Brianna Minka
Ms. Forehand
AP Lit 7
8 October 2013

Writing Reflection The purpose of my essay is to show my identity through a background story to the admissions board of my top three colleges. I intended for my essay to be thought provoking and leave the reader with a clear understanding of the type of person that I am. I chose the assigned topic because I felt it to be the most personal. It gave me the most freedom to write about what I wanted without having to follow strict guidelines. My college will have an inward look at how my identity was influenced by my background and story. My planning began with an organization of my thoughts in an outline. Then I wrote my rough draft and had my peers edit it. Their comments helped me revise and reword my draft to make my purpose clear. I had to decide what parts of my essay were completely necessary and what could be left out. My primary challenges in writing this essay ranged from length, to topic, to purpose. When I first wrote my draft it was too long and I had to find a good balance between descriptive sentences and informative. Another challenge was picking my topic. I had to make sure the question I chose out of the five was the best possible. Did it give the best look at who I was, and would it convince my college that they wanted me? My next challenge was making it clear as to what my purpose of writing was. I needed to make sure my thoughts flowed well together and did not jump all over the place.