Rules for Writers Chapter 16

This week i read chapter 16, it's title was wordy sentences. This caught my eye because, i feel like i can really learn from this chapter. I thikn i use to many words in one simgle sentence. The first thing they talked about tightening uo wordy sentences. The right way to tighten up a sentence is to, tighten it up without a loss of meaning. They said that there is know need to say same thing twice (redundancies.) Also to avoid repetition of words, because it seems awkward. Antoher good point tjhey talked aboutis cutting out inflated phrases for example; "in my opinion", "i think that", and so on. You can reduce inflated words to a concise word, make the sentences more compact. Its good to simplify the structure, like strengthingthe verb in the sentence. Talked about watching out for colorlessverbs at beginning of your sentences like; is, are, was, and were.
I just really think this chapter will help me and im glad i choose to read it and learn about it. i feel like my sentences are sometimes confusing and need to be tighened up, and now that i read this i have good tips to keep in mind!

All I Asking For Is My Body, Part I

All I Asking For Is My Body, is told by a 4th grade boy named Kiyoshi Oyama. He is Japanese, and lives in Pepelau, Hawaii. Kiyoshi speaks many languages including English. He has an older brother who is 3 years older than him, and is in 7th grade. To different family members, friends, being at school , or rough housing around with his brother; Kiyoshi uses all different languages to speak to them. To his parnets he speaks formal Japanese, in school he speaks formal English, he speaks pidgin when he is talking to his friends, and he speaks pidgin Japanese when he is playing around with his brother saying inappropriate comments so his grandparenst dont understand what he is saying. Kiyoshis family grew up very poor, not afording shoes, bikes, or even a simple toy. But that wasnt important to them, they were proud of the way they were brought up and how they spent their money. A good example of this is when Kiyoshi would always hang out with his friend Makoto, and be at his house all the time. Makoto's family has money and can aford a car, bikes, and even extra money for Makoto to treat his friends. Kiyoshi's mother does not like how that makes her son look. She ordered him to not go over his house anymore becasue poeple may start to see him as a hoitobo (which is a baggar) or a chorimbo ( which is lower than a baggar.) People may think this becasue Kiyoshi goes over to Makoto's house to eat corned beef, onions and other food not made in his own home. Where Kiyoshi's family eats three times a day, and eats fish and rice. There was also an incident where Kiyoshi's father had a say in why he could not hang out with Makoto. I guess it was Makoto's idea to take coconuts which were not theirs and to sell them at the market. When Kiyoshi's father found this out he said that was stealing and to be smart and basically not be a follower. So then on Kiyoshi was not allowed to hang out with his friend Makoto.

“This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”

The biggest difference from the movie and the written version would be in the opening of the movie, which was the fire scene, because in the written version thst scene was not in it. i really liked how the movie started with their childhood; it gave me very good information, and shows good details on how the boys grew up. i think that the scene and how Arnold couldn't save his friends from the fire was a big impact in the movie. It gave him guilt and i think led him in thr wrong way to becoming an alcoholic. Who also left his wife and son at a very young age. I just think that in the written version without that scene i wouldn't have really understood the movie. that scene made it way more dramatic, and you could feel the heartbreak in the movie where you couldn't feel it in the written version. With that fire it changed those boys' life's dramatically. they both had to grow up with no father figure and both had many of the same problems but dealt with them in different ways.
Another difference to me bewteen the movie and the written version was how they so differently protruded Victor and Thomas's relationship. in the movie Victor was annoyedand didnt understand Thomas and in the written version it didn't seem like their relationship was that bad. In the movie they took a bus ride, which they would of had to be around each other for a long time and got a chance to talk about their feelings and time to start a bond an a understanding of each other. While in the written version they took a plane, which wouldn't give them barley anytime to bond and start a relationship.So i really would prefer the movie over the written version becasuse it gave me a clearer understanding of the story.

Smoke Signal

The movie Smoke Signal is about two boys named Victor and Thomas, who are very similar in a lot of ways in which they have no idea. Victors father Joseph actually saved Thomas when he was little from a burning down house where Thomas parents actually died because they did not get out in time. Even though Joseph was a hero in that situation, he was very abusive to victors mother, was an alcoholic and left his family when victor was very young. After victor hearing that his father had passed away from a heart attack he had to go to Arizona to get his fathers ashes. He had no money and no way to get there until he thought about Thomas. So Thomas agreed and wanted to go on the road trip. Prior to this road trip these two boys did not have a strong relationship. Victor was very to himself while Thomas was very outgoing , friendly and loved to tell stories. Victor thought that Thomas was very annoying and weird. But through out the road trip and being together so much they began to understand each other and became friends. In the end victor even gives Thomas some of his fathers ashes and I think that was a huge part in the story because that was very thoughtful and brave to me what victor had done. Thomas was very thankful for victor doing that because of what victors father did for him! I really like how they became friends because I know how they is when you really are annoyed by someone and you don’t even know them. And than when you get the chance to really be around that person and get to know them your whole idea of them and relationship can change I like that!!

Rules for Writers..Chapter 51

This week I read chapter 51, which was about managing information and avoiding plagiarism. They were talking about being a good researcher, and a good record keeper. They talked about different ways of managing information, having a working bibliography, good source of materials, taking notes and not plagiarizing (which is stealing from your sources.) They talked about making a good bibliography, which should contain more sources than you will actually use in your work cited. When looking for web sources, for example sometimes all of the information will not be on the main home page, but you shouldn’t include any information that is not on it itself. A good way of keeping track of your source materials is photocopying them or printing them out. When taking notes you really need to make sure not to unintentionally plagiarize. A good tip for that is to resist not to look at the source as you take notes, except when you are quoting. They talked about summarizing without plagiarizing, which is like reducing a whole chapter to a short paragraph , or reducing a short paragraph to a single sentence., but writing it in your own words. Paraphrasing without plagiarizing they talked about. They talked about using quotation marks, which is a very good way to avoid plagiarism. Quotation is the EXACT same words form the source, even the punctuation and capitalization.
I really feel like this is a good chapter to focus on or read on your won because a lot of students don’t know how important it is not to plagiarize. I also think that when students do they sometimes do know that they are really doing it. After reading his chapter it actually really helped me. I thought the point they made about writing some sentences summarizing key points of the source will help you out with the bibliography and remembering information.

Response to Mr. Harvey

In this story Mr. Harvey was an English teacher for Lovey and her other classmates. They were located in Hawaii where all the students speak pidgin; which is a English/Hawaiian Creole mix. Mr. Harvey teaches the 5th grade which Lovey is in. He is a very strict teacher and has very unpleasant teaching styles, most of the time in a verbally abusive way to the students. He talks to his students as if they were brought up was wrong and they can never change. He says how they talk is low class and very uneducated. This makes Lovey and guaranteed the other students very ashamed of how they grew up. Lovey is ashamed of where they live, her background, and most of all her family, because of the comments that Mr. Harvey has made to her, making her feel very small and below other students. She talks about wishing her name would be Betty Smith or Debbie Cole, because these were hoalies, which she wishes she was. Hoalie is a term Hawaiians use for white people. One day in class they all have to stand up and say their name and what they want to do when They get older in standard English in front of the class. Jerry gets up and is very nervous and talks very slow but gets through it, now its Loveys turn and Mr. Harvey is rushing her telling her to “cut the crap and stop playing these goddamn plantation games.” Lovey gets up and says “ my name is Lovey…I going be what I like be and nobody better say nothing about it or I kill um.” Mr. Harvey was furious. He tells the class all of them were terrible and they will never stop practicing till they are perfect little Americans. He says “…you need me more than I need you.” Right there he just puts the students down and makes them feel like they are nothing. But in the end Lovey deep down really does think that Mr. Harvey doesn’t try to be mean to them and really wants them to be Americans.
My responses to Mr. Harvey are very negative because I feel like I have had to deal with teachers like him in my past school years. I must say I was a very rebellious kid in high school and had to transfer to a continuation school. Being at that continuation school for 3 years really made me grow up. I had to deal with teachers that already thought we were bad and worthless kids. But dealing with that really made me a stronger person and I feel like this story really relates to me in a lot of ways.

Rules for Writers Chapter 48

Chapter 48 was talking about different argumentative tactics, which are called logical fallacies. They talked about stereotyping. And that we see what we want to see, because we notice evidence confirming our own opinions. They talked a lot about the truth. Analogies are points that are similar between two things that are different. They gave a lot of examples having to do with lawyers and different court systems. There is a reasonable and unreasonable analogy and it’s hard to tell the difference between them to. They talked about causes and effects and how they are so complex. They talked about making assumptions which it is a claim that is taken to be true without proof. All arguments are based on assumptions. But also there are problems with assumptions, like failing to spell out and prove a claim that is controversial. I really like how they gave examples of each thing and each reasoning’s, because it helped me understand it way more. They talked about legitimate and unfair emotional appeals. They have that there is no problem in appealing to readers emotions. All arguments have a lot of issues having to do with emotional issues. They talked about arguments we see in the media they try to win our sympathy rather than our intelligent agreement. After that they talked about opposing views, views of other people, and how to quote opposing views. I learned that when dealing with an argument you need to give both sides of the argument a fair and totally representation also I learned that you need to have very good support and evidence to support your topic.