Anna Spencer's Blog

Student Achieves the Highest Honor Ever; Then Realizes Nobody in the Real World Cares On Thursday, March 21st, a high school near Troy, Michigan has achieved the highest honor on the planet. Named the valedictorian for her outstanding GPA of a 2.37, Jessica Johnson spent her high school career taking advanced classes and excelling in them.  She was also involved in many extracurriculars, such as lacrosse, swim, and soccer. Her senior year, she participated in the foundation of a charity that supplies uniforms to high income areas of the city. Because of her high standing achievements, she has been accepted into the top schools around her hometown. She has decided to further pursue her education at a cheap online school, so she can continue to work as a babysitter for the parents in her neighborhood. However, her award speech was scheduled the following day, to be in the auditorium during 3rd hour, which was everyone’s free study hall period. The school board was al...

We, as living things, use many different things to communicate: body language, gestures, facial expressions, etc. But since we are humans, we can communicate in more complex ways than just that; we have spoken language, specifically English. Our language is so complex that it's not uniform/cut and dry for everyone. There are certain words that we, as a society, have determined are only to be used in formal or informal settings, as well as the syntax. For example, in a formal essay or presentation, jargon used on whatever topic is being presented is utilized in order for the speaker to be given some credibility by the audience. The speaker using words that only someone within a certain interest group would thoroughly comprehend demonstrates that the speaker themselves have been in that situation, and they know the language the interest group uses. However, this jargon is not limited to only formal use. Jargon such as slang and slang phrases are frequently used in informal settings, ...

Throughout this semester, I've grown greatly as a writer. To be honest, a lot of my writing skills were lost over the summer, as I wasn't frequently writing or reading as I was during the school year. But many of the skills I had previously gained quickly came back to me as the semester went on and I practiced more. I reread what I had written in essays and short responses and quickly picked up on what I needed to improve on; such as using more specific evidence/quotes. By the end of the semester, I feel much more comfortable picking out quotes to use and I now use several per paragraph, which greatly strengthens my argument. I have accomplished having great analysis, a thorough intro and conclusion, a strong thesis, as well as plenty of quotes, however I haven't had them put all into one essay yet. For next semester, I must remember to include all of these essentials parts of an essay into my writing, instead of getting lazy or sloppy with it. To accomplish this, I am go...