Dear reader,

            You will observe three of my English assignments, where I discuss different topics in depth. My first paper is my literary narrative, “Books Are Not So Bad After All,” where I describe my journey with my opposition to reading literature and how it eventually changed my life for the better. My second paper is my exploratory essay, “Lovesickness: The Downfall of Love,” where I discuss with research the ancient term lovesickness and its impact in classical literature. Finally, I present my critical analysis paper, “Women and Sadomasochism: Not a Pleasant Mix” where I discuss how women are represented as the weak sex that will always be subdued by a male and backing it up with scholarly research. In this paper, I will talk about the choices I made throughout the essays, strengths, weaknesses, and how they could be improved.

    Writing “Books Are Not So Bad After All” was a chance to present my journey with literature and to demonstrate how changing my perspective toward books changed my life. My purpose was to guide the reader through a point in my life and give them a glimpse of how it helped me overcome an awkward stage in my life. My intent in this literacy narrative was not to sound technical and distant. On the contrary, I wanted to establish a connection with the reader and not portray myself as emotionally detached. In the end, I wanted to show how reading helped me become a better person, but I did not want to state it, I wanted to show through events my transformation. However, there are things that I would have done differently in the paper. For instance, the structure of the essay is adequate until I integrate the dialogue. I found myself confused about how to break them apart, and some were a separate paragraph while other conversations were part of the section.

Another thing I would have done differently is to add more information on what was happening during the days that were leading to my moving to New York. I mention, “A number of days passed, and my mother told us that we were going to move to the United States.” I could have explained what was taking place in my life during those days, how I was feeling emotionally, so when I talk about how hard the change was for me, how that transition was changing me, the readers could sympathize more how literature impacted my growth. Moreover, I could have improved my grammar as well since punctuation has a significant impact on how a message is delivered. I find grammar a bit confusing because sometimes I attempt to translate sentences from Spanish to English and they wind up not having the same meaning in English or puzzle the reader since the verbs, and sentence structure is different. I could have improved some sentences so the paragraphs could be stronger and smoother.

One of the decisions that I am proud I made throughout this paper is my use of imagery. One of my primary purposes was to make the reader live the experiences I lived and feel as if they were there with me. Therefore, at the very beginning of the story, I described in detail what was happening in my surroundings, and I firmly believe that it is the most substantial part of my essay. Additionally, If I compare my writing in this essay with my writing in high school, there is significant progress because when I had to write about a narrative or an important event in my life, I did not know the strategies I learned with this literacy narrative. For instance, I used to shift from present tense to past tense when writing my stories and it was difficult to understand what I was trying to convey because both techniques have an impact on how you deliver the message instead of choosing one method for the entire paper. However, my professor gave me suggestions to choose one verb tense and remain in it. For the first draft, I still shifted from past tense to present tense, but for the final draft, I managed to stay in one verb tense and succeed in what I was trying to convey. I dedicated much time to this literary narrative because it was important to me to successfully share such a personal and vital part of my life. Additionally, I paid close attention to my peers’ comments as well as my professor’s feedback, which made my essay more coherent in terms of structure and grammar. As a result, my purpose was more precise, and it made the paper better in every aspect.

The second paper I will introduce is my exploratory essay, “Lovesickness: The Downfall of Love.” In this essay, I discuss the famous ancient term lovesickness, its impact on classical literature, and how its symptoms could affect the human body physically and psychologically. I chose to research this topic because since I was young, the feeling of love meant power and bliss to me. However, I did not think of its dark consequences on people; thus, I wanted to do research about lovesickness and how it has influenced literature and the toll that it takes on people. Moreover, the research was an overwhelming part because it was through the CCNY database and it took time to find a reputable source but once I was able to find my sources it was not difficult to know how to develop the essay. At the time of this essay, I was learning about how in some literary works lovesickness is depicted and how to interpret what the character of a story said that references lovesickness; this knowledge was a great tool to use to add to my paper since it helped my argument and understand the topic better. Additionally, there are sections of the essay that if I would improve. For instance, my analysis of some of my sources do not capture the overall meaning of the research, and I believe the essay could have been better if I achieved to capture what the author truly meant, I believe that my analysis could have been more valid. Moreover, I think my argument could have been less ambiguous because I state two of my focuses in my thesis, however, I touch briefly one of the focuses which are how lovesickness harms an individual psychologically. I would add more information to have an equal balance of details of my two discussions. Another thing I would change is how I arranged some of the paragraphs because I do not believe they flow together very well. I would break some sections to make my ideas and statements flow with ease since the subject is very dense and if I am not careful how I present the issue the reader could lose interest or not understand the subject due to the extra details.

The best parts of this essay are how I synthesized my research with my analysis because it represents that I have a full understanding of the subject. As a result, I engage the reader in the subject, and I take that as an accomplishment because this subject is dense, and it can be overwhelming due to all of the information it entails. Moreover, the content is strong since I was able to use reliable sources, and I integrated outside knowledge, which helps my goal of successfully demonstrating how harmful love can be. Also, the conclusion was a strong section since I connected the subject with modern times and how humans react to “lovesickness” in the present and refer to it as “heartbreak” and concluded that it does not matter the distinct interpretations love has had, it will always be felt the same way. Moreover, I explored a different area of writing where I used more techniques where I compared situations, I explained how some things worked, or classified terms so the reader could have a smooth understanding of the subject. This paper was the first exploratory essay I had ever done so I had to explore different styles of writing and techniques such as synthesizing ideas, comparing subjects, and defining terms and I believe I did these areas correctly. Before writing my paper online I always make a small draft in a sheet of paper because my ideas flow faster, and it helps me think clearly since I study and learn better when I put my thoughts down in writing before typing them in my computer. This technique has helped me in many assignments, and I have been successful. Overall, this paper helped me significantly to understand how I would do my next research paper.

My final paper is my critical analysis research paper, “Women and Sadomasochism: Not a Pleasant Mix” where I discuss how sadomasochism takes place in the literary work First Love by Ivan Turgenev and how he portrays females as the sex that is dominated by men. This subject was hard to research since in 19th-century sadomasochism in literature was a subject that was related to men instead of women since women were not perceived as beings that could cause pain for their benefit or submit to a man to gain pleasure. However, I consulted my Russian Literature professor, and she provided suggestions of sources I could use. My intent was not to summarize the story and then apply the research to it but to analyze certain dialogues or scenes that support my argument and apply my research as a support for my discussion. I wanted to talk about the character and dedicate paragraphs discussing masochism and sadomasochism individually so the reader could have a perspective of how the character behaves under two different behaviors. However, I believe that this paper could be improved in its organization because some ideas did not flow smoothly, and the reader could have a hard time understanding the purpose. Moreover, my thesis was not very clear or easy to identify, and it was hard for the reader to know what I was arguing. Also, the paragraphs do not connect very well to one section to the next; some of the transitions are abrupt. My word choice regarding my analysis could be improved because the reader could find the reading confusing and not focused on the main point. Also, the conclusion could be perceived as “messy” because I have ideas and thought that do not correlate very well together.

    I believe, however, that the best part of my essay is my evidence. I spent a significant amount of time finding the appropriate sources to have a competent analysis, and it worked successfully. I integrated the sources smoothly into my analysis, where the reader can engage in the argument and understand my reasoning and how it is valid. Also, my writing in this paper improved because I explored more in-depth the same areas that I have been writing about throughout the course. However, this improvement took work and practice since I wrote my statements in a piece of paper to have a concrete idea of what I will argue in the essay. This paper made me explore ideas and techniques that I had not thought about because of everything that I had to take into account. 

    I put a lot of dedication and effort into each paper. Even though they are not perfect, and some sections dissatisfy me, they do capture me as a student and writer. I am satisfied with the overall outcome of these papers because they remind me that writing takes patience and effort, and those are the two things that I put in every piece in this portfolio. This course has taught me things about writing that I did not think existed, and I have applied them to my writing in every sense. I read articles about different genres and even discovered new styles of writing. These papers represent a small part of me and who I was. I genuinely hope you enjoyed reading them and receive the message that I tried to convey.

Truly yours,

Liz C. Mercedes

Header Photo: Sangui Andrea