1) The author felt confident about her writing skills at the beginning of the text but after she got her results and saw that she failed she was upset, she retook the proficiency test and kept failing it. This caused her love for writing to come to an end and she started to doubt herself about her writing abilities. Nichols states, “ 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.”
2) The author feels that standardized tests are challenging but also feels that the graders don’t know what good writing is. The author states, “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.” This caused her to have a lack of seriousness towards writing, Nichols got a 2 on the advanced placement exam and didn’t passed the 12 grade proficiency test.
3) Yes, there has been a time I have doubted myself as a writer which is when I was in high school and had to take the SAT exam and got a low score but in English class I had an A. That’s when I learned different people have different ways of viewing and grading your writing. As stated in the text, “ this experience showed me just how differently my writing could be judged by various readers.” This means that different people have different point of views and there is always something to work on to make your writing even better.
4) I feel like my writing abilities have improved a little more but I feel like I still have to areas of growth my grammar and learning how to express what I am thinking in my writing.
One thought on “Conversation 1”
based on what i read and understood from her summery she talked about all the right points about how the author or main character she received her results and realized she had failed, she became unhappy. She retook the proficiency test and kept failing it. This led to the end of her love for writing and the beginning of her self-doubt about her writing skills. which to me sounds like the right idea because when i read the story it kinda got relatable but also she needed to be humbled because she was way to confident about her passing the grade and bragging about it. great evidence work as well because it helps reinforce your main statement.