Coopers Blog

My writing has improved through out this semester. I got better about run on sentences and learned how to break them up so that they still make sense. I also learned how to properly cite sources in MLA format, and m works cited page improved drastically. MLA format and citations have been a process-induced challenge. Figuring out how to properly cite sources in a one format when there are many other formats to write in. The formatting and writing became easier later in the semester after I had constantly written papers. The writing became smooth and started to just flow. All the things I struggle with in writing have improved this semester. I listened to an instructor’s guidance and made the corrections that I needed to make in my papers. Mrs. Vance taught me a lot about writing and formatting my essays. Without her I wouldn’t be as good of a writer I am now.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is my favorite story we have read so far. The grandmother is funny in the story and she end up being right. She does not want her family to go to Florida because of the Misfit, or a criminal. Her children and grandchildren do not listen and they diminish her for wanting to go somewhere like Tennessee. As they are on their way to Florida, the car they were all traveling in wrecks. The Misfit then finds them, and the grandmother knew she was right not to go to Florida for this reason. If the family would have listened to the grandmother, they would all still be alive. The Misfit and his crew shot the grandmother and her family. The grandmother talks like a lady and the Misfit says that if she were to be shot everyday then she would have made a good lady.

Zora Neale Hurston has made many famous quotes. My favorite quote from Hurston is “It’s no use of talking unless people understand what you say.” This quote is saying that talking to close minded people who do not understand what you are saying is almost a pointless argument. If a person does not understand what you are saying, it is just going in one ear and out of the other. An argument cannot be made if someone does not understand the opposite of the argument. This quote has a deep meaning that is telling people to think before they speak, and know who they are speaking to. Talking to people who do not understand your point of view is just like wasting breath because they will not understand what you are trying to get across. Always think before you speak.

Everybody struggles with internal conflicts. My internal conflict is baseball here at Chattahoochee Valley. In high school I was considered to be good, that is how I got to Chattahoochee Valley, but there are also other good players, and that is how we all got here. I did not start barely any in the fall and my confidence was depleting. I decided to do something about it. I started working harder at every practice and workout. I am hoping to eventually find my starting spot in the spring season, the season that really matters. I am still struggling with my internal conflict because it is a lot of hard work to beat some of the best players here out of their spot. I am just going to continue working hard to get where I want to be and become a better baseball player.

“Desiree’s Baby” was my least favorite reading in class this year. It had such a predictable ending that it made some of story boring. Desiree had a bay that was not born white because of the baby’s biological father, who’s mother had African American as part of her ancestry. They treated her differently, when it was not even her fault that the baby was not white. It was the father’s, but Desiree was treated poorly. It was predictable the way the father was acting through the middle of the story. I did not want to finish the book after that because I already knew what would happen, but I still think it is important to keep it on the reading list. Although it is predictable, it still teaches about the history of what the world was like back in the 1800’s for kids who do not know what the world use to be like.

In my essays I always have had trouble formatting because I normally forget that papers must be in a specific format and it can sometimes throw off my thoughts. My thoughts are another issue. I always have trouble finding the perfect words to put in my essay. I struggle to complete my thoughts for a good essay. I can have a thought in my head, but completing it on paper is a difficult writing task for me. Also doing the works cited format is another struggle. My papers have gotten better through out the semester, but these are some of things I continue to struggle with. The formatting is probably my weakest point just because they are so many different types of essay formatting that I often forget which one to use, and thinking about having the formatting perfect can throw my thoughts off for completing and turning in a worthy essay.

Irony is everywhere we look. Irony is the opposite of the effective result. I have watched Monster’s Inc. more times than I can count, and it created much irony. The monsters in this movie are supposed to scare many children every night. The monsters are considered to be the scary, but a child ends up getting loose in the Monster’s factor. The child that ends up in the work place of the monsters ends up scaring the monsters. This ironic because the monsters are supposed to scare the children, but the children really scare the monsters. When the monsters all become afraid it is the ironic moment, or the “got ya” moment in the movie. Irony is displayed everywhere we turn our heads, and it can usually have a deeper meaning.

Writing papers comes with ups and downs. My biggest complaint about writing papers is that I know what I want my paper to sound like in my head, but getting it on the paper is the hardest part of writing. I always have the ideas in my head, but putting them in words is my biggest frustration when writing papers, but once it starts flowing the paper is how it should be. Getting the words from my head to the paper is my biggest complaint when writing papers, also because sometimes I have to change the paper many times to get it how I want it. Once I had the perfect idea for a paper, but had to eventually changed my topic because the idea in my head was almost impossible to get on paper, and that is my biggest complaint for writing papers.

After scrolling through the 12 common errors link, I feel like I have a really hard time with commas. I never know when is the right time to use them and when not to. Ive always been told to make sure you don’t use too many commas because it can make the sentence choppy and hard to read. Commas are by far my biggest enemy, but I also sometimes have trouble with making my pronouns clear. Sometimes my pronouns make literally zero sense to be where they are, but hey, we’re learning and I plan to learn a lot this year to fix the mistakes I make when writing.

This book has taken a completely new meaning to me as an adult that it did when I was a kid. As a kid you never fully understand the true meanings of books. Yes, you scratch the surface in a broad understanding but not in the way when you’re an adult. As an adult “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, has taken a whole new meaning to me. I understand the deeper themes and ideas in the book. As a child I thought it was just a cool story about a kid playing with monsters. As an adult I see that Sendak strategically used the monsters in the book to present a major theme. That theme is that no matter how big or small you are, you are always capable of taming your beasts.