My English Experience

During my high-school years, English transformed from a subject that always took a backseat to a subject that really mattered. It was only in my freshmen year that I understood the power of English, as a language. I learnt how to express myself and try to persuade others through the writing activities that were thrown towards me. My reading and thinking abilities were enhanced greatly after reading the writings of great writers that included David Henry Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. However, the people I just mentioned were solely limited to “in-class” reading. Outside of class, I enjoy reading everything from Harry Potter to some random autobiography. Call it a quirk, but I often like reading autobiographies of the “not-so-famous” people. It keeps reminding me that everyone, famous or not, has something great, inspiring and interesting to share, teach or narrate.

Going back to my experience with writing in English, I had a perfectly organized syllabus throughout my high-school years. Freshman and sophomore years were dedicated towards story telling or writing narratives; Persuasive writing was reserved for my junior year and informative writing was my topic of focus in my senior year. Among all the writing work that I’ve done, persuasive and informative writing fascinates me the most. I feel that they both complement each other beautifully! Bolstering ones persuasive piece of writing with information often makes it seem more “correct” or believable.

In our school, we also had the option of taking theatre as a part of our English curriculum, for extra credits. Taking up theatre, I feel, was one of the best decisions of my life. Not only did it teach me important leadership and teamwork skills, it also gave me an insight into how words can be translated into actions.

I’d like to conclude by saying that my experience with English, so far, has been exhaustive yet rewarding. I hope that, during my time at Purdue University, I learn more about this great language.

The views on culture (engr103)

I believe that cultures are not only defined by beliefs/practices/traditions but also by the resources available to them. Our culture in America is heavily based on technology and digital communication, while some third world countries practice traditions from many centuries ago. Our views of another person’s/country’s culture originate from our interactions, or experiences with that country/person. Many countries view the U.S. as the land of opportunity and the country with the best quality of living, while other countries view the U.S. as a stern and manipulative country that forces its policies/practices on other nations. Going off of the September 11 comment in the Lucena article, the point is that in times of confusion or anger, we tend to form these dominant negative stereotypes of certain cultures. We really cannot judge an entire culture based off of the actions of a smaller part of that culture. Like the Hess article referenced, one must be submerged into a culture (and not see it or hear about it) to truly understand it and appreciate it.

My high school reading/writing experience (Engl 106)

Throughout high school, English class has always been about reading and writing. As a kid, I would read the Goosebumps books, the Harry Potter books, and other fantasy/fiction books. I never really had a passion for reading (I would always rather watch TV or play video games) but fortunately I was lucky to have some good required reading books throughout high school such as: The Cather in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Fences, The Great Gatsby, Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But of all the books I had to read in high school, my favorite has to be The Lord of the Flies. I read this book during my freshmen year in high school, and I really enjoyed everything about this book. The characters are believable, the story is unique, and the author creatively portrays the classic theme of good versus evil, through the eyes of kids stuck on an island without any parental supervision. I think that because I enjoyed reading many of the required reading books in high school, I have gained more motivation to actually read books and not read because I have to but because I want to.

As for writing, I would say that I have written many essays, reflections, (very) short stories, and short poems. I have never been too fond of writing (to nicely put it) and I repeatedly been reminded of the introduction, three body paragraphs, and conclusion structure. The eleven sentence body paragraph structure was engraved in my mind for the first couple years of high school. As high school progressed, the teachers became a bit more lenient about the number of sentences or the length of the introduction/conclusion paragraphs and just allow us to write however we best conveyed our message and supported our thesis. Of course we still had to follow the basic structure of an essay, but we had more freedom to write the way that best suited us.

Week 2 Homogeneous Cultures or Not

To a certain extent, I do agree that cultures around the world are becoming more homogeneous. I say to a certain extent because as explained in the Hess article, the word “culture” is a very broad term. Varying cultures in a global sense should be discussed with social and societal aspects in mind.

I think the term culture gets mixed up with social structure. To say that every culture in the world is becoming more homogeneous would be like saying that everyone in the world is starting have the same beliefs, the same traditions, ect. It is tough to discuss this statement in such broad terms because in certain social structures, there are cultural similarities. In the young adult, middle to upper class social structure in America, there are cultural similarities to the young adult, middle to upper class social structure in countries across the globe. We are all, for the most part, very attached to technology and use it as a social outlet to connect us to friends, family, and strangers. At the same time, other aspects of culture within these groups such as cuisine and clothing style differ.

So in a broad sense, cultures are becoming more homogeneous because we are all becoming more connected to each other thanks to technology. But if we delve deep into what makes up the culture of a group within a social structure, it will never become homogeneous.

John 117 Physiatrics Evaluation Session 1

>August 22, 2525

> Psychiatric Evaluation of codename Master Chief Real name John Chief

> Session 1

> Physiatrist: Hello I am Dr. Donavan , we will be talking today.

> Master Chief: ….

> P: So John, Can I call you John, do you know way you are here.

>MC: Mandatory Psychiatric evaluation.

> P: Good. So John can you tell me about your earliest memories?

> MC: My earliest memory? I can’t remember. My past is gone the first thing I remember is meeting Chief Petty Officer Mendez.

> P: I know John, which has all been recorded. Can you go earlier John? Sometime before you entered the service

>MC: …. There was a girl. She was drowning. I saved her.

>P: Good John, what was her name?

>MC: Parisa, her name was Parisa.

>P: Good John, that’s very good.

>MC: I used to call her Pari.

>P: Can you tell me anything else?

>MC: We talked for hours I said I was gonna marry her one day. I was happy.

>P: Can you tell me anything else? Did you love her?

>MC: No. That is all I remember Dr. Donavan

>P: Ok John. Lets take a little break shall we.

>Post Evaluation Session 1.

> Comments from Dr. Donavan

>[The Subject is closed off. Soon after I got the subject’s guard down enough for him to open up he closed off again. The subject has issues. After the training he went through it is to be expected. My opinion is that he should never come into contact with this Parisa Girl. If he does I cannot predict the outcome. My professional opinion. The subject has deep emotional scars after the training, and civilian life may never be for him. The subject can handle battle though. He will always be ready to finish the fight.]

Prompt 2

I do agree with the idea of the world’s cultures, becoming more homogenous. With the rise of modern day technology; communications is at all time high. Right know I get a message from CNN the second the world changes, while simultaneously reading comics from Japan right after the came out. I can tell just as many myths of Japanese folklore as I can from my own African roots. We are becoming more understanding of each other cultures around the world. The first step is a understanding of one another. We can look at the civil rights movement as an example to that. African’s were branded a heathens because Europeans did not understand them. We then flash-forward to civil rights movement, were understanding of the to cultures become closer together. Know we have little

kids trying to dress up like thugs. Black or white, they both try and imitate the same thing. I am not saying that they all went to one culture or another, but a blending accord and a whole no culture accord. This happened because of a close proximity. Know with technology bring the world closer, that same blending while begin to happen.

Cultural Image Challenges for Today's Americans

I believe the biggest cultural images that Americans are struggling with today is that of being a meddlesome and invasive culture that is using its global power to force its will on smaller, sovereign nations that don't "behave" like we want them to. For example, the conflict in Libya. Many people feel that the U.S. getting involved in the civil war there was wrong and irresponsible because we don't have a right to say who controls that nation. America and other NATO members took alot of heat from the governments of other nations in the Middle East. When Americans watch the news, they can see people opposing America for getting involved in conflicts that, as they believe, we have no business being in. Americans also had to deal with the international heat after entering a sovereign nation, Pakistan, to kill Osama Bin Laden, whom we had been hunting for a decade. Most, if not all, Americans were completely elated when they learned the news of Bin Laden's death, so it took a few days to come to terms with what the rest of the world thought of the strike. Many Pakistanis and muslims in general thought America was in the wrong and even considered the strike as an assassination. I can't speak for other Americans, but I was hurt by this interpretation, but that was just a cultural image that I had to deal with.

My English Experience

In my past English classes, I have read many novels such as Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Catcher in the Rye. I also have experience reading epic poems such as Homer's Odyssey, and Beowulf, as well a poems from such notable writers as Edgar Allen Poe, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. I have read Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. In my senior year of English, I studied the comparisons and contrast between the characters of Odysseus and Beowulf throughout their journeys, as well as the similarities in the writing styles of each epic poem. This included a study of epithets (Odyssey) and kennings (Beowulf).

Toward the end of my senior year in English, after finishing both the Odyssey and Beowulf, I had to prepare a hypothetical paper in which I would create a thesis statement and at least three support topics that I would put in a real paper comparing the character evolutions of Odysseus and Beowulf. I also wrote an actual character paper on The Catcher in the Rye, in which I described the roles of the characters around Holden, how they influenced his decisions, and what they, as characters, symbolized to Holden. In my sophomore English class, I had to write a research paper in which I had to study a topic that interested me, create a thesis statement, and then prove my thesis statement with the facts I had found in my research. To help us learn how to write papers, my teachers would show us how to use idea-webs to organize our thoughts on each topic sentence. We were also taught to use notecards to organize the facts that we had found for our research papers so we could easily cite them as we wrote our papers.

English experience

My previous English experience has been traumatic. Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but it has never been my favorite subject. I typically procrastinate on writing papers and despise the books we read in class. The majority of the books we have to read are fiction novels. When I do read, I prefer poetic pieces or non-fiction books or blogs about philosophy, religion, sociology, or interesting people. As far as writing goes, I’ve done everything from research papers to creative writing assignments. I don’t have a preference for either, but I suppose I feel obviously more restricted by the formalities required of research papers.

My least favorite papers to write are the highly structured ones, at the same time, I do not enjoy being told, “Go! Be free and write about whatever your heart desires!” An enjoyable paper would consist of specific expectations, but few guidelines. As far as books go, again I really dread having to read almost any fiction book. The fiction books I will read are very few. One of my all time favorite books that I have read was, The Tao of Pooh. The philosophy aspect of it caught my attention and the Pooh Bear part was a special bonus. I have yet to read a book required by my English class that I actually enjoy.

My freshman English class was a blur. To be honest, most of freshman year was a blur. I had just recently moved and I think I blocked out that first year. Sophomore year I chose to go to a charter school across town where the class sizes went from 25-30 in a public school to about 5-12. My teacher was very good at his job. I still didn’t care much for english as a class, but it was bearable. Junior year my teacher was a very nice person, but the only challenge was to see how long the class could keep her off topic. I wrote a lot of papers I enjoyed doing, but they took very little effort. Actually, I think that was a rather productive year. We did a lot of timed writing assignments, at least two a week, and by the end of the year, I could knock out a quality paper within the teachers time constraints. I finished my senior year that following summer. Possibly the easiest class I've ever taken. It was an online course and I actually did my assignments on time, so the teacher was pleased.

It is fair to say that I can succeed in an English class, but so far my experience has not been very enjoyable. So far I’m looking forward to this semester and can’t wait to get it rolling.

Here's a sample Post!

Bla bla bla... I'm going to label this post with "Jayne" because I want it to be counted toward my English 106i course credit. I can add other labels if I want, but I have to have at least the course label in order to receive credit.