Persuasive Essay : Short Story ( Honk Hok )

In 1983, Raymond Carver introduced his short story “Cathedral” to the public. The first-person narrative takes place within the narrator’s home, where his wife is waiting upon the arrival of her blind friend Robert. The narrator, however, becomes more concerned about how Robert’s visit will affect him rather than enjoy the situation. Once Robert arrives, the narrator tries to understand the blind man, but he is unaware of what tasks Robert is capable of performing due to the narrator’s inability to “see”. In time, Robert shows the narrator the difference between looking and seeing through illustrations of a cathedral, drawn by the narrator with his eyes closed. “Cathedral’s” narrator exposes readers to anti-heroic views

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands- one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn.

“The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon.” (pg. 7)

The shiny rock shifted ever so slightly towards the mouth of the cave. As the water surged in from the river, it shifted

Some small trees are toward the top, growing out from the cracks in the side of the wall, they defy the comforts that the ground may bring. As the the path starts to decline, it begins shifting toward the direction of the valley. Running water can be heard, flowing in a manner of constant control and power, slowing only at certain times of the seasons. To the left, a waterfall can be partially seen roaring with a vigorous energy, cascading down the rock, plummeting into a shallow pool of water. The pool attempts to engulf three large boulders sitting on the outskirts, only able to claim their undersides. Further, a bridge comes into view, standing proud, with a solid construction of rock and mortar. On each side it offers a wall, both of which rise to protect from the drop below, with the left side forming a connection to the stone wall that preceded them. The path continues on, its convex shape of smooth stone created, suspended in the air. It finds little to care about the stream below, which meekly runs off to connect to the main pool. As the waterfall finds itself in full view, it is proudly able to show off the full might it possesses. Continuing, the path soon finds itself at the beginning of a new set of stairs. The stairs are a bit more deteriorated and uneven, showing lots of cracks and moss. They hug around a corner of exposed rock with a smaller, aging stone wall built to its right side. The stone wall, built mostly by a past construction, was

“In the dawn there is a man progressing over the plain by means of holes that he is making in the ground. He uses an implement with two handles and he chucks it into the hole and he enkindles the stone in the hole with his steel hole by hole striking the fire out of the rock which God has put there. On the plain behind him are the wanderers

This time they avoided the trees, and followed around the edge of the island where Harry and the creature’s footprints let. The sand ended in rocky coastline that rose steeper toward the island’s high point. Soon they could see the waterfall ahead.

Upon hearing this, the wanderer tore open the water hose and emptied its brackish water onto the path. Then he filled a hole with the sand from his knapsack. He stood there pensively and looked into the sinking sun. The last rays sent their light to him. He glanced down at himself, saw the heavy millstone around his neck, and suddenly realized it was the stone that was still causing him to walk so bent over. He unloosened it and threw it as far as he could into the river.

A rough, chiseled path led me down into the aperture, but I saw no kind of lighting to

He did this for the next five days. He went to the lumber yard and took 48 two by fours, 30 sheets of veneer, 10 gallons of glue, and 20 pounds of nails. He carried the building materials to his cave and dropped them off. He put the two by fours in a grid pattern and then put the veneer on top of the two by fours. After he got the top supports put together and propped them up with the rest of two by fours. He made a door out of the scraps that were left over from the supporting of the roof. He had a bed in there.

“Your assignment is to write a persuasive essay and present it to the class in a week. You will be graded based on how convincing it is. Today we will be choosing topics,” announced Mr. Bowerbank, my 7th grade English teacher and ruler of classroom 110. My class simultaneously groaned at the prospect of work. I simply lifted my head with intrigue as it was already May and about time we had our first essay. He then proceeded to give examples of topics we could choose and gave us some time to think before we had to tell him our topic. My classmates were already rushing to tell the teacher their idea lest someone else steal it. That meant the usual abortion, death penalty, or drug use topics were out. I really couldn't think of anything and the teacher was slowly making his way through the remaining students like an executioner beheading criminals in a line. I have always thought that he would make a marvelous supervillain if he had a curly mustache, a tophat, and a cape. Eventually my name was called. I slowly dragged myself over to his desk. Even sitting down, he still seemed to tower over me. “What is your topic Cindy?” As usual in such desperate times, my mind turned to food. “Waffles are better than pancakes.” I figured that a waffle was just a differently shaped pancake with a nicer texture. “Hmm. Excellent topic. I look forward to your essay!” I survived to live yet another day.

For decades, professors have struggled to keep student’s sole attention during lectures. This dilemma has become more prevalent in recent years with the increased presence of laptops in lecture halls across the country. Laptops provide an irrefutable amount of distraction with the entire internet being literally at the user’s fingertips. While some students believe that laptops help them take more in-depth notes and focus more in the classroom, most professors strongly refute this belief. Although they give several warnings against it, professors have seen with their own eyes that students are scrolling through their Facebook or Twitter feed when they should be taking notes. Due to the substantial number of students who multitask on their laptops instead of solely using them for notetaking, many professors have adopted policies explicitly banning laptops in the classroom. This debate between students and professors has prompted numerous researchers to study the effects of laptop use in the classroom, both on the individual using the laptop and those students surrounding the laptop user.

Near the peak of the mountain, he was faced with a break in the path so he jumped onto a branch on the side of the mountain and swung as hard as he could sending him flying upwards, luckily he made the jump and carried on.

Why spend money that is really needed for other things? Why live uncomfortably? Why be trapped in this hole called a home that belongs to another person? Why not live free and peacefully? When a person rents he or she usually throws away money that could be used to purchase something that belongs to them. Money is not easy to come by so why pay out hundreds toward something that is not benefit to the person paying it out. There is no good explanation for making a decision like this. The best option in a situation like this is to buy a house. Buying a house is a better option than renting an apartment.

The object we use twice a day, and neglect quite a bit has proven to be one of the most successful devices to prevent gum disease if used. 7 in 10 Americans use it daily, and in a world with a population of 7.5 billion people, only 4.2 billion people own them, while 5.1 billion own a phone.(Hopkins Jeanne) Each one of them costs around 2 dollars, while the electric ones cost up to 4,000 dollars. (Green, Dennis)This device was voted as the number-one invention that most Americans could not live without. In fact, the average person spends 2,920 dollars a year on this.(How much could you potentially spend on toothbrushes?) While the average American spends 38.5 days of their life using it.( Hygiene, Oral) The toothbrush has to be one of most magnificent devices ever created, from whitening your teeth to making sure you have good hygiene, the toothbrush has made the impossible possible. To understand and learn about this miracle. We will first brush our way through it’s interesting and unique history. Second, we will rinse through why we should only use our brushes and not anyone else’s. Third, we learn about Ordontalophobia. Lastly, we will learn how to pick the perfect brush for us and how an old invention as the brush is still thriving.