We Need to Learn How to Write

It amazes me that corporate America can't write. I feel there is no excuse to send an improper email to a boss, professor, or anyone above you. And spelling mistakes really make me mad. Why don't you just take the time to put in a comma or capitalize your letters? It will only take about .01 seconds out of your life to add on the proper punctuation.

Furthermore, writing like a slob makes you look bad (especially in the eyes of your boss). Someone is usually looked at in a much higher light if they are proper than if they just slop down some incoherent set of words onto a paper. In addition, businesses are spending way to much money on teaching their employees how to write. They shouldn't have to do that. Employees should come into their jobs knowing how to form a simple sentence such as "I have just sent you the reports for the day." However, this article has shown that employees can't even form that simple sentence, much less punctuate. So therefore billions of dollars are being spent on classes to teach employees basic reading and writing. I think that this money could be spent on more reasonable items if everyone paid attention in their middle school english classes.

However, I think that there are other important characteristics out there that a good writer must possess besides being coherent and using proper punctuation. For example, a good writer isn't afraid to take risks and put what they believe out there. A good writer is able to make a clear statement and support it with facts or other knowledge they have on this topic. And according to many sources such as Ken Smith, a good writer is a good reader. Many say that reading is a key element in good writing because it allows people to bounce off others' ideas and start something new of their own. Last, a good writer has their own voice. They are able to reach out to a variety of audiences and truly define their writing through the choice of words.

I realize that we were supposed to write this blog post in simple sentences. I really did try, but that doesn't seem to really be my thing. Experiment failure?
But by reading these articles I have developed a couple of key characteristics I think a good writer should have.

Freshman Wrap Up

One year ago I was eagerly anticipating the start of college. And now I've already got one year under my belt. Where the time went this semester? I do not know. But as part of me wants to go home and see all my old friends and relax from school, the other part of me wants to stay here. Because believe it or not, Dallas is basically my new home. I have made some of the greatest friends this year and have had some amazing experiences. And it's going to be so wierd to pack up everything and go home for three months.

Throughout this year I have tried things that I never thought I would do in my entire life, new and exciting experiences. I came from across the country knowing nobody at the beginning of the year and now I am leaving, knowing that I have so much to come back to next year.

I have also realized how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to come to college at SMU. Some of my friends didn't have the financial availability to go to a college outside of our hometown, and have not branched out from the life they have known for 18 years of their lives. But I have been grateful enough to branch away from the life I have known and explore so many new and exciting aspects to life.

Being in Dallas has made me realize one major thing: I definitely won't be living in Wisconsin when I'm older. Although Dallas offers the perk of nice weather, being in Texas has shown me theres so much to learn in other parts of the world. So I want to travel. I want to explore. I want to meet people from everywhere.

I know throughout the next three years of my college experience, there are always going to be ups and downs. But I know that I can leave Dallas knowing that what I am coming back to is something I love just as much, if not even more, than home in Wisconsin. And if that doesn't show a succesful first year of college experience, than what does?

Teachers: They Make it or Break it

I've learned that there are many positive and negative aspects that come along with school. Homework: Negative. Grades: Negative. Tests: Negative. Actually, that's a lot of negatives. But over the years, teachers have sometimes turned out to be a positive.

I have taken countless classes, such as science and math classes, knowing that I was going to hate it. I'm not a mathematically smart person, so those classes have always been a challenge for me. But what I have learned that makes all the difference is teachers. For example, in my anatomy class junior year of high school I had to memorize basically the entire body. But my teacher made it interesting. He played us videos and brought in cool demonstrations and made jokes about the things normal high-schoolers would find funny. He made the class FUN. Which is what a lot of classes lack these days. I remember having my history class right before my anatomy class. Now, my history teacher talked in monotone and read from the book the entire class. Interesting? Not exactly. So I found myself checking my watch basically every other second, counting down until I actually got to go to my "fun" class. And I know that if it wasn't for that teacher I had, I would have despised that class.

But that theory also goes the other way. I have always been more of an English girl. I don't mind writing papers and it just comes easier for me than finding the derivative of an equation. But some of the English teachers I have had make me want to rip all my papers to pieces and throw them out the window. Classes I expected to be fun and enjoyable turned out to be complete torture. And it sucks.

The worst is hearing your friends rant and rave about a class that you are in, but that you both have different teachers for. They say, "OMG this class is amazing! The teacher is so totally chill and makes it so interesting!" And then there's me stuck with the teacher who could care less about his/her students and speaks in monotone 24/7.

But teachers have so much power, especially in high school. One class, because of the professor, can cause someone to pick a path that they want to follow in college and even get a job in. It just goes to show that teachers really have the power to make it or break for the students out there.

There is Another Way

Argument Paper Blog

Our entire lives we have been told that college is the only path to take. We have been taught to work hard in school, get good grades, and get the education so that we can reach the goal of getting the job we have always wanted. For most teenagers, thats being a doctor, a lawyer, a business man, and so on. But what about those people who don't want a professional degree? What about those people who want to work in the car manufacturing business or run a restuarant of their own? Why do people feel that they deserve less respect than those who have the title of professional jobs? I feel that high schools should not push students so hard onto the college path for many reasons.

First of all, schools are setting too high of expectations. They tell students that they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up. But what they don't tell the students is that most of them will everestimate their chances by a great deal. The actual proportion of doctors and lawyers in the labor force is a lot smaller than all the students that wish to become one. And what about the minority children from the inner city who look forward to professional careers at the same rate as affluent suburban children? Is it fair to tell all of them that they have an equal chance when maybe they can't even afford to pay their way through college? (Finding Flow)

In addition, many students have no desire to have an education further than college. And yet high schools look down upon those students that don't want to pursue their education further. They are disrespected when it comes to terms of deciding between a professional versus a blue-collar job. But can't someone be perfectly content just having a blue-collar job? I'm pretty sure that they can. For example, my best friend's brother is one of the most intelligent people that I have ever met. He can whip math problems out of his head in a split second and knows every thing there is to know about cars. He runs his own car repair shop and couldn't be more happy. When I asked him why he didn't go to college, he told me it was because he knew every single thing that there was to know about cars. And he told me that fixing cars would be the only job that would make him happy in life so there was no need to go to school to try and change that. Putting on a suit and tie and going to work would mean nothing to him, even if it means a position of respect to many people in our society today.

Finally, many students have plenty of intelligence without a professional degree. I don't understand why it is neccesary for ACT tests and IQ tests to tell us what we should know about our intelligence. In Mike Rose's Book, A Mind at Work, he discusses many different concepts on how all these workers that are in jobs that we would consider blue-collar jobs have intelligence in ways that none of us would have thought possible. He said just watching a waiter move with agility and grace is its own kind of intelligence. Some people's mind aren't made to operate to professional standards. Not everyone can be a CEO of a business or perform an open heart surgery on a terminally ill patient. But not everyone can fix cars or serve hungry patrons food. Intelligence can be fooling. It comes in many different ways.

So just because our schools are telling us that the only path is college, it doesn't mean that intelligence is going to be found there. Just take a look around you and look at all the people you know. Everyone is smart in their own ways. And many people know that without having a college degree to prove it.

Stupid Boys?

Recently I heard about an accident that occurred in the town of Dripping Springs Texas. These three boys had been fooling around. They were surfing on the top of the cars and driving down the hills. Two of the boys who had been "surfing" had fallen off the car and one had hit his head and died.

The boy driving the car was charged with manslaughter.

I seem to think that this is fair punishment for the boy driving but others whom I have talked to about this issue think that it is unfair that he has been charged with this. They say that he is the one who climbed up on the car so his consequence for that is unfortunately his death.

But couldn't that have been prevented? I sure think it could have. I think the boy driving the car had all the power in his hands. He was the one who went along with the act. He was the one who put the car into drive and drove 35 mph down a rocky road, knowing that there were two boys standing on top of his car that could at any moment fall off.

So I think, by all means, that it is completely fair to charge this boy with manslaughter. Manslaughter is defined as "recklessly causing the death of another." And I think that is exactly what he did.

To me it's bizarre to think that this "car surfing" is somewhat of a new rage among teens today. There have been other reported cases of deaths due to this new trend in Arizona and Kentucky. Don't people realize the danger involved in this?

And am I wrong to think that this boy should be charged with manslaughter? Am I wrong to think that he is responsible for causing the death of another?

The Parentals

All throughout high school, I was always pretty close with my mom. We never really got into any arguments and we were always pretty chill with each other. Everyone always told me how much they envied my relationship with my mom and asked how I did it. I just usually shrugged and couldn't think of a response to that question.

Every day after school me and my mom would talk and I would tell her as much as I wanted her to know about my life, always leaving out just a couple details and then she would tell me about her day. So I guess, yeah, it was a pretty good relationship.

But now that I've gone away to college, I'm lucky if I talk to my mom once a week. And I haven't exactly figured out how I feel about that. I mean, she's not making the initiative to call me more often, but then again I don't see myself picking up the phone to call her more often either.

And as I've been here at schools I have seen people way above and below me on the phone-calling spectrum. I have friends who talk to their parents at least twice a day on the phone, and then friends who have called home once or twice in the past couple of months.

For example, one of my friends who talks to her mom on a daily basis comes into my room every day to complain how much her parents are trying to control her life. And everyday I tell her the same thing. "You're in college now and you need to start thinking and making decisions on your own." Shes tells me how her parents will only support her if she does what they want her to do in life. And day after day, she picks up the phone and calls to asks for their advice. I just feel like all her conversations ever bring are arguments and frustration.

And I see stuff like that and it makes me glad to know that I still have a good strong realtionship with my parents, even if that means I'm talking to them as often as I used to.

So are my parents trying to make me more independent by not calling me often? Are they slowly preparing me for the real world when I will no longer recieve any financial help from them and live on my own? Or are we both just to busy to talk on the phone anymore? I really don't know.

A Depersonalized Generation

Recently in one of my classes we started to talk about the negative aspects that the technology has created for our generation. And of the biggest disadvantages, I think that the most interesting one would be how "depersonalized" our generation has become. There are less and less face to face conversations and coffee dates and random get togethers. People don't even call each other on the phone as much to talk anymore as they used to.

Why? Because we have email. We have AOL Instant Messenger. We have texting. None of which require people to actually communicate with each other on a deeper level. Conversations that would usually constitute for at least a phone call have now been reduced to a text.

For example, recently a friend of mine was having trouble with her best friend. They were having difficulty talking about their issues with each other. And instead of sitting down and talking about it together, they addressed the problems through a texting conversation. I didn't exactly think it was the best of ideas, but apparently they thought it was. But it just goes to show that if something as serious as that can be talked about through texting, then what can't?

Sure, it's "easier." You don't have to deal with awkwardness. But when you recieve a text or an email, its hard to interpret how exactly a person is relying the words to you. Are they being sarcastic? Are they trying to funny? Or are they serious? You can never really tell. So one message can be interpreted many different ways because you don't know the tone of voice a person is using. But I've seen plenty of texts gone wrong and more chaos happen because someone couldn't pick up the phone to call someone to say something.

I think it is sad to say that our generation has come to this certain point. But I am definitely guilty of contributing to it. I talk more through texting than on the phone. I'm not a phone person so it is definitely easier and more convenient to send people texts about questions I have. And since I'm surrounded by technology every day, why not just send out a quick email to say something to someone instead of having to arrange a time to meet them and talk about it in person?

Is this something that is going to continue in the generations to come? Is it a problem that is going to get worse? Are coffee dates and get-togethers going to become completely obsolete because we have technology to communicate everything?