Today, the entire junior class took the four hour Junior Writing exam. At first thinking about sitting in a room and going through the entire writing process seemed very daunting, but it turned out to be not half as bad as I was expecting. This exam has gone on at the school for many years so I had heard a lot about it. The day before the exam, every junior is given a short story and a poem in the open mail boxes. We then have that night to read and discuss the material with our peers. My english teacher was even kind enough to allow our class to discuss our thoughts on the poem during our class time. She, however, did not give any imput because we are not supposed to get help from anyone other then each other. It was a good way for us to hear each other's ideas in an informal setting and I really enjoyed that part of the process.
On the day of the exam we are given two prompts, one on the poem and one on the short story and you are to choose one to write about once you arrive. You then spend the rest of the four hourse brainstorming, writing, and revising your paper, turning the final product in using pen. Then, the entire English Department spends the next few days reading the essays. You are given a total of eight points, four from each of the two teachers who read it. Because of this process, I learned alot about my thoughts and also about my ablilties to write, which I initially did not want to do at all.
