Claire Coleman

Honors English I 

Mrs. Belden

15 September 2014

Divergent Timed Writing

This summer I read the novel Divergent written by Veronica Ross. One of the many themes is: Family is forever and will love you no matter what happens. Two ways this is  shown is when Tris has to make the hard decision to stay in Abnegation or transfer to a different faction, and when Tris’s mom still visits her after her faction transfer.

First, every sixteen year old in Tris’s skewed world needs to decide which faction (basically factions are like countries specializing in different things) to live in for the rest of their life. It is not shined upon to change factions. Tris, however; switched from Abnegation, plain and simple, to Dauntless, risk takers and very bold. This relates back to the theme family is forever and will love you no matter what happens because it was such a hard decision weather Tris should stay loyal to her faction, but mostly her family she loves, or stay loyal to herself. Deciding to change factions or remain in your original faction is a hard decision for all sixteen year olds. Some take this as selfishness but most children don't want to hurt their family, only do what is best for their future as an adult. Tris felt confident and knew her family would love her dearly no matter what even if there was a little bit of uproar at the beginning about her new Dauntless life. 

Secondly, once Tris converted to Dauntless from Abnegation, she always wanted to see her family again but never expected to to because of her change. Eventually, her mom showed up and explained to her how proud she was of her. Really her mom showed up so Tris could help out Caleb, her brother, in his faction, but that was only for loving reasons also. Tris’s mom showing up in the Dauntless area to help out both of her children shows how much care and love she has for both of them. Even though both kids left their parents alone, one of the absolute worst things to do, she still had a big enough heart to want good and happiness for her only children. This is an outstanding way shown in Divergent on how family is forever and will love you constantly. 

As you can tell, the love in Tris’s family is huge. These are just two ways out of many showing that. 

Metacognitive Post: And Then There Were None

Claire Coleman

September 17, 2014

          From my first draft to my last, many things changed. In my first draft, I didn't have enough commentary so I added a bunch but also changed punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. Also, I couldn't decide how I wanted to map out my first paragraph. At first I started writing and answering all the required questions, but I didn't like how it sounded and I didn't like how I put it together. I ended up creating it into a story but still answering all the questions at the same time. 

         Honestly, I think the most effective form of support that helped my create my final draft of my essay was the peer review checklist. I think this was helpful because it was feedback from someone who is also writing the same thing, knows the requirements and what other classmates thoughts are about writing. Along with peer editing, I also like adult feedback (I always give my dad things to check) because they are good with checking your grammar, spelling and knowing if things sound good together. I didn't put adult feedback as my number one favorite source of help because adults may know the grammar piece of essays, but they don't know the requirement part. I think meeting the requirements of a project is important. Saying this, the written feedback on my timed writing was very helpful too. I like knowing what I do wrong so I can improve it on a following activity. Continuing this year, peer editing and teacher feedback will definently help me in writing essays. I always have a parent check my writing! 

          I believe I am a pretty good writer but defiantly have room to improve. One goal of mine this year is to change and switch up how my writing sounds. I think I always use the same words and my writing always sounds similar just with a different topic. I also think my grammar skills are not too good; I am especially not good at placing commas.