Persuasive Essay Brainstorm

Brainstorm

• why prom is stupid
• why high school day should be shorten
• why the school day should be shorter
• why laptops help students
• why high school should only be 3 yrs. long

Quote Reaction

How Starbucks Saved My Life

Quote:

"Work is diginity. (pg.37)"

I have started to read How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates. This is a fascinating book and has really got me thinking about how I view work and how I view my life and what I believe is important. I chose this quote because it really ties up the chapter about how Michael comes to the realization that he never liked his job but he enjoyed the perks that came along with them. He was the vice president of large advertising firm before he was laid off and had to take a job as a barista at Starbucks at 62 yrs. old. This quote is very simple but describes how important work and finding a meaning is for humans. This reminds me of the reading we did in Humanities where Socrates describes work and how humans are empty without work ans we find a lot of our meaning as humans in what we do. This quote also shows Gates writing style. He is very clear and concise and doesn't take the long, convoluted route to explain how he is feeling and is still very vivid. I admire that and want to find a way to integrate that into my writing.

Cause and Effect Essay Prospectus

Thesis: The cause of our backwards thinking when it comes to healthcare and other social programs stems from the way our country was founded and the guiding principals in our society and what we believe America stands for.

Main Points I want to touch on:

• why do some Americans believe that being able to purchase a gun is a god given right but universal healthcare is not.
• discuss different times in history when 'social agendas' were hotly contested in America like, social security, welfare, etc. and how there opponents have the same criticism of healthcare.
• What exactly is a "socialist state', talk about the red scare and what is it about socialism the irks some Americans.
• How the creation of our country( Puritanism and breaking away from Britain) has impacted what we think are "fundamental rights"

I haven't done any research on this so these are just ideas off the top of my head. After researching I probably will have better, clearer ideas!

Ideas for cause and effect essay

Ideas:

- Why do some Americans feel like owning a gun is a god give right but don't believe the same about healthcare?

-Why do people always say "like" and how that has effected our way of communicating with each other?

-Why do people from Texas/ the south say, "y'all" so much and how it has effected other societies perception of Americans.

-How has texting and spellcheck changed the english language and how we use it?

-Why is there a Yankee/ Red Sox rivalry and how has it effected baseball?

Prospectus

So there is this lady at the nursing home where I work. She is like my own personal Rosie the Riveter. She was one of the first women to work at Boeing during WWII and helped build on of the planes ( I don't remember which one). She defied all social norms during her time and I want to find out why, she could have been the typical housewife but she wanted more from herself and pushed herself.

I know this info from a simple conversation so when I actually get a chance to interview her I will actually know what angle I want to write my paper from.

things to improve and review

things to improve:

- vocabulary

- organization so my last paragraph connects seamlessly to with my first

        - beat into my head that quantity is less important then quality and not to stress about how           long my essays are.

Review ideas

1. The Blind Side

2.UP

        3. Precious

4. Dear John

5. Paris, je t'aime

6. New York, I love you

7.  The Hurt Locker

8. Where the Wild Things Are

9. Milk

        10. Son of sam

book ideas

1. Atonement

2. Kite Runner

3. The Brief Wondorous life of Oscar Wao

4. A Thousand Splendid Suns

5. Life of Pi

6.Middlesex

7. Everything is Illuminated

8. The Glass Castle

9. Beloved

Things I want to work on in my writing

1. Make my transitions better

2. Make my one idea flow well with the next and make them less choppy

3. Work on integrating my thesis more into the body of my essay

4. Work on my vocab

Writing Goals

1. I am proud of having a strong voice in my writing.

2. I am have a problem with organization and making sure my ideas flow well in my essays.

3. I would like to learn how to organize my thoughts better and to make my essay more fluid and work on my transitions.

Quote Reaction #3

"This was Comstock's debut, and over the next decades he merely enriched his technique with decoy letters, false signatures, impersonations, and an army of spies. To the end of his days he loved sleuthing, relishing above all personal encounters and the arrest of the enemy.(pg. 137)"

In this quote is the lead in to describing Margaret's enemy in the fight for female birth control. The whole paragraph was informative but had a certain kind of kick to it. The paragraph listed what he did and how he single-handedly created the Comstock Law's that impacted an entire generation. I really like how her opinion was obvious but it was done in a classy way. She described him as a charlatan without having to use those exact words. I hope to be able to express myself in my essay as gracefully as Sanger did in this section.

Rough Draft

‘Grapefruit is the bane of my existence”

 

If I were you I would surely be thinking, “Why the hell is grapefruit the bane of your existence?” I never have the patience to deal with metaphorical titles that connect to the narrator in some contrived way, but there is no other way to describe this point of my life. Middle School for most people is the most unbearable, horrifying, and lack for a better word, crappiest point of most their life in school.

We always have philosophical discussions about the media and how it distorts our self image. Whether it be in a class or with friends it usually goes like this, “ ‘Obviously that is not real’, ‘ Well someone should change the media’, ‘Those models are dangerously skinny’, ‘blab, blah, blah…’.” It is the same conversation over and over again and we discuss how disgusting we think the media is and how we need to change these images. I love how we all disagree with the media but we buy into it and help feed the monster our self image on a silver platter. To quote Sir-Mix-A-Lot, “ When it comes to females, Cosmo ain’t got nothin’ to do with my selection. 36-24-36? Ha, ha only if she’s 5’3”. All girls are hypocritical, we disagree with the image the media is feeding us but we stop feeding ourselves to meet that image.

I cannot use the epithet that would really greatly describe how my seventh grade was, to use the cleaner version, it was just simply bad. If 36-24-36 were the perfect measurements I was way too off! 

I found the writing group to be extremely beneficial . Reading my essay out loud helped me see the flaws in my writinG. When you write you are in your head and you know what you are trying to say, since you know the story you cannot judge if your writing was effective in showing your story. Since my essay is not completed my group gave me great ideas of how to finish my essay.

Outside Reading #1

'Father and daughter were soon partly reconciled, but after three years away from home,  I knew that I could not remain there.(pg. 14)"

This is a quote from the book, "Pioneer of the Future". This book is about Margaret Sanger and her life. This quote doesn't show imagery or inspire you to change, but this quote really hit home for me. In this part of the book Margaret's restlessness with life and her need for something better is highlighted. I can totally understand Margaret's restlessness. Writing is about expressing yourself and in that journey of expressing yourself you find a way to connect with complete strangers who are reading your work. This book doesn't have a flashy storyline or amazing imagery but it is simple, and in this simplicity the reader gains a sense of familiarity. Instead of highlighting why Sanger is different this autobiography touches on the fact that she was just like every girl and that we can accomplish the same things, if not more then Sanger. This book and narration welcomes the reader instead of alienating them.

Response to Freewriting Essay

So in this essay the writer touches upon the fact that freshman entering college have a very formulated, scientific equation that they think they can plug their thoughts into and will receive an "A". The writer obviously does not agree with this because she touches upon the fact that free writing helps up break that mold and that their is something unnatural about the "5 paragraph essay". Obviously that type of essay is not inborn but beat senseless into us every time we are forced to write an essay. We keep reading these essays about how writing is art and that there is no "right" or "wrong" and that passion is lacking in high school writing but it seems to me that there is a lot of talk and no action. Teachers instruct you to be creative and original but to adhere to there specific essay construction "formula". Freewriting does however help students break out of the 5-paragraph essay mold, it's a sort of detox if you will. It helps us make our writing become more fluid because we do not have to stop and think if we are backing up our thesis and if we are using the right words. Freewriting helps students find their opinion on a subject and since it is our own and we have gone through a very organic process we are more connected to what we are writing about. Passion+Purpose= Success!

My first blog!

Hola mi amors. This blog of greatness is for my Senior Composition class with Senora Knox! I am supposed to write about literature and other peoples writing. I like long walks on the beach and running in the pouring rain. I also enjoy this class not being Humanities, and I enjoy eating lots and lots of Candy Corn!