cl09stusps's Blog

This reading was very helpful. Although one thins that I would do differently is to ‘assess and evaluate’ my sources before I create a working bibliography. To me this makes more sense because I’m not wasting index cards on sources I am not going to use, thus saving trees and the environment.

Usually when I take notes for research papers I highlight all the useful information. Although I think I will start writing summaries. paraphrases, and direct quotes on index cards from now on because it seems like it would help, especially when I’m ready to begin typing my essay, to organize my thoughts better.

Kurt Vennegut Jr. really got me thinking about every English class I’ve ever taken. All of my teachers told me to use a certain style of writing when I wrote my essay; never begin a sentence with ‘because’ or ‘but,’ don’t end a sentence with a proposition. But, I’ve read countless novels where the writer break s these rules. Vennegut tells me why they’ve all directed me to do this; “It is because [readers] have a very tough job to do, and they need all the help they can get from us. They have to identify thousands of little marks on paper, and make sense of them immediately.” He says that a writer cannot break the rules of convention like Picasso or Jazz music does, because if you do, no one will understand you.

Another sentence that hit a chord with me is “Never include a sentence which does not either remark on character or advance the action.” I have a real problem not rambling when I’m trying to fill out an essay. When I write my intro and conclusion paragraphs I can usually only come up with two sentences of material, so I ramble on until I’ve reached at least 5 sentences (because that is what I was told that the basic paragraph length should be).

This passage, by Harry Crews, explains why he lives in Gainesville, FL. He makes some interesting points. He states that he’s tried to live in other places that are just as scenic as his home, but they do not keep him inspired. He says that he can’t live where he grew up because there is no mystery anywhere. He can’t write when he’s too far away from home because he feels lost, but when he’s too close to home he doesn’t feel inspired.

This makes perfect sense to me. Being near your home gives you a sense of feeling comfort and peace. Being far away from home makes one feel like an alien; like they don’t know how to act or how the society there works.

For me, the ideal reader would react positively toward my writing. When they finished what I wrote they would come away from it either laughing or deep in thought, depending on what kind of work I wrote. My hope is to inspire the reader and to improve his or her life and if I can’t do that then I’ll crack a joke and make him or her happy, at least for the moment, no matter how brief.

This reading was pretty emotional. When she says “the people around me had in mind images from television and newspaper pictures: the collapsing buildings, the running office workers, the black plume of smoke against a bright blue sky,” it brought back memories of sitting in my living room staring at the television watching people getting eaten by the cloud of ash behind them, and thinking to myself it looks like a movie but knowing full well that it wasn’t. (That was a really long sentence). I think the way that she described the people who were at ground zero embodied what it is to be American. There were people from every background and race there and they were all there to pay their respects peacefully.

The easiest place for me to write is in my room. The hardest place for me to write is during a class. In my room I feel less pressure than in a classroom where the teacher can walk by and read your essay at his/her whim. Also I find that I write my worst when I am forced to write. I need to feel like I want to write if I am going to write a good essay and I hardly ever feel any inspiration to write during a class.

Last year, I took an environmental science class, and we studied some people who made a huge difference in that field. Rachel Carson was one of them. Her book Silent Spring stirred up a lot of commotion among the general population; enough that President Kennedy decided to take action. She was the foremost female environmentalists of her time and is still remembered today.

Being an environmentalist myself, I love hearing other people who are as passionate about the subject as I am. The picture that Carson paints in this passage is of the bleak future of Earth if people ignored the needs of the environment. It is very effective at waking the reader up and making them want to do something about the deteriorating environment.

The reading Punch and Judy by Dave Barry told me more about myself than the difference between males and females. In the first part of the reading, Barry proposes two questions. If I put myself in each of those situations, my first instinct would be to punch Bob. However, in the first example, developing a sales proposal, I would ultimately refrain from punching Bob and present my position and listen to the other side. For the second question, if my favorite sports team lost, my desire to punch Bob would overwhelm me and I would indeed punch Bob. Immediately afterwords I would remind myself that it was just a game and there are more important things in my life. My answers to the two questions only reminds me of how much of a Tomboy i really am. Furthermore, when presented with the “trick-or-treat syndrome” I realized that after I got into a group to share candy, I would run around and bounce of furniture “like crazed subatomic particles.”Also, some of my girl friends dressed up as yellow or pink power rangers.

Even though Barry made many valid points, I think there is a definite gray area when talking about the difference between males and females. For most of the population the examples he gave would hold true, but for the others, such as tomboys or ‘girlymen’, either the male or female tendency would be feasible.

I can’t think of a time when me or someone I know was given wrong directions, but I can recall loads of times where I or someone else misread directions.

A couple months after I got my drivers license, my sister was coming home for the weekend from college. She had the brilliant idea that I should pick her up at the train station even though I had never been there let alone driver there by myself. I got directions from Google Maps and talked to my dad for his directions. However, I sometimes get my left and right confused and instead of taking a left to downtown Grafton, I took a right and drove to the center of Grafton. Five three-point-turns, one dead cell phone, three different sets of directions from local store owners, and two hours later, I pulled into the train station parking lot to find an annoyed sister ready to implode from hours of isolation. Needless to say she never asked me to pick her up alone again.