Blog Assignment - Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
Find a written text about family (online on the internet or in print (newspaper, magazine, etc). It is up to you to locate and find an essay about families. You can choose any essay that directly relates to families but a great place to find such an article is the Real Families section of Salon.com. The web address for this website is:http://www.salon.com/topic/real_families//
The purpose of this assignment is to broaden the range of possibilities or to help you discover more ways to help you write a narrative or personal essay about a memory or experience. As you are probably discovering this kind of writing varies widely in organization, voice, and even length.
Once you have chosen your essay please print it out and read it carefully, making notes, and writing down important passages. This assignment will ask that you pay close attention to the elements and the strategies the writer has used to write their essay.
This assignment asks that you write a 250-500 word response to the following questions. Remember, you are asked to respond in essay form so do not simply answer the questions. The goal is to develop an essay that answers the questions in a cohesive and coherent fashion.
For this essay, analyze the strategies employed by the writer. The following questions will help you figure out what you are looking for, and how to analyze the text you have chosen. Please do not feel you have to answer all of the questions. It is ok to choose one question and focus on writing an essay to answer that specific question. I am just trying to give you a range of possibilities to write about.
How does the writer's approach differ from the readings in the textbook that we have read so far in class?
How does the writer's connect his or her experience to potential readers?
Who is the audience for this text? (Note: it is not "everyone.")
How does the audience impact the types of things that are written in this text?
This assignment will require that you write 250-500 words and then post your response to this blog. These posts will be graded so I suggest you write your response using Microsoft word and cut and paste your response into the blog. Also, feel free to write responses to other comments, as well as the prompt.
This blog assignment is due by 12 am (midnight) Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Please include your first and last name in your blog post.
You will need to sign into your Google account or create a Google Account to post your comment to the blog. To create a Google account please follow the directions on this link:
https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount
The story that I read was about this woman who was seeking advice on choosing between her husband, who was married to for 10 years, but with problems, and a guy she met who she fell in love with. When she told her husband about the other guy, he was incredibly understandable. The author uses her personal issues to get the reader’s attention. She uses specific details, who many married couples can relate to. For example, she explains that one reason she and her husband are having problems is because of “sex”. She goes on by explaining that she is not sexual and the lack of sex has affected their marriage. Many couples can realte to this and can give her advice.
ReplyDeleteThe audience for this essay would have to be married couples. Not everybody who gets married live happily ever after. And this is one of the situations where marriage can get tough. She also explains how she and her husband do not communicate well, and that she has gone to a therapist for that reason. Many married couple can relate to this.
She thoroughly explains how great of both guys are, which makes it so hard for her to make a decision. This helps the reader feel the way she feels because it’s so hard, stressful, and confusing. This is different from most texts that we have read in the classroom because this story is more personal and specific. And in a way more mature, because a teenager or kid wouldn’t be able to understand or relate to this. This story covers a very deep and hard subject who few can relate to.
Julio Sanchez
The title of my story was called “The little things my father would never do again”. It was about a boy whose father was very sick and died at age fifty-nine. The boy, (writer), described that on his dad’s X ray you could “see a ghostly starfish wrapped around his neck, tightening around pipes connecting head to heart.” So his father had to have surgery to fix this. In the story, he describes his experience in a barbershop of how the barber cut his hair that relates and reflects to the specific details of how the doctors were having surgery on his father. The specific details the writer described, relates to how he didn’t like to bear his father in the hospital and how they were treating him. “The barber paused to remove a straight razor from a paper sleeve, and I thought I smelled disinfectant. Into a bone handle went the blade, and I nearly retched.” The writer’s story relates to my personal experience of my dad too, as a reader. He uses abstract and concrete details that describe his feelings of how the doctors treated his dad. I felt moved by this story. The writer’s style is descriptive, emotional, and reflective, which connects to any reader who read this, will relate to some emotional experience of their love ones. They would want to read more and more. The story also tells about his father in the normal life by creating a flashback. The writer uses flashback to tell about his father’s normal life and how he misses it. Then he flashes back to his father in the hospital and describes how it’s unbearable to see him lying there helplessly in the hospital. Flashback is another type of writing style that makes readers remember and reflect to that time.
ReplyDeleteThere are some stories so captivating, reading it is the only way to quench our thirst and the curiousity of our mind. The title of your story drew me to your post, it kept me thinking of the many little things we could never do again with our loved ones that are gone.
DeleteI could never stand the sight of having to loose someone so dear, and no matter how often it occurs sometimes or how much we realize that this assassin is part of life's journey, the pains are unbearable, the thought unthinkable, the feelings are palpable and our tears unstoppable.
Loosing a love one is difficult, and conveying it in words is tough. Great story, I didn't get to read the entire story though, but I was able to tap into the writer's feelings, I was able to understand what and how the writer felt trying to relate His barbing experience and the surgery being performed on His dad. It was insightful, and I agree with you he made good use of abstract and constract, and he also did a great job with connecting with is audience (readers), the story can be related individually, we all share in the moment and there is always someone in our life we wished we could do one little thing with.
Conclusively, if you can, it will be a good idea to link us with the entire story for those that would love to read. Thanks.
Oghor Okparavero
2684397
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe story I read was called “Ugh: My son moves home”. It was based off the experience of the author’s son moving in back home after college. The author, the college student’s mother, was afraid of the fact that her son was moving in back home after college was a sign of a failure as a parent. Right off the bat many people can relate to this story simply with the title itself, older parents who have kids in college and young adults who are in or about to leave college can relate to this story. The author starts her story off by feeling a bit guilty for writing a story about her son without his consent. This causes the reader to sympathize with her therefore setting the mood early in the story. She believed her son should have already had a steady job and his own place by that point in life. She explains to the reader that she tried to remain optimistic about the situation and how she would tell herself that is was only temporary.
ReplyDeleteHowever, time passes and nothing seems to change. With these feelings that the author places in the story from time to time the reader can identify the tone as an apprehensive one. The author then begins to use analogy by referencing a certain day to the TV series “The Twilight Zone”. To build connection with the author and the reader she uses single sentenced paragraphs to emphasize on certain actions that she does such as when she stated, “That’s when I cried”. In the end of the story the author uses a few rhetorical questions, explaining to the reader that her situation was not all bad that it seemed. Finally, humor is spread on her ending conclusion by using a statement as a joke which references to an earlier statement in her story.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteInteresting story, I think I have actually read it. The story however sympathetic, sets a debating and lots of rhetorical question. Is the son to be faulted for his predicament? How often do children meets their parent requirement? The expectations of a college grad. Is going home from college really a huge disappointment? How many kids who really leaves home after college? Again, what did he study? Is the course a marketable one? How well did he do? Did his parents laid a good foundation, you see, it is an unending tale.
DeleteWithout doubt,it is good to leave your parents house when you become an adult. However, that's not my bone of contention, my question is this, what if things doesn't go as plan? I see the guilt in his mom for writing about her son in a manner as this. And it is true, her situation wasn't that bad, though she did not elaborated on her son, but if you could read between lines, he was not a troublesome kid, he was wise enough to get an education, and he just didn't have a good job, she did not say he was jobless. That tells us that he himself, is not happy with his present state.
Kudos to you Rios, your analysis was above average.
Oghor Okparavero
2684397
This is a good analysis of the story....
Deletethis is a good analysis of the story
DeleteThanks April for looking at it from my point of view.
DeleteOghor O
The article I read was titled Agh: My son moves home. By Stephanie Tames.
ReplyDeleteThe story was about a mother dreading her son’s return to their home after college.
Initially, the mother felt that it meant that this situation would mean failure for them. I felt that the writer starts the essay off in a negative tone. She describes her son moving in with them as a sign of failure even before the even has happened. As she described her conversation with him that she would ask him questions on why he could not support himself or get a job. She was trying to do this so as to not have him move in with them. I think this showed that she felt that she had somehow failed as a parent.
The author describes how she would give suggestions to her son about getting jobs, improving himself but it seemed that throughout the story mostly her narration even when she was stating how much she saw her son was trying to get a job or even when he did find something there was something she still found to criticize. A lot of people can relate to this as we have all been or have known people in similar situations.
I felt that like many of us the author did not see things from her son’s point of view, or what he was going through at this time, but was very opinionated and cared instead of what she would go through, or what would happen to her, or what would people say when they knew her son was living with her. Even when her son did manage to get a job, she had something negative to say.
The author does connect to her readers when she says that she realizes that her son is an adult and she must respect that knowing that he, at this moment in time is staying with her and is requesting her help.
I think that she feels that she could as a mother like most parents wants to do something to make everything right, to help her son get a job, a place to live and have everything perfect but like all of us, she has to go through life’s’ up and downs.
I think it was a good story as many of us can relate to the situation and the author wrote it in a clear manner and the personal experiences she shared seemed candid and straightforward.
Mahjabeen Ajani
How does the audience impact the types of things that are written in this text?
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the writing in the book and the writing on the website is, the writing on the website is shorter and seems to have more emotions in it. The story “Ugh: My son moves home” also does’nt have a breaking moment when the writter regrets doing what she had done. When I was reading “Ugh: My son moves home” the writter connected with her reader by generalizing the relationship between a mother and her child. The writter use that connection to bring in potential readers, and keep the readers interested. The audience which mostly likely mothers and the son can relate to this story because of the sense of pressure for the son and failure for the mothers reading. Also the writter intenions for writing this story is to express how she views how son moving back to the “nest”. She thinks the reason for him moving back is because he a fail. The audience for this specific story is mothers and their children. The mothers can relate to this story because all mothers want to see their child fly out the nest and reach greater height, and the children can relate because they know how it feels to be under pressure every single day. The audience impacted the ways the writter expressed her thoughts as well as feeling. Mainly because she knew her son would eventually read her wriiting. Other than that I don’t see how the audience could impact the types of things the writter chose to add in her text.
Walter Bowie
Walter, your opinion is really remarkable, and is just like you said, these story, most parent not all can relate to it, I would like to think of it as some, because, as bad as it may sound, their parents who would rather have their son stay at home, again more advance degree and move when he or she is ready to settle with his or our spouse. Very analytical. Thank you for spurring my thought. Great job.
DeleteOghor Okparavero
How does the writer's approach differ from the readings in the textbook that we have read so far in class? From the Essay I read which was called “My Home Ripped Apart” I learned that the writer’s approach differed just a little from the readings in the textbook, because he went started out broad and narrowed in then he ended broad. He also had a good introduction and thesis, which was described by nice concrete and abstract details. The only part I see a difference in comparism is at the main body of the writer’s essay whereby he included a lot of information concerning his past to reveal his sorrowful experience. How does the writer's connect his or her experience to potential readers? The writer connects his experience to potential readers by showing how to convey your controlling idea, so it can reveal to the reader where your information is going. The writer connects his experience to potential readers by adding more concrete and abstract details to tell the reader more about the background and the effect it had on him. Who is the audience for this text? The audience for this text is more of the people who have gone through similar experiences and traumatic events that has either killed or limit the relationship between them and their loved ones. How does the audience impact the types of things that are written in this text? The audience impacts the type of things written in the essay by helping acknowledge this terrifying experience and trying to put themselves in the same condition of the writer.
ReplyDeleteThe article I choose to read for this assignment was, “Ugh: My son moves home.” By Stephanie Tames.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I choose to read this story was because we have all heard or seen situations of a similar type. Also as a young adult, I would have loved to go back and live with my parents after graduating college. Nothing like having your mom’s cooking or cleaning! So I was really interested in seeing what this parent had to say or feel about their son moving back home.
First thing I noticed was that the mother was very negative of the situation, she seemed upset at the fact that her older son was moving back in when you would think that she would have at least been a bit happy to have her son home. As for the father the author did mention that he was not bothered by it at all, that’s a great dad. The mother’s discomfort with the situation seem to rise from what she believed to be a failure of either her parenting or her son just not being able to make it in life with a good job and so forth.
The author tries to explain how she feels by giving details of her relationship with her son, and how most parents can relate in some fashion. I just don’t believe that all parents would not have been happy to have their kids’ home after such a long time. But some parents can relate to how some get along with their adult children, you can’t always be too involved in their lives or tension can build up.
The approach she has in telling her story has a bit of a twist, she starts off stating how she feels this will turn out all wrong but as she continues she says how their relationship was pretty good and then towards the end her attitude changes towards the situation. I guess you can say she becomes accepting of the turn of events and starts seeing the positive side of things.
Freddy McGowan
Oghor Okparavero
ReplyDelete2684397
My Assignment
The essay I read was very insightful, intriguing and emotional too. Titled "My Secret From Dad" it was written by Margaret Mattox, source from www.salon.com
It is about a teenage girl who was raped, confused and frustrated, she ran away from home, too ashamed and humiliated she refuse to tell anyone, got involve with so many awful things, she roamed from places to places. Her life was miserable, after the suffering and emotional trauma, eventually she came back home to her family, though she never told the secret, but she her find peace and has moved on with her life.
The writer did a really good job, she had a good controlling I did, she was very narrative and descriptive, made great use of contrast and abstract, she convey her emotion and reflection very well and the story was well written, the writer did not write out of context, though a little bit confusing, because she started by trying to expose her dad and in the end she was exposing her secret, nevertheless, the introduction was really good and it was packed with suspense.
How does it relate to family? It relate to family because it talks about what happens when you decide to bear a grief alone, it talks about what happen when a family has bad relationship with them self, it talks about the importance of sharing a secret and learning to trust your family, it makes us realize how much our family actually love us, and how much they are willing to help. It also talks about how our wrong choices can not only affect us individually, but can also affect our family. She broke her dad heart when she ran away. I believe many family will be able to relate with this, because there is not a family who would want their child keeping such a secret from them, and also it will help to build family relationship.
It was a great essay.
The story that I read is titled “Her breakup, my heartbreak”. It is about a mother freaking out about her daughter, Katie, breakup, yet the daughter is perfectly fine. Throughout the story the author, the mother, doesn’t understand why she is the one freaking out about this situation. I think that right there and then a mom or parent can relate to this. She explains that her daughters break up affected her so much because this was her first boyfriend and she didn’t want her to go through breakup. Right there a parent can reminisce about when they were teenagers. They can think about their first breakup and how it broke their heart. She connects readers to her experience by providing imagery and detail describing her moments as a teenager. She also discusses a specific reason why Katie relationship was so important to her. The mother went to a camp for a long time and this camp happened to be where Katie and the boy met. Now that the readers know this, they can start to comprehend and relate to the authors feelings. I believe that the author wanted to let the readers know this so she could get a feeling of not being the only parent out there that is like that. At the end, she gives us a mental picture of what her daughter means to her. I think this is a good way to conclude the story because it really connects the reader and author by the feelings the author describes of how she feels about her daughter.
ReplyDeleteThe story that I decided to read is entitled "Game of Thrones" parenting lesson.The story is about a soon to be dad who begins to get a little nervous as the birth of his son approaches. As the day gets closer he begins to ask himself if he can really pull off the feat of being a good parent because he is lacking not only experience but finances as well. A little while before his son is born he begins to watch a television show entitled Game of Thrones which helps him learn some valuable lessons about being a parent. The writers approach is different than most of the text we have read in the sense that the tone of the article is very humorous. Even though the birth of a child is a very serious event the author attacks the subject matter in a very playful way while at the same time giving some very sound advice. The author connects with potential readers by describing his feelings before the birth of his child and also by using a popular television show to illustrate the lessons he has learned about being a father. The audience for this article is anyone who is expecting a child or has hopes of being a parent someday. The article is also directed to those who are fans of the television show Game of Thrones. Being a fan of the show myself I understood all of the references he made when describing lessons he learned from certain characters in the show. Although someone who has never seen the show before would still be able to understand the underlying theme of the article I get the feeling that the author arranged the text the way he did to connect more to fans of the show. I really enjoyed the article because it was not only clever but funny all the way through. It was pretty cool to read about how the same show I enjoy affected the author's life and gave him such insight on being a good parent. I also like the way the author ties in the lessons he learned and and then backs up each one with an example from the show to emphasize the meaning.
ReplyDeleteThe essay I chose to read was "My Own Private Recession." The author wrote about moving back with her mother after college and the Peace Corp and being in tremendous debt due to her extravagant spending. What I found to be relatable is that she used the recession as an excuse for her debt and the reason she is back home serving coffee to her past peers.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many times I made excuses for having to move back home and continue my schooling at a community college. I too have had to go to my parents for financial help constantly. It doesn't take until you have reached nearly rock bottom for you to realize all the things you have done wrong.
The author said that after talking with her mother about how she was in debt again, and the look on her mother's face, she began to realize what she is doing wrong. It wasn't the recession's fault for her debt. It was her own fault. We have all had a time where we bought things (useless things) just because we could. Just like the reader, I too wasn't taught very well on how to save money. But by making mistakes eventually you learn and try to prevent it from happening again. Sometimes it takes more the once to learn though.
The author was trying to show the reader how bad things can happen, but you cannot keep hiding from the truth. She shows your her story and adds a moral. She is warning people as well as relating to others.
April Sanders
ReplyDeleteJune 20, 2012
When I read, “Ugh; My Son Moves home” by Stephanie Tames, in the Salon, I connected with the story because I am a mother who is anticipating my children going off to college to be productive citizens. To later witness them come back home without a plan would devastate me. Moreover, this is how I believe how the author portrayed her feelings about her son’s return. Therefore, I know the readers of Salon “real families stories” whom are parents could relate and are going to stop and read this article too. Particularly during this time of year, the graduation month is here and many young adults are coming home from college and have to move back in their parent’s home. Stephanie describes it, as being in the “Twilight Zone”, as if; it is not real that her son is moving back. I am not sure, if she wrote this essay to help anyone, but guarantee vulnerable parents are searching the web for opinions, on how they can handle their situation. Therefore, since Stephanie gave examples on how she handled it, her article will pop up when searched. For example, she stated, “Before his return I peppered my son with questions whenever we spoke. I wanted to know his plans, what he had done to find a job, why he could not find something – anything – to support himself. I knew I was being a pest, but I told myself I needed time to absorb the
answer that I knew was coming.” By Stephanie Tames, in the Salon. So, many young adults will be questioned and pester soon. Fortunately, she did not portray it to be too bad since any help around the home and in the yard is a good thing in my opinion. Therefore, I hope parents take Stephanie’s example that too much pester is not always good because as she states, “Having an adult child live at home made me realize I needed to back off and let my son be an individual, independent of his relationship to me.” By Stephanie Tames, in the Salon. Now, after reading this essay I would not be afraid.
“My Secret from my Dad” is the story I chose to read. It was mainly about a teenage girl who was raped by a bouncer at a house party, which traumatized her for the rest of her life. Her father never knew about the rape because she never really wanted to directly tell him that she was not in her great senses when this tragedy occurred. She actually wanted him to find out on his own by the way she expressed herself towards him. She was a great student, a great daughter, a good friend, and very socially active with others just to fit in. She changed after the rape. She rebelled, abused drugs, and moved out of the house to live with some punk rock kids. After a couple of years she moved back to her parents house, improved in school, and stopped using drugs.
ReplyDeleteHer father was a funny guy who exaggerated in some of the stories from his childhood that he used to tell her. He always seemed to have a positive attitude of life, regardless of how bad life treated him and his family. He seemed to look beyond the bad times and to make have a better perspective of life. When she came back home, he would get a couple of drinks and start to say things he would wonder about her. He always wondered to tell someone how bad it felt to not know where his child has been for the past months.
The author never told her father about this tragedy because she didn’t want to risk how hurt he would become to hear the awful news. This story is family related because now that she kept her secret from her dad, she now knows how it would feel if one of her children did the same to her. Her father’s positive outlook of the world influenced her very much. It helped her get though the traumatic experience to become someone who received help just by her father’s belief.
The connection is known to be as in families there are things that are always told and things that should not be told at all.
Ivonne Contreras
The story that I remember was titled " Gravity", by Tess Gerritsen. The main idea of the story is how a women Dr. Emma Watson, a crew member on the International Space Station, does battle to contain a mysterious and deadly contagion -- before it claims the crew and moves on to the surface of Earth.
ReplyDeleteThis women had to figure out how this disease and other contagions were causing people to die. This story differs from the stories in the textbooks by starting off the story in present tense.
The audience for this story are people who may have dealt with contagious or any diseases. Even though my personal essay does not match this story, however, it help me to transition from past, present, and future tense.
I read the following excerpt from mysalon.com: "My secret from Dad". Call me nosey, but after reading the title, I was immediately enthralled in reading more and finding out where this story was going. I found the writing interesting and dark at the same time, but in a way I connected with the writer. I think, as children, many of us have found ourselves in a tough spot with a secret that we have hidden from our parents. "Should I tell or shouldn't I?" races through our heads. The only hesitation is this - what will the outcome be? What damage could be done?
ReplyDeleteThe writer's approach differs from some of the stories we've read in class so far because the tone of the text exposed a very shocking secret that I did not expect at all. I knew the story had to have a gripping issue but reading the story in somewhat graphic detail, put me into the writer's shoes and I could feel her pain and confusion on whether to tell her father or not. Being a daughter myself, I couldn't imagine having to break that news to my father. I sympathized with the writer's broken disconnect from society and the angery emptiness when she hears the other girls talking at school about her. She describes her feelings and emotions very vividly.
I imagine this text is meant for adults only and is not meant for children. Once she had children of her own, the writer began reflecting in a way of how the entire situation may have affected her father. She sees the half broken smile from her father and realizes her hiding her secret has caused a scary thought for any parent. In a way, the writer almost hopes that the audience to be that one single person she's been hiding this from all along. She is almost thankful for the experience as she would have not done many of the things she had otherwise.
Susannah Beverly
Crystal Casas:
ReplyDelete“Ugh: My Son Moves Home” by Stephanie Tames is about a mother telling her story about her son moving back home after graduating college and his unsuccessfulness to support himself. She introduces her story by confessing that her son does not know she is writing about him. That even though she is his mother and he has been living with her and her husband for ten months she is not sure at to what he may feel if her son were to find out. Within her story she uses a metaphor to express what it was like when her son moved in. She also makes references to television series. She writes to parents that are living with their college graduate in their house and their “adult child” does not make the most of their degree. The lesson of the story is for a parent to let their “adult child” be independent, to let them take control of their life and not have their parents pestering them about their life. Mrs. Tames connects to her readers by expressing her feeling and explaining how things were going on. She connects emotionally to her audience of parents living with their “adult children” She references to the New York Times to support her thoughts. She explains the research she found in the New York Times that relates to her and other parents going through what she and her son are going through. She realizes that her and other parents going through the same thing, is that their “adult children” and them like each other but the parents need not be too worried about their “adult child”.
I read “My secret from Dad” this story was shocking to me in so many ways. The writer put so much emotion into it and it made me feel like part of kind of like I was hearing it personally from her. When I first read the title it captured my attention immediately, because I too kept many secrets from my dad. I was shock by her secret, because mine were small details but hers should have not been kept a secret.
ReplyDeleteThis story is very different from anything we have read in class, because it talks about a really big and shocking life changing secret. It is not like the story we read about the lady and a soccer game changing the way she saw things. This story had a stronger message and so many emotions about words she left unspoken for so long. I can’t imagine anything like this happening and even worse I cannot imagine telling my father. It would be heartbreaking to tell my father something happen to his baby and he could do anything about it.
I can feel the pain she feels just by reading her essay it’s a powerful essay meant for mature people that would at least try to understand the writer and not judge in why she didn’t tell her dad soon. This essay is trying to reach out to readers with similar stories and letting them know that there are people like that. People that have kept secrets to themselves for a long time ,but that eventually all truth comes out.