David Porter

Ms.O'Keefe
AP Lit
May 24th 2019
Capstone Essay

“No one is born a writer. You must become a writer. In fact, you never cease becoming,

because you never stop learning how to become a writer.And so are you”-Joe Bunnin. I

have been a student at Chicago Academy High School for 3 years. During my journey

as a writer and student, the knowledge and the growth I have obtain has shaped me

into the person I am today. Over my high school career I have learned how to express

myself through different forms of writing,the importance of organizing my ideas,and how

to write cohesive essays.

In all of my 4 years of taking English, my greatest struggle was writing. Writing

was a struggle for me because I lacked self-confidence in my expressing my voice as a

writer.From freshman year to senior year, I over thought every sentence and at times

didn't put my best effort in essays because I knew I was not capable of writing a good

essay.I know that having self-confidence in your ability will make you grow as a writer

but also as a person. Over time,my confidence grew by writing about topics I was

interested in because I was able to express myself ideas and feelings to the world

without being judge. I learned that a writer’s voice is the most important thing a writer

can have because everybody have different beliefs and each beliefs should be

expressed because it makes us unique as writers. An example of how my confidence

grew was junior year when I had to write a short story about a slave trying to obtain his

freedom by fighting in the war. This short story helped me become more confident as a

writer because I was able to showcase my skills as a writer by expressing my voice in a

 David Porter
Ms.O'Keefe
AP Lit
May 24th 2019
non-traditional way instead of writing basic essays and which I had answer document,

base questions using evidence.I believe that creative stories and essays made me grow

as a writer because I could just let my true emotions out without having to be scared

that my story or essay was not long enough or lacked evidence. Also, in 12th grade my

essay on the Perspectives on Beloved contributed to my growth as a writer because the

essay was about my perspective on Beloved. I believe that essays that are about my

opinion on a novel or a poem allows me to be a better writer because it allows me break

away from others by sharing my beliefs to others without being judge. My improvements

as a writer also helps my growth as a reader and thinker. I realized the importance of

rereading to develop a deeper knowledge and to spot all of the small details the author

uses to enhance the novel as a whole.Overall, my growth as a writer made me become

a more curious thinker. As a result, I question the reason behind the author's word

choice or figurative to understand their purpose behind writing.

Throughout my 3 years of taking English, I learned that organizing my ideas is a

critical role in writing a good essay. During my sophomore year I never planned out my

ideas and just began to write. At the time, I thought this was a good idea because I

could just revise my paragraphs.In 10th grade both of my literary analysis essays on

Macbeth were unorganized. For example, in the conclusion for one of the essays I

stated “In conclusion, it is important to create tension because it makes the reader stay

on the edge and wonders what is going to happen next.

 David Porter
Ms.O'Keefe
AP Lit
May 24th 2019
This is evident that my previous essays were unorganized because my ideas

was brief and the essay felt like it was rushed. All of my ideas and evidence was

unorganized because I accustomed to writing without planning my ideas out. However,

once I got into AP English & Literature, I realized the importance of planning my ideas

before I started writing. I would say that this is one of the most important skills I have.

For example, in my first timed writing essay. I didn’t plan my essay out and just began to

write. As a result, this was one of the worse essays I ever wrote because the whole

essay was unorganized and the timed aspect played a major factor with me rushing my

thoughts and ideas. However with experience and the help of my teacher, I became a

better writer by organizing my ideas before I started to write. In the timed writing prose

passage, the first step in writing my essay was to plan out my ideas and evidence by

using a outline to keep me organized with each paragraph of the essay.

I realized the importance of coherence in a essay is crucial for to create a flow to

your essay. I learned that coherence makers essays easier to understand. As a senior, I

understand that coherence makes sure the reader doesn't get lost within a paragraph,

so they can focus on the purpose of the essay. For example in 10th grade, I wrote a

essay about legalizing marijuana. In the essay, the paragraphs had no flow to it. An

example that proves this is I started off my body paragraph with text evidence, “

According to Sanjay Gupta ‘Marijuana could greatly reduce the demand for narcotics

and simultaneously decrease the number of accidental painkiller overdoses, which are

the greatest cause of preventable death in this country... Marijuana is a medicine, that
 David Porter
Ms.O'Keefe
AP Lit
May 24th 2019
should be studied and treated like any other medicine’” (Gupta,2013). This is a

indication that my writing back then failed to have any coherence to it. However, with

experience as a writer, I began to use topic sentences to make my essays easier to

understand and also to give readers the purpose for each paragraph. In recent years, I

wrote an essay to Howard University to take a visit there, and in my essay I used

several transition words to make my essay have a smooth flow ideas to flow smoothly.

Also I used Transition words and to link all of my central ideas together and to give the

reader a better understanding. This is a example of my growth as a writer because I

understand the importance of coherence by using transition words to create a easy to

read essay. Another example is in my justification paper, I connected complex ideas

into multiple paragraphs to create a essay that makes sense and doesn’t make the

reader confused. I believe that this essay made me growth as a writer in

particular with coherence because I was able to write an organized essay with complex

ideas.

One thing I hope to gain in college is to gain the confidence needed to be

successful in school but most importantly in life. Also I would like to learn how to

organized essays with length because in high school majority of my essays short. Once

I start college ,it is a must that I stay on top of my assignments and essays. I believe

this way will ensure me that I do not fall behind and waiting to the last minute to finish

essays.My high school career has taught me asking questions is the only way to

become a better student and not be afraid of asking “dumb” questions. Another thing I
 David Porter
Ms.O'Keefe
AP Lit
May 24th 2019
would like to accomplish in my college career is to develop good relationships with my

professors because they offer advice and maybe connections with getting a job or

internship.