Throughout this school year in my English 101 class I have learned a lot of things about myself as a writer. For one, I discovered various different weaknesses and strengths of mine that I showcased in my essays. For example, I learned that one of my strengths is that I am fast on my feet when it comes to figuring out the ideas and/or themes when writing an essay. Though I can quickly develop main ideas for my essay topics, one of my main weaknesses that I struggled with was fully expanding on my ideas l, as in why I chose them and in what ways did they connect with the prompt. Specifically, I struggled with Rhetorical Analysis. With my rhetorical analysis, I would simply state my idea and use a quote in reference to it, but I had trouble with thoroughly explaining how the particular device or method of persuasion I chose connected with the authors purpose and how he or she used this device to convey their message to their audience. In addition to my troubles with Rhetorical Analysis, one thing that greatly impacted the quality of my essays were the time restraints I was put under. Due to me needing preparation for the AP Exam, Mrs. Williams-Arnold has us writing the Argument, Rhetorical Analysis, and Synthesis Essays you see in this digital portfolio in 50 minutes. Those 50 minutes consisted of reading the prompt, reading and analyzing the text—if any was provided—, and our response to the prompt. I was not accustomed to writing a full essay in such a short amount of time. This caused many of my essays to be rushed and not thoroughly written because I was trying to finish my essay before the end of our class period. As the year went along and I was able to practice writing under these time constraints, I was able to improve my speed and efficiency. Throughout my portfolio, multiple different essays I’ve written in my junior year. Personally, I feel like my worst essays submitted are my rhetorical analysis because while I was able to finish many of my essays, I could never fully grasp how to expand on my ideas without relying so much on quotes from the passage. I feel as though my best essay submitted were my synthesis essay. I feel this way because this was the last type of essay that was written so when I was introduced to the synthesis essays, I was very familiar with the concept of how to write my essay and what was required of me. One thing I learned this year was the importance of constructive criticism. I have always been self conscious about my writing because though my pieces are good, I felt as if they were not good enough for anybody else to read them. Peer revision has caused me to realize how much improvement you can make by having class mates read over your essays and give you tips on what you can do to improve your essay. All in all, having Mrs. Williams-Arnold’s class has caused me to become more confident in my writing. It had taught me how now to be so source of text driven how to thoroughly write various different types of essays. I am excited to use my new learned skills and strengths to further develop my skills as a writer.