Zach's Blog

1. Reflect on your own writing and decide which myth (and “myths about writing,” 4-5), apply to you? Use 3-4 sentences.
   • To me I have this utopia about writing. I think that writing come naturally to writers. They plan write a draft one time and it is perfect. I also think that good writing is all about good grammar. Getting your points across to a reader is a matter of using the proper grammar, or at least I thought it was…
2. What does college-level research require, as opposed to high school-level research? What skills do you need to acquire to do good research? Use 3-4 sentences.
   • Research is meant by not going online and typing your research question online, but to actually go into sources like the library or online and find answers that relate to your question. Research is a key think for papers. Most research papers won’t take long to write up, the longest process will to be doing the research, citing, and keeping track of all the relevant sources. 
3. Define “argument”– what does it mean to argue in a college-level essay? What comparison does the author use? Use 3-4 sentences
   • An argument doesn’t literally mean an argument. It doesn’t mean to persuade the reader to hold an opinion. It means to get the audience to consider the topic you are addressing and for them to think about it. To get them to think about your viewpoint. It has to be organized well, and have evidence to back it up. 
4. What are the three kinds of academic writing assignments you might receive in college? Briefly define each kind. Use 4-5 sentences.
   • There are three types of writing. The first is the closed writing assignment. This is a type of writing that asks you to take a stance on an issue and to be specific on you analysis of the issue you choose. The second is   the semi-open writing assignment. For this type of writing you need to make your own claim with analysis and not use summarization. The last one is the open writing assignment. This type of writing requires you to use the topic at hand and present a thesis on it. The challenge it to make sure the thesis isn’t too broad or use the topic in way that don’t support your thesis. 
5. What are the three characteristics of effective writing, according to the research on professor expectations conducted by George Mason University? Use 3-4 sentences
   • The three characteristics are: One, showing your teacher you are using all the literacy skills you are learning in class. Two, take stance on something from a reasoning perspective, not something you fell. Three, good evidence and reasoning that backs up your claims. 
6. Give two examples of when the author feels first person is more appropriate in a particular context. Use 3-4 sentences.
   • The first example the author uses, to use first person is in using one’s perceptive for an effective argument. This will allows the person to give their argument more objectivity and integrity. The second example the author uses is in explaining who said what in the paper. This will allow the reader to distinguish the voices in one’s paper. 
7. When is it clearly a bad idea to use “I”? Use 3-4 sentences.
   • I is not a good idea when you don’t show the reader in the introduction because than the reader will be surprised when they see you take a stance in your paper. Another bad idea, it to listen to the author on why he think you should add “I” “We”, to lab reports, because than your science teacher won’t be too thrilled. 

I actually think in the poem “Eastern War Time” by Adrienne Rich, it isn’t a bunch of different people going through war, but rather one person going through war and how it affects that person’s life. The poem opens up with a little girl reading and do basic things trying to figure herself out. The world is simple at this point. In the middle of the war, while they are hiding in the woods she think back to what it was to go to the woods when she was young and in love. Then at the end, she is thinking back to all memories good and bad.

The poem  closes with a woman in her old age in Israel. She is going through all the memories has experienced through war. The poem opens up with someone trying to find themselves and I think that it is the old lady who is trying to find herself. She has all these memories before the war that were ruined because of the war. Now she has to start over again or at least she wants to start over again. She wants to go back to being a little girl when the world was simple. She wants to start again and create new memories because all the old ones are ruined.

Vladek was very concerned when he got back that his family was receiving no income. So he took it upon himself to go out and work. The issue at hand thought was that all business owned by Jews were now being run by Germans. And if you wanted to work you needed to have “working papers”. Vladek got his working papers through his father in law but they were illegal. It was a risky decision for Vladek to do this, because if the Germans caught onto it they could’ve killed him. He actually did come slow to being discovered while he was delivering sugar. But in times like these, his family was getting no food, so he needed to do this risky work in order to provide for his family. Regarding the grandparents, that was also a tough decision. If they at first handed them to the Germans’ they knew where they were going, the death camps. So they wanted to hide them because families back then stayed close together. It’s hard to loose someone that has been in your life for so many years. Luckily the Germans’ only took the grandparents and didn’t hurt anyone else in the family. Both scenarios were risky, but in times of genocide like this, there’s no clear decision because of all the emotions.

In Art Spiegelman Maus, he takes a different approach to speak about his fathers holocaust experience. In Maus the way the characterize are is the mice are the Jews, the pigs are the Polish, and the cats are the Germans. It’s very clear to understand the relationship of the cat and mouse, but what is confusing is why the polish are pigs.

I think that the way Art wrote about his experience of hearing his fathers story, tells it in an amazing way. The whole idea of the characters and the graphic novel is very “out there”, but at the same time relatable. It keep the reader always interested with his Art trying to show what his father was going though during the war. At the same time when the book comes back to them two talking in present time, they still are mice speaking, which also is very interesting. I have read this book before and the fact that it is made/written like this makes the experience of reading it better. You can really visualize what it was like for Art’s father because you see some I,ages at help bring you there. You also get a feel for who Art’s dad is because the story goes back in forth from the past to present. Art has told the holocaust story in a unique way that speaks to all readers.

There are two things to keep in mind when you are doing a peer review. Separate yourself from you friend when reading his or hers paper, and use constructive criticism. It is very important when you are reading your friends writing to put aside your friendship. You want your friend to do his or her best. Sometimes thats going to come at a cost on our end when we are looking over a friends paper. We are not going to just be able to read through it and say this is great. We need to really sit down and read it with and open mind and write down what we are really thinking. If you want your friend to do well this is the time to point out their flaws or what they should do better. Ultimately this will bring what both people want. The friend an amazing paper, and the peer reader the friends success in writing a paper.

In Woolf’s piece she is observing life at a campus. She is going through all the motions and emotions of going back to campus life. She compares life before and after the war. She also put her own ideas into whatever she saw that day. One part that stood out was her saying of “… woman must have money and a room of her own if she issue to write fiction…”. This idea was spoken about in the beginning of the chapter but was addressed throughout it. Women before the war were not looked upon society as societal members. They were the people that would take care of the kids and all the household chores. Even further if a woman did earn her own money it would be given to her husband. The man was the dominant figure in this time. Women in Woolf’s time still didn’t have equal power to man, it isn’t until the start of our generation that we see women have and equal and more important role in society to men. But for a women to get her ideas down, for her voice to be heard and her ideas respected she had to earn respect. The only way to do this though was for a women to have money. Through her money and her use of the english language in writing she can voice her opinion.  The room also has significance because it is the area where the women could think with her won thoughts and not be disturbed by and distractions. Without this a women would not be able to do what she wants. She would be stuck with the household chores and not be able to do what she may truly want (in this example, write fiction).

The theme of home in Gertrude Stein’s piece was always changing. The literal word in the piece they would use to describe home after they came back for a lengthy amount of time was “changed”. Gertrude and Alice during the war were always moving. They first started off in Paris remembering it a certain way. But everyone of their adventures or vacations turned out to be much longer then they expected. Every single time they would come home it wasn’t the same for them. One of the reasons this is the case is because during the war many things change. Stores close, the city is destroyed from bombings and, people are out fighting. Society seems to take a break. But then after the war when they came home it was also different. They saw more people on the streets in Paris after the war then they did before. “An awful lot of people were killed in the war but it seems to me and extraordinary large number of grown men and women have suddenly been born”. In the day and age we live in society is always changing. But a city that is undergoing or went through war, also goes through dramatic changes. So home was always changing in Paris for Gertrude and Alice.

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