Woolf Reading Journal

The most obvious and effective mode Woof uses is Narration. Her entire work is full of rich and captivating descriptions as well as a multitude of adjectives that range from physical to symbolic meanings. What really brings light to her work is the narration of these descriptive events, not only does being able to imagine you in her place, watching as the small insignificant moth struggles are you able to emotionally connect with her. The realization that this piece is not meant to just tell the story of an unfortunate moth, but how death in unexpected and can happen even happen at the most peaceful of times. She states in narration,

 "I looked out of doors. What had happened out there? Presumably it was mid-day, and work in the fields had stopped. Stillness and quiet had replaced the previous animation. The birds had taken themselves off to feed in the brooks. The horses stood still." In this section of the narration she describes how peaceful the outdoors is, that there should have been no danger to the small moth and yet, he struggled for his life on her window sill no hints to what had happened. She then states the meaning of her narration, "One could only watch the extraordinary efforts made by those tiny legs against an oncoming doom which could, had it chosen, have submerged an entire city, not merely a city, but masses of human beings; I knew had any change against death". That death is unstoppable, that even she would have to face the phenomenon that is death.

Harjo Reading Journal

Suzan Shown Harjo brings up the topic of Native American remains, and whether they should have the same equality as those who are not Native American. She states that Native American ancestors are treated as science experiments rather than actual people who once lived lives. In her thesis she uses pathos rather than ethos to appeal to the reader. In her evidence the tone also takes a pathos position, giving you information that manipulates the reader into agreeing with her. She constructs her argument by giving you evidence and the reason the researchers gave to exhuming remains and playing on the fact of it being an inhumane act.

Liu Reading Journal

Lui’s narration is full of adjectives that can whisk you from your dining room table to the bustling streets of chinatown. In one scene he describes  the streets of chinatown, “I kept an eye out on the sidewalk too, so that I wouldn’t soil my shoes in the putrid water that trickled down from the alleyways and into the parapet of trash bags piled up on the curb” emphasizing the filth around him in way you could visualize the

scenery.

As stated before, Liu uses vivid sensory to transport the reader into the places he is describing, for example “It looked like an earnest community library, crowded rows of chest high shelves. In the narrow aisles between shelves patrons sat cross-legged on the floor, reading intently” in which he describes as small bookstore he enters with his family. Liu’s word usage such as fortified gives the details a much more described feeling.  

Baker Reading Journal

Baker’s audience is more than likely targeted towards students. There are two probable types of students he could be speaking to, either students who enjoy writing and are possibly considering it as a career or those who don’t and find composition mundane. When he states “The notion of becoming a writer had flickered off and on in my head since the Belleville days, but it wasn’t until my third year in highschool that the possibility took hold.” From this you can he had an interest in writing, but he hadn’t always enjoyed it “until then I’d been bored by everything associated with English courses” In which he admits to finding writing once boring and more a nuisance than an enjoyment.

Baker's actual short story is obviously in a formal structure , but his tone tells another story. His personal experiences and use of informal wording gives off an informal tone that keeps the reader interested. For example “I took the list home and dawdled before the night the essay was due” in this quote he uses the word dawdled to describe his procrastination the night before his assignment was due, something most of his reader who are students can relate to.    

E.B. White Reading Journal

E.B White’s Once More to the Lake, narration was exceptionally good, because of the amount of description he used and the mood of nostalgia he often portrayed. The strategy of keeping his anonymous helped him describe the way he found himself thinking of the past, and putting himself in his son’s shoes while feeling like he was watching through his father’s point of view. The most effective narrative element he used was Man vs self, although the build up to the realization was slow. It creeped up to at the last few moments and swallowed you whole. For example “The had been no years between the ducking of this dragonfly and the other one- the one that was part of memory. I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. I felt dizzy and didn’t know which rod I was at the end of” In which he feels himself in the spot of his son, losing grip of reality and feeling the nostalgia hit him. It’s not until the end that you realize exactly why he uses this strategy, where he states “ Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy icy garment. As he buckled his swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” It’s here that he realizes that he in fact, is not his son and that he was getting older and his realization of mortality hit him.

The putt putt incident

Elizae Asim

David Glen Smith

English 1301: Composition

7/13/2016

Personal Narrative Free writing

            When it comes to nostalgic and negative memories, there could be a plethora of occasions to reminisce, but specifically with a sporting event that screams out to me, there is one known to my family as “the putt putt incident” that occurred during summer in Michigan. My first cousin, Humza had just turned seven, maybe eight years old and his wish was to spend the day at a mini golf center near his house. Why would a small child want to spend the entire day playing golf, instead of the cliché Chuck E Cheese party? I have no idea. That is still a detail that mystifies me to this very day. We had arrived at the mini golf center in the morning, I remember being vaguely jealous of his Pokémon T shirt, while looking down at my own pastel yellow shirt with “Munchkin” printed on the front in disdain.

 I then also found that I was horrible at golf, and that no matter how hard I tried I never got anywhere. There were a few times I enjoyed the course, specifically an area of the course that was a giant lake with a waterfall, it was covered in lily plants and had a million golf balls in it. That was also where my cousin almost took a nosedive into said water after flinging his golf ball into the water, but by the end of the day and after barely avoiding blinding my sister I promised myself I would never play golf again, even if my life depended on it.