How does the author feel about her writing abilities?
Initially, the author feels her writing is exceptional, especially among her peers. She’s proud to share that she was on the honor roll, and would say she even excelled in writing. That is until she took the standardized test—failing not only once, but twice. Consequently, her enthusiasm for writing declines and she begins to doubt herself, stating, “After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing, and I started to doubt myself. I doubted my ability and the ideas I wrote about.”
How does the author feel about standardized tests?
She begins to develop a negative perception of standardized tests. After experiencing failure, which to her she felt was entirely subjective, stating, ‘They can’t identify “good writing”, “I decided to quit trying so hard. Apparently—I told myself—the people grading the tests didn’t have the slightest clue about what constituted good writing.” She was also indignant about the lack of feedback from the test graders. Ultimately, this leads her to believe that standardized tests do not accurately measure one’s writing abilities.
Retell the author’s journey as a writer.
The author’s starts off with utmost confidence in her writing abilities, excelling academically and considering writing, one of her strengths. When she takes the standardized test to progress to the 9th grade, she fails twice and this shatters her confidence. Frustrated, she then questions the validity of the tests. Despite eventually passing the test, it’s apparent the impact of the previous failures have weighed on her for the foreseeable future, stating, “But I never again felt the same love of reading and writing.”
If you were Mrs. Brown, the author’s English teacher, what would you say when the author asked: “How can I get A’s in all my English classes but fail the writing part of the proficiency test twice?”
“Shannon, I understand your frustration about your results on the writing part of the proficiency test. I would first like to make clear to you, that standardized tests are just one way to assess writing, and do not always capture your full potential. They can be challenging and may not assess you in the same ways as in our class. Let’s work together, and we will figure this out.”
Has there been a time in your life when you doubted your abilities as a writer or in general? Explain.
I’ve doubted my abilities many times. When I look at an assignment, I sometimes just take too long to figure out what to write about, and even if I do make a decision, can I talk about it long enough?
How do you feel about your writing abilities?
I feel that it’s lacking. I need to be able to form thoughts and translate them to faster paper, faster. Editors are also a crutch of mine—there are a lot of punctuation marks.
