Portfolio

Cover Letter

Dear English Class, Block 4,

The projects for the portfolio, consist of three individual writings. One writing is a revised draft of an old paper. The next writing assignment is called “hits and misses.” This assignment is on the different pieces of writing you have written throughout the year. If you liked a writing, it’s considered a hit; if you hate a writing, it’s considered a miss. The last assignment is the writing remix, which consists of a writing assignment made into a different genre for a different audience.

For these three different assignments, I looked at many of my writings. The first assignment that I worked on is the revised draft of my old literary analysis, ‘Repetition and Patterns in Hills like White Elephants.’ I chose this particular piece not only because it had the lowest grade out of all my papers, but also it had many errors that needed correcting. I decided to work on sentence fluency and organization with this paper. My sentence fluency is going to change by embedding quotes into my paragraph more appropriately. My organization needed work in the paper because I had many paragraphs that were a whole page, maybe longer, and I needed to combine things and make those long paragraphs into shorter ones. Making shorter paragraph usually consisted of condensing or dividing elements of the paragraph into smaller paragraphs. Hopefully my paper will be a hundred times better than it was before.

Assigned next is the “hits and misses” assignment part of the portfolio. I, personally, think I did well on all of our major essays assigned, so I listed them as hits. The only writings I really had to look through were my blogs and reflections. I found that, for the hits, I liked writing why Nervous Conditions should be read next year. I also liked writing ‘Squirrel,’ which is a fun post, I think, about me running over a squirrel with my car. All of the free posts were a good break from strict blog posts and fun to write, so they are hits, too. I also thought I did well without having something specific to write about. Another blog post I really enjoyed writing was about a reflection of our midterm work. There were a few misses, pieces I either didn’t like to write or didn’t write well. I didn’t like Jane Goodall’s Mistake writing because I feel that was slightly irrelevant to what we were learning. Also, one time we had to write a post on the plot structure of our outside reading book, and I thought that was tedious. One of my other posts I didn’t like was “In Defense of Sleep: A Sleeper’s Manifesto,” both versions. I didn’t want to do research for the topic, and I didn’t really like making a mini research paper in my blog. I also don’t think I did a great job on the literary focuses I was assigned for Lord of the Flies because I only had just started out and I hadn’t worked too hard on it. Those were my hits and misses.

The last assignment is the writing remix. I looked through my blog posts throughout the year, and I wanted to find something that I could turn into a comedic piece of work. I scrolled through my blog. Then, I found my blog post with the title ‘Squirrel.’ This was already a comic piece, but I could change this into something else to emphasize the funny element. I looked at the list of different genres I could use to transform the post, and I decided to make it into a billboard. This advertisement wasn’t going to actually be about me hitting a squirrel with my car, but an advertisement to prevent it. I made up an association name that would be against killing squirrels with cars, like a play off of the motorcycle company that has the billboards telling people to watch out for motorcycles. This advertisement was bound to be a comedic genre change of my blog post, ‘Squirrel.’ This billboard will hopefully explain to people that they shouldn’t kill squirrels, like I did.

The pieces of writing I have written have influenced much of me as a writer. Right now, I’m a writer who is learning everyday. I can create theses when needed, and I can research and embed quotes better than I have ever done before. I can also write stories about myself through literacy narratives. I feel that everything I do now is analyzing things everywhere. I will watch a movie and see a darkness come over the scene, and I know there’s a scary or sad part coming up. Or in book, when a character looks like a happy person in bright clothes and is always smiling, I know that person is a good guy. I’m reading between the lines more often now, because that’s how I was taught to read. Being a good writer also means you need to be a good reader, which I feel I have grown stronger about. I’m a writer who knows how to write what I need to write. This year has taught me a lot on different writing styles.

I learned different things about different types of pieces. The first essay assigned to our class was the literacy narrative. This writing made me think far back into the past for a pivotal moment of my writing/reading career. Then, we found that we needed to tell our story of that moment. After that, we learned general information about literary analyses. My literary analysis looked at the repetition and patterns in the short story, ‘Hills like White Elephants.’ This was the most challenging of all because you had to look at the story, and I had to find the repetition and patterns. Not only that, but I had to create a thesis for the paper. I find the creation of theses very hard, because the statement has to be an argument with many more restrictions. I found this the hardest paper. Lastly, I felt that, with the research paper, I felt, was an easier paper than I thought and put it out to be. At first, I didn’t know how to find sources for my topic. Eventually, after I had been taught how, I started finding them, and I realized I didn’t know what I was going to even write for the paper. After I started writing, I just added in the sources to my ideas, and I had a paper. I feel that the most important fact I took out of these three writing assignments is that an outline for your paper helps tremendously.

There is always room for improvement, especially as a writer. I learned throughout all of this writing, and me looking over my writing, that I need to work on shortening my papers. Down sizing and construction of my papers is possibly the hardest thing for me to do. I elaborate on many things, so my papers‘ length is usually over what is assigned. I find it hard to cut out my writing because I believe all of it is important details. Along with my paper length, I also need to work on my paragraph length, as that can get out of control as well. On my literary analysis, one of the paragraphs was two pages long! This requires combining repeating phrases in the paper, and taking out parts of the paper. Hopefully, I can work on that to make a paper just right. The last major thing I need to work on is sticking to a main tense throughout the whole paper. Sometimes, I’ll use the past tense, and then halfway through the paper, I’ll switch to present tense. It is very frustrating to go back through the paper and fix all the verbs. In my next paper, I need to choose the tense that will be used in the paper, and stick to it. These improvements will show through practice and experience. The more I practice with sticking to the right tense, the more I’ll get used to it and do that throughout all my papers.

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Repetition and Patterns in “Hills Like White Elephants”

In the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” two characters, a man and his significant other, Jig, who is pregnant, are at a train station. They sit down in a bar, waiting for their train to arrive, and they drink beer while have a distracted discussion about abortion. Authors may use distractions in some writing to draw the attention of the audience to the main topic of the part in the story. The author of “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway, uses repetition and a pattern of distractions to keep the readers attentive to the main point of the characters’ conversation while the characters are distracted from that main point. He shows this through avoiding the main topic, repetitive conversational topics, setting observations, and the characters’ interrupting actions.

One way to know the characters are distracted from the main topic of their conversation is that they never mention the topic directly. Their conversation is sort of like a river. There is one main flow to it but occasionally, the conversation goes off track, like many side streams. Abortion is that main flow. “‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all.’” (74). In this quote, the audience doesn’t necessarily know they’re taking about abortion, but they know they’re talking about an operation. The characters are discussing the ‘operation’ when Jig gets sidetracked: “‘I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do-’ ‘Nor that isn’t good for me,’ she said. ‘I know. Could we have another beer?’” (75). Jig has decided she didn’t want to talk about what the man is talking about and stops the conversation by diverting the topic; this topic is ignored by the characters using repetitive conversational topics. As the audience continues to read throughout that story, more repetitive conversational topics are included.

Throughout the character’s conversation, the topic is diverted by other conversational topics that repeat. These repetitive topics are like the side rivers that are mentioned above. One of the first topics they talk about is beer. Throughout whole conversation, the characters talk about ordering different kinds of beers. This topic is brought up many times when they want to order more drinks. Jig asks, “‘What should we drink?’... She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. ‘It’s pretty hot,’ the man said. ‘Let’s drink beer.’ (73). They later discuss having more drinks. The characters’ discussion of beer represents a distraction from their more serious conversation; it is also part of a pattern of repetitive conversation topics in which the characters bring up the same topic repeatedly.

Another topic brought up a few times is how “the [white] hills across the valley of the Ebro” (73) looks like white elephants. Jig explains how “‘They’re lovely hills’... ‘They don’t really look like white elephants. I just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees.’” (74). Jig discusses the hills multiple times because she wants to lighten the mood of their conversation. Not only does she want to talk about something more carefree and fun, but also, details prove she doesn’t really care too much about abortion or her future.

The topic is diverted many times, although the characters do talk about the abortion a few times when they want to get to the point: “‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all.’” (74). Instead of saying abortion, the characters bring it up as an ‘operation.’ Then, the man considers the girl’s feelings about the abortion: “‘I think [the operation’s] the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really want to.’” (74). Then, she considers his feelings: “‘And if I do [the operation] you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?’ ‘I love you now. You know I love you.’ ‘I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again and if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it.’ ‘I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry.’ ‘If I do it you won’t ever worry?’ ‘I won’t worry because it’s perfectly simple.’ ‘Then I’ll do it because I don’t care about me.’” (74). Another topic they discuss besides abortion, is what will happen to them, and their relationship, afterwards: “‘Then will we be fine afterwards?’ ‘We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.’” (74). While talking about the operation, they not only discuss how they feel but also the effects of the operation. These diversions in the conversation are made so the main topic is ignored.

Throughout the conversation, the characters bring up many different setting observations. There are multiple things to notice throughout the whole story. One setting observation is the train station where this whole scene takes place: “On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain.” (73). This describes where the main characters are and where they are having their discussion. Another setting observation brought up is the heat in the story. For example, “The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes” (73). The man also mentions it when they were ordering drinks: “‘What should we drink?’ the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. ‘It’s pretty hot,’ the man said.” (73). This heat describes why they were drinking beer.

Mentioned above is the beers. Which, including other things, are put on a table, resembling a thinking spot: “The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl.” (73). The table then again mentions a place of thinking when Jig trying to process what the man is saying to her, during their conversation: “The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.” (74). Hemingway writes this as though he is trying to distract the audience by showing the table, but they want to learn more about their conversation. The table puts a wedge in the story because it’s mentioned, like the bead curtain, right in the middle of their conversation. The bead curtain is mentioned multiple times as well, especially when there is a wind that pushes it, or a person who comes through it. For example, “The girl looked at the bead curtain. ‘They’ve painted something on it,’ she said.” (73). Then again, “The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.” (74). It’s a repetitive detail that seems to be important to the story. When this bead curtain is brought up, it seems to resemble the character, or characters, thinking, like when “the girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.” (74). After being mentioned a few more times, other observations get mentioned multiple times, like the hills outside of the train station.

The hills are compared, for the most part, by Jig who compares them to white elephants. As shown by “The girl [who] was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. ‘They look like white elephants,’ she said” (73). The mood is tense and Jig wants the mood to lighten so she brings up an idea of white elephants to do as wanted. The outer setting is mentioned also, like in this quote: “The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white.” (73). Again, she notices the setting while standing up and looking “Across, on the other side, [where there] were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.” (74). This setting seems to be a beautiful setting which contradicts the girl who is distressed. These observations are thrown in the story to distract the audience, like the characters are distracted, but Hemingway wants the audience to be more focused by using these setting observations. These setting observations are a type of interruption in their conversation.

Another element that keep the readers focused is interruption of the characters’ conversation. These interruptions stop the scene and discussion because they throw the characters off while the audience are fully attentive. The beers seem to be the main distraction of their conversation. While having the conversation, the man and woman are ordering beers, drinking beers, and talking about beers. The waitress, who is a minor character, delivers their beer to them constantly. Another interruption is when the two main characters would look around the station. Many setting observations are identified while they are looking around. A few other setting observation identified while solely looking around are the bags they brought to get on the train. The man offers to take the bags by saying, “‘I’d better take the bags over to the other side of the station’... She smiled at him. ‘All right. Then come back and we’ll finish the beer.’ He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks.” (75). The man got up while moving his bags and noticed the men at the bar while he was having a drink: “Coming back, he walked through the bar-room where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis, a beer, at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train.” (75). This interruption was when the characters get up and walk around the station. When the girl was tired of the conversation, she gets up and, again, notices the plane and the white, elephant hills. These two interruptions completely puts the conversation on hold because they aren’t even relevant to what they’re discussing.

The author only shows the audience a glance of the main topic, which is abortion, of the characters’ conversation. Hemingway never says abortion, but instead says operation. The American man says, “‘I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want anyone else’” (75). This statement means that the man only wants Jig in his life, not a child, or another person, too. This statement refers to Jig being pregnant and how he wants to go through with the ‘operation.’ Even though Hemingway writes about abortion almost as an allusion, it’s plainly obvious what the characters are talking about if the audience read through the lines.

Hemingway writes this short story with many distractions which are explained in the past five paragraphs. He gives us a glance of the main topic of this story, or the main flow of the river as mentioned in the river example above. Hemingway uses the distractions of avoiding the main topic, repetitive conversational topics, setting observations, and interrupting actions in “Hills like White Elephants” so the audience can stay attentive to the main topic of the characters’ conversation. Although the audience is so attentive, the characters are the opposite. The characters do not want to discuss the main topic, or abortion. So, while the characters are distracted, the audience is focused on the conversation, what’s being said, and what the conversation’s regarding.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Earnest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” English 1. Ed. Edwards and deGravelles. San Diego, CA: University Readers, 2012. 73-75. Print.

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Two issues relating to sentence structures:

ISSUE #1

What is the issue, and where is it discussed in Norton?

Comma Splices: S-3b “Editing Comma Splices and Fused Sentences”

If applicable, provide an example from your essay:

“In this quote, the audience doesn’t necessarily know they’re talking about abortion, they just know they are talking about an operation”

Why does this issue matter? Or, why did you select this problem or tool?

This issue matters because comma splices are a major issue in literature. If Dr. deGravelles finds this issue in a paper, she takes away many points from your overall grade just to emphasize the importance of this error.

How will you recognize this problem or opportunity to use a tool in the future?

I will look throughout my paper for two possible sentences only conjoined by a comma.

How will you fix the problem or use the tool?

I will replace the comma with a semicolon. Another option is to put a period in the place of a comma to make two individual sentences. I can also keep the comma, but I can add a conjunction like “or/and/but” to make the sentence conjoined.

What questions do you have about it?

What do I do if I think that the sentence is a comma splice, but it really is the correct way to write the sentence? How do I tell?

ISSUE #2

One aspect of my paper I needed to work on to make it the best paper it could be is to embed my quotations in my paper. This was the main issue in my paper. This issue is not in the Norton Handbook, but I learned from the Writing Center how to intergrade quotes instead of leaving them as freestanding quotes. Freestanding quotes are quotes that aren’t connected to any sentences, but they stand alone. I can fix them by embedding them into a sentence which makes the paper flow more smoothly. Now that I know how to integrate the quotes into the paper, I will always do that from now on.

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Revision Writing Center Meeting

The first time I went to the writing center was for this paper revision. To be honest, I didn’t really no what to expect. I didn’t really know how they were going to help me on my paper, especially because it was so long. When I first met with a “consultant,” which was really just a high school student, they asked me to read my paper so they can help me to improve it. When I told them it was five in a half pages, they were shocked. We didn’t have all that much time, so they just wanted me to go over what I needed to work on, which was a lot. I first was a little lost because I wasn’t sure what I needed to work on; there was so much! So, I went over the issues in the paper that Dr. deGravelles had pointed out. This basically turned my paper upside down (in a good way). My paper was a new paper.

One major issue that needed fixing was freestanding quotations. These quotations are just a quote for a sentence, and they infected my paper. My consultant gave me alternative way to embed them into the paper. I used each different method with each freestanding quote. Another problem was that my paragraphs were way to long for comfort. I had two paragraphs that were at least a page. We went through a process that was very tedious to try and break up these long paragraphs. In the end, the solution was to break them up by grouping. For example, one paragraph was about repetitive setting observations. We decided it would be best to group them by categories and make three paragraphs instead of one. This was a very effective ideas.

At the end of the meeting, we didn’t finish editing the paper, but I did get somewhere in the end and got a basic idea of how to edit my paper. In the end, my consultant was very kind to me. They said that my paper was a great paper and I had something there in the paper. It encouraged me to finish editing my paper, and then, my revision was over. I had a brand new revised draft.

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Analysis of Rhetorical Situation

Audience: My audience is meant to be for drivers, beginners or experienced people. As my blog post explains about a time I ran over a squirrel in a car, I decided to make a joke out of it, to me, so that drivers can watch out for squirrels. My project is a billboard, which usually advertises to drivers because billboards are on the side of the road. This “billboard” is trying to advertise to watch out for squirrels to drivers. Originally, this particular situation was meant for a regular audience wanting a laugh. This blog post is comical, so I specified the audience to drivers.

Purpose: The audience involved with this billboard needs to, first, drive so they can watch out for squirrels, and two, understand that I have ran over a squirrel because I didn’t watch out for them, as it says on the billboard. I’m telling the people to watch out for squirrels, unlike me. I hope that this piece will, first, give the audience a laugh because it’s slightly funny. Secondly, I hope that this billboard may teach the audience to watch out for squirrels in the road. My topic is about myself not paying attention, so I ran over a squirrel, and I want people to learn from my mistake. Originally, I used a blog post to tell a story, but I changed that to a billboard for the purpose of advertising to change the mistake that I did.

Stance: My approach to this writing remix is, hopefully, comical. Obviously people don’t need to watch out for squirrels because they aren’t always on the road, but I wanted to take my situation of killing a squirrel to emphasize to others that they shouldn’t do what I did and run over squirrels.

Genre/Medium/Design: I used a billboard, which reaches out to drivers, and I used squirrels to emphasize the funny factor of this rhetorical situation. The features of the billboard looks very put together and pastel-like, but it’s supposed to be funny, so the billboard looks cheesy although it does have an organized, professional look. I used a professional looking billboard to show that the “S.O.S” company is profitable and professional although the company is all about one ridiculous thing, squirrels. The medium and design is completely different than my original piece. My original piece described the situation I was in, but I changed the story into an advertisement or a billboard.

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Hits and Misses

Hits:

-Literary Narrative

-Literacy Analysis

-Research Paper

-Why Nervous Conditions Should Be Read Next Year

Nervous Conditions was a decent book to read. I did feel that the book was slightly irrelevant and didn't have a point to it as a book. Although this is my thoughts, I also thought this book was a fun book to read. It also had some riveting moments. It was a slow read for me, but I am a slow reader. This book, I believe should be in next year's curriculum. This should teach the students of next year about the situation in Africa and how many people have to live. This teaches children the hardship of African people. People in America need to understand how lucky they are with the life they have. This book also shows the lives of African people from one of the lowest view points, a young girl in Africa. It shows a different world, a world that needs to be shown to young children.

Also, the very common dogma that "history repeats itself" explains why we have history class or anniversaries of events. This book shows what it's like in Africa 20-30 years ago. This could happen again today: it could already be happening. With this book you see what it's like to be in Africa: what the situation is in Africa. Reading this book causes awareness of the situation in Africa to the people who read this book. Awareness of situation can cause solutions to the problem of a caste system, malnourishment, women being treated poorly, and education of only men, providing them with jobs, and no jobs for women without education.

Another factor to look at for this book to be read is the projects. The projects produce thought processes of the book and points for the students. The projects and quizzes show that the student is reading the book and doing what they are supposed to do. The projects of this book provides thinking and wondering. The wondering provides discussion.

This book provides discussion because of the opposite society from the book. Teenagers don't understand the society of Africa, but this book provides a glance at it. Ninth graders will have questions on this society and will want to understand what's going on. So, this book provides questions for class discussion, discussion with friends, and discussion outside of school. The logic of students will enhance when this book is read because they will ask questions and get answers. The answers they receive will give them an understanding of the book and, as a larger picture, the society of Africa.

-Squirrel

Over the past few weeks, I have been taking Driver's Ed. My protégé, being my driving instructor, helped me to drive. He, being was incredibly erudite, showed me everything there is to be a driver, except for road kill. After I completed the driving course, I felt like I was being inducted into the position of Chief Driver, because I thought I was that good. On Monday, my mom told me that I could drive around in the parking lot of school while we were waiting for my brother who was practicing his avocation, wrestling. This took me by slight surprise, because usually, I had to become a militant for something so small. I guess my crusade of trying to drive whenever finally and come to an end, me winning. So I raced over to the other side of the car and hopped into the seat. I buckled my seatbelt and put the car in drive. I start driving to the school parking lot, thinking that I was a teenager prodigy of driving.

It hadn't even been a whole minute yet, when my mom gasps. I ask her what the matter was and she took me by surprise when she asked, "Did you not see that?" I had no clue what she was talking so she said it. "I think you just ran over that squirrel." I felt that my 'Oh-so-great driving skills' had lapsed. This very raucous news to my ears. So I made a circle in the parking lot to go back and see if I had really hit a squirrel. The dead, tiny, gray body laying on the side of the road showed me the tacit answer. Don't squirrels usually have the demeanor to run away from cars? My mom being adroit, got out of the car, went over to the squirrel with a piece of thick paper, and scooped it into the grass so other cars wouldn't drive over it. This had given me the definitive answer that the squirrel was officially dead. When we picked up my brother, he affronted me by calling me killer. Then, after my dad found out, he made me watch a TV show that had the same idea in one episode. I felt like a pariah by the end of the day. I can't believe I killed a squirrel.

-All Free Posts

-Midterm Stuff

Throughout the first quarter and half way through the second, we have learned a good bit of information. This information is in units which are summer reading, literacy narratives (+ traits of writing, writing process), short stories + literary elements, literary analysis, and Lord of the Flies. All of the information we went over are in some form of notes or in a book of some sort. I understand and remember much of what we have learned, but there is always a need for improvement. Of course, for the midterm, I will study all these units intensely. Especially our unit of literacy narrative! I understand it, but there are things that throw me off. Also, the short stories is another unit I will be going over quite a lot. When we read about fifteen stories, you can't remember everything. Especially when you have to take annotations into consideration. I would really like to go over the different short stories and have a brief explanation of them in class. Also, I know we will, hopefully, go over literacy analysis again, especially since we haven't finished our essay. Those are some things to think about for midterm preparation.

Misses:

-Analyzation of the song ‘One of Us’

I decided to analyze the song "One of Us" by the pop group ABBA. The first thing I analyzed is the rhyme scheme throughout the piece. The rhyme scheme is:

a a b c c c d d e f e g g h h h i i j k k k d d e f e g g h h h h f e g g h. I also noticed an abundance of sibilance lines. For example, "romances; chances; easy; so; us (major word); staring; wishing she; somewhere; instead; sorry; herself; stupid; small; saw; myself; concealed; stubborn; misconceiving; started; show," are all words that have an 's' or an 's' sound. Another repetitive sound I heard was the 'y sound, like "crying" or "lying." The tone of the song, based off of the rhythm of the lyrics, is gentle and dreamlike, although, the sibilance within the song makes the lyrics have a harsh tone. Overall, the song has harsh lyrics. The accents in the spot they are in creating a little bit of a raspy tone along with soothing lyric sounds. You can feel the sadness the song is about through the sound of the lyrics. I also feel that the sibilance of the song makes a purpose of the song's sadness.

Most words in this song rhyme. As explained before, the rhyming pattern shows that all of the lines that are the same letter end in a word that rhymes. The first line is "They passed me by, al of those great romances / You were, I felt, robbing me of my rightful chances."The rhyming pattern is observed as double, single, triple, double, single, single, single, double, triple. Then, it repeats. The rhyming words give rhythm to the lyrics, which is probably why the lyrics of a SONG. Another thing I noticed was that there is an odd line break. The lyrics are "One of us is only / Waiting for a call." It makes the song sound good, but the lyrics, written on a sheet of paper, look weird. In the end, it makes for a great euphony for the song.

Lyrics:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/abba/oneofus.html

-Jane Goodall’s Mistake

Plagiarism is frowned upon in the English world. Plagiarism, as the dictionary explains, is "the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own." Jane Goodall is known throughout America, and the world. With such famousness, people know what you do in your life and judge your, in this case, her actions. The fact that she thought it was right to use "the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own," or plagiarism, in a huge source, or primary source, is completely wrong in the world. Many people have lost jobs over such an act. This act, being so serious, should be treated seriously. The fact that it was let off lightly makes this affair worse than it is. Another worsening aspect of this subject is the lack of heart with the apologies. This issue is a huge deal and following through with such act shouldn't be dismissed as if nothing happened. The apologies for doing this act contained no feeling and nothing was sincere.

To fix this situation, I would redo the book. After the reproduction of writing it, there should be strict editing in order for no mistakes to happen with plagiarism. They editors, writes, and anyone involved in the first copy of the book should be fined for what they've done. This act shouldn't go unnoticed and untreated; it should be resolved with discipline. After the fine is paid, they should truly apologize for their actions. Plagiariam is a big issue, and, no matter who you are, it should never go unnoticed. Even with Goodall, there should be no tolerance.

Sources:

New Oxford American Dictionary

-Literary Focus Tracker

I have been keeping track of symbolic objects throughout LOTF. The three keys elements I'll be talking about are (1) The importance of the shell from the beginning, (2)being chief-what it means, and (3) the femininity of the pink. The first element is the importance of the shell. “While the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch." (22). This showed that the conch basically elected Ralph as leader. Next, “Ralph smiled and held up the conch for silence.” (23). The conch made a crowd of boys quiet. this is an incredible accomplishment and it's all because of a shell. The importance of this shell began to go downhill when Jack began to break off from Ralph's rule. “‘We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things. What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter? It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us.’” (101-102).

The next key element is the meaning of chief. Being chief, to Jack and Ralph, are two different things. Jack thinks being chief is to hunt and sing, while Ralph is all about keeping the fire going. “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’” (22). Whereas Ralph believes otherwise. “‘The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going?’” (80). This ends in a dispute and separation of ways.

The third concept to look at is the significance of pink on the island. Pink represents the feminine quality of this book. If you've noticed the amount of pink on the island, you may just think there's pink because it's a coral island, but the pink also shows some feminine quality. One example would be, “The most usual feature of the rock was a pink cliff surmounted by a skewed block; and that again surmounted, and that again, till the pinkness became a stack of balanced rock projecting through the looped fantasy of the forest creepers. Where the pink cliffs rose out of the ground there were often narrow tracks winding upwards.” (26). The whole island seems to be pink.

Those are three of many symbolic objects.

-Plot Structure for City of Bones

The plot structure of a story starts with an (1)Exposition, then, (2) rising action, next, (3) the climax, then, (4) falling action, and lastly, (4) the resolution. I just recently read, and finished, City of Bones. There is always a plot structure in any type of larger type of writing, especially in a novel. The City of Bones plot structure consists on all the elements.

The exposition of this novel starts out with a girl, Clary, hanging out at a supernatural club that's for humans. She's with her friend Simon when she sees an attractive man follow an attractive girl into a secret room. After she follows them, she realizes they, being the boy, the girl, and the girl's friends, are nothing close to humans, starting off the rising action. In the rising action, she learns about his new world, her new life and the new world she discovers. She, and her new friends, find out major news about the new world and starting planning for what is to come. Then, the climax in the book was when a major event happens and they realize that there is a new revolution about to begin and they need to find a way to save the future. Then, a main character gets taken and then Clary feels like she needs to be the savior in it all, leading to the falling action. The falling action consists of fighting, saving people, betrayal, lies, and truth. The resolution is the new normal. In this book, the new normal consists of the characters living a life like the past, but knowing the truth. This book doesn't have an exact resolution because this is the first book in a series, so the book just introduced what the characters' new life turned out to be after the found out the truth.

-”In Defense of Sleep: A Sleeper’s Manifesto” 

*1st and 2nd

-In Defense of Food-Response

When I first picked up In Defense of Food, I thought, 'Are you serious?! I have to read THIS?!' And the answer to that is, OF COURSE! So, when I started reading, I, honestly, hated it! I wish I had never even started it. But after I finished it, I realized it wasn't as bad as I put it to be. I was slightly confused at a few parts because he seemed to contradict himself and other health books. Also, he used so many long words and different vitamin names and ingredients. The idea of the book stood out to me along with a few other ideas on the right food to eat, but there were times where I thought he didn't put things clearly. Otherwise it wasn't that bad of a book.

I actually learned very interesting facts on certain food, health, and what we should eat. This book could teach everyone to eat healthier if they read it, leading to our nation's loss of obesity. In fact, this book might've showed me what I want to become when I'm older! The study of dietitian and nutrition seems very fascinating, and I think it would be cool to study in that field and work as a dietitian or nutritionist. Learning about the right, healthy foods to eat is fascinating and should be paid closer attention to because it will help out with many conditions in life such as health issues.

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