Timed Writing Corrections

If I Stay Timed Writing Essay

    I read the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I think the theme for this book is that you don’t really know or understand what you have until it is gone. In the book, the main character named Mia is in a car with her Mom, Dad, and little brother, teddy when they get in a car crash. Mia is the only survivor, and is in critical condition. The book is about her choice whether to fight and live, or choose to die and be with her family.

    I believe the theme of the book is shown when Mia’s family first gets in the car accident. Her “soul” leaves her body since she is in a critical stage, and she walks around the accident scene. Mia is screaming and crying, trying to figure out where everyone is and how they are doing. After a few minutes, she gets into the ambulance with her body and drives to the hospital. Mia thinks her family is only hurt and does not yet figure out that they are all dead. When the ambulance arrives at the hospital, Mia follows her body into surgery and finds some of  the doctors outside talking about a teenage girl who was in a bad car accident. They mention that the girl will be waking up an orphan and Mia starts to “break down.” Later when she finds out that Teddy is dead too, Mia wants to let herself die. Mia’s so upset that her little brother will never be able to drive a car, kiss a girl or go on a date, graduate high school, or start a family of his own. She’s heartbroken that she will never see him grow up. Because of the pain that Mia showed in the book when her family died, I believe that it supports the theme of the novel.

    I also think the theme of the book is shown when Adam is around Mia after the accident in the hospital. When Adam, Mia’s boyfriend, finds out what happened to Mia and her family he is playing at one of his biggest rock and roll band concerts. As soon as he hears the news, he rushes to the hospital to find Mia. When the nurses don’t let him see her because it’s “family only,” Adam makes a plan to sneak in and see her. He goes through all this trouble, just to be with his girlfriend. I believe that because Adam wants to see Mia so badly, it shows how much he loves and cares about her, even though he can be mean sometimes. When he was actually allowed in to see Mia, she still wasn’t showing any improvement. When Adam holds her hand in the hospital bed, Mia squeezes his hand for the first time since the accident. Therefore, I believe the theme of the book is shown when Adam cares so much for Mia and will do anything to be with her. It shows how much support she still has, even when her whole world is falling apart.

    The book If I Stay had many different themes and topics in it. When Mia shows so much
pain when she finds out her family died, she didn’t realize how truly amazing her family was until they were dead. Mia also didn’t realize how much Adam really loves her and cares for her until she loses her family and is on the verge of dying. These reasons support the decision to believe that the main theme in If I Stay by Gayle Forman is that  you don’t know what you have until you lose something or someone very important to you.

And Then There Were None Prompt

             In my And Then There Were None essay, I used many tactics to change and revise my paper before turning it in. Even though I used many different types of correcting reviews, the most helpful type of revision in my opinion, was the peer review checklist. I find it helps to check for simple mistakes such as commas, spelling, and grammar. By having a peer read and revise my paper, my peer found a couple sentences that didn’t make sense. I would have never thought to change the wording to make it more understandable for my reader.  Peer review also is helpful when you’re “stuck” and don’t know what to write next. Some specific changes I made to my paper before turning it in were getting rid of some commas, changing the wording of two of my sentences in my 3^rd paragraph, and adding more commentary in part two of my essay. I feel that continuing to revise my papers with peers will help to improve my writing over time. Another idea that I have to revise papers is to “speed read” papers in small groups. For example, a timer is set for two minutes and a group of four students will sit in a circle and pass their papers to the right. They would have two minutes to read the paper and make the changes that stand out the most. They would then keep passing the paper in a rotation so that everyone gets to read all of the papers in their group. I think this would be helpful because our papers would then get corrections from three or more people, and that may be very helpful to our grade.

            This year as a writer, I feel that I have so much room to improve. My goal for this year is to expand my vocabulary to help make my essays and papers less “elementary.” I also would like to make time for reading, because this summer I realized how much I really love it. I’m a very fast reader when I find a book that I love. Another goal for this year is to read at least 5 books that I really enjoy.