Things Fall Apart

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Recommended: Strengths in writing classes

This unit, the major analysis essay was based on the book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. The class has spent many weeks preparing for this essay by reading the book and analyzing it, both at home and in class. Writing the Things Fall Apart literary analysis essay allowed me to check up on my strengths and weaknesses and discover what I have improved on or have ceased to improve on in my writing. My essay was an example of my current strengths and weaknesses in English classes, because of the complexity of the prompt. By writing this essay, I have determined some of my strengths in my writing. In this essay, my main strength is grammar. Back in middle school, my English classes always focused on grammar, so I learned the proper way …show more content…

As I wrote my Things Fall Apart analysis essay, some of the writing just came easy to me. Writing the conclusion was the easiest part of the essay because it allowed me to wrap up my thoughts. I was able to summarize what I had written and finish the essay, which I had learned how to do a long time ago. However, some parts of the essay caused me difficulties and I struggled to accomplish them. Coming up with my thesis statement was very difficult. Even though I had an understanding of the gender roles, it was a struggle for me to connect them to the deeper meaning of the book as a whole. This caused me to have to rewrite my thesis multiple times before writing the rest of the essay. The socratic seminars, however, were the main lesson that helped me to understand the meaning of the book slightly better than I had before. Eventually, with the help of my knowledge from the socratic seminars, I was able to come up with a proper thesis …show more content…

For the Things Fall Apart literary analysis essay specifically, my word choice and grammar have improved. Even though my word choice is changing in minimal amounts, it is improving as time goes on. My grammar has also improved as I develop a better understanding of how punctuation and words work together in sentences. Even though I have improved in some ways as a writer, there are some parts where I have stayed stagnant. I am stagnant in my vocabulary and finding the deeper meaning of figurative language. Even though we have learned new vocabulary, most of the words do not fit easily in my writing, especially if it does not relate to the topic. As for figurative language, I have always had trouble discovering the “deeper meaning” behind what the author is trying to say, which causes problems when I have to write papers about it. I have always seen novels as more black-and-white, with only the surface meaning existing. This has yet to improve, because it is difficult to try and make me think differently than I always

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