Random Post: GOP VP choice

I think the GOP VP choice is rather unfortunate. The republicans have been, for so long, arguing that Obama's inexperience makes him unqualified to be elected president.

Then, they appoint Sarah Palin as John McCains VP running mate.

Sarah Palin is the first term governer of Alaska - a state in which there are statistically more reigndeer then people. Now, she is a heartbeat away from the presidency. Especially with John McCains age, it is not improbable that she may have to take the presidential spot if, god forbid, John McCain was elected president and something happend to him.

This is just another example of right wing hypocracy. America will, in my opinion, be between a rock and hard place if John McCain and Sarah Palin are elected

Writers Workshop Activity (page 132)

(1) What are the purposes of your two Writing to Explore assignments?
(2) Who is your audience for your I-Search project? Who is the audience for your
Profile of a Local Agency?
(3) What is the rhetorical situation for your I-Search paper? What elements does it include? The Local agency profile?

(1) The purpose of my I-search paper is to look, in depth, at certain issues in the presidential campaign and examine questions I have about those issues more closely. The purpose of the Profile of a Local Agency assignment is similar: To research an agency and ask questions about that agency and the work it does in order to gain a better understanding of how that agency operates.

(2) My audience for my I-search paper includes myself (because exploratory writing is a learning process for the author), my instructor, and my peers in composition II class. This is also the same for the Profile of a Local Agency paper. In addition, anyone interested in the presidentail election and/or a local agency would be included in my audience.

(3) The rhetorical situation of my Isearch paper includes me (the author) writing about specific issues in the presidential election in order to inform my target audience (listed above) about the issues I am exploring. The rhetorical situaion in my Local Agency Profile paper is me (the author) writing about a local agency (habitat for humanity) in order to inform people interested in habitat for humanity (my audience) about the inner workings of the agency and the agencies ideals, goals, and completed projects.

Invention/Revision Strategies

What are three invention strategies that you use? Why are invention strategies important? How can you incorporate invention strategies into your I-Search and Writing to Explore assignments? What revision strategies do you use? Why are these strategies important? How can you incorporate them into your work?

Three invention strategies I use are freewriting, listing, and clustering. These and other invention strategies are important because they help me to get "some sense on what I already know about a subject." They can also help me ask questions that will, in turn, lead to other questions. I can incorporate invention strategies into my I-search paper and other writing assignments in many ways. In general, however, I will use them to brainstorm on what I already know about my topic in order to ask questions to fill in the gaps.

As far as revision, I use the strategies of peer review and reading my work aloud to critique my papers. These strategies are important for many reasons. Peer review is important because it lets me get a sense of how my paper appeals to my target audience. Reading my work aloud is important because I get a sense of how my paper sounds and if there are any akward parts that need to be adjusted. I incorporate these strategies into all my work. For example, I read my work aloud and then attend a study group to get my paper peer reviewed.

Random Post

I just want to take a second and reflect on what the different tactics used by republicans and democrats have been in this election.

I have been following this election very closely. On the democratic sides, of course there have been attacks and counterattacks on republicans - this is a normal part of today's politics. However, most of the Dems attacks have been in response to a republican initiated debate.

The republicans are bullys. They constantly twist and distort the truth in order to scare American voters. They called Barack Obama a muslim. This isn't the truth - it's silly season politics.

I must say that is one of the main reasons I cannot stand republican big shots. They feel that they can do anything to win, and they do. I think that when republicans twist the truth, they are insulting every american. They're calling us ignorant. Only ignorant American's believe Barack Obama is muslim. Its just not ture.

I wish that both sides would keep to their promise and deliver fair arguments and a respectful election. Apparently, we can't all just get along.

The Republican National Convention

After watching the republican national convention, I learned many things about the party and candidates that I did not know before. For example, I learned that Joe Liberman, an independent, is supporting John McCain for president of the United states. When I watched him speak, however, I was not convinced that the arguments he was making for John McCain were valid and true. I also was surprised to hear that many of the speakers attacked Barack Obama and the democrats, while at the Democratic convention, attacks on republicans were limited and brief.

Most surprising, however, was the change in republican's standings on John McCain. When the election first started, John McCain was definately an underdog. He really was the most liberal republican on the ticket, which attributed to his success in the primaries. In the beginning, John McCain was not well liked, but now that hes the nominee, everyone in the party has thrown their support behind him. It was shocking for me to see this change in mindset.

Response: Assessing my writing strenghts and weaknesses

After reading "Assessing Your Strengths and Weaknesses" in The Guide, I realized that writing can be broken down into four major categories. These are rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, reading, and writing, writing processes, and knowledge of conventions.

After reflecting on my writing, I realized that I have many strengths, but also several weaknesses. As far as my strengths go, I believe that I am very good at appealing to my target audience. I think that the facts I give in my papers are accurate and based off genuine and reliable sources. I also believe that I am not careless with my writing for the most part. I think that it's wise to ask myself, before writing in today’s modernized world, "what would the consequences be if this piece of writing were to appear on the front page of a newspaper, radio show, TV broadcast, website, or bog?" I also believe that I utilize the technologies available to me to make my papers the best they can be.

One of my writing weaknesses is my tendency to loose touch with how I sound to readers. Sometimes I may come across as arrogant which is a result of my opinionated nature. On that same note, another weakness of mine is trying to keep an open mind when it comes to writing papers. Sometimes, I let my personal opinions get in the way which causes my paper to be one sided.

In conclusion, I will work on my weaknesses and utilize my strengths in order to produce quality pieces of work for school and in my future writing endeavors.

8/1 Readings

"In the Basement of the Ivory Tower" is written by an English adjunct who works part time at various community and private colleges. He talks about how the campuses are "physically lovely," but the job is not. He says that he hates the fact that the students who take his class take it because they have to, not because they want to. He also states that he envys teachers in other diciplines because their topics are straight forward and concrete. He gives an example of a biology professor who has to grade a multiple choice test...obviously an easy task. This is nothing compared to what he has to go through - grading multiple essays that all could state right answers in different ways.

He also goes on to state that while America's industry wants all to attend college, academia is not for everyone. He hates teaching the low level courses and being the one to lower the hammer. He states that adjuncts are the ones who are forced to tell students that they lack the basic know how to complete college.

I agree that while the general ideology of today is that everyone must attend college, college is not for everyone. We as a society must realize this and be accepting to those who may not be up for that particular challenge.

If I had to ask 3 questions to they author, they would be:

1- Do you dread going to work everyday or just when you have to fail a student?
2- Do students hate you for failing them?
3- What do you think we should do as a society to get rid of the notion that EVERYONE should attend college?

Reflection Blog: Hurricane Katrina

Reflection blogs (reflect about one of these questions/statments)
“The storm came and washed the trash out of New Orleans”
What does it mean to be a refugee? Why was this such a problematic term?
"New Orleans has 1/6th of its previous population"
What kinds of roles has music played in shaping New Orleans?
What is lost if people don’t return to New Orleans?
What does a quality education do for a city like New Orleans?
What would you want to say to FEMA, to President Bush, to Congress, to any government agency about what happened in New Orleans?

I am choosing to respond to the last question that states "what would you want to say to FEMA, to President Bush, to Congress, to any government agency about what happened in New Orleans?"

I believe FEMA and President George Bush mishandled the situation to the extreme. I remember in the video "When the Levees Broke," the director of FEMA stated that FEMA was prepared to react and would react successfully to the Hurricane Katrina situation. Looking back, one can tell that the response was much less than adequate. People were treated like animals, and as a whole the effort by the federal government seemed half-baked. I noticed several mistakes that I was not aware of in the past: giving residents one way tickets out of the city which doesnt enable them to get back to their home, booting residents out of hotels, not providing enough food and shelter in the residents time of need, and having an attitude of carelessness. I would tell FEMA that they made a huge mistake, and they must learn from it so they are able to respond to future disasters much more efficently and effectively.

George Bush's attitude was especaially uncalled for. The fact that he was on vacation for two weeks while people in New Orleans were suffering appauled me. He should have taken action in the days before Katrina even hit. Also, George Bush wanted to fool the American public by making it seem like the city was comming back together. An example of this was turning on the power to buildings while there was a press conference, then cutting the power after. This is deception and should not be tollerated. I would tell Bush that he should resign as president of the United States.

7/11 reading summary

The article "The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis" by Hillary Chute is an analysis of a graphic narrative that follows the life of an Iranian girl during the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Chute talks about how different pictures in the graphic novel represent different emotions of the author. For example, "[the use of] spacing within the pictorial frame [symbolizes] the disruption of her own characterological presence." Also, the narrative jumps from one time to another frequently to emphasize the drama involved with the story. In addition, the graphic narrative uses only black and white instead of color. This is because there is a vast amount of war and violence included in the narrative. Because war is becoming a "normal" part of life, the author believed that drawing in color would add to the normality of the situation. Black and white brings out a feeling of unusualness.

In reaction, I found Chute's article very interesting. The part of the article I found most intriguing was the fact that the author of the graphic narrative purposely used black and white as opposed to color to make war and violence jump out at the reader. Also interesting to me was the fact that the graphic novel contained an abundance of dead bodies and other obscene inclusions. This makes the story more realistic.

If I had to ask three questions, I would ask (1) why was the author inspired to do a graphic novel as opposed to a written memoir, (2) does the author think that a graphic novel is more powerful then a written memoir, and (3) does the author have any intentions of writing a written memoir to accompany this graphic novel.

Katrina blog response

Watching the documentary “When the Levees Broke” was touching and made me think hard about how the narrative I saw could help me write a better memoir. I believe the major element that contributed to the power of “When the Levees Broke” was the emotion that was evident in the video. Seeing these people express their sadness and anger made me more able to relate to their story. Also, if the video contained no emotion it would be much harder for the viewers to show empathy to the individuals involved in the narrative.

One of the suggestions I received from my peers was to make my memoir more emotional and I can see from watching the video that they’re very right. By expressing emotions the reader is able to be in the storyteller’s shoes and actually see through their eyes. Using these suggestions from peers and strategies gained from the video, I have revised my memoir draft in such a way that allows the reader to feel what I felt. I believe that now my memoir is much more powerful and reader friendly.

7/2 Readings

Mathis, Frank. The History Teacher - Writing a Memoir: The Involvement of Art with Craft. 19 vols. Society For The History Of Education, 1986.

Slusarczyk, Alison, and Amanda Moses. Our Own Words, 2007-2008 Edition. Talahassee: Florida State University, 2008.

"Naratives from SAC." Project Muse Scholarly Journals Online. Students at the Center. 3 July 2008.


In the article Writing a Memoir: the Involvement of Art with Craft, author Frank Mathis gives readers a brief history of his life and involvement with World War II, gives a few pointers for those interested in writing a memoir, and surmises the benefits involved with memoir writing. However the most noteworthy concept presented is Mathis’ stance that writing memoirs involves the linkage between a “novelist’s art and historian’s craft.” Historians are typically trained to look back on history and critique it, yet when attempting to write a memoir they are faced with an intriguing challenge in how to criticize themselves. Mathis also says that writing memoirs benefits the author. In Mathis’ case, many WWII veterans who read his memoir sent him letters regarding the text.

Florida State University publishes Our Own Words which is a collection of narratives written by their college students. These stories are very interesting, and shed much light on how to write a proper, reader friendly memoir. In the first narrative Sing with Me Somehow by Alison Slusarczyk, Slusarczyk tells the story of a trying period in her teenage years and how singing with the family and playing the piano made situations more bearable. In the second narrative Far From Wonderland by Amanda Moses, the author makes ties between today’s deteriorating society and the old fairy tale Alice in Wonderland.

Similar to Our Own Words, Narratives from SAC is a compilation of stories written by college students at Clemson University. These memoirs are about the involvement of the authors with Hurricane Katrina. The narratives cover many different aspects of the disaster such as education in New Orleans after the disaster, family suffering, and personal stories of terror and trauma.

In reaction to Frank Mathis’ article, I believe that the connection between a historian and artist is of utmost importance when writing a memoir. I found the article extremely interesting and thought the text brought to the table many very important points that need to be taken into consideration when starting the writing process. The college students at FSU are clearly talented in their approach to narrative writing. The most intriguing aspect of the articles I read from their postings was the use of profanity in dialogue. This point was also mentioned in Mathis’ article. The use of profanity makes the conversation very realistic and allows the reader to more easily envision the scene taking place. As well, the narratives from the students at Clemson were equally interesting. It is always enlightening to read of others experiences and try to relate to them. The different articles brought various pieces of the puzzle that was Katrina together to make the situation easier for outsiders, or those not familiar with the disaster, to understand.

If I had to pose three questions to the authors, I would ask Frank Mathis how long it took to realize that you must be an artist and historian at the same time when writing memoirs. I would also ask him if he’d ever read a memoir written by someone who had not made that connection, and if it was as good a narrative. I would ask Alison Slusarczyk if she thought that dialogue should be used sparingly in a memoir or if it should take center stage, as it seemed to in her narrative.

6/30 Readings

Jerry, Waxler. "Is writing a memoir therapeutic?." Memory Writers Network. 28 Sep. 2007. Wordpress. 30 June 2008 <http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/is-writing-a-memoir-therapeutic>

Franklin, Antoinette, and Iriel Franklin. Interview. StoryCorps. Antoinette Franklin and Iriel Franklin. NPR. 30 June 2008 http://www.storycorps.net/listen/stories/antoinette-franklin-and-iriel-franklin.


In the blog posting "Is writing a memoir therapeutic," author Jerry Waxler argues that writing memoirs is the best technique one can use in order to delve into their past and make sense of all their life experiences. Writing memoirs, says Waxler, is a way to avoid the concentration and time consumption involved with meditation and journal writing, and also takes away the guesswork associated with counseling and therapy. Furthermore, writing memoirs can, in itself, be therapeutic – “[brain] imaging shows that words stimulate the thinking part of the brain and soothe the emotional part.” Waxler goes on to cite Louise DeSalvo, a Literature professor at Hunter College. Desalvo makes the point that “writing is an introspective activity that lets us reach into our mind for words to help us make sense of life.” Once making the discovery that writing is a healing tool, Waxler concludes stating that documenting life stories will ultimately help to understand the mind and healing process.

The audio recording on StoryCoprs involves Antoinette Franklin and her niece Iriel Franklin discussing their past experience with hurricane Katrina. Antoinette stated that all of the destruction caused even the strongest people in her family to fall apart forcing her to keep her head. She further says that in the aftermath, the hardest decision she had to make was whether to go back to New Orleans or not. Antoinette ultimately decided to stay away from New Orleans for the time being even though she would miss so many things about living there. Her dream is to one day return to the city. Out of all the disaster and destruction, Antoinette was able to learn that “love, family, and faith are more important then anything in the whole world.” Her niece Iriel was audibly not as composed as Antoinette. Iriel stated that the hardest part of Katrina for her was the uncertainty about where her family was. However, she said that the experience forced her to grow by making her step up and do what was necessary to survive.

Personally, I agree with Jerry Waxler on his position that writing memoirs can be therapeutic and, when used properly, can aid in healing and the understanding of life. There are many instances where this sort of technique can prove to be much more helpful then counseling or meditation when trying to make sense of life because it pulls together real life experiences instead of involving “psychological theory.” On the subject of Antoinette and Iriel Franklin and their involvement with hurricane Katrina, I can’t begin to imagine the chaos they experienced and the horror they felt during and after the disaster. Even when the interview was taking place, it was still hard for Iriel to remain calm and not break down into tears. Hopefully neither I nor my family will ever have to witness such a catastrophic event.

If I had to ask three questions, one would go to Jeremy Waxler. I would ask if he believed that writing memoirs would be the most therapeutic technique for everyone seeking to understand the human psyche and their past. The other two questions I would ask to Antoinette and Iriel Franklin. I would ask Antoinette what she planned on doing if she ever returned to New Orleans. I would ask Iriel if she believed there was anything she felt the United States Government could have done better in order to alleviate the stress and trauma caused by hurricane Katrina.

Free Writing

3 reasons I wanted to attend USF FSI-

Had a boring however high paying job but realized that I needed a college education in order to achieve the goal of having the job I want while making good money.

I had many friends in the area that I did not want to leave.

Was unable to get accepted into fall without passing FSI

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3 reasons I did not want to attend USF FSI -

I was accepted into FGCU, UNF, and FAU.

I wanted to go to very small school.

I do not like big cities.

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My mom was the person encouraging me to further my education.

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My friend Steven wanted me to join the marines with him and not attend college right away.