"Shooting Dad" by Sarah Vowell Dialogue

What accounts for the narrator’s struggles with her dad?

     The narrarator and her father seemed to be two totally opposite people, the father was a Conservative Republican, gunsmith, and hunter, the narrarator on the other hand was a Democrat, and artist who seemed to be annoyed just by the fact that there were guns everywhere you looked in the house.  There were periods when the two couldn't even hold a conversation without it erupting into an argument just because their views were so different and they were both so adamant about them.  Their home was even split into seperate territories just so they wouldn't cross each others paths and in turn start a war.
     Ever since the narrarator was six years old and her father let her fire one she decided guns weren't her thing, she felt that it was evil and even said, "Satan, I rebuke thee" after firing.  Since then, the narrarator wouldn't even go on any of the father-daughter hunts the family had, her twin sister couldn't even pull her along to spend some quality time with them.  The narrarator's dislike for guns pulled her in the other direction than her father was in, she didn't spend any time with him and he didn't force her to, so they never had bonding time where the father's values could have been implanted into the narrarator.  This kept them apart for many years, until the narrarator decided that it was enough and finally gave into what her father lived for, that's when she realized they were both so alike and the struggles certainly ended after that.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers Chapter 3

     The main purpose in "Rules for Writers, Chapter 3" by Diana Hacker, is to educate the readers on revising a rough draft to transform it into a final draft.  The chapter begins with a step that many writers skip while revising because it is too difficult to see what they wrote from someone else's shoes: global revision.  According to the chapter, global revision is a process in which the reviewer looks at the draft as a whole, ignoring the grammatical and punctuation errors, but focusing their attention on the big picture: purpose, audience, focus, organization, paragraphing, content, and point of view.  If the writer has a problem with looking at the big picture of the draft, the chapter gives a recommendation that the draft be set aside for one night, or longer.  Then, when the writer is ready to revise, the chapter suggests asking questions and/or enlisting the help of reviewers to determine if the big picture of the draft is satisfactory.
     The second section of Chapter 3 focuses on revising and editing sentences, and proofreading the final draft.  Per the chapter, when revising the sentences, the writer should be focused on how effective the sentences are, and when editing, how correct the sentences are.  Proofreading, according to the chapter, is "the final and most important step in manuscript preparation,"(30) and is a process in which the reviewer slowly, and carefully examines the draft for "misspellings, typographical mistakes, and omitted words or word endings."(30)  The chapter gives a detailed example of a student's essay from a rough draft with classmates comments, to a final draft, ready for submission.  The example shows how (after considering the comments and rereading the draft on his own) the writer applies all of the recommendations in order to finalize the draft for submission.
     After reading Chapter 3, I feel much more confident in my abilities to revise and finalize my drafts for submission.  The tool that I feel is most important and that I will apply to my writings from now on, is the checklist for global revision.  Before reading this chapter, I've never thought of any of the questions on the checklist, I don't think I was ever taught any of it, but now that I understand why the questions are important, I feel that it will really boost the quality of my final drafts.  Another tool in the chapter that I will utilize in my own writing will be the suggestions to help get over the problems writers may have with proofreading their own papers.  This is a problem that I have always had, it would take me over an hour to proofread my final draft because I would continually miss mistakes, but reading out loud, and then backwards will make it so I have to focus on each detail of what I read, therefore, catch the mistakes on the first, or second proofread.

"Coming Home Again" By Chang-rae Lee Dialogue

Why does his mother regret allowing him to attend boarding school?

     Chang-rae Lee was somewhat of a home body.  He enjoyed his time at home, and from reading the story, he was very particular of his Mother.  In the beginnining of the story, Lee says his mother sent him away to school to change his character; so he wouldn't end up like her.  As a child, it was easy to see that Lee was taking on the characteristics of his Mother, he loved to watch her cook, he would even sneak into the kitchen to watch her instead of playing with friends.  Going away to Exeter only made him grow apart from his mother, realize that she did nothing except stay confined within the four walls of the house, and forced him to take on the world, which he wasn't prepared for.   Later in her life , sending him off to school comes back to haunt Lee's mother, because she realizes sending him away didn't change his character at all, it just made it so she had less time with him, time to teach him the things she thought were important, and that she had less of an impact on the end result of the person he became.
     Lee's mother was disappointed that she hadn't taught him to cook as well as she could have.  When she became sick, she knew that Lee would be the one to make the meals that would bring the family together for dinner, and she expects the food that they come together for to be perfect.  But this won't happen because Lee was sent away to school for 9 years, 9 years that his Mother knew could have been spent at home by her side, where he could've learned to make the dishes as perfect as she did.  His mother feels like she not only grew apart from her only son while he was at Exeter, but also that she wasn't able to pass on the best skill that she felt she had, to make perfect Korean food for the family.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers Chapter 2

      The main point of chapter 2, "Rules for Writers," by Diana Hacker, is to teach how to make the rough draft of an essay.  The chapter starts off by informing us that while making our initial, or rough draft, that we shouldn't focus our attention mainly on our grammar and sentence structure, but instead on ideas and organization.  The first step Diana recommends is compiling all of the prewriting materials made, such as, outlines, lists, and freewrites, and keeping them closeby throughout the process of making the rough draft.  She then goes into developing the rough draft.  The first part of the draft, the introduction, she says should catch the readers attention with an example, question, vivid description, analogy, and thesis statement.  She also teaches us that a thesis requires proof or further development and that it cannot be a fact or description itself.
     The next part of an essay covered in this chapter is the body.  The body is what supports the thesis statement made in the introduction, so it is important to have a thesis before beginning to draft the body.  One question Diana says to ask when drafting the body is "what does your thesis promise readers?"  She recommends asking that question while throughout the drafting of the body.  Another thing that Diana says to do while drafting the body is using the outline (or making one) and from each supporting point writing a paragraph to prove your thesis.  The conclusion is the last part of writing a rough draft covered in this chapter.  The conclusion should remind the readers what the essay was about, but not reiterate things already covered; it's what uses the energy developed in the body to turn the light on in the readers head.  Diana also says that the conclusion might also "briefly summarize the essay's key points, propose a course of action, etc, etc," and she gives examples on how to make the conclusion memorable.  The final part of the conclusion hit in this chapter, is the fact that it should be "decisive and unapologetic"(27), and shouldn't include new ideas.
     One of the ways I plan on using the contents of this chapter in my own writing is by applying the information Diana gave us to draft the body.  I really liked the idea about making a paragraph out of each supporting point of your outline.  It seems like I always have a huge problem writing the body's of my paragraphs, and I think that if I have an outline right next to me (another thing suggested in the chapter), full of ideas, all I'll have to do is plant the ideas in my mind and let them grow.  One other thing that I will take with me from this chapter is the characteristics of an effective thesis.  I haven't been taught much on thesis' going through school, and I think I can use every bit of knowledge available to me to improve my future thesis'.

Essay 1 Workshop

As I sit here and look through these photographs, I can’t help but to have a huge smile on my face; these images of great memories that were created at Disneyland, now sealed in between a book of black leather. In August of 2009 my wonderful girlfriend Nicole, her adorable daughter Evany, and I took a ten hour road trip to Anaheim, California to spend four wonderful days in Disneyland. This magical vacation brought magical memories that helped bring our family together as one.


People may feel that a ten-hour-straight drive is something they’ll never do, especially in order to vacate life for a short period of time, but for me, it is a perfect time to get to know someone better. Before this, driving for extended periods of time was just another part of being a Marine, convoying and trying to find mud houses in the middle of nowhere. This trip was something different, something special. Being able to communicate with my two favorite people in the world, singing, talking about deep emotions, playing road trip games were all things I hadn’t been able to do since taking road trips with my immediate family growing up. Being able to be the host of those things really meant something different to me, something that I will cherish my whole life.

Disneyland’s otherworldly atmosphere had a way of making us all lose focus with what was going on in our daily lives. Being the first time Evany and myself had been to Disneyland gave us energy that lasted seemingly forever to explore the deepest reaches of Disneyland. It was an amazing thing to see, her eyes light up as we passed through the ticket check area and came into the sight of “The Enchanted Castle.” At that moment, it seemed that was what Evany lived for, it meant the world to her, and to be a part of that is unforgettable in itself.

There is so much to do at Disneyland, and unless you are willing to pay a fortune to spend the time to do it all, you will be rushing the whole time you’re there. Pulling Nicole and Evany around, rushing all around the park is one of the memories that made Disneyland not seem like an actual vacation at all. I don’t think I’d been as busy as we were in Disneyland, since I was at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, being marched around by drill instructors the ten hours a day we weren’t eating or sleeping. We got to most of the rides we really wanted to go on while we were there, but didn’t have enough time to really enjoy the park for what it was.

The nights staying in our suite in Anaheim, after a long day, when the excitement from the day finally caught up with us was a whole different experience. We stayed up as long as our bodies could cope with our spirits, watching movies, playing board games, and bonding those couple of hours nightly before we gave in to our exhaustion. Dealing with Evany, as tired as she was would not be joyful for many, that’s how I realized how much I loved her, my ability to handle her during those tough times.

The picture that I chose with Mickey Mouse, Evany, Nicole, and I at Tunetown, in Mickey’s own house symbolizes my experiences at Disneyland. We had finally reached the true reason we were at Disneyland, being together as a family, meeting the one that made Disney what it is. After waiting three hours in line, just to meet and take a picture with him seemed appropriate for what a good part of the time at Disneyland was; hurry up and wait. After our vacation and twentieth hour of driving over the past five days we finally returned home, not long for me though, the next day I had to leave for two weeks with the Marine Corps and live on the memories I acquired during our four days at Disneyland. It was not until I returned from that two weeks with the Corps that I had realized how the vacation, and 120 hours side by side with my family, had solidified the tight bond that we still have to this day. Pictures are valuable things that record great moments and memories, and to me, this picture is why I believe a picture truly speaks a thousand words.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers Chapter 1

     The main purpose in "Rules for Writers, Chapter 1," is to inform the readers that writing is not a process of putting your thoughts on paper, but "figuring out what you think."(2)  The way Mrs. Hacker explains doing this, is doing it in stages, which she is sure that you will go back and revise once you've gotten further into your writing process and realized the beginning may need a change.  She has broken the first phase of the  writing process down into four stages to give writers a guideline to follow while writing.

     The first stage Mrs. Hacker introduces is, "generate ideas and sketch a plan."(2)  In this stage, she first recommends thinking about what you will write about while you're performing a daily activity and assessing the situation you will be writing under (time constraints, subject, length, etc).  She then goes into the subject your writing will be on and what will be expected of it, how you can get your information on the subject, why you will be writing and to whom, and how to present your ideas to the audience.  In the second stage of the first phase of the writing process, she goes into ways you can explore your subject to get you to the question, problem, or issue you will write about.  Mrs. Hacker lists several ways of exploring your subjects including:  listing, clustering, freewriting, etc.  For the third stage, she talks about coming up with a thesis, which will contain your central idea in one or two sentences in the first paragraph of your writing.  She recommends drafting a thesis early in the writing process, which may be rough and not what you will use in the final draft, but it will be a tool in organizing your first draft.  The final stage she goes over is sketching a plan.  She teaches us there are two ways of doing this, both using an outline, either rough, or formal.  Mrs. Hacker says rough outlines work good early in the writing process, and have advantages over a formal outline, but a formal outline is, "useful later in the writing process, after you have written a rough draft, especially if your topic is complex."(18)

     I plan on using the information from this chapter in many ways in my writing.  One of the points I know I will take with me throughout my life, is the section on "purpose."  I don't remember ever thinking about who I would write to when writing anything, although I think everything I've written (besides letters to friends and family) to date has been for educators.  Even so, as I advance in my life I know I will be responsible for writing to different groups, for different reasons, and now I'm confident that I'll be able to capture the attention of the group I'm writing to by clearly stating my purpose.