Questions for Active Reading

Questions for Active Reading page 243
"How Friendship Was Feminized"
1. Cohen does not believe that men have real friendships, however, Tarvis does believe that men have friendships but that they communicate their friendship without having to say too much about it. Both suggest that men do not necessarily directly speak about important things in life but they do talk about things in life.

2. Choen's definition of friendship is something that women have more than men if they do have friendship at all. Many men do not consider themsleves as friends or really say they have men they moreso say they have people to hang out with.
Tarvis' defnitio of friendship is something that is meaningfull and deep, it is something that grows between two people who communicate with eachother and share experiences, and life together.
My definition of friendship is a couple or group of people who share common interests and enjoy eachother's company, they talk to eachother not necessarily only about personally things but things in general.

3. Tavris not only classifies people as mature if they can verbally expression their feelings but also if they can make moral, or benifically decisions that are not necessairly good for them but good for the important people in their lives. I think that in order to be mature you also have to be resposible, moral, commited, somewhat organized or have an order of some sort, I also think that having something to work toward classifies a person as being mature.

In the News

Pit bull Attacks

I do not believe that humans should have the same punishment that dogs have for harming humans, despite their intelligence level. I don't agree that dogs should be put to sleep for showing some aggression towards someone however i do think that the dog should be placed in some type of training to decline its aggressiveness because it has displayed aggression which can lead to the dog bitting someone in the future.

I do that that pit bulls are dangerous animals they display behavior just like lions and tigers and we don't see many people trying to have a lion or tiger as a pet, because at any given moment just like a pit bull they can attack humans.I think that pit bulls should be banned because too many innocent people are getting hurt and this can be easily prevented.

I have never liked pit bulls because of their aggressive nature so these recent attacks from pit bulls only heights my dislike for them.

There really isn't much that I can think about to prevent future attacks. I personally believe that there have been too many attacks and that pit bulls should just be banned altogether.

Journal Entry # 5

• This essay was written in 1971. What types of duties does Syfers describe as being performed by wives? To what degree do you believe these are still done primarily by women? Have these or other things about the husband/wife relationship changed in the last 37 years?
The duties that Syfers describes in this essay are basically everything that needs to be done within a household: going to work, taking care of the children, taking care of the house, running errands. I do think there are still many, many, many women in the world who are just as Syfers described but very few of them reside in the U.S. Many of the things that Syfers described have changed drastically within the last 37 years.

• How would you describe Syfers’ writing style? Does she do things you would typically avoid in your own writing?
Syfers' writing style is very basic. I would do a lot of things differently in my own writing. Syfers has a lot of run on and incomplete sentences, she repeats things many times in different paragraphs which are not for the most part very organized.

• Syfers was reacting to a social structure that she felt at the time was unfair. What types of injustice or unfairness do you see in the world nowadays that you think should be addressed? Syfers implies that men benefit from the servile position of women in the family. Who benefits from the injustices you see active in the world today?
I think that there is a lot of unfairness to women in the workforce. Today women are still not being paid as much as men in some work areas.
I also think that wet foot dry foot policy with the Cubans is unfair.
The many genocides that are going on in Africa and nothing is being done about it.

Questions for Active Reading

Questions for Active Reading Page 233
1. In paragraphs 17 and 26-28 Sanders clearly and vividly describe how he puts up the wall to divide the room. I think that at the end of the passage Sanders describes finishing up the wall to precisely because it signifies the end of his work with the wall, the end of the passage and most importantly the end of his father's life.

2. Sanders uses what is called elepises when he goes form describing the past or present and vise versa. When he talks about the past he usually refers to his father teaching him how to use the tools he now owns, and when he talks about the present he is ususally talking about his daughter's gerbils or the wall that he was putting up at the time that he found out about his father's death.

3. A dawn stone is one of the earliest forms of hammers, in which some of the first people used to grind corn, and break bones. He describes it in this essay because throughout time the dawn stone has not changed much and has been basically passed down rom generation to generation just as his grandfather's tools were passed down to his father and then to him.

In the News Facebook

In the News

These types of social networking have drastically altered many people’s lives. The social networks have changed the way we communicate market and advertise, meet people, and even write as well as so many other daily activities. Personally I think that facebook is just a phase that people are going through. Look at myspace that was social networking that started it all and now there are hardly people on it. I do believe that there will be many more social networks to come and they will all eventually fade out just as myspace did.

I think that facebook is a plus and minus. It does help a lot with advertising, meeting new people, marketing, However there are people who do not know how to use this tool responsible and are just adding random people who they don’t know and putting obscene photos for people to comment and this type of behavior is getting them into major trouble. I think it could be a good thing if people were just conscious about what they do and how their actions can lead to great consequences.

Journal # 4

• What does Bartholomae mean when he says that students must "invent the university" when they write in college?

What Barthaolomae means by students must "invent the university" is that they have to become the expert in whatever it is that they are writing about. They have to know everything possible as applicable to that subject.

• What does Bartholomae suggest is a way for students to become "insiders" within academic discourse?

He suggests that students should go ahead and write what they feel. Do not be afraid of what students have to say. They were given the right to speak and they should take advantage of that right. It is ok to not understand everything but try and when students are not sure ask questions.

• Summarize some of the differences between the two examples of student writing that Bartholomae examines, and Bartholomae's opinion of these examples.
  

The difference between these two examples that Bartholomae examines is that the first one is
just simple and straightforward, the other one tries to tell a story and explain more in detail than
the first one did.

Bartholomae's opinion of the first example was that it is natural and gives what the prompt asks
however it isn't sophisticated. The second example on the other hand lends its voice to the
paper; it develops a language and gives more of an opinion than the other example. 

Questions for Active Reading

Questions For Active Reading Page 108

1. 6 Myths of Creativity?

 1.  Creativity Comes from Creative Types

   Do not restrict creativity from any area of your work. Let creativity flow and

   develop on its own.

 2.  Money is a Creativity Motivator

   Money does not always motivate creativity. The majority of people who are

   creative do not think about how much they are making or are motivated by money.

   Those who do think about money are not so creative. What seems to motivate

   people is if they are paired up with a project that they take an interest to and

   if their skills meet the creativity that is needed for the project. However

   their skills cannot be less than the creativity need because then they would

   become frustrated and if their skills are beyond what is needed then they would

   get bored and creativity will become dry.

 3.  Time Pressure Fuels Creativity

   For some people having a deadline increases their creativity but for most people

   that is not the case. People usually become distracted because they have to come

   up with something creative by a certain time. They then begin to focus on how

   much time they have left instead of their creativity.

 4.  Fear Forces Breakthroughs

   In a study with artists and writers it was found that the more depressed the

   person the greater their creativity level. However in the study with people in

   other job positions people who were happy the day before experienced greater

   creativity the day after.

  5.  Competition Beats Collaboration

   Some people may believe that competing develops more creativity than

   collaborating. However this is not the case creative ideas flourish when people

   collaborate. Because no one person knows everything and when people combine

   ideas it turns out to be an even better idea.

  6.  A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization

    When downsizing a business it prohibits creativity because people once again

   begin to focus on who is going to be cut out and not concentrate on how they can

   be creative. It was found that even after the downsize has been made five months

   later there is still a lack in creativity.



2.  Amabile designed her research by working with a team of PhD graduate students

and managers from different companies. She collected 12,000 journal entries from

about 238 people who were working on creative projects who were not informed

that she was looking closely at creativity. She asked then about their work,

their environment, and inquired about how they felt on that day.  The thing that

was interesting about her work is that she found out things that people would

not necessarily think is the norm.   Such as people who are happier are the ones

who seem to produce more creativity in the work field however those who do

creative work such as artists are more depressed when they produce creative

works.


3.  The audience for Breen is people20who are more likely to be CEOs in a company

which is trying to develop their employees creativity. His audience can also be

people who are trying to enhance their creative ability at their workplace. 

Revised Project 1

1. Connect Alzheimer’s with the belief

2. How has Alzheimer’s affected us not being able to spend time with her?

3. CUT DOWN

This I believe…
Cherish the time you have with those you love
She was a very strong woman in her time. She bore 12 children and was married to a very powerful politician who passed away when my dad was at the tender age of nine. She was the best roti maker ever and I have seen the mystical patterns that she made using crochet hooks and yarn. I have heard stories about her great strength, her renowned recipes, and her card playing strategies; but I have never tasted her cooking or seen the great card shark in action. My Grandmother suffered the last decade of her life with Alzheimer’s. She spent one of the most difficult parts of her life living with my family comprised of my two younger siblings, my parents and myself.
My Grandmother was born in Grenada and then later moved to Trinidad and finally years later began a new life Florida. My family at the time lived in South Carolina but visited Gran’s house every summer. I remember finding out that she was coming to live with us so we had some renovations done to the house and converted our garage into a master bedroom for her comfort. As a few months went by her memory began to deteriorate. We were slowly losing the one we cherished. The doctors thought it would be best if we took her back to where she was most familiar. So we moved into her house in Florida at the beginning of summer.
Alzheimer’s not only took her away but also changed the person we once knew. Gran became a different person we did everything for her: feed her, bathe her, dress her. She developed an aggressive behavior courtesy of the mind erasing disease. One thing about my Grandmother is that she always loved to dress up. Everything had to be perfect, the wardrobe, hair, nails, shoes and pocketbook to match. Despite her forgetting she was hungry or our names she never forgot how much she loved to dress up. I can remember every three days my sister and I would polish her nails a new color.

A few years past and my Grandmother’s eldest daughter decided that she wanted to take care of Gran, so packed Gran up and took her away. We only got to see her on the weekends, which meant that she only got her nails polished once a week. One weekend we went to get her but she wasn’t there my aunt explained that she put my Grandmother in a nursing home: my dad’s biggest fear. Since my aunt had power of attorney there was nothing we could have done about it. Now we only got to see her every other weekend because my aunt wanted to take her on weekends too and the home only allowed patients to be dismissed on weekends. And now Gran’s nails were done every other weekend.
As I got older we got to see our Grandmother less and less due to her mobility becoming even more difficult and my aunt insisting my Grandmother being moved to different home which was further away from us. Unfortunately we made too many unconscious excuses not to go see Gran and before we knew it my Grandmother developed a urinary track infection commonly known as a UTI. She was then hospitalized for a few days and then transferred to Hospice. I spent my 14th birthday in hospice with her praying she wouldn’t die or at least she wouldn’t be in any pain since should lost her ability to speak and would not have been able to tell us.
March 20th 2004 the day after my 14th birthday Gran passed away just as we entered the house that night. After that all I could have thought about was the nails on my Grandmother’s fingers. They were not done in her favorite pink colored nail polish and they were not even done to match the gowns she had to wear in hospice, they were not done at all. I reflected and cried about all the times that I could have done Gran’s nails but always found something else to do. And at that moment, that’s when I started to believe that you cannot take the moments you have with people for granted, eventually we all have to go and I never want to be in the same position that I was in with my Grandmother, regretting the fact that I didn’t take that extra five minutes out of the 1,440 minutes of the day to polish ten finger nails. You never can tell when your last moment with that one person may be so cherish the time you have with those you love and this I believe.

My In The News

Is technology harming us more than helping us?

http://www.nbc6.net/health/17060207/detail.html

In this particular article the main point of it is "texting" while doing any type of physical activity is dangerous. With this article I would like to take it a step further by examining diferent types of technology and how has it harmed us, instead of helped us.

Let's take the cellphone for starters. The cellphone is has come a long way. It's very useful in many different ways. However, it is just as harmful. People are developing cancer from using cellphones, and now according to this article people are dying because of texting.

Now let's look at another technological advance. the microwave. There has been birth defects from pregnant women standing too close to the microwave, as well as an increased number of cancers from the radiation given off from microwaves.

Those are just two examples. What other types of techonological advances can you think of that has harmed us instead of helping us? Think about the computer (spellcheck has worsen our ability to spell) think about x-rays. Do you think that the benefit of these elecronical techologies outweigh the risks? Do you think that technology should be tested longer before being approved?

Project 1 Draft

This I believe…
Cherish the time you have with those you love
She was a very strong woman in her time. She bore 12 children and was married to a very powerful politician who passed away when my dad was at the tender age of nine. She was the best roti maker ever and I have seen the mystical patterns that she made using crochet hooks and yarn. I have heard stories about her great strength, her renowned recipes, and her card playing strategies; but I have never taste her cooking or seen the great card shark in action. My Grandmother suffered the last decade of her life with Alzheimer’s. My Grandmother spent one of the most difficult parts of her life living with my family comprised of my little sister, little brother, my parents and myself.
My Grandmother was born in Grenada and moved to Trinidad and then finally years latter began a new life Florida. My family and I at the time lived in South Carolina but visited Gran’s house pretty much every summer. I remember finding out that she was coming to live with us so we had some renovations done to the house and converted our garage into a master bedroom for her comfort. As a few months went by her memory began to deteriorate. The doctors thought it would be best if we took her back to where she was most familiar with and that was here in South Florida. We moved into her house in Florida at the beginning of summer that year.
While we lived with Gran we had to do everything for her feed her, bathe her, and dress her. It was never really all that much fun or easy especially since her joints and muscles began to stiffen. Not to mention the aggressive behavior that accompanies the mind erasing disease. One thing about my Grandmother is that she always loved to dress up. Everything had to be perfect, her hair, her nails, the outfit, shoes and pocketbook to match. And despite her forgetting some things she never forgot how much she loved to dress up. Since my sister and I were at the age where dressing up was fun for us too we didn’t mind playing nail and hair salon with our Gran.
A few years past and my Grandmother’s eldest daughter decided that she wanted to take care of her mother now. So she packed my Grandmother up and took her away. My Grandmother still lived in Florida but half an hour away. We only got to see her on the weekends, which meant that she only got her nails polished on the weekends. One weekend we went to get her but she wasn’t there my aunt explained that she put my Grandmother in a nursing home, which was my dad’s biggest fear. Since my aunt had power of attorney there was nothing we could have done about it. The nursing home had rules that you can only take the patient on weekends. Now we only got to see her every other weekend because my aunt wanted to take her on weekends too. And now Gran’s nails were done every other weekend.
As I got older we got to see our Grandmother less and less due to her mobility becoming even more difficult and my aunt insisting my Grandmother being moved to different homes which just happened to be further and further away from us. Unfortunately we made too many unconscious excuses not to go see my Grandmother and before we knew it my Grandmother developed a urinary track infection commonly known as a UTI. She was then hospitalized for a few days and then transferred to Hospice. I spent my 14th birthday in hospice with her praying she wouldn’t die or at least she wouldn’t be in any pain since should lost her ability to speak and would not have been able to tell us.
March 20th 2004 the day after my 14th birthday Gran passed away just as we entered the house that night. After that all I could have thought about was the nails on my Grandmother’s fingers. They were not done in her favorite pink colored nail polish and they were not even done to match the gowns she had to wear in hospice, they were not done at all. I reflected and cried about all the times that I could have done Gran’s nails but always found something else to do. And at that moment, that’s when I started to believe that you cannot take the moments you have with people for granted, eventually we all have to go and I never want to be in the same position that I was in with my Grandmother, regretting the fact that I didn’t take that extra five minutes out of the 1,440 minutes of the day to polish ten finger nails. You never can tell when your last moment with that one person may be so cherish the time you have with those you love and this I believe.

In The News # 3

Since in class we are about to being out first project which is based on what someone believes. I think that this particular in the news was a great connection to the project. The first In The News was about the incident of Obama's wife making a comment about how she was proud of her country for the first time. The question is that should voters take into consideration the beliefs of the candidate's family. I think that it is important to think about what the candidates' families believe because as we discussed in class some of our personal beliefs arrive from our family's beliefs. Something like the comment Mrs. Obama made I believe was a misunderstanding therefore I would not really may much attention to what was said.

The second In The News was also about Obama. The overall article was about Obama and McCain going to ground zero and showing respects to those who were lost seven years ago today, they also agree not to campaign today. The question that arose was should Obama not campaign today because he is against the war on terrorism and Bush and McCain are not. In my opinion I think that it is sheer respect for the two candidates to forget about their differences and individual beliefs and opinions and just meet with the families that lost loved ones and act like normal everyday people. I mean yeah McCain can take this day for advantage and say see this is why we need to continue the war and play on the emotions of people but I don't think that would just be disrespecting the people who lost their lives today, their families, and all the troops ans their families. All in all I think that the candidates did a really nice thing today by not being worried about the race to the white house because today is one of if not the saddest day in America's history.

Questions for Active Reading

Questions for Active Reading pg. 73
1. The experience that changed Smiley's belief about chores was her work at the stable. Smiley introduced her change of belief in the middle of her passage, after she states why she does not view chores as a positive thing and confesses that she was never one to do chores growing up. If Smiley had introduced her experience at the beginning of the passage I would think that she would hold a different opinion about chores.
2. Smiley supports her argument about chores by giving an if then situation. the example that she used was that if a child did not vacuum the parents would still love the child despite what the child did. She also supports her argument by describing how the child would feel while doing the chores as well as after they accomplished it. She also used her husband and support as to what she believes children who do chores will end up. She states that her husband despises doing chores and tries to hurry them up so that he can go do what he enjoys.
Since Smiley's support and evidence was not scientific nor did she include statistics or facts which shows that she is not writing to people who may be able to discontinue chores for children but to an audience who may want to try to persuade their parents to not give them chores.
3. Smiley uses rhetorical questions to get her audience to form their own opinion to have a belief of their own before hearing and understanding her point-of-view. I personally agree with Smiley not only because I'm still a child myself but also because I can relate to exactly what she says about not having to lift a finger in the house. I especially agree with what she says in regards to children growing up to just finishing their chore because they have to do it and it is not something that they enjoy doing. However, on the other hand I also agree with when children grow up and have to live by themselves as a parent I think you would want to know that your child is capable of taking care of them self. And as a child I would think there comes a time in your life that you yourself will think ok I am old enough to do certain things on my own and want to feel a sense of respoisibility.

Journal # 2

The Power of Hello
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=48202&topessays=2&start=0
 One of the difference that I can still remember about my move from
South Carolina to Florida is that in South Carolina there are more
people who genuinely greet you with Hello, how are you, and it seemed
like they were really interested in how you were doing compared to some
people that you meet in Florida and greet you with the exact same four
words. And to my surprise the difference was actually a drastic change.
I’ve been living in South Florida for almost 12 years now. In Florida
people seem busy they always seem to be in a rush to do something or go
somewhere. In South Carolina their motto is “Smiling faces, Beautiful
places.”
 You can never underestimate the power of hello; you never know who you
might run into one day who just needs someone to talk to no matter how
trivial the matter may be. Just as Howard White believes in greeting and
talking to anyone you may come into contact with I believe that a simple
smile can work similarly to the word hello. You also can never tell how
much a simple smile may change a person’s day. That one person may have
been having one of the worst days but just because someone smiled at
them they are forced to smile back and for a few seconds that person may
have forgotten about their awful day.

Living Life to the Fullest
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=8415&topessays=3
I could not agree more with the author Valerie of Living Life to the
Fullest. There are so many people in the world who do not realize that
their life is a lot better than they think when they compare it to the
millions of people who don’t have food, who does not have clean running
water not to mention the other hundreds of horrifying scenarios.
I don’t expect people not to have days or moments when they think it
that they have it really bad, but when that does happen to me I try to
think of all the things that I am fortunate for, for all the things that
I am lucky to have. Usually when I it helps me to pick myself out of the
dumps and deal with the horrible situation that I am faced with.
Sometimes we have to forget about all the little things that eventually
add up to create a huge problem and live life. Enjoy what you have and
what you don’t have. For example my dad tells stories of when he was a
little boy playing with his brothers making little boats to race in the
river. He thinks that my siblings and I missed out on things like that
because of the technology that we have to occupy ourselves nowadays.
Despite his belief that we have missed out on simple things like that he
is grateful for the technology that we have today. With it we are able
to find information on just about anything in a matter of seconds
compared to the hours of research that come with the intelligence of books.
There are too many things to be thankful for. Life itself I think sums
it all up. In life I really don’t think the material things matter I
think what really matters in the memories that you build in your
lifetime. Material things can become damaged, wither away stop working,
get thrown away, stolen, or just disappear; but what stays forever are
the memories that you store forever.

Questions for Active Reading

Questions for Active Reading Page 13

1.) In my opinion I think that Powell’s purpose that he had in mind at
the time of writing his autobiography was to inform his audience of the
type of hardship that he faced regarding racism in America. I think that
he also wanted to tell his audience that people are not automatically
handed a prestigious position as Powell acquired, but people have to
work hard to get to where they want to be, and many times it isn’t easy.
Powell tried to achieve his purposes by introducing where he came from
and transitioning that to where he was going to go and describing how he
was told to behave in his new state. He also achieved his purpose by
describing himself as a player on the field and how he was going to play
if he could only play on one side of the field.
Two examples from the reading to support how Powell achieved his
purposes are “Davis had gotten himself into trouble in the South,
Brookhart said, because he had tried to buck the system. The colonel was
telling me, in effect, not to rock the boat, to be a “good
Negro.””(Powell, b. 1937). This quote taken from the passage shows how
Powell describes the racism that he will face when he moves into the
South. This other quote shows that Powell was not prepared to just stay
there and take the racism, “…I was not going to let bigotry make me a
victim instead of a full human being. I occasionally felt hurt; I felt
anger but most of all I felt challenged. I’ll show you!”
2.) I think that Powell intended audience was people who think they are
being faced with something unfair or believe that they cannot accomplish
something based on their status or level in life. I recommend this
reading to anyone who once had a dream to become more than what they are
and have somewhere along the line become faced with a huge challenge and
somehow gave up on their dream.
3.) If I were to describe the writer I would say that his tone is
thankful at the beginning of the passage. However it does change to
innocent towards the middle of the passage and then finally ends as
determined when he realizes that he is always going to be faced with
racism if he does not stand up and do something about it.
I admire Colin Powell for all the hardships and times that he has had to
face throughout his life and then be able to hold such a prominent
position. I do not think that one can fully appreciate someone unless
they know that person’s background. If you don’t really know where the
person comes from or what the person has done I don’t think you can form
a true opinion about the person. Since I did not know much about
Powell’s background I did not admire him as much as I do now that I have
read this passage from his autobiography.



Questions for Active Reading Page 19


1.) I think that Goldberg’s purpose of this excerpt was to inform people
that it is not always easy to just begin to write. For most people that
is the case. Her solution to that problem is to just continue to write
no matter how awkward it may sound.
One thing within the reading that that identifies her purpose is that
she focused on not worrying about how your writing comes out and just
let it flow onto the paper.
2.) While writing I think that Goldberg’s intended audience was probably
students who are discouraged by the way their writing comes out
naturally, as well as people who are interested in starting to write.
Audiences who may not benefit from this passage would be people who are
not at all interested in writing and perhaps people who are beyond this
level of writing that Goldberg is describing.
3.) Goldberg’s subject is writing, mainly the beginning of writing when
your ideas first start to generate and you need to get it onto paper.
Her subject based on people is those who are starting to write but may
feel that the beginning of their writing is off to a rough start.
Her attitude towards the subject is very understanding, optimistic. She
has a don’t give up just continue and it will get better type of
attitude. She tries to give advice to the new writers and she also gives
an example of one of her best students that went through the same
problem and how he was able to overcome it.

Journal # 1"Rhetorical situation"

· Describe the situation that made you feel a need to respond in writing.
There are some situations in which one may feel compelled to reply to a comment or a situation for a number of reasons. Perhaps it was to prove a point, to or ask a follow up question or even to inform. My situation was slightly different in some matters. In the International Baccalaureate Program, the program which I was in demanded that throughout your two years in the program you develop this sophisticated style of writing and at the end of the year you write two types of papers. At the end of my senior year I wrote a comparative study on two novels.

· Why did you decide to respond in writing instead of taking some other action or not responding at all?
I had to respond in writing not only because it was part of the criteria but also because I wanted to inform myself about my writing abilities and to persuade the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) that their program did teach me to become a better writer.

· What type or genre of writing did you use to communicate your purpose, and why did you choose this genre?
The genre that of writing that I used to communicate was a comparative study of two novels: House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, and So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ. I happen to choose this type of genre because I felt that I was able to use it to best portray my knowledge of the two pieces of literature as well as my writing abilities.

· Who was your audience and what kind of relationship did you want to establish with your readers?
My intended audience was the members of the International Baccalaureate Organization. The type of relationship that I wanted to institute was a professional and scholarly as well as an informative affiliation.

· What was your purpose in writing? Did you feel you accomplished this purpose?
I had two purposes to my writing. The first one was to prove to myself that my writing has improved drastically due to the techniques that my English teacher taught and through the genres of writing that IB implemented within their curriculum.
My second purpose of my writing was to prove to the members of the IBO that their promulgated curriculum was beneficial in improving writing.

· What knowledge of the context and culture did you draw on to guide your writing?
The title of my writing was called Subliminal Writings: The role of the Journals and Letters in the House of the Spirits and So Long a Letter. My overall thesis was that the authors secretly gave attention to genres of writing within their novel. Within my writing I drew attention to the styles of writing the two authors used. I took into consideration the time periods that they were written in and if the style of writings were popular at the time that they were written. The authors Allende and Bâ had two different cultures within their novels in which I took note of and established that because of their cultural upbringings they inserted the use of writings differently.

· How is thinking about your writing as responding to a “rhetorical situation” different from other ways to think about the writing you do?
In using “rhetorical situation” you think about what you did intentionally about your writing, whereas the other times you think about your writing you are usually thinking about it before you begin your writing process or as you write or when you are editing your writing. Usually at those times you do not focus on the details that rhetorical situations demand you think about such as factors which can affect your writing or the context which may be affected my time period, location, and current events. Even if the writer does think about those things it is not really thought about intentionally it is usually just part of the writing process that the writer goes through to be able to finish the writing.

In The News- Drugs,and Fairness in the Olympics

The Olympics is something which people train years and years for. Many people train naturally while others use technology or medicine to help enhance their performance. This is something that I disagree with. I view the Olympics as the ultimate test for an athlete's natural ability. To be able to make it into the Olympics is an honor itself.
I view using various sorts of technology and medication as a form of cheating. It helps you to do better than you natural ability. It is not fair that one person within the entire competition is able to have an advantage especially when the winner is a difference of a matter of a split second. If one person has that advantage everyone competing should have the same treatment.