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The importance of academic writing
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Reflective Essay on College Writing This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school. Academically, I have learned many new ways to look at literature. My high school teachers did not expose us to many literary theories or how to apply them. Indeed, we learned about romanticism, realism, transcendentalism, etc. but never really related them to our writing. Most of the writing we did was simply based upon our own opinions. We hardly ever used secondary sources. I believe that deconstructionist theory was the most helpful theory I learned this year for analyzing literature. Breaking a poem up line by line or image by image or even a story into small sections made it a lot easier to grasp the main concepts of the work. Most of the time during this semester, however, I took a formalist point of view. Also, unlike high school, the reading was much more entertaining. In high school, I really enjoyed very few of the texts that were discussed in class. In... ... middle of paper ... ...d myself having in high school. I still tend to be a little too wordy at times, I misplace commas, and I still forget how to properly cite my research sources every now and them. I think I have become a little more meticulous about looking over my papers, however. I make fewer careless mistakes and take more time writing my papers than I did in high school. My points of view are clearer, and I have not been using commas incorrectly quite as often. I hope to continue to improve in the next few years of college as well. I haven?t received an ?A? on a paper yet, so my goal for the next few years of college is to eventually be able to consistently produce papers worthy of ?As.? I would also like to apply my writing more in school by possibly writing for New Morning in the future. I think Introduction to Literature has had a positive impact overall upon my literary skills.
In the documentary of “The World’s Most Dangerous Gang” it reveals how it’s group gets followers. Children can be as young as eight and be recruited into MS 13. The name MS 13 is Mara Salvatrucha 13. Mara is the Spanish word for “group” or “clique”. Salvatrucha stands for “street smart”. The number 13 was chosen out of respect and because “M” is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. When children or adults are adopted to this group they have to first go through the initiation process. This ritual consists of being beat up by members of MS 13 for thirty seconds.
Initially, members of the Mara Salvatrucha were a group of Salvadorans that “banned together for support and protection from other gangs already present in Los Angles...” (Kindt, Post, and Schneider, 248). Common gang initiation for a prospective member is being beaten by several gang members, also called “jumped in” described in Gangs and Law Enforcement. (Schmidt, 39). Immediately, these new gang members have been introd...
Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, was founded in the city of Los Angeles during the ‘80s. Members in the gang have spread out into at least forty-two states. The ethnicity of the gang mostly consist of Salvadorians, Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South American Immigrants. Much of their criminal activity involves drug distribution, murder, prostitution, rape, kidnapping, robbery, car jacking, and home invasion. Once a member is brought in to the gang, they are in for life.
In Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, the theme of transformation appears throughout the short story cycle. The hero/heroine’s virginity acts as a source of strength that protects them from harm. Their lack of fear also saves them from death. Virginity acts as power of potentia, either literally or symbolically and results in a release of an observed transformative power. The bloody chamber serves a different symbolic purpose of transformation for Beauty in “The Courtship of Mr Lyon”, the heroine in “The Tiger’s Bride” and the Countess in “The Lady of the House of Love”. Each of these characters will embark on a journey that questions their selfhood in circumstances that are presented to them and ultimately each will go through a transformation involving maturation of the self, love, loss or magic.
Gangs are centered on a certain territory or turf that is claimed by that gang. When rival gangs enter that said territory anything could happen. More often then not there is some type of a violent action that will be taken because the gang feels as if they are being disrespected because that gang member or members are trespassing. Many times civilians are severely injured and even killed due to gang shootouts, drive-bys, and sometimes just at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are an estimated 30,000 gangs with an estimated 1,000,000 members and growing. In big cities where gangs are really prevalent it is stated in __ that there are anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 deaths per year and from 10,000 to 12,000 per year in the entire United States.
With over 96,000 members in the United States, and more than 50,000 more members nationwide, Mara Salvatrucha commonly known as MS-13 it’s the most dangerous gangs in the world. MS-13 was founded in the Mexican barrios of Los Angeles. It has spread to other parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. In the 1980s many Central Americans countries were engulfed in a civil war. The cause of these civil war refugees fled their home countries and immigrated to cities like Los Angeles. Mara Salvatrucha then rose in the ranks of LA’s most dangerous gangs, because the founding members were ex-guerrilla fighters in El Salvador’s civil war. MS-13’s criminal activities consists of contract killing, human trafficking, extortion,
For me, being a college writer means writing well-organized essays that readers enjoy reading. Being a well rounded writer was also important. Each unit in this class challenged me to write in a well-organized, concise way. During each unit, we conducted some sort of revision activity where I was exposed to other students’ writing. As I read their work, I picked up on their use of transition words and separation of paragraphs to make the essay flow. Naturally, I began implementing more transition words in my own work and learned the appropriate ways to split paragraphs. The structure of the class was key to the organization of my ideas which was crucial to the development of my essay. During the third unit of this class, we were asked to identify an issue on campus, conduct research on the issue, and finally propose a solution to correct the issue. At first, it was difficult to get my ideas down and figure out what it was I would research. What I learned in class allowed me to first identify the issue I would research, write a rough draft, and hear what others had written before the final paper was due. This helped me to identify the main points, brainstorm and figure out what additional research I would need to find to support my argument. Being able to organize my thoughts from the beginning made writing the paper a much easier process. This course has helped me to grow as a writer and make
For the past thirty years, the MS-13 gang has been a destructive criminal force, damaging communities and harmfully coercing the youth. At a mere twelve years old, Alonso Serrano-Serra was first recruited by the MS-13 gang in El Salvador. R. at 6. He repeatedly refused their advances, telling them he did not wish to join their gang or associate with them in anyway. Id. No matter where he was, at school, at the park, in the neighborhood, gang members would approach him and his childhood friends and tell them it was their time to join. Id. The members told them it was time for the boys to become “men,” but Alonso did not join. Id.
One thing that people often overlook when writing an essay is not what the college can do for you, but what you can do for the college. With that in mind the attributes that I possess would make a great addition to and benefit the college greatly. My ability to speak in front of large crowds, lead, and my thirst for knowledge have sshasfdafy
The process of preparing for college is an arduous process. College is an instrument used to have a successful life. However, getting into college is difficult. The competition for college admittance is extremely high. Most students do not take the necessary actions to ensure their admittance. Consequently, many students do not get attend their ideal college. Therefore, I have taken steps to make certain that I attend the college of my choice, By taking care of my class ranking, actively participating in school functions, and researching my intended degree, I have set myself up to attend the college of my choice.
Over the course of this semester I learned a lot about myself as a writer. This English 101 class has really allowed me to expand my essay structure and ways of thinking. This was my first college writing course and it has given me much more freedom when writing because in high school I felt limited and like what we were writing was not very important. In high school I would write essays to just to fulfill the required word or page count and to a degree I still feel like this but maybe that is why I am an engineering major but in this course I actually was able to express my ideas and for the first time really test the limits of my writing capabilities. I really enjoyed being able to incorporate my voice more in my essays and I believe that I developed my own personal style a bit from this. At the beginning of the semester my writing was quite choppy and there was plenty of room for improvement in the overall flow of my essays. Now, I use several different tactics such as outlining to create better connections between paragraphs. I believe I was able to move beyond many of the high school ways of writing and make general improvements to my essays.
Smiley, a 12 year old boy who has join the gang after he has been beaten for thirteen seconds, decides to go down the wrong path maybe because he wants to feel part of a family and feel that he has the same power as many others. I believe some teenagers are often attracted by the gangs because like Smiley they are alone in their country and in order to feel part of a group he decides to join the Mara Salvatrucha (ML13) one of the largest gang organizations in Latin America. "The real Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 has wretched, perverse history: the gang is thought to have been started in 1980s in Los Angeles by Salvadorian immigrants whose families had fled the Civil war in their country a war partly paid for by the United States" (Robles, “Fleeing gangs”). It has been 35 years and gang's population has increase not only in Latin America but as well in the
Is college writing painful and hard to come up with good ideas? English writing is different than other languages, we must follow a series of rules to complete an assignment. First, we need to understand the basics in grammar in order to use them properly in our writing assignments. If we excel in grammar, our essay will be much more lucid and logical to read than it was originally. Writing is a skill that must be mastered through practice; thus, one cannot be proficient at it if he or she does not have enough practice. Despite how hard it is for me to formulate ideas for my essay, every time I sit and concentrate on writing, a multitude of ideas begin to flood my brain. I do not have a tremendous amount of experience in writing because in my country we do not write as much as students do in the United States due to a heavier emphasis on mathematical courses verses English literature. However, what I have come to learn is that writing plays an important role in achieving success in the academic life of a college student.
In MS13 they will do anything to survive. They sell drugs, guns, and run their territories like a business. MS13 member can get any type of drug they want due to the power that they have. MS13 is divided into Clichés. These clichés work separately, but will fight together to help each other out of any situation. To make there gang bigger they usually go after young people to initiate into their gang, and those young people get more young people and that’s how they are starting to grow at a fast rate. Usually people who come to the United States illegally and are desperate for money and power join MS13. When you are a part of MS13 you feel unstoppable, and like you have all of the power in the world. These members of MS13 survive through drug trafficking since they can get any type of drug they want. Some of the biggest kingpins of the gangs are in jail. If gang member get caught and go to jail it is basically like going to school for them. The reason I say that is because when they go to jail these big kingpins and guys who have been a part of the gang for a very long time can teach them the ins and outs of the gang, and different techniques to help them in the streets. This gang is just like one big family that is trying to help the next person out. But once you decide you want to quit or go against the gang and the gang finds out they will hunt you down and kill you on spot. The main guy from MS13 who is calling all of the shots is in El
The places that you will typically find gangs are communities such as Churches, schools, clubs, banks, and the usual list of wholesome institutions. These areas were known to as the “hangout spots,” this means that if you were around those local places, you were bound to come across a gang of some sort. The early types of gangs were created in crowded cities. They were mainly just kids competing with each other in sports or doing any sort of gambling. For instance, when a kid would move from neighborhood to neighborhood they were allowed to leave “the gang,” there were no penalties from jumping gang to gang.