Poetry Project
Growth as a Poet
Poetry Final 4
Does power corrupt people
Or do people corrupt power
Power in itself
Is not a poison to the mind
It is not the crucifixion of the lesser
It is not a game mutilating thoughts of our leaders
If it was, then explain mother fucking Gandhi
Power is thousands of feet marching to the beat of purpose
Power is sacrificing personal cravings
Power is the persistence of what is good
Power is inspiration for the minds of the world
The world should be weary
Weary of people blaming their actions on others
Refusal to take responsibility
Claims that power is the criminal-
No, Greed is
We blame others for the things that we have done
Though it is our fault
It is our greed
Greed drives the green face of dictatorship
Primitive instincts push for more
Yet we are sophisticated enough to know it is wrong
Pushing the blame to protect our humanity
Its is forgiven and forgotten, though it is our fault
Excuses used to distract from the truth
Power is not corrupt
Humanity is
Does power corrupt people
Or do people corrupt power
Power in itself
Is not a poison to the mind
It is not the crucifixion of the lesser
It is not a game mutilating thoughts of our leaders
If it was, then explain mother fucking Gandhi
Power is thousands of feet marching to the beat of purpose
Power is sacrificing personal cravings
Power is the persistence of what is good
Power is inspiration for the minds of the world
The world should be weary
Weary of people blaming their actions on others
Refusal to take responsibility
Claims that power is the criminal-
No, Greed is
We blame others for the things that we have done
Though it is our fault
It is our greed
Greed drives the green face of dictatorship
Primitive instincts push for more
Yet we are sophisticated enough to know it is wrong
Pushing the blame to protect our humanity
Its is forgiven and forgotten, though it is our fault
Excuses used to distract from the truth
Power is not corrupt
Humanity is
Globalization Project
Op-Ed
For this project, we all started out by learning about what globalization is, and its positive and negative effects on the world. From there we picked a focus question to research. The focus questions mainly revolve around the different aspects or groups that control globalization. We deeply researched our question, until we decided our perspective of it. From there we found evidence supporting our opinion and wrote our thesis. After that we began to write our Op-Ed on our opinion of the subject. Half way through our work we did peer critiques and had a critique for Lori. We revised the critiques and turned in our final drafts.
From this project I learned a lot more about globalization than I expected. When I began this project I didn’t really understand the topic of globalization, I knew that it lead to a high amount of poor working environments, nut not much more. From this project I learn that globalization is one of the most important elements in our world today. Globalization is the rope that ties our world together, it allows easy communication across countries, it stops us from having a third world war, and it allows for a common language throughout the world.
As a cartoonist I have grown with my ability to make my cartoon understandable. With my first graph of my cartoon, nothing made sense. When we did peer critiques, no one could understand what my cartoon was about. From my first draft I have learned how to label thing as to have them make more sense, no now my final draft is understandable.
Through out this year our class has worked on concessive writing, so when it came to writing my op-ed I had a few difficulties. Generally with op-eds, the goal is to push your perspective to persuade people to agree. With my first draft I struggle with having a thesis that did not include a concessive, an I found myself rewriting it multiple times. Eventually with my writing I was able to learn to acknowledge the opposing view as a way to strengthen my writing. This op-ed writing has been extremely helpful with teaching me how to be assertive and confident about my opinion, no matter how many people disagree with me.
From this project I learned a lot more about globalization than I expected. When I began this project I didn’t really understand the topic of globalization, I knew that it lead to a high amount of poor working environments, nut not much more. From this project I learn that globalization is one of the most important elements in our world today. Globalization is the rope that ties our world together, it allows easy communication across countries, it stops us from having a third world war, and it allows for a common language throughout the world.
As a cartoonist I have grown with my ability to make my cartoon understandable. With my first graph of my cartoon, nothing made sense. When we did peer critiques, no one could understand what my cartoon was about. From my first draft I have learned how to label thing as to have them make more sense, no now my final draft is understandable.
Through out this year our class has worked on concessive writing, so when it came to writing my op-ed I had a few difficulties. Generally with op-eds, the goal is to push your perspective to persuade people to agree. With my first draft I struggle with having a thesis that did not include a concessive, an I found myself rewriting it multiple times. Eventually with my writing I was able to learn to acknowledge the opposing view as a way to strengthen my writing. This op-ed writing has been extremely helpful with teaching me how to be assertive and confident about my opinion, no matter how many people disagree with me.
Vietnam Project
Gulf of Tonkin Paper
Project Reflection
For the start of the Vietnam project we began with taking notes on the Gulf of Tonkin. From there we added reading three chapters of The Things They Carried (TTTC), the Veterans History Project and the Gulf of Tonkin in class writing. After putting the work of the three assignments together, we began to deeply critique and edit the in class writing as well as our questions for our veteran interviews. Once our interviews were done, we had a seminar on the chapters of TTTC along with a seminar reflection. After multiple critiques of our in class writing, we turned in our final draft and ended the project with an exhibition located at the Animas City Theater.
For the Veteran’s history project my job was the communicator. The communicator’s role is to do all the contacting for the veteran, as in phone calls meeting times, and gathering necessary information. The communicator also has the job of interviewing the veteran. With this role I think I did well at organizing the meeting times and contacting my veteran. One thing that I could have worked on was not asking close-ended questions during the interview. I had all my questions written out as open-ended questions, but I was so nervous that I asked them as close ended and my veteran instantly shot me down. If I were to do this project again I would probably be the Logistics person because I’m camera shy and I am horrible with technology. My idea on the truth of war changed with my veteran because I thought that PTSD and war stories were a lot more dramatic and emotional. I had this image in my head that my veteran would cry at the memory of his traumatic past, and that the might have a flash back from talking about the interview. The reality was much less captivating. If my veteran did have a difficult time talking about the war, he barley showed it. Instead of having a panic attack my veteran would just nonchalantly talk about a relatively similar topic. I used to think that war was an extremely dramatic topic but meeting my veteran showed me that it’s not always as crazy as people make it out to be.
While working with the documents, I found it most difficult to use sourcing as a historical thinking skill. Normally, seeing who said a quote would be an easy way see if the stamen was reliable or not, but with the documents, it was different. A lot of the documents contained words that were spoken by reliable people, but most of them had their information twisted to fit an idea that they wanted people to think. Because of the faulty wording to make America sound better, it was hard to discern the accurate quotes from the bad ones, by looking at the source. To over come this I had to really pay attention and use the historical thinking skill of reading the silences. Reading the silences was my strongest thinking skill with the packets because most of them used obvious language that suggested shenanigans with changing the story. One way I improved this skill was by eventually learning how to not only read when the passage or quote was lying, but also when the text was stating something that could be considered irrational or against moral.
One major revision that I made was cutting the amount of evidence in my paper. Taking out evidence was good for my paper, because it was at the point where half of my paper was made up of quotes. Some evidence is good but having half a paper of it, would have been boring for the readers. The second large revision that I made was to add more analysis to my paper. Adding analysis not only made my paper more engaging for the reader, but it also let me get more engaged with my writing and learning.
For the Veteran’s history project my job was the communicator. The communicator’s role is to do all the contacting for the veteran, as in phone calls meeting times, and gathering necessary information. The communicator also has the job of interviewing the veteran. With this role I think I did well at organizing the meeting times and contacting my veteran. One thing that I could have worked on was not asking close-ended questions during the interview. I had all my questions written out as open-ended questions, but I was so nervous that I asked them as close ended and my veteran instantly shot me down. If I were to do this project again I would probably be the Logistics person because I’m camera shy and I am horrible with technology. My idea on the truth of war changed with my veteran because I thought that PTSD and war stories were a lot more dramatic and emotional. I had this image in my head that my veteran would cry at the memory of his traumatic past, and that the might have a flash back from talking about the interview. The reality was much less captivating. If my veteran did have a difficult time talking about the war, he barley showed it. Instead of having a panic attack my veteran would just nonchalantly talk about a relatively similar topic. I used to think that war was an extremely dramatic topic but meeting my veteran showed me that it’s not always as crazy as people make it out to be.
While working with the documents, I found it most difficult to use sourcing as a historical thinking skill. Normally, seeing who said a quote would be an easy way see if the stamen was reliable or not, but with the documents, it was different. A lot of the documents contained words that were spoken by reliable people, but most of them had their information twisted to fit an idea that they wanted people to think. Because of the faulty wording to make America sound better, it was hard to discern the accurate quotes from the bad ones, by looking at the source. To over come this I had to really pay attention and use the historical thinking skill of reading the silences. Reading the silences was my strongest thinking skill with the packets because most of them used obvious language that suggested shenanigans with changing the story. One way I improved this skill was by eventually learning how to not only read when the passage or quote was lying, but also when the text was stating something that could be considered irrational or against moral.
One major revision that I made was cutting the amount of evidence in my paper. Taking out evidence was good for my paper, because it was at the point where half of my paper was made up of quotes. Some evidence is good but having half a paper of it, would have been boring for the readers. The second large revision that I made was to add more analysis to my paper. Adding analysis not only made my paper more engaging for the reader, but it also let me get more engaged with my writing and learning.
WWI Creative Historians
Project Reflection
1. For the project assignment we had to write a historical fiction about any character we wanted. The character had to of had a connection to WWI, and the plot had to be and accurate reenactment of a historical situation. To prepare for writing our stories, we took several days to research the situation that we wanted to use. Research consisted of geographical location, dates, people, weather and more.
2.
· Out of all of the literary elements, I think that my story is strongest with round character. From when we first started the creative writing project, I had planned out my story, and with the excessive amount of time my character was strongly developed.
· “I was raised to think that war is the greatest honor a man can have, and I still believe that to this day. My father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather all died in war. I think it is the most honorable way to die, and I hope to one day go the same way as well.”
This quote is a good example of round character, because it shows how deep I made my character. Adding information about the characters past makes the story become deeper, and lets the read connect to the character.
3.
· In my short story, the literary element that I struggled with most was showing verses telling. As a person I like to write things efficiently, so it was extremely difficult for my to draw out a movement, that could be summed up in three words.
· In addition to not liking how un-efficient “showing verses telling” writing is, I found writing the sentences, also proved to be difficult. When writing the long paper, I just wanted it to be done, so it was hard to try to deeply explain every little detail. Eventually I got lazy and gave up writing most of my sentences in great detail, which lowered the quality of my story.
4.
· The first major revision in my paper was changing my character from a General, to a Lieutenant. The second major change that I made to my paper, was giving my character a friend.
· With the first major change, if I had not changed the rank of my character, it would have changed my story to be completely historically inaccurate. The second major change that I made to my paper made the main character more relatable to the reader. Before I added a friend, my character had no real reason for fighting. The whole story was just of his lonely thoughts. Adding a friend gave substance to my story, making it longer and more interesting.
Challenge Paragraph:
· For the challenge extension I chose option one which was, “Use three additional literary devices that you found in All Quiet on the Western Front (AQotWF) in your own story to enhance the writing.” I chose this challenge because I wanted to use the writing tactics from to make my writing more realistic. My thought was that if I mimicked the writers technique, it would help me make my writing more like something an actual soldier would say.
· A Bildungsroman is when the writer bases the plot, on the growth of the main character, throughout the story.
“Maybe Ben had it right all along. Maybe war isn’t as honorable as I thought it would be. Many men have died in honor in honor of there country, but is that justified?”
This line literary device is important to my story because it summarizes the plot and makes the character more human. Storied are also meant to help people learn lessons, and without the changing of my characters views, then the whole story would be pointless.
2.
· Out of all of the literary elements, I think that my story is strongest with round character. From when we first started the creative writing project, I had planned out my story, and with the excessive amount of time my character was strongly developed.
· “I was raised to think that war is the greatest honor a man can have, and I still believe that to this day. My father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather all died in war. I think it is the most honorable way to die, and I hope to one day go the same way as well.”
This quote is a good example of round character, because it shows how deep I made my character. Adding information about the characters past makes the story become deeper, and lets the read connect to the character.
3.
· In my short story, the literary element that I struggled with most was showing verses telling. As a person I like to write things efficiently, so it was extremely difficult for my to draw out a movement, that could be summed up in three words.
· In addition to not liking how un-efficient “showing verses telling” writing is, I found writing the sentences, also proved to be difficult. When writing the long paper, I just wanted it to be done, so it was hard to try to deeply explain every little detail. Eventually I got lazy and gave up writing most of my sentences in great detail, which lowered the quality of my story.
4.
· The first major revision in my paper was changing my character from a General, to a Lieutenant. The second major change that I made to my paper, was giving my character a friend.
· With the first major change, if I had not changed the rank of my character, it would have changed my story to be completely historically inaccurate. The second major change that I made to my paper made the main character more relatable to the reader. Before I added a friend, my character had no real reason for fighting. The whole story was just of his lonely thoughts. Adding a friend gave substance to my story, making it longer and more interesting.
Challenge Paragraph:
· For the challenge extension I chose option one which was, “Use three additional literary devices that you found in All Quiet on the Western Front (AQotWF) in your own story to enhance the writing.” I chose this challenge because I wanted to use the writing tactics from to make my writing more realistic. My thought was that if I mimicked the writers technique, it would help me make my writing more like something an actual soldier would say.
· A Bildungsroman is when the writer bases the plot, on the growth of the main character, throughout the story.
“Maybe Ben had it right all along. Maybe war isn’t as honorable as I thought it would be. Many men have died in honor in honor of there country, but is that justified?”
This line literary device is important to my story because it summarizes the plot and makes the character more human. Storied are also meant to help people learn lessons, and without the changing of my characters views, then the whole story would be pointless.