me was when my peer editors made comments about using more detail to describe what my poems are about. The feedback helped me make changes to my final composition.

Also getting feedback from three different people made correcting easier. Having three different people make corrections, gives me three different point of views which means that they can all catch the errors and mistakes that I made before I turn my final draft in.

My first peer editor which was Raven mainly said that my poems were very good and creative, and that she could relate to most of the things that I talked about in my poems. She also made mention that I should mainly check my spelling and grammar.

My second peer editor which was Precious said that I had some really interesting poems. And that they were very detailed. She also said that since I’m not really a poet, I have skills when it comes to writing poems. Precious also said that in the future I should think about publishing a poem book of my own. The suggestions for improvement that she mentioned were that, I should look over all my poems to make sure they make since.

My third peer editor was Krishundra she said that I have very good titles, and they go well with my poems. She said that she could kind of tell what my poems were going to be about, just from reading my titles. The only bad feedback she gave was that I should look over spelling before I turn my final draft in.

I really appreciate all the feedback that was given to me. It helped me make positive changes in order for my grade to be good.

Self Reflecting

jasmingrahamisawriter — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:15:38 +0000

In third trimester I was given creative writing classes an elective. My first thought about creative writing was that it was going to be too much unnecessary writing that wouldn’t benefit me at all. But as the year goes on, I’ve grown to like this class a lot. Every morning we had to do a free writing journal entry. I really like the idea of coming in to class and writing in a journal for 10 minutes straight, letting all my thoughts out on paper. Another major assignment that we had in creative writing class was create an online writing portfolio that consists of 11 pages of different forms of writing, and 8 posts that were kind of like follow ups to writing exercises we had to do. My portfolio is very organized and detailed. I must say that I have really improved as a writer and this class has helped me a lot. I enjoy writing and creative writing class has really helped me learn different techniques to how to compose and put together writing. This portfolio that we have goes along with our final project. We are getting graded on how professional the page looks. I had fun in creative writing and I’m glad I had the chance to see what this class was all about.

My Final Project Proposal

jasmingrahamisawriter — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:13:06 +0000

I made a choice to compose a poetry” chap book”. We had to create a selection of at least ten new poems, consisting of at least 200 lines of poetry. Our poems had to also demonstrate a wide range of poetic skills and forms. My reason for choosing to make a chap book is because I really like writing poetry and it seems like it would be a easy final project.

I first plan to write down different topics that I can focus on when writing my final project. I’m going to make a diagram and in each bubble i will write topics such as, relationships, love/pain, secrets, media, life, friendships and teenagers. This will help me come up with good themes for my poems. Themes are mainly lessons about life that the author teaches to the reader. One example of a theme that our teacher gave was, “Life is better when you take a minute to appreciate the small things.”

The next thing that I will do to help me compose my chap book is make creative titles that will go along with each poem. It may be a little different but before I start writing a poem, I always make a title first. It seems that when I make a title first it helps me get ideas about the poem I’m writing. Most of the poems that I will write about are things that I’ve experienced personally or things that go on in everyday life. Since my chap book must consist of at least 200 words, my method is to either write 1o poems with 20 lines each or 20 poems with 10 lines each. This might make composing my chap nook a little easier mainly because I know what I’m looking forward to writing.

I’m going to have a lot of fun making a chap book. And I hope that who ever reads it enjoys my writing.

My fairy Tale

jasmingrahamisawriter — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:57:54 +0000

So far, I’m half way finish with my creative fairy tale. The most challenging part was composing my story as a whole. I started of f with making a chart of ideas that would lead to the main idea of my fairy tale. Also our fairy tale had to have a happy ending. When I first started, I did not know how to compose my paper. So I got a chart and set everything up. I created an imaginary setting. Then I created characters and gave them names. After doing so I found it far easier to start my fairy tale.

The first thing that I had to turn in was my rough draft. When I wrote it out my paper came out to be 8 pages total front and back. As always, I make a lot of changes to my final draft. At the mid point of getting my fairy tale done. I got stuck when it was time to decide how I was going to conclude my fairy tale. I forgot that we had to have a happy ending. So I almost made a mistake and ended my fairy tale as a tragedy. But I soon realized that I had to have a happy ending.

Therefore the middle of my paper had to lead to a happy ending. So I made the main character, which was the good person in the fairy tale do something that would let readers know that the fairy tale was going to have a happy ending. Even though I was in the middle of finishing fairy tale, I knew how it was going to end. Making a fairy tale was not as easy as it seemed. So far I’m having fun and I don’t seem to be having any difficulties composing my fairy tale. I hope that it turns out good.

“My Power Word”

jasmingrahamisawriter — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:29:37 +0000

Conspicuous means clearly visible, attracting notice or attention. I chose this adjective as my power word because overall it describes me as a person. Conspicuous also means bold, confident and daring or maybe even courageous. I symbolize all three of those words, which is the main reason why I chose them. I feel that I am a bold individual. I speak what ever is on my mind, I don’t tolerate foolishness, and I always get my point across because I’m confident and bold enough to do that. Those qualities show what my standards are. To be conspicuous, you have to have a certain mind set or outlook on things. My mind set gives me the ability to do what ever I want to positively speaking. I have always been and will continue to be conspicuous. Sometimes, the word conspicuous can be used negatively. But when I use the word I’m using it positively. Because overall this word really describes my character and outlook on things. Being bold runs in my family my brother and I have been taught to be bold and outgoing. It really tells a person about you. My power word will stay with me for the rest of my life.

If I could write a bestseller….

jasmingrahamisawriter — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:47:09 +0000

If I could write a best seller, I would first title it Life In The Fast Lane .I would use this title because it briefly describes what my book would be about. My book would be about my life so far. I would have my book set up as if you were following a time line. So that events can be in order according to how they occurred. My book would start off with me writing about when I was born. I would follow up with talking about my childhood. I would describe main events that occurred, and I would use many details which would help bring my story to life. Also I would write about achievements and goals that I accomplished. The next thing I will talk about is my life now as a teen. Many things have happened in my life and I feel that others can relate to me. My best seller would be nonfiction. Because it would be about my personal life. My best seller would deserve a gold star because it would be very detailed and with out someone even knowing me, if they were to read my book they would know a lot about me with out actually knowing me.

My Fairy Tale…a Happy Ending?

jasmingrahamisawriter — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:23:50 +0000

While in my creative writing class, one of our assignments was to write a 4 page fairy tale that had to have a happy ending. We had to label someone that we knew as the “monster”, then we had to use another person to destroy the monster. We first had to pre written and basically prewriting is brainstorming and coming up with ideas for your topic. Next I had to compose which is the step when you collect your thoughts and put them together. After composing I got it evaluated, one of my class mates gave me positive feed back on what I should correct and add to my fairy tale, in order to make it better. When I got positive feedback, I revised and made changes to my paper. I finished all of my rough drafts; I turned in my final paper.

When I first started my paper I had no idea what I wanted to write about. Then I remembered my 7tyh grade teacher Ms.Sullivan. I labeled her as the monster in my fairy tale. In our fairy tales we had to also come up with a good character that was going to destroy the monster. I used my principal Mr. Brown as the good person to change the monster character.

I felt that I did a good job with planning, prewriting and publishing. I really enjoyed reading my classmates fairy tales. It showed how different everyone’s imagination are. I appreciate my classmates taking out time to correct my work and they gave me really good feedback. In the future I need to manage my time better. I felt that I was a little lazy when it came to following the writing process.

After Two Weeks …

jasmingrahamisawriter — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:12:39 +0000

After two weeks, I feel that I have dramatically improved my writing. Being in a creative writing class has given me the opportunity to improve my writing skills. Things like my grammar, punctuation and effort towards writing is getting better. Also my writing seems to be more organized. For example, before writing a paper such as an autobiography, i write out a rough draft. This skill helps you plan your thoughts out on paper and it also makes it easier to write your final draft.

Am I A Writer?

jasmingrahamisawriter — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:33:24 +0000

Yes, I consider myself as a writer. Writing is apart of my everyday life. School is the place where I mainly write things like essays, poetry, and autobiography’s. My favorite thing to do is free write. When I free write I really express myself and use lots of details. One goal of mine is to improve my vocabulary. I must say, I already have an advance vocabulary. But i would like to expand my vocabulary. Authors that are around my age inspire me. Simply because most of the time I can relate to what they’re writing about.