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Grammar Post

The semicolon! I've heard that the semicolon makes a paper look fancier, so whenever I write I try to add them in my paper. I dont know about anyone else but I kinda understand the basic rules of the semicolon. but I tend to not always use them in the right places. I found a really cool and interactive website that shows you more of the rules of when one should and should not use a semicolon. After youve read the webpage you can test your knowledge on one of their online quizzes. I hope everyone else can benefit from this site.

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/semicolons.asp

Grammar Post

What's an essay without a good thesis? probably not much more than a C, or if your lucky, a B paper. So far my thesis statements have been able to get me by, but they're definitely something that I can improve in. I've been having problems with making my thesis statements very specific. The website below has some good tips and examples for creating well constructed and specific thesis statements.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

America an oasis of goodness

D'Souza did an excellent job at creating a persuasive piece that would appeal to many Americans. As I was reading this essay I noticed how his thoughts were very organized and cohesive, which in turn allows the reader to perceive his opinion as logical.

His rhetoric and tone also allows the reader to have a more intimate relationship with the piece and I think allows the reader to agree with him.

The author definitely brought some interesting points that made me think and analyze things, but I didn't find myself agreeing with everything. I felt like his piece was too opinionated and generalized in a sense. In his last paragraph D'Souza mentions, (In reference to America) "It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism." I felt like that statement went too far and put America on too high of a pedestal.

To be or Not to be

Apparently I have a huge problem with to be verbs. I didn't really realize i was a to be verb addict until I received my political cartoon essay back. I found the writing center to be an excellent place to get help with to be verbs and I highly recommend it to anybody with this same problem. But in case you cant make the writing center you can also visit the website linked below. The website gives you tips on how to replace to be verbs with strong action verbs.

http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/14427.aspx

Im Black your White

There was a lot of good points in Steel's essay and he certainly brought up an issue that needs to be better dealt with in our society. When it comes to race and racism many of us then to shy away. However I also felt like Steel came off a little too strong and was over judgemental on people.

I like how he sees all races as being accountable with the problem of racism; and the point he brought up about feeling innocent and wanting power was definitely interesting and gave me something to think about. I also agree with him when he mentions that certain ethnic groups need to have a sense of belonging and feel like they are very much still apart of their race. A dilemma that the Black engineer felt he was faced with.

However I also think that Steel was overcritical. To define Bill Cosby as a bargainer is a very bold statement. Many people have Bill Cosby and the Cosby show in esteem and to demoralize that in a sense may be a limiting factor in steel's piece. Being very bold and outspoken can certainly turn off many people from his piece.

The Ellipses

Well I took Chelsi's suggestion and decided to write my grammar post on ellipses. Although I have used ellipses to modify quotations in my writing before I've learned that I haven't been using them completely right. The following article helped me better understand how to correctly use them. The article talks about the proper use and formatting of an ellipses. Now I will know how to properly use them in my next paper.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/ellipsis.htm

HURTING WOMEN

I really liked this essay. The author may have come off a little strong, but I think she did a wonderful job backing up her entire argument with the actual photographs of advertisements. The presence of those advertisements allowed her reader to see exactly what she was talking about and it gave her essay a lot more credibility.

In her essay Kilbourne mentioned that although sexual advertisements don't create negative behavior they definitely affect it. I agree with her on that point, like it or not these images affect all of us. They make us numb, we are no longer as shocked to images like this and it gets to a point were we perceive them as normal.

Just imagine all of the little kids that live in Las Vegas, they have to see very suggestive and down right pornographic billboards everyday. Its quite sad to see how sex is marketed in our society to sell products even to very young children.

Killer Culture

As I was first reading this piece, I felt like Kupelian was putting too much of a blame on the media. I do agree that the media feeds children a lot of negative images, but I don't think they are the sole reason why so many troubled youths today. I do think that the author had a lot of good points, but I think he fell into some of the logical fallacies that made his writing seem too out there.

In his essay he talked a lot about how the hip hop culture has impacted this teenage subculture. While I do agree that the hip hop industry has had a negative effect on many kids, I felt like the author generalized too much. He made it seem like you were either some rap enthusiast or some heavy metal punk kid. He seemed to focus too much on both extremes of the issue.

Although by the time I finished his essay I was able to see his point a little better. I really agreed with him when he said that parents need to step it up. Its not the responsibility of the media or of anybody else to raise your child, its your own. And I feel that more than ever parents today need to really be involved in their children's lives, like that radio comercial says "If you don't talk to your kids someone else will."

Oh That Dreaded Comma

The comma, who really knows how to use it? I know I dont. I have been tought the proper use of the comma since the second grade, but it has never seem to have stuck. I know what you wonder, how could she have possibly gotten into college without knowing how to properly use commas? Well incase you didn't know getting into Dixie isn't very hard. Below I have linked a web page that explains when and when not to use a comma.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/

Framing Class

I thought Diana's piece was a little daunting. Her writing was very academic and centered towards a very educated audience. Although it was a well written essay with interesting information I felt like it was a little too long. As I read her essay I found that every couple of paragraphs I would ask myself how much longer I had to go. I don't know perhaps this essay was just not meant for someone of my social class.

There was a lot of good points that Kendall brought out in her essay, one of them being the affinity that children and teens have for brands. From many children in America having those eighty dollar name brand sneakers are not a want but an absolute necessity. Children today seem to be a lot more materialistic than they were twenty of thirty years ago and I think that the media has played a part in that.

Serving In Florida

Barbara Ehrenreich's little experiment was interesting. I wonder were she got the idea to do such a thing. In her essay she mentions that she couldn't survive blue collar life for more than a month, which made me wonder how long she originally intended to do this for.

Her essay reminded me of John Griffin's Black Like Me. Black Like Me, is a true story that takes place during the sixties, it is the story of a white journalist who through medical treatments and clever disguise is able to transform himself into a black man. For several months Griffin completely immerses himself into character as a black man in the south. Griffins book is not only about how it feels to be black but about what happened after his story broke the media.

Like Griffins book, Ehrenreich's essay left me with a somber mood. Although it was interesting it reminded you of the crapiness in life. I could only imagine how Ehrenreich felt as she walked out of Jerry's. Sure she must have been relieved to be done with the whole thing, but I imagine that she also must have felt a certain guilt knowing that some of her friends would never feel that feeling of relieve.

Grammar Post

When using numbers in my essays Ive never acutally learned the proper rules, Ive just winged it and hoped for the best. But I think its about time that I learn those rules. Personally when I'm learning anything I like it to be short and sweet, so I tried to apply that to this.

Writing Numbers

Rule 1. Numbers 1-9 you must spell
Numbers 10-infinity can use numerals

Rule 2. Be consistent within a category.

ex. My 10 cats fought with their 2 cats.
My ten cats fought with their two cats.

I Just Wanna Be Average

I really enjoyed Rose's piece probably because it was a narrative writing vs. Academic (which i find much more boring). It was a really good story and i felt like Rose did a good job at quickly sucking me in to his old high school years.

The amount of description and background information that Rose gave was just right. He didn't overly bombard us with too much information about his classmates and teachers, but he gave us enough to understand his own little sub culture at the time. Something else that made his essay really great was that we were all able to relate with him. Ive had both dumb classes were you just don't learn very much and classes that even though there challenging you just love to go and learn. It was was definitely a nice change from that other dumb essay we had to read.

Against School

I didn't like it. Bold but an honest statement. I felt like Gatto was overly confident and generalized. Its true that a good writer needs to be confident but I just felt like Gatto took that too far. I definitely agree that there is some bad teachers out there and kids who are very bored in school but I felt like Gatto generalized that to every student and teacher. As I was reading his piece I just wanted to say, "You know John not every teacher sucks and believe it or not some kids do like school."

Another part of this essay that I found very disturbing was the very last two paragraphs when Gatto is attempting to globalize his conclusion, he mentions how parents should challenge there kids (nothing wrong with that), but then he goes on to mention "If Thomas Edison could publish a broadsheet at the age of twelve, if Ben Franklin could apprentice himself to a printer at the same age then put himself through a course of study that would choke a Yale senior today, there is no telling what our own kids could do." PLEASE can you say sales pitch. Granted the education system has its flaws but to tell a parent that if left to the cruel education system little Bob would become some crack dealing hobo vs. if they challenged there little Bob he would become the next president of the United States, is a ridiculous statement. Being to generalized and confident made his essay seem very weak.

Hopefully when this text book is revised the editors will put in between parenthesis, WHAT NOT TO DO, right above the title.

Idiot Nation

Read the essay and didn't hate it. Yes some was offensive but other parts were funny and I happen to agree with Moore's underlying message that the education system needs to be improved. Although I don't think there is anything wrong with the point that Moore is trying to get across, I do think that there is something very wrong in the manner in which he is trying to get it through. There are a lot of parts in Moore's essay were he's very disrespectful and rude.

I had a college professor a lot like Moore, she/he wanted us succeed in the class, but treated us like we were so far below her/him. Its like this professor took every opportune moment to belittle us and make us feel like absolute idiots. Moore seems to be a lot like that, he wants things to improve but just goes about it all wrong. What Michael Moore needs is some tact.

In his essay Moore was doing a lot of yelling and pointing fingers at people. But really who likes to be yelled at? If someone were criticizing me in a disrespectful and rude way I'm not going to listen and change my ways, I'm gonna get defensive. I would imagine we all would. So Michael Moore if you really want to change our ways, first you need to change yours.

Changing American Families

I found Judy Root's essay, "Changing American Families" to be very enlightening. It was kind of cool to read about the upper, middle and working class's values and structure. It was also very interesting to read how race and gender fit in to all of this.

I just had a ball reading about the upper class mothers or shall I say "Gatekeepers." The author mentions how these women are so involved with holding charity benefits yet at the same time they are trying to find proper "suitors" for their children. How can you be charitable but think that your better than everyone? It just seems so silly to me.

Another thing I found very interesting was the difference between the black and white middle class. I don't want to say that I was shocked but I was surprised and what they had in common and what they didn't. One of the things that I was surprised by was how blacks instill greater importance on education over white middle class people. I felt kind of bad about being surprised when I read this, I know I'm not a racist or prejudice person, but I guess that just goes to show how no matter what we all hold stereotypes.

What We Really Miss About the 1950s

I found Stephanie Coontz piece "What We Really Miss About the 1950s" to be very interesting. Before reading Coontz's essay I thought I was going to be reading about how great of a decade the fifties were, but I was wrong. Although Coontz did talk about the cultural myths and the nostalgia that so many of us have when we think about the fifties; I felt like her focus was on presenting her audience with another side of the fifties.

I guess I belong with the group that had this nostalgia about the fifties, but as I read the essay that changed. One of the things that I found very interesting in Coontz's essay was when she talked about how the media affected that generation. Ive seen a ton of I Love Lucy episodes and have just died laughing at the silly things that Lucy does. But I had never thought about how this show impacted its viewers back in the fifties. After reading this essay I can definitely see how this show reinforced how foolish it was for a woman to want a career or to do something behind her husbands back.

I thought it was very appropriate that Coontz compared these shows to life manuals.

A little bit about me

I guess I should start from the beginning. I'm originally from southern California, but moved to St. George when I was 12. I really grew to like St. George, so I decided to stay here for college. I love to travel. One of my life goals is to visit 100 countries before I die, so far I've been to 8. Some of the countries that I've traveled to are: Mexico, Spain, France, Germany and the Dominican republic. Sadly I wont be able to travel anywhere during the summer, but in October I'll be going to New York for a week. Which I'm really excited for, because I've never been outside JFK. Hopefully i''ll even get to go to the Met Opera.