• 1.0 Writing Strategies: Students write coherent and focused texts that convey a well-defined perspective and tightly reasoned argument. The writing demonstrates students’ awareness of the audience and purpose and progression through the stages of the writing process.
• 1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of discourse (e.g., purpose, speaker,audience, form) when completing narrative, expository, persuasive, or descriptivewriting assignments.
• 1.2 Use point of view, characterization, style (e.g., use of irony), and related elements for specific rhetorical and aesthetic purposes.
• 1.3 Structure ideas and arguments in a sustained, persuasive, and sophisticated way and support them with precise and relevant examples.
• 1.4 Enhance meaning by employing rhetorical devices, including the extended use of parallelism,repetition, and analogy; the incorporation of visual aids (e.g., graphs, tables,pictures); and the issuance of a call for action.
• 1.5 Use language in natural, fresh, and vivid ways to establish a specific tone.

In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, graduating seniors are required to complete an exit project. At Early College High School, this project is a comprehensive project with elements in several of my classes. We picked a topic/career that held a strong interest for us and conducted an extensive amount of research into the topic. We also engaged in an on-the-job experience, accumulating a minimum of 15 hours of hands-on work. For my part, I chose to look into the craft of the bowyer, that is the craft of building bows. I focused on simple longbows, for their simplicity and elegance. Over the course of my apprenticeship to the bowyer I worked with, I crafted two longbows, a 66" longbow that drew 50# at 28" of draw and a 60" longbow that drew 35# at 27" of draw. Each bow required a thorough amount of labor, and great care was necessary to properly tiller (shape the bow to bend appropriately) the bows.

The senior project was an amazing educational opportunity for me because I learned a great deal about the craft of the boywer. When I began the project in March of 2010, I knew next to nothing about how to build a bow, short of it should have a tapered shape and that I needed woodworking skills. Over the next six months, I conducted extensive research of the accounts of other amatuer and professional bowyers. I learned the specialized skills necessary to build flemish bowstrings, tiller longbows, and glue laminate bows, in addition to refining my existing woodworking skills.