Las composiciones

At the beginning of the semester, I would say my writing skills were fair. Most of my essays were grammatically correct, but my vocabulary was limited and I tended to mix up metaphors and similes. For example, in my first composition, I decided to write about the Disney character Mulan and her determination to save the Chinese empire. However, my metaphors and similes didn’t quite work out the way I wanted them to.

In my first sentence I wrote “Mulan posee la belleza natural de una flor de loto.” I was trying to acheive a metaphor, but this statement is more of a simile than a metaphor. Instead, I should have wrote, “Mulan es una flor de loto: ella posee la belleza natural.” By using the verb “ser,” I could have made a more direct comparison between Mulan and her natural beauty.

For my next composition, I described my experience at a club tennis tournament at Virginia Tech. Between the frigid temperatures and the large number of teams there, tensions were running a little high. In this narrative essay, I feel that I really captured this moment:

By using the verb “ser” this time to describe the tension, I was able to directly compare the tension in the air to a tight wire which made for a more effective metaphor.

Overall, my creativity throughout this course has improved nicely. In my final composition, I decided to write about the advantages of living in a rural area as opposed to the city. Below is an excerpt where I described the simplicity of life in rural areas:

In this passage, I described living in the country as a way for families to reconnect since many distractions exist within the city. By comparing the country to the glue that strenghens families, I was able to support the idea that living in a rural area provides the simplicity and structure that families in America need.

From this course and completing these compositions, I learned that varying sentence structures, adding sensory details, and writing in a clear, concise manner are key elements to an effective essay.