IV. Reflection of English 121

      After a year of focused work in English I feel I have developed the skill to articulate what I want to convey to the reader in multiple ways. Looking at my most recent paper, the research paper, I think that I have grown at organization and careful flow of thoughts. The research paper I wrote was on the “Israeli Palestinian Conflict”. I could have chosen an easier subject to research, but I felt I had acquired the skills that I needed to really learn and understand this complicated issue. My dad’s side of the family is all Jewish and throughout my life I have always heard them talking about the conflict in Israel. I wanted to learn for myself each side of the story and then choose a side for me to take. After heavy research, I’ve realized that each group of people has valid points on why they think the holy land should be theirs. Using this 10^th grade English class, I have furthered my knowledge on current events and what’s going on in the world around me. I would say that “The Israeli Palestinian Conflict” was my favorite piece to write.

          Another paper that I really enjoyed writing and felt I had a lot of insight on was the in class essay we wrote on “Black Boy” one day. As I was whipping out my ideas on paper I realized I was citing a lot of what happened in the book, and I was becoming increasingly talented at using specific information from a book source in a paper I was writing. I think that “Black Boy” affected me a lot also because there were a lot of racial issues and prejudice that really focused me into understanding what times were like back then. I think reading that book in class improved my reading skills because Richard Wright had a specialty at conveying emotions.  I’ve learned from him to add more of what my characters are feeling and thinking when I’m writing.