English Midterm Essay

Dear Ashley,

I am writing you this letter to tell you all about my English 1102 class. My teachers name is Ms. Ingram and you can tell she is passionate about what she does. This makes the class interesting for everyone else because she enjoys teaching us. It is only halfway through the semester and I feel as though we have already accomplished a lot. I have learned through blogger, group work shopping and cover letters. Even though I used blogger all of last semester we used it for a different purpose. In my English 1101 class we used it mainly to write blogs in groups about our assigned readings and assessing the key points. In English 1102 I think the blog has been more beneficial in terms of helping me learn. I like that we are not just submitting assignments, but that we use blogger to reflect on our research. This helped me to keep track of where I was in the research process and to figure out what I needed to work on. Sometimes when I write I find myself writing down information that actually helps me to discover something I did not realize I was feeling or considered that important. Group work shopping as been beneficial as well. It is a learning experience to receive feedback from your group or others in the class. Before I submit an assignment I read over it numerous times and may miss something that jumps out to other individuals. With their feedback I learn what I need to work on in order to make my paper better. The cover letters are similar to what we did with blogger, but in a simpler format. Before this semester I had never written a cover letter. I like the idea because once again it gives me a chance to reflect and think about what I just wrote while it is still fresh on my mind. I bet you wish you were in this English class now. We have already done so much and I can’t wait for what is to come.

Sincerely,

Lindsay Carpenter

My favorite essay by far has been the “What’s it Like to Be You?” paper. I wrote this piece to tell my classmates and teacher more about myself and give them a peak into my life.  My ideas came from my family, church and overall home environment. These are all big factors in my life and inspired my essay. My audience was my teacher, my classmates and family. I will admit I was a little hesitant to put too much personal information in my essay because I knew my classmates would be reading it and I was afraid of what they might think. I know I should not care, but I am only human and can’t help it sometimes. I tried to be as detailed as possible within my comfort level. This piece was definitely not an easy one to write. When I saw the prompt I thought I will have no problem with this, but as I started writing it was not as easy as I had thought. I had trouble making it flow and going from one aspect of my life to another. I also had trouble being specific at first and figuring out the topics I could elaborate on. This is why I like the peer editing so much. I received some polite helpful comments. I made revisions by separating out a large paragraph and making it into two smaller paragraphs. I also added in some more information about my elementary school and my family. During this essay I discovered how much I miss family since I have been here at college. I was writing and my emotions just came out. I had no idea I had suppressed all of these feelings. I look forward to every minute I get to spend with my family on the weekends before I come back to school. I would expect any reader of this essay to learn some basic facts about myself and what has had a major impact in my life. I talked a lot about my church family because I have grown up in church and could not imagine who I would be without it. I still want to add more information so that would be my major revision to this piece. I want to give my readers even more than I have already given them.

Peace Butter and Jelly was unlike any book I have ever read. I liked that he broke it up into sections going from his life story to recipes to a multitude of poems. This book was an easy read and gave me great insight into the author’s life. I would definitely recommend using this book as a jumpstart for next semester. It got me involved and since I could relate to the book in some ways it made it more interesting. It was awesome to have David come to our class as well and bring the cake. If he could do this with all of your English classes in the future that would be a cool tradition. I was not expecting to read a book like this in English, but I am glad we did.

What an awesome class

Who knew it could be this fun

Who knows what is next!

Forth Blog Post

My English class last semester used blogger to complete a lot of our assignments. It has been easy for me since I was already acquainted with the website. I like the format and the ease it provides when writing. I do not feel as restricted when writing as I do when I write papers. Writing these blog posts has made it easy for me to track my progress and figure out what I need to work on.

            Using blogger has definitely helped me with the research process. It gave me an easy way to jot down ideas and receive feedback. Researching proved to be a lengthy process of finding reliable sources. Once I found those sources I had to think about how I was going to apply them to my topic. The blog helped me to go through this process and think about what I was doing. Since I had done so much prep work when it came time for me to write my annotated bibliography I felt like it was not too tasking. I had already read over my sources a couple of times and thought about what information I wanted to pull from each one. All I had left to do after that was type it up and cite my sources.

            The inquiry question was and still is one of the hardest parts for me.  I found a topic that I liked, but it is always a struggle to narrow that topic down. I want to feel as though it is still broad enough to find information about. I also do not want the topic to be too broad. It is so hard to come up with one question that encompasses everything you want to emphasize. Every time I read the question I want to improve it and make it better I just can’t figure out how.

            I have learned that I write well using blogger. I take pride in my writing knowing that someone out there in the world could be reading it.  I have become more confident in my writing. I think that blogger has helped me to better develop my skills and improve as an overall writer. My experience with this website has been a positive one. I feel as though I have learned a lot about my writing and myself. I definitely hope to continue using blogger for future assignments.

Third Blog Post

Since my topic is underage drinking and should the drinking age be lowered I think my audience will still be my classmates, other underage college drinkers and those who may not even be in college yet. Underage drinking is beginning in middle and high school. Many of my friends in high school drank and partied frequently. I think my readers can definitely see the timeliness in my topic. Underage drinking is a serious issue that has killed many innocent people. I understand completely why this is an important topic, but I wonder sometimes if my friends who drink realize how serious of an issue it has become. My purpose in wanting to research this topic is to find out more factual information and expose myself to other people’s viewpoints. I am invested in this topic because I believe more can be done to reduce the number of people who go crazy while drinking underage. I know that not all underage drinkers are wild and drink and drive, but it impairs judgment and they may make other poor choices. In high school I think our teachers wanted us to be objective to see how well we could research and present both sides of an argument. In college I think it is more about building on those skills and being able to say what you want to say. Sometimes when there is personal investment the paper may shift to more of what the writer has to say instead of presenting multiple viewpoints. I have found a number of sources that view the drinking age in many ways. The sources in favor of lowering the drinking age have said that it should be lowered because this will prevent it from being a forbidden fruit. Since it would no longer be illegal it would not be as cool. They also said it will help prevent binge drinking at fraternities and other parties because they do not have to conceal the drinking anymore. Another source suggested there be drinking learners permits for 18 year olds so they can drink, but under close surveillance. The main points of the sources against lowering the drinking age are that this will increase the number of deaths and that by drinking before the age of 14 their chances of becoming addicted are much higher. Another argument is that the brain does not finish maturing until age 25 so underage drinking could potentially cause damage. One new interesting thing I learned is that college student who said they had drunk in the past month declined 19% from 1982 to 2000. I have learned that doing good research is time consuming, but it is very beneficial. I took the time to go to the library and found a number of good books. I am going to comment on Audrey Marion’s blog post.

Second Blog Post

The most interesting source I have come across so far is an article from the Los Angeles Times.  The name of the article is “Is Lowering the Drinking Age a Good Idea?” The author is Jessica Pauline Ogilvie. She talks about both the pros and cons of drinking underage. I found this interesting because one of her points for having the drinking age lowered was to issue drinking learner permits to 18 year olds. This way 18 year olds would be able to drink but under tight restrictions. If they did not get in trouble then some of the restrictions would be dropped.  This is supposed to teach teenagers responsible drinking. This was an interesting idea to me because I had never heard of it, but I do not know how effective it would be. Being in college and surrounded by underage drinkers I feel as though this would only feed their habits. The permit would simply give them ways to legally purchase alcohol and even with restrictions their behavior will more than likely not change or get worse. I have not really revised my inquiry question. I have found a lot of information on my topic, but I am having trouble coming up with a more specific question. Maybe a possible question could be how has keeping the drinking age at 21 benefited others? Narrowing my topic will help me be more specific and provide more detailed information when it comes time to write the paper. I need to come up with a narrowed down question that encompasses most of the information from my research. Starting with a broader topic and trying to narrow it has always been one of my biggest challenges when it comes to research papers.

Post 1: Beginning the Research

My research question is should the drinking age be lowered to 18?  I decided to research this topic because it has been controversial and I wanted to find out more about what others had to say. I am interested in the topic because there are great supporting views for both sides. Through my research I have found points that people made that I would have never thought of.  This is important to address because underage drinking is a serious problem. We need to figure out a way to discourage teenagers from partaking in drinking before it is legal. I expect to find a good number of people saying that the drinking age should be lowered. The research I have done so far has revealed people saying that if we are allowed to vote and go off to war then we should be allowed to drink. They have also made the point that drinking is seen as a forbidden fruit for teenagers, which makes underage drinking popular. It was said that if the drinking age were lowered it would not be as fun because it is no longer against the law. I have also come across sources that advise against lowering the drinking age. These sources have said that it is not a good idea because the number of deaths and alcohol related accidents have gone down since the drinking age was raised. I have always thought that the drinking age should not be lowered even though most of my friends already drink. I have come across some compelling opinions that are in favor of having it lowered so I am interested to see if my opinion changes as the semester progresses.