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Grammar Post

Wrong Word
Have you ever just wanted to dazzle your teacher with a plethora of words in a paper. I know I have and while that may make your work look more impressive you need to be careful to use the correct ones. For example the problem may be that the two words are homynms and you just choose the wrong one. If you are ever unsure look it up, at worst you just add a new word to your vocabulary.

For more check this out:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter3e/20errors/4.asp

America the Beautiful: What We're Fighting For

In "America The Beautiful," author Dinesh D'Souza shares his opinions on how to deal with the threat of Islamic extremists. What I really enjoyed about this piece is that the author went with a logos appeal to convice the reader, he actually gave reasons as to why these groups hate the U.S. rather than going siply begging the question and saying becayse they do.

Why do these people hate us so? D'Souza asserts that it is because of our freedom, we live in a free society. It is their belief that we have allowed ourselves to become corrupted by the evils of the world, and so they They attack us not to destroy property or lives but American self confidence and without that we cannot fight (769). However, as the author points out American rally behind a good cause, and i believe that these attacks are just the thing to do that (769).

So what should we do about them? D'souza suggest tht we demand that countries such as Iran, and Libya get rid of the terror networks themselves, and if they don't comply get rd of the government (775). I thout his idea of how to actually do this was ingenious, he suggested that in Iran a country with a large Democratic oriented middle class all we need do is give them support and direction and they would do the job for us.

In the end the author demands that we as a people not give up because "America is the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence" (779). By being willing to fight and die for ideals we can stand as an example throughout history, but to do that we must preserve and cherish them today (779).

Grammar Post

Comma Splice

Have you ever had a paper marked as having comma splices? Well i have so I looked up a way to fix.

Comma splices occur when only a comma seperates seperate clauses when each clause could stand alone as its own sentence. To correct them you can insert a semicolon or a period, or connect the clauses with words like and or because, or just restructure the sentence.

For more visit:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter3e/20errors/8.asp

Grammar Post

Parentheses

i know we have all see these in our reading, but how many of us know all of the rules for their usage? I certainly didn't so I looked them up and this is what I found:

1. Use them in material that you want to de-emphasize or would not flow normally with the rest of the sentence.
2. If it appears within a sentence do not capitalize or end with a period even if it is a sentence itself. However, an exclamation point or question mark may be appropriate.
3. If the material within is written as a seperate sentence then puctuate as if it were a seperate sentence.

I hope you find this information as helpful as I did.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/parentheses.htm

Breather Assignment Politics and Foreign Affairs

In Iron Man, weapons industrialist Tony Stark after a near death experience involving his own weapons, sets out to change the world first by halting the manufacture of all Stark weapons, and then by donning a high powered suit of armor to become the hero Iron Man. At first glance this movie is as it seems, an action packed blockbuster. However, by looking beneath the surface the viewer can see that this can be seen as an allegory for the United States quite often taking part in world changing events only after its own interests have been threatened.

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I'm Black, You're White, Who's Innocent

I really enjoyed reading Shelby Steele's essay "I'm Black You're White, Who's Innocent," because of his assertion that the issue of race needs to be better dealt with in our scoiety. Race is a serious issue and should be treated as such which is why I appreciacted how Steele used such a strong, clear voice to state his opinions.

He sees all races as being responsible for the current state of affairs. People are making excuses for why things are not ideal. In the anecdote at the beginning of the essay the engineer makes the remark that he does not like his daughter going to a school where she is a minority, I ask why not? His daughter is in an environment where she can be different. I grew up not seeing people as anything more as people. Perhaps it is because of my multiracial background but even today I do not fully understand the conflict of race.

His point that minorities are running away from opportunity was quite compelling. The people who profess to want more out of life are doing stupid thing like dropping out of school then blaming it on race. Honestly they need to hold themselves accountable for their actions, because lable only hold us back.

Grammar Post

The Bracket [ ]

We have all seen the brackets before in writing, but what are they used for?
They can be used to include explanatory words or phrases into quotes such as:
He [James] had stepped off the curb and broke his ankle.

Her is a site that I found useful.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2104888_use-brackets.html

Two Ways aA Woman Can Get Hurt

"Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt,' by Jean Kilbourne provides an in depth look into how sex is used in advertisement and the potential ramifications of it on the perception and safety of women in society.

I can really see how the objectification of women in these kinds of ads could lead to problems,but the fact of the matter is that sex sells. Here they are represented not as people but as things to be coveted like the products they are selling. These women are nonsensically paired with items that have little to do with them, obviously in the hopes that their sexuality will increase sales. As a result of this dehumanization violence is against women in general is becoming more prevalent because as Kilbourne puts it "the person becomes an object and violence is inevitable...the violence, the abuse, is partly the chilling but logical result of the objectification." (429)

Children have also been also been subject to problems presented by these ads. Children are meant to be pure, free of all of the crap of the world, but here they are being exploited in a sexual manner. It seems that every day there is a new story about a child that was kidnapped, raped or worse and on can't help but think that the objectification presented in these ads have something to do with it.

Like Killbourne I see this representation of women in ads to be rather disconcerting, I mean people being viewed as less than what they are is bound to cause problems. These companies are more focused on their short term profits than the effects that could come about as a result of their actions. The best way to deal with it, ignore it. If a public battle is fought over this they will only temporarily pull such ads and use the free publicity caused by the struggle to boost sales. Ignore it completely and they will just disappear.

Killer Culture

Have you ever felt that society is going from bad to worse? Well that is the topic that author David Kupelian investigates in his essay "Killer Culture." We look at kids as a beacon of hope for our society, hoping that one day they will grow up and be intelligent reasonable people, well as time goes on that is happening less and less,

One day you watch as a child recites the Boy Scout values, and the next they are piercing, tattooing and otherwise mutilating any and every body part you can think of; some of them even suspending themselves in the air via hooks embedded in their backs or even purposefully contracting HIV for that "ultimate" sexual high. What can cause such a dramatic change in a person's behavior? Well some might blame it all on the ad companies or the poor role models in the media, or even peer pressure, but the bottom line is that these people are not being made to to these things, they are choosing to do these outlandish and ultimately self destructive things.

How do we prevent this from happening? As the author so fervently suggests we must start with the children. If we can expose them to positive groups and other time tested influences now while thay are most impressionable, they sand a better chance of not becoming a part of this self destructive Killer Culture.

It's and Its

The proper use of it's and its seems to be a common problem for people of all ages, myself included. I'm sure that at some point we were all taught the proper usage but for those like myself who have forgotten here is the rule:
It's is a contration of the two words it and is, while Its is a possesive pronoun.
The website I found for this answer suggested that in times of uncertainty all we have to do is replace the word in question with it is, and if that does not sound right then it probably is not.

http://www.copyblogger.com/5-common-mistakes-that-make-you-look-dumb/

From Seven Floors Up

In her poem "From Seven floors Up," Sharon old uses dramatic contrast to show how different her life is from that of a homeless man that she observes on the street which just from the title one can surmise is some distance away. This woman is watching this man from afar in relative comfort and though she tries to understand his situation, for her that is an impossible task.

The experience to which she can best relate to that homeless man's situation is coming home from a camping trip and being able to use a clean restroom. This man is pushing around a shopping cart filled with"in the world all he has here" and all this woman can do is watch from afar and try to picture herself living such a life.

The overall feel of this poem is that of the harshness presented by a life of homelessness. Having no place to call your own, constantly moving your worldly possessions must feel like a hopeless situation. I found this poem to be rather enlightening in that even though we may not have much, we need to appreciate what we do have because there are those out there with a lot less.

Framing Class

In "Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" author Diana Kendall blames the medial for the unbalanced view of the social classes. Her assertion is that this misrepresentation presented by the media convinced people to forgo simple living in favor of mirroring the lives of the rich and famous.

After having seen so many commercials for horrible shows such as "The Simple Life," I found Kendall's words to be a breath of fresh air, finally someone else has noticed that the media is trying to force this nonsensical crap down our throats. Buying clothes and other products just because a celebrity endorses it is absurd; I remember when I was in middle school many of my fellow students wore the popular fashions, watched the latest shows and I just did not understand why. However now that I am older I understand those things better, all these celebrities are doing is "encouraging unnecessary consumerism."(336)

Ultimately the media is just concerned with money, and what better way to get it than to show people what they want to see. Just looking at the portrayals of the social classes one can see the unbalanced nature of its representation, but all it is is just another way to give the people what they want, which is to look at these people and live vicariously through their experiences in the hopes that it will give their own lives meaning. The decision is left to us the viewer, on how to perceive the media we are shown, should we take it at face value, or look beneath the surface?

Serving in Florida

Barbara Ehrenreich essay "Serving in Florida" is by far my favorite reading for this class thus far. As someone who works in fast food I can appreciate the situation presented in this work. The long hours, the low pay, and the soul crushing atmosphere are enough to make you want to scream.

Ehenreich's vivid use of detail to describe the situations she had to deal with really helped me to sympathize with anyone in that type of situation. Even though my job may not be as bad as those described I can understand the how much serving and cleaning up after unappreciative customers, and employers can make you consider other options.

The cathesis felt by Ehenreich when she walked out of Jerry's is something that I can only envy. Though leaving such a situation may make you feel better in the short term, you are often left wondering what will happen because of the loose strings you left behind.

I Just Wanna Be Average

"I Just Wanna Be Average" by Mike Rose is a great essay about how an inadequate school system can result in lack of ambition for it's students., to illustrate this point rose share his personal experiences concerning schools with the reader. Starting with his first year of high school he was counted out, going so far as to place him on the vocational track, and all because they confused with another Rose. If the school does not believe in the students enough to at least offer them the same classes then how can they be expected to excel.

The answer is they can't. After so much time suffering at the hands of inept teachers rose had lost all ambition in respect to the extraordinary, so much to the point that his goal was "I just wanna be average." A student may see this as a contradiction of the traditional goals of self excellence, but someone can only withstand so much ineptitude before it has an effect on them, so much so that they see mediocrity as a viable goal, so much for a future.

Ultimately Rose had his interest in learning piqued by a memorable english teacher who challenged him to rise above his surrounding and reach for something more. I know from my own experiences that that one inspirational teacher can make all the difference, we are able to learn from them and reach for something more than we have like Rose did we will be so much happier.

School Makes People Stupid?

Have you ever suspected that public school is not doing anyone any real good? Well I have and after reading John Taylor Gatto's essay "Against School," I finally have a better understanding of why, they were not designed to really help people only make them easier to handle. Considering his extensive background I was able to greatly appreciate his outlook on the public school system, most significantly being that the public school system was based on three goals; to make good people, to make good citizens, and to make each person his or her personal best. Nothing about reaching for the stars, living up to your dreams, just the goal of becoming average.

What do we need school for? How were so many famous people like Edison and Washington able to accomplish so much without it? Gatto's answer was concise and well reasoned, these people while not being product of a school "system" they had actually leaarnedwhat they needed from other sources. That fact really struck me as significant in that while anyone can go through the motions of schooling and get a passing grade, it takes someone extraordinary to get something useful out of it.

As Gatto so fervently pointed out, the school system is broken. Rather than help students to mature these school are keeping them in a never ending state of adolescence, so how can we break the cycle? Students need to be taught to be leaders and adventurers rather than employees and consumers, and the best way to do that is to start at home. I know from personal experience that challenging a child to excel is the best motivator there is, and if we cannot get that motivation from school then how about from a parent, or how about yourself, escape the traps of schooling and lean something

Grammar Post

Even the best of us have problems with some parts of grammar, today mine is when to use a semicolon. I try to use them properly, but I keep using other rules in place of the ones for semicolons. The rule for using a semicolon is this: in a coordinating function between major sentence elements such as independent clauses of a compund sentence.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5955_semicolon.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Idiot Nation

Have you ever felt like you are talking to idiots? Frustrated by the fact that so many people just do not understand what you have to say? Have you ever wondered why you feel this way? Well that is just what the infamous Michael Moore explores in his essay "Idiot Nation."

Just from the title one can surmise the topic of this essay and that is that we have become a nation of idiots. What is even more shocking is that we have come to accept this. The way thaat Moore presented his facts was quite persuasive to say the least, and each one backed with statistics. One of the more interesting points that he makes is that there are 44 million Americans who cannot read above a fourth grade level, which is a baffling large amount no matter what country you are in. What about those who can? you may ask, they don't even bother to read a daily newspaper. I ask, if people do not read how do they learn?

The answer is that they don't. Moore drives this point home with the example of how 556 senior all from prestigious schools were given a test that could be described as "high school" level. The results they were only got 53 percent of the answers correct. Am I the only one shocked by that? These students are supposed to be the creme De la creme and apparently they should not have graduated high school. This apathy toward idiocy has become so prevalent that even those who should be the thinkers and leaders of tomorrow are getting away with it.

Now to be fair this could not possibly be the student's fault right? After all it's the teacher's fault that these kids didn't learn enough right? They must be accountable for the alarming preformance of their students right? No, actually that would be our fault for allowing things to go this far as Moore was so unafraid to point out. If we put no value on education then how can we expect things to get any better? My general policy as applied to most things is this, you can only complain if you have done sommething about the problem, and that is what we must do. Get involved, teach someone to read and understand at a higher level, do so yourself as well, try to help mend this Idiot Nation of ours, after all clicking our heels together and wishing very hard is not getting the job done.

"Changing American Families"

In her essay "Changing American Families," Judy Root Aulette gives an extremely detailed analysis of the relationship of family to race, gender roles and social status.

I found the part on the upper class to be quite disconcerting. Their apparent need to maintain their status in the social hierarchy seems to be the driving force behind most of their actions. Marriage within the class is considered to be very important, something I found to be very shocking. I could not bear the thought of marrying someone based on status, but then I am not that shallow. I found the importance of volunteer work to be equally strange, as they are not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts or a need to change the world it is all a show to as Aulette quoted "uphold the power and privilege of their class in the social order of things.

After growing up in a middle class family I cannot help but be biased in favor of it. I really enjoyed the fact that family could be so close knit, that no matter what the problem there was someone to talk to so I that I could work through it. I found the study of the Black middle class to be especially interesting in that it is similar to how I grew up, the emphasis of hard work and education as a means of success. While I agree that geographic mobility is a potential problem for the middle class i have found that if someone really wants to keep in touch with family then they will.

Many aspects of the working class family appealed to me because they are things that I believe are important such as marriage for love and the importance of family. I found the idea of a community helping to rear a child to be interesting in that it seems to transcend racial boundaries. While this class may not have the money or status of the others they tend to understand the importance of taking care of one another.

In all I found this essay to be very informative, not only that it gave what I feel to be a reasonably non biased look at all these groups that we know little about but want to understand.

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What We Really Miss About the 1950's

In Stephanie Coontz essay "What We Really Miss About the 1950's" she makes an interesting analysis of what we think we miss about bygone eras.

In a poll done by the Knight-Ridder news agency 1996 38 percent of respondents chose the 1950's as the best decade for children to grow up, and why not? The 1950's was an era of economic growth and prosperity families left and right were living the American Dream a house with a white picket fence, family dinners, everything in the style of "Leave it to Beaver." But then what's on the surface is not always as it appears. While exploring this yearning for the past Coontz brings to light the problems with trying to emulate such a lifestyle presents, by trying to reach this level of social perfection they are trying to get over any family dysfunction they have. They see it and want it to become a reality because it gives them comfort, but in the end setting such an unattainable standard can lead more to disillusionment.

Something that I found very interesting was the role of women in this era. During the 1940's these women had worked in factories and kept their families together while the men were off to war, but once their husbands came back everything changed. The men came home to women who had changed in their absence and rather than accept that and try to build off of it they tried to as Coontz put it "reassert their domestic authority." I found it sad that these strong and independent women who had held things together had been "Rosie the Riveter," were reduced to the role of housewife rather than the equal partners the should have been.

On a final thought I just want to ask why do people so favor the 1950's? It was a time of great economic progress, a time where less emphasis was put on the need for school because one could become a success without it, however these things did not come without a cost. The level of discrimination and ignorance needed to bring about these gains was to great too great. If progress means putting others down and reaching for the clearly unattainable then in the end the ends do not justify the means.

Hi, my name is Scott Colon and welcome to my blog.
While I'd like to dedicate this page for the purpose of literary discussion and the like, feel free to post anythig pertinet to current topics.

Now for a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Santa Ana, California which is rather close to Los Angeles and Newport Beach. I'm the second of four children and as such I am quiet by nature(so please don't be offended if I am less than sociable around you.) I graduated with honors and 45 college units from Middle College High School in May of 2004, from there I continued school at Santa Ana College until I moved to Saint George with my family in Summer 2006. I've been out of school for three years now and am eager to finish off my bachelors in Criminal Justice ASAP.

I've enjoyed reading from an early age and have done so in many genres ranging from action/adventure to westerns. My thoughts tend to side with logic so be forewarned that most of my opinions will be clear cut and to the point.

I look forward to any and all opinions and topics of discussion, so once again I say welcome and good blogging.