Essay #16

SECOND DRAFT FOR GRADING

Forgotten

Dear Reader,
In this essay you will find four different genres of writing: an expository paragraph (following the normal 11 or 8 sentence formula), a haiku, a rhyming poem, and a recipe. Each one describes the theme “forgotten”, but the approach each one takes on the theme varies, for instance, one genre explains how to become forgotten while another one exclaims that no one should ever be forgotten. I hope you enjoy reading this culmination of different writing styles.

Sincerely,
Austin

Three Steps to Become Forgotten

Day dream as often as possible. While you are away in distant places, the people in close proximity will refrain from asking you questions, realizing you have wrapped yourself in a void. This creates distance between you and other people, and, ultimately, the distance becomes so great they forget you are even there.
Never attempt to achieve any of your goals. You must never accomplish anything of significance, therefore, allowing no one to have any reason to be proud of you. Eventually, this results in people not remembering who you were or what you did because having never accomplished anything, you prevented yourself from being known to society.
Do not engage in social activities. When invited to a party or public assembly, decline the invitation because as a forgotten person, you must remain solitary and confined to your own world. Over time, there will be less and less invites, until there are no invites, and by that point you know the community has forgotten you exist.

Haiku

Don’t let them forget
Make them remember your name
Never be normal

Hoping to be Forgotten

He locked himself in his room,
Listening. They would be coming for him soon.
His parents were angry; they knew the wrong he had done;
He had only been playing around; only been having fun.
He wanted them to forget his sin:
Just forget all about it; throw it into the trash bin.
Forgetfulness is wanted sometimes, but sometimes it is not.
This boy hoped and hoped, but his parents never forgot

Expository Paragraph

(TS) Many characters have felt or even feel forgotten in To Kill a Mockingbird whether they wanted to or not. (SD) Boo Radley is one of the few characters in To Kill a Mockingbird that wants to be excluded and forgotten from society. (CM) He is constantly secluded in his father’s home where no one can see him, where no one can hear him, where he hopes he will be forgotten. (CM) Once he left Maycomb’s small and only “gang”, he might have been ashamed of himself, thus he didn’t want society to remember his name, so he trapped himself in his dad’s house. (SD) Dill on the other hand, hates to be forgotten. (CM) When his parents never paid attention to him, he felt like they wouldn’t remember he was even there, and he would just become a lonesome shade. (CM) He had to do something to maintain his sanity, so he found comfort in his friends Jem and Scout; he knew they would always love him and cherish his memory when they went their separate ways. (CS) The theme forgotten plays a big role in To Kill a Mockingbird because just like everyone else, the characters in the novel sometimes need to be reminded that their friends and family love them and won’t ever forget them.

Self Assessment

The genre in this essay that took me the most time to write was the haiku. I find haikus the most powerful of poems because they are short and powerful, but they must be carefully worded and revised or else they lack a lot of potential power. The most significant difference between this draft and the first draft is the detail in my recipe. When I originally wrote my recipe, it contained simple, unexplained steps, but now each step has well-written commentary on it. Because I worked so hard on it, the recipe became the best part of my paper. It contains good vocabulary, and is well-written. The part of this paper that may still need improvement is my often use of pronouns. When I write, I say sometimes say a noun once, then constantly use pronouns afterwards, making my writing sound repetitive and week.