Journal 12: Telling A Story

     Writing a story is totally different form writing an essay. People can freely express their feelings, ideas, and imagination to stories. However, we might need to follow the rules for academic writings, such as five paragraphs per essay, topic sentences, and concluding sentences. To me, I have more pressures when I write an essay than a story. I worry that do I make an attractive attention getter or create an interesting story. What can make a story good? The answer is definitely the words which chosen by the authors. For example, “She is very angry because her sister ate her cake” or “She seems angry that she shouts her sister’s name at the first floor in order to call her out.” Which one is better? Of course the second one because it provides more details and is more vividly. I like to read science fictions with supernatural imagination because each description from the story bring me a clue that lead me to involve into the story, I usually can’t predict the ending of the stories, so I am curious about what will happen next then keep reading it. Although I like to read science fictions, I tend to write comedic story. It makes me feel lively and entertaining.

 

Journal 11: Worlds of Fiction

    Why do people create fiction novel or the world we don’t know? According to quotation, why do people create fiction novel or the world we don’t know? The reason is very simple- they are not satisfied about their current lives. People can show their creativity and imagination to bring more entertainment in their lives. Something can happen in real lives, but some can only happen in dreams. For example, Harry Porter and Twilight are two famous fiction novels. Although I am not a fan of them, I can feel how the author’s passion about writing the stories. I am a realistic person, but I do accept fiction novels. To me, I would enjoy the whole story because those stories might bring me a lively life. I think that majority of children like this kind of stories. They are not mature enough to understand the difference between real and imaginative life. “World we don’t know” means that the author creates a world which is not realistic. The setting, people, and events might not be real, but the whole story is full of creativity. Fiction novels can be positive that bring fresh idea to people; however, this type of stories might affect people negatively.

 

Journal 10: Know Thyself

     According the poet named Alexander Pope’s quote, “Know then thyself.” I think that I am the only person who knows myself well. Everyone does have a best friend to share things, but no one can know you well except yourself. For example, once I didn’t get a good grade on a test. My friend told me that I can eat a big meal, and then I would feel better. However, I couldn’t fit into this way. To me, I can’t eat “A big meal” to solve my problems. I think that I have multiple personalities that my behaviors are depending on different situation. A person can know himself or herself better by chatting more with friends or family. Spending more time to talk with other people can learn yourself more because you can hear how different people think about you. What is different or special about me? I think that I am a good listener that I am willing to listen anyone’s things if he or she wants to share to me. Everyone should learn how to learn yourself because I believe that yourself is the only person who can totally know yourself. As I grow up, I think that I know more about myself.

 

Journal 9: Nobody Like You

     According to the quotation, there will be nobody like me again because people on the earth are totally different, even though twins. For eight or ninety-year-old people, they might find that they can’t find any people who are like them through images in their heads. In old people’s memories, they have already looked through many types of people and things. In their memories, some might make them happy, but some might make them sad. Anyway, every single experience in people’s life is unique and significant. To my father, he has experience on both live in city and country. When my father was young, he lived in the country and already had some business experience because my grandfather owned a grocery store at that time. Sometimes my father had to help my grandfather if he was busy, so my father was very independent when he was young. He did everything by himself and managed his own stuffs very well. My father and his family moved to city when he was eighteen years old. To me, I don’t think that a person should be old to be unique because people are unique when they were born. In my childhood, my parents didn’t force me to focus on academic area, instead they let my join many types of activities. That really makes me different from other people.

 

Journal 8: What Comes Next

     According to American writer Ursula K. LeGuin wrote, “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next,” I think that she wants to tell people that we should only care and focus on the things happen now indeed of anticipating what will happen in the future. As she said permanent and intolerable uncertainty, people should try their best to do the things well because always thinking about the future is not necessary. On the other word, I think she also wants to keep remaining us that cherish the present moment is more important. To me, I won’t say that people should cherish present time or know about what comes next because it depends on the situation. For example, when you want to move to the U.S. from Taiwan, you should know what kind of life you are going to have, what kind of job you want to do, and what kind of city you want o live. Those things relate to your life in the future, so you must know what comes next. However, you don’t need to know about what will happen while you are taking a test because managing your time to get this test done is more important.

 

Journal 7: What I Learned from Writing a Reflective Essay

     When I wrote the reflective essay, I chose my father as the subject because I had a strong feeling about him. In my life, he is one of the most influenced people. By writing about my father, I thought deeper about his personality, actions, and behaviors. I also looked at some pictures helping me to recall memories. I thought that I understood more about him after writing this essay. I found that when I used different angle of views to think about him, I could see him in many ways. People don’t define relationship in the same way. To me, relationship is an abstract connection between a person and me. Sometimes I feel that I have more than one type of relationship to a person who is closer to me. For example, my father is a teacher when I ask him homework, he is a friend when I share tings with him, and he is just a father when I receive warmth from him. He, my lovely father, is not just a father. Actually he is a superman that he acts as different characters. To this essay, I think the easiest part is to elaborate the details; however, brainstorm is the hardest part. Next time when I write this type of essay, I will think more about the impact on me instead of focusing on the person I choose.

 

Journal 6: Helping the Reader

      It is important to evaluate one’s own personal narrative from the reader’s point of view because sometime other people might find things which the person doesn't notice. Others talk about yourself might definitely different from your point of view. For example, you think that your EQ is very high that you can control your emotions well. However, some people might think that you usually change your moods rapidly. The relationship between the writer and the material in a personal narrative is closer than that of between the reader and the material. Writer must know things better than reader because the story is writer’s and the event and emotion are all created by the writer. Readers are “Listener” who knows the story which is shared by the writer. For example, I share a significant essay to my friend. This story is all about me that I create and act it. I turn this story in to words in order to share to my friend. My friend probably can imagine some pictures of my story and feel my emotion, but she might not hundred percent knows what I really want to express. She knows all the details about the story, but she is still not as close to the story as me.

 

Journal 5:Paradox

    I think the meaning of the statement “The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.” is that a man, who uses his time to write about himself, is one who writes about all people about all the time. I disagree with this statement because it doesn't make sense. If he only spends his own time to write about his stuffs, he shouldn't be the person who writes other people’s stuffs simultaneously. Therefore, a paradox shouldn't be true. In other words, two opposing things can’t be true at the same time. I found an example on my SAT test. There are two statements: Lonnie sometimes goes to comedy movies. Greta never goes to mystery movies. The question is asking about if these two statements are true, which following statements also are true. The answer is Lonnie and Greta never go to mystery movies together. The wrong answer is a paradox- Lonnie sometimes goes to mystery movies with Greta. According to the original statement, Greta never goes to mystery movies, so both of them are impossible to go to mystery movies together. The wrong answer contains two opposing ideas.