Going From Garbage Fire to Prison Shakespeare (A)

"Banneker uses the rhetorical devices of using Jefferson's own experiences and words against him, using a harsh tone, and using contrasting language to both inform Jefferson that slavery is hypocritical to American ideals and persuade him to abolish slavery."

This trash can on fire was my writing in September

      The word use is in there four times. Jesus, no wonder I got a 4 on it. I've just reread the Benjamin Banneker piece I wrote and it really is just hot garbage. I didn't even write a concluding paragraph to it either. That was my very beginning of the year work. 
     I did improve. By November I could get a 6 without trying like on the Queen Elizabeth I rhetorical analysis. Mostly because I then knew how to create a proper thesis.

"Elizabeth I juxtaposes the enemies and her people by providing unfavorable and favorable language, creates long sentence structure, and enhances her speech with her strategic use of pronouns in order to empower her troops, ultimately moving them to fight valiantly for England."

     I improved further from these pieces. I could get an easy 7 by the time we finished rhetorical analysis. Or maybe not easy. Easier than the beginning of the year. Not really easy still though.
     I'm happy we did rhetorical analysis first. The way it's set up is perfect. It made it a lot easier for me to write my argument (B) and synthesis (C) essays because rhetorical analysis is all very technical. It's just about good writing and getting to the why and how of it. It was an interesting learning process for me because I'd always done more creative pieces or opinionated essays. Never just point blank write this, tell me why they did this, how did they show it, give me the details but don't add fluff.  Learning how to do that first set me up for success in the next sections. I learned how to write properly and then I could actually apply it to what I did (A).
     I really do think it has helped my writing so much. I can write an entire essay in under an hour now. The fastest one I did this year was 30 minutes. That's wack. It used to take me hours to write a full essay. Now I can bang one out like it's my job. 
     It toughened me up. I'll thank the Banneker 4 for my writing skills today. Without my lowest lows I wouldn't be able to reach my highest highs. McMahon said "by the end of this year you'll be able to write yourself out of a Russian prison" and I thought she was lying. I didn't think that learning rhetorical analysis would help me all that much in the beginning. Но теперь я думаю, что мой тезис поразит охранников (But now I think that my thesis will impress the guards).

Me and the guard bonding over my essays