We have spent the last several weeks reviewing the essay. In many ways we have evolved our definition of this often misunderstood format for high school. Many of you have asked wonderful questions in our 3/2/1 closures and in class, which leads me to believe you have many more.
In this installment of our blog, I would like two posts.
In the first post:
Tell me at least one powerful lesson you have taken away from our writer's workshop, something that you perhaps did not know before or now understand better. Feel free to name as many lessons as apply. I would like to know how this has affected your understandings about the essay and, more importantly, your feelings about writing essays in the future.
In the second post:
Questions, questions, questions. I want to know what is left to curiosity here. What is still bothering you about features of the essay (S/M/M and its friends)? What is still unclear or needs more clarification? Do you just want to make a comment about this squirrely format? Go for it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I learned that a literary analysis essay revolves around quotes. I always thought quotes supported my own words, but it is reversed; my words support the quotes. Essays feel easier using the say/mean/matter form because I was able to use exactly what I wrote as the whole paragraph and it makes me sound more knowledgeable. I still do not like writing essays, but the writing workshop made me feel more confident.
ReplyDeleteI don’t particularly have any questions. The whole workshop made sense when we applied it. As I stated above, I still don’t like writing essays.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way as Corrina; I had always thought quotes were supposed to support me, but really I have to support the quotes. Say/Mean/Matter is hard but it has honestly helped me out a lot in my essay. Say/Mean/Matter made it easier to complete my essay because I knew exactly what to write. Writing essays isn't my favorite thing to do but I think writing them will be a lot easier now.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that still confuses me is the page format. I think it's because we did a completely different format last year, but I can get used to it.
ReplyDeleteI am neither fond of essays nor do I despise them. I thought that this writer's workshop was very informative. One thing I learned that I did not know?do in middle school, is the lead-in. I always just stuck the quote in there somewhere after the topic sentence. Another thing that hepled me write my essay were the say/mean/matter charts. I hated them on Sunday night, but they were actually very helpful when typing up my essay.
ReplyDeleteI'm still very confused about the matter. I'm not very good at connecting it to the book, or to the universe for that matter. But I'm working on it, and I think my essay was half decent. I'm sure I will also improve on MLA, because I'm not used to that exact formating.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I learned is that when chosing quotes as a seperate assignment for your essay, make sure they relate to your thesis and prompt. I made the mistake of choosing random quotes out of the book because I was lazy, and then when it came time to write the essay, I had to go and find new quotes. Same thing with the topic sentences. The peer editing helped a lot! I was able to see the kind of quality work my fellow student had put into their essays and see how mine compared.
ReplyDeleteI am still a little bit confused on S/M/M. This confuses me because I am not sure how to make it fit and flow into the essay better. As well as putting in quotes.
ReplyDeleteI learned that you have to be careful when choosing your thesis because you have to make sure you have enough "evidence" to support it. That is what I had the most trouble on this essay. I also realized I had to support my quotes, instead of my quotes supporting my essay.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I understand essay writing much more, I still don't like it very much.
I understand essay writing so much more now, but I am still not very confident on say/mean/matters. But, that will come with time and practice.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I learned from the writers workshop was that you need to have quotes in each paragraph, and support them with what it means and why it matters. Since we did so much preperation before actully writing the essay, all we basicly did was piece all of the information together, which I though was much easier.
ReplyDeleteAll of my questions were answered because of all the handouts which explained everything in great depth. I still would like to become better at writing conclusion paragraphs though.
ReplyDeleteI also have the same thought that Corrina had. Eveything we did envolved quotes, and what they mean and are saying. While writing my essay I had noticed that it was getting easier by each paragraph for me, beacuse I already had everything planned out. All I really did was add descrtiption to the say/mean/matter chart and made it into an essay. I felt confident wtiing this essay beacuse we had done so much work on explaning what is going on, and everything made sence. it was like a puzzlem, we got our evedince and put it all together.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any questions, and the ones i had were already answered. I personally like the format. It makes everything seem more organized.
ReplyDeleteI feel more comfortable writing essays now. Before I knew what say mean matter charts were and how to use them but I did not know they applied in essays. I think the packet we printed out helped a lot. It gave a clear picture of what the content was really supposed to mean instead of feeling stuck and filling paragraphs with empty sentences. Even though the process is long and tedious I feel like I know what it takes to write a good essay.
ReplyDeleteI feel much more comfortable after doing this essay even though I just figured out I got a D. I now understand how to use Say, Mean, Matter, while as before this essay, I had no clue what say, mean, matter even is. I understand how to use Works Cited better even though I do not quite know exactly where to put the underlines and periods, but I like your way of teaching us the Works Cited better than my 8th grade teachers way.
ReplyDeleteI understand all of the things you have taught us equally, but I am not that good at any of them. I really need to learn where to find good quotes. Is there an easier way to use insight on the means in the S/M/M?
ReplyDeleteWhat I took away from this lesson was that thesis statements need to be universal. Before I thought that they could be anything about the subject pretty much because that is what I learned in middle school. It is a difficult thing to do still, but it is more clear to me then it was when we first started. I feel like I know what it takes to write a good essay, but I still do not think I would be able to write one very well.
ReplyDeleteI have no questions on anything because it was taught well. My only concern for myself is how I put it all together. It is not easy to put the say, the mean, and the matter all in an essay to flow right. That is my trouble, and also the matter and lead-in's are when I start to make mistakes because that is where I do not understand.
ReplyDeleteI am still unsure how to make topic sentences that are arguable and persuasive, while somehow relating to the thesis. The say/ mean/ matter charts I feel ok in but could use some improve.
ReplyDeleteThese past few weeks has taught me about the Say/Mean/Matter format for quotes. I usually just threw the quotes into my paragraphs, and spoke a little about how they prove my point. Now I know what I really should do to make a good arguement if I use quotes or any type of evidence. I also learned that a thesis needs to be universal.
ReplyDeleteMy only is question is do you have a way that makes the mean and the matter any easier to do? That is where I feel a tiny bit squirrely.
ReplyDeleteWell now I fell like I understand essays better because I did not know that our thesis statement had to be universal. The topic sentences however are still difficult for me.
ReplyDeleteYes this format is squirley and I still do not understand it. I get the say, still kinda fuzzy on the mean, and the matter is still difficult.
ReplyDeleteA powerful lesson that I have learned in our workshop is that one must pay close
ReplyDeleteemphasis on the format of your essay. Sure you can write the best essay in the
world but if it does not meet the demands of a teacher or reader in format
(confusion) it will be plain and boring to look at. It let's me understand that
essays are pretty hard to complete, that is if you want it to show your own
opinion and thoughts. I feel that writing essays in the future will become
quite more difficult than what I have been doing.
The only thing that I feel squirrely about is the Matter, I feel that I have everything else down. Formatting (ex:MLA) essays will take a longer time to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I have learned from our writer's workshop is that you need to have evidence in your essay and your thesis has to be universal. Like Kim said I always thought that the thesis could be whatever as long as it related to the subject. Like I also said I learned that you need evidence in your essay. Without evidence your essay is nothing. Your essay should have quotes to support eveything in it and make it better. Also like Corrina said I do not like writing essays either but I think that they will get easier.
ReplyDeleteI am still having difficulties with the say, mean, and matters. The say I am pretty good with I just need a little help on the lead-in. On the mean I do have some trouble on analyzing rather than summarizing but I can learn to fix that. The matter is the worst part for me. I don;t really get it and it is just really really squirrely but I think I will eventually get it. Other than that I think that everything is good.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned from the experience of writing the essay is that a good thesis statement is important for a good essay. If a thesis statement is persuasive, arguable, and not too broad, then the essay is likely to be that way to. On the other hand, if a thesis statement is unclear, too broad or narrow, or factual, then the essay is likely to be that way
ReplyDeleteOn thing that I was wondering about, is in the conclusion, if your not telling your audience what you already told them in the essay, what are you telling them? I have never really got conclusions and would like to know more abou them
ReplyDelete