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.