Thursday, February 8, 2018
Most difficult assignment
The most difficult assignment I had was an English paper back in Junior year of High School. The class was AP English Language and the purpose of the paper was to help us on document-based questions. Document-based question is one of the three essays that the AP test will test us on. Usually, the college board gives out 9-10 documents. They are about the same topic but have different viewpoint. The task is that the test taker has to form an opinion from reading the document and write an persuasive essay on it. In addition to that, the rubric indicates we have to reference all the sources given in the essay, whether it's in the form of quotes for detailed facts. Considering that the free response portion of the AP test is two hours and there is 3 essay to write, we knew we can only spend 40 min on each essay. However, this assignment is the elaborated version of the AP English Language exam on documented based questions. We can spend as long as we want on the paper, just before the due date. Our teacher gave us packets of documents on different topics on social issues, at least 5 documents for each topic. What makes the assignment so difficult has several reasons. First, the articles are hard reading. The text was very hard to understand and I had to read very closely to be able to follow the author's thought. Second, I have to read all of the document before I knew what I want to write, yes, like after reading 70 pages of articles on different topics. The third, to form my own opinion. I think the amount of article present contains enough opinion on the topic. I couldn’t think of any “new opinions” but also knowing that the paper is not going to pass over a B if I just simply write about how I agree with an opinion that has already been thought of. Fourth, there is a lot of requirement that restrains me: use all the documents given and use 2 more outside source. To manage the difficulty, I can only challenge myself by forcing me to read more articles and think about my own opinion. I also spend a ridiculous amount of time debating what was it that I want to write. What was my opinion? I revised and revised my paper until I felt sink from reading it. What I learn from the experience was that I learned I can overcome any difficulties as long as I put enough effort into it. When the teacher gave us the assignment, I thought it’s impossible for me. I complain it’s too hard. However, I can’t just let myself stress and don’t do anything. So I end up giving it the best shot, try as hard as I can. I ended up getting a B+ on the assignment. Though I was pissed, because my teacher had no idea how much I struggled and tried, I was still glad that I made through what I didn’t think I can.
Labels:
Xiaoyue Liu
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment