Essay 4

In the Japanese culture your children are suppose to be filial. Their first born son is to quit school and work to pay their parents debt. This is a rule passed down form generation to generation. Most of the boys obey this rule without question, but Toshio, the son of Mr. Mrs. Oyama, doesn’t think that it is fair. Toshio and his parents get in to many arguments about him not being a filial son. Kiyoshi is know as the Filial son in the family, even though he is not the first born. Why is Kiyoshi and Toshio responsible for paying off their parents debt? Well, that is just like asking why in the United States do most women have their fathers walk them down the isle on their wedding day. This is just a tradition passed down by generation. It’s just the right thing to do in the eyes of the people involved. Toshio and Kiyoshi are from the Japanese culture, were as a young man in the family, you work hard and pay off the family debt before going off and starting a life of your own. Pretty much your parents own your body until the debt is paid.
As a young girl growing up I dreamed of the day my father would walk me down the isle. Why did I just assume it would be my father walking me down the isle? This is just something you grown up learning. Just like as if you were a first born son in a Japanese family. You grow up knowing that you will be quitting school to work in the cane fields for little pay, to just hand your pay over to your parents until their debt is paid off. These young men are not allowed to attend College or most the time even Highschool, they are also not allowed to started a family until the family debt is paid off or they are considered dishonorable or not “filial” in the Japanese language. A lot of the young men do this for their families with out a word said. They know that it is their duty. Toshio on the other hand feels its not fair. He doesn’t understand why he is paying off a debt that has nothing to do with him.
I have mixed feelings about weather or not Toshio and Kiyoshi should have to pay off their parents debt. I understand where Toshio is coming from when he says he doesn’t think it should be their responsibility. Why do these young men have to give up their life? They are not allowed to go to college but any of their younger siblings are allowed to off of their pay. These parents should not be having more children then they can afford. As a parent I could not imagine sending my son off to work at 15 years old to pay off my debt. I personally feel that the parents should take care of the children, not the other way around.
Kiyoshi has a little different way of handling this situation. He is not happy working in the cane fields but he never tells his parents this. He understands that his parents are in debt and he needs to do what he can to help them. He never talks back to his parents. He is not even the first son but he works hard and hands over his pay. In the end he ends up giving his winnings form the craps games he plays to his parents to pay off their debt. Kiyoshi was considered the good son, the filial son. This is because he never talked back or yelled at his family. I also understand why Kiyoshi does as his parents ask. Even though I do not agree with the fact that these boys have to put their life on hold and practically be slaves to their parents. I do understand that you need to respect your parents and do what is right. There were many things my father did with his children, because that is what his father did to him growing up. A lot of these things I didn’t understand or even agree with but I would never tell my father that. It was not my place as his child to tell him what I thought was right or wrong. I just told myself that I would not raise my children the same way. This is something that Toshio could do. If he doesn’t believe that it is right then he needs to raise his son differently. Not having him pay off his debt and allowing him to go thru school. This will teach his grand children the same thing and it would stop the tradition of the children paying off their parents debt. In the end, I think it is wrong to make your children slave over your debt. I do believe in tradition and respect like having your father walk you down the isle if you’re a young lady or that you are to always respect our elders no matter how old you are, and to always address someone by Mr. or Mrs. Parents are suppose to support their children. You should not be having children to just pay off the debt that you got yourself into. I do think that Toshio and Kiyoshi are both in the right. Toshio sticks up for himself and what he believes is right, and Kiyoshi doesn’t like it but respects his parents and always does as he is told.

All I ask for is my body dialogue part III

When I first started this book I didn't care much for it. I thought it was very boring. Once I started to get to the end of this book I couldn't put it down. I have a lot of different feeling about this story but the end of the story was really good. I understand both Kiyoshi and Tosh's way of thinking. Both these boys were very strong willed but in different ways.
The end of the story was wonderful. I was very glad that Kiyoshi won the $6,000 to send back to his family, even though it was not his duty. Tosh was suppose to help his family pay of this debt. I think that Kiyoshi has a great heart. He is a good son and brother. He did not only pay off this debt for his parents but he also did it for his brother and for himself. Kiyoshi could have just taken this money and never told the family about it but he didn't. I though it was really sweet that he actually felt bad about winning the money. He felt like he stole it form the other men. But in the end family is the most important thing to the Japanese.

All I ask for is my body II dialogue

Why does Kiyoshi believe Obaban is a substitute for his mother?

Kiyoshi mother is very superstitious. She believes many things that some people like Kiyoshis' father thinks are just ridiculous. One of her believes is that close relatives can die for other people even if they never did anything wrong. These people that die for them are called substitutes. She also believes that death comes in fours. She had already had three family members die. Kiyoshi uncle, his grandmother and her father, it will keep going until the forth person dies.

The reason Kiyoshi believes that Obaban is his mothers substitute is for many reasons. I think first off is that there has to be one more person in the family that has to pass away. Kiyoshi has learned from his mother that Obaban is considered the black sheep. She had broke a very secret rule. You are not suppose to do anything in the first forty-nine days after someones dies. She got elope before these days were up. Lastly, Kiyoshis' mother was pretty much on her death bed and then Obaban died suddenly. His mother was well enough after this to leave the hospital and make it to Obaban service. Kiyoshi felt bad that he was so happy that Obaban has passed away, but he believes that his mother is now going to be alright.

All I ask for is my body dialogue

Makot is a young Japanese boy who lives in a Filipino camp. He seems to be a little confused about himself and life in general. He only hangs out with younger boys. I do feel sorry for him because it seems to me that he feels he has to buy friendship. The only way he is able to do this is with the younger boys because the one's his age don't want to be his friend. All the boys his age make fun of him and call him names like a "wahine" which means girl or sissy in Hawaiian. When he doesn't get his way he will whine and tell the young boys that he is not going to buy them goodies anymore.
I was a little confused with he end of the story. I don't know why Kiyo's parents say that Makot parents are bad people. I think Makot doesn't care for or respect his parents at all. I think they show him love through money. I think he copes with his parents by never being at home. He is always out with they boys. He always wants to go to the movies or something. I think he is very embarrassed with his parents. That is why he never lets anyone over when they are home.

Chapter 43

Chapter 43 is about spelling. The way you learn to spell is through experience. You get experience when you read and write. The best way to become a good speller is if you don’t know how to spell a work you need to look it up in a dictionary. In order to do this you need to be familiar with your dictionaries. Sometimes there is more then one word. The word that appears first is usually the preferred spelling of that word. Also in the main entry it will show you how to separate a word by syllables. Right after that you will find the pronunciation. The other things you will find in the dictionary are word ending, grammatical label, word origin, synonyms, antonyms and usage.
When spelling you also need to discriminate between words that sound the same but have different meanings. Such as affect and effect. You also need to become familiar with the major spelling rules. For example I before E except after C, or when sounded like ay, as in neighbor. You also need to learn when to keep the E and when to drop it. When adding S or ED to words ending in Y, you need to know when to keep the Y or change it to IE. Lastly you need to know when to add a S or and ES.
The reason I chose chapter 43 on spelling is because spelling is my weakest point. I have never been a good speller, and know I know why. I learned so many rules that I never knew. I thought learning about plurals the most interesting. I never knew the rule about adding a S or when it is proper to add and ES. It was also very interesting to learn what everything means when you look a word up in a dictionary. After reading the definition I never knew what everything else meant.

Essay #3

What is the importance of forgiveness in “Smoke Signals”? How does Victor learn to forgive his father? There are many reasons why forgiveness is so important. In Victors case, in the movie “Smoke Signals” he is having a hard time forgiving his father. Victor has a wonderful friend named Thomas, who helps him through most of his difficult times. I am a strong believer that you can’t forget until you forgive. Thomas helps Victor forgive his father for some of the bad things he did, which essentially helps him to forget some of the bad and remember the good times he had with his father.
Victor had a really rough childhood. Both Victors parents were alcoholics. Victors father was physically abusive toward him and his mother. Victor never spent much time with his father. When he was just a young boy his father left the reservation. Victor stayed and lived with his mother. All of this combined made Victor very agree with his father. There was a lot that Victor needed to forgive his father for.
Unfortunately, Victor was not able to forgive his father until after he passed away. Victor and Thomas went on a road trip to get Victors fathers ashes. This is what brought Thomas and Victor closer together. Though during the road trip there were a lot of stories that Thomas told that Victor didn’t like very much. I think the reason this upset Victor so much was because he couldn’t think of that many memories with his own father. I think that Thomas had so many memories for two reasons. The first is, Victors dad did spend some quality time with Thomas because he felt guilty that he didn’t have a father. Second, Thomas was not upset with Victors dad so he was able to remember the good times they had together. For some reason it is so much easier to remember the bad memories then the good ones.
It wasn’t until the end of their road trip and with Thomas’s help that Victor was able to start forgiving his father. Once Victor forgave his father he seemed like a much happier person. He became a better friend and seemed to be able to remember some of the better times him and his father shared.
I can relate to Victor in a way. My father was also an alcoholic and abusive at times. Growing up, mainly my teenage years I was not able to think of any good memories with my father. All I could think of was the hell we had to deal with. It wasn’t until later in my life when I was able to forgive my father. I realized that my dad wasn’t going to live forever and I wanted him to know that I forgave him. My father and I have a great relationship now. Because I was able to forgive my father we are able to make great memories. This is why I say you need to forgive in order to forget.
I think the main way that Victor was able to forgive his father was with his passing away. This happens to be a very sad situation. I feel he would not have been able to forgive his father if he didn’t make the road trip with Thomas to go pick up his ashes. I think Victor learning that his father was the cause of the house fire that killed Thomas parents helped him to forgive him. This could have been why his dad was angry and drank all the time, he had to much guilt to deal with. Lastly, I think that his dads girlfriend telling him that he talked about him a lot and that he always wanted to go back to the reservation to see him also helped. She help him remember good times he had with his father like the times they use to play basketball together. I think these all played a part in Victors forgiveness toward his father.
In conclusion, I feel that forgiveness is a very important piece of life. If we didn’t forgive people for the things they did then we would live in a very hateful and cruel world. You need to forgive in order to forget. This is what Victor learned at the end of his journey. He was finally able to forgive his father.

This is what it means to say Phoenix Arizona, Dialogue

Are you more impressed with the film or the story? Why?
I have to say I am way more impressed with the movie. After reading the story there wasn’t anything in common except that Victor’s father died, and him and Thomas went to pick up his truck and ashes. In the story there wasn’t any connection between Victor and Thomas like there was in the movie. I felt like the movie was more about building a friendship between the two. In the book it seemed like Victor really didn’t like Thomas at all. I felt like in the movie that Victor was rude to Thomas but deep down really cared about him.
The other reason I am more impressed with the movie over the story is because of the apology that Victor gave to Thomas. The apology in the story was just for beating him up when they where younger. In the movie it was more for everything, the way he treated him through out their life. It was also a lot more sincere.
Lastly, the reason I was more impressed with the movie was because there was more originality to it. What I mean by this is the way they got to Arizona. I enjoyed the drive in reverse to the bus station. I also like the connection that Thomas and Victor had when Thomas tried to act more like Victor. I just feel like overall the movie was much better.

Chapter 16 in Rules for Writers

     I choose to write about chapter 16 in our Rules for Writers book. This chapter is about how to fix wordy sentences. The reason I choose to write about this is because I have a tendency to make my sentences very wordy. I will use everything I learned in this chapter to help me become a better writer. I learned alot of ways to take words out of a sentence or where to place certain words to get ride of cluster. I use alot of the words that cause more excess words. I will try not to use these words as much as possible.
     It doesn't technically mean a sentence is to wordy if it is long. You can determine if a sentence is to wordy by taking out all the words that seem unnecessary. If this has not changed the meaning of the sentence then your sentence was to wordy.  The first way to fix a wordy sentence is by eliminating redundancies. You also need to avoid unnecessary repetition of words. Though sometimes is is done deliberately its not usually the best way . Sometimes it is best to cut out empty or inflated phases. Some examples of these are: in my opinion, I think that, it seems that, and one must admit that. Some other words you should try not to use very often are: is, are, was, were, it, there is, and there are. The reason for this is that these words usually generate excess words.

What do I think about Thomas and Victors relationship

     What do I think about Thomas and Victors relationship? Well there is a lot that I think about this. I understand that Victor had a rough life, but so did Thomas. You never see Thomas acting so cold hearted. I feel that their lives are alot a like. Thomas didn't have his parents, but neither did Victor in a way. Victors parents drank a lot which caused his father to leave the family when he was just a young boy. Victor was extremely mean to Thomas. Almost every time Thomas would talk Victor would tell him to be quiet.
     I think one of the first times that Thomas actually stuck up for himself was when Victor asked him for some money to go get his fathers remains. Thomas told him he would give him the money if he could go with him. Victor didn't want Thomas to go because he got on his nerves with all his story telling, suit wearing, and smiling face. This was the opposite of Victor. Victor hardly ever smiled or talked. He always tried to look tough. He even tried to change Thomas. He said that this was the way Indians are suppose to be.
     I think the thing that Thomas talked about the most, and upset Victor, was what brought them together at the end of the movie. It upset Victor greatly when Thomas would talk about his father. Sometimes it seemed like Thomas knew Victors father better then he did. I think Victor just didn't want to see the good sides of his father. Finally at the end of the movie Victor realized how good of a friend Thomas is and he apologised for the way he treated him. He also became a lot nicer to him and treated him like a true friend.

Chapter 48

     Chapter 48 in our Rules for writers book, is about evaluating arguments. First you will distinguish between reasonable and fallacious argumentative tactics. Logical fallacious are also know as unreasonable argumentative tactics. A hasty generalization is a conclusion based on insufficient or unrepresentative evidence. Where a stereotype is a hasty generalization about a group. Hasty generalization usually contains words like all, ever, always, and never. An analogy points out the similarity between two things that are otherwise different. Sometimes it is quite difficult to draw the line between a reasonable and unreasonable analogy. However if it is totally off base then it is called a false analogy. All writers must weigh their options in order to be fair, and lastly you deduce a cconclusion (deductive reasoning). Deductive reasoning can often be structured in three steps which are major premise, the minor premise, and the conclusion.
     Next is distinguishing between legitimate and unfair emotional appeals. The difference is legitimate emotions appeal to the reader by invoking them. Were unfair emotions is when words with strong positive or negative connotations are used with bias language. It attacks the person who holds a belief. Lastly in chapter 48, it talks about how to judge how fairly a writer handles opposing views. Some people are fair were others will do anyting to win their argument. They will set up a "straw man" this is a character so weak that he is easily knocked down. Quoting opposing views usually is good unless taken out of context.
     I think I could use this information not only in my writing but also in my readings. I have learned what logical fallacies are. Also I learned about hasty generalization words, and some better words that could be used instead. Another tool I learned that I will use in my writing is to be fair and to explain the opposing views in my argument. I completely agree with this. When I watch political speeches and the components talk badly about one another it makes me feel that they have something to hide about themselves, so they talk about someones elses faults. I am much more likely to believe someone that tells the whole truth and not just their side of the story.

Shirley Temple Dialogue.

What is the significance of Shirley Temple? I feel that Shirley Temple plays a big part in both Lovey and Jerry's life. They both compare their lives to her life in her movies. Jerry and Lovey always spend their Sunday morning before Church watching Shirley Temple movies. They both start to cry but yet hold it back little. Before the movie is over they have to run off to Sunday School. While at Church they make their own happy ending for the Shirley Temple movie that that were watching just prior to church. Lovey and Jerry would always say "Happy endings all the time." They would even use this in their own lives.
What meaning does Shirley Temple hold for Lovey? I believe that Lovey thinks that Shirley Temple is this perfect, happy, beautiful girl. Lovey wonders how all her endings are always happy. One time Lovey decide to put her and Jerry in the Happy ending with Shirley Temple. Lovey wishes that she could be that all American girl, with the American name, home and  station wagon. Sometimes she is very ashamed of her family because of the way they talk and act. Lovey went as far as getting a Toni perm to try to get the curly Q's that Shirley Temple had. She ended up looking like an Oompah Loompah instead. Oompah Loompah had become their new saying in the family for anything that was worst then ugly that they couldn't find a name for.

Chapter 47

When constructing a reasonable argument you need to start with a debatable issue. When you construct a reasonable argument your goal is to try to convince your readers to reconsider their view points. You never want to use a tone too aggressive nor too passive. The best method to use is an assertive tone. You should never assume that your readers already agree with you. In your introduction you want to establish your creditability. In order to do this you need to show your readers that you are knowledgeable and fair minded. In order for your thesis to be stronger you should use persuasive lines before your thesis sentence. You should always back up your claims with specific evidence, such as using facts and statistics like examples, illustrations, and citing expert opinions. You should always anticipate objections and counter opposing argument. Going over what someone might think will make you a stronger arguer. However, you don’t want to be too aggressive. You still need to show some concern for your readers. This will make your readers more likely to acknowledge the validity of your arguments.
I learned a lot of really good tips in chapter 47 for my own writing. I don’t think I would ever have the problem of being to aggressive. I do think that I could be to persuasive. In this chapter I learned how to use an assertive tone. Another tool I learned in this chapter, which I thought was really neat, was to view your readers as a panel of jurors. Additionally, I’ve learned that when you write a paper believing that the readers automatically disagree with you, then you will be more likely to write a persuasive argument rather than assertive.

Optional writing topic summary

When writing an extended literary essay you are usually arguing that your perspective-an interpretation, an evaluative judgment, or critical evaluation-is a valid one. In order to do this you need to make sure your thesis is debatable.
When it comes to choosing a topic the best ones are the ones that originate out of your own reading of a work of literature. When doing research some good places to look are the library or the internet.
I have learned some really good writing skills. One of the things that I learned is when to underling a title or put it in quotations. This is something that I will need to change in my essay. I underlined “Superman and Me” , but here it says that it should be in quotes because it is a short story. Another thing I will use in my writing is the header and footer. I will use this to put my name and page numbers on all the pages in my essays.

Why do I relate to Sherman Alexie

After reading Sherman Alexie’s story The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, I realized I had a lot in common with him. Growing up poor and never expected to go anywhere in life is something that both Alexie and I experienced. According to Spokeman.com they state that growing up poor you are less likely to go to college, and more likely to get in trouble with the law and end up pregnant earlier in life. Sherman Alexie and I both overcame a lot in our lives. For him it was to leave the reservation and become educated. For me it was to not live my life the same way my parents did when I was growing up.

I, like Sherman Alexie grew up in a poor family. This is the first reason that I feel like I can relate to Alexie. Growing up my mother did not work at all. My father was the sole provider as a laborer. He was a roofer so he only had income in the summer time. Winters where a horrible time for us. During that time we lived on government assistance. This was very embarrassing for me growing up. I never wanted anyone to find out that we were poor. Unlike Alexie, were everyone lived on the reservation so they were all in the same circumstances. School for me was a nightmare. I changed schools just about every year. This made it very difficult for me to make any friends and stay up to date with my education. They would either be further ahead or behind were I was. I was teased quite often. I remember one time in particular. It was my seventh grade year and I was going to a school that had a lot of upper class kids there. My mom bought me a new pair of jeans, and I only got clothes once a year unless it was a gift. I ended up wearing the jeans two days in a row and a boy that always picked on me called me a “scrub” in front of everyone. I told my mom that I didn’t feel good for about a week before she asked why I really didn’t want to go back to school. I ended up going to a different school the next year anyways.

Another way that I can relate to Sherman Alexie is he states that    “A smart Indian is a dangerous person.” (13)  Not that me being smart or successful is dangerous. It’s more that I was looked down on by my family. My father is a 9^th grade drop out. My mother finished high school and graduated dental hygienist school. She worked for about a year and then she became a stay at home mom. She was not the soccer mom that everyone thinks of when they think of a stay at home mom. She never attended school events nor did any house work. She spent most of her time in bed. I have three siblings and none of which graduated for a normal high school. I was completing high school with great grades and working full time and my father kicked me out at 17 years old. He said that I didn’t do enough around the house. Now at 24 years old I have realized that my father was jealous and upset that I didn’t need him to support me. I was doing better than he ever did in his 50 years of life. My family always considered me to be stuck up. I was never stuck up I just knew what I wanted in life and I was determined to get there. I wanted a great life for my children. I didn’t want my kids to have to go thru what I did growing up. I knew at the time that I had to get thru high school and be a hard worker to do this.

The last way that I compare myself to Sherman is our determined minds. Alexie didn’t care that he wasn’t supposed to be smart or leave his reservation to further his education. I am also a very determined person. I knew early in life that I wanted to do something in my life. When I found out I was pregnant at 17, just a few months after my father kicked me out. I thought I was starting my adult life off just like parents. I didn’t want to be just another statistic. According to familyfirstaid.org only 1/3 of teen moms receive a high school diploma and only 1.5% of them get a college degree by the age 30. Also 80% of teen moms end up on welfare. I told myself as soon as I got pregnant that I was going to finish high school. I graduated with a 4.0 G.P.A. I did have to make the very difficult decision to put college on hold. I had an obligation to work full time to take care of my son so I didn’t get on welfare. I told myself that I still had time to beat the last statistic of getting a college degree before 30. Even though I didn’t have a college degree I was determined to get a great job. Every job that I have had I excelled at and ended up getting higher positions and better pay.

In conclusion I have had my bumps in the road but I have made it over all of them. Just like Sherman Alexie pushed forward and became a very successful man. I also plan on doing to same thing. Just remember you can do anything you set your mind to, no matter what anyone says.  

Chapter 4

     Chapter 4 is about building effective paragraphs. The first thing to building an effective paragraph is to focus on and develop your main points. Then choose a suitable pattern of organization, make your paragraphs coherent, and adjust the length of your paragraph if necessary. The exceptions to this are paragraphs such as introductions and conclusions. Paragraphs are clusters of information. These paragraphs should support your main ideas.
     In order to focus on the main points. You need to make sure that you state your main points in the topic sentence. You also need to make sure you stick to the point. There are a lot of ways to choose a suitable pattern of organization. Such as examples and illustrations, narration, description, process, comparison and contrast, analogy, cause and effect, classification and division, and definition. Any of these can occur frequently, alone or in combination. You always need to make sure you make your paragraphs coherent. To do this you need to link ideas clearly, repeat key words, maintain consistency and provide transitions between what you have wrote to the next thing you are about to write.
     This has been very helpful to learn these skills. I am also learning them in my speech class. I am really glad I took both these classes at the same time. Transition is something that I also learned in speech. Another part in this chapter that I will use in my writing is focusing on the main point. There are many times that I change the subject. I need to learn to stick to the point.

Shooting Dad

     The significance of the title doesn't come out until the end of the story. I believe that the significance is that Sarah wants to be the one to shoot her fathers ashes out of the cannon. Even though she decided at the age of six that she would never shoot another gun in her life. She decided to shoot the cannon because she didn't compare it to a gun. Shooting the cannon was an opportunity for Sarah and her dad to bond.
     Sarah made a big step in her life to want to relate with her father and his gunsmithing. If she never made the decision to tell her father she wanted to go out with him to shoot the cannon, then she would have never experienced that moment in her life that they where alot alike. To shoot her fathers ashes out of the cannon when he passes away is the significance of the story "Shooting Dad"

Chapter 3

    Chapter 3 is about revising your essay. The first way to revise is global, then you will revise your sentences. The reason you do global revising first is because you may end up taking out whole sentences. You don't want to revise a sentence that you may end up taking out later. You always want to walk away from you rough draft for a little while before attempting any revisions. When you return to your essay, you should read it out loud as if you were reading to an audience.
    Revising your sentences will be the last step before you attempt your final draft. While revising your sentences you want to look for a couple different things such as clarity, effectiveness, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. When using the grammar and spell checker on the computer you need to be very careful. Sometimes theses tools don't pick up everything for example: memorize or memories, they are both spelled correctly but they are miss used. A good strategy for proof reading would be to read your essay in reverse. This takes your mind away from the story as a whole and directs your attention to each sentence individually.  
    This is something that I need to start applying to my essays. I proof read my work but I never revise it. After reading the essays in the book, I can see how much of a difference it makes. After the global revision, the essay sounded so much better and more put together. I also like the tip it gave about reading in reverse. I will definitely do this next time. I find myself paying to much attention to the story behind the sentences and not proof reading. I believe this was the biggest mistake I made on our first essay. I should have spent more time revising it before submitting my final draft.

Coming Home again

    I chose to write about why food is so important in the story. I think there are a couple reasons why the food is so important. First I think it is important because it made memories for a young boy and his mother. All the boy wanted to do as a child was spend his free time in the kitchen with his mother and watch her cook. The food was part of their culture, it represented them as a Koren family. Not only did it make memories, it was also the ice breaker when they came back together after he went off to boarding school. When the the boy came home for vacation or his mother came to visit him, there was always an awkward silence, so the mother made sure to make his favorite meal. 
    After 10 years of not being at home his mother got sick with Cancer. This is when he decided to go back  home to spend time with her. All those times when he was younger watching his mother in the kitchen, really paid off. When he came home he did all the cooking. He made meals that he hoped his mother would enjoy and love. Although she was not able to eat, she would always try the food and let him know what he did or didn't add enough of. After his mothers passing, he decided to stay home and cook for the family. When she passed away all of her recipes went with her. He only knew how to make the food from watching his mother as a young boy.
   

Chapter 2

  Chapter two is about how you would draft an essay. First it talks about writing out your rough draft. You need to write an introduction. This is where you will put your thesis. Next you need the body of your essay. Lastly you will write your conclusion.
   When writing your thesis you want to make sure that it's not too factual, too broad, or too vague. Drafting your body is usually the easiest part of your essay and you may want to start with that first. When writing your body you need to make sure your main point support your thesis. The conclusion should remind your readers of your main points, you should never introduce new points into your conclusion. Your conclusion is used to close your essay with meaning.
   I have already used this information in my writing. When we started our rough drafts for our essay. I was lost on how to write my thesis. My first thesis that I wrote was factual. After reading this I was able to come up with a thesis. It also helped me build me introduction. I read that the sentence before your thesis should be interesting so it hooks your readers. This chapter helped me alot with writing my rough draft.

Rough Draft for Image Essay

I sit here and look at this picture in front of me, of a tiny little baby. He is in a metal crib that looks like a cage, with tubes and wires everywhere. All parents should be concerned for their newborn babies between the months of November and March, so they don’t catch the Respitory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Approximately 4,500 children under 5 years old die each year from RSV. I am going to tell you a story about how I almost lost my little boy to RSV.


Jerimiah Joseph Bartow, now 5 ½ years old, was born on February 21, 2005. He was 6.2 lbs, small but very healthy. After about three days in the hospital we went home. I was only 18 years old and a first time mother. We had all kinds of visitors once we got home. Which I later found out that my sister in law brought her son over who had just gotten over the virus. After about two weeks of being home Jerimiah started to get sick, he had just normal cold symptoms. I took him to the doctor, and the doctor told me that he was fine, to just go home and wait it out. After about three days of no sleep, my mom came over to give me a break and take Jerimiah so I could get some rest. My mom brought him back to me and told me that she thought he needed to be looked at again. At this point he wasn’t eating much, he was throwing up everything that he did eat, and he was very irritable. I told Jerimiah’s dad that I was going to take him to the hospital and he said I was over reacting. At that point I didn’t care what he thought, I had a mother’s instinct, and I was on my way to the hospital.

Once we got to the hospital the triage nurse took his vitals. His oxygen levels where at 87%, for a normal baby it should be at about 99-100%. They rushed him back to get him on oxygen. After being there for a couple hours they had him on full oxygen and had an IV in him for fluids because he was very dehydrated. The doctor came in and said that he wanted to test him for RSV. At this time I was not too sure what RSV was. To test for this they had to stick a very long wire in to Jerimiah’s nostril. That was horrible, he screamed and his nose bled. Before the results ever came back, the doctor decided to admit him to the hospital. The Doctor looked at us and said, “If you wouldn’t have brought him in tonight, he may not have made it through the night.” I looked over at Jerimiah’s dad and was completely disgusted with him. For him to think that I was overreacting and my baby could have died.

We had spent 3 days in the pediatrics when things took a turn for the worse. I woke up around 2:00 a.m. to about five nurses in a panic standing over my baby. Before I could even ask what was wrong they rushed him out of the room. One nurse stayed behind to tell me, “Jerimiahs’ left lung has collapsed and they are taking him up to the ICU so he can be monitored a little closer.” I really didn’t know what to make of this. All I knew was that the ICU was for very sick people. After about two days and a bunch of breathing treatments they later sent him back to the pediatrics. We had to stay there for about 3 more days until his oxygen levels were at 99% without oxygen. We were finally cleared to go home after a week and a half in the hospital.

We have come to realize that this was just the first of many illnesses and stays at the hospital. Like I said in the beginning Jerimiah is now 5 ½ and suffers from Asthma, been to the hospital numerous times and had also spent his second birthday in there. This experience has made me not take my mommy sense for granted. Anyone who is a mother knows what I am talking about. Whether your child is 3 weeks old or 25 years old, you know when there is something wrong.

Chapter 1 " The writing Process"

     The main purpose of chapter one was to discuss and teach you how to understand the writing process. Some of the main points were how to asses your writing situation,experiment with ways to explore your subject, formulate attentive theses, and then sketch a plan. This chapter goes over how to become a good writer. To become a good writer you need to become familiar with the writing styles.
     To generate ideas it's always a good idea to spend time thinking about it. Don't just jump in and write a first draft. You need to take a lot of things into consideration. Such as your subject,source of information, purpose, audience, length, reviewers and deadlines. When trying to figure out a subject there a lot of different ways to do this. For example you can do a cluster, free write, or keep a journal, just to name a few. Once you have done this you need to come up with a thesis. Then you will put everything you have come up with into an outline and start your rough draft.
     This is all very good information. I think this will be help me alot when it comes time to write our first essay. It has been several years since I've been in school and if I had not read this, I would have went strait to a rough draft. I think the outline is going to be one of the most beneficial ways for me. Now that I understand the reasons behind all the prep work to wring an essay I think my first essay will be a lot easier for me then they were in the past.

The joy of reading and writing: Superman and Me

     How is education a means to save one's life? The way that Sherman Alexie explains it is that you either need to get an education or don't and you will have to live your life as middle class on the reservation. How is Alexie attempting to save the life of the students he works with? Alexie has become a speaker and writer. He goes to schools on reservations and encourages the children to read and write. He promotes education and trys to reach out to the ones that have shut themselves out.
     How did Alexis save his own life? Sherman Alexie saved his own life by not giving up. He picked up everything in sight and read it. While in school, he was told to back down but he didn't. He pushed on and was determined to get an education. Now he is a very successful writer sharing his novels, short stories, and poetry with Indian children.

Chapter 46 Summery of main ideas

     The main ideas for chapter 46 are: how to read text, how to outline, summarize and analyze the text. When you are reading the text you should read it actively. What this means is while you are reading use the columns to write notes. Underline and circle (in pencil so you can erase later) anything that catches your eye and intrigues you. When outlining it's to help you understand the text better. When doing the outline you need to find the thesis. A thesis is the main point of the text. To make an outline you need to put the authors thesis and key points in to your own words. To summarize the text you just take the whole of the text and break it up into a few ideas, and analyzing the text is when you write a summery of what you think of the text.
     I am taking a speech class right now also. We are having to write a speech. When reading how to do this some words came up like outline, thesis and main ideas. I wasn't sure what these were or how to do this. It was really cool that I learned how in this class because it is also making it alot easier to write my speech, now that I know what a thesis is. I also think that once you know how to outline a text, it will make it alot easier to understand what you are reading. I am the kind of person that if it's not interesting to me, I will not able to take in what I am reading, so making an outline will really help me.
    

Freewriting Exercise

Hello Everyone,

     What is a freewrite? I personally think it's the funnest and easiest English assignment I'll ever do in my life. It's an exercise you do as quickly, with out being rushed, as possible. You are given a topic to write about. If you can't think about what to write regarding the subject, you write what ever comes to mind. The only rule is that you never stop writing.
     When freewriting, you do not think about grammar or spelling. You also do not go back and cross anything out. The way it facilitates better writing is by writing what is on your mind, instead what sounds the best. You take the good pieces out of your freewrites and apply it to your actual text.
     In highschool I never did good in English class. I think that's because I never payed enough attention. I never knew there was something called  freewriting. After reading about how freewriting works and how it helps you to write, I'm really excited to try it.

Introduction Dialogue

Hello Everyone,

My name is Mattie Bartow. This is my very first year of college. I am going to school to become a Nurse. I am 24 years old and right now a stay at home mom to two wonderful kids. I have a 5 year old boy who is getting ready to start Kindergarden. I also have a 3 month old daughter. I am currently living in Roseville. We just moved here about 2 weeks ago from Rohnert Park. We are originally from Redding. My amazing boyfriend got a job in Marin County and that's what took us to the bay area. Its because of him that I am getting this opportunity to finally go to school. He is working his butt off to support our family so I can go to school and stay at home for our kids. I could not be more grateful to have such a wonderful man in my life.

Well what I am planning on learning from this class is alot. English is my worst subject. I am a horrible speller and not very good at writing essays. I am really hoping that this class will improve my writing skills. I do think I will do pretty good in this class though because I want to be here and want to learn. I like to get my work done early. I hate waiting until the last minute it stresses me out. But with 2 kids sometimes everything waits until the last minute. I am very excited to spend the next 17 weeks getting to know all of you.