College Reading and Writing

College Reading and Writing

Question A:   What’s the significance of Shirley Temple?  What meaning does she hold for Lovey?

In The 3 short stories we read we learn about a young girl named lovey who feels unloved and sad in my own views. Every day she goes home and watches Shirley temple with her perfect little curly hair and red blushed cheeks. Every day she watches Shirley have a perfect ending to every one of her shows and imagines that her life could have a perfect ending as well. So lovey and her best friend jerry imagine if their days have perfect endings as well. The significance of Shirley temple in the stories is that it lets a little girl escaped from reality to feel loved and happy every now and then.

In these stories the meaning that Shirley temple brings to lovey is that everything works out in the end. So don’t let life get you down because when you least expect it, it will lift back up. So when she learns and watches it on TV it gives the young girl hope.

March 31 6:50pm

Chapter 48: Evaluating Arguments

Tuesday March 29:

In this Chapter we overlook the stucture of arguments to see if they are facicious, or resonable. We first foucus on steotyping or gerneralizing. That most of us draw a conclution to fast on sometimes unrelivent facts and material."From a spoonfull of soup, we conclude just how salty the whole bowl will be after numerous bad experiences with an airline, we decide to book future flights with a competitor."pg 372. Also sterotyping. "Women are bad bosses."pg 372. both examples are unreasonable facts and they jump to concultions.

We then foucus on making assumptions. The deffintion is a claim that is taken to be true. In my own personal oppinion we do this all the time, and i know i do. Somone states a claim and their agrument behind it and we foucus so much on what they have to say that we dont even think about it being a real fact. somtimes we take this fact and hold on to it assuming its true for a later argument.A exellent example is " Vilent crime in increasing. Therefore, we should vigorously enforce the death penalty."pg 375.
Also when we are making claims and creating an argument we have to take into consideration of others emotions. We can hurt and move alot of people with so little words, and thats somthing to watchout for.

This chapter i learned alot about creating arguments, and what to watchout for. The one thing i will defidently take from this chapter is when people are making a statment and turning it into an argument watch for if they are really talking about fact, or if it is just a claim. Also i will watch just how i will state my words so that others will not only get offended and hurt but they may see another side of a situation.

Thursday 3/17/11 12:02pm

Rules for Writers Chapter 47:

In this chapter we learn how to write a valuable essay about an opinionated situation while trying to convince the reader of your side. You are writing to gain their attention and keep in their long enough to give them an open mind about your writing. One very important rule with writing an essay like this is that you cannot always assume that the reader is on your side and values your opinion. You have to ease your way into the concept because it could be a really touchy subject.

You also need to be assure that you as well are being opened minded. When reading about facts you never know who reading and they could know allot more than yourself. So make sure when you’re defending this topic you over look everything and make sure you can strongly back it up. You need to write about something that you can grasp easily and know allot about.

When reading this chapter one thing that i can take from it is to not assume the reader agrees with you. Make sure you have an open mind supporting both side of the situation but clearly backing up your plot and to finish strong.

Essay two

Essay number 2

Coming home again

When reading stories and having to pick a topic for them never comes easy for me. Although this week things have changed for the better. Knowing I wanted to write about the story “Coming Home Again”. It automatically made me realize how much this young man’s mother had such an impact on who he has become today. It made me think about how much my parent have a impact on who I am today, and did they have that much of an impact on me? Think about when people say “you are just like your mother/father”. Do you agree with them or do you believe that you have devolved your own unique personality all on your own?

When reading this story from start to finish you feel welcomed in to this family’s home. To me hearing about warm family cooked food and good ol’ family made tradition dishes makes me feel at home. Mostly because I have them passed down in my family and we always have a girl in the kitchen cooking. I love cooking all kinds of things perfected dishes and homemade recipes. I’m sure that this boy felt the same way with his family.

In this story I would like to believe that this son had developed a personality from his parents but also being sent away for so long he has developed a lot without his family and mostly without his mother. So coming home again to spend some of the last moment his mother has with her. Bonding and being able to relate with her on a level that he was never able to do. So I would like to image that he took up learning and sharing her recipes to relate with her. So she will be eternally remembered by her family.

Reading about what this young boy did was really courageous. Not only was he there for his mother but he also was there for her when she went him away for so long. Some people never forgive even with family. Though even though he was upset he never got to cherish an extra ten years with his mother, he saw that she was upset that she thought she would have had more time with her family. To be put in that situation would be very hard for me to handle and see my mother or father on that position but it’s a part of life, and has a strong person for going about it the way he had.

In Addition, this story has made me reflect on myself as a individual and where I have developed my own unique traits. I can tell exactly some of my key traits from both of my parents. My mother is very stubborn and that maybe just a little bit has been rubbed off on me. Also my father is very giving and kind. I like to think that I got my ability to relate to people from my dad and my ability to always be smiling. I have devoted hobbies of my own likening from my unique personality I like to think. To me everyone developed who they are by whom they are raised by and their lifestyle. We all have a little bit of the people we love in us.

posted thursday 10:58pm

“The Insufficiency of Honesty”

Question A:
Choose one of the examples Carter provides.  Do you agree with Carter's reasoning?

Reading this essay a very good thing carter does for the readers better understanding is he gives us good examples. Without them i really would have been lost with alot of the examples of honesty and integrity. The Example i chose to talk about is "

. A man who has been married for fifty years confesses to his wife on his deathbed that he was unfaithful thirty-five years earlier. The dishonesty was killing his spirit, he says. Now he has cleared his conscience and is able to die in peace." I thought that this was such a good example to help me understand what the writer was trying to grasp. He made you look out side the box. I hear stories like that all the time and never image myself in that situation,but reading this made me feel for the wife and what i would do if it was me. I never thought about it slowly eating away at the wife till she died i just felt releif for the husband, but doing that is such a selfish act and couardly also.

I agree with Carter completly it is such a strong quote. The husband in the story not only cheeted he lied to his wife for 35 years. And on his death bed knowing their will be not consiquences for his actions just relieife from his guilt. His wife will want to forgive him as well because she wants to die in peace not holding a grudge with her lover.This quote really makes you think about true honesty in life.

Rules for writers chapter 4:

In this chapter we reflect on buliding effective paragraphs. We first start by stating that we need to foucus on the main point, it sound be clear and have readers able to relate. The main poin should be in our topic sentence. Our topic sentence should be supported by the whole essay so it comes together equaly. A good feature about writing an essay is that short paragraphs are good if they state your point nice and clear but to the visual eye short paragraphs dont hold a readers attention like long ones do. You have to remeber to be organized at all times and so you have to pick one narration. You need to have a process and analogy.A process is a stucture in chronologic order. A analogy is a comparasson between items that are in common so you can start a new paragraph relating to the last.
Furthermore make sure you compare and contrast, draw attention to similarites in your writing. Make your paragraphs coherent, you need to have your sentences flow so the reader will follow you. You can do this by stenghening ties between old information and new. Also repeat key words so the reader know what you are tying to direct.Overall rule is to maintain consistency so the reader will know what you are trying to direct towards them and they willingly want to follow your story.
This chapter i learned how to structure and stong paragraph and it broke it down for me in key parts to think about in my writing. I think for me the most important part it to tie everything together and compare and contrast. I get lost in my writing and i forget what i started with.

"Shooting dad"

Question E:
Do you think Sarah is scared of guns for any other reason?

In this story we read about a young girl growing up feeling like she can not relate to her father because of his life hobbie. She was intruduced to firearms at such a young age that she felt like they over powered her. I think ever seince the say that she fired of her first gun and it flug her back not knowing the power of the firearm she has never truley been open to trying it again.
I also think another huge factor was when kids grow up they try to differ from the siblings and once her sister was getting all the attention from "loving" their dads hobbie she decided to step back and be in the background. Feeling alone of the subject she grew to be a diffrent indivdual than her sister or father. I think a stong factor of that also had to do with Sarah's mother and father were very open to letting her make her own dections and be who she wanted to be. Which i think was very cool.
Then as she grew up relizing that time was running out with bonding with her father she knew that his hobbie dident have to keep them so seperated. So she learned to respect his feelings even though she was agenst firearms. So as they bonded she found out he bulit a small canon all on his own and took her with him to go shoot it. When they did it together she relized the bond that her sister had with him all these years and i think thats why she liked the canon so much. Otherwise that is just hipocritical of her to hate guns and shoot canons? They ending of this story was so briliantly brought together i really enjoyed it.

Rules for writers chapter 3

In this chapter we discuss the proper organization of our paragraphs and essays. That sometimes a thesis will bring everything together before you even realize it. If you analyze your essay you might see that you have more answers for the questions you have presented in your essay. When you start to write your essay will go in direction you would have never expected you just have to start writing and ideas will come. You want to try to stay on topic. When you read over your questions try to think of yourself as the audience and what you would want to know from it is another good point.

You can always make a checklist for yourself for global revision. Make sure you have a purpose for your audience. Focus on if your thesis is clear and placed properly, and make sure everything is on topic. Make sure everything in your essay is organized and neat. Have Content maybe have some non important material deleted and some ideas might need to go into depth a little bit more. Also what is your point of view make sure you only have just one and is it appropriate for your audience? In addition you need to be comfortable with deleting and rearranging sentences every writer does this differently rearranging, crossing out, or doing in online. Last step is to proofread make sure everything is how it is supposed to be and have someone else read it as well.

Taking these notes into consideration I have to work on taking time with my essay not stressing our about the organization of everything and the spelling from the start because I can come back to it. I am comfortable with deleting sentences when I get off topic or if they just don’t fit. I need to brain storm more with my ideas and only write on things I know I can go into depth about.

"Coming home again"

Question c:
What is the importance of food in this essay?

In this essay we read about a family being brought back together by cancer being brought on to his mother. He has been away from home for 10 years and he is now back taking take care of his ill mother. He has left home at 15 when his mother had sent him away at a boarding school. As a kid the biggest memories of him and his mother are her cooking dinner for him. They never really shared feelings are talked. She was always cook up something special for her family encouraging him to go outside and play and when he refused and wanted to watch he would learn little secrets about her recipes and would be his most treasured memories to hold on to.

When he had written this essay you can tell how much he had learned from his mother making authentic Korean recipes that she had perfected and speaking very well with all the cooking terms like “mincing” “julienne” and “roux” all are important words in knowing how to be a chef. Mincing is a very defined cut in maybe cutting garlic. Julienne is a specific cut for maybe a bell pepper or a carrot a long thin cut. A roux is a mixture of easy materials that you can whip up like a spaghetti sauce. The only reason I had learned these and more is because I took culinary arts throughout high school. To me this shows how much love he had for his mother that he wanted to take her most prized position and keep it close for him to hold on to because that’s all he had between them.

Chapter 2 rules for writers

Rules for Writers chapter 2




When reading this chapter you learn about how to construct a proper essay and some nice key facts on how to keep your essay strong and detailed so the reader will continue reading it. Firstly you should make sure you are using the guidelines.
1. Thesis at top
2. Make items of the same level parallel
3. Use sentences
4. Be flexible to change.
These were the most important to me. Also you need to focus on the ideas and where you are going to place them. You can deal with your sentence structure later. Also you want to remember to not to stress yourself out, and not to be too hard on yourself, or your writing will not always be at your best. Another way to look at your essay structure is to just develop ideas don’t make it final or even the rough draft. Keep in making that your introduction paragraph is going to be 50 to 150 words so you can have some idea of the proper length. Also you can never assume your reader is interested in your story so you always have to drag in their attention, make sure you can always back up your evidence if they choose to ask you a question. Some ideas to keep in mind to hook your readers on your thesis.
1. Always use a vivid examples
2. Make sure you have a good description
3. Make it a question
4. You can make it a statistic or unusual fact.
When starting your essay you need to make it strong from start to finish so when writing your body make sure you already have a strong thesis to support them. Also your conclusion should remind the readers of a main idea without vividly repeating it.
In this chapter I learned about structuring my essay and to me that seems like the most important fact to do while writing. I am going to always write before and brainstorm ideas so I don’t get off track and loose my thoughts. Also to me if you make your thesis very supportive and strong everything in your essay should just fall together.

Picture for Essay 1

Essay 1: A Moment in Time

“A Moment in Time”

Me and Ty

When you look back and think about all the pictures throughout your life each captured image of you and the people around you bringing back happy memories. Sometimes they are not good things you want to remember but you feel grateful to have each one. They are like treasured memories.  They bring back happy thoughts, good feeling, and maybe even will change your mood. When I look though my photos I see so many I could choose to write about but one will always stand out. It brings back so many good feeling and so many happy thoughts. It’s got some of my favorite things. Water, a beautiful shining sun above me, and a boy I see spending the rest of my life with. It was a photo taken about 2 years ago at a beautiful lake up north where our family camps every year. It is me and my boyfriend Tyler sitting in the clear water as the sun sets.

Looking at this photo brings back a lot of emotions for me. It brings comfort into my life and lets me know that I am loved. When I look at this photo I can remember our facial expressions. I am looking out at the mountains and Tyler is looking down at me smiling. For others they might see a boy and a girl not knowing the significance of us. We could be sad, mad, or happy. They won’t know. It is almost like it is our little secret.

I can remember the waves coming up and splashing my face. They would rock me and Tyler back and forth. I remember seeing the beautiful mountains in front of me and a colorful sail boat heading back to shore. It was our second day camping and the sun was starting to go down. We had taken the boat out to a little island on the lake and behind me my mom captured a picture while packing up all the lunch items and putting it into the boat. We both had dry skin because we were out blistering in the sun all day we were hot and the water was warm it was a perfect spot to sit and relax as the weather got cooler.

After I can remember getting up and we went back to shore on the other side of the lake. We unpacked our stuff from the day and relaxed for a little bit. We would shoot marbles our of a slingshot and try to hit cans 40 feet away. We also have a family game where we through washers into a can about 15 feet apart trying to make it in. I can always remember the sounds of getting a “caner!” and the little “ping” of hitting a can. Later mom and me got our shower stuff and walked down to the shower with our hands full of quarters for a warm shower. I would almost finish washing up as the water would run cold. We walked back to our site and made a huge dinner Mac and cheese, steak, salad, and corn. Eating like kings for vacation. Until the lights go down and the big bugs come out at this time I bungle up and stay away from lanterns and flash lights. I can still smell my skin soaked with the scent of camping cutter mosquito repellent. Then Tyler, my Brother, or my Dad would make a huge fire that we would all sit around and tell stories. As always we have to rotate because someone is getting followed by that huge trail of smoke. It so nice and peaceful to sit there and not worry about anything. Looking up and can remember the swaying of the big redwood trees. Then as the starts were out the best part would happen; making a mushy chocolaty s’more. It’s the all time best part of camping except of getting a great bikini tan line.

This image is a memory I want to remember forever. It brings back so many thoughts and feeling of summer that make me happy and warm. When I see this photo it makes me want to go back camping and plan a trip (which we do every year), or it makes me want to go out on the boat, and if I am not able to do that I will lay in the sun all day. It doesn’t as much motivate me as it does make me smile and makes me feel loved.

"The Ways We Lie"

Question C:  Is it possible to tell lies and still be an honest person?

This Question is viewed differently through every individual. To me this is not asking if someone else would think you are an honest person, but if you yourself believe you are honest. So when you lie to think you are being true to yourself by lieing or do you feel let down. When you lie about someone looking nice, when deep down they look awful. Are you lieing in a spiteful way. No you are giving someone who needs a complement. Not everyone expects the truth behind every question. Another example would be to Tell a good friend that you cant hangout because you have dinner plans, then just saying your tired. Because you just saying that you don't have the energy to hangout with them. Deep down that will hurt their feelings thinking maybe their too much to handle as a friends or maybe just annoying. So your still staying true to your friends you just don't want to hurt them.
We do these little things all the time and i know that every know and then I have to do them, but deep down i know that i am an honest person and that i stay true to myself and in every situation i don't have to lie but in the end its better for you and the other individuals.

Rules for Writers: Chapter one

This chapter reflects on the main idea of writing. We go into depth on not just thinking of a subject, but to try to think about a topic when you’re out and about, driving, or even daydreaming. So this causes you to think of every aspect of this topic. Then you want to choose something that you can get feedback on something where you can find a vast amount of information of so you can write a strong essay. Also throughout your college education the main recourse of finding information will be to read. Otherwise facts will also be made up of personal experience as well.

An important key point in the reading was you cannot assume your readers will me familiar with your recourses. So you must remember to be clear with every fact. Some purposes to remind yourself of why you are writing are to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to change attitudes, and to analyze are just some of the few to keep in mind. You should frequently ask yourself these questions. Make sure you are directing your essay to an audience so you can grasp that reader’s attention and pull them into your story. In addition make sure you clearly read your assignment, it will help you make a variety of necessary decisions.

Furthermore I will use this information in my writing. The most direct keep point to me was to make sure you grab an audience or else your story will have no meaning to that individual and they will choose to find something that doest grab their attention. Also another important fact that most people never think about is how they are going to get good information on their topic to write a strong essay. You got to research before you pick a topic.

Superman and Me: College Reading and Writing

Question F:
Why do you think that Sherman Alexie grew up to better himself without the help of anyone?

When you start to read the story of Alexie, from the start you can tell that he is such a creative individual. He did not have money for all the good things in life and his family lived in poverty. It seemed like he was never pushed to learn in school or at home, but at home he had such a varitey of books he could learn just about anything. It seems that he really looked up to his father and grew up to be like him having love for books and sharing them. His father also went to a Catholic school and thats where he learned to read. Alexie soon relized that if he wanted to learn to read and better himself that the school system wasent going to help him. Thinking mabye because he is middle class and indian that their is no need wasting their time teaching him so he took learning into his hands.
I Think that as a boy he had alot of curiousity of why his father loved books so much and so he wanted to learn why.  Alexie seems like a very determined and couragous person he learned the concept of reading all on his own. I couldent amagin taking the time to do that by myself. He also has so much love for learning that he does not want children that dont have the recorses, or mabye money or family problems to miss out on the joy of being able to read...even a comic book.

Chapter 1: Freewriting Exercises

Chapter one of college reading and writing really got into depth about what a free write is exactly and the goods and bad of a free write. A free write is someone writing on a topic or really anything and being completely open and forgetting about every little rule of spelling. For me my spelling is awful and so is my writing strategies so free writes are wonderful for my benefit. They will help me spell better over time and not be so self conscious about my writing. I believe by writing a free write once or twice a week will get me comfortable with extending my vocabulary and although my words may have improper spelling at first over time it should improve. They will also benefit me in being open minded relaxing you to express yourself on a topic. I was very surprised that we had this assigned for English. I thought for sure I was going to be watched consciously on spelling for every assignment. So these sound great!

Chapter 46: Academic Writing

Chapter 46: Academic writing

In This chapter of “Rules for Writers” we grasp an understanding of how to support the main idea of a article or an advertisement. This also gives us information of how to write a strong opinionated article. You need to have a lot of true facts. You also need to fully support you thesis and not get off topic. This chapter shows you visually how to understand and breakdown each part of the text. It also shows you how to create an outline so that you can fully understand where the author is getting his or her facts. When you are writing a summary the most important fact to me was to maintain a neutral tone and to be objective. That key is so important, it sets the feeling of your summary and how you think. It is also very important that you understand the authors main idea of the article. When you annotate the text it is crucial to write down ideas so that they do not slip away, and pay deep attention to detail in the article.

From the visual aide I got in this chapter it has shown me to completely so my research when writing an article and get true facts because that is the first key of breaking it down in a summary. To me an article with true facts is strong and hard to argue with. With writing a summary I will make sure to keep a calm tone and be objective. To me that makes your argument get across so easy. When annotating I will make sure to deeply take notes so I don’t skip over information.  I will also think of who the author is addressing this article to and how message him or she is trying to purpose. So when writing an outline is will come much easier.

Autobiography

My name is Samantha. I recently graduated from Piner High School and I am currently working on obtaining my Associates Degree at the SRJC. I plan on majoring in Animal Science and then transferring to Sonoma State. I will choose a career from something that makes me happy, but as of now I am undecided. I know I will work with animals, I just don’t know what field at the moment.

  I am very outgoing 18 years old, and was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California. When I am not in school during the winter I love to snowboard with friends. My favorite season of the year is summer. I enjoy going to Hawaii because I really love the waves and ocean. I am a big risk taker because I love trying new things and going places. I am also I huge animal lover. I have 4 dogs that are full of energy and all different sizes. I love to hike and go on walks with them. I am taking English 100 this semester and I hope to have a better idea of how to write better and work on my grammar/spelling. When it comes to school I like to have time to accomplish assignments and I usually get my homework done before hand. When it comes to exams I would rather be under pressure. I am usually good at pop quizzes because you don’t have time to second guess yourself.