When composing my research paper about if America should make Community College free for everyone, I really couldn’t work with anyone when composing this argumentative paper. I think it was a good approach because it’s my argument and I have the research to back it up. I did have options to go to other people and ask them for their opinions but I have the evidence that support my argument in my paper so why bother. I wrote this project in a course of 4 days if you don’t include the day I looked for my research links then it would be 5 days. I changed my environment of where I wrote and did most of it in the school library instead of my room. I was shocked by the quality of my writing but not surprised of how much I completed and felt like it drastically got better since my life-choice memoir. With no distractions around me I could have gotten a lot more done in a lot less time. I chose the topic of making community college free in the U.S. because debt is going to be something majority of college students are going to have to deal with debt when they graduate. I thought it was a good choice because I can see ways that the government can make it possible to make it free. During the time I put into the research and composing my argument I felt good and prepared for when I was putting everything together. Since I finished the paper, I did see what I could do to make some revisions and plan on making them for my final portfolio. I should add more to my conclusion and maybe make one more argument on why America should make community college free. I also need to add more citations and make more arguments instead of stating just facts but also support all of them with evidence.
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When I was composing my life-choice memoir I knew right away what I was going to write about and who I was going to go to when I needed other people's point of view on what happened that day. I had no choice but to write about the final day when my family was in the hospital before my grandfather’s passing. I went to my Parents, Uncle, and Aunt to hear what their day went like before, during, and after the hospital incase there was anything I missed that I could have included in my life-choice memoir. The rhetorical modes I used for this assignment were description and narration. It took me about 3 days to complete the project which I felt was a good approach at first then realized I should have given it more time. On top of that doing this in my room was probably the worst place I could have possibly written it. Honestly doing it infront of my T.V. would have been better because there are a lot less distractions there than in my room. Things that could have distracted me were obviously social media, online games, the fact I have been remodeling my room for about half the semester, the new crossbow I recently started building, and the list just continues. I chose the topic of letting my grandfather go for a few reasons. First I couldn’t think of a more tragic event that occured in my life. Second, it was pretty recent and as I mentioned in my paper it was “burned into my memory”. Third, it had to do with my best friend and this type of paper couldn’t have been a better fit than this. Honestly when I was writing this narrative and heard other families members outlook from it, I did start feeling dead inside and all this brought me back to that day. After I wrote it I felt like I accomplished something and felt good that I was able to share this experience with others. I do have “if only” moments because I could have maybe included more but thought it was too personal and didn’t think my family would appreciate it if I put it out in my narrative. I do need to revise my first draft by turning it from a summary into scenes. I already know what I’m not going to do and that is write this paper in my room. By approaching this in a library I know I will get a lot more done and I can produce a much better draft that way.
In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore invaded multiple countries throughout the world and use the ideas that they have that made their countries what they are today, and bring them to the U.S. to solve the problems that no army can solve. People seem to be happy in other countries with their current lifestyles and not as stressed as others. Here are 3 different topics, research questions, and arguments I have come up with regarding the film Where to Invade Next:
Topic: Drug Usage Research Question: Should all drugs be legalized in all U.S.? Argument: In some states in the U.S. and in other countries around the world drug possession and usage is legalized. So why not make it legal in all of U.S.? Topic: Education System Research Question: Can America adapt to a free education system that makes at least Community College free for those that want the education? Argument: College tuition is free in other countries around the world so why can’t America at least give a 2 year school free education that way if someone that can’t afford a 4 year school wants the education they have the option to do Community College first for 2 years. Topic: Vacation days Research Question: Should Americans receive more vacation days per year when they work more hours per week than citizens of other countries? Argument: Americans receive on average 2-3 weeks of vacation per year when working a fulltime job, where in other countries they can receive up to 7-8 weeks of vacation. It relieves stress when being on vacation and for all the hours people put into their job it is well deserved. In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore invaded multiple countries throughout the world and use the ideas that they have that made their countries what they are today, and bring them to the U.S. to solve the problems that no army can solve. Moore was hoping that the U.S. could utilize the way people live in other countries to really make it what people say “The best country in the world”. In reality we have a lot to learn from these other countries.
He started off with Italy and he met a couple that told him about their vacations. Workers in Italy get about 30-35 days of vacation plus an extra 12 for national holidays. If you get married you receive 15 days for your honeymoon, and the best part about all this is, you are paid during all this time off. They also mentioned a thing called “the 13th month” which is an extra check in december they receive in full salary for the same amount of work. The owners of all these companies have no problem with paying them for extra vacations and that 13th month. He then tells them that in America there is very little vacation time that they get and some jobs don’t pay them for their vacations. Finland has the number 1 ranked students in the world when they have no homework and have very few school hours. They go to class for about 4 hours a day when Americans go for 7-8 hours. They say that standardized testing doesn’t do anything but cause stress for the students and that’s why they don’t take those tests in Finland. They want the students to enjoy being in school and not make them think they are being forced against their will to go to class everyday. Portugal don’t arrest people for using drugs. In the last 15 years there have been zero arrests for people using or possessing drugs. By not throwing people in jail the drug usage in the country somehow went down. They also have a healthcare system that is free for all which increases the accessibility of treatment. Norway want to create good neighbors out of prisoners when all they do is take away their freedom to see their families but they still don’t treat them the same way that Americans treat their prisoners. They want them to show more love and affection towards one another. Prisoners in Norway dress like everyday people, actually have a room for themselves, and never get hurt/injured while serving their time. In America 80% of prisoners who get released commit another crime and get sentenced to prison again meanwhile, in Norway only 20% of prisoners who get released get arrested again which is one of the lowest in the world. These are just some of the things that America can utilize to make the country a better and safer place for everyone. Then people can really call it “The best country in the world”. In the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" we see a family that goes on a vacation and they take a detour as they wanted to see a house on a dirt road on the way they were headed. As they approach the house they run into The Misfit who is a criminal that escaped prison and was on the lose.
Poem #1 The introduction of the 3 main characters, the grandmother, John Weasely, and June Star. As they also introduce the Misfit who ends up being a big issue for the family later on in the story. “Now look here, Bailey” "See here, read this," "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit aloose from the Federal Pen Headed toward Florida The children have been to Florida before I wouldn't take my children With a criminal like that aloose” John Wesley An eight-year-old boy “If you don't want to go Why dontcha stay at home” June Star “She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks She has to go everywhere we go." The grandmother “Just remember that the next time you want me to curl your hair” Poem #2 The family took a detour to see a house and they get into an accident which leads to meeting the Misfit for the first time throughout the story There was a secret panel Let's go see it! We'll find it! We'll poke all the woodwork and find it! "We never have seen a house with a secret panel!" Hey Pop, can't we go see No He children began to yell and scream The baby began to scream All right! Will you all shut up? but get this This is the only time we're going to stop for anything like this. The dirt road no one had traveled on it in months "It's not much farther," The car turned over once landed right-side-up We've had an ACCIDENT! In the short story, “Bullet in the Brain” we witnessed a crime scene at a bank at a bank around closing time with a man who couldn’t keep his mouth shot getting him shot by one of the robbers.
The final minutes of a TD Bank being opened two men in blue suits and ski masks attempted an armed robbery. One of the men was carrying a pistol and another was carrying a sawed off shotgun. They took down the security guard at the door, cuffed him, and forced him to let them in. As they walked in they handed each of the bank tellers a bag and forced all of them to fill it. A man at the age of 50 named Anders spoke his mind during the crime scene and put himself in a very bad situation between him and the robbers getting him shot right in the skull and ended up being the only man killed during the crime scene. A woman by the name of Zabelle was standing in front of him the entire time and told us that he had received many warnings from the robbers to stop talking and that he shouldn’t mess with them but instead couldn’t take them seriously and started bursting out laughing in the middle of the bank which drove the robber to putting a bullet in his brain. Zabelle also added that he seemed “open minded and couldn’t keep anything to himself, he just had to always share what he was thinking. It seemed like he wanted this to happen to himself.” One of the bank tellers was hoping that Anders would keep quiet so that it didn’t have to be as bad as the situation already was. The police arrived at the scene too late as the robbers have escaped with thousands of dollars. The security cameras couldn’t identify any of the men and they are still on the loose today. The height of these two men are 6’4” and 5’11”. The shorter one is a little chubbier than the taller one and the taller one has a tattoo on his neck of a the date “11/11/11”. They drove off in a red ford focus with no license plate and a dent on the bumper of the car. So far this is all that the FBI was able to identify of these two men. If these men are found, captured, and brought to the police, the FBI will issue a $10,000 reward. In the short story, “Redeployment” we see Sgt. Price coming home from a 7 month deployment in Iraq and he has to adjust to things the way they used to be. The main thing he noticed the most is how his dog Vicar got more and more sick over the years.
Vicar throwing up in the house was the final straw. My wife wanted to take Vicar to the vet but I made an argument saying that I can do it myself for free and not waste any money for someone to do the same thing he can do. Making my own own decision and being the rebel I am I take Vicar out late at night behind my wife’s back to the trail we normally would go to. I thought it would be a very simple procedure because I’ve shot many dogs during my deployment. I take my rifle and load it with the one bullet I would need and as I’m about to pull the trigger all these memories of the three of us come to mind and how happy my wife was and I feel like she would be devastated to see me go behind her back like this. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pulled the trigger aiming right between the eyes. I came home with a trash bag that Vicar’s body was in and the entire ride home I had no idea how I was gonna play this the next morning when she would ask where Vicar has gone. I come in turn on the lights and there she is sitting on the couch with her arms and legs crossed giving me the death stare. She notices that Vicar was missing and not sleeping in the bed he usually sleeps in. Without saying a word she grabs the trash bag and dumps out the body onto the floor with blood splattering everywhere. I saw tears go down her cheeks and she began sobbing. I try comforting her but she pushes me away and goes back to our bedroom. I stand there for a few minutes thinking to myself, “what have I done?” I go to our bedroom to talk to her about this and she already has a bag packed ready to leave. Not telling me where she’s going or what her plan is she leaves the house with everything she owns and ever since that night I haven’t seen or heard from her since. I knew i just made the biggest mistake of my life because two of the most valuable things in my life are now gone and I feel like I have nothing to live for anymore. In the text, “The Lottery” shows that getting chosen randomly isn’t always a good thing. It kind of reminded me a little bit about the hunger games only instead of having 24 people chosen to execute one another it was only one person out of the whole village to be stoned to death.
Some themes of “The Lottery” are tradition, violence, and choice. For many years the lottery in this village has been a tradition and they have used the same black box from the start. No matter how faded it got or how old it was getting they continued using the same old black box from the start. One major similarity between America’s traditions and the village in “The Lottery” is that there is always one winner. But in the small village you never want to be chosen unlike the American lottery today. Just like the black box in the village that can never be replaced, Philadelphia has a tradition that the tallest building in the city has to have a statue of William Penn on the top. Even if a building is built bigger than the current tallest one the city will put a statue on the top to honor a tradition that seems like will never die or ever be replaced. My family is very religious and honestly I’m not so over the years of going to catholic school for 11 years it basically got forced into my head that there is a God. When I was in high school I was questioning if there really was someone up there. I had a talk with my parents about it and I’ve never seen them so frustrated in my life considering all the years I did at catholic school and that we went to church pretty often me even thinking that really shocked them. The VERY next day it was all clear to me that there is someone up there because of multiple events that happened to me in a span of 24 hours. First when bringing back trash cans that were flipped over on the side of the road i flip them back over and a lot of loose trash falls out. I then open up my freezer and a bag falls onto my foot. Later that night I turn on the kitchen sink and the hose was switched on and it sprayed all over me. That last moment made me realize that there is someone watching over us and that I should never doubt him again. Please copy and paste the following bullet points into your blog post and complete the following:
Lulu Wang tells us a story about her grandmother being diagnosed with lung cancer. Instead of the family telling her they built a lie to protect her because they thought knowing about the sickness would have led to fear and depression which would have eventually led to her killing herself. Was it the right thing for the family to keep this secret from her though? In China doctors don’t tend to give the patient news instead they tell the family and what Lulu’s family found out was that her grandmother only had 3 months to live. Honestly keeping it a secret wasn’t the worst thing you could have done, but building the lie to be as big as it was took it completely over the top. First the family made a fake medical report saying that Lulu’s grandmother was fine and then planned a fake wedding which was really a goodbye party for her grandmother and the hardest part was that they had to show nothing but happiness there. Keeping a secret from someone especially this dangerous could really hurt someone if they find out and you don’t tell them. Even though this whole time Lulu’s grandmother had breast cancer and kept it a secret from everybody. So who was really wrong here? The whole family kept one lie and Lulu’s grandmother kept another.
About three years ago I still remember the day that I saw my grandfather in the hospital for the last time. The conversations, who was there, and what happened has been burned into my memory. He had a tumor that started in his eye and spread throughout his body over the course of a year. One day he was perfectly fine and then he woke up the next morning seeing double vision and was completely confused with what was happening. Eventually he was barely able to use his arms and soon he couldn’t even walk on his own anymore. Coming in and out of the hospital about once to twice a month was not only hard on him but also my grandmother who took care of him from day one. My parents, Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother, and I sat in a private room for the last time waiting for the doctor to give us news saying he wasn’t going to make it. We had options to either let him go slowly or keep him unconscious while they put a tube into his stomach feeding him but that only would have made him last an extra week at most. So we As he was in the ICU we came up to him telling him that it was time and what we were going to do. He couldn’t respond with words but he was able to hear us and i felt him squeeze my hand as we were telling him. It had to be the hardest day of my life letting someone that has been in my life since day one go and telling him the bad news made things even harder for me to accept. |