Jenna Podgorny

May 27, 2019

Ms. O’Keefe
AP Literature

Four Years Through Literature

Confucious once said, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection,

which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the

bitterest.” In high school, as I was finding myself as a person, I also happened to find myself as a

writer. My time in Chicago Academy High School has inspired me to become a better writer

both academically and personally from argumentative and persuasive essays freshman year that

would take hours to free writes my junior and senior year that I would only have just a few

minutes to write whatever I felt about at that time. Both styles of writing have influenced my

writing style to make improvements to my diction, organization, and creativity.

Diction, the word choice of the writer, can determine if a piece is exceptional or only

substantial. When looking back to the first piece I wrote my freshman year, a very short

narrative, it was very literal to how I felt instead of using a more profound choice of words so the

reader could be there, yet understand the emotions of myself and the other characters mentioned.

Comparing that piece to a short story I wrote my junior year titled, ​They Focus On the Looks​, the

piece I wrote my junior year, with the diction I used, makes freshman year me proud of what I

have created as a writer within myself. For example, in the short narrative, I wrote, “He hurt me

every time he left, not knowing where he was going, or when he was going back.” Although this

sentence is very to the point the diction is poor compared to other pieces of writing that I created
as time went on. In my short story ​They Focus On the Looks ​I wrote, “The first thing Barbara

thought of was how many people could be watching her up there. She thought of how much

room there was to move and saw the large area where the instruments were sitting. Suddenly, she

heard three different high pitched voices heading her way, she quickly ran out and out the back

door, hitting the “audition this way” sign on the way out.” When comparing this to the before

stated quote two years before I wrote this, it is obvious that my choice of diction has matured.

Instead of being very upfront and blunt with the audience, I put the character’s feelings into a

scene where others may be able to relate to or put themselves in that situation and are able to

understand Barbara’s, the main character in ​They Focus On the Looks, ​feelings at that moment

through word choice. Another example from the same two pieces is the difference when

describing doubt. In my freshman year narrative, I made the remark, “My sister would say “It’s

fine, dad’s coming back,” even if I didn’t believe her. I was right.” Comparing it to “She turned

to look at the Palace Theater, thinking it was for the last time, not knowing she would walk in

with her Mary Janes again soon…” from my short story continues the idea the diction can make

or break a piece. This is because even though I could have made the quotation from TFOTL very

broad, I decided I wanted to leave the audience wondering why instead of my first piece where I

just told the audience specifically that my dad simply just never came back. There was no

curiosity, wanting to read more, or even me wanting to write more. From this, I’ve learned the

better my writing is and the more I’m interested in the topic or story myself, the more creative I

am and the more I want to continue to write to make the piece even better whether it’s through

diction or even the structure.

 The organization of one’s writing contains the order of ideas that the writer has about a

specific topic. With this, should come a well structured essay or piece of writing that shares a

relative idea throughout the entire piece as well as the writer’s stance towards the beginning.

When something is well organized, the ideas of the writer will flow and link multiple ideas into

one big picture. An important piece of advice I ​now​ follow in my writing is that less can be

more. When looking back at papers I used to write compared to today, I focused a great deal of

how many paragraphs I had and how long that piece was. For example, when writing a paper in

my sophomore year argumentative literacy class, although it is long, it becomes repetitive. For

example, I continue to say, “the book was more descriptive, showed different roles of characters,

different perspectives, and key events that occurred in it and not the movie…” I used this

example because even though it was a long written essay, the cohesiveness of said essay was

unorganized because I was so focused on the length. When comparing to one of many timed

writings I wrote this year as a senior in high school, the organization has improved, and is not

unnecessarily long in length. Instead, in only two paragraphs instead of seven, I was able to

prove the author’s point, use evidence, have an analysis, and conclude my writing in a

well-organized paper that also portrayed emotion. Unlike my sophomore year, the elongated

structure only proved a point as I did not keep in mind the characters I was speaking about as I

do now. In my second prose timed writing, I stated, “Aloma, a twelve year old girl at the time,

always wanted more than what she was given. Morgan has shown the audience throughout this

passage what she wants and why she feels the way she does through literary elements in order to

convey her responses while she’s going through multiple changes…” I continue later in the paper

by stating, “First arriving, the audience is able to tell the hurt and anger that Aloma felt when
Morgan states, “Only that first night she found that her eyes stung and to make them stop she

turned face down into her pillow and let them tear with her mouth open raged against the cotton

ticking.” This is important because it shows that only in a few lines I was able to give the

audience a claim, an emotion of the main character I was discussing, evidence as to why Aloma

felt this way, as well as an analysis which would take me a paragraph or two alone to explain a

couple of years back. After reflecting on this, I am proud of the changes I’ve made within the

organization alone of my writing. It’s refreshing when I feel a sense of togetherness when

reading essays I’ve written this year and comparing them to last year to see that I’ve only grown

instead of taking a step back not only with the structure of my pieces but the creativity as well.

It took me until my senior year to realize that creativity in writing is just as important as

diction and structure. In my sophomore year, I was placed into creative writing, however, I

didn’t take advantage of the chance when I had it. I was looking back at a poem I had written in

the class to realize how uninspired I was and how that had reflected in my poetry. When writing

the poem ​YoungLove​ I didn’t focus on the subject, it was uninspiring, and the audience could

only focus on one main thing of the poem - love. I repeated, uncreatively, what young love

consisted of at the time. In the poem I wrote, “But what can I do for truelove? I’ve heard the

truth and lies... Yes it’s Younglove There’s going to be a compromise.” Reading this now, I can

tell that the poem lacks real feelings and has no ​real​ story behind it, unlike the poems I’ve

written since I’ve started AP Literature my senior year. I can confidently say that I have become

more creative and more intuned with my writing. For example, in the middle of my senior year, I

wrote a poem called ​His Plan.​ The poem was discussing a dark period of time I went through
where I thought I was going to lose my twin brother to type 1 diabetes. As odd as this sounds,

this experience brought out creativity and led me to write this poem to show the audience how I

felt in that very moment, but used a more mature list of words to do so, unlike my sophomore

year. Instead of being boring and using the word ‘love’ in almost every line, I was able to

express my feelings by being more creative: “As the sounds from scattering feet And the sounds

of machines fill the room I find myself drifting into an abyss Slowly pulling away from what

could be nothing but doom I wait for the chaos to subside…” It is obvious that the more I’ve

grown up, the better choice of words I use, however, it is the creativeness and emotion of this

poem that I believe really touches others. Unlike before, I am able to put my feelings down into

words in a creative way which has led me to nothing but success in the past, and I will continue

to become even more creative as my writing career continues.

All in all, throughout my four years at Chicago Academy High School, I have become a

better writer overall. Though, as much as I’ve learned about writing through trial and error of my

own, reading is a great component as to why I have improved immensely as a writer. For as

much as I’ve written, I have read just as much which has given me even more knowledge into

the world of diction, organization, and creativity of other writing styles that I have been able to

incorporate into my own writing. After a few bumps in the road and a great deal of advice and

rubrics, I have improved as both a writer and reader overall. I have become more confident in

each piece I write and can proudly say I’ve become a stronger student since starting my high

school career. I will continue to use these skills both in my academic life as well as personal life

and continue writing pieces that have meaning to me.