Compare and Contrast Essays

     In the essay “Columbus and the Moon” the author Tom Wolfe compared the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union to send an astronaut to the moon to the sea race between Spain and Portugal to create the first shipping lane to Asia. Wolfe achieved his goal by comparing the similarities of the two expeditions. Wolfe used a point by point structure, although some of the paragraphs included both sides of the comparison. While other paragraphs made a point and the comparison was made in the following paragraph.  

     In the essay “Life in a Bundle of Letters” the author Ellen Goodman compared handwritten letters to telephone calls. Goodman achieved her goal by describing her feelings of nostalgia for the handwritten letter and contrasted this to the modern telephone call. Goodman also used a point by point structure for her essay. What I noticed about her essay was that the paragraphs were between three to six sentences. They are shorter than the paragraphs that I have used in the past. Goodman contrasted her ideas quickly in each paragraph and moved on to the next idea.

     Both of these essays gave me examples of the point to point structure and different ways that I can use them when writing my essay.   

Three Different Types of High School Teachers

There are many different types of high school teachers, but I would like to discuss three types that I had during my high school years. The authoritarian teacher that I had in high school was my english teacher. She was very controlling. None of the students in her class liked her. She gave us more homework than any of our other teachers. Her expectations of us were unrealistic. The only reason we were allowed to talk in her class was to answer a question. I went to high school in northern California. We considered one of my teachers a hippy. She was an art teacher. She was very lenient in discipline. She encouraged us to talk and be social. She did not give us much homework. Everyone enjoyed her class, except when she made us listen to natural sounds like wind and waves. The third type of teacher that I had while I was in high school was a super teacher. He was my history teacher. He made learning history fun. He made all of us believe that we were smart. He always talked to us about living up to our potential. We laughed a lot in his class.  

Thee Types of Friends

There are many different kinds of friends however, I would like to discuss three different kinds. The three different kinds of friends that I would like to discuss is acquaintances, work, and best friends. Acquaintances are friends that I have had a brief interaction. Maybe they have a child that goes to the same school as mine. This is someone that I will greet if I see them and ask how they are doing, but I don’t have a lot of history with them. Work friends are friends that I either currently, or have previously worked with. These are friends that I spend a lot of time with and build history with them. I tend to be close to the friends that I work with, because I spend so much time with them. Finally, there is best friends. I have only had a few a few friends in my life that I would consider best friends. These are friends that grew from work friends to be what I would consider family. Even when we don’t see or talk to each other for a while, when I talk to them it is like we never missed a beat.   

Essay Comparison

My first essay titled, “Hard Work is the Key to Success” was a tough essay to write because, although I believed in what I was writing, it was the first time in a long time that I was required to write such an essay. Even though my first essay was tough the fact that I didn’t have to use a works cited page or in text citations made it much easier than the second essay. My background made the information that I used in my second essay titled, “Shooting a Handgun Accurately” much easier to write about. The problem that I had with my second essay was that I had knowledge to write about the topic but, I had to find the resources to support the ideas that I was writing about. In text citations are difficult because I am still a little confused about the exceptions for in text citations. Basically, you do not need to cite information that would be commonly known by your audience or could be easily verified in reference sources. I feel like that is somewhat subjective. So, I went with the policy of when I am in doubt cite the source.

When You Should Cite Information in the Text of Your Essay

When you should cite information in the text of you essay. You should cite all mentions of another author’s original ideas, statistics, studies, borrowed concepts and phrases, images, quoted material, and tables. To indicate that you are using a source’s exact phrases or sentences you need to enclose them in quotation marks. Summaries or paraphrases are a fact or idea that was not your own but has been put in your own words and must be cited unless these ideas that would be commonly known by your audience or could be easily verified in reference sources. Although, when in doubt you should cite your source.

MLA Works Cited Pages

In MLA Works Cited pages when documenting websites and parts of websites with an author or editor you are supposed to put the publisher after the title of the website, and the title of the website should be italicized. On work from a website which is defined as short works such as articles or individual web pages the title of the short work is placed in quotation marks and the title of the website is italicized. I am confused on what is the difference between the two? While researching my blog I discovered that the difference between the two is that if you are using an entire website then it would be the first example. The website title would be italicized and then you would list the publisher. If you are using work from a website you would use the second example. The title of the short work would include quotation marks around it, and the title of the website would be italicized. The other question that I had was when the author’s name is the same for two different resources in the same paper should you use three dashes in the place for the author’s name on the second resource cite? Also, do you then alphabetize by the title?

The Struggle to Find Balance Between College and Life

With the demands of work, family, and friends, college students struggle to balance school work and everyday life. The number of hours a week that a student works, or their responsibilities will determine the amount of time that a college student has for schoolwork. If you take away personal time and friends this does not allow a lot of time, even if they are not working a full-time job or have small children. A good example would be a working mother with one small child. If this mother procrastinated and did not use good time management by letting her schoolwork sit until the last minute. She would take a difficult situation and turn it into an impossible situation. At this point she would likely do poor in school or possible quit. Good time management will be the key for her to being successful in college. This is the perfect example that demonstrates the importance of going to school before you accept the responsibilities of a family.

What Best Friends Should Be

We would be lucky to have a handful of best friends in a lifetime. The type of person it takes to call best friend has many qualities. The most important of which could be different for each of us. There are a few qualities that would be important to all of us. Honesty has to be at the top of our lists. The kind of honesty that it takes to tell us the truth no matter how hard it is, or how much it hurts. Another important quality for a best friend would be to have your back. Not just have your back when things are going well, but when the chips are down and things are falling apart. One of the other qualities that are important for a best friend is that they are on the same mental wavelength. You know each other's thoughts without having to say them. Best friends are hard to find, but when you do, these are a few of the qualities that most of us are looking for in a best friend.

Social Media is Detrimental to our Face-to-Face Interactions with Strangers

Social media is detrimental to our face-to-face interactions with strangers. Although social media has created the ability for us to communicate easier and more efficient than face-to-face interactions, the majority of communication is non-verbal. This means social media is decreasing the quality of our interactions. We are losing the elements of communication that are contained in facial expressions, gestures, and posture. Due to our busy life styles, easier and efficient is appealing to more people. Even at times when we are face-to-face with others, we are spending our time on our devices checking our social media accounts. With the increasing lack of interpersonal communication due to social media our ability to interact in a traditional face-to-face manner has become challenging, especially for the younger members of our society.  For these reasons, I believe social media is detrimental to our face-to-face interactions with strangers.

The Best Act of Kindness

The best act of kindness from a stranger that I have ever seen is an act where members of a community observed an elderly man in his 60’s that walked several miles from his residence to his place of employment, and then after work he would make the trip back home. The elderly man did this six or seven days a week. After about a year of seeing this man making his daily trek a good Samaritan offered him a ride. During this ride the elderly man explained his situation, that he could not afford a vehicle. The good Samaritan rallied community churches and businesses. The community was able to purchase a relatively new vehicle for the elderly man. Knowing that the elderly man’s issue was financial. They also purchased him a prepaid maintenance package, fuel, and insurance for two years. When the elderly man was interviewed, he was crying. He explained that he was at his breaking point, and did not know how much longer he could have walked back and forth to his job. He said that he was experiencing severe joint pain. This elderly man was doing his best. It was refreshing to see his community help him.

Peer Revision Process

What I gained from the peer revision process was a fresh set eyes looking at my diagnostic essay. Although my partner’s feedback was minimal, my partner did make a couple good points. I think another point that the peer revision helped me with was I knew someone else was going to read my paper and I didn’t want it to make me look bad. My partner’s paper was hand written and difficult to read, so I was not able to help my partner much. Reading my diagnostic essay out loud to my partner was the most helpful part of the exercise. One way to make the exercise better would have been to separate the room into the students that had their paper typed and handwritten. It would seem that the students that had their paper typed were more interested in doing well on the paper, so I believe their feedback would have been better.

Most Frustrating Parts of Writing

Correct grammar and the structure of the paper are the two parts of writing that are frustrating for me. I began the writing process by brainstorming ideas. Then I tried to put the first draft in the correct order and location. I have made a lot of changes to the grammar and structure of my diagnostic writing essay. I do not know what would be a reasonable amount of time to complete an assignment like this, but I feel like it has taken me too much time for the amount of work product I have completed. I am hoping that I am just learning something new, and at some point, I will get the hang of writing these papers. I want to get better at this, but it does feel a little overwhelming at times.

Medal of Honor Recipient Lt. Michael Murpy

Medal of Honor recipient and Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy exemplifies integrity, selflessness, and valor; the beliefs that I hold dear. Murphy earned the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in the mountains of Afghanistan during Operation Red Wing. Murphy displayed these same qualities at an early age by defending a special needs classmate from bullies. During Operation Red Wing, Murphy and his team of four seals were conducting reconnaissance for one of Osama bin Landen’s top lieutenants and his militia force. Once they located the lieutenant and his force, the team attempted to move to a higher position that would enable them to communicate with their commanders. While moving to this position the team was compromised by three goat herders. Murphy and his team made a critical decision based on pre-mission intelligence and rules of engagement to release the herders. This decision would ultimately lead to their demise. Murphy and his team were soon attacked by close to 100 Taliban fighters. The team was severely outnumbered and still unable to communicate. The attacking force quickly gained the upper hand injuring all of the members of the team. Murphy, realizing the gravity of the situation and with gunfire all around him, moved to an open position to use his cell phone to call for help. While making the call, Murphy was shot in the back, but even after being mortally injured he was able to communicate his location and situation to his commanders before his death, in an attempt to save the lives of his team. It is due to his lifelong commitment to integrity, selflessness, and valor that I chose to write about Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy.

"The Art Of Being A Neighbor" by Eve Birch

     In her essay “The Art of Being a Neighbor” by Eve Birch, she found herself homeless and alone after a lifetime of working towards the quintessential American dream. With her truck and virtually no money she located an abandoned shack over the Potomac River in West Virginia. With only the bare necessities Birch began to work to distract and heal herself.  Her neighbors, who knew nothing about her, began checking on her and dropping off goods and teaching her essential skills. Her belief in what the American dream began to change. She learned “The Art of Being a Neighbor” and understood that her relationships with her neighbors were her most valuable possession. Ultimately, her belief in what the American dream was changed from individual success to what we can all get together.

"I Am Still The Greatest" by Muhammad Ali

     In his essay “I Am Still The Greatest” by Muhammed Ali, with help of his wife Lonnie Ali and their family, due to the late stage symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, he describes the confidence and pride that was instilled in him and his brother as young children by their parents. This confidence carried into high school where he predicted his Olympic gold medal and world heavyweight championship in boxing. Muhammed Ali’s stated his will was tested more after retirement with his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease than it had been tested in any of his boxing matches. He described the lighting of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games cauldron in Atlanta. He advised with the Olympic torch raised high above his head, the tremors of Parkinson’s disease took over his body. At that moment he heard the deafening applause of the stadium, he remembered his past Olympic accomplishment and that “Nothing in life defeated me. I am still the greatest.” The qualities instilled in him as a child, carried him through his life, bringing him full circle.

"Finding Freedom in Forgiveness" by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton

     This essay, written by a pair of people, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton, who you would never have believed could come together for this purpose. Ronald Cotton was identified by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino in a lineup as the man who had raped her. After spending 11 years in prison for rape, DNA cleared Ronald Cotton of the crime. This essay correctly titled “Finding Freedom in Forgiveness” talks about the initial hatred the two felt for each other, but eventually how this hatred gave way to forgiveness, and that forgiveness set the two free and allowed them to heal. Not only were they able to forgive each other, but the two, "victims of the same injustice by the same man" where able to forgive him also.

The Six Secrets That Every Freshman Should Know

After reading the six secrets that every college freshman should know it was clear that the secret that I will need to follow to be successful is secret number three. Secret three is that you need to work even harder outside the classroom. Although working hard is not my issue, included in the advice of secret three is putting things off until another day. Procrastination is definitely the number one item that could lead to academic disaster for me. Although I have retired from my full-time job, I feel that I am busier now than I was before I retired. Creating intermediate deadlines for long term assignments and scheduling frequent blocks of study time in my calendar is great advice that can help me. Juggling my personal responsibilities and time management will be the keys for me to follow so that I do not procrastinate on school work and I am able to be a successful college student.    

What I Hope To Get From This Writing Class

I have wished for most of my adult life that I would have learned to write better. During my career I have written many reports. It took a lot longer than it should have to write these reports, and often the reports did not convey what I was trying to say as concisely as I would have wished. I inconvenienced my friends and family by asking them to help me with my writing. I hope to improve my writing skills for many reasons: to express myself more effectively, to increase my productivity and be more valuable at work, and to be more influential and promote myself.

First Blog Entry

I would like to introduce myself to everyone. My name is Harold Smith and I am 50 years old. I was raised in Northern California. After high school I went into the army and was stationed at Ft. Benning, GA. I spent four years in the army as a infantry soldier. Upon discharge from the army I used my college fund to attend college at Southern Union in Opelika, AL. I attained my paramedic license and worked in the medical field for about 10 years before going to work for Russell County. After 25 years of working for Russell County I retired.  I am currently going back to college at Chattahoochee Valley and hope to become a registered nurse.