I would just like to say that five minutes includes the thought time that it takes for me to think of what I'm going to say as I type it. And I am a super fast typist, you don't even know. Anyway, this one is going to be the bare minimum, cause I have lots of homework to do in the next few hours (and I'm a freshman so I should be allowed to have fun in the evening--so I want to have my homework done before dinner--which I kind of already had...but I'll say in the next 2 or 3 hours. Anyway, I've basically been doing lots and lots of writing, and then I suddenly have three papers that are due in the next couple weeks that are very open-ended--like the most open-ended a paper could even get. Which is good, I guess, cause then I can choose something that I like, but....I still don't want to figure out what I'm doing. (Oh, and for Writing we have to do a 4-6 page personal narrative, and I have no idea what topic or story I can write about for 4-6 pages that I like and would be fun to write about---so family, please help out! My memory of my childhood and recent years is not the most amazing, so I need some prodding!)
In other news, I am very sad because the weather is being very tricky today. It keeps pretending to rain, and then staying overcast all day while not really raining at all--so I couldn't study under my tree today! I read for like 10 minutes, and then it started to rain (kind of)....sad day. Anyway, I was going to play volleyball tonight, so I'm hoping that my homework is done and that the weather starts cooperating again. So, that's five minutes of my day!
Fairy Pools, Loch Ness, Drumnadrochit
3 months ago
6 comments:
You could write about:
not being Shirley;
being the 4th sister to graduate from PC and go to BYU;
beating off the young men with a stick until you got to BYU;
life under the tree and what you meet there;
what a beautiful, intelligent, woman and great cook your mom is and what a he-man your dad is.
You could also contrive your essays so that one can be used for two or three. Doesn't always work and it means it needs to be three times as polished.
Love you. Dad
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I don't think my experience is very beneficial, because I pretty much made up my entire personal narrative. (My professor said we could embroider details. I ended up with character names and setting being about the only things that resembled the true circumstances. Since the professor hadn't been there, she never knew. Still not a practice I'd recommend...)
Other ideas:
Going camping in the UP and sailing on the Roseway;
Attending your sisters' weddings;
An event that you thought would be exciting but turned out disappointing;
An event you thought would be disappointing but turned out exciting.
I find the easiest topic for a personal statement is an event through which you experienced significant (or, well, not-so-significant) personal growth. There should, at least, be some evident reason why you picked this topic to write about.
Different characters you've played and what you learned from them.
ah yes--I remember teaching these! I've given that assignment about, oh, a hundred million times. And I used to make my students write every day too. I'm glad that we'll have more blogs from you now.
In my grading experience, the personal narratives that were most successful were those that centered around an initial story where the writer learned a lesson or had some sort of "ah-ha" moment. I liked Mary Beth's suggestions of both topics and the idea of personal growth, but the last two would probably end up being similar to what your other classmates could write. Pick something that's unique to you. I really liked Dad's "under the tree" thing because that's a very unique idea that I haven't seen much of as a teacher. I liked Mom's idea, but I think it would work best if you wrote a series of short vignettes. It would have to be pretty well-organized.
Here's what I would NOT suggest: finding your own place as the 4th of 5 sisters, dealing with something about a boy or friends, etc. It would probably be an interesting one to write, but I don't think it would be very unique to you as opposed to something that someone else could write.
I'd be happy to look over what you're writing, though. I may not be very good with idea generation, but I've graded hundreds of these...
oh, and i think your teacher is going easy on you. I made my students write for 30 minutes a day four times a week! So i htink you should follow that rule and make your blogs longer.
i'm curious. where is this tree you are talking about?
what are the dinner plans for this sunday? I think i heard ruth say something about all of us, you, the cannon center and your meal plan? did i hear that correctly?
I'm just kidding. Have a great week.
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