Final Reflective Essay

1.Explain one or two ways my writing has improved (or not). Include a few examples from my posts over time, with analysis and links to the original posts, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.
5.What's my usual revision/editing process? How do I go from rough to final draft?
10.Where do I get my ideas for blog post topics? What inspires me to write?



After an entire school year of blogging, i am definitely more comfortable with quickly evaluating and organizing my ideas. I feel that with all this practice responding to so many people and books has made me a more efficient writer. I remember when i could never fully decide which person or quote to respond to, but as time went by, I would be able to respond thoughtfully to just about anything I found.

This is a quote from the beginning of the year, where I responded to Alex Noble.
I remember that response took me a long time to thing. My ideas were all scattered, and I did not know where to start talking. I ended up responding with a really short paragraph about what I thought. Even that one paragraph was extremely hard for me. It took nearly an hour to finally decide what I wanted to write about.

Now that I look at my blog posts, and I realize that I have really improved at writing freely. My last blog post was my final book review on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
I remember when I did it, I easily pulled out useful quotes out of the book. I would think about significant parts of the book, and instantly remember different parts of the story that ultimately connected. I talked about the main character, Christopher’s, autism. I remember that when I first responded to the story of the Aquatic Uncle, I had major problems finding quotes. This truly proves how I ultimately improved in responding to my books.

I also noticed that I tried to find posts by people I knew , that also talked about topics i could closely relate to, like when I seconded David when he talked about being nervous and when
like when I countered Wendy when she said siblings are not helpful. I think i got my response ideas

“ I have the same bad habits as David. When I read a paper in front on the class, my leg starts moving around like it has its own mind, and my mind tells me to speed up my reading and get it over with. My whole body gets cold, and I get chills down my spine.”

The second I saw that David was talking about being scared while talking in front of an audience, I was instantly inspired to respond, writing on my blog about my experiences with stage fright.

“They may be annoying sometimes, but it may actually be for a reason if you look through it not only your own eyes. My life would definitely be a life of boredom and a life of always messing up in life without my two brothers’ love and help.”

Again, I responded with my personal experience. I talked briefly about how my brothers have made a positive impact in my life, and how I think siblings are actually not just plain annoying.

Another way I have been inspired to write on my blogs is when I wrote about my desired superpower

”If I had a super power it would be the ability to create an item by visualizing it in your mind.”

I was inspired to talk about this through the movie, Inception. I remembered how the characters in the dreams were allowed to dream up anything they wanted, which was super cool, so I blogged about it. When I was writing about this, I was also thinking about the science behind this superpower, if there is any. The more I thought about this superpower, the more I liked it. I felt more and more connected to it.  

Usually, my editing process starts off with goings over my latest rough draft to find grammar and spelling mistakes. Sometimes, I can even see obvious details I can remove and add, but this does not usually happen until I finish reading my entire draft from top to bottom. This is because I need to remember and think about what i have already said, and if I should move the ideas around to make it flow. After looking at all the grammar and spelling mistakes, I would usually try to add more points if necessary. This usually means more quotes and analyses. In the end, I may even sprinkle the near-finished draft with some transitions or even some stronger verbs.

On one occasion, I even make the mistake of leaving an entire conclusion out. This happened when I was doing my first rough draft of the book review on The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time. Luckily, I had a peer point it out, something that is always helpful. I also needed the conclusion because I was panicking about my final draft being under the required count of 1000 words. In my final draft of the book review, I polished it by adding the conclusion and cleaning up the formatting.

I truly believe that blogging is a really good tool to practice writing. It helps people become more comfortable with what they are writing about. I saw major differences in how I wrote my blog posts over time. I started off slow and unsure, but now, I have become more comfortable writing what comes to mind. I have noticed that this extra practice has also helped me in my Writing One course. I find it easier to organize an essay now than it was in the front of the year. This extra practice also helped me realize where I usually make mistakes, allowing me to noticed them more frequently. This leads to me being able to prevent producing the same mistakes in the future. Overall, I think that this new way of teaching is really great, especially when the teacher of those students is you, a considerate, encouraging, and helpful person.

P.S. Thank you for spending this year helping me improve my writing skills, and I wish you the best of luck to your teaching career, no matter if it is at ASTI or somewhere else.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Book Review Final Draft

1.What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

8.Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, an autistic boy named Christopher narrates his perspective of life as he tries to solve a mystery of a murdered dog. As the story plays out, Christopher’s autism is viewed by the readers

“The next day I saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school, which made it a Black Day, so I didn’t eat anything at lunch and I sat in the corner of the room all day… another Black Day too, so I didn’t speak to anyone and for the whole afternoon I sat in the corner of the Library groaning with my head pressed into the join between the two walls and this made me feel calm and safe. But on the third day I kept my eyes closed all the way until we got off the bus because after I have had 2 Black Days in a row I’m allowed to do that.”(53)

This is an example of Haddon allowing the reader to understand how an autistic person thinks and acts to their surroundings. The quote shows Christopher reacting to something someone that isn’t autistic wouldn’t naturally react to.  A person without autism wouldn't normally notice the color of the cars, and even if they did, they would not isolate themselves in a corner and groan at school or work. They might find it weird or even funny, but that would be all they care for that row of same-colored cars. All of this is why I think Haddon’s purpose of this book is so that the reader understands why some autistic people act a way. He wants to show that autistic people don’t really want to do what they do on purpose, and they know their limits and how to control themselves. After two consecutive days of sitting in the corner alone, Christopher gets the willpower to avoid another day of repeating his Black Day ritual.

“And he said, “what’s 251 times 864?” And I thought about this and I said, “216,864… And I said, “Is that right?” And Rhodri said, “I haven’t got a bloody clue…”(66)

This quote also shows how Haddon wants the reader to understand autistic people more. Christopher immediately solves the math problem, but after saying out the answer, he explains to the reader how he got that answer in a step by step method. This shows how autistic people have abilities that “regular” people usually do not have, and that autistic people can be just as smart as “regular” people, if not more since Rhodri, the person asking Christopher the question, didn’t even know the answer himself.

Another impact of his autism towards his life is the relationship he has with his father. His father stays very patient with him even though he is merely impossible to work with.
“Father said, “Promise me you will stop doing these things. Promise that you will give up this ridiculous game right now, OK?” I said, “I promise.”(50)
This shows how Christopher's father tries to give his son the what is best for him through thick and thin. Even though Christopher blankly promised that he would not be nosy and investigate, he still does it. He simply convinces himself inside his mind that his father wasn't clear enough for him to follow the rules.

“I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to get into trouble. Then I thought that this was a Super Good Day and something special hadn't happened yet, so it was possible that talking to Mrs. Alexander was the special thing that was going to happen. And I thought that she might tell me something about Wellington or about Mr. Shears without me asking her, so that wouldn't be breaking my promise.”(55)

This part of the story shows just how disobedient Christopher is. He would follow his own mind even though he knew what was right and what was wrong. He simply twisted his father's words into something that was just supposed to be broken and avoided in any way. Though I am a little mad at Christopher for being so ignorant, I am impressed that he found a way to slide through such a promise. It seemed so straightforward and clear, but Christopher's mind found an easy way to avoid the guidelines. Christopher later gets caught and seems to not even care for what his father has to say. What is worse is that the second Christopher finds out that his father killed the dog, he forgets all of the things that his father did because he loved him. All of the times his father stood by his side were immediately erased from Christopher's mind. All he thought about was that his father was evil and untrustworthy, and that he needed to run away from him. This really shows how 
the author wanted the reader to see how an autistic person acts to what is happening around him.


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. The autistic point of view of the book really makes the reader think twice when judging someone that is mentally ill. It is also interesting because it introduces a whole new way of thinking of things, from how to do a math problem or just tackling a regular problem. Overall, I really think this is a good book due to it being interesting, funny, and intense all throughout the book.

Peer Review Comments

My peer review comments

Here are the comments I left for my tablemates' rough drafts...

For Karen:

I think that you did a good job so far with the characters, but I think you should really add another question to respond to since you only have about 600 words! Maybe you can write about the author's purpose of the book, like the point she is trying to get across?

For Eric:

I think you might need to add some quotes to add some words since you only have about 800 words. You should also take some summary out of this. It should have way more analysis. Plus, you can maybe add another question that you respond to.

For Devin:

First of all, get a more fitting title, haha. I thought that you saying this book wouldn't appeal to adults should have more evidence. I am sure a lot of adults would read the book not because of the cover. You might need some quotes that show this book is childish or something?