ENG 2150: Writing Through New York

I am not much of an essay person, I’m more of bullet point or list type of person. I’m not really a fan of writing but its OK if i have to do it i will do it. A lot of the time I usually make some type of outline/bullet point before I dive into an essay.  Whenever I write an essay i usually have trouble structuring it and getting to the point. I generally like to include quotes from the material if there is any and i would reference it a lot. I also put a lot of details in to prove my point. I usually have problems when it comes to the intro and conclusion, I just don’t know what to write or to put in there, i feel as if it would be a lot easier for me to literally write “bye” then a whole conclusion of stuff I’m summarizing and putting in random details from the readings. But these are my essays and i need ot work on the and they will get better eventually…

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather recently and I found myself with a lot of time at home so I decided to mess around in the kitchen a bit. On Saturday I was feeling the worst from the cold so I begged my mom to show me her tea cabinet. I’m not really a freak for tea but I do drink it whenever I have the chance (when my mom decides to make some). However, I was feeling desperate and my mom wasn’t home so I was on my own.

To my surprise the tea I made came out pretty good. I made some green tea and added some pomegranate (because I like pomegranates) and it came out awesome! I instantly started feeling the benefits. My nose wasn’t as congested and my headache was gone. It’s at times like these where I truly question the effectiveness of medication. That tea helped rejuvenate me more than any pill could. I think I might start drinking more tea (if I find ones I like). In other news, Derrick Rose is back in the lineup and he doesn’t look rusty at all. (y)

When it comes to writing an essay, I don’t believe in having to look like an extremely intelligent intellectual. An essay that I write should look like an essay from me.

Now what does that mean? It means my ideal essay would be on that reflects myself. The reason why is because I believe the greatest intellectual is one who trusts their own abilities. Not only that, but it is a great benefit to be unique. Simply because someone who is unique is fresh, new and shouldn’t be too similar to anyone else. My essays would be written in the manner I usually go about (minus the slang because that’s just improper) because of my experiences as a reader, I find that it is easier to understand and relate to the writer when they speak as themselves, not some highly sophisticated all knowing being who speaks an almost unknown language.

The type of essay I would like to write would be properly structured and well organized. It will have a topic which I take a perspective on, and then effectively prove my point, and persuade the reader to too. I like to be simple and easy to understand, because that’s just the person I am. So throughout my writing, I would remain that way, because doing that will make my writing completely unique and easier for the reader.

During our discussion last class, we were supposed to define what an essay is to us and then try to analyze what we wrote. I wrote that an essay to me is a writing piece that includes an introduction, body and a conclusion. But this essay also has a job, which is to have a point to have a meaning and to do something; whether it is to persuade to inform or to be a form of expression. After our analysis of what our ideas of an essay are I got kind of confused and a little rattled. I like my essays to be formatted in the introduction, body, conclusion way. It’s how I was taught. In fact it was drilled into my head a very long time ago and enforced during high school through my favorite English teacher when we prepped for the AP English Lit. Perhaps that’s why I’m so stuck in my formatted ways, being that someone I admire greatly advocated it. He used to call our essays a sandwich, with the first bun being the introduction, the body being the chicken and salad and the bottom bun being the conclusion. I’m trying to see essays in a different light without a sandwich format but that might take some getting used to. It took everything I had to not put this blog post into a sandwich format but just let it take its natural form. Reading it over I don’t like it very much, it looks like a jumbled piece of writing. It does have a purpose though which is to inform my audience of my struggle with an essay format, but it isn’t formatted. It is just a long piece of writing. Which brings me to my other dilemma; are the pieces we read in class essays? I actually saw them as long stories but not as essays, for one they were too long and secondly the format was jumbled. I guess this new essay idea will take a little getting used to, but I definitely want to put it into play in a future essay. Peace!

For this blog post, I really wanted to talk about a great restaurant in Union Square. I realized, however, that I should probably talk about what type of essay I would like to write since that’s what we were discussing last class. So, I decided to combine both topics. If I had to write an essay at this very moment, I would choose to write about the restaurant, Max Brenner’s. It would be organized with an introduction, body and conclusion, but would take the appearance of a review that you would read in a newspaper or magazine. My main focus of the paper would be that, although this restaurant has good food, you HAVE to try the dessert. In fact, just get a small appetizer to share with your friends so you have a lot of space to fit the dessert. They have an entire booklet of these amazing, chocolatey dishes. Even if you don’t like chocolate, I guarantee you this place will make you change your mind. It’s so rich and sweet, like you’re eating right out of Wonka’s chocolate river. Two of my favorite desserts from there are the chocolate pizza with your choice of toppings (bananas, peanut butter, and/or marshmallows), and churro fondue with caramel, chocolate, and raspberry dips. Try to go during the week since it’s so popular and packed over the weekend. Nevertheless, it’s definitely worth the wait.

This weekend has been truly different from my usual weekends . This weekend I went to a kabbalah retreat. The whole timetee were asked to explore our own negative and positive aspects and how this effects the rest of our lives. At first I didn’t really think about it but now I feel like if I was to write something I reallwanted to explore it would be how your life can change by just thinking about things in a different light. Not sure were it’s really going but that what would interest me.

I’m not exactly sure about what type of essay I would like to write but I would imagine that it would depend on what type of mood I’m in or it might even depend on what type of literature I’ve most recently read. The best type i can think of right now would be a comparison essay. This may not be the most popular type of writing but I have taken a liking to it.

The reason why I would choose write a comparison essay is because it would require me to do research. It would allow me the chance to learn everything that I can about 2 similar but also different topics, things, ideas etc.

I would begin with a rough draft consisting with a decent thesis statement. I would have a few paragraphs discussing one topic, a few discussing the other, a paragraph discussing both in detail, then ending with a conclusion. Then once I have finished with that I would rewrite and fix everything I need to.