Mason's Reading/Writing Outside of Class

In Mrs. Steele's class, we are reading the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathanel Hawthrorne. It is about a a young lady who committs adultery with a man in the village. She gets pregant and she goes to jail for 3 months. Her punishment for this sin is jail for 3 months and she has to stand up on the scaffold in front of the whole town with all the shame of the sin. hester has to wear an "A" om her clothes so that everybody will know what she has down. Her child's name is Pearl and Pearl doesn't understand the meaning behind the "A", Hester tells her she is wearing it for the sake of the golden thread. When Hester takes the "A" off her child, Pearl, won't come to her because she doesn't recognize her. Hester puts the "A" back on and Pearl kisses both of her mother's cheeks, her brow and she kissses the "A". We have only read to Chapter 20.

Things Read Outside of class

In Mrs. Carson's class, we have been reading a lot about poetry lately. We have read some pieces from Emily Dickinson and from Walt Whitman. One day when we were reading a poem from Whitman, I realized something was different. Whenever he writes, he tends to make up words. For example, we read a poem about a brilliant astronomer and an adjective he uses to describe this person is learn'd. I believe the reason he did that was to make the reader place his/her own definition to that word in which ever way he/she perceives it. To me, this is an excellent way to make readers think instead of just reading and implying the understood meaning of each word.

On Composition

For the 4th and final paper, we had to write an reflective essay on which is currently being used in our portfolio. We had to write about our thoughts on the class in general and relay them to how we are a writer now. Peer review played a huge part for some of us as we worked on our IRE. We helped each other by getting rid of 2nd person pronouns such as my or myself. When we did this, it made our papers much more readable and comprehensive. Mason, as usual, had organizational issues while Peyton and Erin had some problems on where to place certain paragraphs to make the flow seem better. Tyler's paper was the one that we had some trouble with. He had some organization issues and we were not sure what to do about his thesis. Overall, we thought that Junior Composition bettered us as writers because of the things we have learned whether it be via trial and error or in a lesson plan.

Erin's Reading and Writing Outside of Class

For my reading and writing outside of class this quarter, I read all the news on the "OMG!" website. I have to keep up with my celebrity gossip. Even if I didn't read some of the celebrity news, I would still find out about it somehow. For example, Kim Kardashian and Chris Humpries divorce. They were only married for 72 days and ended up getting a divorce. I never read this in an article but I still found out about it through word of mouth. Some of the news I did read on "OMG!" was dramatic. Giuliana Rancic had breast cancer therefor she had to have a double mastectomy. The surgery took four hours but she is doing well. Reading this news always keeps me up to date.

Reading/Writing Outside of Class

Recently in Mrs. Steele's class we have been reading pieces by Edgar Allen Poe. The most interest one we read to me was "The Fall of the House of Usher." This story was very interesting because it was just really weird. The story is about a strange man who has a disability and he can't stand to face the world. He stays inside of his dark, gloomy house and never comes out. Everything bothers him, such as sun light and loud noises. He played the guitar but he was only interested in a certain type of music. He is a very frail man and he can not mvoe around the house without losing his breath. His friend comes and visits him to try to help because he knows something is wrong. He ends up burrying his twin sister, Madeline, but she is still alive. She escapes out of her casket and they die together. The whole stroy is about how they connect and feel when something is wrong with one another because they are twins.

Things Read Outisde of Class

One day I was at home reading a truck magazine about a pulling competition and noticed something different about the article. The author wrote in nothing but active voice. The only reason I noticed this was because what he was saying was so much more clear. I could recognize the main point of each sentence which allowed me to start thinking. If I could write in this form and fashion, I could be a much better writer than what I am now.

Things Read

I liked reading multiple things that we have read in class. I personally really liked reading "A Freezing Persons." This allowed me to have an outside view on how to write. This essay was comprised of a way of writing that should be avoided as much as possible unless one knows how to write in this form and fashion. It made me realize the different ways people can write essays and make their audience absolutely love their writing. I also like reading "Trial by Fire." I liked how the author showed him being nothing but guilty and then completely change the way that people viewed him.

Lessons Learned

In Junior Compositio, we have learned that using specific examples. We have been tought that using them as much as possible, especially in c ertain situations, makes for good writing. In my everyday life, I can use this with every aspect because it allows for better application. I also leanred how to properly use compound sentences. This is a very important concept because sentence structure is the base for writing in general. Because the sentence structure is so important, this is why we went over it alot in class.

Mason's Lessons Learned

Before and during writing Paper 2 we learned how to use examplification in ours papers. This skill helps describe a general idea by using specific examples. This really helped me make points more clearer in my papers. By doing this, I think my papers have improved becasue I can now really describe a point with examples that the reader my relate to better.

Mason's Reading/Writing Outside of Class

These posts are on Paper 2, and football season was in full swing then and as best as I can remember the most I read outside of class was the sports section in the newspaper. Many times there was a article about GWA in there and I would read it three or four times every week. most every week there was a writeup about us. It's always most intersesting when you'[re reading about yourself and what other people have to say about you.

Mason's Things Read

I liked the article entitled " It's Not Just a Game Show". This was a article about a great grandma and a grandchild. The kid's parents were police oficers and they had crazy shifts. Luckily, Nan Nan lived close by and the child spent aloat of time with her. They always watched "The Price is Right" they would try to guess the answers while sittinf in the rocker. Later the great grandmother died and everytime the game show would come on the kid would watch it. every time he/she would turn off the game show channel he /she would feel comforted from a long distance hug from Nan Nan.

Erin's Reading and Writing Outside of Class

I am not a big fan on reading and writing outside of class. The most writing I do would be to write items on a grocery list. I have begun reading many "pins" on Pinterest. Pinterest is a social network that has many interesting and creative ideas for things that I would have never thought about. For example, a swirl braid. It is so simple and looks good but I never would have known or thought about it without Pinterest. I love reading about ideas that I can use in my own life that are super cute(:

Erin's Lessons Learned

Last nine weeks, we learned how to change passive voice to actice voice and vice versa. It was a very difficult lesson to learn. We had multiple quizzes and worksheets to help us understand how to do this objective.
When recognizing active voice, the subject is doing the acting. For passive voice, the subject is recieving the action. Active voice sentences are straight to the point and do not beat around the bush. Passive voice sentences contain "be" verbs. They are longer and sometimes harder to understand.

Ex. Active voice: Bob mailed the letter.
Ex. Passive voice: The letter was mailed by Bob.

Erin's Things Read

For paper two, my favorite article we read was called Trial By Fire. I was very intrigued by the essay. I found myself not wanting to put the papers down until I was finished reading. There was a man named Cameron Todd Willingham. He was accused of killing his two daughters by setting his own house on fire...with the daughters in it. Many arson experts said he was guilty. They even had proof of how he "set the house on fire." Later on, we found out that he was innocent but it was too late. He had already been executed. This ending was very sad and made you feel bad for judging Willingham at the beggening of the essay.

Things Read!

Its hard to think back on the essays we read for paper 2 but one of the essays that I remembered the most was the essays on Steve Jobs. Everybody in class was assigned one of the two different essays to read and then we were put in groups to discuss the difference between the two essays. Our goal was to pick out the Thesis statement of each essay and discuss why we thought it should be the thesis statement. One of the essays was based on the comparison between Steve Jobs and Jefferson. The other essays was just based on Jobs and his death. This essay was written by his sister.Both essays were very well written but I liked the 2nd essay the best because it wasn't so formal and it really explained how Steve Jobs lived his life and why he was such an important man.

Lessons Learned.

When we started talking about paper #2, we were assigned practice topics to write about in class. We practiced writing about many different small topics in class to prepare us for the SAT writing section and also for our second paper. Paper 2 had to be written during our exam period so we only had two hours to write it. In class, we learned in order to keep your ideas and thoughts organized while writing this paper we should Pre-write or quickly write down what we want to focus on in each paragraph. This method was supposed to help us still write an organized paper even though our time was limited. I found this to make it even harder for me to write the paper because I rushed myself and felt like I didn't have enough time to pre-write and write the paper.

Reading/Writing Outside of Class.

I never read or write. The closest things to reading and writing outside of class for me is getting on Facebook and reading what everyone else posts or either updating my status every once in a while. I also recently set up a Twitter account and I have found myself spending more time on it than I usually do on Facebook. I find twitter to be a little more casual than Facebook. On twitter, everyone usually tweets about whats going on in their life more frequently than people do when they update their Facebook status. I never though I would get a Twitter but it can get addicting sometimes and its really just a fancy way of documenting whats going on in your life in stead of writing it in a diary.

On Composition

Paper number two was a paper that we had to write and compose in class. It was a challenging but exciting way to write. We did not have the opportunity to meet in our peer review groups and we all believe that this effected us greatly. Most of the time whenever we gather into our peer review groups, we use our time wisely and efficiently which allows for an outside view and some much needed corrections. Not trying to point anybody out but Mason is the one who usually needs peer review the most. Sometimes, he comes into class having a complete essay but it seems like it is written without effort. He has all his ideas down on paper but his sentences do not complete a thought and he has a lot of run on sentences. Erin and Peyton usually have well written essays that are comprised with at least one unruly paragraph. Tyler on the other hand usually has some great ideas but he does not have them gathered correctly in the paper. As a group, we though paper two was difficult but overall came out a success even though we wrote the paper independently.

Mason's Reading and Writing Outside of Class

When I am reading or writing something outside of class I find myself trying to figure out what is wrong with a peice of writing. When I am writing outside of class I find myself trying to write with the fewest amount of words to get the same point across. When writing, I have to find more information because my sentences are short and sweet. The way I try to fix sentences makes me understand the sentences and the general point more.

Erin's Reading And Writing Outside Of Class

I do not usually read and write outside of class but I have noticed myself reading magazine articles and seeing that "be" verbs and prepositions stick out more ever since we have learned the Paramedic Method. I was in Mr. Lee's class one day and we were reading through the text book. I told him there was a sentence that was not well written because it had 4 prepositions in it. He laughed at me and said "Since when do you care about that?" He better watch out now, I'm going to pick out every preposition and "be" verb I can find thanks to the Paramedic Method.

Mason's Lesson's Learned

Recently we have been learning how to use the paramedic method. It is a revising process that you eliminate the unnecessary material. Sentences can be shorter and say the exact same thing and all the same information. The fisrt step is to get rid of the prepostitions. The second step is to throw out the be verbs. The third step is to get rid of slow wind up and get straight to the point. This type of revision makes the paper shorter, but it makes the paper more full of imformation in a less amount of words.

Erin's Things Read

We have read few articles this nine weeks but we watch a movie called "John Smith." I liked this movie because it showed how different peoples lives can be. The only thing these seven people had in common were their names. The movie taught me that a person can never understand what someone else is going through. Everyone is different in their own way...even if they have the same names.

Erin's Lessons Learned

We have recently learned a new and very helpful way to revise our papers. It is called the Paramedic Method. There are basically three steps to this method. The first step is to circle all of your prepositions. Once you have finished that, you have to put a box around your "be" verbs. Then, eliminate your slow wind-ups. If you do these steps, your paper will be much clearer for the reader to comprehend. My paper sounded ten times better after following these steps.

Mason's Things Read

In class, we really haven't read anything in class but we watched a movie. The movie was about a group of people with the same exact name. This movie, I think, that it was trying to explain the difference of the lifestyles in America. John Smith is the most popular name in America, but when looking closer in the lives of the people the results are in a wide variety.

Tyler- Reading and Writing Outside of Class

My role as a reader or writer outside of the class room is to basically become a teacher. What I mean by this is whenever you read something or write something, go over it one or two more times and see what you can find wrong with the paper. In addition to doing this, you can also "grade" it like a teacher would. Find out what is wrong with the essay/paper and write down the cons about it. On the contrary, also write down the pros to it because it can possibly advance you as a writer.

One day I was in Mr. Lee's room during break. He had an article up on his computer about Georgia Tech football. He called me over to read it because he thought there were some interesting facts mentioned in the article. After reading it, I thought it was one of the worst articles I have ever read in my life. It had run-on sentences, lists of prepositions, and some ideas were not completely clear. It was a good article in the area of information, but in the area of grammar, it was awful. After reading the article, I noticed that i could write the article in such a better way than the author could. I read though it again, making changes in my head and asking myself, "How could I make this paragraph have better transitions?" Before i knew it, I was trying to rewrite the article but I had to stop myself because I was becoming a little Mr. Goergen.

Tyler- Things Read

This second nine weeks, we have not really read anything in class, but we did watch a movie over the paramedic method. I honestly liked the movie because it gave me a way to look at something in a way I have never before. It made me think as an outside reader or someone else who is reading your paper. It made me realize that mostly everyone tends to add unnecessary padding to sentences. One lesson I learned from the video was to never use "be" verb forms if possible. It does not show complete action of a sentence uses a "be" verb. Another lesson I learned is to try and avoid using multiple prepositional phrases in a row. When a writer does this, it sounds like the writer is making a list and it just seems to last forever. Also, do not confuse your reader. Make paragraphs more clear and concise because it makes for a better read.

Tyler-Lessons learned

I really liked learning the paramedic method. It is something I have never even heard of before and I believe that I can use this method to my advantage in the future. Even though converting my whole paper from one form to another was difficult, I know that it made my paper a much easier read. It makes things more clear to the reader and it also allows the writer to read his/her paper carefully and it allows them to actually understand each paragraph. To use the paramedic method, you have to : 1. Circle the prepositions 2. Draw a box around "is" verb forms 3. Ask, Wheres the action? 4. Change the action into a simple verb 5. Who's kicking whom? 6. Eliminate slow wind ups 7. Eliminate redundancies

Things Read..

The most interesting thing to me that we read in the past couple of weeks would be the article "Crazy Things Seem Normal, Normal Things Seem Crazy". This article stuck out to me because it was different from all of the other articles that we have read in the past. The author, Chuck Klosterman, makes it interesting by describing every detail fro m his journey to interview Val Kilmer. He describes how strange Kilmer is which lets the readers know his definition of normal is weird to us. I thought the way the article was written was very descriptive and specific which made it much more interesting to read.

Reading/Writing Outside of Class.

I have never been one to read or write outside of class, but I have found myself reading more magazine articles and sometimes the sports column in the newspaper. I am also not a big fan of writing but I have grown to enjoy writing papers that I can somewhat relate too. The past three papers that we have written so far this semester have actually been very interesting to write but I still don't ever take the time to write anything outside of class. I hope that someday I will learn to appreciate writing and maybe start writing something of my own.

Lessons Learned.

This nine weeks we learned a new revision technique. It is called the Paramedic Method. This method contains many steps. The 1st step is to read through the paper and circle all of the prepositions. The second step is to draw a box around any "be verbs or linking verbs. Third, you have to find where the action is being done and then change the action into a simple verb. Fourth, the person doing the action should be moved into the subject of the sentence and then eliminate any other slow wind-ups. Lastly, eliminate all the other unnecessary parts. After completing all of these steps, divide the new word count of each sentence by their old word counts and subtract from 1. This determines each sentence's "Lard factor" and you will be able check to see how well you revised your sentence.

On Composition

The peer review group influenced our papers tremendously. It helped each peer review member improve their paper by providing each member with little tidbits of information that helped with the overall structure of the paper. It allowed for the papers to become easier to read in certain spots and it helped the flow of the paper become better. We thought that eliminating "be" verbs and most prepositional phrases was tough but on the contrary, it helped the readability of our papers. Because we had to get rid of these items, Mason took out information that did not make since. When he had a lot of be verbs and prep. phrases, the sentences seemed to bond to each other but when they were eliminated, it became just information that was irrelevant. When we were studying Erin's and Peyton's paper, we realized something was wrong in the first paragraph. We decided that those paragraphs lacked information so we had to come up with things to help get the point across early in the paper. Tyler's paper was somewhat the same as most of these papers but he had a body paragraph that needed some work after eliminating "be" verbs.

Mason's Reading and Writing Outside of the Class

The thing that I read the most outside of the class is a magazine. I usually read the Sports Illistrated magazines over and over again to make sure I didn't miss anything about what is going on in sports for that month. In reading those magazines it makes me read more carefully to make sure I understand the situation they are talking about so that I can get the whole picture.

Mason's Things Read

The essay that stood up the most to me was the Trial By Fire. In the first part of that essay the mood is very bad and that makes the reader think that the person accused of that crime actually did the crime. So I think that in a essay it is all about the mood to persusade a reader. In the second part of the essay the mood is not so harsh and it makes the reader change their opinion.

Mason's Lessons Learned

Introductory elments and apositives are literary elements that tell more about the sentence.
Ex.1 In the afternoon, we have football practice. In the afternoon is the appositive telling when we have practice.
Ex. 2 My brother, Myles, is a senior in high shcool. By saying the person's name you are being more specific.

Readings and Writings outside of class

I personally do not read much but i honestly loved reading the essay about the Freezing Person. It made me realize that using the word you and putting the reader in certain situations can be highly effective. I really would like to write an essay in this style of writing because to me, it makes reading something a whole lot easier. What I mean by easier is that the reading is something that the reader does not want to put down. Something that makes the reader look forward to the next paragraph and is not bored when he/she reads it. Also, I like being put in mental situations like this essay did. Stuff that makes you think "What would I do in this situation?" or "How could I have done that differently?". It seems to make for a better read if a writer puts people in those situations.

A reading I really liked and stuck to was "How to say nothing in 500 words" by Paul Roberts. I really liked this essay in particular because of the content that was in the essay. It seemed to explain how to write an almost perfect paper by doing things that someone would not necessarily think about in their writing process. He states that a writer needs to avoid using content that is obvious for a reader. An example of this would be, "I think cell phones are becoming more popular." It is a statement that can be easily proven. He also says that a writer needs to take the unusual side of writing. When choosing a paper topic, one should decide to write a paper on something that is not written about very much. Another thing Roberts said that stuck to me was avoid padding. I have a bad problem about padding sentences. I will add words and phrases to a sentence that have no use for the idea of the sentence. Roberts also states that it is bad for a writer to use cliches in his/her writing. "No writer can avoid them altogether, but good writers avoid them more often than poor writers." states Roberts. I personally should try to succeed in the area of taking the less usual side. It makes writing a paper or essay so much easier and interesting because it makes the writer think more.

-Tyler Jarvis

Erin's Reading And Writing Outside Of Class

I'm just going to be straight forward about this, I don't read for fun. The only thing I read that doesn't involve school is the Bible. In elementary school, I would skim through books and take quizzes on them so I could get points. This was called "Star Reader." With a combination of short books (worth less points) and Nancy Drew's (a bigger book is worth more points), I would always beat everybody in my class because they took the time to read the books and I just looked through them. Mrs. Carson tried to get her classes to read "The Scarlet Letter" outside of class but we would talk her in to reading the book to us during class. If I absolutely have to read a book, like a summer reading book, I like mysteries because they build suspense. It makes the reader want to keep reading. My mom found out that I like mystery books so when I was in 4th grade she bought me a whole set of them. To this day, I have read a couple but most of them are still sitting on my bookshelf.....unread.

Writing is pretty much the same for me. I hate writing essays, biographies, research papers, ect. I can not think of one thing I like about it. Writing essays about myself are kind of easy, but I don't like doing it. Even though i hate writing, I have no choice in school. Some of the advice you have given us like, don't use fluff have helped me. I used to always fluff my sentences if the essay had to be a certain word count. Now, I just get straight to the point.

Erin's Things Read

"Pop A Shot" is one of my favorite essays we have read for class. I could relate to it very well because it was about a sport that i used to play. Also, there were familiar names in it like Michael Jordan. The most important reason I like "Pop A Shot" better than the other essays we have read is because it is short and sweet and humorous.

Lessons that I learned:

1. Have an attracting introduction.

2. Use examples.

3. Enjoy the writing you write.

Anyone who puts these helpful hints into use will have a better paper.

Peyton's Reading And Writing Outside Of Class

Outside of the classroom I never take the time to read. Every once in a while I will pick up a magazine and read it but it has to relate to me in some way to get me interested. Although I despise reading, in the eighth grade my English teacher, Mrs. Houck assigned the class to read the book "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. This book did not really relate to me but for some reason I loved reading it. This was one of the few books that I have actually read entirely. The teacher would assign new chapters to read each night but I would always read ahead. The book built up so much suspension it was hard to stop reading it. I always said I hated reading just because I never took the time to sit down and find a book that I might actually be interested in. I feel like this book changed my opinion about reading.

I am also the same way about writing. I do not like to write essays but if it is on a topic that relates to me or interests me, then I do not mind it. I found that the personal essay we were asked to write at the beginning of this semester was not as hard to write as I thought it would be. I think the essays that we were assigned to read and blog about in class actually helped me think about how to write my personal essay. I found the personal essay to be easier to write because it related to my life and I had a lot of examples and real life situations to write about in my essay.

Peyton's Things Read

The "Freezing Persons" essay really got me interested once I started reading it. This essay was different from all the others because the author puts you in the position of the people in the essay so you can really experience what was going on. Most essays are just explaining the story to the reader. The way this article was written builds up suspense which makes it much more interesting.

Lessons from the Text:

1.) Choosing a different method of writing such as this one can make the essay more interesting.

2.) Being descriptive and giving visual examples will help the reader visualize the situation.

3.) Giving clues leading up to the situation instead of immediately telling what will happen can help build suspense.

I think if I use these three tips in the future my essays will improve.

Peyton's Lessons Learned

Active/Passive Voice:

Active: Most English sentences containing action verbs are written in Active voice where the subject performs the action.

Ex. 1) The man must have eaten 10 hamburgers.

~ In this sentence the man(sub.) is eating(verb) the hamburgers.

Ex. 2) The dogs chewed on the bones.

~ In this sentence the dogs(sub.) are chewing(verb) the bones.

*The subject will always come first!*

Passive: In Passive sentences the object receiving the action acts as the subject of the one doing the action is found towards the end of the sentence.

Ex. 3) Ten hamburgers must have been eaten by the man.

~ The hamburgers(sub.) are being eaten(verb).

Ex. 4) The bones were chewed by the dogs.

~ The bones(sub.) are being chewed(verb).

* Note: In these examples the subject-verb relationship changed!*

Lessons Learned

Appositives are an easy concept in English grammar. It is a phrase that describes a noun. For example: Sammy, the dog, was black. We all should know that Sammy is a proper noun. The appositive is what comes directly after it. It can be set off in commas or it could just follow the noun. Also, appositives are labeled as essential and nonessential. These labels pretty much are self explanatory. If it is labeled essential, then it is needed to make the sentence sound better; if it is labeled nonessential, then it is something that has been stuck in the sentence to make it a little more clear. The phrase "the dog" is the appositive in this sentence. It is nonessential because it is a phrase that is not needed in the sentence.

-Tyler Jarvis

Erin's Lessons Learned

Simple, Compound, Complex, Compound-Complex:

Simple sentences contain only one independent clause.

Ex. I love you.

Compound sentences join two or more independent clauses with a conjunction or semi colon.

Ex. I love him and he loves me.

Popular conjunctions are easy to remember. (FANBOYS)

For

And

Nor

But

Or

Yet

So

Complex sentences contains one or more dependent clauses and one or more independent clauses.

Ex. Although we say we hate each other, I love him and he loves me.

On Composition

We all thought that the peer review group was a great influence on how we wrote our papers. It gave an outside look on what we needed to accomplish to make each of our papers individually better. For instance, Mason's paper needed some work in the area of sentence structure. He had a lot of run-on sentences and some of his paragraphs did not complete a full thought. Erin's, Peyton's, and Tyler's paper were very well written but like most papers, they needed some work. As a group, we decided that Peyton's and Erin's paper had some issues with some paragraphs but we resolved them in class when we had time to read each other's papers. Along with all the other papers, Tyler's had some trouble with paragraphs and had a couple problems with transitions and sentences inside other paragraphs. On the whole, our peer review group was a great success in our papers by making them much more readable.

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