In class writing 4-20-09

Passage A
1.Did you know that until May 5 of every year, you are not really working for yourself?
2.A group in Washington, D.C., has learned that it takes workers an average of four months and four days to earn enough to pay their taxes.
3.The group found in its study that taxes eat up 34 percent of all the income in the United States.
4.So, if workers used their entire income for taxes, they would not be through paying them until May.
5.Because/Since May 5 is the first day people really work for themselves, the study group has some advise.
6.It would like a bill passed naming May 5 “Tax Freedom Day.”
7.On that day, you would give yourself a break, regardless of how hard you worked.
8.Therefore, from May 5 on, you would finally be your own boss.

Passage B
1Did you ever daydream about writing your life story?
2Do you think that your life is too dull, or you can’t write?
3Anyone’s life story is filled with fascinating events, and writing them down in the best way you know can give you a sense of accomplishment and, perhaps, leave a valuable inheritance to your family.
4The first thing to do is to buy a loose-leaf notebook.
5Each page of the book should be titled with a significant milestone of your life—from your first dog to your proudest moment.
6You should then jot down a few key words in the book whenever a memory comes back to you. 7The idea is not to begin with “I was born . . .” and try to write a chronological history of your whole life.
8Just delve into your passed at random; one memory will trigger another.
9It will become quiet easy after a while.
10Its also important to write in your own language.
11Plane, honest writing is the goal.

In class writing 4-13

Commas 1 - Insert any missing commas in the following sentences.Example: My opinion as long as you asked is that the expedition is likely to succeed.My opinion, as long as you asked, is that the expedition is likely to succeed.

1. That singer, whoever he is, really knows how to sing the blues.

2. The woman sitting at the back table is a well-known restaurant reviewer.

3. When conditions are right, that horse can run just like its father.

4. His four favorite artists are Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Manet.

5. Let Warren and Andrea, our most skillful speakers, present our proposal.

6. Long regarded as a leading newspaper, the Washington Post boasts an outstanding staff of reporters.

7. Slowly, slyly, and cautiously, Eric slid the wallet across the table.

8. What we need is creative leadership, leadership that will encourage experimentation.

9. During high school, he read Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet.

10. Song of Solomon, I believe, is the professor’s favorite.

11. I believe that should the eggs break, we will have a mess.

12. Sometimes I think that people are extremely foolish.

13. I believe that a computer breakdown is a common excuse for late papers.

14. The elephant that stands on the drum is Maggie.

15. The elephant, which is a hard worker and a talented performer, is found in most zoos and circuses.


Commas 2 -Insert all necessary commas into the following sentences:
1. Heeding all too well the admonition of Genesis 1:26, man has clearly established dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and all the earth.

2. In fact, man has gone far toward destroying all members of the animal kingdom including of course himself.

3. In the last 150 years man has increased his extermination of mammals alone, by fifty-five-fold and if the killing continues at the present rate man may well destroy all 4,062 species of mammals within thirty years.

4. Even today there are 835 endangered species with more being added each year.

5. In India where 40,000 tigers roamed in 1930 there are now only 2,500 left, and the lion population currently estimated at 175 has been depleted even more severely.

6. Australia a land of energetic sports-minded individuals, has treated its animal population no better than India has.

7. Consequently, animals like the kangaroo for which Australia is famous are fast disappearing as are koala bears, Tasmanian wolves, and emus.

8. Because Australians were not concerned about their wildlife in 1930 the government machine-gunned 20,000 emus at one time.

9. In the United States, too several species of wildlife have disappeared and many others are close to extinction.

10. The Eastern elk and the passenger pigeon, once so plentiful in this country are now forever gone.

11. Other animals such as the alligator, the Southern Bald eagle, and the ivory-billed woodpecker may be fated to join the growing list of species we will see no more.

12. Although alligators are protected by law, men continue to kill them for their skins only the belly portion of which are used.

13. As long as Americans want their expensive alligator belts, handbags, and shoes the poachers will continue to supply the skins.

14. The profit motive of course has led to the wholesale slaughter of animals like the alligator and the tiger but many other animals have been killed for whim or pleasure.


More Parallelism

We were dirty, hungry, and without a penniless.

My roommate liked to repair things around the house and do his own cooking.

During the day, we went on long hikes, rowed around the lake, or just had leisure time.

She returned to pay the rent and pick up some of her things she had left.

Two things that I found hard to learn as a freshman were to get enough sleep and trim expenses.

He asked me about my courses and asked where I was planning to be next year.

The doctor said that I should rest and not get excited or upset.

Hitler’s followers considered other nations to be racially inferior and fit only for slave labor.

The best way to combat juvenile delinquency is not to set up more social agencies but restore old-fashioned discipline in the home.


The book told how to build a gun cabinet, a bookcase, and all types of furniture that you can make.


When I was a member of the basketball team, everyone met me with a happy smile,and made lively conversation, and invited me to many parties.

Fires, caused by unheeding persons, have destroyed valuable forests and thereby decreased our lumber resources.


In basketball, there is never a dull moment, any team can win, and there is a fine display of teamwork.

My parents like peace and quiet and relaxing in the evening at home.

Esther is a helpful person who makes friends easily.


Yosemite is a park with spectacular scenery, and has half-tame bears.


My friends were always going off to jog in the park or to play a game of tennis.


The manager asked me to file an application and leave my number.

We went to rallies to protest against pesticides, oppose nuclear war, or support other current issues.

My roommate was a smart dresser, good student, and really knew how to talk.

College students going into business think their secretaries will do their writing for them. Young business people seldom have private secretaries. Many of us foolishly object to taking courses in writing. Our notion that only poets and novelists have to write is unrealistic. Practicing engineers and scientists say they spend half of their time writing memos and reports. This attitude shows a naive faith in the competency of their secretaries. Students going into the technical or scientific fields may think that writing is something they seldom have to do. Other things being equal, a person in any field who can express ideas clearly is sure to succeed.



I don't think you should go out with him. Because he may still be getting over his long-term girlfriend with who he just broke up with. He doesn't have a job which means that more than likely he has no ambition out of life. Also with him not have a job you will be the one paying for everything when yall do go out.

Race is still an important consideration in American politics today. Because the isue is still around in our world today. We should be more open to race now more than ever. I recently heard President Bush speak about hate crimes in school.

Argumentative essays are not only meant to show your views and opinions but to also sway your reader to the side that you are on. This type of essay is a good way for me to get your opinion about a subject out and into the open. My essay took an obvious side but it just listed why capital punishment should be abolished.

Reading "How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words," by Paul Roberts, was almost like sitting down and listening to a lecture. Due to the fact that this book was so boring and there wasn't anything that really caught my attention. It wasn't as interesting as many books are. There was tons of great and useful information, but I had nothing to relate to it.

Topic Proposal #2

I. For this essay, I want to use a global approach on the issue for the "freshman 15." In this essay I would also like to use a proposal approach instead of using a policy approach. I want to use a proposal approach because I believe that it will be easier for me to get my point across this way by giving a lot of information on the issue.

II. The major problem with the "freshman 15" is that no one can really find that it does in fact happen and that there is no exact weight gain. Some other problems are if they can't find out exactly what it is that causes college freshman to gain weight if any at all then they can't pin point what you can do to prevent it. The main debate for this issue is that some say that the "freshman 15" is real and that you will gain as much as fifteen pounds your first year in college, and the others say that there is no such thing as the "freshman 15" that is just some myth. The problem is important because this worries so many incoming freshmen and it is important for incoming freshman to be aware of the facts.

III. I think that the solution for this problem is to keep on doing research about the subject until they can find exactly what it is that cause's incoming freshman to gain weight and exactly how much weight they will gain. If they keep on doing these experiments then than can someday put an end to the "freshman 15." And if they are able to do this it will put many incoming freshman at ease and they want stress so much about their weight anymore. They can then give college freshman the information on what is the best to eat and what exercise is most helpful to stop weight gain. Once all this has been done I believe that the so called "freshman 15" will just kind of die out and no one will worry about it anymore.

IV. I believe that if they keep researching this subject they will be able to finally figure out if there really is a weight gain and it will also help put a stop to worries of incoming freshman. I also believe that once they figure out the causes they will be able to help freshman to not gain weight. The more they know about this the less people will worry about it.

V. I am basing my proposal off the point of view that the "freshman 15" doesn't really exist. One of the sources I will be able to use from my exploratory paper is from "Freshman 15: Valid Theory or Harmful Myth" the authors in this paper say that they found no significant weight gain at the end of the year.

VI. The one concern that I have is that the topic I chose for my last paper doesn't really work for this new paper. As of now I don't have any questions about his paper.

Campus Issue

I think that USC needs to change the policy about parking on campus. I feel that this needs to be change or at least thought out a little bit better because the student parking lots are so far away from campus that if you park there at night and have to walk halfway across campus it is not safe to be doing this. With the way parking is set up I would have liked to got a job this semester but due to my parking circumstances I wasn't able to get a job. I just didn't feel that if I got a job and had to work late one night that if I had to walk back from my car I would not be safe. The closest parking lot to me that normally has a spot to park at is about 5 to 10 minutes away on foot. It isn't in a really nice park of town it's kind of away from everything. Yes there are other options but I can't afford to buy a spot in the bull street garage because it is EXTREMELY expensive. I feel that they need to make more parking lots that are closer to freshman dorms and campus so that it will be a little more safe for people to walk back at night by theirself.

Free writing in class

I guess something that happened to me that made me change my mind about something was drinking and driving. A few years ago I wouldn't have thoguht twice about someone drinking and driving. I believed them when they said that they were straight to drive because who else would know how they were feeling better than them. But one of my friends was in a very bad car wreck due to someone else driving drunk and she was in a coma for about a month and just about didn't make it out.That changed the why I thought about it. You don't have to be drinking and driving to get in a wreck it can happen to you even if you haven't had one drink. But if you are drinking and driving that highers your risk to hurt yourself or someone else. I am strongely against drinking and driving now. Because you can take your life or the life of someone else in just a split second. So there is no need to make that risk higher for you.

Short Writing Assignment #11

11) The two articles that I found the most credible are the last two article I read "Opposition to Shelter Rise" and "What Did Not Work: Effort to Centralize Homeless Services." The first two articles I read are the less credible "Four Corners Best Answer on Homeless" and "Homeless Situation Has No Easy Answers." You can check the credibility of an article by checking the time period it was written, the type of article it is, and most the time you can check also by using a scholary search engine or school based search engines. You can use less credible articles in a research paper by helping that to make up your opinion on a certain subject and you can also use it by just giving your paper a little more information and more veiws on the subject.

In class writing

I believe that the editorial "Columbia Council Should Support Mission, Homeless" was the most rhetorically effective. I think that is was the most effective because you went into a lot of detial on why the city council should not deny the the request. In talks about by addressing the proposal we are making a strong and important point. The article also address how many people become homeless year-round. It also talks about why the proposal is so important and how it will help to put a stop to homeless people and such.

SWA #10

8. Each editorial does employ a certain rhetorical style in each of their writings. Each piece differs because the first piece is just getting to started with what is going on and how things are supposed to work, the second is telling you how things didn't pan out right and that sort of thing, the last piece tells you about how they are now trying to open up a day center for ill homeless people. They are all similar because they are all talking about a center thing such as trying to open up a Homeless Rehabilitation Center on Shop Road. They serve to function of getting everyone to see each side of the project.