Reflective Essay

1. Explain one or two ways my writing has improved (or not). Include a few examples from my posts over time, with analysis and links to the original posts, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.
8. How do I like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way I write, the way I think, or the way I think about writing
9. Has blogging had any other effects on my life beyond strictly my "school life"? Explain.

Over the year playing around with blogger, I have improved my writing with different styles. From debates, to responses, free posts, to  book reviews, and even vignettes. All of these writing styles helped me to practice different styles instead of regular writing or formal writing. I have enjoyed doing these because it helped me to experience more. I now feel like an experienced writer.

Having a blogger for a year has been great. It helped me to experiment with new “widgets” in google like Google Reader and Docs. The main reason I like having a blog is freedom. I have the freedom to post anything, ANYTHING. Of course there are some restrictions because it is a school blog, but I can still post anything. But the type of freedom I am talking about is being able to post many different things as homework. Earlier in the year, we mainly did free post and response posts that helped out to get to know each other and share our opinions. By the second half of the school year or earlier, we began to make book reviews and posts relating to a book or books. These were good because I had never reviewed a book before (well I hardly ever read books).

Another type of freedom that we got from this is to write in any style. We can write with a certain attitude, like using fragments to put out a way to read it. This brought me to have an original style, I guess. An example of this is mainly in some of the response posts. One example that I thought that had a certain arguing style was the very early Debate Rebuttal. In this, I was rebutting against the Pro team of legalizing prostitution. But in this certain post, I read it like with an attitude it seems. Since it was a rebuttal, I was bashing the other team and this attitude came from this. Here is the quote,

Next, prostitutes are committing a crime. Prostitution is a crime, if you haven't realized, prostitution is illegal in many places. Only where prostitution is legal it is not a crime, but in other places it is a crime. What does prostitution from 2400 BC have to do with today’s prostitution. For all I know, i think prostitution has changed a lot since 2400 BC. Another, is there any statistics, facts, evidence stating that crime has reduced anywhere where prostitution has been legalized, no.

In this paragraph from the rebuttal, I was talking to the Pro team with attitude. In this though, I felt as if I needed to talk with an attitude to disprove them. The way I used punctuation really tells how I would say it. Like in the last sentence, I can really see myself actually saying it in that matter, no. But this attitude can sometimes be misread, which is really bad because people will think in a different ways. From this, people will get offended by reading it in a certain way, so it is not always so good writing in this style.
I noticed that many of my posts included something about Oakland, and me defending it. I think one of my goals in blogger was to defend Oakland because many people think it is a bad place. Many of my response posts were about Oakland, which I think were good. Here are just a few of them. In these posts, I was either going against people who think that Oakland is a bad place. Or agreeing with people that think Oakland is a good, but a dangerous place. This helped me to connect with people and make Oakland look good. I thought that some of these posts were good because they were meant to show somewhat how Oakland really is, at least in my neighborhood.

Blogging, I would say, is school life but different. It is school work because of course it is homework, but it’s different. Blogging as homework is not the same as regular homework, in a good way. Since we were able to have much freedom about what to write about and questions, it led me to be able to write prompts in very different ways. Just how everyone analyzed and wrote about different things in the vignettes of The House on Mango Street. An example of this is in my blog and also Bianca’s blog. We had the same assignment, but were able to choose whichever quotes and analyze them however we wanted to. In Blogger we have much freedom to choose our prompts, well also Sutherland allowed us. Blogger, on the other hand, does not feel like part of school life. I say this because specifically from one type of assignment. This assignment were the debates. The debates seemed like an argument with a friend instead of a homework assignment, it was more fun than work. It was fun to experience something like this.

As I look back very early into the year before, I noticed differences in my writing. I used to take the easy way out of doing assignments from blogger, I used to be slick (still am). What I am talking about is the amount of writing in my past blogs compared to now. Before, I wrote very little into the blogs, about 300 words. Seems usual like any other blog post from now right? Wrong. Before, I used one long concrete details, or quotes, in response posts. These long CD’s were bout 100 words from the 300 minimum words to get full points. So if you do the math, I only did about 200 words of commentary. Still seems a lot, wait until you hear this. For blog posts now, the minimum is 350 words. By this time, I used smaller CD’s or quotes. In total I used about two small quotes that added up to 50 words. S this means I now do about 300 words of commentary. A 100 word difference from before to present. This is important because it means I know or learned to write more commentary and am able to do so.

Not only the word count has changed, also how I analyzed quotes and CD’s. Before I pretty much just restated the quote and just wrote a bull response. I did not go into detail or re supported the quote, I just restated it. But now, I know how to analyze bits of quotes, sort of like breaking them down. I also now know how to keep the commentary going instead of writing bull. That is how I have improved. Here is a quote from one of my blog posts,

“When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are. (105)” In this quote there are many little clues that will say what Esperanza will do later on. The most significant one is one that Meriam pointed out in class. Meriam had said that Esperanza will come back to help others that were in the same cycle as Esperanza. This was made clear when I read, “A circle, understand.” I thought of the cycle because a cycle is a circle, so that is why I agree with Meriam. I am not very sure if it was meant this way but it would make sense. Another part of the quote is, “You will always be Mango Street.” This part of the quote shows that even after she leaves, she has the inspiration or identity of Mango Street. So when she leaves, she will take the Mango Street with her.

In this quote, I believe I analyzed a quote closely. I took parts of some of the quote in the book, and explained it part by part. I thought this was a good analyzing paragraph because I got to take out more information from the quote. This helps because it gets to see things we didn’t see before. I am proud of now being able to analyze like this because before I could hardly ever explain or commentate on quotes, and now I think I have improved and am good at it. This was a good analyzing post because as I said before, I got more information from the quote that helped with my point, and Mr. Sutherland also said it was good analyzing. From now on, I will begin to try and pull apart quotes to get more information.

Overall, I think I have grown into a better writer that I would not have thought I would have in about a year. Blogger has helped me a lot and taught me that sometimes homework is not as boring as it is (homework isn’t boring). The freedom that we had throughout the year was the best (I’m sorry if i am saying this too much). I will consider to keep on blogging, even if we don’t have to. Blogger has been a good experience that has taught me a lot, and it has been a unique experience that I may have not have received from something else. Thank you for allowing us to have to much freedom and writing on blogger, it was really fun, Mr. Sutherland.

Peer Review Comments

For Yen:
Write the questions you answered at the top before intro. In the introduction do TAGS and also summarize the whole book not just the second half of it. The whole essay seems like you are summarizing or saying the plot of the book. Also, talk more about the purpose of the book, because like I said before it seems like you summarized most of the book. Also it needs a conclusion. Good post though breh breh.


For Troy:
In the first question, address why this book would be better for young adults to read than younger kids. Why shouldn't younger kids read this book? etc. Also you need another CD/CM, but I think it still is good without another one. You should talk more about the plot because it is confusing of what you are talking about like "unwound." I thought you did good on the second question, pretty solid part of book review. Solid post overall, keep it up.


For Kathy:
Put the questions at the top before intro. The book review feels as if it is mostly summarizing, by the way summarize more in the intro. In the comparisons with the other books, make the differences more clear because it sort of just changes topic or difference. Use transitions from each difference. A rating of the book or recommendation would be nice (if you want to). Nice book review Katt Williams :).

Book Review: Fight Club

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom
would you recommend this book? this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for
7. If you've read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?
9. How should people with diseases or mental disorders be treated or cured?

The book that I chose to read is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Fight club is a satirical novel that is about a narrator (never actually introduces himself) that has insomnia, which is having a hard time sleeping or not being able to sleep at all. I choose this book because my sister had recommended it and I was curious to read because it has been in our stacks of books for a long time. By the beginning, the narrator meets a person who becomes a mentor to the narrator. Together they start the Fight Club which serves to help men with some problem. Throughout the book, it teaches how to make certain things, and also proposes on how some people should be cured or treated with illnesses or mental disorders.

So far, this book has been interesting. In the beginning, it starts off as a tangent beginning that seems like if it starts off in the ending like in movies, which I liked. It started as unclear, but after a while I started to begin to get it. I have to admit that it was sort of boring after the beginning, and I had to bear through some boring reading. But then it starts to pick up again after some events in the book.

I think this book is intended for high school students and higher until adults. I believe this because much of the book is confusing at times. Middle school students would be really puzzled, even I am confused at times. I think that middle school students would easily get distracted on the not so important context of the book. Also there is a lot of cussing and harsh vocabulary and there is also a lot of sexual references and context, which middle school parents might not like. But I do think that some middle school students can be able to read this. Overall, I think high school students should read this because it is hard to understand what is happening.

This book reminds me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It reminds me of it because it changes subject quickly. What I mean by this is that In The Curious Incident, the narrator switched from ideas or added unnecessary information. This also happens in Fight Club, but in Fight Club it is more irrelevant and confusing. Also in The Curious Incident, the narrator or kid has a thing called autism. While in Fight Club, the narrator has something called insomnia too. So both of these books have a character with an illness that contributes to the style of writing. This gave me a connection to both of the books because they both have some of the same factors like treatments and what the characters have in terms of conditions like diseases.

As I kept on reading Fight Club, I began to realize that a big question laid on it. Since Fight Club talks a lot about treatments or cures about people with diseases or who have mental disorders, I realized the question. “How should people with diseases or mental disorders be treated or cured?”

In Fight Club, it really suggests that fighting is the real way to cure and treat. But the book also bears that support groups help into curing someone, but the book mainly supports into fighting for treatment. The fights are very organized and have rules in the book. These rules keep the fight(s) controlled and are strict so it can actually be a cure or treatment for anything.

In my opinion, I think fighting would be a good way of treating things but not curing. I think it would be a good treatment because it releases adrenaline, something that does not come out from support groups. Fighting would also be helpful because it would take out their anger and this anger might be from anything, and would enlighten the fighters. Fighting would also bring a sense of trust and confidence. As it says in the book, “This guy trusts himself to handle anything. (51)”. This quote shows that people who fight get confidence and are not scare of anything. By this, it shows that fighting somewhat does treat people with confidence and trust. I think this would be very successful if it were organized like in Fight Club. If it were not to be organized, then I think it would not be as effective because some people would take it too far. This would affect all the people in fight club with breaking rules and etc.

Support groups also are good for treatment because it lets people come out of their comfort zone by telling others about their lives. It also allows people to cry comfortably, even if they were not expecting to cry. Also in the book the narrator admits, “At almost every meeting since then, Big Bob has made me cry. (22)”. This quote shows that even if the narrator did not want to cry, he somehow did in support groups with certain people, in this case Big Bob. The reason I think that support groups are very effective because there are always people who do not want to participate and share their thoughts so some people would be left out.

I enjoyed this book, it was a nice book. I thought it could have been better in some ways, but still is a good book. I really recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a real plot twisting ending, but who is a high school student. This book covers many different questions and could be used as a book for a whole class to read. I recommend this book because it is different from other books and it could also be used in class, like I said before. My score to give this book is maybe a 8 out of 10. If you can, go out and buy, borrow, read this book.

Fight Club #2

As I kept on reading Fight Club, I began to realize that a big question laid on it. Since Fight Club talks a lot about treatments or cures about people with diseases or who have mental disorders, I realized the question. “How should people with diseases or mental disorders be treated or cured?” In Fight Club, it really suggests that by fighting is the real way to cure. But the book also supports that support groups also help into curing someone. But the book mainly supports into fighting for treatment. The fights are very organized and have rules.

In my opinion, I think fighting would be a good way of treating things but not curing. I think it would be a good treatment because it releases adrenaline, something that does not come out from support groups. Fighting would also be helpful because it would take out their anger. This anger might be from anything, and would enlighten them, the fighters. Fighting would also bring a sense of trust and confidence. As it says in the book, “This guy trusts himself to handle anything. (51)”. This quote shows that people who fight get confidence and are not scare of anything. By this, it shows that fighting somewhat does treat people with confidence and trust. I think this would be very successful if it were organized like in Fight Club. If it were not to be organized, then I think it would not be as effective because some people would take it too far.

Support groups also are good for treatment. Support groups are good as well because it lets people come out of their comfort zone by telling others. It also allows people to cry comfortably, even if they were not expecting to cry. Also in the book, “At almost every meeting since then, Big Bob has made me cry. (22)”. This quote shows that even if the narrator did not want to cry, he somehow did in support groups with certain people, in this case Big Bob. By the way, I say narrator because it is not clear of who is the person talking, which is narrator.

I really recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a real plot twisting ending. Good book, could have been better.

Note to self: In next one, talk about how book could have been better.

Fight Club #1

*I did not use CD/CM because I still need some time to understand book more


The book that I chose to read is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I choose this book because my sister had recommended it and I was curious to read because it has been in our stacks of books for a long time. My sister warned me that it was a little confusing, but she said by the end I will get it. There is also the movie Fight Club which I am looking forward to seeing after reading the book.

So far, this book has been interesting. In the beginning, it starts off as a tangent beginning that seems like if it starts off in the ending like in movies, which I liked. It started as unclear, but after a while I started to begin to get it. I have to admit that it was sort of boring after the beginning, and I had to bear through some boring reading. But then it starts to pick up again after some events in the book.

I think this book is intended for high school students and higher until adults. I believe this because much of the book is confusing at times. Middle school students would be really puzzled, even I am confused at times. I think that middle school students would easily get distracted on the not so important context of the book. Also there is a lot of cussing and harsh vocabulary. There is also a lot of sexual references and context, which middle school parents might not like. Overall, I think high school students should read this because it is hard to understand what is happening.

This book reminds me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It reminds me of it because it changes subject quickly. In The Curious Incident, the narrator switched from ideas or added unnecessary information. This also happens in Fight Club, but in Fight Club it is more irrelevant and confusing. Also in Th Curious Incident, the narrator or kid has a thing called autism. While in Fight Club, the narrator has something called insomnia. SO both of these books have a character with an illness.

Vignette Project Review

I have been looking around reader to see different vignette projects and I can proudly say that all of them are great and original. All of them have things in similar, but mainly they are very unique. One certain topic that stood out to me were that some people wrote about who they hung out with, or their friends. Two people that did this were Saber and Lhadze. Saber wrote about “The Crew,” which I am proudly in, while Lhadze wrote about her friends.

Saber dedicated a whole vignette on The Crew. In this vignette, he mainly talks about how the crew functions. What I mean by this is like what the crew is for and what they do together, etc. Saber puts some examples of what the crew does which brings related thoughts because many young adults do the same things. “What i like about our crew is that we always have something to say to each other in a funny way. Also another thing is that we are never mad at each other unless its something really serious." In this quote, Saber is talking about something the crew does together which is make fun of each other. By this quote, I can tell that the crew is mainly about fun, no hard feelings, and somewhat being there for each other (I would know because I am in the crew).

Lhadze, on the other hand, wrote about her crew in a different way. The way she wrote about her crew was to show the differences between each member. She deeply describes every person which brings great imagery. Throughout the vignette, she writes as if she appreciates or admires each of her friends. Here is a quote, “As we escorted our bodies forward, I thought of the simple fact we were all alike yet so mismatched, like the socks I wore.” This quote to me was very significant because it says that they somewhat fit in with each other even if they are different, which is said as “mismatched, like the socks I wore.”

In conclusion, both vignette projects were great. I enjoyed reading them both, and also all the other vignettes I read. These two vignette projects were the same by the topic, but were different by how they wrote about the topic. Saber wrote about what his crew does, while Lhadze wrote the differences of her crew. I highly recommend other to read their vignette projects because both were good in their own ways.

Esperanza's Future

By the end of The House on Mango Street, many different inferences can be made. One of the questions that can be made with an inference is, “What’s next for Esperanza?” There are many answers for this question that could be supported by the book.

I believe that Esperanza is planning on leaving Mango Street. She is planning to leave and go receive a better education or better opportunity for it. This is made sure of in the following quote, “One day I will pack my bags of books and paper...Friends and neighbors will say, What Happened to that Esperanza? Where did she go with all those books and paper? (110)” This quote indicates to me that Esperanza will leave to go receive an education. I think this because she says that she is going to take “books and paper” to where she leaves to study or write. As a matter of fact, I believe that will specifically learn more about writing. As Sam said in class, maybe Esperanza’s way to help Mango Street is by writing the book.

Esperanza is determined to go back to Mango street after she leaves. She will come back to help the people that she left behind. The following quote takes place in the vignette The Three Sisters. “When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are. (105)” In this quote there are many little clues that will say what Esperanza will do later on. The most significant one is one that Meriam pointed out in class. Meriam had said that Esperanza will come back to help others that were in the same cycle as Esperanza. This was made clear when I read, “A circle, understand.” I thought of the cycle because a cycle is a circle, so that is why I agree with Meriam. I am not very sure if it was meant this way but it would make sense. Another part of the quote is, “You will always be Mango Street.” This part of the qoute shows that even after she leaves, she has the inspiration or identity of Mango Street. So when she leaves, she will take the Mango Street with her.

In summary, Esperanza in the future will leave the house on mango street. I think she will leave to get some education, mainly in writing. She then will come back to the house on mango street to help people that were or are in her position. While she leaves, she will also take mango street with her.