Youth

Toshio and Kiyoshi shouldn't be responsible for their parent's debt because it is not their mistakes to pay for, and they're losing something so important; their youth.  Toshio and Kiyoshi were I believe 14 when they started working for the plantation and their youth is something they can never get back.  It's their father's mistakes that they're working for which is not teaching them to pay for their own mistakes. Too much responsibility for someone too young can be overwhelming and a loss of hopefulness. I understand that these ways are due to japanese culture's traditions and to them it's the only way they are living just to survive in poverty. They are a collectivists and to them it would be completely bizarre for the system to be any different than the way it is, but the way it is set up is completely unreasonable.

A lot of people look back and remember a time in their childhood being the most fun time of their lives, when they could just play and laugh and not worry about a thing.  Children are fearless they laugh really loud, cry really hard, scream really loud and love a lot.  Your childhood is something you can never get back and living with a family like his who has strong beliefs about how they have to act and little hope constraints the joyfulness of being a child.  Your teenage years are important as well, you become aware of the way you look and who you are, you are becoming a little man or women.  You make friends that mean the world to you and build memories together that last a lifetime. Having all of those good times taken from you and filled with stress and sadness is unfair.  Your youth is something that you can never get back and if you do not act like a child while your a child you will always look back and regret things you missed out on.  

It doesn't seem logical to me for the children to have to pay for their parent's mistakes. It seems like ineffective parenting, role modeling, and even morals.  If japanese father's make mistakes and they're making their families pay for them then their modeling to their children not to pay for your own mistakes. Their father's are not taking responsibility for their own actions, instead their depending on their family to save them.  It's not fair for the children and it's morally wrong for the parents. Why should the children have so much responsibility when their parents aren't taking responsibility for their own actions. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with living in poverty but it's shocking because parents should want what's best for their children and I would think that at least their mother would have been sensitive to their emotions. It wasn't like Toshio was complaining about taking the garbage out, or washing the dishes, but he was complaining about almost killing himself from working so hard. The sad thing is, Toshio's mother thought it was unreasonable for him to be complaining.  At this point, his health could be fairly at risk and she is disappointed in him for it.  Their father is the one that made the decisions to get them to where they were and so he should be the one to save his family and not depend on his young boys to do it for him.

It's unhealthy for someone so young to have that much responsibility.  They are children and they already have to worry about all the stressors that are too hard for even an adult to worry about when in poverty.  It's as if one day Toshio and Kiyoshi are happy they don't have a care in the world,  and the next day it is up to them whether or not their family survives.  It causes them to think less of themselves, and lose hope in life.  They cannot be anything they want to be, they have to be the families dependent. Toshio and Kiyoshi do not get to experience what they're passionate about. They do not get to join in on sports and organized institutions that others with money get to.  It allows them to not get their hopes up, and even not believe in good things happening to them.  It's sad that someone should be forced to think like that because they were forced to grow up so fast.  Being a teenager in itself is a crucial time for a person that any other stressors would just be too much.  I remember getting extremely stressed out about a pimple on my face as a teenager, I couldn't imagine having to put food on the table at that time.  When you're a young teenager your getting all of these hormones that cause you to feel all of these different things such as a pregnant women would feel.  Could you imagine a pregnant women working all of those long hours, it's unhealthy.  It is way too much responsibility for a young child to be adhering to.

When in poverty, you don't have as many choices as you would like about the way you live and there it's really sad that there is not more equality within the people.  To me, if you're in poverty then the one's with the least sacrificing should be the children. They didn't ask to be there they did not ask to live that life they were put there so how can they be expected to be making up for what their parents have done.  It's really sad that they would think that everything is depended on them.  It's unhealthy to have that much responsibility that young, and the time of being young is something they will never get back.  

All I Asking For is My Body Part III Dialogue

What is the meaning of the title?

The meaning of the title has to do with the desire for independence and freedom. Toshio and Kiyoshi have to spend a pretty big chunk of their lives giving back to their families by working for them like slaves and handing over their hard earned money. They do not have any control over their lives and more importantly their bodies. It must be incredibly hard to not have control over something as personal as your own body.  Toshio questions his actions unlike his father who worked for Toshio's gradfather for 12 years without one word of complaint. Toshio's mother sees him as weak because he had only been working for 3 months and had already been complaining. Toshio is smart to question the collectivist japanese ways and think for himself by wanting to go to school and learn.

Doing what everyone else is doing because it's tradition is like not having a voice or a mind. They are all like robots doing what others tell them to do without thinking for themselves.  It's important to live your life your own way because then you will always stay true to yourself. You can make mistakes and learn from them and build character along the way.  When someone doesn't have control over even their own body then who is that person?  You will never know the true person that lies somewhere inside that body, only the person that they've been made to be. Toshio and Kiyoshi strived for independence and freedom from their traditional japanese family to gain knowledge of who they are and fulfill their own desires.  The title of this book is very significant and it makes me feel really grateful that I had the opportunity to go to school and learn, and I have the freedom to make my own decisions.

Writing Topic Summary- Ch 52

In Rules for Writers Chapter 52 by Diana Hacker the main idea is supporting a thesis when writing MLA style papers. First you want to develop your thesis by gathering all of your evidence and considering all possible arguments and turning it into one sentence of your main idea. Then, you want to organize your evidence  by starting with an informal rough draft to gather your ideas without getting caught up in the complexity of them, then you can move onto a formal outline. Next, you want to use sources to back up your information in support of your thesis. A good way to do this is by explaining terms or concepts by quoting or paraphrasing a source, supporting claims using factual information, using experts knowledge on your argument, and acknowledge arguments against your own.

This is helpful because it's always important to write a good thesis, it is something I need to work on. Your thesis is like your contract with your reader telling them that this is what I'm going to be writing about, if you don't have a strong thesis you might not have a strong paper. It's important to show evidence of your thesis and to stay on topic, this information is helpful because I need to generate all ideas before I just start writing, and gather research to build my thesis so that I know it is strong.

All I Asking For Is My Body

 Makot is a rich boy who lives in a filipino camp, but is actually Japanese.  He plays with younger kids and kids his age always make fun of him. Makot's parents apparently are not the best people.  They are very rich, and don't have the best manners. They were different. Kiyoshi described how different they were, and Makot's mother laughed at him because he was being polite. It was as if she had never heard anyone say thank you before.

I do feel sorry for Makot because it is obvious that his parents are not modeling the best behavior.  It's hard especially as a child to fit in when your parents do not model appropriate social behavior.  I think Makot uses his money to buy the little kids friendship and he wins control over them. He copes with his feelings by bossing little kids around and rewarding them with prizes instead of an actual friendship, which might be what his parents did to him. Makots parents might be replacing love with money.

Understanding

The importance of forgiveness for Victor in Smoke Signals was the act of understanding.  I believe that he couldn't forgive his father because he didn't understand why he did the things he did, why he abused him, and abandoned him.  He probably blamed himself to a certain extent and he a lot of hatred toward his father.  He also realized in the end that forgiving him freed him of everything that was holding him back in growth and in life.

When Arnold became an alcoholic after saving Thomas's life from the fire, it didn't really make sense.  He had just saved someone's life and instead of acting like a hero he was acting like a failure.  Once Victor realized that his father is the one that started the fire by lighting a firework he understood that his father had to live with all that guilt of being responsible for the death of two people for all of those years.  He not only had to live with the guilt, but he was praised for it.  Guilt is one of the worst things a person could feel and I think that once it all made sense to Victor and he had all the answers he then was able to finally take the next step and forgive his father.

Victor seemed depressed in the movie, he was distant and he shut down emotionally. This is probably due to his fathers actions and the fact that he blamed himself in some way.  When your parents have no self worth, usually your kids won't either because they internalize it.  Children want to believe the best in their parents and sometimes that means that they're being blindsided by the truth. Victor didn't show that he blamed himself, he showed nothing but hatred toward his father.  He also probably felt like he was never good enough because of the way his father treated him that day in the truck, and he might feel like if he were better than he would have stayed. This was what the unknown did to Victor before he knew the truth.

Finally, when Victor was able to forgive his father it freed him of all his shortcomings.  He was able to move on with his life and start focusing on himself as a person rather than trying to figure out his past childhood.  It was like closure for Victor, he finally got that none of it was his fault. He understood that his father didn't just make bad choices because he wanted to but something severe actually happened to him that I'm sure no one could ever imagine having happened to them. Although, it doesn't excuse his behavior it makes sense of it all and perhaps if Victor can forgive him, he can forgive himself as well.

Forgiveness is extremely important because if you can forgive someone than you can move on and you don't have to hold on to that disappointment, hurt, and pain.  I do believe in second chances and everyone should get one. In Victor's case it took understanding in order for him to forgive. You can't truly forgive someone if you don't know precisely what it is your forgiving them for.  It was better for everyone in the end when the truth came out and Victor found an understanding and meaning of his life through forgiveness.

This is What it Means to say Phoenix, Arizona

I liked the story better because I could focus just on the story. I wasn't trying to figure anything out, I knew who the characters were. I knew what they looked like and how  they acted from the movie so the story made it really clear and I felt more emotionally attached to the characters. It was almost as if it seemed more real.

One difference that was interesting was how Thomas's parents didn't die in the fire. In the story his father died in the military and his mother died giving birth to him. I like the way Thomas talks he comes across as really wise, like how he says "She took her last breath" when he was talking about her giving birth to him with her last breath, it's beautiful.  Thomas is my favorite character.  When they dismissed the way Thomas's parents died in the fire and changed it it's like they took away the whole meaning of the movie.

Rules for Writers-CH 50

In Rules for Writers Chapter 50 by Diana Hacker the main idea is how to evaluate your sources when conducting research.  First, you need to figure out how your going to use your source in your writing by providing background information..etc. Then,  choose sources worth your attention and learn how to scan search results in all different types of sources such as books and databases. Then, you want know how to determine a scholarly source by looking for formal language and presentation, authors who are academics or scietists..etc.

Once you've learned how to look for and choose the right sources, you want to make sure your reading them with an open mind and a critical eye. Do not focus on judging it or putting your opinions in there but focus on evidence, conclusions, and assumptions. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are original documents, and Secondary sources are comments, opinions, or interpretations of the primary source. Be alert for signs of bias, and asses the author's argument. Finally, make sure you assess and evaluate web sources very carefully by looking at authorship, sponsorship, purpose and audience,  and currency

Smoke Signals-Victor and Thomas

The relationship between Victor and Thomas reminds me of two brothers. Victor is obviously the older brother, he is mean to Thomas sometimes and gets annoyed of him. He tries to teach him things such as how a real indian should look like.  Thomas seems to look up to Victor and he wants to help him. They grew up together in the same neighborhood so they have known each other their whole lives like brothers.  Thomas is very thankful to Arnold- Victor's father for saving his life from the fire.  This is where they disagree because Victor doesn't like how his father is an alcoholic, and violent, and eventually leaves them. 


Inside, although Victor doesn't act like it, he really does care for Thomas like a brother.  I think he might have trust issues and that could be due to his father's disappearance, he shuts down emotionally. Victor tries to act like he doesn't like Thomas, but he appreciates all of his help and the journey brought them even closer.  In the end Victor gets a better understanding of how Thomas, and Arnold feels about the traumatic event that happened when they were babies.

Response to Mr. Harvey- "Obituary"

I thought that Mr. Harvey was pretty harsh. I don't think it does him any good to force learning on the students. At times he was rude, telling them that they were terrible at speaking and that they were going to get no where in life. He came across really strong and rough, I believe he was trying to help but it just seemed really discouraging.  I don't think that the kids will want to learn anything from someone like that. It will make them focus on how rude he is and how much they dislike him during class time rather than focusing on what they can learn from him. Children need structure and discipline but they also need a good role model.  I don't consider a teacher cussing and telling them they were terrible as a good role model. 

He did seem passionate about his career, he wasn't some teacher that didn't care if the kids learned anything or not. He did care, a little too much.  I think that he tried so hard and put so much pressure on them learning how to speak english like an American that he got stressed out and took it out on the kids. He was a little too strict and maybe expected too much out of them and himself as a teacher to them.  He could have made it more fun and taught them in a way that they would want to learn so that everybody wins.

Rules for Writers-Ch 48

In Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker the main topic is arguments.  First you want to make sure your tactics are between reasonable and fallacious by staying away from generalizing. You can also test your inductive reasoning by asking yourself if your evidence is sufficient, representative, and relevant. A good argumentative approach is to make analogies by pointing out similarities in things otherwise different. Cause and Effect is another good way to argue your point but you want to be careful of the post hoc fallacy which is when writers think that because one event comes after another, the first causes the second. You also want to make sure your weighing all your options to be fair, and then make assumptions. Finally, you deduce a conclusion by putting things together using deductive reasoning. Three steps of deductive reasoning called Syllogism are the major premise, minor premise, and conclusion.


When evaluating an argument you want to understand the difference between legitimate and unfair emotional appeals. There is nothing wrong with using a emotional appeal as long as it is done right for the right reasons.  Stay away from unfair appeals and biased language. In an argument you will find that by having someone oppose their views it will only help you gain credibility, or learn to make it better. When describing others views watch out for the straw man fallacy which is an oversimplification or distortion of opposing views. When quoting opposing views be sure to explain the context fairly.  


I've learned that it's a good idea to quote the opposing viewers because it is more accurate and fair.  I have also learned that it's important to watch out for emotional appeals because you want to use them in the right way. Arguments are interesting to learn about because they are confusing and challenging there is a lot to learn about them.  

Writing Topic Summary-Ch 47

In Rules for Writers Chapter 47 by Diana Hacker the main purpose is to construct a reasonable argument. In doing so, you want to make sure you understand the truth about a subject or come up with the best solution to the problem. Be sure to be careful of coming off as too aggressive or too passive, make sure you know what your tone should be and that it's assertive.  You want to view your subject in an intellectual and social context and your audience as jurors. The introduction is about stating which side you are taking and you want to be fair and knowledgable by presenting both sides. You want to back up your thesis with supporting persuasive arguments in the right order to be convincing, then use specific evidence to support your claims like facts and statistics. Make sure your being objective and questioning all of your arguments to cover your point on all different levels.  You also want to build common ground by listening sensitively to your opposing viewers concerns so that they're more likely to agree with you in the end.

I learned that when writing your arguments about a particular issue or subject, there are several different questions you can ask yourself to make sure your being objective.  That is something that will be very helpful, I will remember to ask myself these questions and to question my arguments and analyze them to make sure they are objective and persuasive to everyone.  I also learned to be more open to opposing views and be sensitive to them so that  they are more likely to agree with you, if you are rudely arguing with someone they are just going to want to prove you wrong no matter what.  Also, when you really listen to what someone is saying about your argument and put yourself in their shoes, it will educate you more only to make a clearer point.

Essay 2 Workshop-Rough Draft

Do you relate to one of the characters? How? Why?


The character I relate to is Sarah Vowell in the "Shooting Dad" Dialogue because my dad and I had a relationship similar to hers and her dad's.  Her dad was also similar to mine, my dad and I were opposites, or so I thought. In the end, we became best friends and although were opposites we were very similar too.

My dad rode Harleys, that was his favorite thing to do and he also liked guns, we lived in the mountains. It took us a half an hour to get to the nearest small town. When I say small I mean small, it's only about a mile drive through the town.  My dad was one of a kind, every where he went he wanted people to look at him, he was loud and funny, but mellow too.  He was really tall and big and no one ever wanted to mess with him, he was very intimidating on the outside. On the inside, he was just a big baby and a huge sweetheart. When I was little he used to not be able to stand when me or my sister were mad at him, and we would pout and he would feel bad for yelling at us and so he would bring us cake or give us something to cheer us up. He was a huge softy and everybody loved him.  You could always count on him and he helped many people.  As a dad, he was really strict and pretty much hated boys.

I hated living in the country, it was dirty and dusty, there was all different kinds of disgusting bugs and spiders everywhere. I had to bomb my room every month because I have this huge fear of spiders crawling in my bed at night. I hate bugs and spiders I am a little weird about it too, it's an unreasonable fear I have. I am a girly girl. The bus ride to school every morning was an hour and a half and I didn't want my dad to drive me on his harley because I was embarrassed, he would rev up the engine and make everyone stare at him, I still to this day don't think anything could ever embarrass him. He was not shy at all. I was a rebellious teenager and my dad wouldn't let me do anything, we both were stubborn and liked to argue so that's what we did.  I couldn't even go to the school dances my freshman year, he eased up a little over the years, but he was a very strict parent.  I couldn't stand it, I hated where I lived and I had to be there all the time, at home.

After the four hard years of high school, we had gone through so much together and I had put him through a lot.  When I turned 18 it was he retired as being my father and became my friend, everything had changed including him.   He grew up in San Francisco and had a very strict old fashioned abusive dad from Kentucky.  He had a really hard childhood and all of his brothers were in prison or drug attics.  He was the only one that was on the right path, he was in AA. He loved helping people and that's what he did, helped anyone who was trying to get sober or stay sober no matter what it took. He would drive 3 hours to help someone.  He was a 100% disabled American Veteran so he dedicated all his time to helping others.  I was so proud of him for growing so much, and our relationship grew too. He had accepted me for who I was and accepted the fact that he couldn't change me and I was going to do things on my own time.  So after he accepted that, we were able to become friends and we were like best friends. He was always like a big kid, some boys my age were friends with him and would come over and hang out with him.

He was always there for me and I will always remember my dad as a one of a kind, honest, powerful, big hearted man that would never let me down. So this is the story of my dad and I and how we were opposites and ended up becoming very close.

Writing Topic Summary-CH 4

In Rules for Writers Ch 4 by Diana Hacker the main focus is how to write an effective paragraph. The first step is to focus on a main point that is clear and that all sentences in the paragraph should be about that main point, you should also state the main point in the topic sentence. You want to make sure you stick to the point, and to develop the point you want to make sure the paragraph is fully developed. Next, you want to choose the correct pattern of organization. Some of the patterns include examples and illustrations, narration where your telling a story and process which is structured in chronological order, compare and contrast, analogy where you come up with comparisons between things that are very different, cause and effect, classification and division which is grouping items into categories according to a consistent principle.  Finally, the last pattern of organization is definition.

The next thing you want to do to make sure your paragraph is effective is to make them coherent; make them flow. To do this you should link ideas clearly, repeat key words, use parallel structures, maintain consistency, and provide transitions. Finally, you want to make sure the paragraph has the correct length. Paragraphs between one hundred and two hundred words are suggested.

First of all, I never thought I could learn so much useful information in writing a paragraph. I didn't know that there was so much detail to it. This is very helpful in assessing my paragraphs to make sure they are good paragraphs and this will also be a helpful guideline in writing clear, organized, complete and coherent paragraphs that aren't too long or too short.

"Shooting Dad" Dialgoue

The significance of the title is that he is a shooting dad, he loves shooting and loves firearms, but more importantly when he dies, he wants them to literally shoot his ashes out of the cannon. I thought that this was really funny and interesting that her dad wanted his ashes to be shot out of a cannon. It seems like when someone dies they want to remember the things they loved most, and the things that made them the happiest.

My dad loved the mountains and he was similar to her dad, he loved guns, shooting guns, and westerns.  We lived in Calaveras County in Mountain Ranch and it was so far out in the middle of no where it took a half hour to get to the nearest, tiny town.  Although, I hated living there more than anything (The bus ride to school every morning was an hour and a half).  He loved it more than anything, it was always his dream to live in the country, he was born and raised in San Francisco.  So, when he died he wanted his ashes to be spread across the mountains where he lived, and that's exactly where we put them. I could definitely relate to this story and it was one of my favorites so far. The ending of her story, when she said that she wanted it to hurt, I thought was the best part. She wanted to feel her dad's death without holding back, she wanted to experience the pain to the fullest and never forget it.

Writing Topic Summary-CH 3

In Rules for Writers Chapter 3 by Diana Hacker the main focus is about global revisions. You want to think about focus, purpose, organization, content, and overall strategy. Once you put your paper aside when you look at it again, you want to read it as the audience instead of the writer. You want to then revise and edit your sentences by making sure they are correct and effective. Lastly you want to proofread your work, this is a very important step. To proofread, you want to read slowly searching for any mistakes. You should proofread out loud so that you don't read what you were meaning to say instead of what you wrote.

I have never thought about when I'm proofreading that I will read what I intended to write because it's already in my mind instead of what I actually wrote. This is probably where I have messed up, from now on I will always proofread out loud so that I don't make this mistake. This is very helpful because sometimes I will keep reading and revising a paper and not get to look at it with fresh eyes, so taking a break from it and then coming back to it is useful advice.

"Coming Home Again"

Why does his mother regret allowing him to attend boarding school?
She regrets allowing him to attend boarding school because she ended up passing away. She didn't know she was going to die, and they said this was the first time that she spoke her mind and said exactly what she wanted to say.  She felt like she made a mistake because he should have been with his family. At the time she thought she was doing what was best for him. She sent him because he was becoming too much like her.  I think she wanted him to get the best education possible and become like his father.

Then, she thought maybe it wasn't a mistake because she didn't think her son would have wanted to be around her while she was sick, she thought he wouldn't have liked her. This is silly of her to think this, a son will always love his mother especially if she is sick he will want to protect her.

Writing Topic Summary-CH 2

In Rules for Writers CH 2 by Diana Hacker the main focus is writing your rough draft.  For your rough draft you want to think about ideas and organization, keeping your lists, brainstorming, notes, etc.. close by. A very important part of your introduction is your thesis or main point, you want to make sure you have supportive evidence when developing your thesis. A thesis is like a contract with your reader. Next, develop your thesis with the body paragraphs. The body is all the supportive details to your thesis. Finally bring it all together with your conclusion. Remind your readers what they wrote, and try spicing it up a bit.

This will definitely help me because I know I need to work on organization. What usually works for me, is preparing an outline with these exact guidelines. If I do this I can remember organization first, otherwise I will just start writing and have no idea where I'm going with it.  It is important to have organization so that your reader can follow along easier and understand exactly what your trying to say.

An Ending-A Beginning

This picture represents an ending, as well as a new beginning in my life.  Yes, it's in black and white, but what's important is the location, and the person in the picture. This is my boyfriend, his name is Anthony and someday, we plan to get married.  The dog next to him is Dixie, although the fact that he's with her is not why this picture is significant to me. The location of this picture is in Calaveras at my dad's house.  Calaveras is in the middle of no where and it takes four hours to get there. This was the first time Anthony met my dad, and the last time he ever saw him. 

I met Anthony in Santa Rosa, and we fell in love. After a while, I had to go back home to my dads.  He came up to Calaveras one weekend he had off of work.  He met my dad and my dad loved him which is unusual for him because he was the type of dad that would have a talk with a boyfriend with a shotgun sitting beside him. We ended up having so much fun together, we watched movies, and had great laughs. Anthony and I were inseparable since the day we met, we hated not being together. When it was time for him to leave I didn't want him to go. I told him that he couldn't leave and he told me to go with him, so I did.  

I ended up staying with Anthony for approximately one month, when I got a call from a police officer telling me my dad had passed away. He got thrown into oncoming traffic on his Harley and was hit head on by a van.  I started screaming and Anthony was sitting right next to me, He grabbed me and I cried in his arms. I was just screaming and crying and I couldn't believe it. I was in shock, it was all a blur. It was unreal I felt like I was in a nightmare. I was scared, and sad, and felt like my whole life had just fallen apart. I was heartbroken. I called my mom and my sister to tell them. I was the first person to know, and the next few days were very foggy. I became severely depressed and all I did was drink alcohol, and sleep. I would wake up, drink, and go back to sleep. I slept all day from the time we fell asleep at night; usually around midnight, until the time Anthony came home from work around 6pm. Then, when he came home we would drink all night together, I wanted to escape reality. It is by far the saddest I had ever been in my life and the hardest thing I had ever had to go through. This was the end of my life.

I stayed in Santa Rosa with Anthony, his parents knew what happened and were kind enough to let me stay with them. I wouldn't have gotten through any of it if it weren't for Anthony, I had just met the man of my dreams and fallen in love and at the same time my dad had died. About 2 months after he died I became pregnant with a miracle. I quit drinking and smoking cigarettes the second I found out. I was forced to deal with all my feelings and the only way I could go was up. My life took a turn for the best. Having Aubree was the best thing that ever happened to me, my hurtful tears were replaced with tears of joy. Although, I will always miss my dad, I had so much love in my heart for my new family.  Little did I know when I took this picture that I was looking at the hero that God sent me right before he took my dad. This was the beginning of my life.  

Chapter 1 Writing Topic Summary

Chapter 1 in Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker is about coming up with ideas and planning your writing. You want to assess your writing by looking at the subject, sources of information, purpose and audience, length and document design, and reviewers and deadlines. For your subject you want to view your sources of information, and if necessary narrow down your speech. Your purpose has to do with understanding your assignment, the purpose, how to answer questions. You should also know what kind of an audience your writing for. Your length and document design may be developed for you to follow by someone else. Most writers have reviewers who give you feedback, and deadlines are critical in planning your time frame.

You should be creative in exploring ideas for your subject. Great ways to generate ideas are to talk and listen, take notes and annotate, list, cluster, freewrite, writing in a journal, and asking a journalist questions. Next, you want to form and test a tentative thesis. Finally, plan it all out by writing out your outline. I will use annotating in almost all of my school work because a lot of the time I read first, and then write about it.  I will also use clustering because that is how I get the best ideas relating to eachother. I will focus more on my audience when I'm writing, which is usually the teacher.

The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me

There are many things that can be dangerous about being smart. When it comes down to it, our brain is our most important weapon. If it comes down to two people, and they each have a gun, the smarter one is the one that is more likely to not get shot.

You can talk your way out of things when your smart, and manipulate others into doing what you want. You would be amazed at some of the things that people can manipulate, it can hurt a lot of people. Just look at lawyers, they are really smart and they do whatever it takes to win their case no matter what it cost them, no matter who they are hurting. They don't care if they are right or wrong.

Some criminals have been really smart and that's why they've gotten away with so many things. It is dangerous to be smart when you have bad intentions. Being smart is not only dangerous it is having power.

Writing Topic Summary- CH 46

Rules for Writers Ch 46 by Diana Hacker is inteded for students in English class. She is really getting across step by step how to write about a piece of writing. The first thing you should do is annotate the text; underlining, writing on the side, giving yourself notes, reading the text over and over. Then, you should quickly write an outline of the text to get all the main ideas in place, and to understand the thesis in your own words.  Then, use the outline to write your summary of the text. The summary should consist of all the main ideas briefly and make sure you name the text your writing about and the author.  In a summary you should be concise and objective. The next thing Hacker mentions is how to anlayze a text, which is to look at how the text makes it's points, how it makes it's argument. The last thing she says is to understand the different texts you will be analyzing in different disciplines.

I will be using this information in all my writing at different times. It's one thing to read a text but it's another thing to annotate it, summarize it and analyze it. My favorite thing to do is to analyze it. To use my critical thinking and question the text to better understand exactly what the author's intentions are. Analyzing might also be the hardest way to write about a text. You have to really think, and you can be way off.  I need practice with all of these types of writing but I feel like it will make me a better reader and writer.

Freewriting Excercises Dialogue

A freewrite is when you write for atleast ten minutes straight without stopping. There are no rules in a freewrite, you can write whatever you want and if you don't know what to write you can write I do not know what to write and then go on. You can write that over and over until you figure it out, the key is to never stop writing. It is helpful because you can pull out some brilliant work out of all the garbage that you write. Sometimes there will be a little bit of writing that will be great from freewriting and it will be a lot better than if you were to sit there and think of what to write.  I felt like the reading had a lot of personality to it, like someone was actually talking to me rather than plain factual information, it kept me more interested.

Introductions Dialogue

My name is Brittany, I have been a student at the J.C. for a year now and I am majoring in social and behavioral sciences. I plan to get my AA and Transfer to Sonoma State. I grew up in Santa Rosa, and I hope to accomplish new learning skills in this class, along with the basic skills that may need work.  I have always enjoyed writing. I am very good at spelling, but I definitely have room for improvement in my grammar and punctuation.

I do things usually pretty last minute, but I try to pace myself. When I am actually doing my work,  I do like to take my time and make it perfect. I do not like being rushed at all because I feel that I can't do my best and put 100 percent into my work, at least if I have enough time I know that I can blame it all on myself and my lack of knowledge rather than the fact that I didn't have enough time to finish it.  The main reason I usually do things last minute is because I have an 8 month old baby and all I want to do is spend time with her! She is my whole life I love being a mom, and she is absolutely gorgeous. It's the most amazing experience.