Greetings Readers

Greetings Readers,

Fighting & yelling with other kids at school is a typical image of me as a child. My name is Cynthia Rodriguez and I have been alive for 20 yrs now. I was born and raised in the windy city, better known as Chicago. I grew up in a very gang infested neighborhood where people don’t expect much from their children; however my mother and father wanted better for my 2 siblings and I, moving us to a more residential area of Chicago when I was thirteen. After this big move, I slowly started seeing how I was different from my friends who stayed in the same neighborhood. Looking back at this made me realize how lucky I was to have parents who cared, and I feel very grateful that I wasn’t another teen in Chicago who was a drop out, drug addict or a teen mom.

After getting out of high school and taking a six month break from school, I took the crazy decision to move up here by myself (with the support of my parents of course) and seek a future. That is how I ended up here in Everett community college where I’m currently enrolled in English 98.Though I may not look like it, I was always kind of a nerd in school. To be honest it took me a while to recognize my cleverness, however I decided to put the brains to work and I’m currently aiming for a transfer to CWU for their applied science degree.

To accomplish my goals I had to stop by Phebe Shen’s English class where she has been working my butt off with 3 major writing assignments, book seminars, blogs, and even getting some service learning hours done. Doing all these assignments I learned how to analyze what I read along with what I write, also organizing my sentences and having them well punctuated. During this class we read two novels “Three cups of tea” by Greg Mortenson & “The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. These books really showed me how to value my education and also the family I have. My favorite part was working in the seminars because I’m quite the talker and enjoy what others have to say and also share my own ideas. Service learning was always interesting because I had to deal with little kids who are in desperate need of attention, this experience taught me how to be tolerant and also opened up my eyes to a world I never new existed.

As this quarter ends, I will be showing you what I think are some of my best and favorite pieces of work in this class. For my MWA piece (Major Writing Assingment) I choose the 2^nd paper we did which was the definition paper where I briefly define in my point of view the word WAR. For my effective writing piece I decided on choosing a homework assignment where we had to paraphrase and summarize two articles in our book. For my critical/analytically thinking piece I selected our 5^th seminar which was on the novel Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, here I think showed my best in critical thinking and also analyzing what I read. Last but not least, we get a writers choice piece which is a paper or assignment of my very favorite, and therefore I choose the last paper I wrote which was the argumentative essay I liked this one because I choose a topic of my interest therefore I tried harder than any other assignment.

These pieces of work will be showing you my creativity and imagination when writing, and also the improvements I’ve made since the first paper to the last. These four pieces will show my skills in revising, along with better use of organization and grammer. This quarter was quite fun and challenging. I love challenges therefore I enjoyed it a lot; I hope everyone enjoys my writing as much as I enjoyed writing it and hopefully it helps you learn something new.

Introduction to Major Writing Assignment

For my major writing assignment piece I chose my 2nd MWA, which consists of defining a word of my choice. The title of my essay is “ThePower of the Word” where basically I defined what the word “war” meant and or defined in my point of view. I defined the word in my essay as a disease, a nation, and as an ideology. I choose this essay because it clearly showed major improvements than my first MWA. I felt like this essay was more organized, showed support, and was focused on what was intended, which is defining. A great example of this is at the very begging of my thesis where I use parallelism,“A person or country can be having a war against the cancer, war against the drug cartels, or war against terrorism.” For this being the second essay I wrote, I feel like it was a great piece for my major writing assignment piece.

The Power of the Word

The Power of the Word


When thinking of war, what comes to mind? Like most people we probably are thinking guns and soldiers. Nowadays war is use in various situations. A person or country can be having a war against the cancer, war against the drug cartels, or war against terrorism. War is an action taken when a country or person is fighting against someone or something, and can either be won or lost, and the time when it will end is never easy to estimate.

Declaring a war against a disease can be very painful and stressful. Cancer has become a very common disease over the years, and many of the victims insist on declaring a war against it. Fighting cancer is a battle that can be very hard to obtain victory from. This is because 77% of all cancers are diagnosed in people 55 and older (www.cancer.org). In Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea novel, Jean Hoerni the man who gave Mortenson twelve thousand dollars to build the school in Korphe,was informed he was diagnosed with myelofibrosis a fatal form of leukemia (cancer).The disease advanced in Hoerni’s body fast and he was diagnosed with a few months to live. When he was close to passing away Mortenson quotes how Hoerni “was angry about dying” (Mortenson 182), which made me wonder if other victims were angry or disappointed about how soon they had to depart. Hoerni like many other cancer patients have to go through chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy to try to remove the cancerous cells and hopefully defeat the battle. (www.cancer.org). Though this war was officially declared forty years ago by President Richard Nixon we have seen various improvements, however up to this moment there is still no cure for the disease. Instead of President Nixon saying that they were looking for a cure he declared war, which in his point of view meant having groups of scientist seeking for a cure on the opponent (cancer). The cure until this day has not been found, meaning that many still need to fight against this war in order to obtain a victory. It is clearly sought how obtaining victory from a war can never be estimated and can take a very long time.

Violence however is always present when thinking of war. The tought for many always reminds them of violence and weapons, a perfect example of this is the violence that has grown in Mexico, In December of 2006, Mexico's new President Felipe Calderon declared war against the drug cartels, reversing earlier government passiveness. Since then, the government has made some gains, but at a heavy price - gun battles, assassinations, and kidnappings (www.boston.com). Most of the violence has happened close to the borders where of course the cartels need to get through in order to get the drugs in or out the country. Smuggling the drugs in or out has become more difficult for these criminals, driving them to hunt down and kill authority officials along with many innocent people. This has become their way of showing that they want to win the battle, and that they will do anything to obtain victory. Since this war started 17,900 drug-related killings have happened in this country (www.foxnews.com). Though it may seem shocking this number will continue to grow unless the U.S and Mexico find a solution and or compromise with these criminals, nevertheless President Calderon has said that they will keep fighting until victory is theirs, many U.S and Mexican citizens wish the government could see the wake up call, and many feel like the government shouldn’t have announced the war so openly.
Unfortunately different types of wars are being fought daily.

A war that we are all facing at the moment is war against terror or terrorism. This war was declared after the September 11, 2001 attack, where many innocent lives were taken when the world trade center came down by an impact of an airplane that had been taken over by members of Al-Qaeda. President George Bush and his administration declared war on Iraq by invading it claiming Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. This led to the capture of Saddam Hussein who then was executed after being tried in court (www.wikipedia.com). The war became bigger as Al-Qaeda insisted that the U.S stay out of Iraq. We are all facing this war because we all in a way have a contribution to this war from having relatives overseas, to paying taxes. This war like all the others has caused the death of many people. To many this war seems useless, and many have the opinion that we should have never declared war, however to numerous people war seems to be something that can be compromised. For instance many think that the U.S and AL-Qaeda should sit and settle down their problems rather than having this battle that could go on for years. Some have the opinion that Al-Qaeda should hand over Osama Bin Laden if they want U.S troops out their country.

War has always been seen as an act of violence however, war can be done fighting the littlest thing; it does not necessarily have to include guns or violence. War can be fighting the illness we have as well as fighting the thing that terrorizes us the most. War can either be won or lost and can take a few months to a few years. War takes many lives even innocent ones. As time flies by war will always be in play, whether it’s a good one or a bad one it will always be around.

Almost perfect (Intro to Effective Writing)

For my writing effectively piece I decided to choose an assignment we did on May 9, 2010, which was paraphrasing and summarizing two different articles with a similar topic. when I received my work back, i was told that it was good and since summarizing and paraphrasing consists of rewording what you read into your own words i thought it would be a good idea to use this piece. I used various techniques here to reword what the readings were and i feel like I did very good revision when I finished.Paraphrasing was definitely harder than summarizing because of the way one has to structure sentences. It is clear that summarizing was where i did better however,I am very proud of my paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Paraphrase

The economic downturn has struck school districts leading them to trim down budgets, lay off staff, and reducing school days to four-day weeks (306). These reduced school days can cause controversy to parents and threaten student’s academic achievements. Too many children don’t spend enough time in school; research shows how U.S schools benefit a lot when school districts rise up classroom time. A great example of this is comes from Massachusetts where 10 schools recently raised their time in the school day to 25% raising their state scores in math, reading, and science. Many wonder if it’s not enough time from education students have from school breaks and holidays. Going through with this action will leave children with more time to cause trouble and for parents to be in need of daycare and or a sitter. This step was taken as a solution to the high gas prices that were seen in the summer as gas prices lower again there is hope districts can reconsider this action. (307)

Summary

According to Gregory A. Schmidt in his article “We Like the Four-Day Week” we see how the MACCRAY public schools transitioned their school days to a four day week. This is to help out with the tense finances and the yearning to keep academic programs the same. As a result of shorter school weeks the MACCRAY team researched to see if the districts with four-day schedules declined in any matter however, they saw no problem and people seemed to be adjusting. They seek improvement in attendance in both students and teachers. Students in the MACCRAY district now have shorter lunches, recess, and time between classes leaving them with more time to be in class this brought the district to gain 65 minutes to each instructional day. The districts savings are around 65,000. Though this is positive many still expect other district along with MACCRAY to keep it up in order to continue with this scheduling.

Introduction to Analytically and Critical Thinking

For my Critical analysis piece I have chosen seminar 5, which I did around week 6 of the quarter. I would of chosen all my seminars for this piece just because I think I did excellent on each one when it comes to thinking critically and or analyzing. however I'm really trying not to bore you with every single one" :)

For seminar 5 I had to find a theme for the chapters we read that week in Greg Mortenson's novel Three Cups of Tea. Choosing a theme for a few chapters of a book wasn't easy,therefore I felt that I really had to analyze what I was reading.first I had to think critically what i wanted that theme(Relationships) to be and then analyze it and explain how and where I sought this theme. i feel like I did a great way of linking the chapters to my theme. An example is "Relationships have been sought all through the book Three Cups of Tea. We saw how Greg made relationships with many people, some rich, some illiterate and poor, and of course relationships with women. I think we all have been in a relationship and now the importance of communication. If Mortenson haven’t had kept in touch with all the people he met. He probably wouldn’t have accomplished everything he has done." This quote shows a strong analyze and also as you go along my quotes also show how i put to practice analytically and critical thinking.

Seminar 5

Theme
Relationships

Relationships have been sought all through the book Three Cups of Tea. We saw how Greg made relationships with many people, some rich, some illiterate and poor, and of course relationships with women. I think we all have been in a relationship and now the importance of communication. If Mortenson haven’t had kept in touch with all the people he met. He probably wouldn’t have accomplished everything he has done. We read how Mortenson’s girlfriend Marina left him, because of the fact he left to Korphe and not trying to contact her. I have been doing my service learning service at Grandview working with low income kids. In these kids you see how their parents are not involved with them or how some are very uneducated. The children definitely don’t have role models to look up to, so they behave however they want. We go there to hopefully be the role model these children need, so talking to them and building a friendship is important for them and myself to succeed.

Quotes

“Arab nations should look at your tremendous work and wallow in shame for never helping their own people. With sincere respect and admiration, I thank you.” (Mortenson 302)
In this quote we see how a Muslim born in America thanks Mortenson for all he has done. She then expressed how the Arab nations should be in shame for not helping their own people. It seems as if the communication has been lost between small towns’ leaders and the government. Throughout the book we saw how the government has done nothing to maintain a relationship with the small towns surrounding them. I agree with women that wrote this letter to Mortenson, I think it is shameful and embarrassing for someone else to do what your own government is suppose to do.

“How many women would have the strength and vision to let the father of their children work in such a dangerous place for months at a time? Letinger asks.”’ Tara not only allows it, but supports it, because she believes so strong in Greg’s mission. If that’s not heroism I don’t know what is.”’ (Mortenson 304)
This quote caught my attention because Letinger admires the relationship between Tara & Mortenson. She like many of us sees how throughout Mortensons journey Tara never tried to talk him out of doing what he wanted, and always supported him even when she knew he was in a very dangerous place. We all read how Tara and Mortenson met, though it was a one week relationship, they seem to be a happy family. I think this is because they are both supportive on what they do and because of the communication they have. Even if Mortenson didn’t call everyday, when they did talk he tried to keep her comfort and always talked with the truth, and when he could he’d bring her along.

“I will sell all my land if necessary so she can complete her education. I owe that to the memory of my father.”(Mortenson 312)
In this quote we see how Twaha’s daughter has put her education before even thinking of marriage, Something very rare because most women over there seem to be getting married in their teenage years not by choice but because of their families. However Twaha has agreed because he knew that part of Mortensons promise was held by his father. He took this a way to honor the relationship he and his father had. He knew that if his father was still alive he probably would have sold everything he had to see his granddaughter and other children have and education and succeed in life.

The Big Winner (Intro to Writer's choice)

for my writers choice I felt like i needed to include my 3rd and final MWA (major writing assignment. WHY? because it's argumentative paper and well I like to argue. Not only that but it was a topic of my interest that I choose so I put a lot of work into it. Here I think I used everything from writing effectively,to analyzing and thinking critically, and avoiding run on sentences and comma splices. Therefore this is why I'm presenting you my writers choice piece and leave it to you to make the last judgment.

Is Police Brutality Based on Racism?

Being a police officer isn’t always easy. Day by day crime is growing all around leading officers to be more aggressive making them feel more powerful. However, many people believe some officers take advantage of their power, and use unnecessary aggravation in situations where it is not needed. Police brutality too many seems to be targeted against minorities and has been seen as racism. If it’s racism or not is still not clear, in many people eyes it is, however, many think criminals induce officers to act in such violent ways and don’t seem to think this is a problem.

Depending on certain situations many believe that police officers have the right to be somewhat aggressive, however they not only act more violent towards certain races but what’s gotten them in trouble lately is the comments they have made. A great example on why many people believe their acts are racist is a video recorded by a cameraman in Seattle on April 17, 2010 where police responded to several 911 calls near the China Harbor Restaurant on the west side of Lake Union, later in the act a white male officer brutally kicked a Hispanic man on the head and clearly stated that he was going to beat the “fucking Mexican piss out of him” (www.kirotv.com). As though the kick on the head wasn’t enough later in the video it is seen how a female officer stomps on the guys knee. In this case the officers later realize they had the wrong man and let him go without giving him any medical assistance. To many the most offensive and discriminating part of this whole scene is the nasty comments the officer spits to the victim. The officer showed no professionalism and clearly assumed the man was Mexican and hammered him without being certain if they had the right man. If this doesn’t seem to be racist I don’t know what is. Many questioned this video and think the cameraman only videotaped the beating; leaving out the part where the victim might have done or said something to the officers, causing them to beat him. However, in my opinion there is no reason for someone to say such racist comments like that, especially authorities because people will loose their trust in them, and also officers like this hurt the image of good officers.

Another act that shows excessive police force is in Houston, Texas where in a 2008 study revealed that Houston Police officers have used their tasers on African American suspects more than any other group of people. Authorities defense to this statistics were that African Americans tend to be more aggressive and more confrontational than other races. The study also showed how though the white officers claim that blacks are more aggressive, black officers have tasered less African Americans than white officers (http://proquest.umi.com). Still, many people think that most likely black people don’t act and or respond the same towards black officers as they would with whites, clearly not seeing any racial link to the study. To certain individuals this seems as a regular part of an officer’s job, others see how some officers use extra force on certain races, calling this racist and prejudice. Though these actions are just a few from hundred of similar cases it is clear how there is definitely some racism in these acts.

Many people who consider such acts racist wonder to themselves what is being done to punish these officers so others can see and learn from these mistakes. Many victims of racism and brutality are afraid to step forward and accuse officers of such acts because they fear authorities, and feel like nothing will be done. Many others however have stepped up and filed lawsuits against officers; from this they seek the end of racism and also peace between general public and authorities. Unfortunately the public doesn’t have a say on whether or not police officers have used excessive aggressiveness or if their acts is because of racism. In a case like this the officer’s act goes through the police department or the FBI to see if they consider any violation of civil rights (http://proquest.umi.com). A way many civilian can help the numbers of police racial brutality to go down is by reporting anything they’ve seen and or experienced.

I don’t think that police should ever act under the color of a person nor basing their decisions and actions on nothing more than someone’s race. In many cases authorities believe it is their role to act with violence because they deal with violent and crazy people on a daily basis, it has recently been seen how officers are targets to criminals as well. However since when do cops have the right to beat someone because of their race and say nasty comments? One thing is acting with violence to protect one and others, it’s a whole other thing to yell and spit nasty comments based on ones ethnicity.

Whether or not racism causes police brutality one thing is for sure, and that is that somehow this has to end. Racism should no longer be seen especially in a country like the U.S where there is a variety of nationalities. Also authorities should have limits to what they can do to a person, why should someone have the power to hurt someone else, since when was their job to hurt and signal certain people.

Adios Amigos

The end is here and I really want to thank Phebe for being a great teacher and for contributing through my journey as an educated adult. I also want to thank my classmates for all the good advice and wish them the best in their education. I hope everyone enjoyed my writing pieces and for now I dare say adios amigos (farewell my friends).