Throughout the semester, my home life has been very hectic. Incredulity clouded my mind and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through school in the midst of working and dealing with my own issues at home. But here I am, writing my final blog post. My writing holds several themes, to which I hope the readers find for themselves. They show forms of personal growth, though how I've transitioned to college and stuck through it, despite all of the discrepancies in the mix. I try to be honest in my writing, because I want to be as true to myself as possible, even if it doesn't please everyone who sees it. These themes and many others show themselves in my writing, even though it might not be professional writing, or the most clean, it's a reflection of who I am, and I'm proud of my little blog.
What a long semester it's been. I've fought through initial nervousness of being in college, made new friends, and man I have grown up a lot, for bettor or worse. Sabatino asked me to answer this question in this post " What does my digital portfolio say about me (my story) as a writer in this class?". I feel as though the layout of my digital portfolio has a nice clean, easily navigable layout that will get you where you need to go. The artwork I've chosen reflects me as a writer through my inspirations (i.e. Travis $cott, Young Thug), in addition to showing my personality. I don't take most things with a grain of salt and I am pretty aloof in most situations. Most of the artwork can be looked upon ironically or however a visitor to my blog wishes to view it, who am I to judge what others think.
Throughout the semester, my home life has been very hectic. Incredulity clouded my mind and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through school in the midst of working and dealing with my own issues at home. But here I am, writing my final blog post. My writing holds several themes, to which I hope the readers find for themselves. They show forms of personal growth, though how I've transitioned to college and stuck through it, despite all of the discrepancies in the mix. I try to be honest in my writing, because I want to be as true to myself as possible, even if it doesn't please everyone who sees it. These themes and many others show themselves in my writing, even though it might not be professional writing, or the most clean, it's a reflection of who I am, and I'm proud of my little blog.
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writers roundtableThis was an early blog in the semester, but it was one of the most fun posts compose in my opinion. In this post I created a scene at a local bar near me, in which the three writers, Maria Popova, Anne Lamott, and Ray Bradbury, offer me advice on the writing process. I was asked to pick quotes from the writers and put them together in a way that conveys a round-table discussion on the topic of the writing process. It was fun searching through the writings of these three and putting it all together into a scene. I feel as though albeit a bit short, I was able to get my point across rather nicely and in a fashion that keeps the reader entertained. The post also helped me get a better grasp on dialogue and how to use it while writing a scene. this i believeIn this post I was asked to write about something I believed in. I believe marijuana has helped me persevere and become a stronger person in life. In the blog post I go describe how it has affected me, my friendships, school, etc. in a positive light. I consider this one of my best additions to my blog because it was my first opportunity to really write about such a thing. Mr. Mangini told me in the very first class to be honest with my blog, and that's exactly what I did. I was able to take a risk and show my true colors. Of course I believe other aspects of life are more important than marijuana, however I was able to express myself in a way I never have before through my writing, and that is why it is on this list. Transitioning to collegeTransitioning to college can be hard on anybody. In this post I was asked to respond to a prompt asking college students who've been in school for a while to tell freshman about their struggles starting in college. This topic relates to me personally on a few different levels. From kindergarten to 8th grade I went to a Catholic school where i had a small localized group of friends, with arounf 30 people in my class. Then right after middle school I was in public school, a very different classroom environment where I had a class with around 1000 people. I go more into detail in my blog post and I feel it is one of my best because I wrote it with past experience in mind, offering sound advice.
This semester in English Composition 1 at Delaware County Community College I've been given several major assignments to complete throughout the course. In this post I'll be detailing my writing process for my Room for Debate assignment as well as my One-Semester Memoir.
Room for Debate: This assignment was exciting for me in many ways. We were asked to choose a topic from the New York Times Room for Debate section. I am personally very interested in religion, specifically Christianity and the impact that it has on society. For my assignment, I chose a topic that questions whether or not Pope Francis' views are to radical and how they influence politics in the modern world. First I read several opinions from respected sources on the Room for Debate section and summarized their main points, citing them as I work. After I put their views in summation, I gave my own views on the topic. Using points attained from the article, as well as sources from the DCCC Online Library and of my own knowledge, I gave my opinion on whether or not Pope Francis' standpoints are radicalized to fit some sort of political agenda or not. For my full assignment please click here and enjoy the read. One-Semester Memoir: My one-semester memoir took a load of introspection before I was able to decide on a topic. This semester has been my first experience with school since I dropped out of high school 2 years ago. Even in high school I wasn't really in school and I spent a good portion of my time smoking in the woods with my friends. Since I dropped out I've drifted more and more away from those woods, gaining responsibilities and coming of age so to speak. My first experience in college reflects my story of the woods in that I am coming out of my shell of working and staying out of school into a new chapter of my life, where I don't plan to look back. Themes I am trying to convey through metaphor in my piece are those of personal growth and honesty. Throughout my writing I've stayed true to myself and I haven't fabricated what I like to do o who I am. Also, I try o convey growth in that I am tackling more and more responsibilities and I need to grow up out of a fixed mindset, and adapt myself into the college experience. classIn class this week we had a lot of material to go over. With the course coming to an end we mainly focused on our One-Semester Memoirs, Showing and telling writing, and logical fallacies to avoid in our writing. We went over our memoirs in that we should be using our entire blogs as the building blocks for it. We need to combine the various themes and how we've grown throughout the semester into one essay, detailing our lives. Also, we went over showing and telling writing. Telling writing is a form in which you create a narrative, detailing step-by-step accounts of a scene. Showing writing places the reader into the scene itself, allowing full immersion into the story you are writing. What particularly intrigued me was the covering of logical fallacies. We went over fallacies such as “Ad Hominem”, which is the attack on an opponents character to get your own point across. Another that we went over is “Appeal to Emotion” in which somebody uses strong rhetoric to influence people through their emotions, like hitting touchy topics of abortion or equal rights to stir up the crowd. The next week was thanksgiving so we didn't have class. In this time I've been attempting to perfect my posts for the approaching close of the semester. homeThese past few weeks have been hard, which will be reflected in my blog posts. Someone close to me is struggling with addiction and it hurts more and more seeing it as time progresses. We are trying are hardest to come to a solution for the problem, but it's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Thanksgiving was also last week, it was a nice break from these mental gymnastics. I was able to see my grandparents and have a nice dinner with them and my immediate family members.
In a previous post, I used the following telling language to explain a moment from my life: “Later in the week I went to a concert in Philly with two friends of mine. The concert was at The Coda, a nightclub in center city, and the artist Robb Bank$ was performing.” Here, I will revise this telling language into a scene that shows readers this same moment from my life. We stepped off of the roaring subway train onto the cold platform before us. Walking through the dank labyrinth of tunnels leading us up into Philadelphia, greeted by large crowds of unfamiliar faces on this chilly October night. Standing outside the brightly lit Coda Nightclub we are filled with excitement for the upcoming show. As we walk in Lights are flashing in purples and blues as the show floor begins to fill up with faces full of excitement just like ours. The lights begin to dim and the artist walks out onto the anxious stage. “Helloooo Philadeplhia!” echos through the club. In this post I will be creating found poems, in which I select lines from previous posts in my blog and arrange the in a sort of collage to form a poem in a new perspective. Links to my blog posts that are apart of these poems will be provided.
Has Helped Me GrowBefore I get deeper into this, I love smoking When I got out of middle school I began attending Upper Darby I knew almost nobody culture shock. Smoking has helped me grow It’s given me opportunities best friends similar hobbies unwind I figured out my routine the public school way of doing things. I began to calm and began to grow I’ve seen too many friends make choices drinking heavily doing drugs I barely know them anymore Smoking a blunt is more I’ve come to realize Applying a growth mindset whether it be in school or just getting fried is a door into new ideas and good times, I appreciate the opportunity of growth and development on this journey through life. Potential Often We might overthink something, too stuck in our ways. there are those who do not believe in the potential growth of your skill and will falter I've learned all thi$ money, will help me realize my goal I didn’t want to believe I was stuck I’m being pushed to grow up. I’ll practice what I want to do and explore my options thoroughly. Hopefully along my journey. In this post, I will make an attempt at detailing a couple of settings in my life using descriptive language to show you these scenes. The first scene is a familiar place in my life, which is my room, where I hang out with friends and go to be private. The second scene illustrates a more unfamiliar place to me, where the comfort and security of a familiar place vanishes.
Familiar place: Another long day behind me. I step out of the car with my dad after a quiet ride home. “Thanks.” Not another word. My door slams shut and the doorknob falls off again as I flick on the light switch. A cat there staring at me with piercing eyes, he's fat and cute. A reflection stares back at itself in the turned off TV, lost in something like thought. Posters litter the walls and half read books sit around the room. Beer cans, empty packs of cigarettes and blunts abound. Time to relax. The smell of a swisher fills the room. Crack. Fill. Roll. The lighter flicks almost melodically when it's running low. Inhale deeply and exhale slowly. A billow of smoke blooms out like a single cloud in a true-blue sky. Cat runs away. He hates smoke. Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. Goes the phone. Friends want to come over. Too tired... “I'll buy you a forty lol” “Okay sure” One. Two. Three. Four. Enter the room single file, holding bags with little smiley faces telling me to have a nice day. The brown bag ruffles as I grab my drink out. The cap cracks in the o'so familiar fashion. The bass bumps and sounds of the Xbox ring out. Wash it down with a 40. Another night. Another day ahead of me. Strange place: Raindrops coat the window as I look out onto the dusk. A constant hum permeates through my headphones even on full volume. My book bag rests on on the uncomfortable blue chair with me. 115 to Delaware County Community College. Strangers surround me. A deep feeling of sonder overcomes my mind. Lost in thought. Coughs and cellphone conversations echo throughout. Bing. “Stop Requested” flashes over head. Still a distant humming is coming over my headphones. I come to a stop and feel cool raindrops on my face as I step out and look at the school. “That was a long bus ride.” I thought. This is my reverse outline for my first draft of my room for debate essay. I may post more for my next drafts, as a way for me to critique the essay and better grasp where I need to take it.
Title: The Popes Position in Modern Politics. Thesis Statement: The Popes “radical” directive seems to be praised by the left, condemned by the right, when it should be viewed as the infallible message from the leader of the Catholic Church. Topic Sentences: - The Popes latest released encyclical details certain issues that could be interpreted as more left leaning, as opposed to the message in the past which tended to favor a more conservative approach. - When it comes to how modern day conservatives view Francis, the aim seems to be to discredit him, accusing him of using his message to give leftists the political favor. - The papacy does not favor liberal or conservative, they favor Catholic teachings, and Francis is a prime example of that. Source Material: BBC, World. "How Many Roman Catholics Are There in the World? - BBC News." BBC News. 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. Boyagoda, Randy. "Keep the Pope Out of America’s Jagged Ideological Terrain." 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. Clark, Meghan. "Francis Has Ended the Illusion of a Vatican-G.O.P. Alliance." 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. BBC, World. "How Many Roman Catholics Are There in the World? - BBC News." BBC News. 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. Library, CNN. "Pope Francis Fast Facts - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. Times, Reporter. "10 Memorable Pope Francis Quotes: ‘Who Am I to Judge?’." Reporter-Times. 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. Rebuttal: ClassI arrived early in class this week for my midterm review with Sabatino. I wasn't able to make it earlier because we both had conflicting schedules with work and other classes etc. In our review we went over my Adaptive Mindset essay as well as my draft for my Room for Debate project. We had a nice discussion on my topics and he pointed me in some nice directions on where they should be going. In class we mainly went over our assignment sheet for Room for Debate and how to structure the essay. After that Mangini showed us ways to properly cite our sources, through use of ways such as parenthetical citation, implimenting direct quotes into our work and how to use things like ellipses (...) in those direct quotes. For the like forty-five minutes of class he allowed us to workm on our Room for Debate projects on our own or in groups, but sadly I had to leave early to catch my bus. homeThis week has been rough. Not for the usual reasons of work and all that, something more personal. Someone very close to me has admitted to being addicted to opiates and me and my family are trying our best to work with them on it. It has been hard on us but I try to remember that this is and extremely hard thing to convince your body to kick. The person has agreed to go to rehab, but the system sucks, and apparently there are no beds available until a few weeks from now. I can only hope that we can manage this battle together, and that things work out in our favor.
classIt felt good to be back in class and to see everyone's shinin faces again after a whole 2 weeks of not being there. It was pretty relaxed this week, Sabatino mainly lectured us on subjects like rhetoric, thesis statements, and basic outlines for essay structure. Something he wanted us to focus on especially was thesis statements and how to use them. He gave us an acronym to help us: TPS T- Topic, i.e. what your paper is about. P- Position, i.e. what YOU are saying about your topic. S- Support, i.e. what you are saying to defend your position. An example of a proper thesis statement would be: Gun violence can be reduced in Philadelphia through better efforts in education, law enforcement, and background checks. We also played a funny version of whisper down the lane, in order to give us an example of a rhetorical situation where words can be diluted through hearsay. homeThis week was Halloween, and i went to like 5 different parties. I had originally planned to stay inside and spend it with my family and stuff, but they all went to parties anyway so i made a last minute costume as a mummy and hitched along with some friends. I started off pregaming at my friends houses, then I went to temple, then hopped in a car with my friend to Albright college and ot trashed. I wokeup in a random house where I didn't really know anyone, but luckily I found my friend on the floor and took a long trip back home. Other than that my phone broke :( so i gotta drop alot of money on a new one now. And also i've been working as usual and doing random stuff with friends.
For this assignment we were asked to choose an article from the New York Times Opinion section, Room for Debate, give a summary of both sides in the debate, as well as give our own opinion on the matter. The article I chose is entitled “How Radical is the Pope.” I chose this topic because of the implications it has had on the Church, and being a Catholic myself I am already akin to such topics.
Since Pope Francis has been elected, he's offered criticisms of economic policies in capitalism, and has made statements about how it has affected the poor and how climate change is in part due to capitalism and big business. Many people interpret it as a radicalization of Catholic teachings in order to aide some sort of liberal agenda, while others argue it is merely Catholic teachings being put in place. This in turn escalates to a political level and the influence the Church has on liberal progressives and conservatives. This goes into further detail in an encyclical released by the Holy See earlier in the year. For many years, people grouped the Catholic Church, among other Christian denominations, with the more right leaning Republican party due to their conservative views on topics such as abortion and same-sex marriages. Meghan J. Clark, an assistant professor of moral theology at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., aims to show how Pope Francis is breaking that stereotype. In her article, Francis Has Ended the Illusion of a Vatican-G.O.P. Alliance, Meghan says “...conservatives could conveniently distort or deny Benedict and John Paul II’s critiques of capitalism, of the Iraq war, and their support of the option for the poor”, Meghan says in response to those who support the idea that the pope is allied with the right leaners. Meghan continues with the idea that the pope is truly allied with the Gospel and not political ideologies, and he challenges both those on the right and the left to do some serious soul searching. Michael Brendan Dougherty is a Senior correspondent for The Week magazine and he argues that Pope Francis' message is a bit to politically skewed, and perhaps a bit misguided. In his article, “The Pope Has Put Undue Political Spin on a Spiritual Message” Michael argues the Pope Francis' message about the poor is stuck 40 years behind, as statistics show that the number of people in poverty is dropping significantly. He also argues that, seeing as the pope has shown an interest in a proposal allowing the divorced and remarried communion, feeding the left to view this as “a papal blessing on their own political beliefs.” Others still, argue that Pope Francis' message is stemmed straight from the gospel, and that any familiarity driving it towards a leftist agenda is a misunderstanding of the faith. Randy Boyagoda, in his article "Keep the Pope Out of America's Jagged Ideological Terrain", is in favor of this argument, saying that both liberals and conservative Catholics alike should get out of this idea and look at the deeper meanings behind Pope Francis' words. Randy wants to make it clear that the Pope asserts that human life matters, in the beginning, middle, and the end, and that human life is evermore imperiled by economic strife. I believe that the Popes message is, and always will be, politically skewed to favor some sort of denomination. But for Catholics the message holds much more, we view the Pope as a person whom God's word is directly given. We are to take his words to heart, and meditate on them, giving way to a solution in order to better the world in our own way. Francis is a humble servant of God, who like the rest of us, is susceptible to injustice, but he does his best to communicate with the followers of the Church, in a way further the life of those who struggle. |
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