Words That Have Shaped Me
Often I sit at the computer, or with a pen and paper, and I think about what I should write. I reflect on my experiences with life, or with my feelings and emotions. If the subject that I write about is coming from my heart, I could write forever, opposed to something that I do not have interest in like the mating habits of fireflies. I don’t care about how, when, and much less why they procreate. I would always dread having to write a paper for my English class, and it was not until I discovered my own love for poetry that I began to enjoy writing. It was my junior English teacher in San Diego, Howard Estes. He allowed me to open my mind to not only the academic perspective of literature, but also to my
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They don’t happen in a meeting or two. It’s a package deal, Friendship, only as valuable as what you put in it. Judging something like that after one year, even if you’ve got all the facts, that’s like looking for the final score before you’ve seen the second inning.” Over time, through the difficulties we had endured together; we had grown closer than ever. That is how I know that my friends really mean the world to me. Through the pain of mistrust, and lies, we became better friends than we had ever been. It is better to have one or two best friends than hundreds of acquaintances. It was not until I had to move away to Phoenix in my junior year that we realized what we meant to each other. The word “Best” found its way into our vocabulary and stuck to our title as friends. It seems foolish to me when after a month of friendship people call themselves “Best Friends.” The “Best Friend” title has to be earned through time, effort, and pain. I am proud to say that I have earned that title with two people, and I honestly do not think I could get through life’s difficulties without them.
As a child my peers judged me harshly, and I know for a fact that that is the reason I sometimes let other people’s opinions affect the way I do things. Because I was so used to being a follower as a child, as an adult, I have a hard time taking the reins in my own hands and assuming control. As a result of my childhood, a quote that I try my best to live my life by is,
In her article “I Stand Here Writing”, Nancy Sommers examines the writing process and formulating ideas for writing in a more empirical manner. She states that before she found her creative zeal/ niche her writing was often undisciplined, unmethodical, and sloppy. Sommers reveals that in college she was less known for her writing and more for her long hair and misapplication of phrases. She found her true inspiration while writing her Senior Thesis on Emerson’s “Eloquence.” Throughout the entire essay, Sommers provides the reader with advice about writing. A key point that she mentions is, “If I could teach my students about writing it would be to see themselves as sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced-the-dictionaries of their lives circulating through them.”
Writing an essay is not something that that kids want to be doing because the essay they are writing often is about something they are not interested in that is why some people believe that you should write about things that interest you so that you do want to write that essay. And to people that want to do so are Jimmy Santiago Baca and Gerald Graff in both these essays, Rob Baker’s “Jimmy Santiago Baca: Poetry as Lifesaver” and Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism”, they talk about their experiences with how they got to wanting to inspire kids to write. Jimmy Santiago Baca and Gerald Graff both want to inspire kids to want to write, but Baca believes that you should write about yourself through poetry and Graff believes that you should write about things that interest you to want to write.
In her essay “Death of a Moth,” Annie Dillard explores the amount of commitment required to be a writer. She finds that in order to be successful as a writer, you have to be fully committed, and ready to fully dedicate your life to your craft. Dillard models these ideas with a story about a moth that flew into a candle and burnt; becoming a second wick. She tells this story in great detail, and then connects it to her ideas about writing by describing asking her class if they truly want to be writers, giving the impression that she also just told them this story. Her use of descriptive language adds meaning and importance to an otherwise insignificant event, and creates an
Margaret Sanger, a militant determined to push her cause and see her dreams fulfilled. I admire her for her will and determination to pass what she believed was right; fighting the people keeping her down. She believed in birth control and the idea women control their own bodies. Her target groups might have been considered "racist", but she pushed to help women. I believe in birth control and cutting out unwanted pregnancies.
Cynthia Haven is the writer of an article called “The New Literacy: Stanford study finds richness and complexity in students' writing” that is a study based on the amount of writing college students do. She followed students at Stanford during their undergraduate years and the first year after that. She discovered that today’s students are writing more than any generation before it. Cynthia had the students she was studying submit all of the writing they did, academic or personal. She found that only 62 percent of the work submitted to her was for classes; the rest of the material was “Life writing”.
The desire to attain a pensive repercussion to readers through the work of literature is limned in Richard Wilbur's, The Writer. The poem follows the progression and contemplation of a father’s daughter who is aimed to write a story in the peace and serenity of her home. As he observes her, he finds that she types at unequal rates, breaking at certain intervals sometimes puzzled to regain her thoughts. “Young as she is, the stuff / Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy: / I wish her a lucky passage.” The father believes that her message is to be of significance and that she should not fret when stuck in a state of absence. He only desires the best for his daughter and acknowledges that despite the length of time needed, one should
Do people still believe that History books relay accurate information about the past? How do we know that the events which occurred hundreds of years ago (as stated by history books) actually happened? In this book, Tey did a good job in proving that the history books we read do not usually contain events that happened the way it is written. She explains that human beings do not like it when they are challenged to go against what “history” has labelled “the truth”. The author depicts this vividly in this text using Richard III. No one, ( before Grant) had ever attempted to solve the mystery involving Richard III and the death of his nephews, and for hundreds of years, Richard III was automatically labelled the “evil uncle” without justification.
Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.
Authoritative figures, like parents, counselors, or teachers, are there to teach us from right from wrong and protect us from the possible mistakes one could make through the journey of life. In my journey, I’ve been blessed enough to have family that cares for my well-being and give me a roof over my head, unlike a great portion of society. They have taught me to push and exceed in any event or situation, no matter how “hard” it may seem at the time. They wouldn’t push me to do a certain thing or yell that I wasn’t doing everything I could possible do but all they simply said was, “the more you do now, the less regret you’ll have later in life, but Tara, never push yourself to impress others”. That saying will stay with me forever, because how many people can say they have parents that care but also are very lenient at the same time, I’m sure not very many. I’ve very thankful that I have my family
I’d always enjoyed writing but I’d never been so vocal about it. For me, it happened quietly. My notebooks lie scattered over my bedroom floor; they had no place at the lunch table. And my writing survived on my acknowledgments alone, I couldn’t even imagine letting some else read it. This was due in part to my own self-doubt: I was embarrassed of my poems that never rhymed and my short action stories that never seemed to have any plot. But I
Mr. Bill Ezzard has never had a moment where he could say “Writing isn't my thing.” He has always been a huge fan of writing. Ever since he was a kid, writing was something he enjoyed. That is why he became a writing teacher. Ezzard went to college knowing he wanted to do something with his writing skill, but was lost with an idea of what. He was visiting his school counselor one day, and she asked him what he wanted to do in life. He thought for about a minute, and then it clicked: he wanted to be a writing
My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.
Hector is standing outside of Troy as the only Trojan left. Hector is too ashamed to join the other Trojans in their retreat because of his previous orders for them to camp outside although Priam begs him to come inside. Hector stood firm as Achilles approached him and Hector knows that Achilles has come to fight by the evil look in Achilles’ eyes. Hector is willing to fight and will not go down without putting up a fight for his home. Hector at first tries to negotiate with the great warrior, Achilles, because he knows he doesn’t stand a chance in battle but Achilles does not even consider any of the negotiations because Achilles wants revenge for the death of Patroklos. Hector realized that and gave up on trying to negotiate with Achilles
Writing has always played a huge role in my life. I’ve been reading writing for as long as I can remember as I have an immense love of reading. This love would grow into a love for writing as well; I still stumble upon journals and writings from my five-year-old self about the happenings in my kindergarten class. As time would go on I would discover academic writing, and how to convey my thoughts on what was the topic of student that particular year or semester in my schooling. Later, writing would become a constant for me, and a comfort; I was known to my friends as always having a journal, and a pen on my person. I learned to write down my feelings and my thoughts, song lyrics that were in my head, reflections for the day. I learned how