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How I Excelled in 9th Grade

Excelling in an endeavor is the process of finding constant success while working through the project. It is possible that to excel an individual must grow from small challenges that they might face. Someone who excels in sports is a person who is constantly setting personal records with having step backs and the motivation to continue to work hard.  This year in Language Arts, we started a unique project of stepping into the shoes of lawyers, witnesses, judges, etc. and walking through the court process. The general summary of the case that we were given was that a senior at a high school Dannie DeLuca was driving on a community-wide known dangerous road called River Road. As he was driving he was actively texting while in the driver's seat. In the other lane, Vivian Villanueva, an 88-year-old woman was driving with an outdated car. As both cars were driving they made contact leading to the death of Ms.Villanueva. DeLuca is charged with manslaughter in the First Degree. Each of us were assigned the role of attorney of prosecution or defense to deliver our opening and closing statements. Through this process, we learned about the court process and did research on making an effective opening and closing statements. After viewing and reading many examples, we embarked on creating a case-theory for our opening statement and gathering our final evidence to deliver the closing statement. 

To prepare for my opening statement, I first read through the provided testimonies and did general research on what was required in an opening statement. Opening statements typically are created to tell your side of how the scenes of the case played out. Opening statements also have features of connecting with the jury to make them understand and relate to your side. I wrote a detailed essay of my opening statements. After this, I went back and chose the main details in the essay that I thought would be important to bring forward in my presentation. I maintained the same theme as I had developed in my essay. I rewrote a summary the case theory for the prosecution. It was important to bring out how DeLuca broke Oregon Law on the road, leading me to mention this in my presentation. In my presentation, I maintained professional body language and brought forward important details to the case. I scored very well on this presentation because of the practice that I completed with presenting important details 

The closing argument was quite different from the opening statement. The purpose of the closing argument is to leave the jury with the strongest evidence that proves your side and disproves the opposing counsel. I completed a very similar process of first understanding the main points that I needed to bring out through the closing argument and drafted an essay with these details. After refining the essay with feedback, I started on converting the essay into a presentation. An added requirement for this presentation was that the presentation had to be three minutes or less. This made me more aware of bringing out key details in the time allotted. I started out with a brief summary of the main three points that showed DeLuca was guilty and gave an explanation as to why each point brought forward, showed that DeLuca was indeed the cause of the accident. I then brought up the main point that the opposing counsel might bring up to disprove our theory ending the presentation with a request for the jury to rule with our side. Completing these presentations gave me additional practice to work on the way I present for future presentations. 

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