My take on "A Modest Proposal"

  

     One of my favorite types of movies are period movies.When I first heard the title, "A Modest Proposal", I assumed this would be a story like my favorite movies. I assumed there would be a guy and a girl falling in love with each other. The book in my mind would have all kinds of drama and romance. Honestly, when I read the first paragraph I was lost. I kept reading and trying to soak in what was written. I actually did not really understand Jonathan Swift's argument until paragraph 9. Paragraph 9 makes it obvious that he is speaking of selling the babies as food. I thought to myself, oh my goodness this guy is crazy. I have seen scary movies and watched a lot of Dateline shows, but wow this was unexpected. I wanted to keep reading to make sure Swift wasn't going to say he was just kidding. Swift was not kidding,  he was very serious about his argument. He really thought by poor women selling their children, they would be doing good for themselves and thousands of others. They would be making money instead of having their children grow up and be a burden to them. He had an American friend tell him what age the children would taste good at. He had done plenty of research it seemed for a crazy idea.The only part I thought was funny was when he would speak of his critics. He would mention them just a little, but not without putting them down as well. That was pretty funny to me. It kind of was like a guy telling a girl she was pretty, but she was dumb. Without a negative comment following Swift would not mention his critics. He thought very highly of his idea, no one was going to tell him different. The part where Swift said even the children would have preferred to be sold was insane. I don't think anyone would say they would have rather been sold than to live there life. His whole idea of when the babies would be most plentiful was really nuts. Serving children for holiday dinners is not a thought that would come to a normal persons mind. I really think Swift had some mental issues, or he just really was desperate. It is sad that they had a drought, and all the crops died. I can only imagine how many Irish people were starving. It is not fair that England wouldn't help the Irish people out, but Swift's idea wasn't any more fair. Then again, Swift wasn't fair regardless, he didn't plan on selling his child.

     I think if you want to preach something, you must be willing to first look at yourself. Will you practice what you just preached? Will you be the first to set the example? If you want to win an argument it has got to be something you are passionate about. It has to be something you really believe in. I thought long and hard for an idea on my proposal. One thing that is so out of hand right now is bullying. I hate seeing on the news when a child has committed suicide after being bullied. This breaks my heart every time and I find myself crying for hours afterward. No one should have to go through this. I hope my proposal will be very argumentative and persuasive. I'm looking forward to writing this essay because I really am passionate about the subject. Swift's proposal was very crazy, but it definitely kept you wanting to read. Hopefully my proposal will not be crazy, but will draw the readers in. 

    

Too much Information!!

I am now sitting down and feel like my head is spinning. I read chapter 46 of The Little Brown Handbook and chapter 10 of Practical Arguments. There was so much information in these chapters. In the Handbook there was 25 front and back pages of different ways to quote and cite sources. I can't believe there are so many rules to citing. It all depends on the source you received the information from. Is it a book, an article, a poem, a DVD, or something found on the web? Is there one author or two? Is the author a company?

I admit that I will never be able to remember all the rules with writing in MLA format. I am sure that anyone who has it all memorized has studied very hard. I now know that when I write a paper in MLA format that I must make sure I am accurate on the way I cite my sources.I am glad that I can refer to websites such as www.owl.purdue.org for help with the rules. It will show me how to put the information together to ensure I am doing it correctly. This website will be my new best friend.

I feel like MLA has so many rules to follow. Its a very strict way to write papers. Everything must be done the way they want it written. I do not think I am a fan. I like some kind of variety in all things. I know that all around us there are rules to follow. I would rather everyone be different in their own way. Life would be so boring if everyone looked, acted, and sounded the same.Variety is what makes life so interesting.

" I was THAT kid"

Everyone is different and unique in their own way. Although, in school there is usually something that I think every class has.There are a few of those who make straight "A's" and in early grade levels considered, "the nerds". I was that kid. I loved to have fun with my friends, but when it came to class work, the "A" at the top of my paper was all I wanted to see. When I look back on it now, I still don't understand why I pushed myself so hard. I don't know why I really cared. I am one of 14 kids in my family. My parents never checked my homework, school work, or report card. I can't blame them, they did not really understand any of it. I just kept pushing myself to make good grades because I wanted to. I guess I set that goal for myself because I wanted to achieve something. In class, I was the one kids wanted to sit down next to during a test. I got cheated off of a lot during school.

A part of me kept allowing it because I really cared about my friends. I wanted to help them out if they didn't understand something. After awhile, the teachers talked more about cheating. They let us know that it was wrong for someone to do all the work and have someone else take credit for it. I stopped allowing people to cheat off me in class.

 Although,  I fell back into that scenario last semester in college. A classmate asked me for help in math and I agreed to help. When she came over and just copied everything exactly I knew what was happening. I wasn't going to allow myself to fall back into that situation again.

I think cheating is so wrong. There are consequences that follow. There is not always going to be someone there to cheat off of. Sooner or later that person is going to have to do the work themselves. It will make it so much harder when the situation arises.

It really isn't worth all the stress that will come after.
I'm not saying that I don't make mistakes. I have made many mistakes in my life that I am not too happy about. When it comes to plagiarism, I would never intentionally do it. If I have ever done it in the past, I am unaware of it.

Just like cheating, I don't think its fair at all to take credit for someones work. I do admit that I am not the greatest with citing. I try very hard to cite quotes or any other work that I may use in my paper. It may not be the correct way to cite something, but I really try. I will at least put the page number and authors name in quotations at the end of the sentence. I understand how hard people work to write papers, books, articles, etc. I would never try to take the credit they deserve for their hard work. I think a huge consequence to plagiarizing is if your told to retell something from what you stole, without looking, you are in deep trouble. I would be so embarrassed if that ever happened to me. Not to mention being kicked out of school for it would be absolutely heart-breaking. 

CHAPTERS 1 & 45

You can learn a lot by the way someone writes. In class, we took a trip outside and were told to describe something in full detail. We could pick whatever caught our interest. I picked a family of ducks I saw playing in a puddle. I wrote down as many descriptive words I could think of while watching them. When we went back in the classroom, we were told our homework would be to write an essay on what we chose outside. Everyone in class may have picked the same thing, but in our essays they will seem completely different. Everyone will have their own opinion and this will show in their writing. In chapter one of The Little, Brown Handbook, it discusses the writing process. "There is no one writing process; no two writers proceed in the same way and even an individual writer adapts his or her process to the task at hand." ( Fowler and Aaron 10)

 There are so many elements in how you write. So many factors play into why you write, like the subject, your purpose, the audience, and the genre. These are some of the elements of the writing situation that chapter one goes over. All of these are necessary to go over before starting a paper. The purpose of the paper is important to the audience reading the paper."Sometimes you may not discover your purpose until you begin drafting, or you may find that your initial sense of purpose changes as you move through the writing process." ( Fowler and Aaron 19) Your audience will be the ones reading the paper and judge how well its written. Chapter one was very detailed on writers knowing what the audience expects from the paper. The chapter also went over how to bring out you individual voice in writing. "Your voice conveys your sense of the world as it applies to the particular writing situation, this subject, this purpose, this audience." ( Fowler and Aaron 22) I didn't even know your voice really mattered until after reading chapter one. I now understand how writing can be different not only by opinions of the writer, but by the tone as well. "Like anything worth-while, writing well takes hard work." ( Fowler and Aaron 10) I believe I can achieve my goal of being a good writer using all these tips.

 Chapter forty-five in The Little, Brown Handbook goes over how to start your paper and the importance of drafting and proof reading. The first thing explained in this section was how to write a thesis statement. "Drafting a thesis statement will help you see the overall picture and organize your notes." ( Fowler and Aaron 658) This will definitely help me with my first essay due to all the notes I scribbled on paper. Some of the notes I wrote may not be needed in my paper. Writing an outline will help determine any excess information. There are two types of outlines, a formal and an informal. After reading about both types of outlines, I think I am more comfortable writing an informal outline. "Because of its informality, such an outline can help you try out different arrangements of material, even fairly early in the research process." ( Fowler and Aaron 661) I usually can look at the word and remember what details will follow that idea. Section 45c gave some great tips for drafting. "Start with the section of the paper you feel most confident about." ( Fowler and Aaron 663) I believe if I follow this tip everything else will come easily. After writing the draft, the most important thing is to revise and edit your paper."Look for lapses in sense, awkward passages, wordiness, poor transitions between ideas and evidence, unnecessary repetition, wrong or misspelled works, errors in grammar; punctuation, or mechanics-in short, anything that is likely to interfere with a reader's understanding of your meaning." ( Fowler and Aaron 665)

The readers understanding of my paper will help boost my confidence in how well I wrote the paper. I want my diagnostic essay to be very well written. I want to include everything I've learned from both chapters. I have confidence that I have the tools I need to write this paper.