Sarah Mac

Final Entry

mcclelsk — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:52:44 +0000

I still feel the same about writing. I like writing about things that interest me, I liked the freedom we were given in class this semester to pick about whatever we wanted to. I enjoyed the assignments because I got to express my passion for my topics.
We didn’t do much with poetry so my feelings are still the same. I like reading poems for fun but when I’m asked to “look under the surface” or analyze the poem, my enjoyment turns to annoyance and I feel like lose what the poet is trying to get across because I’m so concerned with finding or seeing what the teacher wants me to.
I feel that when poets and/or authors write poems or novels, they never expect that years later their pieces of work will be torn apart in classrooms. They write to express their thoughts, desires, dream, ambitions, etc. But people have to investigate things and tear things apart because they want to find something deep and profound in every piece of writing.
In todays world, people only want to find things that will be famous. We listen to speeches in hopes of hearing that one line that will remembered and quote by others for years to come. In books or poems people seem to create things that aren’t there. They call it “subtext” I am not entirely sure that’s actually a real thing, but just yet another term teachers throw at us.
I like writing and reading for enjoyment. I like reading and writing things that I’m interested. I don’t like looking to far into things because I believe that a good work book or poem should be easily understood and its message easily picked up. Most people read for enjoyment, if a poem or book has to be “studied” to be understood…who, unless forced, is going to want to read it?

Blog #7

mcclelsk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:22:15 +0000

For my revision project I am correcting the problem part of my proposal argument. I chose this piece not only because I didn’t do to hot on the paper itself but because I feel strongly about what I’m writing so I want to have the chance to make my feelings known and better express them.
The big thing that I think I had a problem with was not only formatting my paper but also identifying and clarifying the problem itself. I quickly “told” the readers what the problem was but I didn’t explain very well why this is such a problem. Also I had a difficult time with verb tense, which is actually surprising because I usually catch things like that. I jumped from the present to past several times during the paper and I guess at some point I got confused during which time I was writing.
I would definitely say that my biggest problem because it is written multiple times in multiple places is wording/clarifying. I seemed to have a rather difficult time getting what I was thinking or feeling down on the page.
In my revision project, I will be re-wording many sentences trying to better explain what I’m trying to say. Also, I will be explaining my difficulty with verb tense and how I get confused between the past and the present.

Blog #6 – Revisions

mcclelsk — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:24:38 +0000

When I think, “revisions” I think of getting my rough draft back from my english teacher and having my paper be torn apart with red ink. My old teacher would take every little bit of white on a paper and cover it with red ink, thus completely destroying a paper.
However, when I revise a paper, the first thing I do is look for spelling, grammar, verb tense, etc. errors. I circle the issue or mark it some way so that I remember to come back and fix it. (If you did not pick up on it, I work with a hard copy of my paper.) Then after the basic errors or typos are corrected I’ll go back and re-read my paper, first in my head, then out loud. It it crazy how many more errors you pick up on when you read it out loud. It is easier to grab things that sound funky or the wording of a sentence that no human in their right mind would say. (like that sentence…just typing it sounds weird.) Then if I am feeling really studious, I might either e-mail a copy of my paper to my mother or give it to a friend to read over and point out anything that seems or sounds off, but this is very rare. (I’ll repeat, ONLY when I am feeling very studious.)

Blog #5…Eating Babies

mcclelsk — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:03:36 +0000

Swift is…very creative to say the least. Who would have ever thought of eating babies to help deal with over population and a food shortage. The proposal paper does a good job of getting the point across.
Generally no one would think of eating babies as a good thing but in his paper he makes a lot of valid arguments as to why eating babies would help. At first the audience is either disgusted or in hysterics, then we kind of start to think, wow, how is it possible that this kind of makes since, and then secretly, Swift slips in his true ideas about dealing with the issues at hand.
At first I was disgusted. I couldn’t imagine what Swift was getting at but as I continued reading, Swift’s arguments were good. Of course it didn’t convince me that eating babies was a good idea but it seemed to work. The imagination to come up with this idea is pretty outrageous but Swift made it work. It was very smooth the way Swift got his real opinions, by saying, don’t even think about …, this way got his opinions out there but didn’t lose face with the paper.
After reading the entire paper, I got a better grasp of what Swift was really trying to say. It was harder for someone who doesn’t know a lot about the time period to grasp all the subtle digs at other cultures. I think that someone reading it when it was first published would like/understand the comments about Americans or Jews better than I did.

Boobs…Blog #4

mcclelsk — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:47:13 +0000

Generally you only here or read stories about girls complaining that their boobs are too small. It’s kind of refreshing to here a story about a girl complaining that hers are too big. In middle school you laugh at the older girls for stuffing their bras so they look bigger, when a lot of girls who have big boobs wish they have a smaller more manageable chest size.
Lucky for me, several of my friends started developing around the same time I did so I never felt like a “freak” for having bigger boobs. I think it’s really funny that the author used to tape down her breasts to try and hide them. When I read that, the only thing I could think of was “She’s the Man,” when the girl taped down her breasts so she could look like a boy. I can relate when she started talking about how breasts can get in the way when playing sports. The key, wear two sports bras. For me I didn’t go through puberty alone, my friends started around the same time I did and I had older friends who had already gone through it, so I had a lot of support.
It’s scientifically known that boys mature later than girls but that hormones come early. Another difference between me and the author was that my guys friends 1.) didn’t really pay attention to my mature chest, or 2.) they loved them. That sounds weird but the guys in the class didn’t laugh or joke about them, the comments they directed towards them I took as compliments.
The author had it more difficult than other girls because she matured early. I think I would have more to relate with if i had mature earlier and alone, but since I was not alone, I didn’t experience life as the only one with big “knockers.”

Anorexia

mcclelsk — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:18:01 +0000

So the thing that surprised me the most was how chill, relaxed, and open the girls where about their eating disorders. Generally when I think of someone with an eating disorder I think of a girl who is depressed, who has low self esteem, maybe quiet. One girl who was interviewed laughed when the interviewer kind of summed up her lifestyle.

One of my friends from my high school developed an eating disorder during the summer between sophomore and junior year. She came back to school and shocked everyone! At first everyone was telling her how great she looked and how they were jealous. She ran everyday. When I say ran I mean she would run miles and miles everyday. She was on the cross country team so that seemed normal. But when the season was done and she kept running the same amount. People started questioning her. On top of all the running she wouldn’t eat a lot. She ate a little at every meal but for the amount of running she was doing, she wasn’t eat enough. Well senior year came and she got even worse. It got to the point where her doctors told her that she wasn’t allowed to run anymore and she spent February and spring break in rehab talking to doctors, her family, and developing healthy eating and exercising habits.

Through my friend I was able to see first hand how scary an eating disorder really is, and the reality that there are a lot of people out there with eating disorders who laugh about it or encourage others to develop eating disorders is sick and twisted. I was not aware that some thought of eating disorders as a good thing. That essay was very eye opening for me.

Opinion Articles

mcclelsk — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:40:10 +0000

So the new no texting while driving law is theoretically a good idea except the fact that it is considered a secondary offense, which means that you can’t be pulled over unless you are committing a more serious crime. Just like fastening your seat belt, texting while driving is not strictly enforced. The author points out the fact that, people are still going to text while driving, they are just going to find new inconspicuous ways of doing it which might be even more distracting. If the government/police are not going to enforce a law, then why create it in the first place?

I have to confess that I do text while driving, I have a key board on my phone so I open it up and hold it against the steering wheel and I do notice that I tend to swerve a little. My mom was following me home one day and when we got home she told me that she could tell every time I sent a text because I swerved.

I don’t like the extreme that the article hinted towards. The idea that if the government bans something as simple as texting then what is stopping them from banning any type of distraction in the car, no radio, no passengers, all this leading to the creation of the “one-person moving gas can.” Now that would put me straight to sleep.

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Writing History

mcclelsk — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:00:44 +0000

I enjoy writing about things that interest me or things that I’m passionate about. The countless book reports and 5 paragraph essays that I had to write in high school got very old, very quickly. For the most part I don’t mind writing. I find a little bit of freedom when I’m writing, especially when what I’m writing is personal. I’m the sort of person who starts diaries and keeps up with it for maybe a week or two (at most) but soon forget about it. Then find that old diary of two weeks about a year later under my bed.

At one point I wrote a lot of poems but now I tend to write mostly prose. I’ve lost interest in poetry over the years. I think when my teachers would have our class rip a poem apart analyzing every little detail to the point that I hated the poem.

I think I’m a fairly good writer when I really try. Generally I put off writing a paper till the night before and then don’t even bother reading over it because I could careless at that point. It’s 3 am and I’m tired. This usually results in my recieving a B or C depending on the teacher and class. At my high school, one of my dorm moms was an english teacher so on the rare occasion that I did write a paper early I would go to her and have her read over it. I always did seem to get better grades on those papers…wondering why? =)