Acknowledgements

 Starting off, Schnoodles [Kian], I cannot begin to express my deepest gratitude for your valuable

inputs in class. With the diversity that you bring to the class and the unique (somewhat) advice you give

in order to improve my essays, I can guarantee that my essay average went from an 80 to a strong 82.

Partner writes with you have always been fun since you bring unique analysis into our writing.

Dhruv, where do I even begin, your constant reminders to put my cellular device away has really saved me from a lot of trouble. For all the times you helped me through my assignments when I didn’t know what was going on, for all the times that you decided to be my partner knowing that you were getting yourself into a mess, thank you. Collaborating with you has always been a learning experience for me.

Mithun, I really have to thank you for making me laugh almost every day at the sheer stupidity of your comments. Granted you still have those moments where you shine through and show your intellectual ability. Jokes aside, you were one of the people who made English a more enjoyable class. Bringing the skills you learnt from AP seminar, you made sure to make good points that constantly improved my analytical skills that helped me throughout the year.

Jaesung, the so-called “group leader”, every day spent with you in English has been a day where I learnt something new, be it a useful piece of information or a completely nonsensical one. Reading your computer science blogs has always been an enjoyable read. Your positive critiques on my essays and my writing in general has helped me become the writer I am today. 

Andy, for being the one person at our table that does not participate in the slightly disruptive daily activities, for being that anchor to our chaos, thank you for actually sitting with us and making insightful points during our  “turn and talk” discussions. Thank you for being the only normal person in our group.

Thank you to all of the people in my class who indirectly helped my analytical skills through the many seminars we had throughout the year. As much as I disliked walking into a classroom and seeing desks arranged into circles, I have to admit after each seminar, I walked out learning something new that improved my observation and analytical skills.

Throughout the year, there have been many assignments that I have done, each one more exasperating than the one before. Yet as I read through them again, I could visibly see improvement. Taking my blogs for example, I looked at the first one I wrote – on the Taj Mahal – and compared it with one of the more recent ones – hedonistic calculus- and I saw my vocabulary, style, and structure improve by a considerable margin. I am very grateful for Mrs. Valentino (who assigned them) and for all my classmates and friends (who I can’t name due to the sheer number of them) who helped me become the writer and reader I am today.  

Another important part of my growth was the many partner writes we did in class. Again I can’t thank my table mates and classmates for their positive criticisms that developed my writing skills. I remember one of the first partner writes that we did, our feedback was a 0-3-0 (I still don’t know how that is possible). As much as I was annoyed at the people who I thought were being too picky on the details, I am very grateful for that fact that they did so. Critiquing myself is obviously going to be biased, and getting a third-party opinion on my work really helped me focus on my tone, style, and analysis of essays.

Speaking of essays, the comparison between our own essays and the well scoring essays every Friday have helped me so much. I do have to thank Anish Anarajan, the Indian kid who went to Princeton university, always giving us the best essays to take as inspiration. Taking for example one of my first few essays, the one on disability by Nancy Mairs, I got an 85 (one of my lowest scores) due to my essay lacking a lot of nuance. I also noticed that my wording was very choppy, making my essay not sound smooth. But in one of my more recent essays, such as the one on the letter by Abigail Adams, I noticed how I managed to pick up on the small details such as the background of the author, the time and circumstances during which the letter was written. I also noticed how my essay flowed much better since I was able to take inspiration from the analysis and transitions used in the sample essays we analyzed in class. 

The Schoology discussions we had were yet another aspect of this class that I enjoyed a lot. At least in my opinion, me and table-mates made it a humorous way to still give positive criticism. As they were fun, I enjoyed reading and analyzing other people’s works, which greatly improved my own abilities. Looking at mistakes that others were making and contrasting and checking to see if I made those mistakes while simultaneously receiving feedback from others made improving my writing skills more fun and easier.

Lastly but certainly not the least, Mrs. Valentino, boy oh boy, where do I even begin, thank you for everything. From always tolerating me and my table’s antics to guiding me through my essays and helping me become a better reader and writer, I am extremely grateful to you. All those assignments you gave us – which I thought were completely pointless – really developed and honed my reading and writing skills. As much as I hated reading packets, annotating them, and having seminars, I have to admit they really taught me a lot, not just about writing but about life and the world itself. Thank you for not only making English one of my favorite subjects, but also making English a memorable experience, through things like the play we watched in Detroit. Thank you for all the effort you have put in in order to make us truly understand that “Literature is Life”.