Dear Mom and Dad

Letter Home Response

This was another assignment I ended up really enjoying, when we were first presented with it, I wasn’t really sure what to write. I talk with my parents on the phone and via text close to every day, and I wasn’t sure how to write an interesting letter with information they hadn’t necessarily heard. While constructing what I was going to write I realized, quite honestly it didn’t really matter what I did because anything that I sent back to my parents, they would really appreciate, this allowed me to take a step back and look at the assignment just as it is. This past summer when I was in Greece and Spain with a friend I wrote a blog type email back to my family each day, summarizing our day. I wanted to approach this letter in a similar fashion, trying to make the letter very enjoyable to read, and not too serious. In my family we love joking around, laughing and having a good time, and I felt like this would be an opportunity to go back to that.

In my letter I tried to briefly summarize different aspects of my college experience that I know they had heard before but I still tried to make it enjoyable. My handwriting is pretty awful so I had to spend extra time on it. After finishing the 2 and half hours I spent physically writing the letter down while reading what I wrote from my computer I was very happy with the results. This of course was after I realized how much my hand hurt from writing that long, but I think my parents will enjoy it, and that’s really all that matters. I ended up writing well over the desired length because I could picture my parents reading it, and the joy it would bring them. They have given me the opportunity to come to a great school like Syracuse; the least I can do is spend a couple hours writing a letter.

This was another example of my earlier inclinations with academic writing and “finding your voice.” Since day one in this class I have strongly voiced my opinion in my writing that writing can be very enjoyable if you like the topic, and this assignment was no different. I obviously had different motives than with other assignments but this was another one that I really felt passionate about, which allowed me to enjoy the process of writing it.

 

 

Personal Manifesto: The Importance of Community Service

Personal Manifesto

Importance of Community Service

Community service is very important and is a very important experience that can very well be considered “life changing” for everyone involved. When I look back on my favorite memories, without a doubt I think of times when I volunteered with different organizations. I strongly believe these experiences helped to mold me into who I am today, and helped opened my eyes to the world outside my small, local community. No matter your age, background, or interests there are always opportunities and from all the experiences my friends and I have, these opportunities should not go unnoticed. 

1.    Important to give back. It is extremely important to give back to a community in which we belong to. Especially in certain scenarios where people are very fortunate for all that they are given. This does not solely apply to someone fortunate with wealth, but anyone who is blessed with good health or safe surroundings should choose to give back to the less fortunate.

2.    Get out of your comfort zone. Many people would say that the reason they don’t volunteer is because they aren’t comfortable getting out of their comfort zones. This is important because it can make the experience so much more valuable. If someone who is privileged travels down to an impoverished neighborhood they may be able to have a very unique experience that they were not expecting.

3.    Just try it once! If you find a way to get involved in an activity or an organization that not only interests you but is also worthwhile you will be more inclined to participate on multiple occurrences. I think the hardest part is taking the first step and experimenting with different programs.

4.    “Unfortunately” there are endless opportunities. There are so many opportunities to get out into the community. There is always, and unfortunately probably will always be someone or a certain situation where help is needed and encouraged. There are so many options, anywhere from volunteering in a youth sports league as a coach or referee, participating in habitat for humanity to help build houses or even going to children’s hospitals to visit sick kids.

5.    Don’t just do it for the sake of volunteering, find something you like. You will like the experience much more if you do something that you enjoy. Not only will this make volunteering more gratifying, you are probably more likely to do it again in the future.

6.    Learning experience. Odds are that experience will not go as expected. Often many volunteers will come out of it with new knowledge in areas they hadn’t thought about, or really known a lot before. For many students and adults volunteering is an opportunity unlike any other. Various types of community service can often have as great of an affect if not more of an affect on the volunteer as it does on the recipients.

7.    Well appreciated. It is not possible to emphasize the impact surrounding giving back, and how much it is appreciated. There are so many people that I have heard speak, who have said that they wish someone would have gone back into their neighborhood when they were young just to show their face and talk with the community. This specific example applies directly to celebrities but can be thought of equally in other circumstances.

8.    Should not be mandated, people should want to give back from the good of their hearts. Even though it is clearly affective in getting students to get involved in the community the lack of desire is still alarming. It is evident by a students body language whether they truly and legitimately want to be somewhere or if they are just doing it for the “hours.” At my school, community service was not mandated but it definitely was encouraged. Administration’s goals were for students to participate in various community service activities because they wanted to, not because they had to. This lackadaisical method wasn’t very successfully either, which is why there needs to be a happy median between the two approaches. Schools should constantly present students with new community service opportunities and require them to go to at least one. Hopefully the students will see how enjoyable it is and want to continue.

9.    Don’t do it for attention or credit! There are many people who will just participate in community service for the “honor” or because it looks good on college applications. It is most honorable when someone participates but chooses not to bring it up whenever they can. Honors and accolades are nice, but they shouldn’t be the primary goal, and often are not as rewarding as participating in the certain program itself.

10. Strengthens community. Community unity is very important and this is one of the most affective ways. These types of various outreach programs can bring families together from different cities with very different backgrounds. Bonds can be made which can lead to a stronger community as a whole.

11. Believe what you are doing can make a positive impact; don’t decide something based on public opinion. The biggest detail of this occurrence that comes to mind is choosing whether to or not to give money to homeless people on the side of streets. I often get a lot of criticism from my friends when I give someone a dollar or two. They always tell me that I am throwing away my money and that these people will just use the money on drugs and cigarettes. Even though how most likely many of these people will use the money for the wrong reason, I choose to think look at it as if there is one person out there who that dollar can help. I am fortunate enough to be in a situation where one dollar is not the difference between a eating for the day and not, so in my mind I would rather risk that money, hoping it will help someone I meet.

12. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND CHANGE SOMEONES LIFE! There is no greater award then seeing your hard work pay off in many different capacities. One of my best friends was very involved in Habitat for Humanity and I can only imagine the satisfaction he received handing over the keys and watching someone walk into their new house that he helped build. An impact can be made through something as large of a magnitude as that or even spending an hour once a month volunteering in an old age home. The idea of someone taking time out of their o day and giving back to a community and people that may have nothing to do with them is so impactful to anyone involved. I knew someone who constantly volunteered and raised money for a center for people with mental and physical disabilities.  In two years he and a few friends raised over $27,000 for the organization but was constantly told that the money had just as much of an impact as him bringing friends, volunteering and meeting many of the participants who went there.

Comparisons of Academic Writing

Unit 3

250 Word Comparison

I had mixed opinions when I read this article. I understand the purpose behind the research and I can see the supposed validity of the article but it is harder for me to draw many comparisons in the big picture of academic writing. I surprisingly did indeed find some similarities, but it was also difficult for me to compare general freshman year academic writing to one of a science course.

Personally I would have appreciated the article a lot more if it wasn’t about a science writing based experience. Science writing in it by itself is so much different then any other writing and I think it requires a different outline and approach. Despite my claim I can still see many instances where this was not the case.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the grading criteria by the professor and in addition how the student was preparing their piece. From my past experiences in science courses, labs and journal responses needed to be written and explained in a completely different way as other work. It appeared that Dr. Carter had a different hope for her students. For example, Dave said that for his paper he likes referencing main points areas such as quality of specific evidence, quantity of information, relevance to the conversation as a whole and finally the manner he used and if it’s appropriate form of expression. [242]

It’s interesting to hear how Dr. Carter wanted her students to construct the paper. She was much more concerned with cohesiveness than content. “She repeatedly stated that what would serve these students in their subsequent academic writing was the ability to write coherent prose with a thesis and sub points, unified paragraphs, and explicitly connected sentences. In an interview she said, “Ideas aren’t going to do people much good if they can’t find the means with which to communicate them.” [244] I try to write in a similar fashion as to how Dr. Carter wanted her students to. The only reason this is surprising is I typically wouldn’t expect this type of feedback from a lab based science teacher. When I am writing a paper I try to do what Dr. Carter was hoping her students would do. It is difficult for me without carefully constructing my paper around a thesis with supporting points and claims.