Assignment/Activity Title Washington & DuBois Essay Year 2012 (Freshman) Skill Writing, Research Portfolio Category Critical

Reasoning

The Washington and Du Bois Essay was the first major essay that I had to write for CAP. It was an important assignment because it introduced me to the type of writing that I will continue to do throughout CAP. The assignment was to research the views Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had on race in America and write a short essay comparing and evaluating each of their views. The assignment contained several components: researching a topic, writing about and comparing different ideas, and evaluating them. In middle school, we wrote many compare and contrast essays, and did lots of research, but at the beginning of this assignment I had very little prior knowledge about evaluating other peoples ideas. I was not quite sure where to start, but I decided to do some research and read several articles about Washington and Du Bois, focusing mainly on their ideas about how to combat racial inequality in the U.S. I used my previous research skills to find credible sources and extract useful information. I also completed a works cited page as part of the assignment. Once I finished my research, I began to write the essay. I didnt have very much time to do the assignment, but I realized as I was working on it that if I eliminated distractions, I could work much more effectively. This realization was very helpful for completing future assignments. In my essay, I discussed the similarities and differences between the two mens ideas, which was a fairly easy element, as their views on race clearly contrasted one another. I stated their opposing views and used direct quotes to back up my statements. At the time when I wrote the essay, I wasnt aware that we could paraphrase quotes as long as we cited them correctly. This would have been helpful to know, because since I am not great at integrating direct quotations. The biggest challenge of the assignment was the evaluation component. Through my research, I had developed a clear opinion about which mans views I agreed with more, but I had trouble expressing my opinion on paper. I also was hesitant about voicing my opinion in a formal essay. I wasnt confident that my opinion was the right opinion, but eventually I decided to simply write down my views and be as assertive as possible. In the end, I received a B for my efforts, which was slightly disappointing but also helped me identify the areas upon which I needed to improve. Most of the components of the paper were well done, such as the research and the works cited, because I had practiced those skills in middle school. However, my grade showed me that I needed more practice evaluating sources and expressing my views about others ideas. This was something I had only done once before, and I had a difficult time not only forming an opinion and expressing it, but supporting it with examples. If I could change something about my essay, I would definitely add more supporting details and examples to validate my statements. Through the Washington and Du Bois essay I learned about writing a basic analytical essay and identified the skills I needed to develop. It was helpful to me because it was one of my first writing experiences in CAP, and it was a type of writing that I was not used to. It is also an important piece to include in my portfolio because it is an example of my writing skills at the very beginning of CAP, on which I can hopefully look back at the end of high school to understand how much Ive learned. Although I did not receive the grade I was hoping for, I learned a lot about writing and evaluating through completing this assignment.

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