Abstract

The self assesments in this class is used to help us determine if we did well on our assignment or not with select questions to ask students if we imporved or if we didn’t improve

Original turned in version of the Self-Assessment 

Kriston Waugh

The Tree Argument 

FIQWS 10108

Oct 9, 2024

When I was writing my first draft of my analysis from the poem called “The Tree Argument” by  Elise Paschen. I had multiple ideas of what I thought the poem was about and the deeper meaning of what Elise Paschen was trying to convey. The biggest change in my polished draft was to keep one central idea of how I viewed the poem instead of having a different one every few paragraphs. The interpretation of the poem that I chose to stick with was that two neighbors are fighting over a tree. One of the neighbors believes nature is sacred and the other neighbor believes it is just a nuisance and needs to be cut down. Both sides believe they are both right in their own point of view but one side isn’t necessarily in the right . When my partner for peer review said that they were confused about what I thought about this poem I went back to my poem to change all the different stances I had.

One comment that my partner suggested that I didn’t agree with was bringing up the explanation of different points of views in paragraph 4. I felt like recapping in that paragraph was a lot more necessary because in paragraph 2 I only talk about the different Point of Views but in Paragraph 4 a briefly recapped what I thought about them and added imagery into what I felt as I was reading about the poem and looking back when I thought about the deeper meaning when doing my analysis. 

The sentences I am the most proud of are those that relate my real life experience that relates to the poem. In these sentences I talked about, I had a story almost similar to this happen to my family when a tree was invading our backyard but, instead of having the point of view to preserve nature my family wanted to get rid of it. The similar but different point of views interested me because it allowed me to create more imagery in my head to imagine how invasive the tree was. The real world relationship also helped me backup my central idea that two different points of views in a situation doesn’t always mean that one person is right more than the other.

The greatest weakness in my final draft was probably trying to find the deeper meaning of the poem. When I was trying to figure out which central idea I wanted to stick with I had a hard time with it because I felt like my central idea was missing something. The central idea I chose was how I interpreted the poem’s message but I still feel like there is something missing from the description. The next time I do another essay, during peer review I will ask my partner to give me their opinions of how they feel about the poem’s message and how they feel about my central idea and what would they add or take away from it.

Revised version of the Self-Assessment

Kriston Waugh

The Tree Agreement 

FIQWS 10108

Dec 13, 2024

The Tree Agreement, written by Elise Paschen, is a poem that was made to reflect how two different people who live in the same environment view nature. Elise Paschen wrote this poem to explore the differences on how one person enjoys nature in their neighborhood while the other person despises nature and wants their area to look a certain way. In this poem the two of the main characters argue over a tree that is in the backyard of both neighbors. One neighbor wants the tree to be removed because in his eyes the tree is a nuisance. The other neighbor sees the tree as a piece of nature and that it isn’t just some ordinary tree or weed compared to the previous neighbor’s account, the tree turns out to be a Siberian Elm that has a supportive role in an ecosystem around the area they both live in. 

Elise Paschen makes an interesting choice to make the two neighbors part of the main conflict. Both neighbors have different points of view of what the tree is and they both believe they are correct. This is an interesting and realistic writing method because this could be used in comparison to the real world. Some people want to help prevent pollution and stop an increase in global warming and some people just don’t care about the environment and believe global warming isn’t real or shouldn’t be worried about. Personally one of my favorite lines from this poem is “The Tree will stay. We tell him “no.” Root deep through the pavement, Elm.” This line made me understand that the writer feels very strongly about nature from how she used imagery to describe the tree and all other environmental “inconveniences” as one with the earth and we shouldn’t be damaging nature just so an area can look nice.

This poem reminds me of a situation very similar to the conflict in the story involving a tree from another house overlapping in our backyard. When we first moved into our new home in 2019 there was a massive tree peeking out from the neighbor’s backyard that would often leave a huge pile of leaves and take up a lot of space in our backyard compared to the yard the tree actually came from. My family played the role of the neighbor and often considered nature a nuisance. Just like the neighbor, my family considered the tree a nuisance and wanted it to be pruned from our backyard. The leaves and branches blocked the sun and it would litter our yard with leaves during the fall. This made our property look disgusting and we always had to clean up the leaves.

The elements of this poem that make it so interesting to me are the use of multiple points of view and the use of imagery to describe the tree as a part of the nature around it.  In her poem “The Tree Agreement” Elise Paschen uses the narrator’s point of view to describe how two people fighting over the same topic of nature can also be very different,” He declares the tree “hazardous” and “a weed”.The other neighbor says  “We shelter under leaf-hoard, crossway for squirrels, branch house for sparrows, jays.” These few lines in the poem create an ecosystem of imagery in my head that makes me see how the narrator thinks about the tree compared to how the neighbor feels about the tree.

I believe the message the author was trying to convey was that some people view nature as beautiful and something to not be disturbed. I think the meaning of this poem is that one person’s opinion or view on anything doesn’t mean it’s right. Everyone can have a completely different outlook on the same things.I think the meaning of this poem is that one person’s opinion or view on anything doesn’t mean it’s right.. Yet other people also view nature as a nuisance that needs to be organized or get rid of to make them happy.