#9

In my writing, I tend to use very simple sentence structure like “They did…and they did…” that make my essay so boring. As a second language speaker, I’ve been taught subject and verb are need to make complete sentence. Therefore, even though I acknowledge my writing pattern, I prone to use so many of simple sentences. I will try not to use the simple structure and change them to give variety as I revise my drafts and read them several times to fix the pattern.  

I also make a lot of errors in tenses. I usually get confused by perfect tense and past tense. This error cause my essay to seem mixed up and makes no sense at all. Even I try to fix my tense errors by read my writing several times, it is difficult for me to recognize them and correct them in right tenses. So I will try to work with tutors to improve my skills in writing particularly in tenses. And I will be more pay attention as I revise my drafts and read my essay sevreal times just looking for repeating words. 

In my writing, I always try to use my word and my sentence. Just like using simple subject verb sentence structure, repeating the same words makes my writing tedious and boring. Because my vocabulary is weak, I tend to use easy words and use the same words in writing several times. Lack of variety in words and structure will decrease reader’s attention and it is not a good writing. To improve my vocabulary power, I will try to read more books and use diverse words in writing. Also I will be more careful not to use the same word as I revise my drafts.

#8

According to the article “The $78 million bag”, the author debates the importance of legalization and regulation of marijuana. Local laws and enforcement of marijuana carry out unevenly and unfairly and it costs tremendous amount of money, $78 million. City and county officials are wasting their time and money for arresting, prosecuting, and jailing people who even possesses small amount of weed. It hinders court system and costs lots of money to running the system. Cook County residents are paying $70 million a year to arresting and prosecuting mediocre crime and $8 million cost to tax payers. The author stated African-Americans account arrests and convictions are high for this type of crime. Also, the money is leaking by paying overtime policemen who appearing in court for five minute. The huge amount of money should come out of taxpayer’s pocket and while those can be used for severe crimes. Officials from the departments stated that the state and federal should handle the main changes in marijuana law. However, the officials have not discussed the issue yet; they even avoided and ignored to face it. The writer cited that you get a ticket or get in lockup for possessing small amounts of drugs depend on where you live since the law enforced unfairly. The marijuana law should be legalized, regulated, and taxed by the state and federal level to stop waste our money and our time.

I couldn’t choose my topic article from blackboard until I read the article about online civil complaint. “We The People” is an internet civil complaint website which was opened last month by White House. On the website, about 201 petitions went up and 13 of them were about marijuana. Also the total number of signed petitioners is about 10 million and the most popular petition is legalization of marijuana with 56,000 signed petitioners. However, there is no response at all. I started to think about the drug uses and how our money is using by government. The article $78 million bag became an interesting topic after I read the article about civil complaint website and I choose to discuss it.

Assignment #7

I’m trying to make progress on my goal for the class that is learning critical thinking and use it to my academic life. I have just finished only two papers and these different types of writing and reading. It is still hard to write and read well in English as a second language speaker. I find out that peer reviewing is very helpful for me as a writer. It is very embarrassed to show my first draft to others. However, I am taking advantages from peer reviewing such as finding pattern of my errors in grammar and sentence structure. We have spent lots of time to group discussion on the reading. Actually, I don’t think it is very helpful. Even I read the text several times; I couldn’t understand the context without Ms. Spencer’s explanation. (Maybe because I’m a second language speaker?) Therefore, I didn’t say a lot of things about the text I read during group discussion. I think it would be nice and clear to understand if we just discuss altogether with instructor paragraph by paragraph. I think my writing is getting better than the beginning of semester (but very very very tiny amount). On my first paper, I learned that I need to focus on the topic and tenses. I made many mistakes in grammar and sentence structures. I need to practice on the writing and try hard to write college level paper. Already half of semester is gone. I will do my best to improve my writing skills and to achieve my goal in academic life for the last of the semester.

#6 Ad analysis essay vs Literacy narrative essay

Purpose of literacy narrative essay is telling a story as a reader or writer. The ad analysis essay’s purpose is giving information. The audience of both essays is similar. It can be teacher, classmates, and etc. The tone of literacy narrative is variety, for instance, humorous, pleasant, nervous, vibrant, and so on. In contrast, ad analysis essay’s tone would be more serious, informative, persuasive, and etc. The genre of literacy narrative essay is storytelling and detailed. The ad analysis’s genre is variety such as, jewelry, food, car, electronic device, and etc. The ad analysis is logically breaking up of the topic to make it easier to understand.