Writing Analysis: Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

Component 1: Writing Analysis

Growth Narrative

Throughout the semester growth can be seen in my writing from the Into the Wild prep work that demonstrates my starting point to the final Into the Wild Essay that demonstrates my improvement. The prep work was one of the very first assignments of the year and I particularly struggled within the section “Reasoning” and more specifically, “building my language through cause and effect language.” After writing this assignment, I wanted to focus on building a more articulate analysis through my reasoning by using “if/then” statements. My first draft contained the statement, “Krakauer’s repetition of the word “relieved,” indicates how isolation was comforting to McCandless (55). In a sense it is easier

In the Transcendentalists seminar I made an observation about a sentence in the text that I did not necessary focus on during my prepwork. By quoting, “hindered by the name of goodness,” I observed that just naming something “good” does not automatically make it “good.” Also, in my Into the Wild essay I tackled the topic of “postadolescent fog”- something that was strange and that I struggled to understand when I first read it. Another risk that I took was in the Poetry Out Loud competition. Reciting a memorized poem in front of a class is something that I have never done before, and I have definitely grown from the experience. The second scholarly habit of mind that I have grown in is “practice civility.” I have improved in the collaboration with my classmates specifically in small-group seminars. I can expand on the ideas of others more thoroughly than I did in the beginning of the year, but I also understand when the appropriate time is to let others share their ideas. Also, I use polite language in seminars and when I converse with my