Gil 1

Hamin Gil

Mrs. Steelman

AP Literature

2 February 2017

Regarding the first semester, my goals were initially very simple: to improve my reading

efficiency and to pass the class with a high A. However, as time proved that AP literature was not

a class to be put off to the side, I set more specific goals for myself: to gain more focus when

writing papers; to not only read quickly, but also to retain information well enough to remember

key details rather than the mere gist of a novel; and to prevent myself from getting my points

mixed up while writing essays, making sure that they all relate back to the main point in some

sort of fashion.

Reflecting upon my efforts during the last semester, I believe that I have made strides in

achieving my goals, although they have not been fully accomplished. While my focus continues

to breaks at times while working on essays, I am not as easily swayed as I was in the past, being

able to focus for long periods of time before taking a break. In fact, part of me believes that I

actually fully accomplished my goal of gaining more focus, because considering my age, the

level of focus I currently possess is substantially high. My second goal shows significant signs of

improvement as well, as I am able to recall important, specific facts about a book when writing

about it, more than I had been able to before. I believe that my development of this skill was

primarily thanks to improving my reading focus, because while in the past, my attention wavered

significantly when I read, now, I can compel myself to be more engaged while reading. This

correlates with my increased retention of key information about the book I happen to be reading.

Of the lot, my third goal needs the most improvement, as I observed while writing my Macbeth
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paper. While I have boosted my ability to keep myself from going off in tangents, I continue to

make my points a bit more abstract than I would like for them to be.

As a reader and a writer, I have learned that I have much more grit than I thought I had.

When I held a borderline A- in the class, I recall spending hours practicing my open essay

question technique, and putting an equal amount of time into making sure that my poetry

analysis skills were on par. Regarding my reading skills, I have learned that there are times

where speed-reading is a breeze for me, and there are other times where I can hardly focus on a

single sentence. As of now, I am currently working on forming a reading mentality that will

make sure that I will be able to read efficiently regardless of how I feel on any particular day. My

writing skills, on the other hand, have increased significantly, to my opinion. Complex words

come to mind faster than they have before, and I am able to write without pausing much longer

than I had been able to before.

In order to do well on the national exam and in this class itself, I believe that it is mostly

my efforts that will direct how I will perform. Therefore, regarding support, I believe that

conferring and encouragement should be plenty supportive. There is only so much that a teacher

can do for me, as he or she is not my personal tutor, and so the vast majority of my results will

come from my efforts and mentality. If I fail, it will primarily be my responsibility, and I will

have no one to blame it on.

So far, the most challenging book of higher literary merit that I have read this school year

was A Bend in the River, by V.S. Naipaul. What caused this novel to be so demanding was the

amount of detail present in it. Not only does the majority of the book consist of vivid

descriptions and imagery, but they are also presented in long, complex segments, making it easy

to lose focus. There are quite a number of questions I have about the novel that are unanswered,
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for on some occasions while reading, I decided to skim through the text, deciding that the details

were not significant in understanding the plot. That is the main technique I used to overcome the

difficulty of the book: ignoring unimportant parts of the book and focusing my energy on the

significant sections. Although many details eluded me due to this strategy, reading the novel in

this way allowed me to capture the important points of the plot, thus helping me struggle through

it.

My view of studying literature diverges from that of reading it in that analyzing literature

allows me to apply the author’s various techniques to my own writing. While reading books

enable me to understand their plots and the authors’ writing styles, extensively studying them

allows me to develop a deeper understanding of why the authors chose to write the way they did,

thus aiding me in using their strategies in my own papers.

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Reading and prompt schedule:

The Awakening: 2/2 - 2/10

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

Coffee House Prompt for 2/14: 2/11 - 2/12

Ethan Frome: 2/11 - 2/17

20 pages a day (if consecutive, you should finish on the 5th day)

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

Prompt: 2/18 - 2/19

Coffee House Prompt for 2/21: 2/18 - 2/19

A Clockwork Orange: 2/20 - 3/3

21 pages a day (if consecutive, you should finish on the 10th day)

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

Prompt: 3/4 - 3/5

Coffee House Prompt for 2/28: 2/25 - 2/26

The Samurai’s Garden: 3/6 - 3/17

22 pages a day (if consecutive, you should finish on the 10th day)

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

Prompt: 3/18 - 3/19

The Women of Brewster Place: 3/20 - 3/31

19 pages a day (if consecutive, you should finish on the 10th day)

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

Prompt: 4/1 - 4/2

Heart of Darkness: 4/3 - 4/18

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14 pages a day (if consecutive, you should finish on the 14th day)

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

Prompt: 4/19 - 4/20

The Hound of the Baskervilles: 4/21 - 4/29

15 pages a day (must be consecutive; however, update the number of pages you should

Spend 15 minutes per day that you read on notes.

read in a day, because this page count is from a different version of the book)

Review all reading notes and open response essays: 4/30 - Exam