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2. Copy/paste a sentence written any time this year by a table mate (found in one of their Google Documents). Find a sentence that starts in an interesting way--or has components that are unique and cool. Compliment that sentence profusely. Mention the table mate by last name. Do this for two table mates, making sure every one of your table mates gets at least one compliment from someone. No student in Composition 1 earns any credit if each student does not receive at least one compliment.
Type 300+ words total. (Pictured is Anne Sexton, one of the finest narrators ever--and a woman whose work we'll study next semester.)
94 comments:
I believe I am good at using symbolism and similes. These two literary devices I feel as though I understand them well and know how to use them properly. A lot of elementary school focused on using similes and being in honors english really taught me how to use symbolism well. One of my table mates produced a very enjoyable sentence. Meyer wrote, “They will have their head in their laps sleeping; do not be fooled when they say they are in deep prayer.” This sentence came from his essay of classifying the various types of church go-ers. This essay is my favorite of his so far, and this is one of my favorite sentences within his essay. Every time I read this particular sentence, it makes me smile. Mr. Meyer does a great job of adding humor to his essay through this sentence. It provides great imagery, as you can imagine an elderly gentleman in the last pew nodding off, then with placing a hand on his shoulder he’ll wake and tell you he was praying this whole time, not sleeping. Another table mate of mine is Ms. Lubbers. In her classification essay as well, I found a sentence I thought added humor to her essay that also makes me laugh when I read it. In her classification essay, she compared family relatives to fruitcake. Lubbers writes, “You can unfriend them on Facebook, or write slander about them in your burn book, but unlike your bratty ex-B.F.F Becky, the Backstabbing family member is ultimately inescapable.” She adds a hint a comedy along with getting her point across in an easily understandable manner. Both of my peers are very brilliant writers that know how to intertwine comedy into their essay as well as making the point that they intend. I look forward to reading their essays in the future.
Hammond 7
I find I use personification and symbol the best. I find that I use these the best because I use them the most often and I enjoy using them. I like personifying things a lot because I like the element it gives. The power in personification is that you have to potential to make a reader connect and feel empathy for some of the smallest (or possibly) strangest things. The power of words is great in its expanse, but also in the potentially. Writing has the potential to start arguments, give peace, and even make people cry over something as small as the ‘life’ of a pencil, or some other, otherwise ‘meaningless’ object. In fact, I believe that most children are very adept at using personification. Stuffed animals could talk and had feelings just like humans. That is an example of real world personification, and yet another thing, that through good writing, can be brought to life on the page. I also like symbols as well. Symbolism was a large focus is past honors classes. I remember junior year of high school when we read the book Animal Farm. In that book, every animal was a symbol for someone or something, and every plot point was a symbol for a larger history. Perhaps it is not that I consider myself extraordinarily proficient at using symbolism, but that it is one of my favorite literary devices. The complexity or simplicity of symbolism in quantities that can either be grand or minute provide for an innumerable amount of interesting combinations in writing. I liked this segment from my tablemate Hanson’s manhood essay and thought it less valuable to pick out an individual sentence out of context. “…Or maybe is it when he tried for murder at the age of 18, consequently resulting in spending the rest of his life in jail. Although both are defined by the American courts, I believe the real meaning of manhood is more philosophical than legislative; separating animals from humans and children from adults”. I know that Mr. Hanson is knowledgeable when it comes to things involving the government, and with my lack of knowledge in this area, I find his contrast of the fact and feeling to be very nicely done. The way he balances his sentences is superb. You can tell, even from this small opening segment, that Mr. Hanson put lots of thought into this essay and that manhood must have played a significant role in his life. Another tablemate of mine is Mr. Blok and I found a sentence of his that I enjoyed very much that is also from his manhood essay. “Manhood is a tricky topic to write about especially when you do not know if you have achieved full on manliness”. I think this sentence because it just seems like a very Isaiah-y thing to say. While it has his strong writing style as a good opening sentence, it as is very much his own. I have no idea what it means to “achieve full on manliness” but I like the way Mr. Blok started this essay with a clear sentence that set the tone for the rest of his essay.
I believe the best literary devices I use in my narrative essay are flashback, setting, and comic relief. When my reader is reading my essay I want them to be so immersed into my writing by the details of my setting that they feel like they are there. I do want to infer some suspense in my story as-well. When my reader is at their edge of their seat I want to incorporate some comic relief so they laugh so hard they may just fall off their seat. It is important that I engage my reader with heavy, but effective detail. My narrative is about when I was a little girl so the whole story will be a flashback. My classmates are extremely talented and we all have our different styles of writing. In Rief’s classification essay she states “Sitting at an elegant dining table and being fed from a silver spoon is the Poodle.” This sentence creates a comical image of a poodle literally sitting at a dining room table. This sentence sparks your imagination and you curiosity of the situation. In this situation she is representing a type of person with a pampered poodle. “The quasar, or quasi-stellar-objects, are super massive black holes at the center of a galaxy that has jets of energy spewing outwards from the black hole in two opposing directions.” (Rohrbach), this classmate is extremely intelligent with his word choice and style. He uses adjectives that are relevant and helps you envision what he is talking about. Before I read this I had no idea was a quasar was; after even reading just that sentence I have a better understanding of what it is. All of us have our own quirks and talents in our writing techniques. We use them to enhance and differentiate our writing making each and every one of us unique.
I don't believe I've used literary devices to the fullest of my ability this year nor have I used any in my narrative essay, which is far from even started. I do hope to include more symbolism as it adds a special element to a piece of writing that was not there before. I have not added setting to any my essays other than the classification, one of the more enjoyable topics, but do hope to strive to involve such an important literary device in my writings. Setting adds not only depth, but also a imaginative understanding of where the story takes place or surroundings. Suspense is a tougher element to add; my essays so far have had no discernable need for the addition of suspense. However, I do believe that it will greatly impact the quality of my narrative essay and will hopefully be used more profusely in my other writings this year and for many more years. Once I initially start my narrative essay, I hope to add the aforementioned elements to it to create a deeper, more profound essay.
My tablemate, Will Thompson, has an astounding way of creating these complex, beautiful sentences that are still easy to understand. His essays are deeply wise and incredibly scholarly in not only the stories, but also the grammar and organization. Will’s vocabulary word usage is out of this world amazing and he uses it to his advantage to create consistently amazing essays and writings. Will’s causal essay in particular stood out to me; this story, much like the simple man himself, Will Thompson, is simplistic in only the best way possible with a breathtaking use of words to create a great essay. Will writes, “Though the rugged characteristics of mother nature may not be as important to society today as it was years before, it still helps enlighten the human race with its wisdom and inspires the human race to reach new heights”. That sentence has just the right amount of vocabulary without being overwhelming and boastful. Another one of my tablemates, the insightful Emily Ullom, has inspiring and incredibly perceptive writings that I have had the honor reading during this class. Emily is what one would call a “bando”, a drummer in our schools band (and a very adept one at that) and her passion for music carries over into each and every one of her essays. Emily’s classification essay is superb in all elements of it. In said essay, Emily writes, “ The countless hours spent working diligently on charts, tuning, planning, and practices is priceless in the quest to be the most precise and cohesive marching band that we can be. The ultimate responsibility, however, lies with the talented students themselves, pushing the art of the show to new heights and honing their skills”. These two sentences can only give you the slightest preview of the complexity and wit involved in this essay. Emily’s writing improves each day, although she is quite a brilliant writer, and I look forward to reading her essays each day.
Two literary devices that I am applying into my narrative essay would be symbol and setting. The first literary device that I am using in my essay is symbol. My symbol being used is anxiety. I explain what occurs when I get anxiety and the background story of how I got anxiety. The second literary device that I am using is setting. The setting of my narrative story is at a cheer competition and how my anxiety applies to that setting. I hope to add these literary devices in at my best ability and make them flow within my essay as greatly as I can.
My fellow table mate Larson is an incredibly talented writer. She using fascinating vocabulary and great sentence structure. An example of this would be “The standard of beauty--for better or worse--is digressing into the worshiping of a small percentage of society and building them up into what everyone should look like, dress like, and essentially, become.” You can just feel the emotion and affect that sentence has on people. Digressing is an excellent use of vocab. The sentence has a lot of power to it and I enjoy that very much. My next table mate is Mikkelsen. I thought that she is very good at introductory sentences. Therefore, I choose this introductory phrase of hers...“Being a teenager can be one of the most challenging season’s of a person’s life.” This sentence makes me want to read more about her essay. This one sentence intrigues me to learn more and find out why being a teenager can be one of the most challenging times of someone life and what the causes are. A good writer knows that and intriguing introductory sentence is necessary in you essay and I believe that is what Mikkelson does best when writing her essays. I hope to see more great writing skills from my table mates in the future.
In my narrative essay, I plan on using the literary devices of flashback, foreshadowing, and setting. My narrative essay is about a previous time in my life, which was about two and a half years ago. So, part of my essay will be a flashback of the incident and the other part will be foreshadowing of what will/did happen to me in the future as a result of my accident. I am using foreshadowing in my essay by explaining what happened in my car accident that led to the revocation of my license for ninety days. I am also using setting in my essay by describing the specific scenarios I was in and the locations I was at during the time of my accident.
My table mates are extremely talented writers. In Brown’s classification essay, she stated “A leech is a bloodsucking, carnivorous aquatic or terrestrial worm that basically drains others; in a simple sense.” This sentence shows a lot of imagery and provides a marvelous picture and description of what a leech looks like to someone who has never seen one before. My other table mate Sternburg stated, “Without this mental relationship, five foot putts become as difficult as maximum distance drive through the Amazon rain forest” in his comparison-contrast essay. I think Sternburg did an outstanding job by comparing a power-lifting term to a drive through the amazon rain forest. Ackerman opened up his causal essay with “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.” I enjoy the fact that he opened up his essay with this statement because you understand and know that he is talking about Smokey Bear and the constant issue of forest fires in his essay. This device is an admirable way to catch the reader’s attention. I am ecstatic to see my table mates and myself excel in our writing techniques and capabilities in the coming months.
Peltier 1
In my narrative essay I plan to try to use a variety of literary devices. On having to be flashback. I plan on using flashback because I am going to be talking about a past situation that I experienced in my life. In my essay I am also aiming to use imagery. I want to use imagery in order to help the reader be able to visual the situation and things that I experienced. I am also going to challenge myself by trying to incorporate personification. Braun one of my table mates have a unique way of writing. The way she uses stereotypes in her essay really help readers to connect to the situation that is being elaborated on is a great way of writing. An example of this is, “He strives for that top varsity spot on the football team, getting the hottest chick in school to go to the dance with him, and looking calm, cool, and collected at all times.” As you read this sentence you can pick out the stereotype, the stereotype of what is expect of a teenage boy in high school. Connecting it to high school make it very relatable and makes it more intriguing to read since we can connect it to our life. My next table partner Finch is an extremely talented writer. He has a way of drawing you in with the words and catching your attention. This is evident in his introductory sentence, “You are lying in your comfortable bed after a long day. Finally, after everything you have done that day, you are about to receive what you have been longing for: sleep.” As you first read this you just get drawn in and want to read more and find out what is going to happen next. Being able to capture someone’s attention as Finch does is an extreme talent that is beneficial and fun to read. All of my table mates have a unique way of writing and I look forward to being able to read more of their work in the future.
7 Bose said...
In my narrative essay I am using foreshadow and imagery. Foreshadowing comes into play quite frequently in my essay because I am leading and tempting the reader towards what is going to come next. My essay, Shoe strings make the best noose, goes on to further explain how I use foreshadowing to keep the reader attached and it helps keep my essay suspenseful. The other literary device I use in my essay is imagery. I use imagery to help the reader visualize what the store, shoes, my brothers, and my mom look like. Imagery also helps the audience see an upset mother and flustered employees. One of my tablemates, Mr. Rise, explains his point of view on what it means to become a man or to consider yourself a man. “ I will build a tenable house of ideas and customs of which my family will grow from and learn from in order to become men or women themselves.” He does an excellent job of explaining how he will carry out the duties of a man. He also explains that he will not be a man until he leaves his household and becomes independent of his parents. He did an extraordinary job of using examples and imagery in this sentence to help the reader grasp a better understanding of what being a man looks like. He used an example so the reader could visualize this reference for themselves. Another tablemate of mine, Ms. Waldner, gives the reader an example of how to exemplify maturity in the job world. “Although I am currently excelling at my job, I do not want to arrogate title of status of being a woman.” She shows the reader that just because you have earned a certain title or promotion that you have the right to be arrogant about this and flaunt it around. That would show immaturity. Mr. Dietz explains in his causal essay about why people fear and this is what he came up with, “The main reasons (or causes) behind people's fears are deep, primal instincts, uncertainty about one’s future, and experiences--all reflections of our true selves, and the fears within us all.” This is a very good attractive sentence. Attractive meaning this sentence helps lead the reader into what they will expect from this essay. It is a short window and summary of what Mr. Dietz will be explaining. It is an excellent introductory sentence. My last tablemate, Mr. Komatsubara, writes in his causal essay about gender and humanity of our world. This meaning lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and gays. One very intriguing sentence I read was, “How is it, that in less than two centuries sexual minorities have gone from worldwide persecution to acceptance with wide arms open?” I really love this sentence. He really uses this to attract the reader's attention. When I read his essay for the first time, that sentence insinuated that there was more to come. It intrigued me and made me want to read more into the essay. This sentence was used as a cliff hanger and he executed suspension perfectly.
The two literary devices I am using the best in my narrative would be suspense and and symbolism. I am using suspense the best because my story has great opportunities to include and it seems almost necessary to add it in or the story would not flow as well. Also I like suspense and I like the thrill it creates. I am also using symbolism well. I am using symbolism well because it quite common in our language. Also we have been learning ever since 9th grade honors english how to find it so now that we have to include it it does not seem as hard. It seems to roll off and make sense. Symbolism also is how you can point out a certain behavior or kind of people without naming them. Kinda like the Animal Farm. Now, to move on to other people's type of sentences. The first sentence I am viewing is Durfee’s from her Comparison-Contrast essay. “The answer is simple: the boy is satisfied with floating through life with no real goals, the sister is determined to make something of herself.” Throughout her essay she was authoritative with her view on the different parts of having siblings, the beginning of this sentence is the quintessences of that. Secondly, she uses a colon to perfectly adding emphasis on the simple answer to the question of why the siblings are different. Also the sharp differences shown here between the two is dramatic. The lazy--carefree boy then the determined--stressed girl. Excellent sentence for a compare and contrast essay. The second sentence I am viewing is Callahan from her Classification essay. “The voice of Todd--an old high school comrade--sounds through the line; he requests you accompany a group to his lake cabin for a weekend of leisure and reminiscence. “ This sentence has an appositive renaming Todd helps us understand who Todd is and makes you wonder why an old high school friend is calling him. Then Callahan uses great sentence structure here with a semicolon combining these two independent clauses. I also like how she uses different word for phone and make it more interesting than the same old same old stuff.
I plan on using multiple literary devices in my Narrative essay. First, I plan to use the impact of setting to introduce my story and paint a picture in the reader’s mind. By correctly portraying my setting, I am using foreshadowing at the same time because the readers may be able to guess what happens next. I also plan on using suspense by dragging my essay out and going into depth with every detail. This should hopefully keep the reader intrigued and anxious to know the ending.
My tablemates are creative writers. The first example comes from Ms. Tibke and her Comparison-Contrast Essay. “Your family has invested months-- or even years--into the progress of your life.” I found this sentence to be intriguing. The way the sentence is written, providing that extra emphasis of years pleases me. Along with that, the added interruption in the middle of the sentence provides substantial emphasis. When reading this sentence, it made me stop and think about how powerful of a sentence it is. Often times, I feel that teenagers, myself included, fail to realize the importance of our family and how much they do for us. I feel that as a teenager, time goes by and it is not until we are gone, away from home do we realize how much our family mean to us. Another appealing sentence comes from Mr. Paulsen in his Causal essay in which he examined the reasons that people feel music is appealing. “Most people will cringe or cower if they heard a sour chord, or unintentional dissonant notes.” Although this sentence is nothing more than a complex sentence, its diction and vivid word choice escalates the value of it. As I read this sentence, I immediately cringed and heard dissonant notes in my head. Not all sentences have are able to make me react that way, just as this one did. The added words of “unintentional” and “dissonant” explain to readers that the squeaky and unappealing notes were an accident and it shouldn’t sound that way. Readers should be able to understand exactly what Mr. Paulsen meant when reading this sentence because of it’s excellency.
I will be using similes and alliteration along with foreshadowing. I believe these are my best literary devices I will be using because they are easy to understand and make sense throughout the whole essay itself. Some literary devices are easier than others but some can be powerful such as foreshadowing. Foreshadowing gives the story or essay a new interesting perspective. I will using these particular devices in my narrative essay to describe details in a more intense way which in return the eyes of the readers will be attached or more interest to the story. My table mates have many sentences that are intriguing. The first essay I am viewing is Thomes’ causal essay “ Never hearing compliments or praise during childhood can water a tree that will never want to blossom in worry of the unknown judgment awaiting their action.”(Thomes). I think this sentences is so true to everyday life and I just love how smooth and connected the sentence is. Everyday kids go through the struggle of being judged and the way she puts it so delicately is just so unique and interesting. The sentence grabbed my eyes because it has a metaphor and has a different outlook compared to the whole essay. Next I am viewing is Bertelsens causal essay. “ There is a never-ending list of specific phobias but there are a few generic ones people are most familiar with: Ophiophobia (fear of snakes), Nyctophobia (fear of the dark), and Thanatophobia (fear of death).”(Bertelsen). I like the structure compared to the other sentences throughout the essay itself. The description behind the phobia really helps the reader to understand and comprehend what they will be reading for the next 5 pages. It is great usage of listing with the commons.
There is many more sentences I could choose from that have great word usage throughout the essays.
6 Ziegeldorf
In my narrative essay, I will be using conflict and theme. I will use these two literary devices because I am familiar with how they are used and how they fit into a sentence. By using conflict there will always be a resolution to the conflict or a way to figure out the conflict. My topic for my narrative essay is about volunteering. Within my essay, for conflict, I will state the conflicts that would occur when volunteering or choosing to volunteer. There can be multiple conflicts that arise during volunteering, which I will be including in my essay. As for setting, I will make sure to include the different types of settings that can be included when volunteering.
I chose to look at a couple of my tablemates’ essays, Sadler and Peterson. When looking at Sadler's causal essay, I noticed right away the following sentence: “Their minds can turn everyday objects into magical weapons or mystical amulets--a bowl of spaghetti can transform into a pile of worms or a spatula can morph into a knight’s sword.” That sentence shows how intriguing the rest of Sadler's essay will be and making me want to continue reading. Sadler included an excellent word choice, making it sounding smart and sophisticated. For Peterson’s comparison and contrasting essay, I really enjoyed her title. Her title was “Athleticism Where Once there was None: A Juxtaposition of Two New Sports for Young Women”. When reading her title, I was curious as to what the rest of essay is about. Having a title that will make readers want to continue reading is crucial. Peterson accomplished that. By saying “Athleticism Where Once there was None” makes someone reading her essay become excited into continuing to read. By looking at Sadler’s and Peterson’s essays, I will be sure to use their work to help me with my essays in the future.
Foreshadowing seems to fit quite naturally into the first few pages of my narrative: as my brother and I hike through an unfamiliar woodland seeking a geocache, we begin hearing muffled rifle-fire in the distance. I allude to the mysterious barrage every now and then; by the end of the essay, it will become a central part of the plot. I am also trying to use simile to develop the setting instead of describing it outright. Granted, this can be overdone; but in general, I think authors who use simile to develop setting are more enjoyable to read than those who do not.
Mr. Graber displays a remarkable command of English grammar in the following sentence from his causal essay: “Being in a relationship or having a family, an individual is less likely to take a risk that could result in serious injury or death.” I sincerely applaud his use of an introductory participial phrase--not only is he making smart use of “The Art of Styling Sentences,” he is also preparing himself well for the semester exam. The participial phrase serves to break the flow of the sentence; in the context of the paragraph, it refocuses the reader’s attention by providing half a moment’s pause that otherwise would not have existed (the participial phrase might have been a prepositional phrase after “individual” instead, but this would have been far less effective).
With subtle wit, Ms. Klumpp indirectly alludes to a serious problem in our society in the following sentence from her causal essay: “Dogs do not care if you are beautiful, thin, or rich.” The statement is beautifully simple, but there is a hidden layer. I seem to detect a tone of underlying sarcasm--dogs’ unconditional love is doubtless an admirable trait, but we as humans struggle to show the same love to others, unless they are indeed beautiful, thin, or rich. In such capacity dogs ought to be imitated! I commend Ms. Klumpp for addressing a current societal problem in an essay that would seem otherwise unrelated; doing so is no small feat.
In the upcoming Narrative Essay I am about to write, I plan on using as many different literary devices as possible in hopes of making my this essay the most enjoyable to read yet. Setting is a device I plan on using very effectively. I believe if I am able to vividly and accurately portray the setting of which I am in, it will create a great mental picture. Being able to feel like you are apart of the story and right along with the main character is what readers love. Once I introduce the setting, I believe the foreshadowing will naturally coincide with the setting. Clearly knowing the setting, the reader naturally begins to gather their own thoughts about what might happen.
After reading my tablemates essays, I truly realized how much work they put forth and the uniques between them. Specifically, after reading Ms. Wrights Casual Essay, one sentence stuck out to me in particular. “Located on every important channel, ubiquitous ads and commercials show viewers images of fit, tan, and athletic people. Her use of an introductory participial phrase shows that she is utilizing “ The Art of Styling Sentences”. It is also showing she wants to the reader to be interested in her work. She accurately uses one of our vocab words making it all the more interesting. Using upper level words instead of cliche words divides the great writers from the mediocre ones.
In Ms. Knutson's Classification Essay, I thought her title was extremely captivating. It read “Residents and Their Gummy Candy Characteristics: A Classification of the People You Will Meet In the Nursing Home”. Her title had great use of a colon and also had great use of a comparison. By using those two characteristics it made me wonder what more her essay was about and urged me to read more.
Metaphors and setting will most likely be used most in my narrative essay. I would like to use metaphors with greater frequency than similes, because I believe that metaphors give essays more power with their certainty with similarities than similes. Are, in my opinion, dictates that the comparison between the two objects used is legitimate, while words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ may appear to be words used for weak, or poorly made comparisons.
Setting will also be a tool that will be crucial for the development of my narrative essay, because even the most minute of details can create drastic changes in the mood of the audience. Fortunately for me, I will write about a memory in my childhood that I remember in keen detail. At the age of nine, I lived in a fairly new housing development in Brandon. The majority of the land surrounding my home was barren, for builders were making way for the construction of homes for neighbors yet to come. My family was in the garage cleaning because raining outside, and my family did not seem to have anything else better to do with our time. My backyard was part of a small valley and in it, there was a large puddle, perfect for jumping in. Being the young adventurer I was; I left my family to do their chores to try to have fun, for what could possibly go wrong? I would continue with the story, but I also enjoy building suspense and would rather not ruin the essay.
Mr. Mixell, being the phenomenal composer he is, has amazed me yet again with his prodigious use of punctuation and honesty in his Comparison-Contrast essay with the following sentence: “As stated before, this is common with most true artists--artists fans gravitate toward for their truth, validity, and authenticity.” It is true that he used a fantastic assortment of comparisons and literary devices to hook a reader into what he had to say, but this sentence in particular has impressed me with the realism he has used.
The brilliant Ms. Nador does not only use an enthralling variety of words to put zest into her essays, but she is capable of using garnered knowledge to prove her points with relevant information. “Experiments prove that known psychological phenomenons like classical and operant conditioning can be related as to why it is so painstakingly hard to get rid of phobias.” I chose this particular sentence from her Causal essay, because what follows and sentences before have shown that she has researched the topic and knows it well, kudos to her. She also uses proper terminology that we were taught in AP Biology earlier this year, showing me that she also has a phenomenal memory.
Wardlow 6
In my narrative I like to use the literary device, mood. While writing I try to really set the mood and capture the emotion that the characters and I were feeling when this event was taking place. I enjoy writing of all the excitement that we were feeling and as my narrative progresses I will use mood to make the reader feel the shock we felt when the event was occurring. Onomatopoeia, not only is this a fun word to use, but it also is a spectacular literary device. My narrative is about a rafting trip that my family went on, words like whoosh, and pop add a lot to the whole story. This helps emphasize what happened and helps the readers imagine the event better. Whoosh also adds a lot of drama to the story making adding interest to keep my audience intrigued and wanting more. When reading Bickley’s classification essay I was struck by a sentence I found particularly intriguing. The unyielding athlete puts forth maximum effort on all workouts, differing from the inconsistent effort put forth by the untroubled athlete. I admire the parallelism used in this sentence concerning the effort put forth by the athletes. The use of adjective in this sentence is another aspect that stood out to me. The use of the words maximum and inconsistent make it very clear the difference between the two athletes. This sentence also flows of the tongue very smoothly. This sentence most definitely was not written, but rather artistically crafted. Another sentence that I found interesting was in Kribell’s classification essay. Their anger is stored in the back of their minds for chief affairs, much like how an arrow is stowed in a protective quiver that is slung over the shoulder. I enjoy how she compared anger to arrows. Weapons is a very interesting concept to compare anger to and I believe she did that quite well, that sentence is just an example. I like the way she used the word chief this shows importance, but in a more interesting way than just saying important. This sentence is very artistic.
I wish to incorporate more literary devices throughout my writing this year. However, I am not sure why I do not include them. Perhaps if I add them to my essays, they would have more diverse sentences. I also feel it adds more to an essay and gives it more spunk. In my narrative essay, I hope to include a detail setting which will make my essay more specific. I also hope to perfect my imagery throughout the essay. This will make the reader become more intrigued. One other literary devices that may be challenging but I will try to use in my essay is a paradox. I have always been fond of this device and I feel like I will make the readers try to find the underlying meaning.
My table mate, Mr. Hoffman, has made an excellent sentence that has really stood out to me in his manhood essay. “Learning from your mistakes is probably the greatest things in life due to when you make mistakes, no matter how miniscule or tremendous the mistake is, you learn.” This quote in particular stood out to me because it states the truth. Making mistakes only helps you to learn not to make those same mistakes in the future.
My other table mate, Ms. Mullet, has also made a breath-taking sentence that was very intriguing to read. “There are always the famous and the rich and the educated, but most often the average person does not travel internationally.” This is true because most people in the United States of America do not have the opportunity to travel to other countries around the world. Another sentence that she also made that was true reads, “When we visit foreign countries, we tend to stick to our travel group and not drift away from our security.” Most people usually just stick to a resort and do not have the opportunity to live with a host family.
Gloege 1
In my narrative essay, I have chosen to write about my parasailing experience during my trip to the Dominican Republic. In this essay, I plan to use the setting and suspense to make it more interesting to the reader, and easier to read. I believe that the setting of a story or essay is the most important. It provides visualization for the reader, and can help make the picture more clear when trying to understand. I would also like to try and relate to many readers by using the moral “Face Your Fears”. Everyone is afraid of something, and so I believe that this will easily interest other readers. “They totter around the kingdom on their unsteady limbs, but as they continue to grow they will soon be moving at an amazing speed.” This sentence is from Klumpp’s classification essay we wrote a few weeks ago. In the essay, she is comparing the children of the daycare she works at, and wild animals of the jungle. I really enjoy the different vocab words she used to explain both the animals and children throughout the essay. I read a few more sentences out of her same essay, and there were many sentences composed just like this one. They all flowed very well together, and made her essay well written. “When you go out to watch a softball game no matter what team you watch you can see that every girl on that team has passion and wants to play their heart out regardless of if they are currently losing or winning.” This sentence is from Schwint’s Comparison-Contrast essay. This sentence really speaks to me, and you can tell that softball is what she loves to do, and she is very educated about it. Throughout her essay, she uses person experiences and stories that help to back up her comparisons, and make the essay more interesting.
Nelson 6
In my narrative essay I will try not to use foreshadow because I want the reader to be compelled to keep reading to find out the moral of the story. From this I hope that suspense builds making these two literary devices go hand in hand. I will also use setting because I think that the place I learned my moral plays a big part and is important to the narrative story about me. My narrative essay will be about my trip to Jamaica this past summer on a mission trip to a children’s home. Of course, with my experience being in the past I likely will incorporate backflash. As I look to advance my writing skills I find it helpful to use my peers as examples. My classmate's writing styles vary from person to person and each just as brilliant as the next. Tiati Thelen wrote in her most recent causal essay on why people get divorced. Throughout the essay you are compelled to keep reading and gain knowledge on this phenomenon. A favorite sentence of mine is: “Marriage at a young age is jumping straight into a test without any homework or quizzes.” This sentence is very relatable to our age as we are still in school and know how stressful it is to even just forget your homework then not be ready for a test. This sentence is also a great example of a metaphor. Another acquaintance of mine, Sommer West, uses extravagant detail in her classification essay. Her topic was classifying people into different types of trees based on their personality. A sentence that evokes great emotion is “This child -- crestfallen and introverted -- can be cheered up by nothing and no one.” By using the dashes for a pause this sentence takes a turn for the dramatic and even makes the reader feel sorry for this child and the feelings that he or she is feeling. I am looking forward to seeing the noticeable progress that my tablemates and I will develop with practice and more writing.
Paauw 6
Many literary devices are to be used in my essay. The two devices I will expand upon and use the best would be setting and characterization. Developing throughout the essay, the setting will involve many examples of imagery and atmosphere. The lake and the hospital--the two main settings-- will be juxtaposed in great detail. My mother, as a character, will devolve in her strength throughout as her thoughts and actions lead to consequences. Her mind scatters and she begins to make worse decisions than at the initial situation. While at the beginning, her decision making skills were crisp and correct.
One sentence I found in my table mates paper that I found intriguing and interesting was,“This is a car that is as loyal as the puppy you raised into a loyal human-serving love machine.” This sentence was found in Horner’s classification paper, while he classified car types. I feel like I can relate to this sentence because of my two dogs. Both dogs are extremely loyal--sometimes too loyal-- and absolutely love to love their owners. They also love to serve the humans in my family as well. This sentence relates to many different people and allows them to identify with this type of car classification. This beautifully composed sentence also is an excellent simile. It adds a light-hearted feel to this section of Horner’s paper.
Mutschelknaus also had a wonderfully composed sentence contained within the lines of their comparison essay. The sentence was, “Skip the pop-tarts, corn-syrup filled treats, chips and learn the benefits that nature can bring you every day.” This was her beginning line and it did its job justice. It brought me in and I wanted to read more. I was intrigued to know what the essay was about. The sentence started with a verb, which was a good, as well as a unique, choice that turned out well. She also encompassed a large amount of food and snacks in her first three adjectives-- making me think about the broad spectrum of foods she was discussing.
6 Sadler Jessica
In my Narrative essay, I am going to try my best to include many literary devices. I would like to experiment with using suspense in my essay. When I read other stories, I like the rising action. The build up is what makes your hair stand on the back on your neck. If I include this in my essay, it might entice more people to read it. Though I like to try out other literary devices, I use similes and metaphors best. I enjoy comparing everyday life happenings to other situations in the world. I think similes and metaphors make reading and writing a lot more exciting. I use anecdotes as well. Anecdotes allow the reader to relate to the story in a personal way. Anecdotes will be important in my Narrative essay because it is a story about a happening in my life. It is crucial for the reader to be able to connect to my experience. An interesting sentence that Ziegeldorf composed was “Keeping them healthy, ebullient, and loved is the most important gesture they could do.” There are many ways she could have gone about writing this. Such as, “The most important gesture they could do is keeping them healthy, ebullient, and loved.” A sentence like that is boring and doesn’t draw me in. In Ziegeldorf’s wonderfully written sentence, she starts off with a verb. Starting the sentence with a verb makes the reader want to continue reading. I appreciate the way Ziegeldorf used a strong, interesting verb in her sentence. I am going to mimic her sentence styling to make my essay more intriguing. Peterson also had an exceptional sentence. “On a steamy Friday afternoon, in the middle of July cars and campers pull into the driveway of Yogi Bear Campground.” Immediately, I was drawn to this sentence. I enjoy the way she describes Friday afternoon. It places an image in my head that helps me understand her essay’s setting. I hope to include sentences like this in my essay.
In my narrative essay, so far, I haven’t applied many literary devices. I plan on using a lot of imagery and flashback. I will incorporate imagery as much as I can because I believe it is necessary in a narrative essay. You want to tell a story to your reader and elaborate the details as interestingly and as proficiently as possible. I enjoy using imagery in all of my writing because I feel it is the key to painting a mental picture and creating the mood for whatever I may be writing about. I also know I will be using flashback consistently in my essay since my story is from the past, and that is how I will be telling it. All of my table mates are admirable writers. In Pollema’s causal essay she wrote, “The Puppy-like qualities makes the girlfriend think they have nothing to worry about but really, in the brush, the Snake in them is lurking.” I really admired this sentence because she used strong verbs to intensify the qualities of this classification. Not only that, but I like how she included, “in the brush,” because it helped add imagery. Another table mate, Logan Smith, wrote, “People artificially think that their murky life is better with the help of drugs when in reality it is pejorative.” I commend this sentence because he did an excellent job at using our vocabulary words in his sentence. I also like how he added the word artificially to describe how these people think; using this word in the context he did helped him prove his point. After reading through my table mate’s effective sentence structures, I perceived a different perspective on writing my own essays. It forced me to realize that I could benefit from mimicking some of their writing styles. I hope with my next essays I can write more productively through learned styles of other people’s writing. I also hope that my writing, in turn, can aid others.
Schroeder Pd 6
In my Narrative Essay that I will be writing I would hope, that naturally I use literary devices. Some obvious ones would be setting or suspense for example. I know that we need more such as foreshadowing, or personification. To start off my essay I will use foreshadowing to introduce the main part of my story and then create suspense while then starting from the beginning of the story leaving the reader intrigued to find out the outcome. In this essay, a setting is needed, but for some other papers, such as last week's’ causal essay, we did not need to put a setting into the story. Creating a setting and really going into depth on the environment can potentially help the reader(s) create an image like my own. Taking a look into Koupal’s causal paper about girls and their struggle in the need to fit in within society, I liked the sentence, “Caked onto every square inch of canvas, Sara feels as though this camouflage is what beautiful is supposed to feel like. Along with her new pseudo-breasts, Sara decides she must be a woman, and glides out of the bathroom, slightly swaying her bony hips.” The first sentence I enjoy her word choice with comparing her face to a canvas, and letting us know that Sara, indeed doesn’t realize that makeup is not needed to be considered beautiful. The second sentence was my favorite because she just creates such great imagery and I can imagine in my head this teenage girl, trying to make herself seem much older with stuffing her bra, when in reality she’s just a tiny little girl trying to impress those around her. “Worrying, panicking, and fear- these terms all relate to stress and anxiety.” This sentence-- from Polasky’s causal essay-- is a great example of using an introductory set of appositives from the “The Art of Styling Sentences” page. I give major credit to Polasky as she uses this final exam term in her essay. Not only is she becoming familiar with this type of sentence, but she is potentially studying for the final exam at the end of the year.
I think that I am going to use setting the most. In my narrative essay, I am going to write about overcoming an injured ankle to complete a 5,000 meter cross-country race. I will talk about the daunting, verdant McHardy park hill--known as Mount McHardy by the cross-country team. From the large hill to the fall hues of the trees that scatter leaves across the park. The setting of the race would be a great addition to my narrative as a method of illustrating contrast from the happy, bright setting of the park on the day of the race, to the struggle and stress that I was going through during the race, fighting the internal conflict of giving up mid-race due to the pain that my ankle was causing me.
I will also attempt using bildungsroman in my essay. The experience that I went through during the race taught me to persevere. I feel like I earned the meaning of the phrase, “to have an exceptional life you have to do exceptional deeds”. The plot of my narrative will follow me through my race, and will show my feelings both before and after. I had often contemplated giving up and not racing in the Metro Conference meet, but I was convinced by my father to race, and by the end I learned that perseverance is an extremely important attribute to have in a winner and successful person. I hope to show this contrast in myself before and after the race.
Kocer, in his causal essay said, “Quite amazingly, Hitler was one of the best users of propaganda in all of history.”. This sentence stands out because he used absolute construction. the use of absolute construction causes this sentence to contrast with other sentences and is a much better sentence because of it. This essay is better because of the use of absolute construction in this sentence. Also, I enjoy learning about World War II and his essay was extremely interesting to me and answered a question that many people have: how did Adolf Hitler go from being a World War I soldier to one of the most powerful and evil people of all time?
“Stemming from the neglect they received as a child, the relationship they are in will almost always be in constant question as far as if they are truly being cared for and loved.” is a quote from Roach’s most recent essay. One thing that stands out at first is the use of the word truly. Truly is an underused word and I like it. It has a nice sound to it, and seeing it used in a sentence makes it a stronger sentence. Stemming and neglect are also neat words. Stemming is a great word because as a reader, you can imagine the relationship issues growing from a seed of neglect into a plant of distrust and fear.
“The clarinetist's tongue is equivalent to a pianist's fingers for the separation of notes.” is a wonderfully crafted sentence from Moss’ Comparison-Contrast Essay. As someone who is uninformed about the workings of a clarinet, this sentence illustrates it perfectly. I can imagine the nimble motions of a pianist’s fingers, and easily apply it to movements that a tongue must presumably make when playing the clarinet. This sentence juxtaposes the two items in her essay very well, with the use of cool words such as clarinetist and equivalent. A truly remarkable sentence.
In my narrative essay, I plan on using as many literary devices as I possibly can. I feel that the more literary devices you use in a narrative essay, the more the reader will be sucked into it and will not want to stop reading. Sadly I do not see that I have use one literary device more than another in my narrative essay, but I plan to use imagery and setting the most. The reason that I will use these two the most, are because I feel as though imagery is one of the most important literary devices you can place into your essay. Imagery allows your reader to put a mental picture into his or her head and actually feel like they are in the story witnessing all of it happen. From personal experience, although possibly different for other people, imagery makes a person want to continue reading because of how well the writer explains what is happening in the story; it makes your reader not become confused while reading. As for the other literary device--setting--I feel this is another important aspect to add into narrative essays because it makes sure your reader does not get lost and completely understands when and where a situation is taking place. Although I have not used as much of these two literary devices as I believe I should, they will be added in wherever possible to assure the readers do not become lost while enjoy the story.
After evaluating Blue’s classification essay, I found many places where she used astounding imagery. Of course I knew she was perfectly capable of creating such sentences, but they really had me leaning forward in my chair to see what amazing imagery she produced. One sentence that I really enjoyed was, “The Puppet bowler cannot bowl to the best of their ability without their coach (puppeteer)”. I thought this sentence was amazing because of how she explained that the Puppet bowler needed their “puppeteer” in order to do well while bowling. Even these little sentences can really give people a perfect explanation to how this person is explained in the terms of bowling according to her essay. I admire Blue’s ability to create sentences like these and wish to incorporate such sentences in my narrative essay and essays further to come. Another peer of mine, Alberson, had included great sentences in his essay as well. One sentence stood out to me the most, “Some of these sophisticated ideas or gestures, in which they develop from propositions or said thoughts, may be used to elaborate for further advantageous intentions or, on the other hand, unintentional, dark thoughts”. Albertson’s explanation on the “Blue” people had me speechless. Some of the main reasons I say this is because after reading the entire explanation on them, I realized that I am considered a Blue person. The way he took the exact thoughts out of my head and put them on the paper giving my exact definition I use for myself had me feeling awestruck. I was completely unaware the capabilities Alberson contains to create such amazing and perfect sentences. I am very intrigued with the vast amount of creative and advanced words he used in almost every single sentence. I would be honored to be able to create sentences mimicking his.
While reading the requirements for this Narrative Essay, I get a sensation that at the end, my level of skill and experience with literary devices will immensely increase. So far while typing my essay, I have used two common literary terms: simile and foreshadowing.
I believe when using a simile, the reader understands or can relate better to what is being portrayed. The comparison between my mind flooding with thoughts and a teenage girl’s mind after her first break-up is used to help one determine the amount of sadness that had lied upon me at that moment in time.
Also, my use of foreshadowing has strengthened in my essay. I use foreshadowing to hint at the reader that there will be important information given later on in this story. When I explain how at one point I do not feel any emotions whatsoever, it foreshadows that later they shall overcome me.
In his Classification Essay, Mr. Hoffman fluently wrote a numerous amount of sentences. One that caught my eye and gave me enjoyment was written, “Gaming systems, such as the widely known Xbox and Playstation, have opened the eyes of people almost any age to enjoy a multitude of games based on what their genre and viewpoint preferences are.” This sentence achieves great structure by the insertion of an appositive. Hoffman gives more information about the gaming systems by naming a few of the popular brands. As I proofread through his essays, Mr. Hoffman’s variety of sentence structures delights and motivates me to write more consistent.
Another brilliant table member of mine, Ms. Blue, knows how to decisively and appropriately type her thoughts. As typed in her Causal Essay, “The primary reason why people think there are bad words is because some people are incapable of separating the emotional ties they have with specific words.”, Blue always has great word choice at the right time. She types out thoughts that cannot be explained by some. This strong sentence provides a topic that can be discussed for hours. Her creativeness and individualism should be greatly appreciated along with her positive attitude.
6 Bender
In my narrative essay, I am fantastic at developing the setting and sensory sounds. I like to image things when I am reading a book and thus I want the reader to have a picture in my mind. I am fairly advanced at characterization. I want readers to understand what the people around the main person do. I hate when I watch a movie or read a book that has over 30 minor characters. I am not good at recalling even the 5 to 10 main characters name let alone the others. This frustrates the reader in my mind confusing them to much. I focus on the other key person in the essay and describe their voice, outfit, mannerisms, and other more so the reader can picture all of the characters. Then by the end of the story they feel like they know those characters and feel what they are feeling; hurt when they hurt.
Poppenga writes, “Although they post these pictures -pretending that nothing is wrong- it is illegal and can ruin their lives.” This sentence is key to the hidden dangers of drinking that most teens do not think about. I think that her sentence structure is intriguing and that the use of the dash's adds extra flare to the essay, catching the eye of the reader making them become drawn to the sentence.
Hoffman writes, “When I was younger, I was deathly afraid of being able to drive--being pulled over, going to jail, car crashes, and all of the terrible catastrophes that may happen behind the wheel.” I think that this sentence caught my eye from how much I relate to it.. Also he uses the first person which makes me relate to the author and his own private fears from childhood. It has great diction and sentence structure. This writing is easy to understand but is not a children's book. Perfect balance. I love the use of ethos also.
Two literary devices I plan to use in my Narrative essay are setting and simile. The beginning of my essay takes place in my house within a page the setting changes to my grandparents house. I hope to use setting to its fully literary potential while describing the atmosphere of the two homes along with the attitudes of the person helping to create the atmosphere. To fully understand the emotions flowing through the two houses in my Narrative essay, I must use setting fully without being coming repetitive or too confusing. The goal for my Narrative essay is to draw the readers in and write to the point where readers feel they are looking through my eyes. The second literary device I want to use well in my essay is simile. Comparing two objects, people, or emotions can be difficult but with the help of a similes spaced evenly throughout my essay, understanding how impactful a situation was for myself can be understood by the reader. Simile, a basic elementary literary device, has the power to bend the imagination from realistic comparisons to a deeper comparison that contributes to a story internal meaning. Mr. Laycock used setting extremely well in his Comparison-Contrast essay. One of his sentences was, “It is an addicting rush of excitement and happiness; all the while his stomach is crawling with butterflies because he is afraid of making a simple mistake in front of the large crowd that came to watch him play.” The descriptiveness of the sentence made me visualize the baseball player with his nervous going haywire. Mr. Hoffman wrote the sentence,“You should be conscientious while playing with the Rager, they become distraught easily. They are like short fused bombs ready to explode in your face whenever they are lit up from another person.” This simile has a unique with the analogy broken into two sentences; not the basic structure of, this is like a that. That structure is overused in my opinion and I hope to stay away from a simple simile in my Narrative essay.
6 Mullet
I am using setting and amplification best in my Narrative essay. The setting is a big part of my story, because it is all about two teens driving around a busy city in search for a parking lot to go to a concert. That means that where we are and what is going on around us is the plot line. I am depending on setting to compose my story. If we were in Sioux Falls, it would not be the same as us being in an unfamiliar city for the both of us. Amplification is huge in my writing no matter the genre. From narratives to essays, I garnish my sentences like there is no tomorrow. I do not like simple sentences. I do not want just a subject and a verb; they bore me. I am a big descriptor when it comes to composing. I think that it adds length and understanding. I enjoy the books that have detail in the little things. They do not have to embellish but they choose to--this makes it more enjoyable to read.
“Using its over-developed eyes and optical sections of the brain, the owl hones in on its prey, spotting mice from vast distances as the rodents scurry about their lives.” ( 6 Hegland Classification).
I am a big fan of this sentence, because of the parts it has to it. It combines a possible 3 sentences into one brilliant sentence. It looks like the kind of sentences that I use often, which could be why I picked it. He describes the eyes in a way that would not normally be commented on the way he did (over-developed) and includes the parts of the owl’s mind. He has so many parts to the sentence, yet it is a smooth read.
“ If they go to a competitive school district where performing academically comes first, then they will be more likely to excel.” (6 Bender Classification).
I love this sentence because I agree with it. Thanks to my moving, I have seen both sides of school districts. I have been at the lazy school and although I got good grades, it was not nearly as challenging as it is here. I have seen people that graduate and a year or two later that are pregnant or have dropped out of college. It just proves that you are not as likely to excel.
Literary devices are supremely appreciated in every writing possible. Without the various types, most writings do not look or feel complete. In my narrative essay that I am currently writing, I believe that I am starting to overt various examples of symbolism and setting the most. I think that meshing setting into my essay will create an amazing visual for the reader(s). My essay is about my childhood so obviously that is very symbolic considering that that was the beginning part of my life that helped me become who am I today; however, I do feel as though I can continue to add more literary devices into my writing to enhance my writing skills and make my essay feel and look more complete.
After reading through some of my tablemates essays, I suddenly realized that I am most definitely not the only one who tries their hardest to succeed in great writing in their essays. Specifically after reading Ms. Gloege’s causal essay, one sentence truly stuck out to me. “I understand that certain standards for a job position have some propriety, but two people of the same qualifications will soon be competing for the winning spot.” She intertwined active voice into the sentence while also having a conjunction in between two simple sentences. I also really enjoy the sentence itself because it is nicely composed and puts an image to mind. Another sentence stuck out to me while reading Ms. Klumpp’s causal essay. “What has contributed to the ubiquitous tattooing of our bodies and why are so many of my peers deciding to permanently alter their bodies?” I really truly enjoyed this sentence from her essay. Not only did it catch my attention, but it actually made me question this myself? That is what the author wants out of an essay. They want the reader to actually undergo consideration while reading all of these-which is exactly what it came to when I read this sentence.
Finch 1
I plan to use setting and suspense, particularly, to the best of my ability throughout my narrative essay. I find writing the setting in a very detailed way can assist my reader or audience in imagining the scenario in a more vivid manner. When I read stories written by others, I find it quite annoying when this is not achieved. At some times, I know what is going on in the story, but I may not even know what time of day it is, or I may not have a clear enough idea of where they are even at. It truly is a hindrance to my understanding of the story when I cannot even picture what the setting is because the author of that story hasn't made it clear enough. As for suspense, I find the use of this literary device can make the reader much, much more entertained by your writing, and it will make the story much more enjoyable to read. I know that no one wants to read a boring story that doesn't have any suspense. My table partner, Peltier, has excellent ideas regarding the comparison between American football and soccer. She formulates them into well-written that you could tell were well-thought-out. One example of this is her statement regarding pads and physical toughness of the players: "This by no means states that soccer players are stronger than football players because they wear less, but just shows the difference in the style of play, which calls for different guidelines in player protection." Peltier did an excellent job making a very long thought into one sentence that was very simply understood and clear in my mind. Another table partner, Braun, uses vivid, detailed imagery in her essay that paints quite lucid pictures in my head: " They are the ones who go outside with you to make snowmen in the winter, the ones you play battle ships with while taking a bath as a young child, and the ones who get under your skin so badly that you want to rip their heads off." Braun is staggeringly talented at inviting the audience to relate to her writings and I hope to emulate this talent in my essays to come.
Setting and suspense are two of the literary devices I am using best in my essay. The beginning of my essay tells the reader that I am nervous and anxious, but I do not plan to mention until the third paragraph what I am so anxious about. The first paragraph contains quite a bit of detail to set the time and place of my essay. I want to include many similes and metaphors later on in my essay. My essay will include many different sentence styles to hold the reader’s interest.
Mr. Brown’s classification essay holds many cleverly crafted sentences. One of my favorite sentences from his classification essay reads: “Unseen knowledge is situated just beneath the surface; the student must sink his own well to tap the full potential of the course.” The sentence provides a metaphor, and it helps the reader to better understand Mr. Brown’s thought process. A variety of sentence styles are used in Mr. Brown’s essay but I particularly enjoy this sentence because of the semicolon. The transition between the two independent clauses is perfectly smooth due to Mr. Brown’s careful planning. Mr. Brown stimulates the reader’s senses with his keen choice in words like “unseen” and “situated”.
The causal essay written by Ms. Knutson is quite well done. The following sentence stood out to me: “The envy he felt at a young age would only increase as he grew into puberty and have to watch other male classmates become romantically involved while he remained unwanted and lonely.” This sentence has a way of putting the reader in this man’s shoes. It is carefully planned so the reader will empathize with the man of this sentence. Minute details help the reader understand that the man’s past will influence his future in a largely negative way. One might note the lack of punctuation in her sentence. I applaud Ms. Knutson for not over-punctuating her sentence, as that is a common problem for many high school writers such as myself.
As I am well on my way to producing my narrative essay I have thought hard about the use of literary devices. My main focus in regards to these devices will be directed towards imagery and characterization. I believe these devices, among many others, will give the readers a chance to truly engage themselves within my writing. Imagery is the device that stands out to me the most. I believe imagery is influential in writing because the more descriptive the work, the more the reader can relate. As the author of my work, it is a goal of mine to make the reader feel as if they are right beside me within the story, taking the exact steps I have. When a reader feels as if they were part of the story, not an outsider looking in, I know I have accomplished this goal. Characterization is one of my strong points I believe because for me, it goes along well with my views on imagery. I try to make characterization something I spend a valued amount of time on because if the reader does not get a clear understanding of a person and their motives, it can cloud their vision in understanding the main purpose of the story. After evaluating my both of my table partner’s essays I found several uses of literary devices that stood out to me. In Ms. Fredrickson’s classification essay from earlier this year she used the sentence “We will have the credence of being the most awesome person on the face of God’s green Earth, no matter how many other people have succeeded within the Corps before us.” I admire this sentence greatly because I am impressed with not only how well this flows but how confident she sounds within this sentence. Using the words “God’s green Earth” instead of simply saying “earth” shows she as a write looks for ways to enhance her work, allowing the reader to become engulfed. Within Mr. Hanzel’s classification essay I found exemplary sentences as well. For example his sentence “Old, musty smelling gloves is not a rare sight” allows the reader to use imagery. Hanzel using descriptive words gives readers a deeper connection into the story instead of simply scraping the surface.
Rowbotham 2
I find that I use symbolism and foreshadowing the most when I am writing. During American Heritage foreshadowing was something I had to read almost every day in that class when reading stories. We had to look for foreshadowing in the stories we read to help us further understand what was going to happen later in the book. Also in English 9 foreshadowing was used quite a bit when we were writing and reading. I remember we read the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and I also remember when we were filling out the packet we had to answer questions about what the author was foreshadowing in that current chapter, and after that class I really noticed how I used foreshadowing. With symbolism, I have basically been using it throughout middle school and high school. One of my table partners is Holmes, he said “ The howler monkey is the overt attendee that is always the most vociferous person in the crowd and the biggest supporter of their team(s). They scream and shout the whole time.” he describes fans perfectly and his description and adjectives of this type of fan really helps me relate. After reading it I thought to myself how true he was, and it put a picture in my head of parents at wrestling meets screaming their heads off at their kids. Their faces literally turn red, and spit is flying everywhere and their kid is like 6 years old and they are still screaming like they can comprehend fully what their parent is screaming at them. Nicole, also at my table, used symbolism as well in her essay and I enjoyed reading it. Both of the writers used great examples of symbolism and I was very entertained to read their essays. Both use great sentence structure and are great writers.
In my narrative essay, I hope to create wonderful setting, flawless imagery, and nail biting suspense. My story’s setting changes throughout the story and I hope I can tell it in such a way that is transitioned nicely and easy to follow. Settings can be a good way to create pictures within one’s mind and help the reader understand the story more thoroughly. I also hope to create flawless imagery within my narrative essay. I believe that imagery is one of the most important things to have in a story. Imagery helps the reader become intrigued and involved in the essay. Throughout my narrative essay I hope to create suspense for my reader. My story has suspenseful events and I aim to be able to tell them well. My tablemate, Finch, stated in his comparison-contrast essay: “We started firing pointy sticks at each other and now we threaten throwing weapons of mass destruction at our foes”. This sentence stood out to me more than anything else in his entire essay. I immediately paused after reading this sentence and started to imagine our ancestors firing pointy sticks at each other. I found humor in this sentence and it also helped me become more intrigued with the rest of his essay. I hope I will be able to do this in my narrative essay. I want my reader to pause and actually think about what I am explaining. I found his writing to hold a very impressive talent: amusement. I feel that it can be extremely arduous to write an essay and to keep it entertaining and light. Finch does an excellent job at doing this. My tablemate, Beck, states in her narrative essay: “During the winter we are able to just drive around on the snowmobile in the fields abandoned from the fall crops”. Beck does a magnificent job at creating imagery in this sentence. Her sentence allows me to create a picture within my mind and I hope I will be able to accomplish this with my reader in my narrative essay. Both Finch and Beck are wonderful writers and display excellent examples of setting and flawless imagery.
In my narrative essay I plan to use setting and suspense most often and in the greatest detail. I think it is essential to describe the setting in full and complete detail, especially in stories, so the reader can obtain a clear image of the scenery and paint a picture of what they think the scene looks like in their mind. The details in the setting make the story more vivid and interesting, which makes the story as a whole better. Along with a detailed setting, I plan to use suspense quite often as well. Suspense, like setting, makes a story more interesting, but it also makes the story more impactful. It creates mystery in the story, making it like solving a puzzle--the reader has to figure out which piece goes where and what piece comes next to solve the mystery.
The largest competition in life is life itself. (Thelen)
First of all, I like this sentence because it makes the reader think. Normally people think competition deals with sports, but it does not always have to deal with sports, which is shown in this sentence. I also like this sentence particularly because it is so true. Life throws us countless curve balls, but when we overcome these challenges we feel extraordinary, like we have conquered something grand.
Potential is what is represented as a blank canvas to an artist. (Nustad)
I like this sentence because it gets the reader thinking about the word potential and what it means to an artist. In this case, the artist has a blank canvas with the potential to turn it into a notable piece of work. Without this potential represented on the blank canvas, there would be nothing to aspire to. Also, I like this sentence because it has a double meaning. The literally meaning is about the artist and the blank canvas, but the reader can dig deeper into it and find that this can translate to life as well. In life, every person has the potential to be someone and only they can choose what path they take--only they can paint their blank canvas.
As for literary devices I plan on using alliteration and similes to a great extent. I think that alliteration makes things a lot more memorable. It will stick in the reader’s mind like a catchy song and it makes stories more interesting to read as well. Dr. Suess made great use of alliteration that many people use to day like, The Butter Battle Book. I put alliteration to use right away in my title. Similes also make writing more memorable in my opinion as well. Similes do more than just describe something or someone, they create images. These similes can create vivid images that can make reading so much more interesting and fun to do. The reader will remember these images better and more clearly. Instead of reading “there was a big” man you can read “there was a man as big as a school bus”. I think the second one is much more interesting, memorable and entertaining. In Brown’s causal essay about the effects of pets she wrote “Eternal Happiness: Causes and Effects of Owning Pets” for her title. I think this really paints a good picture of the far reaching effects of pet ownership. Her word choice make you think that pets will make your life better in every single way. In Holm’s classification essay that puts kindergarten aged kids in categories based on sauces from Buffalo Wild Wings. She wrote “As you can see, hot sauces each have their own unique piquancy, just like children all have their unique personality.” This sentence is a great example of simile, comparing the children and the sauces. It also makes great use of the vocab word piquant. This sentence really embodies the message of her essay perfectly. Ackerman finished his introduction on his comparison-contrast essay with “You sat down on the couch and decided to relax for a little while while watching television, and as you sat there motionless, you to felt the harsh and unrelenting fact of reality slip away.” This sentence is extremely vivid and memorable. It is a perfect way to invite the reader to read more.
As this is a narrative essay, it is a story that we, as the writer, is writing about a past experience in our young lives. With stories about events in our prior lives, it is very simple to use flashbacks as paragraphs. It is easy to add descriptive details about the event and what you remember as a kid. The older we get the more we tend to see that our views of the world have changed dramatically. You are now the same size as the adults with which you used to be surrounded by. You can drive now, you can make your own money, and you know what is going on around you. The comparison from old flashbacks and present time can be used to add character to your paper. I have always believed that suspense is the true key to any story, whether you are telling it to someone's face or typing it over a computer. Without the rising intensity, listeners/readers will no longer be interested. It helps to have a building within a plot, it is needed and if not the interest is lost. When I am writing my essays, I often get stuck with how to start a new sentence. It helps to look back at the document with the requirements and the final exams. As you are so focused on how many pages and paragraphs you must add, the last thing you think about is to add a simile or metaphor. With literary devices being used, sometimes I feel they can make a paper seem less professional. They are exaggerations, extreme tall tales, and silly comparisons-they cannot actually be true.
In Chase Kunkle’s Compare-Contrast essay, i enjoyed this sentence from one of his last paragraphs “As pulses escalate, the main showdown between the murderer and the last survivor begins.” This is commonly how I start my sentences, setting the first phrase with a comma. It is more interesting than saying “The murderer and the last survivor usually mean the movie is ending.” Boring. The more I read the sentence, it flows very well, it belongs with his essay. It is such a great topic that almost everyone can relate to, especially around the time of Halloween. The words escalate and showdown pop out when I read the sentence. It ads more to the sentence. The art of styling our sentences will continue to improve.
My Narrative essay have not been completely immersed into a story yet. I have not gotten to the point of applying literary devices. I am currently still on my introduction. I believe that I will use comparisons such as simile and metaphor profusely in my essay. I find ease with these literary devices. They come with ease because I have had exposure to them at a young age. In elementary school they are able to use similes and metaphors in their works. I will use these but yet I also want to use other literary devices as well. My essay will be able to hold my audience’s attention if I use the other literary devices as well. I think that suspense is an amazing tool. When I am reading a book or watching a movie the suspense keeps my attention. Nothing could distract me during the suspenseful scenes. If I want my audience to be pulled deeply into my essay I will include suspense. A sentence from Nustad’s Letter is “For instance I know that you taped my mother and father’s wedding, “jammed” out on electric guitars with my dad in the basement, were close to the director of Nightmare on Elm Street, and had Bryan Cranston on your cast in your movie Cold Comes the Night.” This sentence is interesting because she talks about how Simon has been personally involved in her life, sometimes without him knowing. It is a fabulous sentence because it grabs his interest and touches him personally. I enjoy her short story where this famous man who lives out in California has been involved in her life. It makes me jealous (in a good way) that she has this benefit in her life. It makes me yearn for this same connection. This sentence is just as marvelous as Hicks’ sentence in his Classification essay. His sentence is “ Unlike the other exiles where the element is matched based on unconscious decisions, the Nerd Herd is attributed to earth because of the rigidity that earth provides that the nerd requires to be efficient.” This sentence I am also jealous of. Hicks used unmatched vocabulary. One aspect I personally struggle with is keeping a great vocabulary through my essay. I am just in awe with his use of words. His spectacular vocabulary allows for vivid imagery. I wish I could write similarly to Hicks’.
In my experience as a writer, I believe that I use the literary techniques of symbolism and personification more than any other type. I think I use them frequently because they are easy to use, and are also very powerful when used correctly. I plan to incorporate these literary techniques into my upcoming narrative essay. I have not started on it; and I am extremely regretful that I have not commenced. I believe that procrastination is one of the worst characteristics associated with people in general. It leads to a lot of time wasted which could have been used for something beneficial. I think that symbolism and personification add nice touches to the details of stories which ultimately makes it a more coherent and better essay.
My fellow table partner, Conner Rowbotham, has excellent use of sentence structure and use of verbiage. In his manhood essay, there is an excellent example of him describing what being a man truly is. The example is “ He knows respect from disrespect, and what's right and wrong. He puts his family first, and is always there for them when they need him.”. I think he sums up two key qualities in a man. The first being respect and knowing what is morally right or morally wrong. The second would be being loyal to your family and putting themselves first instead of yourself. It is always a tremendous thing if a person can exude altruism.
Another one of my table partners, Kaeli Anderson, is amazing at describing information and making it vastly more interesting. In Kaeli’s causal essay, she states, “Emotions can spark into the changing of moods which eventually all lead to the switch in the health; if someone is in a crappy mood, most of the time, the outcome of the health will decrease and could possibly be sick for quite sometime or cause a depressed state.”. This really help puts the idea of moods being an important aspect in everyday health, and makes the reader think. I think she does an excellent job at getting her point across; and I hope to read more of her written works.
In my narrative essay, I have barely began the actual writing of the essay. I do know, however, the basic structure that the narrative essay will have when it is finished. The most used literary devices that I will use will be setting. The essay I am writing will be about my time in Costa Rica and the shenanigans which took place. The setting of Costa Rica makes most of the story in itself since I am away from home and I have to make decisions on my own. I will also use characterization in my essay since I will certainly characterize the people who I met on the trip due to the fact that the story itself is almost entirely about other people and almost entirely not about me. One sentence by Grace Bender is, “ God formed my next sentence entirely and I said in a steady, low tone, ‘God made you perfectly this way and just like me, he loves you.’” This sentence in particular grabbed my attention when I read it in the essay. there are times when I look at essays and see that there is no real substance to it, it’s just english fluff, but this sentence really speaks to me. It makes me realize how god can affect someone, and alter the way they think. A different sentence by Carley Poppenga is, “We tied up the two boats together and after relaxing in the sun and swimming in the cold, algae filled lake, we decided it was time that we took out the tube.” I see this sentence and I see how complex and interesting it is. I really like how it is not only a multi-structured sentence, but it also has the great adjectives, cold, and algae filled. It makes it not only easy but also compelling to imagine the scene in the lake when adjectives such as these are used.
Throughout my narrative essay I will be writing with many literary devices. Suspense is one literary device that I will apply into my essay. When using suspense in my writing, I feel that the essay gives the reader a better perspective as if this situation occurred to them. My intentions for this essay is to make the reader stop and gasp for air. In my essay, suspense gives the reader a better understand as to how I felt in the situation as well as how the situation was figured out. The second literary device that I will be applying into my essay is setting. I plan to give the reader a clear image as to how and where this event in my life took place. Setting is an important device when constructing essays because the reader wants to be able to picture what you are expressing and talking about. My tablemates are a brilliant group of ladies that are always asking each other if this or that sentence is detailed enough. Being able to picture what we are talking about is our focus point for our narrative essay along with all of our essays. In Ms. Wardlow’s Classification essay she classified different types of high school students to different types of bread. One sentence that really caught my attention was, “A rough and tough appearance, but timid inner substance.” This sentence is so descriptive and I am able to easily picture how the bread looks compared to the high school students. Using excellent descriptive words gives me as a reader, a better understanding as to what she is talking about. In Ms.Stroud’s Classification essay, she classified her family with different Disney characters. One sentence that stuck out to me was, “Kids refuse to go home; knowing that there is no love waiting for them.” Ms.Stroud used the proper punctuation to make the sentence more interesting and appealing to hear. She was able to make the reader really think about what they are reading about. Ms.Wardlow and Ms.Stroud both had extremely unique sentences throughout their essays!
I regret to say I have yet to pick a topic for the narrative essay. But when writing it I think the two literary devices I will make the most of will be flashback and hyperbole. Whatever story I pick most likely will not be as exciting as a tale from a novel. So I will embellish and use hyperbole to spice up my life. Hyperbole is exaggerating for dramatic effect in one’s writing. I will use flashback because it is likely the story did not happen recently or there will be something within the tale that I will remember back on and have to use flashback. Flashback is when the author looks back to a different part of their life while keeping the story’s setting in the present. All my tablemates wrote wonderful essays so far this year. But the two people I chose to spotlight are Spainhower and Pardee. I am lucky to sit by such intelligent folks to help me become a better writer. I have picked their Causal essays to examine. When the one and only, Snazzy Spainhower sleekly said, “When we speak of normative influence, we say that people conform because they have a basic need to be accepted into a group or coterie.” This sentence definitely stood out to me when reading through his essay because of how well put together it is. It flows smoothly with his use of the comma and plenty of prepositional phrases, but not too many. His use of vocab words like coterie also impresses me. My other tablemate, Pardee also had a sentence in her narrative that stood out to me, “While some social media websites have made the internet a better place for communicating with old friends, other social networks have become a place for society to anonymously destroy each other’s confidence and self-worth.” This is a great sentence, by a great gal. It provides us much detail and information, without being too lengthy. It really gives me an inside look on the many sides social media has and what it can do to harm people-all in one sentence.
I believe the narrative essay will easily be the most enjoyable essay to read and hopefully it proves to be pleasant to compose as well. What I plan on using effectively in terms of literary devices is setting. Without setting, there could not possibly be a plot and therefore your essay would result in being unsuccessful. In order to intrigue readers with your works, you must be thorough with details pertaining to the time and place of what is being composed. Setting is an exceptional common literary device and for good reason. Along with setting, foreshadowing is an extremely effective literary device and never should be disregarded when writing a narrative essay. I plan on using foreshadowing in this upcoming essay to basically add an interest to the readers and hopefully it will draw them in to read more.
I have the privilege in sitting next to some brilliant young minds in my Composition I course. I regularly look to them when I am in need of some direction when writing flawless papers and for their help I shall be forever grateful. Ms. Koupal has an extraordinary talent when it comes to composing essays. She began an essay with this first sentence: "Today’s culture is constantly shoving technology in your face, and it seems everywhere you turn there is a new must-have gadget to keep yourself 'in the loop'". This sentence begins a paragraph that explains how the culture today seems to only care about having the newest things. That could not be more accurate and it is a great subject to be writing about in an essay. Her word choice is flawless along with the relevance of her paper as a whole. Another table mate I sit next to is Ms. Schroeder, another exceptional writer. She says in her Causal essay--- "As long as humans have occupied the earth, their thirst for knowledge has never been quenched". I was perplexed by this sentence because it can go into an immense amount of depth and it really quite interested me. But that is what needs to be done when attempting to draw in an audience. I applaud her for thinking of such a deep sentence and making me want to read the entirety of her paper.
The two literary devices I would like to instill into the essay that has not been written yet, would be foreshadowing and imagery. Including these in my essay will contribute to the reader being more interested in the story. Accomplishing this may consist of going outside the box and reading of new ways to style sentences. The way foreshadowing can be used is to keep the reader hooked on what could come next. This makes them imagine on their own before something big even happens. The way imagery can be used is to create words or phrases to create mental images for the reader. This will help the reader visualize the situation in great detail.
“In direct contrast to the Chicken Fingers, Group two emerges: The Popcorns.” written by Paauw. She has formed a fantastic sentence considering how the different elements work so coherently with each other. To start things off it is a transition sentence. This is great because it is briefly addressing the previous topic (chicken fingers) and smoothly entering the topic of the popcorn. This sentence also contains a well placed comma. Using nice words such as contrast and emerges it really brings the reader into the next topic with flow.
“Stage three--the actual beginning of sleep--is the beginning of slow delta waves starting from your brain throughout your body. “ written by Tibke in her essay about why we dream. I like the use of dashes to go off into a brief description to what stage three can consist of. This really mixes up the flow of her sentences and starts to style them.
7 Waldner Rachel
One literary device that I am using best in my narrative essay is setting. The content of my essay fits into the context of a son entitled “Time Stands Still” by Family Force 5. The song helps describe that time standing still when you are with a certain person can be a good thing when you are with someone you enjoy, or it can be a bad thing when you are with someone that you do not get along with. Another literary device that I am using in my essay is diction. I enjoy using a wide range of vocabulary, and creating a mood of sophistication by showing off my wide range of words available. Throughout my essay I use thesaurus.com to find more refined words to replace the mundane ones originally in my essay.
By reading portions of my tablemates’ previous essays, I have been enlightened by the various ways to style a sentence. One sentence that enlightened me is that of Bose. She says, “Leading by example seems unfeasible to an unenlightened coach because they have never played the sport before or they were never at a level that was applicable for coaching and teaching how to do such task.” This sentence clearly states on of the problems with some coaches, a lack of knowledge. The sentence shows that even though it doesn’t make sense, there are cases when the coach does not know how to properly play the game, therefore cannot deliver effective instruction. The next sentence I found inspiring was written by Khomatsubara and it says, “You taught me that guitar is much more than just making progressions of open chords.” He wrote this sentence in his thank you letter to Mr. Grimes. This sentence stood out to me because it is obvious that Khomatsubara’s passion for guitar does not come from meaningless chord progressions, but from the meaning behind them. I think this sentence does an excellent job of conveying the message that no matter what your skill level at any instrument is, the fact that you are trying to improve, are having fun, and that you are able to put your passion into is the most important thing.
7 Mixell
In my Narrative essay, I plan on using suspense and more importantly, setting, to the best of my ability. My Narrative essay will be explaining one of the first times I have went to the beautiful Black Hills and the first time I went hunting there with my father. The location in which I will be talking about is extremely significant to me, mainly because it is the area in which I harvested my first deer. The setting still appears clear in my mind, almost as if I had been there a few hours ago. The moments leading up to the event were spectacular and I feel I can add a good bit of suspense in the mix as well.
In the sentence " Though Horses are social, Camels bitter, Oxen mighty and loyal, Cows diverse and common, and Farmers influential, they are the categories of people you will meet (or potentially become) in your life.", written by my good friend Mr. Thompson, he uses a very unique way to explain all of his different categories, while maintaining pristine flow and ease of reading. I like the writing style he uses in this sentence, mainly because I like to apply the very same technique while writing my own essays. I like to get a very broad range of information across in a very easy to read sentence. I feel like Mr. Thompson has achieved this in his writing.
In the sentence "The head director, assistant director, visual, color guard, frontline and drumline directors--along with others who may help individual sections--are responsible for how the marching band show ultimately comes to fruition.", written by Miss Ullom, we can see that she has used dashes correctly, showing that she has a great grammar knowledge, as well as using very good vocabulary. Some terms that we are required to use in our essays are not the most easy to apply in our essays, but we can see that she that she was able to apply them into her essay with ease.
Two literary devices that I plan to use in my narrative essay are setting and suspense. In my essay I will talk about an adventure that went wrong as a young girl in preschool. The setting of the story is so vivid to me because of how terrified I was at the time, making it easy for me to talk about the setting for my readers to understand to the best of their ability. I will also use suspense! Everything seems to be much more frightening when you are younger in the situation. If I were to experience something scary today, it would be significantly scarier if I were to be a preschooler. With this literary device, it will also contribute to how well the story will be told. As the details are not as fresh in my mind as it was many years ago, I still remember how scared I was—and that I will never forget. Looking at a few members essays for great sentence usage, I noticed that Kaitlyn Nelson had good technique in one of her many great sentences. “You would think after so many years and over half the population having the virus, people would stop eschewing the ill and start helping them.” This sentence is pulled from her Causal essay as she is talking about the HIV virus and AIDS in Africa. I like this sentence a lot because she really puts attitude forth her essay. It is such a mind blowing thing as to why people would not start to help others due to the disease being so widespread. It is very well put into perspective and is given with some sass, making her reading fun and entertaining to read. Another person from my table, Shaun Hicks, struck my curiosity to a sentence from his comparison-contrast essay. “With all the activities, machines, and clowns in the world, two common creatures make repeat occurrences in the list of what people fear: Spiders and Snakes.” The topic first off is awfully relevant to everyday people in society. I know of many people with the fear of spider and snakes, including myself! It was interesting to me that he threw in other things that are scarier than spiders and snakes, making it sound silly as to why people are scared of such little things. His technique is mind opening and I aspire to make sentences like his in my future essays.
I believe that my talents are best put to use when it comes to setting, and foreshadowing. These are two literary devices that are key to use when writing a story. The setting provides a way for the reader to better visualize the story and adds more detail to it as well. Foreshadowing is a great way to gradually build suspense and keep the reader engaged in the story by keeping their thoughts sharp as to what could happen. Ms. Callahan said in her causal essay: "A certain standard represented in several varied but similar forms has allowed the vast majority of the world to debase the sublime acuity of the juvenile populace." This sentence has extraordinary vocabulary! It really catches the readers attention and the sentence seems to roll off of the tongue. It also provides a great transition into her thesis statement as well. I went to look for a sentence to compliment on Thorson's essay and I the first sentence I came by was perfect. "When one looks into the mirror, what do they see? Do they see something distorted or something that they wish they could change?" I chose this because this sentence was a question. It immediately captured my attention and immediately got me thinking about the essay. A great way to engage the reader, very well done!
Schwint 1
The two literary devices that I am best at using in my narrative essay are suspense and setting. I use suspense in my essays in order to make the readers want to continue to read my essay. Also, I use suspense to entertain the readers and keep them on their toes. I use descriptive settings in my essay’s so that the readers can get a better idea of the situations that I describe in my essay. Using descriptive setting in essays can make stories more relatable to your readers since they might have had similar experiences or it can make your essays more vivid so that readers can put themselves in the situations. “Ever since humans have existed, jealousy has consumed this world that we live in.” This sentence from Gloege’s causal essay is a sentences that jumps out and commands your attention. This sentence is interesting because it uses more complex words which makes it sound more professional and thought out. Gloege always uses amazing word choice throughout all of her essays which helps to make the essays more vivid and exciting which captures the reader’s attention. “Although big and substantial in size with an overt, alarming exterior , the Elephant has a heart-warming and pleasing interior.” This is one of the sentences from Mogck’s classification essay that really caught my attention. Mogck does a great job of using imagery that helped me to develop a certain picture of an elephant in my mind. She also used amazing word choice that made what could have been a dull boring sentences and instead she made it into an interesting, attention grabbing sentence. Throughout all of Mogck’s essays she always uses complex, interesting words that kept me entertained while I read the essays. Her essays are always fun and always grab your attention at the beginning and continue to hold your attention until the very end.
Beck 1
In my essay I think I will majorly use the setting and a key of suspense. The setting in a story is very important, without it you will have no idea where and when the story is taking place, all you have is what is going on. If you are a good enough writer you are able to make people reading your story feel as though that they are actually a part of your story. You give them so much detail about what is around you, you talk about the smells you are smelling, or who is even around you. By doing this people are then able to make people wanting to keep reading. The other thing I will try using in my narrative essay is suspense, this if you are able to do it right can keep your reader sitting on the edge of their seat seat. You are able to do this by giving away some parts in a story and leaving some parts out and telling the story later. If you are really good you will just keep them wanting more and more from everyone.
Unfortunately the criminal justice system gets blamed for operating on behalf of the rich and powerful, and focus on controlling the poor. In reality their main focus is separating the have-nots who would steal from others and provide protection from physical attacks. These sentences were used in Peltiers Causal essay, I find these sentences interesting. They really make you think about what the world is really like. Her sentences make you think, they help you figure out what this world is like, it tells you what people really are thinking. The way I see it, the universe is like a computer (I like to picture God sitting at the keyboard). Complicated wires and programming run through it all over like a vast, never-ending spiderweb. These sentences were found in Finch’s Causal essay. I really like these sentences, they make you think, the sentences are very detailed. You are almost able to imagine the computer with all the wires surrounding it. It makes you think.
In my narrative essay one of the literary devices I use a lot is setting. I enjoy using a descriptive setting to help the reader get a visual image about what I am writing. Setting is used to identify and establish the time, place and mood of the events of the story. I have always found descriptive writing fun to read because it is usually never boring. It allows you to keep the reader interested in the topic. Another literary device that I am good at using is conflict. Conflict is used for expressing a resistance the protagonist of the story finds in achieving his aims or dreams. This is something that is easy to keep the reader interested. You create something that the reader wants to know about and it keeps them reading because they want to know how the conflict is resolved. Meyers wrote, "Going to church is a very holy activity. It is a time to reflect on life and to learn. Some people enjoy going to chapel while others do not enjoy it as much. When attending a church service one may notice the different people sitting in the sanctuary. The people in the sanctuary vary like the fish in the sea". In this quote Meyers uses great descriptive writing to describe the setting of church. Moeller wrote, Many people who encounter law enforcement often forget that behind their badge and bulletproof vests is a human being with a whole other side to them. No matter how withdrawn they seem to be from their emotions while on duty, off duty, they can become a whole new person. It is hard to believe to some people that the man who is currently putting you in handcuffs may go home after writing the report on your case and sit down with his wife and his two-year-old daughter to watch a Disney movie. This is an example of good use of descriptive writing.
I like reading stories that have a lot of suspense. These type of stories leave me wondering what will happen next and I want to continue on. I hope to add a lot of suspense into my story in order to make my story more enjoyable to read. Another type of device is symbols. Symbols make the writings more understandable to the reader. Symbols can help detail more about the moral in your story. It also makes your writings relate-able to those who are reading. I hope to use many types of literary devices. Often times people will release a litany of profanity when they hurt themselves in some way, shape, or form. I took this sentence from Bradly Gingles. I think he used very good word use and made the sentence a lot more interesting. Is also uses good grammar. I enjoys the essay Brad wrote about swearing and thought he used good word usage. The primary reasons people fall in love are physical attraction (to certain specific desirable traits), social compatibility, and--combining the first two reasons--a foreseeable future with the person. This sentence was written by Bailey Durfee. This sentence uses excellent grammar and provides parallel structure. I also like the way she uses parenthesis's and make her sentence much more interesting. She also used good word choice that improves her writing. I enjoyed reading her essay overall she is good at writing. I think being able to write good sentences that make sense help make ones reading more interesting for the reader. Using devices makes essays more interesting to read and write. It can also provide details and comparisons that would usually be left out. I also like when people compare their essays with famous writings. Both the sentences I chose use good word usage and are very good with their grammar!
For my narrative essay I am using the setting and the suspense to build up excitement. I have a perfect setting to draw interest in that stretches from mountains in nature to the strip of Las Vegas. The suspense can be built by the events taking place. Reaching from running marathons, gambling, and a near death experience. My essay does not need a lot of embellishing because the story has so much drama, joy, and fear in it all the reader "Chowing down a poptart and going to school would be the easier option, but instead your mother makes sure you do not leave without having a nutritious breakfast before you face your daily activities; including school, sports, and on top of that--homework." This sentence is by Ziegeldorf. I think it is very interesting and very intriguing because it incorporates humor and seriousness about the care a mother gives. Chowing down a pop tart is like the normal teenager, but the mother would like to make a nutritional breakfast shows the love Ziegeldorf is writing about in this essay. I also like how it is a rather long sentence but by using her commas and semicolons correctly it flows and does not seem like a run on. Another sentence I really enjoyed while reading my peers essay was "Many movies have also been filmed in Europe such as: Letters to Juliet, Eat Pray Love, Mamma Mia, What a Girl Wants, The Tourist, P.S. I Love You, and The Prince and Me." by Sadler. This may just seem like a list to some but it gives the impression that Sadler loves Europe and even some of her favorite movies have come out of there. It also gives bigger names the reader would be able to relate to, because I'm sure many movies have been made in Europe. Giving these specific titles the reader can think of the movie and relate to it. I think it was a very good strategy by Sadler in this sentence.
Kribell 6
The two literary devices that I plan to use for my narrative essay are setting and characterization. These are also two of my favorite types of literary devices. I want to use these two because of the deep attachment they can create for a reader. The more you know about the story or characters, the more personal it can become for people who read it. A fondness can develop, making them more involved and connected to the story or characters themselves. I think that the closer a person feels to the characters in a book, the more affected they are when something good or bad happens to them. Characterization is what makes a reader cry when a character dies, proud when they succeed, or happy when they reach their goals inside the story. And describing the setting and creating the perfect setting can also pull in a reader. If they feel as if they are truly there and seeing things with their own eyes they get even more connected with the story.
My tablemate, Wardlow typed the sentence, “This is a challenging task and the actors make the characterization appear to be so simple by allowing the dialog to roll smoothly off their tongue enunciating every syllable to ensure that their audience understands every word spoken.” This sentence came from her Comparison and Contrast essay. I enjoy this sentence because of the more complex, twisted, and tangled wordage. She had an interesting choice of words and it all flows together nicely. The other sentence I chose, from Stroud’s Classification essay, was this: “Unable to succeed by themselves, they look towards adoption.” I honestly do not understand why I like this sentence so much. It is rather simplistic and short, but it works and almost strikes a cord. It makes you sympathetic to people and their strifes.
I love writing narratives, I like using a lot of emotion, and personification. I love turning emotions into personifications. Things like “anger coursed through my veins.” It makes the story better, and more interesting. I love imagery, because when I read books it is like a mini movie in my head. I can get lost writing a narrative, I cannot write it in a period of weeks. I have to sit down and write it all in one day, my thoughts pouring out like a water spout. I used to write tons of narratives when I was younger, and I usually never would finish them. I would have literally a dozen ‘stories’ on my moms laptop. My dream was to be a writer when I was little. My love for writing is still strong to this day. The adolescent mind is a dangerously volatile thing. Sternberg used this sentence in his Narrative essay. Sternberg uses awesome vocabulary in this sentence. I like how instead of using “young” he used “adolescent.” The whole sentence just flows very well. It is short and quick, but gets the point dramatically. The sentence is also incredibly true, which makes it even more enjoyable. This sentence really puts imagery in my head and makes me think about the adolescent mind. It brings back memories to when I was younger and how I am now.
May thirteenth two thousand and fourteen seemed like any other ordinary day. I like how Holm introduced this sentence in her narrative. It is very interesting, and cliff hanger of a sentence. It gets the reader intrigued, and hungry for more. It is dramatic, which I like. I like how she started with the date, instead of saying something like “It seemed like any other ordinary day.” She made it more interesting and I really wanted to know what happened on May 13th.
In my narrative essay, I will be using the literary device of setting profusely. In my essay I will be talking about one of my father and I’s journeys out to Notre Dame. There is a countless amount of words and literary devices that could be used to describe the immense beauty of Notre Dame's prestigious campus. These multiple trips are something that my dad and I will be able to cherish forever until the day that we both pass. I look forward to going on this trip every single year as does he. It is the one weekend of the year where we can put everything behind us and just be father and son and can talk about anything. We both cherish this moment immensely.
“Yes, in some ways you would always like to have less of one group and more of another but that is just a dream, more of a utopian kind of thought.” That sentence was specifically written by Sydnie Buchheim. She does a fantastic job of getting the reader's attention with in this sentence, as well as using great vocab, specifically utopian. A lot of people could learn from Sydnie’s writing. She doesn't use the most extravagant and complex sentences which is nice for the reader to not have to filter out all of the excess that does not belong within the sentence itself. She does not beat around the bush with her writing and that is something people need to do a better job of.
“The sunset tends to have darker purples and pinks. This connects to the earth slowly going to sleep as it drifts off into a dark sleep.” This sentence was written by Lance Rasmussen. He does an incredible job of painting a job within the reader’s mind. After I read this sentence I could clearly see the pink sunset in which he was describing. He does a great job of using particular words to paint a clear image. This is something I wish I could much better.
Jacobson 6
In my narrative essay I plan to use setting and suspense. These two literary devices go hand in hand because depending on your setting, it could make your story more suspenseful. For example, my essay is about when I was in Rome and how my and along with about 20 others passports got stolen. Being in Rome helps make my story more suspenseful because I am in a foreign country, and possibly stranded. Suspense is also added by making the reader wonder if or when I will return home.
Suspense is personally my favorite literary device. I love a good book with a lot of suspense because it keeps me wanting more and gets me addicted to the story. Suspense keeps me wanting to read the story and wondering what happens next. It makes me think about the story all day and adds the thrill when I finally can pick up the book and read it again. I have found that I can not read books that do not have any type of suspense in them. Even if I force myself to, I can not sit down and be truly focused on what I am reading. Suspense keeps it interesting, and without it the books get too boring to read.
My fellow table mate Kirstyn Polasky, typed the sentence, "Based on how a certain teacher instructs, the five types of teachers are the Circle, Square, Heart, Cube, and Trapezoid." Kirstyn was classifying the different types of teachers in her classification essay. This sentence interested me because of the truthful factor behind it. There are so many different types of teachers and Kirstyn really classifies them in a different way. The other sentence I chose, from Tyler Hintz, was "How can someone have the audacity to speak poor of this game?" Hintz is talking about the ever so loved sport of football. The sport that boys are pretty much born knowing. This sentence got my attention because it is true. Football is an awesome sport and the way the school evolves around it is fascinating.
Through my narrative essay I will use literary devices such as allusion, and amplification. An allusion is a figure of speech where the author refers to a subject matter such as a place, event, or literary work by way of a passing reference. It is up to the reader to make a connection to the subject being mentioned. I will use this by referring to something that happened in my life and connecting it to something all readers will understand. Amplification is when the writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information to it in order to increase its worth and understandably. This comes into play when the writer adds more to the structure to give it more meaning. I will used amplification to make a moment in my story make more sense to the reader. Although the story may make sense to me, someone who was not actually there may not understand. Also by using both of these techniques my narrative essay will become more interesting for the reader.
In Bickley’s classification essay she writes “The unyielding athlete visualizes coming out of the blocks, race patterns run through their mind, and strategizing the race is an ongoing process for mental and physical preparedness.” I found this sentence to be very helpful in understanding what the runner is going through. Personally I am not a runner however reading this allows me to connect to it. Bickley uses her passion for running, to compose great essays.
Kribell wrote in her classification essay “They might warn you, “careful, you are walking on thin ice” or display certain characteristics that alert you to the danger.” In this sentence she uses a commonly known phrase (you are walking on thin ice). I enjoy the use of quotes in writing. Personally I find myself using them often, thus I enjoy Kribell's’ work.
In my essay, I am using conflict as a major literary device. The conflict is a resistance to the protagonist of a story. Conflict is used in my essay because it is a monumental way to learn. Morals, for the majority, are found by events of conflict. My story uses getting bags and passports stolen; therefore, the moral is born. External and internal conflicts are both used in the story I am writing. Overcoming immense doubt and despair, we were able to make the best out of our situation. Setting is my second major literary device. Setting allows the reader to visual time, place, and mood. To create my story, it is essential to make certain that the author can visual themselves as a tourist in a country unknown to them. Doing this will create suspense and give the reader a better understanding of what was going through the heads of kids who were stranded and felt lost. I am extremely impressed by Schumacher’s sentence talents. Jealous, perhaps, I find her sentences to be simple, yet meaningful. Many of us think we must use fancy words and punctuation when it comes to writing; however, Schumacher’s sentence, “This door could be anywhere a school, a church, or even a concert hall” gave me chills. How simple a sentence, but yet, how great a meaning. From this, I imaging beautiful voices being muffled by the front door as I listen in. I hear the different notes, languages, and accents. I hope to learn from Schumacher and include more powerful sentences of imagery in my writing. It is truly amazing to have a prolific writer like Litt at my table. Whether it’s digging deep and finding ideas and comments where they may seem hard or writing sentences like, “Disc golf has the potential… to become a major sport around the world”, Litt always has a purpose when he writes. I enjoy reading the sentence Litt has put into his essay. The way he uses suspense allows the reader to enter a moment of thought, to put their insight into the sentence. From this one sentence, I was intrigued to read the rest of his essay. The privilege is mine to have Schumacher and Litt sit across from me and offer wise advice.
7 Rasmussen
In my narrative I hope to use strong symbolism and give suspense and feeling to my narrative. The symbolism I hope on use on my narrative will bring a connection to my readers feeling and make them feel what was going on in my head. To give my narrative suspense and feeling I plan on adding great detail and give them (the reader) more of an inside look into what is going on in my narrative. In Sabrina’s Classification essay she classified screamo music to banshees. I feel like this is a very strong symbol. It shows a clear comparison and classification. The classification of screamo music as a banshee shows that they have a lot of the same characteristics, they both are loud and almost make no sense in some cases. Banshees are known for their loud sometimes unbearable screams and in some ways they are the same as screamo music to some people. Some people in the world find screamo music unbearable just like a banshee scream. In Sydnie’s Womanhood essay I thought that it was cool how she brought sports into the reason why she became a woman. It gave an easy connection point for most people as they play sports in high school. This also gave a personable feel to the essay, giving it a calm feeling, making it easy for me to understand and comprehend what was going on in her life. In calls Manhood essay he brought the aspect of his dad into his essay, and just like Sydnie’s Womanhood essay, gave an easy connection to me (the reader) being I have also always looked up to my dad for rolemodel. Most young boys either look up to their father or grandfather for life guidance, and when you bring something like that into a essay it bring the reader's interest into the essay even more then it was because they have connection with what you are writing, that is what I hope to put into my essay.
Peterson 6
Irony is a literary device have embellished into my narrative essay. The irony is that my sister does not want the adoptive family their while she is in her deeper portion of labor, but she did have them there at the beginning because she wanted the family to be somewhat about of the birthing process. One more literary device that I have included into my essay is theme. My theme for my essay is: human life is precious--and we should do all we can to improve the human condition for all whenever possible.
In Dziedzic’s Classification essay he wrote, “All athletes have different personalities and prefer to play their games in different ways, not making them lesser people but making them more individual.” I enjoy the way that he ended his essay. I think the way he worded it was appropriate and brought meaning, yet it did not bash a certain type of baseball player. As I reread it, I took this sentence into deeper thoughts. Each person has different personality, yet the world would be a much more boring place without the unique personalities. Also because of their personality does not make them lesser of a person. Great job Jackson!
In Sadler’s Comparison-Contrast essay she wrote, “Hawaii and Europe may seem like two completely different places, but they are the same in some surprising ways; juxtaposing a trip to Hawaii and a trip to Europe can not only help you decide where to plan your next trip, but give you a little insight into the similarities and differences of these cultures.” Jessica nailed her thesis statement and made it flawless. I enjoy the descriptive words she uses. Also she gives you excitement to figure out what the main differences are between planning a trip to Europe or Hawaii. Awesome job Jessica! Keep up the good work.
In the narrative essay we are composing, I like to think I am using the allusion methods best. In my essay particularly I had the two methods of allusion, mythology and a previous reading from school, already thought up. I enjoyed using the mythology method the most because it really gives a way for the reader and the composer to relate to what is being compared. In my essay I am comparing riding down a hill on my bike as Anemoi(the wind Gods) were blowing wind through my hair. This form of allusion makes the sentence more appealing and detailed to read rather than a simple sentence such as, I rode my bike down the hill and it was windy.
Reading through my table mates Causal essays, I found a specific sentence from Pauw’s essay. “Heart racing, she can feel the bruise developing; as it engulfs her eye.” This sentence is an extraordinary example of absolute construction. Pauw gives a bruise its own qualities, meaning it will engulf her eye all by itself. The usage of engulf in this sentence makes the sentence more appealing than a simple sentence structure such as, she can feel the bruise developing around her eye. Another eye-opening sentence that i read off of Mutschelknaus Causal essay started off with a set of appositives. “Illustrious, stellar, and notable--a neurologist named Hughlings Jackson proposed his function of sleep in The Functions of Sleep.” Myself as a new, inexperienced writer, I do not recall ever using appositives to start off a sentence. As I look at Mutschelknaus causal essay, I question myself as to why I didn’t?! This form of sentence structure is appealing to readers and really gives a good description as to what is being explained. She uses this sentence structure perfectly in this example.
I believe that I do not use literary devices well in my writings or essays. For me, I feel I do not portray what I am thinking on to paper well. I get ideas to write about but when I start typing it disappears out of my mind. I realize now I should start using new literary devices to make the reader more interested in what I am writing. I can use foreshadowing to set up interest so the reader keeps reading or maybe even allusions to make the reader believe in the story. By adding literary devices it will keep readers interested and it will also make my writing over all better than before. Simons in her classification essay states “Sometimes it is a valuable, healthy love, like OMI’s “Cheerleader”. However, sometimes the songs get a little out of hand--full of swearing, sex, and drugs.” I enjoy how she states something and then gives an example, if you did not know what she was talking about at first the examples would make more sense for the reader. In Kedik’s classification essay he said “The Die Hards will often set insatiable goals as well, so that they will always be working towards something that is not able to be satisfied and will always be getting better as a player. They are never seen outside of the weight room or the field itself.” Cal makes it easy to figure out what he wants the reader to know. He explains in a way everyone is able to understand. Rasmussen uses very good words and it makes reading his essays more interesting. In his causal essay he states “They give people pleasure and security. Why do they give such reassurance? The tail for both the cat and dog gives their human caretakers a easy way to see how their pet is feeling. For dogs, if people see a dogs tail wagging viciously; they think the dog is happy and comfortable. With cats, if people see their tails moving in smooth flowing motion they can see that the cat is comfortable, relaxed and happy.” The words he uses puts a vivid picture in your head.
Meyer Pd. 1
My narrative essay is still in the beginning and I am just starting to think about what literary device to flavor my paper with. My essay will benefit from many literary devices, two of which are onomatopoeia and diction. Onomatopoeia, words that sounds like what they are meant to be, will be perfect for my paper because my story I am writing about occurs during a raining time of the day with a tornado warning. I will be able to illustrate the noises of the weather through onomatopoeia. Also my story contains crying children, so the replicating there crying and fearful voices in my essay will add a new depth to it. I also think diction will help my essay. Diction is the writers tone; diction can be shown through word choice, mood, styling, and attitude. Diction will help me put the reader in the place of my story. There are times in my essay where I want the reader to enjoy what is going on and want to be there and there are other times where I would like the reader to feel more negative towards the situation. I hope to do this through my word choice and styling of my sentences.
One of my favorite sentences from Mr. Reta’s works is “They may not wear the best shoes all the time, but this is because they like to preserve and cherish their shoes instead of wearing them out”. This is from his classification essay. I find it humorous that he writes about people caring so much about something inanimate.
From the works of Mrs. Moeller, I enjoyed this sentence: “In the first place, this personality type (just as the jelly doughnut) is already admired on the outside for the appealing surface material and as you explore farther you will uncover a nice, luxurious inside”. I liked it because she made two things (police officer and a doughnut) that I thought were quite different seem similar. I hope to be able to posses that kind of writing ability.
The primary literary device I employ in my Narrative essay is indisputably the framing device. I am beginning my narrative with a brief list addressed to myself, establishing the effect of my focal event and introduce an overall tone, then proceeding to explain the progression of the event and frame the story with the same introductory list I began with, plus a few embellishments. Parallelism is by far one of my favorite literary stratagem; I find this type of sentence styling very aesthetically pleasing and structurally strong. I plan to make great use of sensory details as well. Happen I to achieve the desired effect from this device, the reader should gain a deeper understanding of the physical and mental entrapments a person may battle when facing a nefarious attack of the anxiety. My colleague Mr. Gingles effectively attained his desired tone within the following sentence from his causal essay: “Often times people will release a litany of profanity when they hurt themselves in some way, shape, or form.” By stating a vague scenario and using beauteous language, Gingles masterfully paints the image of a (battalion?) of curse words cascading from a person’s lips in response to pain. Such verbiage compliments the purpose of the sentence to justify profanity as a relief method. I applaud Gingles and his knack for simplifying a wide topic into a simple sentence that may be readily built upon. Like Gingles, Bennett too possesses a profound literary gift. Mr. Bennett exhibits this gift in a particular sentence from his comparison-contrast essay, explaining, “Basketball employs only five players on the court at one time; however, if just one of those five is not paying attention the result could change drastically.” This sentence caught my attention with it’s flawless structure and literary prowess. By joining the two sentences with a semicolon and transitional word (“however”), Bennett creates a clear and fluid indication as to why all players must be on their toes and what may occur happen any individual adopt negligence. I am incredibly thankful to be surrounded by such kind, creative, intelligent collaborators.
I believe that I use metaphors and symbolism well in my essays. I think I am good at comparing one thing to another to make my writing more relatable to the readers. I do this by using metaphors, similies, and simple comparison as well. Symbolism also goes hand in hand with the use of comparison. Symbolism talks about a certain things while giving it multiple meanings of other things to symbolize something that it is not, but is very similar to or could be. "Everyone (I hope) would love to be successful and have endless stacks of money with a huge a house and a nice car" (Rowbotham). I like the way Conner Rowbotham used parenthesis in this statement. I think the simple use of parenthesis is easily and often absent in many of our writings as teenagers. It is a simple thing we can do to mature our essays and provide a look of higher education. His inserted statement between the two parentheses also adds a positive tone to his voice displayed within his writing, showing that he believes and hopes for people to achieve greatness within their lives and be proud of it. That tiny two word insert in that sentence says a lot about the author’s outlook on more than just a perspective in his writing but on an entire outlook on life. "The number-one rule to these boxes is that none of them touch one another nor does anything fall in-between two distinctive boxes" (Anderson). I really like the way Kaeli analyzed the mind of a man into a box. I think this description is perfect for the mind of a man and I would have never been able to picture that comparison so perfectly in my own mind. Yet, my mind instantly accepted this idea once I read it in her essay. It helps to visualize the thought process of a male and truly does assist in comprehending why they do the things they do.
Hoffman Pd. 6
I personally have not done all of that much on my narrative essay quite yet but in the past I like to think that I am a visual composer. When composing it is extremely crucial to set a vivid picture in the readers head. Along with setting visual images in the readers mind, having relate-able analogies or topics is a fantastic way to get the readers attention and making your writings the utmost beautiful artwork a person could possibly compose. I would also enjoy to add a bit of humor into my writings. Not only because humor makes the world go round, but when reading something, it is always nice to have something that you can laugh a bit to yourself just from a simple writing.
Logan Mullet does a wonderful job when she is composing her essays. In her Narrative essay with the unfinished yet quite interesting essay that she is in the making of a terrific essay, she said "I am all ready to leave for her house so that we can prepare together. My nails are painted a bright coral and I have enough clothing options for four days." This is quite funny to me because it explains a "girl's way of getting ready" in a nutshell almost because every girl it seems to be when they are going to an "event" of some sort, they over pack outfits.
Jacob Hegland has a work of art quite frequently. He uses extremely descriptive words and has a lot of relateable topics and analogies throughout his writings. In Jacob's Causal essay he says "The people who lie to make themselves appear better can hurt people who are done with the way they are treated by their peers." This is quite relateable and makes a lot of sense, I enjoy how he said this because everyone can relate and have their on perspective of the way people portray themselves.
My goal is to use flash forward and similes profoundly. The beginning of my essay is all going to be a flash forward event which will describe the basis of the essay. The use of flash forward gives an insight as to what to expect in the essay. It will also give the essay a start that gets people excited with what is to follow. Similes, when used correctly, can add an added element to the essay. However, similes can also become overused and can reduce their effectiveness.
Hunting until they are too tired to move, dogs show true dedication to assisting their owners.
I really enjoy reading Mr. Meyers sentences in his causal essay. He states: “Hunting until they are too tired to move, dogs show true dedication to assisting their owners.” I personally believe the use of introductory participial phrases adds an extra little spice to the essay. Instead of saying “Dogs show true dedication to assisting their owners by hunting until they are too tired to move”, Mr. Meyers’s sentence shows true knowledge of the English language. Being able to use sentences like that increase your essay’s effective and will make people want to actually read what you right.
Another person’s sentences I also greatly enjoy reading are Ms. Roach’s. Sentences like “The next character on this list is the prince--more importantly Prince Charming”, prove how excellent she is at using “The Art of Styling Sentences”. The use of dash in this sentence provides a break in the sentence without using the typical comma. Being able to have different ways to add breaks to sentences is extremely important as it keeps your essay from having repetition within each sentence. I strive to be able to write with these different methods to make my essays seem much more interesting.
I believe my writing is more complete and more in detail when i use Symbolism and setting to further my writing. Using setting in my story i can really describe in detail the scene of where the action takes place or where the story takes place and give the reader of my essay a very vivid picture in their mind that they will remember and be like "wow that would be a cool place to be". Using symbolism i can in detail describe something with out action describing it and letting the reader think what they want about a certain thing that takes place in my essay. Austyn Freeman one of my table mates uses great descriptive words in this sentence to give the reader something to think about and picture better using a detailed setting," The smell of coffee beans and musty printed papers filled the office. My mother owned every pen color under the sun,..." she paints a vivid picture in my mind with this sentence and even makes me remember the smell of coffee beans and fresh printer paper like it was right next to me. Austyn later in her essay showed a metaphor,"The car ride was a vacation from the work waiting for us at home." relating the car ride to a vacation which it was from actual work that needed to be done that nobody wanted to do. This simile from Austyn's writing, "Darkness is like an evil, cruel blanket covering the sun.", is not just a simile but also a very descriptive and detailed picture in the reader's mind of what darkness is to her and the reader will compare this darkness to what they believe as darkness. Austyn's writing is riddled with descriptive sentences that leave very good picture in the minds of the readers and makes them come up with their own mental picture about what she explained and object as.
The most useful literary devices used in my narrative essay are setting and suspense. The setting gives the reader a basic knowledge and background to the story and helps them relate to similar situations in their own lives. The setting also is one of the most helpful tools to help the reader envision what the writer is discussing. Suspense is very important for a narrative story to contain because it helps the reader keep interest about a story that they may not have much background knowledge on because it is about the author’s own personal life. Hiding a meaning detail of the story strategically can immensely enhance a narrative because it begs the reader to keep reading and learning.
In the essay assignment of comparing and contrasting two different entities, my table mate, Spainhower, decided to team up with Dietz to create a power point in order to juxtapose Disney fairy tales and the Grimm Brothers’ versions of the same stories. In their discussion of Cinderella they did a very excellent job of both comparing and contrasting the two versions of the story. One of their sentences was: “In the Disney version, it was mice and fairies that helped her out, most likely to be more cuddly for the children watching, her dress disappeared at midnight (not wish-whisked away), and her father did not die.” They perfectly executed pointing out what audience Disney’s version was intended for (children).
Another table mate of mine, Larson, also created a power point in order to compare and contrast. She collaborated with Hammond in order to juxtapose high school and college. They studied many different aspects of a student’s life at both places. The most intriguing sentence that I encountered was, “Akin to the classroom, many of the essentials are there; a closet, a bed, and sometimes a desk.” I did not even know the meaning of the word “akin” and so it made me read the rest of the sentence in order to figure out it’s meaning. They did a very good job on thoroughly comparing and contrasting the two different parts of a person’s life.C
Ullom 7
In my narrative essay, I plan to use setting and suspense. Although ultimately everyone may know how my story turns out, it’s the story itself that counts. I find it thoroughly enjoyable bringing a reader in, setting the stage (setting) and broadening from there. The suspense comes in when I say, “Will I or won’t I?” It’s all a question that will be answered at the end of the narrative story.
Setting - where did this story originate? Why is this important? What can be gleaned by describing the surroundings? It’s simple. Imagination. Being descriptive to a fault in a setting requires the reader to put themselves “in the spot” where I once stood. This is important to try to entice their feelings to come out to understand why I felt my story was important. In eliciting these feelings through extraordinary story telling, it not only captivates the reader it draws them in, wanting to hear more about that person, place, thing or activity. It becomes real to them. If I tell my story correctly in my narrative essay and place my setting as such, I will hold an audience who will support me in my next endeavor.
Suspense is just plain fun. Creating mystery helps keep the reader's interested. Again, if the setting has captivated their imagination, the suspense only gets them hungry for more information. In this way, the reader wants to continue to get to know the person in the story, encourage them and root for them in whatever they may be doing, and try to become a part of the story itself. Suspense can make one feel many things; fear, excitement, acknowledgement, satisfaction, awe and horror. My opinion is that suspense is what you make it - it’s not just intended to be “scary” like a haunted house. My hope is that my narrative essay will captivate the reader’s attention and have them wanting to read more of what i may write.
Ms. Grapevine writes, “Art, in itself, can be classified in many disparate forms including solid, tangible pieces to visual, lyrical pieces to written, flowing pieces.” Each time I read her writing, I am amazed at how easy she makes this whole process look. It is incredible to me the thought she places into her writing. Like her statement on art, her writing in itself is pure artwork. Her talent is something I only wish to aspire to. Her patience ability to understand the written word and then in turn create her own is a true talent.
Mr. Mixell writes, “Naturally, it would only seem logical that some types of animals would match the behavior of some types of workers.” His comparison of co-workers to animals was quite entertaining, while at the same time, becoming completely true as I continued to read it. His comparisons make sense - since man, is, after all, just the smartest animal. His unique descriptions of behavior were eye opening to me. I truly appreciate his ability to write well.
Polasky 6
Writing my narrative essay I am given the opportunity to use and incorporate multiple literary devices but the two I am going to use the most and I almost excited about using are flashback and allusion. Using flashback can help not only the reader but me as an author. I can channel in different emotions and memories I had and use that to hopefully get my point or story across. I want the reader to be in the same mindset set as me so if I use flashback, hopefully I can help them picture and feel what I am feeling. The other device I am using is allusion. Connecting my own writing to a bigger and better piece of writing can help me grow as a composer. I hope to use a connection a reader is familiar with so they are able to understand my writing better. Using this can create images and ideas in the head or even clear up a comparison. Looking through my table partners essays I was blown away but how many different devices I found. I also found many different sentence types. When searching through some of Jacobson’s essays I found this sentence to be intriguing, “Rude guests are otherwise known as the partiers: the wild and the reckless,because when partying they blare their music and trash the hotel room which can interrupt the stays of other guests.” The way this sentence is written is a little different from what I usually see. The flow and word choice is something that drew in my attention. Jacobson has used a sentence type that I might want to incorporate sometime in my new essay. Also looking at Schroeder’s essays this sentence caught my eye, “To spice up the dull winter atmosphere, Valentine’s Day is a great way to spend time and show affection to your loved ones.” Schroeder’s word choice in this sentence caught my eye because it is started with a common phrase but one I have never personally used in my writing. I think from finding this sentence, I want to try to use different words or more of a variety of words in my new essay to make it a little more interesting.
My narrative essay will include many important literary devices, but I believe that flashbacks and setting will be the most important, and best used in my narrative. The reason that I believe that flashbacks will be important, is because in my essay I will be writing about our competitive performance for One Acts last year. My flashbacks will be alluding back to my two plays leading up to Alice in Wonderland, which were A Year with Frog and Toad, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. These are important to flashback to sometimes because these were the only other two plays that I had done before One Acts, and they definitely played a huge role in my ability as an actor, and helped me succeed in One Acts. Secondly, the reason that setting will play such an important role is because the setting really helps set the stage, both figuratively and literally, for my narrative. The setting of O'Gordman High School and the actual stage play a huge role in my story, and help lay the scene for the events to come.
Now when it comes to great sentences written by my classmates, Ms. Paauw's sentence from her Causal essay about abusive relationships come to mind. Her sentence "Compelling and gripping, fear is one of the most powerful emotions." really affects me. It has such a visceral feel and tone to it, and it really makes you feel as though fear really is one of the most powerful emotions. This one sentence plays a huge part in her essay as her topic greatly reflects the tone of fear.
Another classmate of mine, Ms. Tibke, wrote about Dreaming in her Causal essay. She wrote "The brain is never a guaranteed answer, simply to the fact all of the parts are still yet undiscovered." I found this quote very interesting because it outlines that the brain is still an unknown entity, even though it literally runs our lives. Our brains dictate absolutely everything we do, yet we still do not fully understand it. I find this absolutely fascinating, and really enjoyed this quote because of it.
Knutson Pd. 2
In my narrative essay, I currently feel as though I have a good use of the literary device known as amplification. Amplification is when an author adds details and more information to a sentence to expand the worth of the sentence and add more information. By using amplification, the sentence becomes more intriguing and has more meaning behind it then if not used. A sentence in my essay where I show the use of amplification is when I expand on what summer camp truly is and the idea behind summer camp, not just a plain old definition from a dictionary of what summer camp is. I also feel as though I will make good use of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing helps hint at events that will soon come up or occur in the story, yet not giving away what will happen. My title “Summer Camp Clumsiness”, I am alluding to the fact that I will be talking of an event in which I was clumsy at summer camp, but not giving away the actual event that occurred.
In Ms. Klumpp’s causal essay, a sentence that stuck out to me was ‘This is an incredibly risky job--the dog and handler must wear a Kevlar vest-- for both the dog and dog handler, but the bond that forms is beyond what most people can comprehend; the handler trusts his life to his dog and vice versa (Paterniti).’ This sentence is wonderfully structured. Klumpp uses a variety of ways to build up her sentence including a semicolon and dashes. I like that fact that she was able to make a full sentence out of this information and thought instead of breaking it up into smaller sentences, adding more sophistication and eloquence to her essay.
In Mr. Brown’s comparison-contrast essay, a sentence that stuck out to me was ‘The remainder of the scene hurls a variety of perils at the archaeologist: tarantulas, deadly booby-traps, a backstabbing guide, and a horde of fierce natives (hired by a sinister Frenchman) wielding poison blow-darts.’ Mr. Brown is extremely descriptive in his writing and is able to make visualization of events occur easily. Mr. Brown is also able to structure this sentence in a way that flows efficiently, allowing the reader to become lost and intrigued in the writing.
Within my narrative essay, I am discussing the events that happened to me on a bus ride home where the person sitting next to me told me stories about himself when he used to live in Germany. While writing this essay I have noticed that I use two different types of literary devices quite effectively: point of view and flashback. One of the requirements for the essay is to include a paragraph that mimics the style of an author of choice. I ended up choosing the Samuel Taylor Coleridge who was the author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This story had interesting uses of point of view. The story starts out in third person, but when the mariner starts to tell his story it transitions into first person. I have made use of this by starting out as well in the third person. When Anthony goes on to tell his stories of back when he lived in Germany, the point of view changes to first person. In addition, I feel that my use of flashback is carried out well due to the fact that this is a story within a story, and that both stories themselves are flashbacks. Everyday I sit with four other fantastic individuals who care very much about their academic scores yet still find time to have fun. Logan Helgeson and Adriana Pardee are two out of the four individuals who stuck out to me. When asked, Helgeson stated that his favorite essay to write so far was the comparison-contrast essay. After reading his essay, the first sentence, which did exactly what it was meant to do, caught my attention the most. It stated, “Everyone knows of the antediluvian game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, the rules are simple: Paper beats Rock, Rock beats Scissors, and Scissors beat paper.” This sentence utilized a very unique vocabulary word that otherwise meant that the notorious game of rock, paper, scissors is an old game. The real beauty about this essay is that there are five pages explaining nothing more than the differences of rock, paper, scissors to real-life adaptation. Lastly Pardee answered that her favorite essay to write to this date was the classification essay. Once I took a look at her essay the sentence that stood out to me was, “When you see posts that are never-ending usually you just want to pass through it and do not even get the message that the person is trying to demonstrate.” I especially like this sentence because of how relatable it can be. I myself hardly use Facebook, but I do enjoy to look at websites such as 9Gag which is similar to iFunny. While I am looking through the posts, I will come across long, lengthy ones that I end up skipping due to there being too much information. I can relate to this sentence because even on a different media site, I still run into posts such as the one Pardee mentioned in her essay.
Although currently my essay is an empty void filled with a blinding white and white only, I have some ideas to incorporate into this blank space.
As a writer, I have to to believe that metaphors are more powerful than similes. For example, if I were to describe a serial killer; it would more accurately describe him if he was actually called a merciless animal, rather than similar too a merciless animal. The word like or as is however appropriate when you wish to use a seemingly exaggerated comparison. For example, I like how Emma Bose wrote in her essay, “ My friend group was like an epidemic, starting with one person and spreading to multitudes of people and destroying everyone that comes in its way.” For some readers, it would not make sense to actually call a group of friends an epidemic, but I can understand what Emma is feeling the way she depicts her social life in middle school. Mikael Smith uses a metaphor quite well and impactfully. “Their prey being a lonely, innocent fish who did nothing to deserve such abuse.” she writes. She describes a victim of bullying in a way that depicts he or she as defenseless in a way that makes sense.
When I eventually decide what to write about, I plan to use a flashback as a tool in my writer's tool belt. I would like to share to the reader(s) how a certain experience has affected me today. Many stories are written in chronological order. The more I read things in chronological order, the more the definition seems to make sense, older and older and older. To achieve optimal interest and appeal to readers, It would benefit me to use a flash back and spice things up in a way that still accurately describes how I have changed as a person.
Oren 2
I believe that I use personification and setting the best. I really enjoy creating the setting in my narrative; I feel as though the setting is one of the most important parts of the story. If you do not create that setting then you do not have an image for readers to visualize your story. I am also a huge fan of personification. I am enthusiastic about descriptive phrases and personifying inanimate objects is a fabulous way to do so. My table mate, Schumacher, once wrote, "There are many types of beasts in the world, but some of the most terrifying are the ones that surround us everyday--people are the scariest of them all." This sentence was extracted from her classification essay about how different people's mannerisms guide their conversations. I found this sentence to be extremely interesting. Her entire essay was completely amazing. Schumacher talks about people in the most intriguing of ways. People truly can be beasts an dominate conversations. Schumacher has an amazing knack for metaphors, people as beasts. She really brings a stupendous touch to all of her writing. Schumacher also keeps it very personal, her writing is distinctly her own. I am always excited to see what Schumacher will write next. Another of my table mates, Kremlacek, once wrote, "Lions, Cheetahs, Parrots, Peacocks, Black Cats, oh my." Kremlacek used this line in his classification essay to describe the different types of wrestlers. He keeps his writing light and humorous. Without humor teachers would most likely die of boredom reading these essays. He writes in a way that uses larger words but in such wonderful context that you know exactly what he is talking about. Much like Schumacher, Kremlacek has his own writing style that is uniquely his. I feel that this class is really helping everyone develop their individual writing techniques.
Klumpp 1
The literary device I believe I use the most is symbolism and setting. Symbolism helps the reader visualize and see something in a different way in my essay. I enjoy using setting to help the reader absorb background information in descriptive detail. Setting can also help them compare it to something in the reader's own life. I plan to continue using all these literary device to perfect my essays. Gloege uses a strong sense of imagery in these two sentences. "You are laying in bed, peacefully slumbering when suddenly, without warning, you hear a horrendous ringing sound. Thinking you are dreaming, you fall back asleep with surprising celerity. " I can truly see myself laying in bed and hearing the horrible, annoying noise of my alarm clock. McKenzie is a phenomenal writer and is great a description in her essays. My next partner Schwint, always sets up her essays nicely. She states, You can feel your heart pounding and the butterflies are starting to fly around in your stomach. You feel your nerves begin to build up and you take a deep breath, you remind yourself that you have done this many times and there is nothing to worry about. As soon as you run out to your position on the field your nerves magically melt away. You begin the game and play your heart out fielding and batting until the seven innings are done. Schwint's description and set up of her essay is always well done and I could learn a lot from her. I Love how her set up grabs my attention.
Klumpp 2
A few literary devices I believe I use well are symbolism and similes. I enjoy using these types of literary devices because they add flavor and style into my writing and others who use it too. They are also easy to use and understand yet still increasing your essay individuality and making it more appealing to all readers. I am thankful to my past teachers for showing me how to use them correctly because not only does it help my writing now but for years to come, such as in college or even past those glory years and into the real world. I hope to learn how to use more of these literary devices and incorporate them into my future essays, to increase my writing overall.
In Christian Graber's essay he uses absolute construction extremely well “Their energy levels rising, risk takers enjoy risky situations.” This sentence in Graber's essay, adds variety and personal style, along with a more interesting and attention grabbing sentence overall.
Also Kristen Knutson had a very interesting use of a sentence modifier in her causal essay. Sh wrote, “ As a nation, mass murder has become the “normal” and when a news story fills our television screen (if you even hear about it considering more than half of the mass shootings that occur do not get reported nationally) telling of the most recent shooting, we simply shrug our shoulders and say ‘Oh, another shooting happened.” I enjoy how this use of a sentence modifier adds background information while still making sense where she used it in her sentence. The information also gives you a certain emotion about mass shootings and how horrible they are and how too many occur nowadays when in all reality they should not be happening at all.
Literary devices: tools we as writers often take for granted, not really noticing their importance until called upon to do so, such as this moment. One such device that I find myself using in my Narrative essay is characterization; the tool necessary to describe characters in a work of literature, often including intense details and adjectives in order to make it easier for the reader to conjure an accurate picture of that particular character. Characterization is somewhat like a blueprint for a reader; a map in which he can begin to visualize the founding characteristics for each person in the work of literature. For example, if I say, “Carl, the wrinkly, graying skeleton of a man hobbled down the cobbled sidewalk hunched over, thinking of nothing but his warm fireplace at home.” the reader more easily visualizes that Carl rather than if I were to say, “Carl, an older man, walked down the street.” Characterization is vital in the role of imagination. Another literary device often taken for granted is irony. Ah, the bittersweet taste irony has once discovered in a work of literature. It makes the story a bit more humorous, and intrigues the reader, forcing him to think deeper about the personalities of each character, wondering whether he/she meant what they said sincerely or ironically. Irony is a tool in which an author can provide a sort of comedic relief, as seen in many famous works, such as “A Man Called Ernest”, and all of Shakespeare’s works. It is amusing, yet thought-provoking; therefore, a perfect source for brilliance. Speaking of brilliance, Mr. Hintz a sort of genius as well, broadcasting this especially when he used the sentence, “Never should a teen have to face all the hardships of education by themselves and it is about time someone realizes that.” It was intriguing that he started his sentence using “never”, because it made the sentence that more interesting. What a stroke of intelligence! Because he started his sentence with that word, the reader has no choice but to read on to see what it is they should never do, lest it turn out to be absolutely life-saving. Thank you, Hintz, for saving lives one amazing essay at a time. Another author that deserves applause is Miss. Jacobson. “Embarrassment is a self-conscious emotion dictated by a disconnect between how we feel we should respond or act in public and how we actually respond or act.”, a sentence used by Jacobson, was a sentence chock-full of brilliance. the phrase, “dictated by disconnect” is a lovely thing to say aloud, the alliteration rolling off one’s tongue like a dream. She used the sentence to describe why one blushes, and ot covered the topic perfectly. Moreover, Miss. Jacobson compared two feelings of people, so it was fun to compare yourself between the two. She has an obvious knack for writing and has received my admiration for her implicit writing skills. Bravo!
In my narrative essay, I plan on enhancing the literary devices of setting, simile, and atmosphere. Setting and atmosphere, although similar, will form a coherent part in complementing my narrative essay. I hope to have the reader feel as if they have experienced what I have experienced through reading my essay. To do that, I plan to use descriptive writing to set a excellent mood for the reader. I also hope to use my descriptive writing with the use of similes.
“Having chained and domesticated the beast, we now sell fear on the market like we sell clothes”. Hammond said this in her causal essay. I enjoy this sentence due to her great grammar and even greater simile. She was first talking about how fearful we were as human beings and then in a swift manner made the topic change to modern times. Starting with “having chained and domesticated the beast,” was a great way to start this sentence. It has me and other readers wanting to know more. Hammond is a skilled writer. “A vast number of students have the simple mindset of “Why bother?”’ Pruett composed this in her Causal essay. I appreciate this sentence in Pruett’s Causal essay. It is a short simple sentence, but in this sentence it makes you question many things in life. A simple sentence that gives you a great amount of feelings to be kept throughout the essay. When reading my table partners essays I see a great amount of talent and passion. My table partners in my group are exemplar writers. I enjoy the was Blok writes about sports. He has wrote all of his essays about athletics, and each one is filled with passion. The passion he feels for the sport he loves can drive passion to the readers. His essays educate any person who is not in a sport on the passion that is involved. “Sports allow you to push yourself to your physical and mental limits and helps you become a physical specimen as well as an all around better human”. This quote from Blok in his Causal essay makes someone who may be opposed to athletes and sport feel more towards it. Erik is also a brilliant writer. I enjoy when he edits my essay, because it makes my essay better as a whole. I believe every table person in my group are skillful in the task of writing and I am grateful for any help I receive from them.
In my narrative essay some of the literary devices I use well are verisimilitude and setting. Whenever I write I strive for my stories to be relatable. I wish for those who read my essay to be able to picture what I have described and can relive the experience with me. I want to draw feeling and emotion out of the people who are reading beyond what they see on the page. To get the verisimilitude to stand, setting is one of the tools I must use to build the realism. If a good setting is created the story is much easier to follow and is also more enjoyable. Litt is one of my table partners and always writes intelligent sentences as well as gives intelligent advice. An example of one of these wonderfully composed sentences can be found in his classification essay. “Whether a slow song, a radio hit, or a rock and roll is the style you want to play, you will not regret going out and trying the sport.” I find the different classifications Litt used quite original and out of the box, taking into account he was writing about disc golf. Litt uses a direct style of writing that I find to be refreshing and I cannot wait to read more of his writing. Oren has a very creative writing style. She is capable of grabbing her reader’s attention and maintaining an amusing tone throughout her writing. She also uses literary techniques to capture her audience like in one of her comparison-contrast essay sentences. “The sound of each instrument played is the difference between a plink and a plong.” In this sentence she uses onomatopoeia to describe what she is talking about in an amusing way. Oren has a fun and touching way of composing her essays and is has a creativity I would like to emulate. Litt and Oren are invaluable sources of knowledge and are role models on my literary journey.
My two most commonly used literary devices in my narrative would be euphemisms and similes. Despite having too many things in minds at once, I have no difficulty comparing and contrasting by using numerous similes, even allegoric ones. They make me feel like I can express myself better.
Once I asked Mr. C if he’d let me go to the bathroom before class really quickly. He then scribbled a note besides his signature in my planner: “Euphemism,” and asked me if I frequently used it. I honestly had no idea what euphemism meant, but later I googled it, and came to realize I did use euphemism not only in my essays, but multiple times a day, by only talking to people, to avoid using strong or vulgar expressions.
The reason I love reading Ms. Hannah Grapevine’s essays is that her creativity never fails to surprise me. Her writings are witty and refreshingly stylish from beginning to end, keeping the reader interested and involved with her stories and thought process. My favorite part in her essays are her titles: they instantly catch my attention and make me want to read what she has to say. The title that Ms. Grapevine gave her classification was the first to make me realize her limitless creativity. “It’s a Mall World After All: A Safari of Shameful and Savvy Shoppers“
Mr. Will Thompson is best at presenting his real thoughts and feelings in his writing by using unique vocabulary and perfect clarity and honesty. “I would shriek in rage and speak in fiery baby gibberish until my toys were put where they belong.” I like how this sentence in Mr. Thompson’s narrative has an effect on the reader that they can almost feel the rage and understand exactly what was going through his mind. I feel like the style of this sentence (and his writing) gives away a little bit of his personality, which makes the whole essay real and genuine.
Though I haven’t implemented any literary devices within my Narrative essay yet, I plan on using alliteration to the fullest extent of my abilities. Thusly, I would expect this to become my best used literary device. Alliterations are my personal favorite, since they are easy to write but introduce a flow into your writing that makes the sentence seem more professional. Allusions will possible be my next best literary device. I plan on alluding to the story, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, because this tale has several lines that tell about strange events occurring. These events range from Death stealing away the main character’s friends, to the nature trapping the ship out at sea due to the albatross getting killed. One of my peers, Logan Smith, creates an excellent list, ”Like I said, older games don’t have that much for story, it was mostly break blocks, jump on goombas, rescue the princess, repeat.” The description of earlier games reads easily and allows the reader to understand what is being expressed. Referencing Super Mario is an amazing way of detailing the characteristics of old games, since it likely is one of the most famous video games in history. Everyone has seen or played a Mario game at some point within their life, and mentioning this game can possibly be the best way to help the reader see nostalgia, which is written about earlier in Logan’s essay, in their own life. Another own of my peers, Kasara Pollema, wrote, “When I was hired I was told that I would be paid every two weeks-this is also stated in the employee handbook.” She tells her employer what she was told, then she backs it up with reference material that was created by her employer. Doing this is one of the best examples of ethos that I have seen. Kasara was able to politely show her employer an issue within their business.
Bertelsen 2
Browsing through the list of literary devices overwhelmed me. I was unaware as to how many different types of devices there were! I strongly believe that it is of utmost importance to use foreshadowing, mood, and suspense in a narrative essay. Foreshadowing is the use of indicative words or phrases and hints that set the stage for a story to unfold and give the reader a hint of something that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling the suspense. The mood of the story allows the reader to understand the feelings and emotions of the story: humorous, serious, sad, and so-on. Suspense is important to a narrative essay because it keeps the readers intrigued and wanting more; this is crucial in being an outstanding composer of essays.
Deciding which essays to choose from was far from an easy decision due to the fact that all of my table mates are extremely intelligent and unique writers. After much debate, I chose to use a sentence from Mr. Holmes’ causal essay over why humans enjoy reading. “A commonplace item that can transform the world, Books can change the way one perceives the world with ideas that influence the reader.” Holmes’ introduction to this sentence is astounding! It steals my attention and truly makes me want to continue reading. My second choice of reading was Ms. Thomes’ (Wo)Manhood essay. The last sentence of her essay struck me as intelligent, yet clever.
“Admitting I am not fully a woman, I must say, the most delectable part is, “the prerogative to have a little fun,” sang Shania Twain.” The vocabulary and sentence structure is well thought out and throwing in the title of a classic song spices up the sentence. Well done, Thomes!
I believe, even though my narrative essay does not quite reflect this yet, that my essays have always had a wonderful mood. Each mood has directly reflected and correlated with what the essay topic was and it stayed true throughout the entire essay. One of my essays was about softball and baseball; therefore, the mood of this essay cheerful and upbeat. My narrative essay is about the time when I dislocated my kneecap for the second time. The mood I am applying to this essay is suspenseful and sad, just like the mood of the accident when it happened. The other literary device that I enjoy using is characterization. Using characterization can help you analyze and describe the characters with vital roles in the story. If you do not use characterization in your essay, the reader will not have the emotional connection with the characters you present in your narrative.
Birath does a great job with this sentence when she says, "By this time, I am in full panic mode as I run out of the room screaming for my mom while continuing to ball like a two year old." She uses a lovely introductory prepositional phrase to start off her sentence, then she uses flawless imagery in describing how she runs out of the room and how she is getting her moms attention. Birath ends this lovely sentence with a simile; there is no better way to end a sentence than with a simile. Splendid job, Birath!
Albertson also does a lovely job with this sentence when he says, "My mind was flooding with a river of thoughts like a teenage girl who just experienced her first break-up." He starts off this sentence with some incredible imagery and personification. Instead of just saying that he is overwhelmed with thoughts, he adds some spizaz to his sentence by staying that his mind was flowing with a river of thoughts. It is an incredible way to start a sentence, as Albertson has. He then uses a fantastic simile that most of us can relate to. Albertson created a fantastic sentence here and I cannot wait to read more of them.
In my narrative essay I will be using setting and amplification to, hopefully, great effect. I say hopefully because the story I will be telling relies on knowing certain facts that come from the setting. For example, in the story there is a flashback to what the story is about and it comes with a setting change. Without knowing there is a setting change, people would be confused and thinking that my friend and I were borderline terrorists. As for using amplification? I feel like I use that alot in my everyday writing, so why not use this as a chance to show off/get better at it?
So for this part of the blog assignment, we were required to use sentences from our table mates. I, being the avid reader I am, chose one each from Katelyn N. and Sommer W. that had something I do not see often. Katelyn’s was from her comparison essay: “That is exactly what texting is: Quick!”. This was unique for me because in most of the works I read, most do not use exclamation points or colins. It adds a nice pause and, for lack of a better term, excitement. The tempo of the sentence is also affected, the first part is quick to read through but once you get to the colin, a pause and then a BANG! Sommer’s sentence was also from her comparison essay: “Being mendacious gives a notorious reputation that is not an auspicious feat to have”. What is cool about this one is the vocabulary choice. Mendacious, notorious, auspicious, they all are words you do not see very often and what is even better is that they all have the same ending. Whether or not it was intentional, it is still cool. Notorious and auspicious give two different meanings that are usually not in the same sentence, let alone talking about the same thing.
I believe I am using similes best in my essay. I feel as though symbolism will be somewhat difficult for me to conjure up in my essay. The allusions to mythology I do not think will be too difficult in my opinion. The use of setting will be very prevalent within my essay and a heavy use of descriptive words and phrases will be used.
Sentences by my table mates are very well used Ms. Waldner writes, “ I had just obtained my newest Family Force 5 album two days before and was put in a good mood by the audio ecstasy entering my ear drums.” This sentence provides a very good look into the enjoyment being felt when listening to a specific song or album in this case. The description in this sentence is very thought out and fills me with joy. It is very impressive, especially the line about “audio ecstasy.” I thought that was a nice touch. Mr. Dietz does not have very much started on his essay, but his ability to come up with titles for our table proved quite admirable. He creatively constructed many different possible titles for me along with everyone else at our table. Ms. Bose made good use of simile when she compared her friend group to an epidemic, “My friend group was like an epidemic, starting with one person and spreading to multitudes of people and destroying everyone that comes in its way.” This is a very uncommon way to describe your friends which adds a certain level of interest in me to read on. Mr. Komatsubara wrote about his journey to America, or is at least thinking about writing about this change. I wish him the best of luck, and after reading the start of his essay it looks as though it will turn out to be a fine read. His explanation of the different cultures seems to pretty straightforward and doesn’t seem to interrupt the essay in anyway.
I am trying to make my narrative suspenseful, since suspense is one of my favorite literary devices. I like what suspense can do to someone when watching a scary movie, but what suspense in writing can not be beat because it is so much more difficult to convey. For example, movies use music and actor's expressions and actions to give feelings of suspense, but with writing there are only words on a page to organize a suspenseful scene in the readers mind. When I read stories, I appreciate it when the author includes excitement mixed with apprehension, tension, and anxiety. It helps keep me on the edge of my seat and interested in the writing. During eighth English I remember reading a mystery novel called "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. It was based off of the suspenseful poem "Ten Little Indians". Christie said that it was one of the most difficult books for her to finish but it turned out to be an absolute masterpiece in my opinion.
My kitty corner table mate Mr. Meyer is in the process of writing a narrative about an all-too-familiar scenario. His story takes place at a summer camp where he and one of his best buds help tend to the young kids. One way they help is by coaching kids football. He writes: "After the team rotated to the next station, my partner in crime and I would determine how many points we would give the teams for team spirit. We would argue like lawyers in a courtroom about what team deserves the most points." In the first sentence Meyer calls the other summer camp helper and friend his partner in crime. I find it funny because I imagine the two of them being surrounded by tiny, naive kids, and taking charge over them. In the second sentence Meyer tells about how he and his "partner in crime" would argue about which team deserves the points. He uses simile to compare himself and his friend to Lawyers in a courtroom. The entire essay is easy to relate to and full of great comparisons.
Another one of my table mates is Mr. Reta. In his causal essays he talks about some peoples desire to own expensive sneakers and relates it to human nature. He says "Human nature is a fascinating thing. A big part of our human nature is competition and the drive to be better than everyone else." I thought this sounded very philosophical. What also captured my attention in Reta's essay was his use of Allegory. Allegory is a symbolism devide where the meaning of a greater concept is conveyed with a more corporeal object. It is like an analogy. He writes: "Every competition has its winners and losers, it feels amazing to win and awfully disgusting to lose, but like cleaning the bathroom someone has to do it." I really like the topic of this essay because it has to do with societal norms. The allegory gives a clear idea of what it feels like to lose in a competition.
I believe that the literary devices that my narrative essay uses, insist of setting and conflict. It uses the literary device of setting because in my story, the entirety of the story takes place at one gas station during a certain amount of time and I stayed there to solve the predicament I was in. I also explained how long I approximately stayed there and I stated in the essay what time of the day it was. The story written has an abundance of conflicts that occur and that could have occurred, which allows the literary device of conflict to be one of my main literary devices. “Thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies, horror movie fanatics, all seem to have a fascination with fear that one would not expect a ‘regular’ person to have.” This sentence was written by my table mate Miss Hammond in her Causal Essay. The way she describes the people that seek the rush of fear is extremely descriptive, and it allows the reads to understand exactly which type of person that seeks fear. She explained the difference between them and ‘regular’ people amazingly in just one sentence, which is completely astounding. “The usual answer when asked how you are doing, is the simple, ‘I am fine’”. This sentence was written by my table mate Miss Smith. She shows in this sentence that she understands the simplicity of this world. She understands how most people will respond, using simple words that do not take effort to think about. Many people are simple and cannot understand the depth of the world and everything it has to offer. She captures that the simple people of the world with respond with simple answers. Miss Smith and Miss Hammond can show their depth of understanding by writing essays and sharing their ideas and and thoughts of people through the class of Composition.
The other day, someone sprung up by me and asked me what my favorite literary devices were. I had a small feeling in the back of my mind telling me that I was on a hidden camera TV show, so I gave them my best answer. I said "Anthony always answers with alliteration." They then asked me exactly why I chose alliteration. I replied saying that alliteration is an imperative part of writing. Persistent as they were, they asked me for another literary device that I prefer. Hesitantly, I told them that I was partial towards analogies. After I had given them my last opinion, they went along their merry way, which meant that I myself could go about my typical day.
Alliteration adds a sense of humor to a literary work simply because it sounds silly, making one think back to their days of childhood. The repeated sounds of the words in an alliterative phrase are all around pleasing to the ear because they uphold a sort of structure to a story; alliteration greatly assists in dramatic books as well as comedies and any other hybrids of any other writing styles. Alliteration can improve dramatic stories, poems, books and the like, by adding comic relief to a dramatic series of events. If a book goes too long without any sort of relief and myopically focuses of the drama between the characters, then the reader will most likely do one of two things: put the book down because it is simply too boring since the drama level never changes, or exhume hidden feelings within the reader that the reader does not want to confront so they then put down the book.
Alliteration is also imperative in comical books as well as dramatic books. Alliteration in comedies almost always gives the reader another hearty laugh, especially when the reader is already on the brink of laughter. Alliteration can also be used to create the atmosphere in which comedies thrive, building up the audience’s faith in the writer/comedian.
Within my Narrative essay I seemed to have used setting and suspense the most. When it comes to a Narrative story, it generally is a lot easier to explain what happened word for word. Suspense is another thing that I was generally better at when it came to being incorporated into my Narrative essay. Laycee Cain, is a great writer. It is completely safe for me to say that reading over some of her essays make mine seem to be obsolete. She has a way of explaining complicated things in a way that just about anyone would be able to comprehend. One of the many sentences in her Causal essay was,
Media has played a pivotal point when it comes to weight fascination and “In our media we are bombarded by messages that seem to say, “‘This is how easy it is”’(Brezinski,53).
That statement, even with a quote, Makes a huge point even within few words. She stresses what needs to be stressed in the right way and yet is still making her point clear, understandable, and interesting. Logan Hanzel on the other hand, he seems to be very relaxed and calm in what he has to say when it comes to making a point. He understands his topics well but doesn't need to over expand on each point.
-Another reason people lie is because we believe that the lies we tell are really a good thing because they help someone.
As an example from is Causal essay, he easily makes his point and then lightly expands on it in multiple points such as he has in his topic of lies and the different ways a lie can be accepted or not.
Over all both Cain and Hanzel are wonderful writers. They know how to make their points clear and precise. All their essays are easily understood and interesting.
Komatsubara 7
Personally, I am surprised how I was able to create not-so-bad allusions, especially the second one. “When we have observed the individual, whatever is conspicuous, however unexperimented, must be applied.” It was one of those wonderful times where two seemingly unrelated memories were combined into something creative enough.
What was equally unexpected for me in the sense of inspiration was a simile. “Watching various personalities of children was like watching numerous baby trees before they would hit one another and form a single trunk.” I noticed what Captain Obvious might point out: good similes can be help to entertain audience and glance at statements in a new and amusing way.
As for others’ sentences, there is Ms, Bose’s, “While the car in one piece, I was a wreck.” Throughout her thrilling story-line, my eyes stopped on this part for a second. It summarizes the character’s emotion in the paragraph fairly well. Without it, I wouldn’t know where to pause and review to think how she was coping (or not coping) with the situation. The contrasting words in a parallel structure indeed shows embracement of literary talent of the author. I can also see some humor in that the inanimate car is obviously doing a better job at handling what it is supposed to handle rather than the human character.
Then there is Mr. Rise’s, “The sweetest looking old lady I had ever laid my eyes upon.” A deliberate fragment sentence, and an effective method of expressing shock. The tense atmosphere that (he thought) was developing is blown away like that lightest dust in an instant. Shock, It is an emotional shift that brings uncontrollable bursts of thought in one’s mind. He realizes he was judging. He realizes he was prejudiced from a silly factor, movies. And now he is enlightened, receiving awe with guilt and inspiration.
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