JC's Blog

      I have learned more about my strengths and weaknesses in writing throughout the school year. For some of my strengths, I found that I could write more easily on longer and more thought out papers. For example, I spent a lot of time on the research paper, which allowed me to find an interest in the subject, and I could use that to make my writing more interesting.       The shorter writing assignments are hard for me. I have a hard time finding the right words to piece together each sentence the way I want it in a short time. I can also get distracted and rush to finish these assignments, which damages the quality of my writing greatly.

      Throughout the year, I have had very different experiences with the writing assignments. The pieces of writing I enjoyed the most were the personal narrative and the research paper. For these papers, being able to choose a topic or event to go off of allowed me to write about something I found interesting, and it helped me keep motivated while writing. The long period of time we got to write them also helped me find time to focus on and revise my paper.       For the pieces of writing I struggled with, blog post and some poems were difficult for me. These assignments were difficult because they were the opposite of what I just described. Having to write on forced ideas can give me major writing block. Also, the short amount of time we had to write did not help with my struggles with writing during the year.

Greg Tucker

      I believe that I take after my father in many ways because he is always a great role model. He works so hard and gives so much for our family, and he is always kind to everyone. I feel as if I should strive to become like him. I feel like I got a head start in becoming the best person I can just because I am his son.       I want to work my hardest everyday so I can give back to him. I want to push myself toward success so I can relieve my dad of his hard work and show him that it wasn't for nothing. He sacrifices and works so much, and I want to take away his burden by becoming successful. I want to provide for my family in his place in the future.

      In Purple Hibiscus, the father has been abusing the rest of the family for a long time. We can see a progression in the harshness of this abuse as the book reaches its end. It starts with the mother having a black eye, and the kids were beaten with sticks. Now the abuse escalated to the mother having a miscarriage from the fighting, and Kambili being in the hospital from being mercilessly kicked by Papa.       My point with recognizing this growth in abuse is that it will get even worse if nothing happens to stop it. The kids get a break from Papa's violence when they go to Aunty Ifeoma's flat, but that just leaves the mother there by herself. I'm afraid that Papa could kill somebody if he doesn't get what he deserves first. This thinking makes me want to read more to figure out how this situation gets resolved.

Tucker Saad