Ryan Christenson

English 110 H2

10 September 2018

 

My Experiences of Drafting

Creating essays for me has never been an easy task. I have had many teachers tell me certain things to do like create a word web or outline your ideas before making your draft. My junior year of high school was a tough year for me. It was the first year I took honors english and my teacher was a difficult grader and a Harvard graduate. I knew it was going to be a hard class but as the year went on and I could not get my grade above a B. I struggled the entire year but I tried to take as much information in as possible because I knew that even if I was able to take in a few new writing skills it would all be worth it.

During my time in school I did obtain writing skills that I think prepared me for college.  I learned how to take information that I have and put it into an outline. When I outline I create three main points that I would like to talk about first. Then I create my thesis around those three main points. I start to create my hook within my introductory paragraph and give the reader a sense with what I am talking about within the introduction.

When I create my body paragraphs I begin with a topic sentence then add in details from my topic. If I was talking about an article or any form of writing I would provide a point in the thing I am talking about to help explain a quote that I will be putting in. When I put the quote in I then explain the quote and how it corresponds to what my topic is about. When I start my conclusion I rephrase my introductory paragraph and explain why I chose those topics.

Journal #7

https://youtu.be/DJiJT_Od9Cg

The End of Food

Soylent is a food/drink of the future and would replace you cheap and quick meals that many people have everyday. It is able to fill you up for around 5 hours and is a great source of nutrition. It has a balanced amount of nutrients and has different varieties depending on what you are looking for in a meal. It is also much cheaper than a full meal you buy at a fast food restaurant which makes it an ideal meal for when you need a full stomach quickly and do not have the time to sit down and enjoy food. Rhinehart, who made Soylent tests the products himself before they are put onto the production line and says it is a lot harder than it looks to make the concoction. If you put a little too much of something in it can make you feel sick. Then too little of something you will not get enough nutrients and will give you side effects. In the end Soylent is a great meal to have when you are too busy to sit down and eat real food

This text made me wonder why I have not heard about this on the news or in an article somewhere. It is a great idea for people that need a quick and easy meal that do not have the time or money to spend on a large meal. It is able to house all of the ingredients you need to survive and have more energy than if you had a real food meal. I have always thought of if you could live off protein powder or any of those work out supplements and this answered my question. It is a really cool idea and would not mind trying it. I do love real food but every once in awhile I would not mind trying it.

Ryan Christenson

Journal 8

 

Within the first few pages they talk about how important it is to make a clear thesis and argument to help people know what their paper is talking about. It is good to make it clear so people know why you are talking or making a writing piece about it. It is also good to create some background information so people that did not understand the backstory or previous information have an idea on why the writer is talking/writing about it. You should also remind the reader as the speech or text goes along what they are writing or arguing about. Within the next pages it talks about and gives examples about direct examples on how to introduce your argument without it becoming too aggressive or too difficult to pick out.

Journal 9

Ryan Christenson

I would try to focus more on trying to read through my essay more and go back after I make a revision to check to make sure it sounds right. I also felt  like I should have organized my paper better and focus on trying not to jump around as much as I was doing if at all. I felt like for the first essay in this class it went pretty well considering the outcome. I definitely could have made more changes and fixed a few things but in the end hopefully it will turn out ok. In the past this revision process was a little familiar because of my past teachers that I had were good at teaching us how to properly revise things.

 

Journal #10

Ryan Christenson

The first passage Julia’s children did not have much meaning to it besides the beginning. I did not quite understand what the point of it was except that people do not cook as much. I do not get why this has anything to do with America not cooking enough and eating more pre cooked meals like frozen pizzas and other things. My family rarely eats things like that but I guess other areas in America it is a big issue.I felt that it covered too many topics like Julie Child and her experience with the food industry and people not eating enough. I did not see man connections between the two things. I also could not keep track of what she was in and why this was so significant.

Within “watching what we eat” it seemed like she kept getting caught up into her own memories and getting off topic which confused me and took away from the main points she was trying to make. I do agree hough that most people nowhere days do watch a lot of TV towards cooking. I do the same thing myself. I love the show “Chopped” and watch it all the time. I also do love to watch cooking videos and learn how to cook things at the same time Gordon Ramsay does a great job with this. Overall I would sayI do watch more cooking on TV than I actually cook. I am most likely one of the only kids my age that is able to cook a substantial and difficult meal without any help so I am an exception to what Pollan is saying.

The last passage “the cooking animal” is not complicated passage and stays on track to what it is trying to convey to its audience. This passage kind of hits home for me because my dad is the one that takes care of meals on the grill most of the time. It is a summer thing and we all love it. It is kind of a treat when my dad comes home with a nice piece of filet mignon to throw on the grill or have hot dogs and hamburgers for Memorial Day. Seems a lot easier to read than the first one since it is talking to us in a casual fashion  and connects with the reader about the grill and statistics about how preparing food correlates with obesity. Us Americans are too lazy and cheap to actually cook for ourselves which incorrect and it would be hard to change it. This passage connects with reader unlike the first one that just sounded like they were throwing information at you.

Journal #11

Ryan Christenson

When trying to understand what the water is saying you should ask questions for example what is the writers argument and if you agree or disagree with the writer. Look at the author when they are writing the argument and think about what are they trying to convey to the audience. Some authors try to mix in other people’s words in with theirs to make it sound like they are the one that is saying it when in reality it is a summary of someone else’s work they are using to help explain their argument. You need to try and find the “they say” portion to try and decipher what the other is saying. You should look for gaps that where people have not studied or looked at before to try and find what the author is talking about. It is not always obvious or seem like the main point since you have not thought about it before. Not always the writer will convey their views clearly. They might use strong language that could trick you so look up those words and look for views and angles the author is talking about to show their view on the things they are talking about.

Journal 13

In my paper I felt like I should have focused more on how I used my quotes and the way I ported and explained them in my paper. It definitely did suck though that I was sick for a large chunk of time doing this since I did not have as much of a drive to do well on my paper and as much effort. I could have also done better at citing my information but I was absent when we talked about it in class. I should have gotten more info and talked to someone to try and figure it out since I think I got credit off from my works cited. Some of my body paragraphs I feel could have been a lot better and more in depth than they are now too.

 

Journal 14

Ryan Christenson

To me CTL has changed what I think about animals and food a little bit after reading Animals Like Us. It changed my view when thinking about what it is like to be a lobster and the life that it has. In the end though a lobster’s life is not too bad when considering other animals that we eat. Lobster is my favorite food and I will never stop eating it but as long as we treat animals humanly when we kill them it should be ok. In the end it made me think more about what I eat and how it is being prepared which I ave not done before.