White

• The introduction did catch my attention because fishing was mine and my grandpa’s thing and I love it!

• White remembers specific moments when he had been there before.

• I was able to picture the lake he was at, the small of the lumber and how beautiful it was.

• It was mainly memories, not a whole lot of dialogue.

• Readers will connect to White easier if they have experienced fishing and all other lake activities. I connected to his essay because I grew up going to the lake with my grandpa all the time.

• Yes, he includes a lot of memories that were very important to him.

Sedaris

• ŸIf I wasn’t supposed to read this for class I probably wouldn’t have kept going. I just wasn’t real sure where it was going and the humor just wasn’t very specific and not related.

• ŸHis main focus was his class in Paris, and very little about what happened outside of class. I feel it shows he didn’t know the language very well.

• ŸI feel like there wasn’t much detail given for me to picture who they were and what they looked like. I visualized the teacher being tan, that’s about it.

• ŸThe writer quoted a lot of speech which made each character a little more important.

• ŸI had the feeling that he wanted to prove the teacher wrong because of the abuse she gave him, which gave him and even stronger desire to learn better. Towards the end he starts to understand everything his teacher is saying and can follow closely.

• ŸIn my opinion the conclusion does reinforce the main point of the story.

Sentence Variety

Sam got in her car, drove to the mall to go to the shoe store, where she bought a pair of boots and a shoe shine kit. Afterwards, she went to the food court and bought a burrito that had onions and peppers on it. As Sam was eating the burrito she saw a cute boy at the pretzel stand. The boy looked at Sam and she blushed. Sam said hi when the boy walked over to her, but the boy wrinkled up his nose. Sam was confused so she said hi again. The boy gagged and walked away, leaving Sam shocked. Sam ran to the bathroom crying and then she realized she had bad breath. In the bathroom, Sam shined her new boots and put them on. She then walked out of the bathroom full of confidence. Sam found the boy and told him that he needed manners. She then kicked him with her new boots. As the boy fell to the ground, Sam walked away and out of the mall. 

Mechanics

When writing my papers I always struggle with choosing and sticking to a design. I would consider this the principle that I need to work on. I have problems making decisions sometimes and it becomes a real struggle when writing papers. I will think of something great to write and make an outline, but as I start writing it something better comes to mind sometimes changing my whole thought process. I also think that when it comes to writing I am good at getting rid of useless words and making sentences run smoothly. If it doesn’t sound right I fix it.

Summary Revision

In my essay I wanted to talk about Zinssers four pressures in his essay College Pressures. They are economic, parental, peer, and self-induced. I started out by talking about how pressure is in everyday life and how it is ok to go down one's own path. I think that it clearly sets the tone on what I wanted to introduce throughout the paper. I tried to not put my own opinions in the paper and stick to my main points that I wanted to deliver. I am a very opinionated person, but I did leave out my own opinions as best as I could and just stuck to summarizing the essay.

Blog #3 Pressures

I feel that in college I have experienced nearly all forms of pressure in one way or another. Parental pressure is huge because I would never want to let my parents down and fail them. They have done so much for me throughout the years and they want me to succeed in life and do well in school, so I use that as I have to do good or I'm going to fail them as parents. Economic pressure is one, as well as most college students I feel, suffer from. Money is a big deal and without money you aren't able to do things. College cost a lot of money too. We are always needing money for everything, but it is sometimes hard to make money with jobs and keep up with school which is the place most of our money goes to. It's all a part of life and how to balance it all.