CLASS JOURNAL WRITING PLANFossum-English 12
How This Works:
- Most classes will begin with 15 minutes of writing. At the end of the allotted time you will hand in your page. Writing will be graded for completion and stored in individual writing folders.
- If you are absent, your writing becomes homework to be handed in upon yourreturn.
- Since speed is more important than accuracy for this daily writing, spellingand grammar will not be marked.
- You will receive 10 points for each entry based on aMINIMUM of one page (double spaced)---18 lines. You must be writing/revising/reading the entire time to receive credit.
- Write on one side of a page only---feel free to write more than a page.
- Return all completed/marked entries to personal writing folder.
- When required, usually about once a month, you will choose a piece of writingto polish and perfect. This writing will be marked for creativity and style andmechanical correctness.
- Each week choose a different topic within the specific category. You may write on a topic of your choice, as long as your writing fits the assigned purpose: descriptive, process, compare/contrast….
WEEK ONE: PERSONAL STATEMENT
Sept 9-13
WEEK TWO: PERSONAL REMINISCENCE
Sept 16-20
WEEK THREE: PROBLEM/SOLUTION
Sept 23-27
WEEK FOUR: CAUSE AND EFFECT
Sept 30-Oct 4
WEEK FIVE: SUMMARY REPORT
Oct 7-11
WEEK SIX: ESSAY OF EVALUATION
Oct 15-21
WEEK ONE: PERSONAL STATEMENT Sept 9-13
A personal or autobiographical essay that many colleges, universities, and professional schools require as part of the admissions process.The personal statement comes from inside you, passionate and gutsy. Its composition is organic, a natural growth dictated by an obscure, internal logic. You don’t “make it up”; instead you listen. You “get it down.”Generally, a personal statement focuses on life experiences, reflections, lessons learned, plans and long term goals.
Sample Opening Lines:
- I almost didn't live through September 11th, 2001.
- When I was 8 years old, I shocked my family and a local archaeologist by discovering artifacts dating back almost 3,500 years.
- When I was in eighth grade I couldn't read.
- Cancer tried to defeat me, and it failed.
- I have old hands.
- I'll never forget the day when my childhood nightmares about fighting gigantic trolls in the Lord of the Rings series became a reality. Sword in hand and clad in medieval samurai armor, I dragged myself into the battleground as I faced my opponent, a warmongering giant.
- As an Indian-American, I am forever bound to the hyphen.
- I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks.
Sample Essay
How I Stopped Being a Ghost and Started Eating Sambal
Julian, my ten-year old brother, has an irrational dislike of cheese. He will not knowingly eat anything that has cheese, and in fact the simple mention of cheese may very well throw him into a fit. Bizarrely, one of his favorite foods is pizza and he will quite happily eat any dish so long as no one mentions it contains cheese. Julian’s predilection annoys me not only because my favorite thing to eat is cheesecake, but also because it reminds me that as a kid I had an even stranger quirk: I refused to eat Asian food.
A word of background is in order. My mother is Chinese, originally from Malaysia. I straddle two cultures because I am half-Chinese and half-Caucasian. As a child, I would go to Malaysia each summer with my family to see my mother’s relatives. As a child, I did not understand why my Dad would turn heads on the street or how he had the ability to stop people in their tracks. My mother had married a foreigner and in her small hometown of Bahau, an “Orang Puteh,” (white person in Malay), was few and far between. I did not make blending in any easier by refusing to eat Asian food.
One of the most notable aspects of Malaysia is the various cuisines to be found there: Chinese, Thai, Middle Eastern, Malay, and Indian foods are all to be had in great and glorious quantity. As my mother says, Malaysian food was fusion cuisine before fusion was cool. However, while everybody in the family was eating more and more exotic dishes, I would insist on Kentucky Fried Chicken or Happy Meals, no matter how difficult or inconvenient they were to obtain. The irony is that nowadays I actively seek out hotter and spicier dishes.
What caused this change of heart? I suppose a psychologist might say that I had an epiphany one day that my refusal to eat Asian foods reflected some internal subconscious conflict or denial of my true nature. After all, this was not about happily trying to “Super Size” myself, as I played hockey and baseball, sports where speed is essential. Perhaps the true story is more prosaic; the jury is still out. One of my uncles – ironically the biggest foodie in the family – became a very devout Buddhist and a strict vegetarian. So when we stayed with him in Kuala Lumpur, we then needed to find a place that could satisfy the many different tastes and dietary requirements of twenty to thirty relatives. That was when I discovered the food court.
The food court closest to my uncle’s house was literally the size of a football field, with the sidelines and end zones packed with vendors creating every conceivable form of cuisine. This place was wild. Indians were eating next to Malays, Chinese next to Australian ex-pats. Who or what you were mattered little; what was important was what you were ordering. There were stalls serving chicken and rice, seafood, noodles, soups, pastries, vegetables, satay, and even “French” crepes. I got to know the crepes vendor well and he would even start one up as soon as he saw me approach. After two weeks, I finally started sampling small bits of all the dishes being passed around. I was not really eating Asian food, I thought – I was eating French food with a few nibbles on the side.
One summer later, the nibbles got bigger and the crepes smaller until I was finally through the looking glass.
One Chinese expression for white people is "Gwai Lo," which means “ghost man.” I am part ghost; I am part Han Chinese. In many ways, I have been caught between two worlds, American and Asian, New York and Malaysia, listening carefully always but not always understanding where I fit in. However, food has become a bridge between these two parts of myself. In food, I have come to understand myself and am now one of the family’s more adventurous eaters. Crabs in sambal (chili and shrimp paste)? Send them right in.
Yet, for some reason I still cannot get Julian to eat cheese.
Justin R. Anderson '14
Trinity School, New York, NY
For this week, choose from the following to write as reflectively and authentically as possible:
- What errors or regrets have taught you something important about yourself?
- When have you been so immersed in what you were doing, that time seemed to evaporate while you were actively absorbed?
- What ideas, books, theories or movements have made a profound impact on you – be honest.
- To what extent do your current commitments reflect your most strongly-held values?
- Where or how do you seem to waste the most time?
- Under what conditions do you do your best, most creative work?
- To what extent are you a typical product of your generation and/or culture? How might you deviate from the norm?
WEEK TWO: PERSONAL REMINISCENCE --Sept 16-20
Similar to the timeline essay, this type of writing demands that the writer ask, “What have been the defining experiences in my life.” Stated another way---“what specific events have made a difference to me.” Your goal is to re-create a specific time and place so it comes alive for your readers. Use smiley-face tricks of specific details, figurative language, and expanded moment to embellish the particular scene. For this example, use a DIFFERENT experience from the one you wrote about in the timeline essay.
“It's about giving the kind of vivid detail that good movies do naturally. Think in terms of scenes:
•Opening scene: I remember it was raining, at night, and it was warm out
•Place: We were at my girlfriend's house, and were arguing, as usual.
•Time: It was the summer of 1985.
•Details: radio playing, dialogue, feelings, etc.”
Read pp. 148 to 151 in Write for College for good examples.
Sample Personal Reminiscence:
I remember when we came back to the line of battle that morning, F.C. Tweedy, a brother of Bennett, who from some cause had not gone with us, came to us and said, "Where is Bennett?" Someone replied, "Bennett was killed." "Ferd" then threw up his hands and exclaimed, "Oh, my God!" I shall never forget the agonized tone of Ferd's voice; it was if his very soul was pierced through and through.—FromThe Capture of Plymouth--Personal Reminiscences of the War of 1861-5
“I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s in a small white community on the edge of the Cattaraugus Seneca Indian Reservation in western New York State. Relations between Indians and whites in my world were bitter.”
“I received my death sentence in September 2006 when doctors told me I had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressively paralyzing neuromuscular disorder. There is no cure. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease after the Yankee Hall of Famer who died of it, ALS is so uncommon that medical researchers consider it an ‘orphan’ illness.”
For this week, choose from the following to write as reflectively and authentically as possible:
1. A favorite Thanksgiving memory
2. A favorite Christmas (or other holiday) memory
3. A first memory you have of being five (or six, or seven) years old
4. A time when you realized your parent(s) were fallible
5. A time when a family member “had your back”
6. Your Choice of a personal reminiscence—happy, sad, embarrassing, etc.
WEEK THREE: PROBLEM/SOLUTION—Sept 23-27
The writer examines all aspects of a problem (personal, social, political, etc.) and then suggests a reasonable solution, often explaining why other solutions will not work. The effectiveness of this type of essay depends on how well you understand the issue in its complexity and share your insight with your readers.
Be sure to include all steps and arrange them in sequence.
- Has a reasonable solution to a real problem been suggested?
- Is the writing perceptive? The opening engaging? The conclusion logical?
- Will the readers appreciate the treatment of the subject (and not be put off, angered, or bored)?
Sample Essay
It seems like a catch-22: students shouldn’t drive until they have logged enough experience to be fully aware of the dangers of the road, but they can’t gain that experience unless they are actually driving. How can we limit teens while ensuring that they receive the experience they need to make them safe drivers?
Lately there has been a heated discussion in the media—and at this high school—about a proposal beforethe state senate. This proposal would institute graduated driver’s licenses for drivers ages 16 to 18. Such a program would restrict teens’ driving privileges, only granting them new privileges as they become more experienced behind the wheel.
There would be three stages involved in acquiring a license. The first stage would be nearly the same as the current system: for three to six months, a teen would have a learner’s permit requiring a licensed adult driver to be present in the car. The second stage would allow the teen to drive alone during the day, but would require an adult present at night—the time when most teenage accidents occur. After driving accident-free for nine months to a year in stage two, the teen would graduate to the third stage: an unrestricted license.
States that have already instituted such programs have had great success: teen accidents have been reduced by 5% to 16% (U.S. News Online). Also, fewer accidents have been fatal, perhaps because teens who do break the law and drive alone at night drive more carefully for fear of being caught. Many of my classmates complain loudly about having their “rights” violated by the graduated license system, but loud as they are, they are quiet compared to the statistics.
Graduated licenses save lives, reduce the number of accidents, and make the streets safer for everyone. If teens want unlimited access to the roads of our country, let them earn the privilege—by showing they are mature enough to handle the responsibility.
For this week, choose from the following to address a problem with a thoughtful solution as thoroughly (and entertainingly) as possible:
1. The school lunch time and/or food offerings at school
2. Finding activities for underage teens in Ashburn that are affordable, safe, and enjoyable
3. Getting the college experience if your family can’t afford to pay
4. Handling divorced parents
5. Obesity in America (alternatively, eating disorders, other growing health problems)
6. Facebook stalking, cyber bullying, problems of privacy, self-esteem
7. Cheating, laziness, and/or overtesting in American schools
8. Your choice of a problem affecting modern day teens/young adults
WEEK FOUR:CAUSE AND EFFECT Sept 30-Oct 4
A cause/effect essay is based on a writer’s careful examination of a timely issue. In this essay, the first task is to identify the most important points related to the topic. The second is to make a clear cause/effect connection between each point. The effectiveness of this essay depends on how well the writer is able to establish sound, logical relationships between all of the main points.
Effects Of Watching Too Much TV
Discoveries and invention of devices are always welcome till we, humans, find a way to abuse its benefits and be adversely affected by it. This was the case when Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-ray and within five years, the British Army was using a mobile x-ray unit to locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers in the Sudan. TV was also invented with positive thoughts in mind – there would be no national borders, education and communication would be worldwide, etc. However, we are now trying to overcome its physiological and psychological adverse effects on human beings.
One of the physiological effects of watching TV in excessive amounts is eye-strain. It is true that there are specifications for watching TV; TV should be 5 m. away from the eye, the room should be adequately lit, TV should be placed at the same height with our eyes, etc. However these do not prevent our eyes from getting tired if we keep watching TV for a long time. Another effect is obesity, which is widely observed in people who like watching TV and eating snacks everyday (there is even a term “TV snacks” to refer to fast food that is suitable for eating in front of the TV). TV is such a powerful machine that people cannot get away from it – it is addictive.
Apart from the physiological effects, TV also causes psychological effects. One is a result of being exposed to violence. After seeing so many violent scenes on TV, people start considering violent actions normal and they lose their sensitivity to their environment. Partly connected to this effect, the interpersonal communication among people decreases. Being insensitive to the suffering of other people causes people to become alienated. Also, after coming home from work people seek to relax in front of the TV, and generally people prefer watching TV to talking to each other. This issue is very important since lack of interpersonal relationships mostly end with divorces.
Shortly, inventions are meant to be beneficial for human beings, if we know how to benefit from them. TV is one of such inventions that need to be used for the right purpose only – being educated and entertained for a reasonable (according to age) period of time. We may, then, be safe from or at least reduce the adverse physiological and psychological effects of watching too much TV.
Written by OyaOzagac, September 2004
For this week, choose from the following to identify why the particular issue is relevant and what are the consequences of the issue:
1. The Dream Act for Immigration—allowing immigrants get drivers’ licenses, go to college, etc.
2. The tax code and implications on various income levels
3. Steroids in professional athletics
4. Climate change
5. Marijuana legalization
6. Drinking age---or driving age
7. Business, employment, minimum wage…etc.
8. Technology in schools, the workplace, social arena…
9. Your choice on current topic in news, local, nationally, or internationally
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CLASS JOURNAL WRITING PLANFossum-English 12
WEEK FIVE: SUMMARY REPORT --Oct 7-11