Sajeda Ahmad 

May 24, 2019 

 
Writing Portfolio and Capstone 
 
As I began my journey as a freshman in high school, I was starting to be 

exposed to different types of language and literature that I have never been aware 

of before. I have been learning things besides how to write a complete sentence, or 

learning how to read a fairytale on my own. I am now opened up to new 

experiences and the reality of reading and writing. From the beginning of my 

freshman year to the very ending of my senior year, I will be portraying my work and 

growth as learner of reading, writing, and thinking. Through different forms of writing 

such as: argumentative, research, analysis, and reflective essays, it is now clear to 

me how much I have advanced. I am now able to give more ideas by thinking 

deeper when writing, keeping my work consistent and organized with one focus or 

goal, and most importantly, finding my voice to be able to portray my real insights of 

specific ideas. As I go onto college, I now have the skills that will ease my way into 

learning how to develop and write about ideas as a scholar.  

Before I begin with my work as a freshman, I shall say that my comprehension 

of reading and writing was not the best. I always wanted to get everything out of the 

way and just complete my work because “I had to”. My essays were unorganized, 

and mainly focused on summaries of readings, articles, plays, etc., even though that 

was not supposed to be the main focus of my work. For example, my freshman year, 

I wrote an essay in my world studies class about Andrew Jackson. In the essay I 
wrote, “Our second reason was that Jackson helped prevent an early Civil War. The 

Civil War would have been started because of taxes and payments. But luckily 

Jackson was there to make a compromise tariff during the 1830s.” This was one 

whole body “paragraph” in my essay. Obviously I had no experience in containing 

evidence, analyzing or connecting to my claim. As I reflect on how I used to work 

my freshman year, there was no coherence, no ideas developed, no organization, 

and clearly no voice in this argumentative essay. However, as I go onto my 

sophomore year, I slowly began to improve. 

Next, going into my sophomore year, I thought I was an expert at essays by 

this point. Well, the joke was on me, I did receive okay grades on my work, however; 

I was never able to understand why I never had a perfect score. It seemed as if no 

matter how much effort I put into my writings, it was never enough for my teachers. 

But as I look back, I can see that even with my hard work, I had never payed 

attention to what I was supposed to focus on, plus, my grammar was not the best 

either. For example, in an argumentative essay I wrote that was about gun control, I 

ended one of my body paragraphs with, “This evidence shows that people believe 

that if you use guns the right way, no harm would be done and that guns could be 

used more as a self-defense.” Yes, I did rewrite the evidence I just cited in my own 

words, but I did not explain the evidence. Nor did I give a reason as to why this piece 

of evidence should support my argument, which shows how the coherence of my 

essay was very weak. In a literary analysis essay written my sophomore year about 

Macbeth, I was answering a prompt about the supernatural forces in the play. In my 
essay I wrote, “The setting of the play is based in Forres, Scotland. The first act of 

the play starts off with three witches speaking to Macbeth...And that concludes the 

first two acts of the play”. Instead of answering and making a claim in my 

introduction paragraph, which took up a full page, I summarized the whole story and 

then answered the prompt in my second paragraph. The organization of my essay 

was not clear at all and did make my essays a bit unprofessional. But it is okay, 

because with the feedback I received from my teachers based on how my essays 

were structured and what they focused on, I had the chance to develop and learn 

more going into my junior year. 

My junior year of high school was definitely one of my most difficult years, 

especially considering the fact that I was taking an AP English Language and 

Composition course after being in regulars English for two years. I was nervous 

about making the choice to take a more difficult ranking class, but by the end of the 

year I was glad I made that choice because I have become an amazing writer. My AP 

English class was constantly involving essays in preparation for the AP exam. I must 

have written about 30 handwritten essays for that class alone! But these essays 

helped me advance in writing my literary analysis and creative/reflective works. Not 

to exclude the fact that in my Contemporary History class we wrote a ton of essays 

as well, which helped me develop in my argument essay writing. For example, in my 

history class I wrote about women in the 1950s and how they were depicted to be 

happy housewives, when they really were not. In the essay, I included, “This shows 

how women were stereotyped….Young women were even taught how to be good 
housewives while they were in school…” After starting with my claim and my first 

body paragraph I explained and used analysis on the piece of evidence I have used 

in the essay. I also connected back the analysis of that evidence to my claim which 

was why women in the 1950s were not happy housewives. In another literary 

analysis essay written in my AP english class about Shakespeare’s classic ​A 

Midsummer Night’s Dream​, I had to think about reality. I made a stance about reality 

and what it really is. In the essay, I wrote, “Reality has many connotations, such as 

what occurs to be an emotion and what might appear to be a misperception. Reality 

is surely not an illusion, and does occur on a daily basis in this world. The true 

meaning of reality is what one already believes in, based on material facts”. In this 

essay I was able to find my voice, my true interpretation of a topic that needs one’s 

own ideas to make a stance. And I took that chance to make a point and use what I 

know and want to say. My junior year of high school helped me develop in 

organization, finding my voice, and progress ideas into my works. 

Finally, during my senior year, I have evolved into a scholar of reading, writing 

and thinking that I never would have thought of. To begin with, I took another AP 

English course which strengthened every aspect of what I have been learning in 

literature. In one research essay about a book I have read called ​Beloved,​ I took a 

perspective on women. In the essay I wrote “The strongest individuals to have ever 

existed. Males have never had to experience the amount of agony of what women, 

specifically minority women, have coped with….This is my time to stance my voice 

and give out my opinions about the issue, I will address every detail I know and have 
just to spread some awareness”. This is a small excerpt from my introduction 

paragraph where I began to address what my perspective is. I am so extremely 

proud of this essay due to how much effort I put into it because it was all 100% my 

voice. Not a single point in writing this essay was I stuck or confused on what to say. 

And that was when I knew, I found my voice. In another research essay written in the 

midst of my senior year, I was working on an essay for a sociology class that I was 

taking at Wright College. This essay was written for my final exam grade and it was 

about religion and social institutions. In this essay I was able to develop my 

coherence and organization, for example, “All things considered, the social 

institution of religion is an important aspect of the daily lives of human beings....It 

never came to my mind on how much of an impact religion has on one’s daily 

decisions and actions”. By the end of this essay I had the development of a better 

and new outlook on religion, I taught myself more by researching. I knew that I was 

writing this essay the right way when I realized I learned more, which made me 

realize the development of my ideas and coherence of my essays have significantly 

advanced over the past four years. Lastly, a literary analysis essay written my senior 

year about a book called ​Ceremony ​was there to show my work in including my 

ideas and voice. For example, “In America, raising a child means to mind your own 

business and worry about your family, but in Africa, to raise a child there is a popular 

saying which is “It takes a village to raise a child.” What Callero is trying to imply is 

the myth of individualism that is taken place in American culture. The myth has an 

important impact on how people in this country act in comparison to other nations. 
This connects with Silko’s myths through the patterns of culture and how stories 

have an impact on what different cultures believe and how they act.” In this portion 

of my essay I can clearly connect my own interpretations of myth and culture to the 

book that I was reading. Developing my thoughts, figuring out my coherence, 

finding my voice, and learning how to organize and structure essays were all 

evolved as I became a senior. Now that I will be heading towards college these 

aspects will be moving forwards with me. 

With all to conclude, my journey of language and literature throughout high 

school has shown my growth as a reader, writer and thinker. With all the knowledge 

that I have gained to develop my voice, organization, coherence and evolving ideas, 

I have demonstrated growth as a scholar. As my senior year comes to an end, what I 

have gained throughout these four years will be carried onto my journey in college, 

and I will have my teachers to thank for it.