The Critical Analysis Essay was the most complex essay that I had to write for this class. There were multiple requirements and the essay was longer than any other essay that I had previously written for this class. When I began writing the essay, I struggled with writing and I realized that I did not even know what I was writing. This confusion led to the creation of my own prompt page, further breaking down the essay and organizing all of the requirements. This way, I did not leave any points out in my essay and stayed focused throughout my writing process.

When writing the Critical Analysis Essay, I had to read the short story, “Diary of a Madman”. This was a complex reading about a man descending into his mental illness (schizophrenia). In order to save myself time, I took notes on the short story from each diary entry. Thus, when I wanted to refer back to the short story I could just refer to my notes to save time. This note taking helped keep me organized and funneled a short story into two pages of notes.

These pictures were taking during my first Peer Review session. As the first step of the revision process, these peer reviews would prove to be extremely helpful later on in the future. Having someone else read my paper and point out errors that I did not notice on my own allowed myself to gain insight for later papers. After the peer review, I went back into my essay and added paragraphs, transitions, and clarity for confusing sections. There is a tremendous difference between this draft and my final draft of my Literacy Narrative, and part of the reason why is peer reviews.