To Post, or Not to Post....

Active voice/ Intransitive verbs
Abstract subject
Linking verbs                       

                                      An Engaging Title

    When I first registered for this course - English 205 - all I was thinking was ‘I really hope we do not have to read Romeo and Juliet.’ The only reason I did not want to read this particular play is because to me it feels like a song on the radio that is over played in today’s culture. When I read something I want it to be new and vibrant so that I can actually get through it because it’s what I wanted. My previous experience with Shakespeare plays, dates back to high school when we read the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which I found to be thoroughly entertaining. After having read this play we watched a fairly recent movie on it. So while entering into this class I feel as though I was heavily prepared for what was yet to come; the only difference is that we do not perform Socratic seminars, but rather in-class discussions that are quite entertaining.
    On the first day of class we were all (well the ones that actually show up) handed a paper with plays that we would be choosing to read over. While looking over it, I noticed that there were plays that I had seen or heard of before, but never realized they were written by Shakespeare. Such plays include: “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Othello,” “Julius Caesar,” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Maybe if we have time we will be able to read through one or more of these plays by the end of the semester.
    So far, I have really enjoyed each of these plays, well maybe not the history “Henry V.” The only reason I didn’t like this play nearly as much as the others is because I found it to be boring, however, I find myself enjoying fictions more than non-fictions regardless. To be honest, I liked the action scene when the English were battling the French; especially with swords and arrows. I am not sure why but I have always had a fascination with the medieval era.
    As I had said earlier I enjoyed each play, but my favorite thus far has been “Hamlet.” This is the one play that I was most enthused to read out of any other given play, so when I found out we were going to be reading this play, you can guarantee I was doing the party boy dance all the way home. “Hamlet” definitely had its moments that you love as well as moments that you…well, love a little bit less. I was really hoping that Hamlet and Ophelia could have been together, but my heart was shattered once Ophelia drowned. After reading this part of the play my opinion is that she committed suicide, but Shakespeare didn’t exactly state this to be true. One could only guess that it is because suicides were heavily frowned upon during this time frame, that and maybe Shakespeare wanted to give Ophelia a last shot at dignity upon her death bed. And as if that were not enough, poor Hamlet and the rest of his kin are killed off in the end after a long gruesome fight. This brought me great sorrow because I liked Hamlet, but I feel he was misunderstood by most, yet he proved to be quite intelligent.

                                      An Engaging Title (Revised)

    I was thinking ‘I really hope we do not have to read Romeo and Juliet,' as I entered into English 205. I did not want to read this particular play because it feels like a song on the radio that is over played in today’s culture. When I read something I want it to be new and vibrant so that I can actually get through it because it’s what I wanted. My previous experience with Shakespeare plays, dates back to high school when we read the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which I found to be thoroughly entertaining. After having read this play, we watched a fairly recent movie on it. I feel as though I was heavily prepared for what was yet to come due to my previous experience. The only difference is that we have in-class discussions instead of performing Socratic seminars.
    On the first day of class we were all (well the ones that actually show up) handed a list of plays, which we had to vote upon. I noticed that there were plays I had seen or heard of before, but never realized they were written by Shakespeare. Such plays include: “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Othello,” “Julius Caesar,” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Maybe if we have time we will be able to read through one or more of these plays by the end of the semester.
    So far, I have really enjoyed each of these plays, well maybe not the history “Henry V.” Compared to the other plays, I hated this one because I found it to be boring, regardless, I find myself enjoying fictions more than non-fictions. To be honest, I liked the action scene when the English were battling the French; especially with swords and arrows. I am not sure why but I have always had a fascination with the medieval era.
    As I had said earlier, I enjoyed each play, but my favorite thus far has been “Hamlet.” This is the one play that I was most anxious to read out of any other given play. So when I found out we would be reading this play, you can only imagine I was doing the party boy dance all the way home. “Hamlet” definitely had its moments that you love as well as moments that you…well, love a little bit less. My heart was shattered once Ophelia drowned, for I wanted Hamlet to be with her forever. In my opinion I believe that she committed suicide, but Shakespeare didn’t exactly state this to be true. One could only guess that this is because suicides were heavily frowned upon during this time frame, or maybe Shakespeare gave Ophelia a last shot at dignity upon her death bed. And after a long gruesome fight, poor Hamlet and the rest of his kin are killed off in the end. This brought me great sorrow because I liked Hamlet, though he proved to be quite intelligent, I feel he was greatly misunderstood by most.

How Will my Reflection Show, How I Write to You Guys?

This is a paper that I had written for my criminal justice in English course at my previous college. The paper is a reflection on what I had learned, how the writings had helped me, and which of the writings was my favorite.

Participles

Absolutes 

Appositives

Adjectives

Active Voice

Passive Voice 

This quarter has really been interesting to me and surprisingly I learned some new things that have never really had an impact until now. Entering into this course I knew very little about how to research a topic, especially a topic within the criminal justice system. Now I realize how scholars feel when they conduct their research. Research is a very difficult task because you have to find the information that is useful for supporting your subject. I learned a lot within this course about research, including how to properly use the databases to find information, as well as scholarly journals.
    My identity has changed dramatically this quarter because I have become experienced with writing researched based articles. Before this class my knowledge pertaining to research articles was very shy. I’m not going to lie, when it came down to writing the literature review I felt unprepared, mainly because I had psyched myself up for it. Once I had started writing it, the process seemed to just jolt right along. Out of all the papers I had written, I think that my strongest paper had to have been the background essay because I was more familiar with writing those and it was really well structured. The only way to write these papers was to not procrastinate, but also once you start push yourself to keep moving.
    All of the assignments allowed for me to get a better understanding on how to take the information received and put it into your own article. The Stanford prison experiment I believe had to have been the most obvious researched based film. It showed that a lot of research must be conducted before a research question can be solved. Within this video it also provided examples of the research process through secondary research.
    I really enjoyed doing peer reviews because you are giving your insights on how others can perfect their articles, while also being critiqued as well. While writing out reviews I was very cautious on how the comments I made could help the reviewer with both likes and dislikes. When any of my papers came back to me after being reviewed I felt gratitude because it informed me on how I could fix any mistakes, or even go into more discussion on a certain issue. It also gave me an idea of what interests the reader has and what they would like to learn more about.
    The argument probably was my favorite piece of writing in the final research article. This is because it was all about my word against theirs while setting up a trial and error process. It also allowed for me to support my thesis by providing examples and statistics. It reintroduced some of the previous claims and summed it all up with an analysis. By writing out an argument, my research question had been restated and provided answers to it.
    I learned a lot of new techniques this quarter and I hope that I will be able to take what I learned and apply it to papers in the future. One of the most important things I learned throughout this class was that everything requires some form of research no matter what it is. Well I’m actually going into the field of screenwriting, so I would really like to apply some of what I learned into this. I believe that if I am to keep practicing these newly learned skills, there will be much more I can gain and expand upon. As much as I enjoyed researching malpractice, I don’t think I am going to continue researching the topic, just because I don’t feel that there is much I can take away from it. I think that if I am persistent with reading and researching, those will allow for me to become a better writer, as well as boost my confidence.
    This class was very well structured and I was able to learn a lot throughout this course. However, I think that if you were to add secondary research to the list for the final research article, I would imagine that students could take a lot more away from this class as to gaining a new outlook on researching. The secondary research may consist of interviews, conducting surveys, job shadows, or anything else the students can think up. I also have to mention that on the first day I was a little afraid of your class and was thinking “oh no, what have I gotten myself into”. Later on throughout this quarter I realized that this actually helped in bettering my understanding for research based papers. So I thank you for that.

Let's leave it at that.

Here is an analysis that my 302 class had to write about our poems for the creative writing section.

Participles

Absolutes 

Appositives

Adjectives

    While writing this poem I was heavily inspired by all the political activity that is going on in our society. My poem, Grand Old Party Plays World Of Warcraft, is based on what would happen if Mitt Romney were to become president. I chose to do a lot of rhyming within this poem because I like being able to feel like a kid again and rhyming definitely takes me back to the old nursery days. Speaking of rhyme schemes, I used more alliteration, rhyming with consonants, than assonance which is rhyming with vowels.
    If you couldn’t tell this poem comes off as a narrative through the point of view of Mitt Romney, as I have previously stated above and in the title of the poem. In the 3rd and 4th lines of the poem I used repetition of a word by using the oval office and Microsoft office, this brings the audience’s attention from  large scale down to a smaller one, downsizing Romney if you will. My poem also uses different forms of punctuation to let the reader know when an acceptable time to pause may be.
    My favorite part, both fun and creative, is the formatting stage because I made it not only enjoyable for the readers, but also styled it so the words match what they are doing. For instance, for the word ‘grow’ I increased the text size per letter to give the appearance of growth. I also enjoyed the placement of “I click it here, I click it there” because the intention behind this was to imagine a mouse going from one side of the screen to the other. I also put some of the sentences in all caps to give the emphasis that the narrator is excited or yelling.
    So basically the point for writing this poem is not me choosing a political side, it is more about poking fun at Romney through the use of poetry. I feel this gives a new angle on things and maybe politicians are just sitting around playing role playing games in there free time, or maybe I just have a large imagination.

Here is the poem I wrote my paper on. Hope you all enjoy!!!


Grand Old Party Plays World of Warcraft (G.O.P.-P-W.O.W.)
Narrated by Mitt Romney

My nation needs a guy like me.
Someone who knows how to play the Wii.
After a long hard day at the oval office,
I like to loosen up my tie and start up Microsoft Office.
I click it here
                                                                                                            I click it there                                    
HEY!!! I DIDN’T KNOW I HAVE SPIDERMAN UNDERWEAR!
As the game starts to load,
My excitement begins to GROW.
That ogre is slain by my mighty sword.
Forget president, I have the power of the Lord.
On here I don’t have to sign pesky bills.
I get to venture on quests to find golden seals.
My high elf is now lvl 73
Wait…what’s that? What do you mean I have a press-conference at 2:30?!

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Vs. Barack Obama Ninja Warrior

Due to the fact that this month of September is the month that marks 9/11 - a day that will forever mark history - President Obama’s speech on the death of Osama bin Laden is more than fitting for this particular writing. Much like President Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address,” these two speeches are for similar purposes, and have detailed messages for the citizens of America. These speeches bring America together in unity and liberty under the devotion of God by boosting the general morale of the American citizens. Even though Obama’s speech is much later than the effects that led to the war in Iraq, it allows the public to feel safe knowing a terrorist has been laid to rest. While, Lincoln’s speech is pre-war and states that a nation should not give up equal rights and freedom which “our fathers” fought to establish. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the preposition that all men are created equal.”
    The year of 1863 was a powerful turning point for America’s future. Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and led the union army in the Civil War against the South’s secession. “The Gettysburg Address” speaks about how when our nation first sailed over here, we fought for everyone’s equality. Today, we are still fighting for that purpose. Much of the inequality we live in today comes from people who are judged for their beliefs, their race, or economical status. Maybe if we had another leader like Abraham Lincoln, we would all be treated equal.
    Obama’s speech is twice as long as Lincoln’s speech, but has a similar message which states that we are a nation that stands together and helps our neighbors when they are in need. Metaphorically speaking, he is saying that America is stronger as a unit, and “the citizens will not take a punch sitting down.” Obama does not say this exactly, but does refer to Former-President Bush’s actions “I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.”
    Much of the literary works that Obama applies in his speech help make it easier to follow. The way that he sets it up reminds people of the events that took place 9/11 and why we went to war in the first place. He then gives recognition to the soldiers fighting over the last 10 years and to the ones who died bravely serving their country; by doing this he gains the emotion and attention of the American public. At this point he explains how the operation was performed, “shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against Al Qaeda.” He also makes it clear that killing bin Laden could not have been done with out the alliance of Pakistan, who had pointed out where bin Laden was hiding. Obama concludes his speech with sorrow he has for all the families who have lost a loved one along the way and he states that although this war was for the right reasons, he does not agree with all of the hardships that come with it.
    Because Obama’s speech was long and continuous, Lincoln's "The Gettysburg Address" was set up in a different manor all together. Just by looking at it, one would note ranges in size for each paragraph. As the speech progresses, each paragraph gets longer. Whether this was the intent or not it draws the reader in. Lincoln states that this land is where our fore fathers fought and now we are fighting on it again but for much too similar of reasons - to defend freedom, liberty, and equality. One of the most renowned parts of “The Gettysburg Address” is the very first line that reads “Four score and seven years ago.” A score is 20 years, so Lincoln is referring to 87 years before his time during the American Revolution. So why doesn’t he just say 87 years ago, instead of saying four score and seven years ago? This is probably what made his speech so spectacular because it drew in an audience to listen with tentative ears. Another thing to note is how he frequently uses the word dedicate, this is probably to give the emotion of pure devotion and commitment to defend this nation against any threat against freedom. He also uses the word consecrate which can also be defined as dedication which strengthens the speech that much more.
    When Obama gave his speech upon bin Laden’s death, the nation rang out with joy. In his ending remarks he states “Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.” Much like these ending remarks, Lincoln uses a similar approach by mentioning God in the ending to his speech. “This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom --- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The reason that both Presidents used the depiction of God was merely to sympathize with the rest of America because a lot of the nation was built upon Christianity. This also shows that the nation is all connected as one through the devotion of God. God stands more many as a sign of hope and faith; which America needs time and time again during times of war.
    So as you can see, each of the dually noted speeches have detailed messages relating to the citizens of America through uniting words. They provide sense of urgency with a sense of meaning to uplift the audiences spirits when they have been kicked around through tragedy, despair, and warfare. These speeches are similar in that they give new hope to Americans and unite the nation under God and through liberty. While at the same time each speech appears to be different through the length and also the language that is used within each of the two speeches. This is mainly do to the fact there is well over a century between the two. But they forever more hold their value and recognition for everyone wanting freedom and liberty.

Win OR Lose, it's Grammar I Use.

Wow what an exciting, YET disappointing football game we had this weekend. ALTHOUGH we lost the game (by one freaking point) I can still say I learned something this week, AND that is FANBOYS my friends. This is an acronym that Barbara has shown us during Thursday’s class. The letters represent words that can be used to combine sentences and make what we call compound sentences. FANBOYS: FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, SO. BEFORE we can go any further, I must say that I have never heard of FANBOYS throughout my entire educational career. I am so thankful to have learned this valid lesson for grammar.

AS of now I feel like I am really getting the hang of the material we have covered in and outside of class. SINCE we have been watching some “School House Rock” at the end of our sessions, I have gone home and told my roommate all about it. All he did was laugh though because he finds it to be childish, BUT I told him it’s a classic and enjoyable learning tool.

FOR the second acronym we had learned is AAAWWUBBIS, which we were told not to confuse our students NOR ourselves with this abbreviation. This acronym represents subordinating words and phrases, which connects a subordinate clause to a main clause. SO a couple examples of this may be:

    1) The Cougars had a huge lead until the Buffaloes stole it from them.
    2) It’s better to finish home work before class rather than during class.
    3) Even though he text more than he talks on his phone, his bill was through the roof.

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to pick out new partners for a fun activity, which I had learned a lot from. My partner, and friend, Stephanie and I had a choice between “Pick-up Lines” OR “Rock-n’-Roll,” but we went with “Rock-n’-Roll.” The object of the activity was to help us build our skills with S-V-O, S-Vi, and S-LV-SC sentences. This was not only helpful, but at the same time amusing because of all the creative sentences that our class thought up.

AS A TRANSFER STUDENT, I WAS UNSURE OF MY SURROUNDINGS AND KEPT MYSELF SHELTERED AWAY FROM OTHERS WITH SHYNESS; AS A SENIOR, I AM MAKING MORE FRIENDS AND BECOMING A BETTER STUDENT.

Blog # 3 With a Twist

Once upon a time, there was a lad from the small but very renowned town of Enumclaw. He grew up in a quiet little place just on the outskirts of town with his mother, his father, his brother and his sister. This lad that went by the name of Evan was no where near perfect but always aspired to be the best at whatever he was doing. From the time he was a wee little tyke to these present and harsh times he would never leave a task unfinished. He knew that he wanted to be writer lived up to the expectations of his teachers and was frequently complimented on his writing abilities. With this newly found power he would wield it to defeat any monstrous paper, becoming hero of all the land.

Though our conquering hero Evan has defeated many papers on expeditions, this story belongs to a quest that requires our hero to find one’s self and acquire new skills. Evan entered into what appeared to be an intimidating class the first day; but he soon found English 326 to be quite enjoyable. With the help of his fellow guild members and the elder mage (Barbara) he knew he could finish this quest with all the colors of the rainbow.

During the first week of classes Evan would make the journey by foot over mountains, through massive heat waves, and into the fiery pits known as “Campus“. The distance BETWEEN EVAN’S CASTLE AND CAMPUS was a long and treacherous one but he made his way each and every day. He had surprised HIMSELF with the time it took him on his voyage, for it was not as long as one would have expected.

Within English 326 Evan has been learning a lot about grammar, such as using punctuations in correct places. With the help of reading the scriptures of “Dora Learns to Write and in the Process Encounters Punctuation” he has increased his knowledge of proper punctuation. By the time the fourth week of classes rolled around Evan was beginning to get the hang of how grammar works; but with the introduction to nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions and particles, could truly put Evan’s heroic abilities to the test.

These skills are finding their way to being quite useful as our hero of this story learns how to use them in battle against his literary paper in English 301. His paper is a comparison BETWEEN A SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. He is beginning to understand the concepts more and more which will help him achieve his life long goal of becoming a great writer. What more lies ahead of our adventurer?

Until we meet again

Last weeks pattern: AS A TEACHER, I WORKED AND WROTE WITH CHILDREN IN GRADES ONE THROUGH SIX; WHILE AS A RESEARCHER, I OBSERVED THE WRITING PRACTICE AND PRODUCT OF THREE CLASSES.

Learning is Power

Maybe it is just me and I’m a big complainer but this question for this week’s blog all seems a bit…premature. But I guess I will take a whack at it as the English would say. During the first week of classes we went over the syllabus and discussed what we would be learning over the course of the semester. Then we required to create a blog page for this class; which I found superbly interesting. The reason that having my own blog is so interesting to me is because I have never owned one in the past.

Moving on to round two (second week) of the learning process. We began learning how to properly place apostrophes with words for singularity, ownership and plurality. I have learned that if it is ownership then the apostrophe goes after the word followed by an ‘s’. I also learned that an apostrophe can be used to abbreviate or combine words, such as it is becomes it’s or do not becomes don’t. We also worked in groups to find punctuation uses within print articles to help us know how to find different forms of punctuation.

Last week we read an article by Pat Cordeiro, WHOSE story discussed how students learned to write through trial and error. ITS author I felt didn’t know what she was talking about because she made elementary students less knowledgeable than what they really are. It may be my biased opinion but when I grew up my mom ran a daycare and as a chore I would help them with THEIR homework and they all seemed intelligent for their age compared to how Cordeiro described them as.

Cherrio