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Wood 1

Emma Wood
Jean Coco
English 1001
6 December 2016
Audience: High School students who dont yet see the benefits of having a tough English
teacher.
Preface:
My personal literacy project has gone through several revisions, and after each one I have
made corrections to further update my writings. After the peer review draft, I made topics in my
paper clearer and detailed with examples regarding my experiences. After the cut and paste
exercise, I decided to cut a few of my paragraphs and elaborate more on their individual main
ideas because before they contained two different ideas, so I decided to separate them and create
two paragraphs with each idea.
I feel like these revisions helped my paper in a way that I never could. Reading my own
writing, its hard to find its flaws because I want it to be great from the start, but when others
read it and point out its imperfections to me, I can clearly see where my writing needs work.
These revision exercises helped me to do that, find where I needed to work on my paper.
I question my revisions on the addition of detail and examples. Even though it provides a
clearer image, Im concerned that it made some of my paragraphs too long. I question there
length because the more length I add, the more I feel like it becomes redundant and monotonous.
Another revision Im not sure about is the cutting of my paragraphs because Im used to knowing
that a proper paragraph is to be no less than five well developed sentences. When I cut the
paragraphs, it made them less than five, so when I went back to add detail and evidence to them,
my sentences may not be as strong as others.
I have some concerns with this paper that I feel can make or break the paper as a whole.
My first concern is the point of view in which I wrote it. I wrote it from the point of me looking
at the class as a whole and not just my personal self. I dont know if that takes away from the
true purpose of the assignment or not. With my use of we in most cases, I fear my paper is
personal enough. Another concern of mine is the structure. Im used to writing proper five
paragraph essays with each paragraph having no less than seven well developed sentences, and
its hard for me to break that habit that Ive been taught for twelve years. I worry that the lengths
of the paragraphs are too short or too long because other than the way Ive been taught; Ive
never written in any other structure. And my third concern is that Im too vague in my
explanations. Detail was never my strong suit in writing; it was always hard for me to go into
depth of my writings.
Adding to this preface, I believe all your comments were very helpful. I was able to
clearly see where I needed to add detail and expand my paper into more specific instances. They
helped me to take a step back and realize where my paper was lacking and what I needed to add
into the paper. None of the suggestions were confusing; they were all very clear and well present

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so that I could understand what the editor was saying. I feel like the comments on where I should
add examples were very productive because it helped me add to my paper to make it better to
understand and provide a better inside look into my class from the audiences perspective.
Momma Manns
(1) Going into high school, I only took with me the basic writing lessons I had learned in
elementary school, such as simple and compound sentence structures and to never use second
person in an essay or paper. I was not a very strong writer; my writings were choppy and tended
to be very unorganized and all over the place. Eighth grade English did not really help my
writing at all because my teacher was not very well versed in a writing sense; I was taught more
about grammar, not how to put it all together in writing. Ninth grade, however, groomed my
writing for the better, and I become more fluid in my wording in my writings. Ninth grade taught
me how to make conclusions from literature, but I still had trouble putting those discoveries into
well constructed and written paragraphs. My sophomore year made integrating literary findings
into my writing a little easier, but I still struggled with using direct information to back up my
points. It was not until junior year where everything became clear, and I had a teacher who truly
knows the meaning of creative writing. She groomed my writing into a precise language and
taught me how to through research papers and class projects to discover the depth of writing and
why an author writes what he writes.
(2) I really did not have a great understanding of complex sentences and other literary
devices to make my writings mature and unique, and my writing stayed mediocre until my junior
year of high school. My junior year became by far the hardest year of English classes I had ever
participated in; my teacher, Mrs. Valerie Manns, was the most out there with her methods,
more than any other teacher. For example, on the first day of class, she had the class act out the
story we would be reading the next day, in an effort to help us understand the meaning behind it.

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The story we read was the Navajo Origin Legend; she had us act it out to gives us a chance to
live the legend itself. It was an exercise that showed us how to process a story in real life and
deeply think about its meaning from a realistic standpoint. I was able to understand the writing in
a more complex way because it gave me a chance to get an inside look into the other side of the
authors thoughts and how he envisioned the story and its plot. I was able to bring the authors
words to life; they were no longer just words on a page. Acting out the story of the Navajos
origin legend gave me a chance to live the life of the author and to gain knowledge of his
background and ancestry. This exercise was not just for laughs and a way to get out of written
class work; it had a purpose. Mrs. Manns values literature and its words, and she wanted her
students, including me, to see the benefits of literature and how writers incorporated themes and
parts of their lives into their writings.
(3)Mrs. Manns wanted us to read beyond the words on a page; she showed us how to be
curious readers, to ask questions about why a particular author used these words in order to
provoke a certain thought in the readers mind, to form our own conclusions about an author, to
see his writing patterns, and to use those patterns to infer the writers background and where he
came from. She, of course, had a learning by doing activity planned so we could relate a real life
experience to the lesson of curiosity in literature. One day at the beginning of class, Mrs. Manns
went around the room holding something, but she didnt tell us what is was. She showed each of
us the object and asked us to describe the object after she had shown it to all the students in the
class. At the end of the activity she stated that only one person asked to hold or touch the object;
she was making the point that we could not know exactly what the object was by just looks alone
until we asked questions about it. She used it as an analogy to writing; she told us that we could
not fully understand what an author was trying to say just by reading the work. We had to ask

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questions about the authors writing to fully develop a conclusion about why the author wrote
what he did. For example, why did the author use this word versus this word that is not as dark
and mysterious? Was he trying to foreshadow a tragic event? What does the tone have to say
about the outcome of the story? With these types of questions in mind, we began to read two
different translations of Beowulf. When we read Beowulf, she showed us how the different
translators used different words to convey a different tone between the stories and how by
reading just one or two paragraphs from one translation then reading the same lines from the
other translation, we could tell which translator translated which. Because the monks who
translated this particular story did not have a set template, they could include their own opinions
on the story through word usage which told them apart from each other. From these activities, I
would argue Mrs. Manns was one of the toughest English teachers that I have ever had not
because she gave us loads of work and stories to read, but because she made us think, she made
us think critically and find clues in writings and put them together to form a conclusion almost
like we were detectives on a crime scene trying to solve the mystery.
(4) In addition to Mrs. Manns teaching my fellow classmates and me about literature and
how to analyze it, she also taught us how to put what we figured out from the readings into
writing. She molded us into using literary information from our class readings through discussion
questions. One question that I remember vividly was about Shakespeares tragedy Hamlet, and
on the Hamlet test, I had to discuss and provide evidence from within the play that suggested
Ophelia, Hamlets love interest, was pregnant. This test in particular was hard because even
though it was Shakespeares shortest play, it is filled with tons of information and symbolism that
can steer the play in any direction. The reader has to analyze his wording and understand the
alternate meaning of words and know background of what traditions took place during the time

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period of the writing. After diligently studying Hamlet, it can be inferred that Ophelia was
pregnant because the flowers that were placed around her after her death symbolize fertility.
Using this kind of technique in discussion writings helped me with this discussion essay and all
the ones after; they were preparing my classmates and me for what we thought was going to
demolish our GPAs. It was the project we had been preparing for, but nothing could prepare us
enough for the sheer depth of the hours of work that had to be put into our first real research
paper to make it Manns approved, which meant our wording needed to be creative and deeply
detailed, and the topics and ideas needed to be well connected throughout the paper.
(5) It was the first real research paper I had ever written, and I had much to learn in order
to make my writing professional and mature. I had to learn how to connect my thoughts with the
research I collected and form my own opinions and conclusions about a topic; in this particular
case, it was about how an author incorporated her life into her novel, and how the events of her
upbringing influenced her writings. At first, I did not know where to begin with my writing
because up until this point, I had only written short essays or test discussions, which were okay
but not great, but nothing worth three hundred points that could make or break my final grade. It
was safe to say I was terrified that Mrs. Manns would give me an F because my writing would
not be up to par. But I was wrong, Mrs. Manns walked us through the steps needed in order to
make sure we had all the necessary knowledge we needed to complete a well-written paper. She
provided me and the class with quick tips on writing and resources such as the library or the
world book online database to do the necessary research. Some of the quick tips included how to
cite certain sources or how to use parenthetical citations; she also gave us a lecture on how to
format our paper with the correct MLA format and what to and what not to include in our thesis
statements. Other tips that are more detailed can be found in the quick tips document she gave

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us which included how to format parentheticals for books and chapters or websites with and
without an author; she also gave us templates to follow for all source typed to be sure we cited
them in proper MLA format. After these class gatherings, I realized she wasnt trying to fail us,
she was trying to make us into better, more experienced writers.
(6)Through the writing of this paper, she was preparing us for the real writing world
where mistakes are not accepted. I now understand why she was knit picky with my wording
in a paper or my over summarization of the novel or my incorrect citings in my Works Cited
page. After all the teacher and peer edits, I was still hesitant for my junior research paper because
I was not confident in my writing. I felt like I was to vague and did not add enough detail, but
since it was the first time I had ever really written anything like it, I was not sure what was too
detailed and what did not have enough detail. After my paper was graded, I knew what too
detailed was; I had summarized the story too much and didnt provide enough evidence from the
actual novel itself on how the storyline pertained to the authors life. That is the moment I
realized she was forming me into a better writer and not just saying my writing was bad. She
gave me examples on how I could better compare and connect my information to my writing for
my next research paper in senior English. She was making sure that I had all the necessary
elements in the right order and the right place so that I would not only succeed in writing as a
student but as an adult, as well.
(7) The task of writing well developed and text-based papers and essays did not stop my
junior year; it continued through my senior year where my new English teacher was not at all
new. When I received my schedule for my final year of high school, there it was AP English with
Mrs. Manns printed in black and white. I was excited yet nervous to sit in her English class again
because this year would be different, this year would be twice as vigorous, and I would need

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twice as much endurance just to get through the year. She had a right to make this year harder
because it was an AP course, but I had no idea what I was in for.
(8)Gone were the days of stopping class to work on research papers, like junior year, and
here were the days of reading plays and novels, which included Wuthering Heights,
Frankenstein, Hamlet, Importance of Being Earnest, and Macbeth, short stories, which included
The Seafarer, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Hills Like White Elephant, Where Are You
Going, Where Have You Been, Medieval Ballads, and excerpts form Dantes Inferno, and
writing a research paper all at the same time which had a length requirement of eight double
spaced pages not including the Works Cited page. I was drowning in readings of short stories and
plays and due dates for tests and projects, but I made it through. To give perspective, we had a
novel or play each nine weeks, so thats four total, except for the two Shakespeare plays we read
in the same nine weeks, and in that same timeframe lied the due date for our senior research
papers. Basically, I was reading two Shakespeare plays and writing an eight-page paper all at the
same time while keeping up with my six other courses and their tests. It was tough for me to
balance reading all the plays and novels, studying for their respective tests, and having time to
dedicate to my other courses.
(8)During this time, I thought Mrs. Manns was just giving us work because she was
required to by the AP format of the class, but I see now that although it may have been required
for her, if it was not an AP class she probably would have done it anyway. She wanted us to learn
the skills of time management and the importance of literature all at the same time; in her mind,
she was giving us the tools we needed to survive the hectic schedules of college life. As an adult
English teacher, she knew what skills we needed to survive through adulthood and the rest of our
literary careers.

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(9) Mrs. Manns was a blessing in disguise. She was tough on me and the rest of the senior
AP students because she loved us and wanted us to be the best writers we could be. Her love for
literature and writing and all her quirky moments have made me the student I am today. She
taught me to read with no bounds, to always look for more in a story because a story is not just a
story, its a window into the life and background of an author. I can solidly say that Mrs. Manns
taught me how to write with confidence and use techniques and elements in fluid ways, and I
thank her for continually being the dependent teacher and editor she is.

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