Kealan Neal-farr Neal-farr 1

Dr. Delaney

20 August 2018

English 1101

Difficulties of Writing Papers

When taking my AP Lit. class during my senior year, I felt that one of my biggest struggles were that I

had difficulty finding evidence to support my claims throughout the paper. During the year, my

instructor did not focus too much on the aspects of finding evidence as much as just writing papers and

this will put me at a disadvantage this semester. My first semester in this class I want to be able to write

in a thorough manner instead of using generalizations. Last year, for example, I would take all of the

evidence I found and not explain why it supported my claims throughout the paper. Taking this to the

next level, I want to be able to not over explain and put too much detail in each paragraph and be

concise with my thoughts.

Another substantial problem I saw throughout my senior year English class was that I could not find a

way to extend my writing past the minimum. Say I had a two-page paper to write on The Great Gatsby

and the prompt was something to do with the symbolism of the colors? I would go in circles and repeat

ideas that I’ve previously stated, not providing any point to the paper. I see this as one of my biggest

flaws in papers that I have written in the past and want to be able to correct that during this semester

along with finding and supporting evidence in my papers. I think my goal would mainly be to try and

develop a stronger way of finding and supporting each example I use.