Hello All,
The essay that I liked the most is “Breaking into Cars”. In this essay Stephen explains with humor and vivid expression how growing up as one of seven children shaped his life. I enjoyed reading about the events of Stephen’s childhood. His description was clear. It is easy for anyone reading this to picture seven children rushing to the dinner table to grab one of only six chairs. I agree with the analysis that this story catches one’s attention right away and that it conveys Stephen’s personality well. It is clear how growing up in this environment would leave Stephen with a writing style that is much like his personality. Relaxed and funny but with confidence to be able to roll with the punches.
Although all of the essay choices
were well written, my least favorite is “Building a Twenty Story Apartment Building”. I do like the quote that Kyle begins his essay with. Unfortunately, that is the best part of the story. The rest of the story did not capture my attention. Kyle uses terminology that not everyone is familiar with. There is no humor or excitement in Kyle’s writing style. My overall opinion is that it was boring. I found nothing in this story to hold my interest. I do agree with the analysis that Kyle provides a clear explanation of his interest. I believe that Kyle conveys his personality very well through his writing. It is apparent that he is committed to his field of study as well as to success in his lifetime endeavors. The writing styles of these two student are very different, however they accomplish the same goal. My writing style is more aligned with Stephen’s. I prefer the use of humor when appropriate as well colorful description and exciting detail. It is my goal to be able to write in a way that is effortless for readers to connect with. Angie Hilton
The three short essays were subjectively confusing, dry, and simple to read. I was not impressed by the subject matter in Yiyun Li’s “Orange Crush.” Nor was I enthralled by the way “The Sanctuary of School” and Kingsolver’s “In Case You Ever Want to Go Home Again” were written. On the other hand, Lynda Barry had a pleasant ending to her lackluster essay in “The Sanctuary School.” Overall I was let down by the three treatise.
"Ms. McMulkin, this is Alex. That essay--- how long can it be?" "Why, uh, not less than 600 words." He sounded a little surprised. I'd forgotten it was late at night. "Can it be longer?" "Certainly, Alex, as long as you want it." "Thanks," I said and hung up. I sat down and picked up my pen and thought for a minute. Remembering. Remembering a handsome, dark boy with a reckless grin and a hot temper. A tough, towheaded boy with a cigarette in his mouth and a bitter grin on his hard face. Remembering- -- and this time it didn't hurt--- a quiet, defeated-looking sixteen-year-old whose hair needed cutting badly and who had black eyes with a frightened expression to them. One week had taken all three of them. And I decided I could tell people, beginning with my English teacher. I wondered for a long time how to start that theme, how to start writing about something that was important to me. And I finally began like this: When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride
Through his choice of style and structure, he is able to reflect the meaning of the short essay as a whole and get the point
Students are often required to submit essays throughout the school year, however, many are not able to write an effective essay. After extensively reading and analyzing This I Believe narratives, I came across many essays that are great examples for students to use as a template for effective writing. One essay that stood out amongst the rest was, “A Grown-Up Barbie” by Jane Hamill; I recommend this short narrative for students that strive to achieve an effective essay because it provides useful rhetorical devices such as: anecdote, imagery and diction.
These kids grow up in the ghetto without a choice of moving somewhere else because of their parents low income, they live in a tough neighborhood and environment & reading this really touches you in many ways. Nobody will ever want to go through something like they did, Parts of the book tell you so much detail that it really puts an image through your head. The book entries mostly talk about the lives of the characters outside of school, The characters also describe the action of their diaries well and they present that action well in the movie.
After completely reading the essay written by Barron Thomas, the first thing that was noticeable was the title and it was not attractive. It was too long and did not make sense. The essay thesis was notably vague for the reader and each topic sentence was defined. Barron had some organization in the introduction paragraph to help explain to the reader what should appear in the other paragraphs. Each paragraph after the introduction needed more supporting detail such as an example to give a clarification on how each person helped with his skills. The use of number in an essay should be written out unless it over hundred.
I liked the style because he wrote the story so realistically. The grammar was written in a southern way. Kind of like they do in the southern areas.
Throughout these books, both authors took a lot of risks with their writing. I really liked how they did not use quotes in the dialogue between the characters so I tried to make that work in my essay. Unlike Díaz though I did not start a new line everytime a person was speaking. Instead I decided to write like Merritt Tearce and only has breaks in the stories when the topic was switched. My second stories have dialogue that are blended in with the rest of the paragraphs as does my third story. I even took the risk of not including any dialogue at all in my first story. I was also largely influenced by Junot Díaz and how he was able to manipulate the time of the story and make it flow. Between his paragraphs he would change to completely different dates and times. In my third story I use this technique. This story starts off with the protagonist as a young boy and then the story progresses through his life with a different paragraph being a different time period. This sequence is also like Merritt Tearce’s book and how she slowly goes through Marie’s
Creative writing is my favorite; I believe it is where my writing is its strongest. I like that there are endless possibilities and that it really allows for my creativity to run wild. A particular creative essay that stands out to me is one from my ninth grade year of high school. I was assigned to write about my favorite childhood fairytale, but to put a twist to it. I wrote about Cinderella, and I totally changed up the original. I
In the first essay DON’T EAT BEFORE READING THIS Bourdain wrote humorously, comparing his kitchen staff to “The Wild Bunch”, which was a group of old western outlaws. SANDRA BLAND AND OR VUNRABLE BODIES is far from humorous, Roxane Gay wrote about a serious modern day issue for an African American. WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES by Stephen King was composed to explain that our insanity drives us towards terrifying motion pictures. Finally, Marlon James sequentially structured FROM JAMAICA TO MINESOTA TO MYSELF to reveal the discovery of himself. Even though the four essays I have chosen are different topics and styles of writing, they all passionately wrote about a subject that is dear to them. Overall my attitude about the essays. The assignment was a learning experience that has changed dreadful thoughts to an open mind breaking a piece down to find a true meaning, through figurative
middle of paper ... ... I also liked the fact that Mark gave the kids an opportunity to express their feelings and in some way escape the reality, especially those that were sentenced to 15 years in prison. I personally believe that Mark learned a lot more from his students than what the students learned from him. The books also helped me understand teenagers a lot better, especially now that I started working at a group home I understand the different behaviors each client has.
As my English 101 class comes to an end, I have realized how much I have transformed as a writer. In this essay, I am going to explain what I realized my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer and how they have manifested themselves throughout the quarter. I was skeptical at first coming into this class knowing that English takes formidable work and dedication, but I am very proud of the progress I have made. We completed a great deal of work throughout the quarter; from grammar exercises, summary reviews, and two challenging essays. Throughout the quarter I found myself improving in each category. As a writer, my skills and confidence have developed into more clarity and thought, something I have always wanted to be, as a result of a well constructed class that led to a superb educational experience.
When it comes to the organization of the writing, it went in an even flow that was easy to follow. It did not scatter around from one thing or idea to the next and it also did not ramble on and lose the interest of the reader. I find his very important in a short story. You have to combine so much information into a short piece of literature
I had always been a strong writer in high school; I know how to form an argument and support it fully, but this did not prepare me for the writing at a college level. I expected to be reading long and boring books about topics that did not pertain to my life; as it turns out, this assumption was completely false. All of the three essays that we were required to read in class were fairly difficult to understand, but after a second reading, the essay's meaning became clearer. I also feel as though their messages and key ideas are captivating. I definitely thought they would be extremely dry and difficult to understand.
My favorite essay was the creative writing essay. When I first took a look at the class syllabus and saw that I would be doing a creative writing essay I was pretty nervous. I have never seriously done one and did not think that I