Essay 4 Workshop

Tyler Rosales

12/8/10

English 100

Essay Workshop 4

In the book “All I asking for is my body”, by Milton Murayama, I tend to notice that tradition has a lot to do with the story and the way the main characters life is shaped. This is also a very negative thing. By negative I mean the tradition of carrying on the family debt by constantly working for your family. Toshio and Kiyoshi should only be responsible for their lives, and the hard work they have to do is getting in the way of everything . If this continues the family would carry a long line of constant working and suffering. We can see already see by reading the book that the family debt has stopped Toshio's dreams of boxing. Even after a hard life of his father working, his Grandfather still took the money and left to another country. These examples show that this would be horrible if they carried on this tradition.

In Toshio's family it is necessary for the children to hold responsible for the families debt by working for them constantly. “'Every child must repay their parents''How much? How Long?' 'Your father helped grandfather for twelve years without one complaint'” pg 30. This explains how long this tradition has been carried. What the mother doesn't explain, however is why they have to do this. If the son is expected to hold and work for the parents debt, he should at least be aloud more of an explanation. Her mother even expects that the more kids that she has the better of a chance that the debt will go away. All she is creating more life, and putting them straight to work right after. I feel that some traditions family can do without. If we look in the past of Kiyoshi's family, and their struggle with debt we can see that continuing the traditions have never gone over well. The father would spend his whole life working for their grandfather only to have his grandfather take the money to Japan, leaving the father in poverty. This shows that leaving your children in charge of your debt will only put future generations in debt. Even if you get enough money for the parents that doesn't mean you have worked enough for yourself. There is no opportunity working in the cane fields and no rich future. “All we doing is surviving.” (pg 65) The more the kids work for the parents the more they fuel the debt for their future families. The more they fuel debt the more they have to carry on the traditions of having to have their kids work for them. The only way to stop this ongoing pattern is to give more freedom to the children to make money for themselves, and work their way up to the top. If the parents keep taking the money like the grandfather did then the next generation will constantly owe money to the generation above.

Putting the debt onto the children also gets in the way of more important things like education and personal dreams. “We quit going to language school for the duration of the strike.” 32. This was Kiyoshi explaining how work got in the way of school. We tend to see this example happen to a lot of people in the real world who experience poverty. The only way to handle debt is to either quit school to work enough to stay alive, or to focus on school and really hope you make it to a higher position. Back in Kiyoshi's time, it seemed more reasonable to focus on work rather on trying hard in school. If Kiyoshi wasn't faced with his parents debt he would have more of a reason to focus on trying harder and school and achieving different goals. “Tosh worked forty-eight hours a week like everybody else and he worked all day even on the Saturday’s he was to fight”. (Pg 54) Working for his family really got in the way of Toshio's passion for boxing. He loved boxing so much that even through working, he still managed to make it up to the top of his town. Once he fought in the finals, he had to face peoplet think who's only responsibility is to practice on boxing. Handling his parents debt really stopped him from achieving what he really wanted to as a boxer. The debt even got in the way of the idea of starting a family. “ you shouldn't think of marrying for a long time,” Mother kept telling me. “Our family is in trouble. Maybe when all the debt is paid, you can go to high school and college.” (pg 61) If this responsibility wasn't on the kids, not only would an attempt at education be easier, but an attempt at really starting a future on your own could be achieved. Focusing on your own families problems and have to overcome that obstacle before you think about your own future seems like too hard an obstacle to pass. If the parents just encouraged them to live their own lives, they would have a better shot at being a successful boxer, who's married and starting a family of their own who isn't in debt.

We can relate this topic to real life by observing real families that struggle with debt. They usually have very limited possibilities and if they do choose to thrive for themselves and not their parents, they have a chance to work up to the top, even if it is a hard struggle. We can see this in many famous people who have came from a line of poor families. J.K Rowling, now an incredibly rich and successful writer lived in poverty for a long time. Instead of carrying on the debt of her parents and constantly working she gave herself an opportunity to write. The widely know book Harry Potter came out and as a result, Rowling became one of the most famous writers of our generation.

I think that giving Tosh and Kiyoshi the responsibility of taking care of their parents debt is in poor taste because it cuts off their opportunities, creates a tradition of misery and unprofitable debt, and because it can only make the debt bigger for future generations. Freeing Tosh and kiyoshi of the dread of carrying a second debt while worrying about themselves can give them so much control over their lives. Sometimes cutting family traditions are good things and in a way can create more positive, successful traditions.

All I Asking For Is My Body, Part III, Dialogue

c.      Choose a quote from the book and share your critical thinking in response.

"'It's gonna be hard. Damn these Honolulu guys, they train like pros. They no work, just train.' Tosh worked for 48 hours a week like everybody else and he worked all day even on the Saturdays he was to fight." pg 54


Its very hard to compete with someone who has enough time to make their sport, the main thing they do in their life. Unfortunately, like Tosh, having a job is incredibly necessary if you want to be successful in life. What makes this even hard is the traditions with working that Tosh has to deal with in his family. This gives him so much work to do before he can practice. The only way Tosh can make boxing his full time job is if he became professional. Unfortunately his work schedule doesn't allow him to practice enough to become professional

All this does seem unfair but that really is just the way life works. You work for a living and live for working unless you get lucky or get a big break. It would be nice to become professional with a hobby you really enjoy but life makes it a lot harder to achieve that.

All I Asking For Is My Body, Part II, Dialogue

b.     Why does Kiyoshi believe Obaban is a substitute for his mom?
The idea of substitution in this book comes from Kiyoshi's Mother's belief in superstition. She feels that if someone has gotten away with a bad deed someone has to pay for it. This doesn't necessarily mean the person who committed the bad deed, this could be anyone replacing them. Tha t is where the term "Substitute comes from. Kiyoshi's mom become very ill and was in the hospital. When the son felt like she was nearing death, she explained to him her substitute theory, and how she felt like she was receiving the punishment for someone's bad deeds in her family. Kiyoshi starts to believe her ideas. He asks question about it to other people. 
WHen she comes her closes to death, Kiyoshi receives bad news. Worried about it being his mother, he finds out later that it is Obaban who dies of a stroke. This is very fortunate to Kiyoshi. We can later see that his mother shows up to Obaban's house, where she seems a lot better. I can see how Kiyoshi can sum up what happened by saying Obaban took his mother's place in dieing as a substitute for someone else's sins.

Writing Topic: Chapter TBD by you

         I chose the grammar chapter in the book, Rules for Writers. Although the chapter sounds like it just shows something we all would already know about, I picked it because I still make small grammar mistakes without even noticing. Mistakes that I didn't even realize I was making until I read this chapter. I think grammar is the most important thing to maintain when writing an essay, because It only takes a couple mistakes to make the whole essay sound unproffesional.
      This chapter started out talking about sentence fragments. These are the little unfinished sentence that are either missing a verb or a subject. To fix these you can tag them onto another sentence, or finish the sentence with a subject or a verb. This isn't a common mistake for me, because I tend to add a lot of commas and jam sentences together. The next subject is my real problem. Run on sentences can be hard to notice and seeing as though i put a lot of my sentences together I have this problem. Run on sentences are sentences that are jammed together making two independent clauses connect. This can be avoided by separating the sentences or adding a word down the middle that brings them together.
     The next subject brought up is about connecting the right verbs with nouns. It is important to get in the habit of connecting nouns past, present, or future with the right verbs. "He says" makes a lot more sense than "He Say". I have a good habit of this, and probably most people who have grown up with the English language.

All I Asking For Is My Body, Part I, Dialogue

b.     Who is Makot?  Do you feel sorry for him?  What are your thoughts about him and the way he copes with his parents?  

In the book, All I asking for is My Body, Makot is one of the narrator's best friend. He hangs out with him almost everyday and eats lunch with him before coming home to his family. Makot happens to be the oldest one within all of his friends, and hangs out with the younger kids because he doesn't get along too well with the other ones that are his age. On the lighter note Makot is part of a wealthy family, and because of this he is able to support his friends with tickets to movies, and ice cream. he comes up with a lot of ideas when it comes to activities to do with his friends, including hanging out near 'breakers' and buying a shotgun. Unfortunetly, Kiyo's parents have a problem with him hanging out with Makot. They think he is trouble, and his mom is ashamed of her son eating at Makot's house more than at his own house.


I do feel bad for Makot. This is because of the incident at the end of part I, where Kiyo announces that his parents will no longer let him hang out with Makot. I think the sadness hits a real climax when it says Makot was about to cry. From reading about his character, it seems like it would take a lot to make him feel sad enough to the point where he is about to cry. I do not think he deserved what came to him. Although he seems a bit pushy he still means well and treats his friends very nicely. It seems like he has to put up with a little bit from his parents, seeing her rudeness towards the main character. He copes with his parents well though by being a little demanding when they act rude.

Extra Credit: Optional Writing Topic Summary : Writing about film

The article, titled "Writing about film", digs into the real challenges of writing about movies, and films in general. It talks about how hard it can be to describe the elements of filmmaking and the techniques people use in movies. This is because we are too easily entertained. So entertained, infact, that we are distracted from the techniques that filmakers use, such as the way they move cameras, the tone of the the scene, and the composition. Besides talking about the challenges we face, the article continues with types of writings that are about film. This can be a film analysis, a writing about the history, or a summary of the idea the film is trying to portray.
 There are good tips to use when writing about a film. One I took from this is to not write so simple. Try not to just write the basic summary of the film and dig deeper into the meaning. Do even more than just discussing your opinion on the protagonist and the antagonist, discuss how the character gets developed.
I really liked this article for one reason, because I am a big movie buff. I love analyzing movies and trying to find a deep meaning. Every great movie isn't as simple as it looks. There is always something more to it. Writing about a film is a good technique to find that meaning and it can make a good movie great.

Essay 3 Workshop

Essay 3 Workshop

People tend to subconsciously criticize themselves about everything. They compare themselves to classmates, to celebrities, and even fictional people they see on TV. In the story, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, Schooling and the Media have had a bad influence on Lovey because it makes her feel less perfect about the way she looks and acts. We can see this through her complaints about her physical traits, the way she speaks in class, and her perception of who she should be on television.
                The first chapter starts of with one of her favorite TV shows, "Shirley Temple". "I use to wish I was just like her, with perfect blonde ringlets and pink cheeks and pout lips, bright eyes and a happy ending every Sunday" pg 3. It seems to me like she has this vision of who is the perfect girl, and she definitely doesn't think it’s her. She thinks she’s not "deserving" of the kind of treatment she sees Shirley temple has on television. Lovey also notes how perfect the children look on the show, "The Checkers and Pogo Show". "The Spotlight finds the Merry UnBirthday child. Of course, it's the cutest one in the studio" pg 5. She also notes that it would be impossible for her to be on the show, and that only the rich kids get to be on the show. It’s this kind of discouraging feelings that put negative thoughts on Lovey about herself.
                 Through Schooling, Lovey has found ways to look at herself in a negative light. Her Pidgin English is unacceptable in English class, and Lovey notes that she is extremely ashamed of it. She points out her differences than other people in school. The food she eats, the car she drives and even the clothes she wears is something she hates. Her Asian traditions do not sit well with her at all, and like her thoughts of Shirley Temple, she views the traditionally white Americans as the people with better lives. "Sometimes I secretly wish to be haole. That my name could be Betty Smith, or Annie Anderson. pg 11" What ruins her self esteem even more, is the fact that kids at school pick on her because she is different.
                      She also uses the media as a source to come up with better ways to describe her. An Oompa Loompa is what her family calls her, based on the small orange creatures on the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. To her this word is even worse than ugly. This tells me that she would rather be ugly, than be an oompa loompa, and unfortunately, she feels more like an oompa loompa. The Oompa loompa is a symbol for something she is trying to avoid becoming, and the "haole" is a symbol for something she is trying to become.
                       Both the media and schooling has given Lovey a false look on what she should be, and I think that it is a bad influence in this story. It seems to me that the students at her school have done a lot of damage to her self esteem, and media has alerted her perception on what it means to be perfect. Shirley Temple is something she constantly strives to be, and an oompa loompa is a symbol for something she is trying to escape. Through all of this her own traditions, physical features, and the way she speaks is something she hates.

“This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” Dialogue

b.     What’s one difference between this reading and the movie version?  How does the change affect the story, change the meaning and/or alter our perspectives of the characters?

It seems like to me that the movie gives Thomas more of a main role feel than the book. The movie, for instance, starts out with Thomas' character as a baby, surviving a fire. Because I am introduced to Thomas first i feel like I follow him a lot more than in the book, where he instead appears a little bit after introducing Victor. Although Thomas does have a huge role in the book, the theme of the book, and the challenges seem to revolve more aound Victor. The theme to me is, Victors struggle with his thoughts about his father. The movie, however, really brings Thomas more into this theme. We watch Victors father save Thomas, and we see more how important the father is to Thomas.
Although the story is incredibly similar to the movie, I feel like, because some events were showed first in the movie, we can feel different about the main characters roles. One exception is the relationship between Thomas and Victor. To me, both the story and the movie have the same feel between the two when it comes to the main characters relationship. The dialogue seems very familiar in the story, and they both develop the same like for each other.

Smoke Signals, the movie Dialogue

What do you think about the relationship between Thomas and Victor?

Watching the movie, it seems like Thomas and Victor have a hate/love relationship. While Victor seems to despise Thomas throughout scenes, Thomas does come in the clutch, and he does help him. For example, when Victor needed money to go get his fathers ashes and remains, Thomas asked to go, and offered him a jar of money. It is thomas' loyalty and cheerfullness that keeps Victor from hating him throughout the story. Through Thomas, victor also finds ways to look at his father in a better light. This brought Thomas and Victor closer together, securing the relationship. 
So we can see although the relationship seems like it is full of hate, and at times Thomas does annoy Victor, we can also see love between each other, and feeling of attachment. I feel that without Thomas, Victor wouldn't have gone through a life changing experience.

Rules for writers ch 48

This weeks rules for writers was on something a bit different than essay writing. It was about arguments and how to provide a fair, fact filled argument, and how to avoid a stereotypical, generalization in your arguments when trying to express an opinion. It Is very important to avoid things like this to: 1.better show your opinion and to 2.actually win an argument. When people argue some tend to make things like assumptions, hasty generalizations, or bring up unfair emotional tactics. This chapter teaches us how to distinguish this and gives us good examples of them. To summarize what I learned, I should probably look up the complete facts, use unbiased information, don't group people infairly and watch for proper statistics when making an argument
I think that this weeks reading will help me make a persuasive essay and debate. I will always make sure to check facts on both sides before developing a full oohing about things.

Happy Endings,” “Obituary,” and “Oompah Loompah” Dialogue

b.     What’s your response to Mr. Harvey? 
Mr. Harvey sounds like a more traditional teacher in the 1960's-80s. From what i have read, some teachers back then use to be a lot more strict, and serious about teaching. Mr Harvey uses threatening and powerful word to explain the importance of english, but this is not always a good thing. As we can see by the reading, Mr. harvey made most of the kids nervous and scared, which got in the way of learning english. He told the kids that they were dumb, and that he was smart. He forced them to talk out loud, when they knew that they would screw up. This creates a tension that is not good for a learning environment.
Although he seemed like a bad teacher to me, his statement is pretty important. To make it in America, it is important to not sound illiterate. It will make job searching a lot easier, and you can be more successful in life. But just because you are illiterate that doesn not mean you will automatically not be able to get a job, it just means it will be alot harder to get one.

Essay 2 Workshop

Essay 2 Workshop

            In the book, “College reading & writing” I have noticed something that has reoccurred between two stories. The two stories, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” and “Shooting Dad” have a common theme of the main character struggling with being different than the surrounding characters and the significance of that theme is how they deal with those struggles. “Shooting dad” is about a girl facing the problems of being the opposite of her father. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” shows the struggles of a boy into more academic hobbies than his classmates.

            In “the Joy of reading and writing”, the main characters struggle is with other Native Americans in his reservation. “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike. I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, for help.” This explains the main theme of the story. The author had a very hard relationship with other kids growing up simply because he was into things that they were not: books and knowledge. He notes that Indians in reservation already expected to fail in the “non-Indian” world. He was the exception, and other Indians didn’t like that.

            When using the same theme as “the Joy of reading and writing” in “Shooting Dad”, we can see that Sarah Vowell’s struggle with being different was with her father. She has completed opposite views with her father. Her father is a conservative, while she is a democrat. Her father has a love for guns, while she hates guns. She even notes a point in her life when their house had sections for her and sections for him that were separated by her hobby of music and his hobby of guns. This struggle really got to her by the time she was older, and she wanted to find something in common with her dad so that they could interact with each other. I think the cannon he built were a great idea for her to join in on, and it really brought a closing to the theme of the story.

            The significance or purpose of these themes in the story is to show how people can deal with the struggle of being different from others. Each main character dealt with there problem in different ways. It seems like the character in “The Joy of Reading and Writings” deals with be different by showing that he was successful because of his academic hobbies. He became a famous writer by being different than the ones who would follow the traditional lifestyle in the reservations. “I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.” This is a statement he says in the story, trying to show that all the studying, writing and reading saved his life. This meant that any Indian who didn’t do this in the reservation ended up with a wasted life, and strained more than he strained when he was a kid. In “Shooting Dad”, Sarah Vowell deals with the same struggle of being different another way. She decides to find some connection with her father by calling and asking to see the newest gun that he was working on. This gun happened to be a canon. Through this idea she finds out that she isn’t so different from her dad after all, and finds common traits that her and her father shares. Obsession is a big trait that they both have. While he is obsessed with guns, she is obsessed with music. After doing this she seemed to have gotten past her difference with her father, and they began to get along a lot better.

            As different as the stories seem, I think that these two stories share the same theme and significance. The struggle of being different with your father or a group of people can be dealt with through different ways. This could mean not joining the other group and instead following that different passion and becoming successful. It could also mean trying to connect with your father’s passion and find a common ground. Both stories had a good ending, and in that ending showed really what the purpose of the writing was. What I got from it was that being different can be a great thing.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers chapter 4

This chapter, to me, was about getting the bulk of an essay done. It was titled:"Building Effective paragraphs", and its purpose was to help us figuring out how to bulk up an essay more. It also talks about sticking to the main point and not staying off topic when writing paragraphs. This is something that is very important to think about when you think your paragraph is too short and you want to fill up more writing space. Its not good to write things surrounding the topic, but still doesn't really fit the thesis, or idea. MAking sure that your paragraph follows the pattern your trying to portray when talking about your thesis. IF you already said something don't repeat it in other words.Topic sentences are also important in this chapter. It is the statement within your paragraph that summarizes the paragraph. It's almost like an introduction to the details that follow in your paragraph. There is other material that could go into paragraphs that this chapter follows with including: Analogies, comparisons, and causes and effects. These tools help give out the meaning of your essay, and help explain your thesis whether its a persuasive essay or just a normal essay.
I will use topic sentences and follow the pattern of my essay to better organize my thoughts when writing. Topic sentences  I think are very important. If your writing a paragraph, and it happens to start going off topic, a topic sentence is a good format to follow. It helps get me back on track to what Im writing.

“Shooting Dad” Dialogue

a.     What is the significance of the title?

The title, "Shooting Dad" refers to the ending of her personal story, where author Sarah Vowell talks about literally shooting her dad out into the hills. She doesn't mean while hes alive; Shooting his ashes out of his homemade cannon is something he really wants to do when he dies. The title of this story really brings out passion  to her story. After all the disagreement, and differences she has between her father, shooting her dad's ashes out into the hills is something that is going to be very special to her. 
Her father's life is all about guns. ALthough she hates guns, Sarah later finds out that they are very commen people. They both have their own type of obessive attitude, hers just is music instead. But thats not the only thing in common. She later finds out that she loves the canon he made, and it's something they can shoot together. This part of the story really puts a nice conclusion on it and then It draws in the significance of the title when she notes that her father wants to be shot out of the cannon.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers Chapter 3

This chapter was the most important for me in writing essays. Although writing the rough draft is something I am not good at it is the revisions and editing that i need to work on if I want my essays to be good. This chapter starts out with a good point; While your writing your rough draft many things change and become unorganized over time. This can include your thesis, your outline of the whole thing and maybe even your opinion on what your writing. That is why it is a good to revise it and have the ending product make sense with your new information and restructured thesis. The chapter has a good checklist to follow when revising. It brings up good questions too consider, like Is my thesis clear?, or Are the Paragraphs too long?. It also brings up proofreading. Proofreading is like the brain's version of Word's grammer or spellcheck tool. You have to slowly read over the whole essay and make sure the spelling is all write, the format is all good and the sentences make sense. After all this is over we should already have a polished final draft essay that makes sense and follows our thesis statement.
Hopefully after this chapter my revisions will go better. I really want my thesis to make sense with my essay, and for some reason my thesis always changes over time. I think revisions will help make my thesis better, along with the entire essay.

“Coming Home Again” Dialogue

e.      Choose a quote from the reading and share your critical thinking in response.

"My going to such a place was part of my mother's not so secret plan to change my character, which she was worried was becoming too much like hers" Page 12

This quote from the Dialog, "Coming Home Again" really reached out to me because it made me feel for the mother a little bit. It takes a lot of modesty to admit flaws in your own character, and it also shows love when your worried about your son even becoming you. I look up to that kind of humble, non-self interested act. I hear a lot about parents sending their children to places so that they can BECOME more like their parents, but I have never heard it this way. It makes me wonder what kind of mistakes the mother has made, and why she would not want her son to face them. As I read on I notice the author, or the son of the mother, notes that she had already been introduced to "sloth and vanity". This could be hinting that his mother has the characteristics of sloth and vanity, and that she is afraid of her son becoming like her. From the beginning I can see how she ties in sloth with the fact her mother is constrained to an electronic pump, but she can't help that at all. 
The author is incredibly clever, by figuring out what his mom was thinking. The good thing is that it worked. The school he went to did change his character. "She was right of course, and while i was there I would falter more than a few times, academically and otherwise." This meant that the mother thought if she sent her son to a tough school, it would keep him from becoming vain and a sloth. He described the school as "proving his mettle" or courage and strength.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers chapter 2

This weeks reading is all about writing rough drafts. In the previous chapter we had to learn how to come up with a thesis statement and outline an essay. This is the next step after that. It talks mainly about the structure of rough drafts and hooking things to your thesis statement. It goes further into detail about your introduction that you would write.
I learned that it is a good strategy to start out your essay with a sentence to get the readers attention. This could be stating an interesting fact, starting out with an interesting question that would make the reader think, or even open it up with a shocking story. After that it is important to make a clear thesis statement. This statement has to explain the main points and opinions of your essay. From what i read in this book, a thesis is usually a statement followed by backed up examples that will later be explained in the rest of the essay. After your done with your introduction, your body paragraphs are suppose to be the examples that support your thesis, going into full detail and bringing up true statistics and facts. The conclusion ties it all together and summarizes your whole essay.

I really took a lot from this chapter because essay writing is one of my weakest writing skill. I am very bad at organizing my thoughts, and when I want to get out an idea, it does not come out on paper like it should. I have a tendency to jumble everything about the topic onto paper all at once, and when I try to organize it to match my thesis statement, which is hard for me to write in the first place, everything starts to make even less sense. This chapters points about organization really showed me really what an essay should look like. It should be organized by a hook, a thesis statement, a body backing it up, and  a conclusion that ties it together.

Essay 1: Rough Draft

This image depicts Seattle city in the nighttime, which is a very great scene to me. Seattle is the farthest I have been from my house, which is unfortunate because I have always been interested in the city. To me a city is just a giant human culture theme park. It is filled with so many interesting and different ways of life and always looks amazing. It looks even more amazing at night. My visit to Seattle city was exciting, and it is the reason why I love the urban life. This image really reminds me of one of the reasons why I am interested in this lifestyle. Even at night a place like this manages to look so busy, with lights scattering the city.

            I was about ten when I first came to Seattle. It was a trip to visit my mom’s side of the family, and it was for thanksgiving. During the winter Seattle can be either near freezing or very rainy. Although usually rainy weather can be a very nasty site down here in California, for some reason I loved the look of it in the city. We went to a lot of places there including the space needle and an underground mall, which had one of the oldest comic books I’ve ever seen in a store. After that we visited the gum wall which was a huge brick wall in an alleyway entirely covered in gum. This was pretty gross but very interesting. By then it was nighttime. Right when it gets dark everything lights up and it’s almost like the city changes into a different place entirely. We went by a really small coffee shop and since it was cold we decided to go inside. I was very warm and cozy and the view of the freezing dark city through the window made me feel a lot cozier. This is the cozy feeling that really makes me feel like I belong in a busy city.

            In the city everything towers over you. Everything is big and you feel so much smaller. There are so many different sounds playing all at once. Cars are honking while at the same time a street performer is playing free form jazz. People are talking on cell phones while televisions inside stores play movies and advertisements. The city also had lots of different smells; the markets, thousands of cars, the restaurants, coffee shops and thousands of distinctive aromas that would take forever to list. Art is everywhere. You can see it through graffiti on walls, different posters and advertisements on billboards and in the way people dress. The amount of busy people is overwhelming. They are so busy they don’t even have time to say excuse me if they bump into you. This can be hard to appreciate, but it makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a land of very important people.

A lot of the places in the city had a style I now learned about called art deco. Art deco is the 60’s Aztec looking style shown in giant buildings. The whole town had an art deco feel to it, and to this day it is my favorite type of design. Everything is made up of triangles, squares lightening bolts and all kinds of straight lines in city buildings. It reminds me of jazz music, and a very rich style in the sense of big business. As complicated as it sounds it is a very simple style with lots of simple colors and negative space surrounding it.

My picture that I chose is really in the middle of the urban life that I like. Everything looks very cold, and there are lots of doors and alley ways and places to explore and it looks like it goes on forever. In the background big buildings cover the sky, and yellow and orange lights cover the picture, showing that millions of people are still up and busy. I can imagine living here, and being inside a building seeing this outside of my window would make me feel very comfortable, like I belong there.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers chapter 1

        The first chapter of Rules for Writers shows a lot of reasons and ways to plan to write an essay or an analysis and to understand a reading assignment. For example, if you were going to write a research paper, to better understand the assignment, you could try observations and interviews. It's also better to understand why you are writing a research paper. The list in the book has a list of writing purposes like to inform or to persuade.
        It is also good to consider who your audience is. It can help you write your paper and to let your audience better understand what you are writing. I personally like this idea. If I can better understand who my audience is writing can go a lot easier. If i knew my paper would be read by audiences my age I would use analogies in my paper to things that a younger audience would understand. I will definitely use this when writing a research topic or an essay. This book gives many tools to use when trying to plan and express what you want to write. I thought the reading this week was very detailed and had a lot more writing tools than last week. I can definently use all of these to plan what i want to write.

a.      Why is a “smart Indian” dangerous?  Dangerous to whom? 

          
             From how I interpreted the reading, a "smart Indian" is dangerous to the students in the class because being smarter than  everyone in the class can cause jealousy. Jealousy is a dangerous thing for children. Kids who are jealous of other kids tease them, pick on them and hurt them. It says in the book that other kids would be mad at the author and tell him not to answer any questions from the teacher. Anyone different from a group can always be a dangerous thing in the real world.
           In society all around us difference is recognized as weird and unusual. Anything were aren't accustomed to seems weird and seems like it isn't supposed to happen. In his story it seems like he is pointing out that it wasn't normal to be as smart as he was when he was that age. It looked very unusual to other people and that can be dangerous.
          I think it was very important that he chose to have a higher education than the rest of them. It got him so much farther than they probably did and that is very important in an economy these days. I want to try and get the highest eduaction just so I will have more financial security in the future. I think education is one of the most important things human beings have. It makes us the smartest creatures in the world and through education most of lifes problems can be solved.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers chapter 46

           In chapter 46 of the book, Rules for Writers, Diana Hacker explains ways to read, understand, and summarize a text. A text is a group of writing that can be an essay, a summary, or any group of information that you can analyze. To understand and study a text, Hacker gives us annotating and organizing tools we can use.This takes us a step further than reading so that we get a better idea about what the text is actually about.
          Annotating is note taking by writing on the text that you are reading. This includes underlining words and sentencing that stand out to you, and questioning paragraphs or statements in the text. It also could be circling a word or sentence that you don't understand. Another tool is making an outline of the text or a quick summary. This lays out the information in a much simpler way without detail so you can see the basic meaning of the text.
          
           I plan On using these methods that i learned so I can better summarize or write about something that we need to read in the class. This was a good way to organize my thoughts and better understand things that we read. I feel with more organization my essays and summaries can make more sense and I can get down what is more important to write.

"Freewriting Exercises" Dialogue

            What is a freewrite?  How is it meant to facilitate stronger writing? What did you find surprising or illuminating about the reading?
            A freewrite is a quick paced writing style without any editing rules. You are suppose to write without stopping and write exactly what runs through your mind, whether it is on a topic or not. Giving you less time to worry about how you put your words on paper gives you the advantage to write more and get more out of you. 
           To me freewrites can  really help because i have less worries, which clears out my head more so i can focus on what i want to write. You don't always get lucky with freewriting because nonsense can come out of it, but if your on a roll and writing down good material it can be great.
           I think freewriting can also help me brainstorm for future essays because it gathers my thoughts at a more quicker pace. I thought the reading was very informative and it had a lot more interesting ideas about how freewriting can actually help me. It showed both the negatives and the positives about freewriting.

Introductions Dialogue

             Hi, my name is Tyler Rosales and I'm an eighteen year old  living in Windsor. I've been living there for about 14 years and grew up around Northern California my whole life. I have only been out of the state a couple times to Seattle and Oregon. I have a small family consisting of a twin brother, a little brother and two parents. Although my life is not exciting, there has been nothing but happiness and great times. Nothing has gone wrong yet and hopefully it stays that way in the future. I would say I'm the type of learner that likes to be lectured instead of doing projects. I am a great listener and love to hear stories. When it comes to English I feel it is better to do a layout of everything before i write it, because I am very bad at putting what i think in my head out on paper and making sense of it.
           I am going to a Junior College so that I can buy more time to figure out what i want to major in, while at the same time get the credits i need to transfer to a state or university. I am looking at majoring in Music Theory, or Marine Biology so far, which are unfortunately two really different things. The colleges I am looking at are Sonoma State and San Jose State which have really good music programs. I am a very indecisive person so hopefully I figure it out in the next year.
           Music is very important to me and I am a big fan in the way it is changing these days. I look at bands that are critically acclaimed, and bands that find a way to change music like the Beatles back then. Bands like Radiohead or Arcade Fire are doing that these days and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for music. Hopefully majoring in Music Theory can help me find that out easier!