Reading and Writing

As a reader I would say that my relationship with books is a positive one. I love to read, but I don’t think that I am reading as much now as I did when I was in high school. I would say my time management has a lot to do with that. 

As a writer I would say that my relationship with it has been refreshed. In high school I never had anyone there to correct me or my mistakes. So when I came to college and had to make tons of revisions to my papers it was kind of a shock to me, but in all that I have learned here in college I can honestly say I still love to write.

Before taking English 100 I can honestly say I read all the time. I was what my high school librarian called a book worm. Any new stories I was always the first to read them. I loved reading I had my specific genre though I love drama, and some mystery but I often get lost when it comes to historical biographies or action books.

I wrote a lot before taking English 100 I kept a journal. I still do actually I’d say that writing in it helps me to focus more on my academic writings as well. It helps me not to ramble about a million topics.

My outlook on both reading and writing has changed in the past three months. I’d say that my concepts on them month have caused me to change. I think that my reading skills have developed and I can actually comprehend what I am reading. My writing skills have developed I think I am a better writer. I not the greatest , I am progressing towards something better than I am now.

Becoming Educated review questions

My early expectations for my college courses are to be some what successful.  I expected life to be easy free spirited and everyone to be super friendly and happy because they are of course in college. My reality was that college is so fucking hard, its stressful, it tiring, and its sad because I think every weekend I have been here I have wanted to go home. I miss my family, and I don’t think I ever thought I would say that because at home I was so ready to leave and never come back. College is so expensive; I don’t think I have had money since the second week. It’s been stressful because I have never gone without a job. I can honestly say that no Jordan’s college experience and mine are nothing alike I think the only thing we have in common is we are both African American females trying to make it in, what society calls a mans field of study, I don’t think that I have ever had to encounter male superiority, or men who think they are superior. I like the fact that the university is semi small and able to equip all the student here.

interview questions

What do you remember most about your public school experience?

Who would you say influenced you the most to be who you are today?

From your experiences what would you say the “lesson learned” was?

What were your biggest obstacles as a student in public school? In College?

Do you have any regrets?

I would ask these questions to my sister, Charrissa, because these would be questions that would most likely bring out deeper answers. Which is what i would need to write my paper. I just feel like these questions would open up a door for good stories and leave me room to write an interesting paper.

Casa

In my family “cautionary tales” are told often. I think they are my most favorite part of the holidays.  My Great Grandma is our family’s ‘mama’ she knows every story so well. There is one story I remember, I think I remember it most because it is my favorite… when my grandmother was a teenager she never really got to date, her mother taught her to be conservative, and to always respect herself. Well my great grandma got the bright idea to have a secret relationship, with a man who was two to three years older than her. In her mind she didn’t think that her mother knew. So my great grandmother got the bright idea that she would run away with this man. Her mother constantly, reminding her “you are a lady, and all men are animals using you for now only to take something else from another willing party later.” My Great Grandmother had got up the courage to pack up all her clothes and move out of her mother’s house at the young age of sixteen. She arrived at her boyfriend’s house to find him in the company of another woman, but not just any woman, but my Great Grandmother’s cousin. She never told her mother that she moved out. She just went home placed her clothes neatly back into her closet and pretended that it never happened.  The story is told to my family to assure the younger girls that even when we think we know just a little bit more than our parents we still should listen because they know more than we do and in the long run it can save us from heartbreak later. I too like my great grandmother thought I could move out, but in my case I did. I ended up learning the same lesson two years after I moved in only I didn’t listen to my mother’s cautioning voice.

Inglewood: My Hometown

I grew up in California. To be specific I lived in Inglewood. I loved it; many people would call it the ghetto, the hood, or the Wood. To me it was home, Irving drive is the place where I would call my home. Like Maya Angelou I at one point was ashamed. My feelings of being ashamed came from the people who were associated with the city, and what the city was known for. Many people say nothing good could possibly come from Inglewood, and that alone was a big reason for me being ashamed. Inglewood is known for drugs, hookers, fights, shootings, and gangs. When I lived there it was a way of life everybody does drugs, or drinks it’s just what you do in “The Wood”. It wasn’t until I moved away that I became ashamed. Like in “Sister Flowers” I am known to almost everyone to be the nice, respectable, wholesome girl. My thought was how they would look at me if they knew that I was from Inglewood: the hood. Like Maya, I had someone to teach me that that really didn’t matter. That person was my sister, Charrissa, she taught me to be proud of where I came from because that is the only thing in life that I have to be proud of. She taught me to look at it in a different perspective “The people that I knew in Inglewood are still there doing the same things, and you are gone doing different things to better your life. It’s not that I am ashamed of those people because I love them for being them and not changing, just like they love me for being me, and getting out of there.” My home will forever be 14590 Irving drive Inglewood, CA, but just because I don’t live the way the people in Inglewood do doesn’t make me ashamed of them I just love them for who they are and what they taught me with the time I had with them.

Task two

Why are you interested in these subjects?

I am interested in this subject because she is first my sister, and second she is my role model. I have admired her since I was a little girl; she’s very strong and independent and handles business and education well.

What makes him/her interesting and unique?

My sister was here at MO West in her sophomore year she did something that my family frowned upon: she got pregnant, and she wasn’t married. In spite of everything my family and others said about her she made it. She graduated and still had a family.

What sort of questions would you ask and why?

I would ask her first what was your out take on school?

Where did you attend school?

What was your main focus in high school?

How did that focus change when you got to college?

Do you have any experiences that you would change?

Why did you pick the college you did?

Did your major ever change?

What sort of problems do you think may arise for Task Two?

Since I know some of my sister’s story already I think this task two paper could be very emotional.

What do you anticipate? Why?

I anticipate a good outcome, I’m very optimistic at this point anything is possible and I hope to do well.

What questions do you have for Task Two?

I have many but the only logical answer would be trial and error.

Self-Evaluation

What is the thesis for your paper?

The thesis of my paper is: I will no longer have the supporting grandparents that I have come to grow so fond of: Devon Simmons, Carly Simmons, and Richard Paige in my life, and I will be nothing more than a blank face.

List the main points you make in your paper.

 The relationships that I had with my grandparents, the lessons they taught me, and what they meant to me are the main points that I try to stress in my paper.

What was the most helpful advice you received from your peer evaluation?

The most helpful advice I got from my peer review was that even though my paper was extremely too long I stressed my point and got some help with grammatical errors and I got help with my thesis.

What was the most helpful information you received in class for your paper?

Umm… that’s really though because I didn’t feel helped in class I got more help when the feedback was personal.

How many drafts of this paper do you think you wrote and how/when did you write them? For example, did you compose at the keyboard, did you write lots of notes to yourself, did you pre-write or outline, did you write in small chunks of time or sit down and produce an entire draft at one sitting?

For this paper I wrote about four drafts, I wrote a very horrible draft the first week we had the paper, my draft really never came together until the weekend before it was due. There was the draft that I turned in, then I sent a revised copy of that draft to my mother, and then the final copy was my last. Now that I have read through it a million times I kind of wish I had had one more draft.

What would you do differently with this paper to make it more effectively, or what did you try to do that you just don’t think you got a good handle on?

The only thing I would do differently with this draft is try to manage my time more effectively; the amount of time outside of class was very good I just think I could have made my paper just a little bit better. The thing that I didn’t get a good handle on is the length, my over descriptiveness killed me I think in this paper; some parts I felt lacked and others I felt were over explained.

What are most pleased with about this paper?

I was pleased most about when I wrote this paper is my emotions after I was finished. I’ve never once in my life been able to talk about the year 2007 without tears welling up in my eyes, but after I wrote this paper I was in a way relieved that I had actually somewhere in the past three years excepted their deaths, and moved on.