Blogs

When we first started the blogs I was so confused at how to run them, but after i got the hang of it i enjoyed it so much more than writing journals. It is a lot faster than writing a journal and so much more fun. I actually found myself going to other people's blogs and reading theirs, it almost became more addicting than facebook!

Revisions

This revisions did not help me as much as the other ones. I think our papers have gotten to the point that it is hard for students to pick out problems with them and we need help from people who know a little more about English. That's why I am planning on taking all my papers to the writing center before handing in my final portfolio. I have taken papers there before for other classes and they always do a good job of helping me find and fix my errors.

Thanksgiving!

I am so excited for Thanksgiving. I am a little disappointed that half of my family will not be there but it will still be fun. Me and my family have this tradition where after we get done eating we all sit around in the living room looking at the black Friday ads and pick out what we want for Christmas. Its so much fun! I am also excited to see all my friends from high school I miss them so much!!

Literary Analysis Outline

I like filling out this outline it made writing the paper so much easier. Filling it out was not even too tricky the hardest part was the conclusion. I like that you knew exactly what to write about. Like starting you intro out with a broad topic, instead of just diving into it without a clue. It help a lot with the intro and conclusion since those are not just stating your three main points and backing them up, they take a little more thought. 

Thesis on "The Yellow Wall-Paper"

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" the woman in the story shows symptoms of having postpartum depression, despite the common belief that she is being driven crazy by her controlling husband.

What I want my three main points to be in the paper are:
1. Use example from text to show how she could have had postpartum.
2. Show how her husband and the people around her did not help her get over her depression.
3. Then I want to show how some people do no agree with this and say the story is about men controlling women, (feminist approach).

Is this a good thesis for what i want to write about?

Critical Reading

Going through and highlighting and thinking about each sentence critical did take a lot more time than just going through and reading it, but I did understand the story better. There were certain parts in the story that i never noticed before. Like in "The Yellow Wall-Paper" she at the end says she is the women in the wallpaper and she has finally been let free, where the first time i read that i did not catch that. I was hard picking out symbols though. There would be certain things that i would know where a symbol but i couldn't figure out how.

Symbolism in "A White Heron" and "The Yellow Wall-Paper"

In "A White Heron" both the cow and the while heron are a symbol of innocence. The cow is like a child itself running away and playing games of hide-n-seek. The heron of course is white a color associated being pure and innocent. The bush in this story is a symbol of Sylvia likes to be hidden and alone, the same reason why she likes the country better than the city. The hunter and his gun are symbols of being mature and not innocent. The bird are symbols in the way that they are just like Sylvia, they are small and helpless. The toad that Sylvia watches is a symbol for herself. The toad wants to get into his hole but can't because of the visitors, just as Sylvia would like to be alone and get away from her unwanted guest. The tree is a symbol of wisdom and strength. The tree is old and sturdy, it is a place where Sylvia feels safe and while she is on it she can think better and understand things better. This is where she decides she can not tell the hunter where the herons nest is.

In "The Yellow Wall-Paper" the first symbol is the house itself. The house represents woman's roles during that time period, staying at the house the house all day and taking care or the duties there.  The color yellow is usually associated with being sick and febrile. Her husband making all the decisions and making her live in the nursery is a symbol of how women were looked upon the same a children. The bed being nailed down and the patches of wallpaper that are missing are symbols of a room in an insane asylum. The windows represent the boundary between her and the real world. The women trapped in the wallpaper represents the women in the story being trapped in that room.       

Women of the 1900's

During the 1900's a woman's place in society was at home cooking and cleaning for her husband and children. The man was the head of the house and suppose to go out and "bring home the bacon". Women were expected to be wives, daughters, and especially mothers (Sivulka, 1). Women were to get involved in charity and help out in other ways but never to get involved in activities like politics or get jobs (Sivulka, 1). This has changed drastically in today society.  

Sivulka, Juliann. "From Domestic to Municipal Housekeeper: The Influence of the Sanitary Reform Movement on Changing Women's Roles in America, 1860-1920." Journal of American Culture (01911813) 22.4 (1999): 1-7. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Most Dangerous Game

Both these stories I have read before in high school. The Most Dangerous Game I remembered right away. We read it my freshmen year and I loved it. It was like watching a horror movie but reading it instead. Reading it for the second time I was able to pick out a couple things i didnt notice before since i did not already know the ending. For example at the begin Rainsford's friend asks him what he thinks a jaguar feels when it is being hunted and Rainford says who cares? Well he soon finds out that he should care since he can relate to how the jaguar feels. I do enjoy that that ending of this story is happy and that the good wins over evil.

For an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge i did not remember reading it at first but as I got into it i remember it and the ending. The ending is very shocking I think. You think that this man has escaped amazingly from being hung, when in fact he really just dreams it. Little kids all the time write stories with the ending "and then I woke up" but this takes that ending to a whole new level.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

I would like to say that I would walk away from Omelas but I'm not sure if I would. When you have something good even when you know its wrong its hard to give it up. All the people in Omelas know that it is wrong to  torture that child, but they are to greedy to do the right thing and have their happiness taken away. The ones who do walk away those are the strong ones who are willing to give up what they have for someone else. I wonder though why the people who walk away don't help the child instead of just walking away?

research paper first draft

This went a lot easier then I thought it would. Once I got all my note cards and information organized it was just of matter of putting it in my own words. I am not quite sure if i source everything right though, I still get really confused on that. But other wise it did not take me nearly as long as a i thought it would and I didn't get stuck or bored while i was writing it like I normally do!

How the class is going.

I think that the class is going very well. I know I am learning a lot, and my papers are getting so much better. Just by looking at my first paper I wrote for this class and the papers I am writing now for both this class and others are so much better. I like how each paper has 4 drafts so when I am first starting the paper I know it doesn't have to be perfect because I will go back and fix it. My favorite way for doing class is when we are in the rectangle, I think it gets people in to the discussion better and when we talk things out I understand them better.

Tanning beds

I decided to do my topic on tanning beds and why they should be either banned or have laws that go along with them. The reason I decided on tanning beds for my topic was because when we were making the brainstorming web, i was able to come up with a lot of questions like, how tanning beds are dangerous, who uses tanning beds the most, how were tanning beds invented and why, and many others. I think it will be a good topic that i will easily be able to write 8 to 10 pages on.

Reseach topics

Some topics that interest me are the funding in sports not being fair, banning tanning beds, and banning smoking in public places. The lasts one I don't think I will be very passionate about, but I do think it is something that should become a law. I care though about the tanning beds and sports funding a whole lot more. I wasn't sure about the sport funding topic but considering how worked up everyone go over it maybe its a good idea. Banning tanning beds though is a topic I am passionate about. I don't understand why anyone would use a tanning bed in the first place, considering how bad they are for you, i have written about this topic before but it was in the 8th grade so if i do write about it i hope to learn a lot more. I'm still not sure if that's exactly what i what to do. I want to wait and see if any other good topics come my way.   

Today's Presentations

The presentations today i think went very well. Everyone seemed to have it done which is always a plus. I liked it when people used their own papers as examples of how to use the revision strategies. It helped me understand them much better. I also like when people had posters and handout that we could read, than when they just read what it was off of a sheet of paper, it was hard for me to understand what the revision strategy was and how to use it. I will use these strategies in my papers, like the one about getting rid of cluttering. I know for a fact that I have a lot of clutter in my papers so i am going to go through and highlight all of the clutter to get rid of it.    

Class today

I enjoyed today's class period. I think it is good to have someone else teach you every once and awhile just to get a different teaching style and just to mix it up a little. I also was happy to have Ryan teach us for a day since one of my best friends has him as a teacher and she raves about how nice he is all the time!

Thesis Statement

I decided to write about how USD needs to improve there campus parking. I kind of had thought about it as an idea, but wasn't really sure about it. But then i got a parking ticket, which i am royally pissed about, so now i actually had a reason to right about it. In my thesis i talk about how the University needs to make sure they have enough packing spots for the number so passes they sell, they need to use the space they do have wisely, and they need to expand on from the parking that they do have. By doing all this maybe so many people wont get tickets which i have talked to about 6 people now that have gotten tickets too. So i know i am not the only one on campus that has this problem!

People who are Screwing up America

While I was reading this piece I could not help but think of people who are not even famous but I believe are screwing up America. The people who are making America look so bad. America like the author said is not a bad place, like most places in the world, there are just some people in America that are bad. The people that think they are better then everyone else, that think that for some reason they are higher up than everyone else, and the people who for some reason think that EVERYONE cares about what THEY think, when really, nobody cares!! It is those people who drive me absolutely crazy. And if we didn't have those people American would probably be a better place, but then again I would have no one to complain about or make fun of.

Peer Reviews

I found the peer review today to be more helpful than i thought it was going to be. Alyson actually told me if my paper was good or not, unlike in high school when they would just edit my paper then hand it back to me, without any input on the actual paper. Today's peer review helped show me that i jump around a lot in my paper and that i need to focus on my main topic and stay on that topic! Thank you so much Alyson!

If I died tomorrow

If I died tomorrow this town would be sad. I have lived here since I was about 3 and since this town is very small people get to know people pretty easily. So I would say that I would have a pretty good turn out at my funeral, all of my high school would come, my past teachers, my teammates, and of course family and friends. But outside of this town I don't think anyone would know. Which comes back to my point that I need to get out of this town. People always say they want to change the world or make a difference in the world. Well I don't want to just talk about it. I hope to one day help make this world a better place, I'm not really sure how I am going to do that yet, but I'm almost positive it will have something to do with children since I do want to go into education. It doesn't have to be something huge and I don't need to make the headlines or anything I just really want to make a difference. So I better not die tomorrow!

Boys vs. Girls

I found our conversation that we had today in class about what makes up a boy and what makes up a girl very interesting. We all had a preset idea of qualities that make up a boys and ones that make up a girls, and yes some of these qualities can be true to what a girl or boy is like, but it really depends on the person. Emotional was a word we used to describe girls and i am an emotional girl, but i do know some girls that the thought of crying would mean they are a whimp. While we described boys as immature i know some (very few) who are not, and on the other hand i know some girls that are VERY inmmature. So i think the whole idea of "what makes up a girl or boy" all depends on that girl or boy.     

University of Life

This story did a great job of showing people that there are so many things out there that they don't know about. For example she talks about how when she visited black and Hispanic churches in Chicago, they knew so much about the civil right movement, when it was just something she had kind of heard about. I feel like by living in Vermillion for most of my life it has made me very sheltered. That's why I hope to get out of the town for awhile and maybe travel or just do something so I can really see the world and learn knew things.

I also like they part about how she encountered situations in her life when she was held back because she was a girl. Even though these are different times and equality between men and women has gotten much better there are still time that people make me feel like I can't do something because I am a girl. But that doesn't matter because it does not stop me from trying!!

Talk Pretty One Day

I felt that I could relate a lot with this story. The first couple days of college are terrifying. The teachers sure can do a good job of scaring the crap out of you the first day. Most of the time this doesn't last but in some cases like this story it can. This story may have been a little bit of an exaggeration of how scary teachers can be, (at least I have never has a teacher chuck pens and pencils at me) but it still shows the point at how overwhelming school can be and how hard students are really willing to work to get approval from their teachers. This story also made me think of the point that yes school may be hard but at least i am able to understand what the teachers are saying. I could not imagine going to a school in a different country and only knowing bits and pieces of what the teacher was saying.
Please leave a comment to tell me what you think!!!

ALL ABOUT ME!

Hey everyone!

My name is Stacie Kjelden I am a freshmen and I am from Vermillion, SD. I have lived in this town since I was about 3 years old, so I know it pretty well. If you need any help with anything let me know!

I am a swimmer for the USD Women's Swimming and Diving Team. I mainly swim distance freestyle events, my favorite is the mile! I have been swimming now for about 11 years and can't wait to continue on with it!

Another interesting thing about me is that I am a big shoe addict! I love to shop and every time I go shopping i usually come home with a new pair of shoes!


Leave a comment if there is anything else you want to know about me or if you just want to say hi!

<3 Stacie