Hmmmm... I've never really thought about this in great detail. I guess I would want something pretty big if it was anything I wanted. I think I would, if we're talking about an opportunity or something like that, choose a chance to be a professional baseball player. This has been my dream since I can remember and would be absolutely amazing. I would give a lot, but probably not anything considering that I have an awesome family and I wouldn't give them up for anything. Anything else is pretty much on the table for discussion though. Also, when I say chance at it, I mean have the skills necessary and be drafted and go through the whole process, not just ceremonially be on a team or something.
In the books we've read I think that one obvious choice is Tambu because she gave up her home life and went through a lot of tough things to get an education because this is what she wanted most in the world. Another character that I think goes through this kind of thing in their book is Ralph. He'll give anything to go home and fights for his chance against the savages who want to kill him at the end. What he wants most is to get home.
Monday, April 15, 2013
My Favorite
I call him Gizz.
Born five years ago
He is my favorite
He is small, cute, fun,
annoying, whiny, and mean.
He is my favorite
My brother of less years than many trees
His mind like buzzing bees
He is my favorite
He has done many things,
like running free
flying without wings
He is my favorite
William Garrett
The greatest Gizzard of all
He is my favorite
I used repetition throughout the poem of one line. I also used end rhyme mixed in there a little bit. I used a little bit of alliteration in the last stanza, and also have a little bit of enjambment.
Reading Times
4/11 I, Alex Cross by: James Patterson 75 pgs. 1 hr. 20 mins
4/14 The Mark of Athena by: Rick Riordan 50 pgs 40 mins
4/15 Writing Center Meeting 30 mins
Born five years ago
He is my favorite
He is small, cute, fun,
annoying, whiny, and mean.
He is my favorite
My brother of less years than many trees
His mind like buzzing bees
He is my favorite
He has done many things,
like running free
flying without wings
He is my favorite
William Garrett
The greatest Gizzard of all
He is my favorite
I used repetition throughout the poem of one line. I also used end rhyme mixed in there a little bit. I used a little bit of alliteration in the last stanza, and also have a little bit of enjambment.
Reading Times
4/11 I, Alex Cross by: James Patterson 75 pgs. 1 hr. 20 mins
4/14 The Mark of Athena by: Rick Riordan 50 pgs 40 mins
4/15 Writing Center Meeting 30 mins
Monday, April 8, 2013
Reading Response
I, Alex Cross by: James Patterson 150 pgs 2 hrs 4/3 30 mins 4/8
I am really enjoying this book. When my mom recommended it to me I was a little skeptical because I kind of thought that James Patterson wrote books geared more towards women, but I guess anybody can read them after getting a ways into this one. It is really a page turner and as the plot thickens, it is becoming very interesting. I am finding that the short chapters have helped me to read more of it because It gives me motivation to "just read one more chapter". This has actually helped a lot with reading it quickly.
I haven't ever really delved into the genre of mystery and police work kind of books before, because I'm more of an adventure and fantasy kind of reader. This one is great though. I'll definitely be reading more of these kinds of stories because they are such page-turners. I enjoy the suspense of a good book, and with all the twists and turns that this one has in it it makes it great. I also like the way that Patterson uses lots of vivid detail and descriptive words, especially in important scenes. This puts a great picture in my mind with what's going on and is one of my favorite parts about his writing. I'm loving this book so far, can't wait to get to the end.
Song Analysis
So, for this one I couldn't really think of a good song so I decided to go with one of the examples and I ended up choosing Rihanna's "Umbrella". It seemed to look a lot like the poems we have been looking at in class and I did end up finding some poetic techniques in it when I looked at the lyrics in the link. One obvious one is the repetition of the word "umbrella" and the line, "you can stand under my umbrella". I don't personally think that Rihanna has a very big umbrella and is more likely using this as a metaphor to mean something like she'll protect or be there for who she's talking to even when things go bad, kind of like rain. There are more literal explanations of this idea in some of the verses that help make this more clear.
I didn't really see a specific meter in this, but I might've just missed it. I do think that overall this song has a lot of rhythm like a song should, and this works well to convey the message that is in the words. The tone throughout the song is evident when you listen to how it is sung and it creates a little bit of an uplifting feeling and this is like the words and connects to the message being sent. The audience or who she is talking to is interesting because we aren't sure if she is talking to the rapper who opens the song or if it is aimed at a totally different person. This switching of speaker is also important because it is a turning point because the two different artists present different things and this aspect of the song is a turning point. This song has many poetic devices working in it and is interesting to look at in this way.
I didn't really see a specific meter in this, but I might've just missed it. I do think that overall this song has a lot of rhythm like a song should, and this works well to convey the message that is in the words. The tone throughout the song is evident when you listen to how it is sung and it creates a little bit of an uplifting feeling and this is like the words and connects to the message being sent. The audience or who she is talking to is interesting because we aren't sure if she is talking to the rapper who opens the song or if it is aimed at a totally different person. This switching of speaker is also important because it is a turning point because the two different artists present different things and this aspect of the song is a turning point. This song has many poetic devices working in it and is interesting to look at in this way.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Goodall Plagiarism
Wow! I cannot believe this. From what I about Jane Goodall she is a very upstanding individual and definitely does no seem like the kind of person to do something like this. But on the other hand, I know a thing or two about the importance of not plagiarizing since we hear it almost everyday at school. This is a very serious act of plagiarism because it is so blatant. If you literally copy a paragraph from somebody else's writing it is a big deal. Some of the things that we might need to know is whether or not she specifically wrote that in on purpose. It could be some sort of thing where she left the citation and credit giving to her editors and they didn't do it. It may be an honest mistake on the part of Jane and her co-author, but it is still unacceptable and a very serious case of plagiarism.
A few of the things mentioned in the article make this seem like it may have been a mistake. Her statement about it kind of suggests that she just found the sources and didn't specifically write them into the book, which leaves her co-author probably to blame. This doesn't excuse any part of this act, but is just something to consider. I think that they should definitely make it well known through the media in order to fix the problem. This article, for example, now tells me where her information comes from and gives the sites much more credit in people's eyes than they would've gotten had they been cited correctly. People don't really care about the citations when they read a book, except when they are done incorrectly. As long as they fix the new editions and make their mistake well known and available so that people with the book can see it, I think that it will go pretty well and will mend the issue. Although it is plagiarism for sure, it can be made up for and I think that they will.
A few of the things mentioned in the article make this seem like it may have been a mistake. Her statement about it kind of suggests that she just found the sources and didn't specifically write them into the book, which leaves her co-author probably to blame. This doesn't excuse any part of this act, but is just something to consider. I think that they should definitely make it well known through the media in order to fix the problem. This article, for example, now tells me where her information comes from and gives the sites much more credit in people's eyes than they would've gotten had they been cited correctly. People don't really care about the citations when they read a book, except when they are done incorrectly. As long as they fix the new editions and make their mistake well known and available so that people with the book can see it, I think that it will go pretty well and will mend the issue. Although it is plagiarism for sure, it can be made up for and I think that they will.
Portfolio Revision
I, Alex Cross by: James Patterson 3/20 1 hr. 3/23 15 mins 3/24 1 hr. 125 pgs.
Blogging reading 15 mins
When I looked at my papers, I didn't really see any glaring and recurring mistakes throughout them in the comments on them except for citation issues, which I guess would be format. For my second trait I looked specifically at the paper that I am choosing, which is my research paper. I found that I probably could've used better words throughout that one, especially because it was in a formal voice. This is something that I could improve on in this paper and think that it will be a way to make this paper much better overall.
As I said before, I will be revising my research paper because it is probably the paper that I was least confident about when it was said and done and I really just didn't feel good about the whole thing. This was one of the reasons and I also thought that it might be more effective to do this one because I am still familiar with it. I also found that this one had the most problems with citations to fix. I think that this one needs the most work so that's basically why I chose to revise it for my portfolio.
Blogging reading 15 mins
When I looked at my papers, I didn't really see any glaring and recurring mistakes throughout them in the comments on them except for citation issues, which I guess would be format. For my second trait I looked specifically at the paper that I am choosing, which is my research paper. I found that I probably could've used better words throughout that one, especially because it was in a formal voice. This is something that I could improve on in this paper and think that it will be a way to make this paper much better overall.
As I said before, I will be revising my research paper because it is probably the paper that I was least confident about when it was said and done and I really just didn't feel good about the whole thing. This was one of the reasons and I also thought that it might be more effective to do this one because I am still familiar with it. I also found that this one had the most problems with citations to fix. I think that this one needs the most work so that's basically why I chose to revise it for my portfolio.
Monday, March 18, 2013
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