Letter

May 17, 2010

Dear Mrs. Lang

After looking back through all of my writing this year, I chose my argumentative essay in which I said that bottled water is safe as my best piece of writing. Here’s what I think about it and the experience of writing it:

· My writing piece that I chose is bottled water is safe and it is about how some people think that bottled water is safe and that bottled water is harmful.

· The things that I had to do to go through to produce my piece is that I had to first gather all my information about what I was going to talk about, then write my rough draft. After my rough draft was ready, I went to the writing center to get my paper checked and then when I got home I went over my paper and took things out that I did not need anymore. I also added more facts.

· The similar work that I have done is in 8th grade I had to go a research report on Katrina. This is similar because I had to do a lot of work to get down to my final paper. There was a lot of redoing and fixing up just like my water paper. It is different because I had find my own resources and make note cards of information that I found.

· I have improved my writing by that I take my time and I think about what I am going to write down before I even write it. I also go get help from other people that are very good writers.

· The problems that I encountered while working on this piece was that I did not really understand how to do the CM’s and CD’s. I solved the problem by that I asked people for help to understand what I had to do.

· The resources that I used while working on this piece is the ones that Mrs. Lang gave to me to use as a resource and another website that I had to find on my own to use. The ones that Mrs. Lang gave me were the most helpful because all the information was there for me to use and I did not have to go find the information myself. I would use any information that teachers gave me because they usually have really good facts.

· This piece of work kind of tells a story because it is about people around the world and what they think about bottled water. It is a story about how people do and do not like bottled water. It also tells others information about the bottled water safety that helps people be reassured about safe bottled water.

· I feel like I did very well on this writing piece because I took my time and I got some help to fix it up. The thing I like best about my writing is that I got good supporting details to support my topic. The thing I dislike is that I did not have a good thesis. I feel this way because I am not very good at doing thesis statements to get the reader into the paper.

· The thing that I enjoyed about my paper is that I got to see how people think differently because of very good causes. I also liked that I got the information and I did not have to look up much.

· My goal for this project was to get a good grade and make my writing as good as it could be. My goals did not change that much, I got a good grade and I wrote to the best of my ability. I did meet my goals because I did do because I got an 87 percent on my project.

· This piece reveals about me as a learner is that I can write a paper with information I am given and it helps me to turn in assignments on time. When I worked on this piece I learned that I can write a long paper as long as I take my time and have time to write it and not do it the night before.

· I have changed ideas about myself by going to the writing center when I have a long paper to write and when I am not as confident as if I did not go get help. I have learned that making time to write a paper is the best thing and not writing the paper all in one day, just take it one step at a time.

· Another piece of work that I did early in the year that was not as good at my water bottled writing is my Christianity vs. Buddhism paper. The changes that I can see is that my water bottled writing as more details and more facts about the topic where my Christianity vs. Buddhism paper has not as many facts and it jumps around a lot. This tells about myself is that I did not take as long as I could have with my Christianity vs. Buddhism paper then I did with my water bottled essay.

· If I was the teacher, the comments that I would of make about the Christianity vs. Buddhism paper is that it was not very good and there needed to be more time spent on it. I would probably give it a C because at least I did the paper and I put effort into the paper.

· The thing I want people to look at when they look at my work is the fact that put information in the paper that they did not know about. Also to look at my format to see that it is how it should be.

· My work met higher standards for this assignment is that I made a list of what I was going to talk about in my paper and I looked up as much information as I could. In my paper I compared my two religions a lot to make people think about the religions differently. Some ways that I did not meet the standards is by that I did not make my paper very long and it jumped around a lot.

· If someone looked at this paper they would think that I was not that good at writing papers but that I try my hardest to do the best I can do. They would also see is that I knew what I was trying to tell them.

· The work that I would save to remind myself about who am I right now is my water bottled essay because I know what I am talking about it in and it was the best paper I have written.

· One thing I would like to improve upon is my ability to do the CD’s and CM’s and my thesis statement because they are not that strong and good enough to get an outstanding grade on a paper.

· One goal that I want to set for myself for the next time I write a paper is that I take my time on my paper and I do the best I can do.

· In school I would like to take more time on writing the paper and getting each paragraph looked at by my teacher to see if I am heading into the right direction.

· I would like my next year’s teacher to know that I am a quite girl when it comes to asking help for writing a paper and that sometimes I need to have something talked through with me because I might not understand it the first time they explained it. I am good at doing my homework and turning it in at time.

· I would show my teacher my water bottled paper and my sonnet that I wrote because I think these two were my best written pieces. My sonnet should really help my teacher understand who I am.

Sincerely,

Kimberlee Gunnis

Coconut

The day we saw you fall out of the tree,

You’re a hell-hated part of our nature,

Life with you feels like an annoying bee,

I don’t want you to be in my future.

You’re an artless half-faced piece of work,

Your ill-nurtured milk does not quench my thirst,

Your brown shell makes me want to see a clerk,

I always say scut that you’re the worst.

People look at your life and want to cry,

You’re a brown breath taking death-token,

I look at you and cry, I want to die,

Your hugger-mugger life has now spoken.

Would you ever want to like to leave my life?

This has made me want to go buy a knife.

Through African Eyes

Attending "Through African Eyes" was a very good experience that I got to go to. It was about an exhibition that is going to be at the DIA. I learned that the exhinition is going to be about cutlural exchanges between Africans and Europeans over 500 years. African art is very important to African people. It shaped their society and every sculpture the Africans had meant something very important to their way of life.

For the Africans that thought that whiteness were spirits to be feared. They thought Europeans were mysterious strangers becayse they came and went during short trade visits. Africans often saw European technology as magical, mysterious and welcome. Europeans were carried by African shoulders. Europeans called Africans monkeys. Being called a monkey was the most stereotyped name to the Africans. Europeans also had traders of enslaved Africans. There was absence, silence, shame, and disbelief. Absence was slave trade, silence was when Africans were kidnapped and enslaved, shame was when Africans enslaved other Africans. and disbelief was when slaves were taken away across sea, but no one thought the stories were true.

Africans became to be exposed to or learned the European system of education, which was based on reading and writing. Africans used oral traditions to share knowledge and information about their pass to other generations. Today African artists now create art that looks back on the colonial period, with critical commentary.

I think that going to this persentation about Africa helped me understand about the African culture and how it was hard for people back then to work and do something that they did not want to do. I learned that people learned other traditions from other cultures and did not always learn from their own.

Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the perception of gender and the balance of male and female traits are very important. A good way to understand the different genders is by note taking to know about what is going on. The topics talked about in the additional notes that are not in my notes are the egwugwu, the clan’s ancestral spirits, which they take the form of masked men. Also, how Okonkwo was chosen to represent his clan because he is its fiercest warrior and when Ikemefuna stays with Okonkwo’s family for three years. During his stay Okonkwo tells him and his son masculine stories so they can be very strong and powerful one day. Nwoye also misses his mother’s stories, but he knows he makes his father happy when he listens to his. But one day Okonkwo was informed about Nwoye among the Christians and Okonkwo chokes him by the neck because Okonkwo does not like the Christians. He made him tell him where he has been and Okonkwo wonders how he could ever have fathered such an effeminate, weak son. Nwoye becomes a Christian because he has doubts about his native religion, so he feels himself exiled from his society because of his disbeliefs in its laws. He does not understand why twins are abandoned left to die in the Evil Forest, so he likes how the Christians allow the twins to live.


When Okonkwo was exiled for seven years and then returned to Umuofia, life had changed. A church was built and the white men changed their judicial system and rules of government. Okonkwo cannot believe that the clan did not fight back and destroy the white men and the church. Okonkwo’s lack of concern for the fate of his community is manifested when he does not greet anyone at his clans meeting. All he cares about is himself and he dies in dishonor. Then, evil spirits take over his body and strangers have to bury him.

Notes that are in my notes that are not in the additional notes is that Okonkwo beat the Cat in wrestling, and the Cat never had his back touch the earth until he wrestled Okonkwo. Also, the Week of Peace is important to gender because it is when a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor and no work is done; also the king of crops is yams. The drums symbolize the heart beat of the people because people would work hard if they had a strong beat, like in wrestling. In my notes I also put that a women could keep her bride price if her husband was rude to her and if she ran away for no reason she had to give her bride price back.

The additional notes helped me understand more about Okonkwo and how he lived his life and how he treated others at both the beginning and the end. It also made me understand the way of society and how it worked out. The additional notes gave me facts about my topic of gender because it had information about almost every chapter in the book. This was helpful because I had an idea about the society and how Okonkwo lived, but I did not fully understand it because sometimes I would read a part of the book and totally not get anything. I just read and kept reading without a good grip of what was going on.

Other ways that my notes were alike are that I tried to have a little information about each chapter in my notes but my notes were way shorter than the additional notes. My notes were a lot different because I did not go as in depth as the additional notes went into too. To improve my note taking while reading Things Fall Apart, I could have tried to understand the chapters more and taken more time to understand everything and only looking for things about perception of gender and balance of male and female traits. I also should have written more of the page numbers down of the notes that I took, so if I did not understand what I wrote down I could have looked back at it. Another good idea would have been to place sticky notes in the book to where the very important things were that I should have looked back at after reading the whole book.

Here are my ten quotes from the book Things Fall Apart on perception of gender and balance of male and female traits.

1. “Three men beat the drums with sticks, working feverishly from one drum to another” (Achebe 40). This quote takes place when the whole village was at the ilo, the green village, where assemblies for sports and other things take place. The men are hitting the drums before the matches begin and they are the spirit of the crowd. This quote connects with my theme because the drums symbolize the heart beat of the people and it helps the wrestlers get ready for their big match.

2. “That showed in time he would be able to control his women-folk. No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and children, he was not really a man” (Achebe 45). This takes place when Okonkwo was telling his son, Nwoye, manly stories. He was telling him he needs to be strong and have rule over his family to be a great and powerful man. This is referring to what Okonkwo wanted, to be strong so he was not like his father. This connects to my theme because it is about a trait a man has to rule his family.

3. “These women never saw the inside of the hut. No women ever did. They scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men” (Achebe 75). This takes place when the egwugwu hut was being decorated by the women. The hut was only for men to see the inside of it and the hut where the ancestral spirits met; it is referring to them too. This ties to my theme because this is another role the women had to do.



4. “The law of Umuofia is that if a women runs away from her husband her bride price is returned” (Achebe 78). This takes place when Odukwe was telling a story about a women and how she ran away from her husband to save her life. This is referring to what a woman should do when she leaves her husband. This connects with my theme because a man cannot harm his wife and if he does, the woman can leave him.

5. “It is not bravery when a man fights with a woman” (Achebe 79). This is when a man was rude to his wife and he needed to go beg his wife to come back. This is referring to the man who was mean to his wife and she ran away. This connects to my theme because a man always needs to be loyal to his wife.

6. “Three men helped Obierika to slaughter the two goats with which the soup was made” (Achebe 96). This was when men would go out and kill their food so the women could cook it. The men would do all the dirty work and the women would cook the food for them. This connects to my theme because it’s the role of both men and women and what they did to help the family out.

7. “Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi” (Achebe 109). This was at isa-ifi ceremony. This meant that a man could not have more power than his personal god. This is referring to all the chi’s. This connects with my theme because a man’s other half is his personal god who helps him out a lot.

8. “A woman is buried with her own kinsmen and not her husband’s” (Achebe 111). This was when Uchendu was talking to Okonkwo about death and where people went to be buried. A woman got to go back to where she was from to be buried, and this is giving all women the right to be at their home city. This connects to my theme because it talks about a women’s right to be with her family and it shows the importance of being buried.

9. “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet” (Achebe 111). This is connecting to that a man is happy when his land is good and his plants are growing. This refers to all the land out there that is growing right and making life as well as it can get. This connects to my theme because it shows how a man can be happy when his land is going great.

10. “The efulef are the worthless and weak man of the village” (Achebe 119). This was referring to men with no title. These men believed that the strong faith and the white man’s god would not last. This connects to my theme because it is one of the groups of the men that were not important at all.

The fable The Jay and the Peacock is like Things Fall Apart because in both stories there were two groups and a member of each group wanted to be like the other group, like how Okonkwo’s son Nwoye wanted to be a Christian. In the fable, The Jay and the Peacock, the jay wants to be like the peacocks and then the jay’s group of other jays gets mad at him.

This theme connects to my personal ideas and a philosophy about life by that gender is a very important thing to know about. In addition, traits about male and female are always different, so it is good to know the difference between genders. I agree with the theme because gender is the most important thing to know about. This shows life, traditions, and parts of society for genders, it makes them strong or weak. I can relate to this because my dad is the man of the house and he is very supportive of his family. Therefore, he knows how to respect my family and gives us all that we need.

“Okonkwo is a character as old as storytelling, a man who represents or is a symbol of a culture that is breaking up or declining. He is so stuck on the idea of battle and confrontation as a means to his greatness, that he is tragically helpless before the modern power and persuasion of the missionaries.” This whole quote explains the book Things Fall Apart. When the quote talks about how Okonkwo is a man who represents or is a symbol of a culture that is breaking up or declining it means that Okonkwo had a lot of issues in his life time, and he showed cultures how hard it was to live. Okonkwo had to face troubles by not having anything in his early life because his father was a failure and Okonkwo did not want to be like him at all. Okonkwo had a fear of failure. Okonkwo wanted to be strong, have titles and be the greatest man that ever lived. He thought he could be strong and beat anyone in a fight, which he did beat the Cat, a man who never had his back, touch the earth in a wrestling match.

The part of the quote that says, “He is a tragically helpless before the modern power and persuasion of the missionaries” means that he cannot take over the church. He wanted to fight the church to see if he could win them over because he did not like their idea of life, but he failed and did not fight them. Okonkwo also thinks of himself as the best, but he fails himself alone. His lack of concern of the community hits him when he does not greet anyone at the clan’s meeting. He did have success of not being like his father, but he dies in dishonor like his titleless.

I think this statement is very true about Okonkwo, it explains his life and everything about him and what he does. He is a symbol of breaking up in a culture because he falls apart at the end of the story. He wanted to be the greatest and he could not be. He also wanted to have the church fall apart, but he could not fight them alone. As being a failure, he commits suicide. He could not take it anymore, so he ended his life.

A Year in an Amercian High School

High school drama is a big part of everyone’s life, especially in the book, “A Year in an American high school,” by Elisha Cooper. People have dreams of what they want to be in life and so do the characters in “A Year in an American high school.” In high school everyone has a dream of being something when they grow up. This was a year of soccer and theater, of dances and secrets, of hanging out and hooking up and every other crazy thing that happens in high school.


The main idea of the book is what happens in high school, every year, every day. Elisha Cooper, the author, had a very big interest in knowing about teenager’s life so she went to learn about teenager’s lives. I think it was a good idea for the author to go to Walter Payton High School and write a book about what goes on in high school because the world needs to know how it really is and how it shapes the lives of people. Knowing that it is the truth about high school is a heart breaker, but high school is also super fun. It is a heartbreaker because the book is about how students bring each other down, to the point where people cannot take it anymore. It is a happy feeling because it is a time of experiences and a really good four years of someone’s life.

This story relates and affects me because I am in high school and I have also been through a lot of high school drama. High school drama usually ends okay, but usually it ends relationships. This also affects the world by that high school shapes someone for life but people can change from what they did in high school to what kind of future they want when they get older and can do big and better things. The city also could have problems because something that happens in school affects the city by if it is suicide or something extremely horrible.

This book does remind me of a lot of other situations. It reminds me of my life in high school, I am a totally different person and I have my goals just like the characters in the book, “A year in an American high school.” Every character has their lifelong goal to achieve before they leave and go on to college. People that I know are getting ready for college and getting ready for the real world all alone. Having a hobby in life always shapes who someone is as a person, and it gives a person a title or a name someone is known as.

From reading this book I have learned that high school is really hard to be in and someone does not get what they always want and no matter how hard high school is, everyone can survive the hard ships of it and deal with life. I have learned that non-fiction can be written as a story about people in their life and it does not have to seem as some people think non-fiction is. Also I learned that an author can write about all different people in one book and explain a short time period of their life.

Is Bottled Water Safe or Harmful?

Bottled water is used everywhere and every day. Some people think that bottled water is harmful because the bottle may contain chemical pollutants and in some cases bacteria. Also, there are companies that charge too much money for the bottled water. However, I say that bottled water is safe because it is produced and packaged in a sanitary environment and in safety sealed containers. Also, the water has met the FDA’s standards for safe drinking water. It is tested before it is put in stores to make sure that it does not contain Cryptosporidium or other harmful substances.

My first reason I think water is safe is because of the sanitary environment that it is produced and stored in. Everything is clean and in a safe environment so the water is safe and clean. Bottled water is classified as a packaged food product and much meet the same standards as other food products. This means that the water is also subject to FDA food recall and misbranding and food adulteration provisions, which will help ensure people that the water is clean. Water is classified as “bottled water” or “drinking water” when it meets its standards of all applicable federal and state standards then is sealed in a sanitary container and is sold. Also, the water is labeled according to specific government standards. Names of labeling they could have are; spring water, purified water, mineral water, sparkling bottled water, artesian water, or well water. In addition, people like the fresh taste of clean feeling water in their mouth, which is why they choose bottled water.

In regards to, the bottled water has to meet standards, by law; the FDA has to be at least stringent and protective of public health. This helps ensure that bottled water sold in the United States meets its standards. This shows that the water has to be tested by the state and/or the main industry for the companies before the companies put the bottled water up for sale. Also, the water has to meet strict industry standards required by the IBWA Model Code, which in some cases are stricter than FDA, state or EPA’s for public drinking water. To make sure that this is successful all IBWA members use one or more of the following: source protection and monitoring, reverse osmosis, distillation, filtration, ozonation, and ultraviolet lights. This shows that companies really do care about safe bottled water for their customers.

Finally, I think bottled water is safe because standards help ensure that bottled water does not contain Cryptosporidium or other harmful substances. Cryptosporidium lives in animals and is a waterborne parasite and can be passed into surface water by waste. The FDA has a definition of bottled water from ground water sources, “ground water must not be under direct influence of surface water.” This means that there should be no Cryptosporidium in the water. Bottled water companies are required to use one of two sources from which bottled water can be drawn. The first is natural resources (springs and artesian wells). The second source is approved potable municipal supplies; companies use these sources for methods such as distillation, reverse osmosis, ozonation, deionization, and filtration. This helps ensure that the water is very different, in composition and taste, from its original source of water.

People think that bottled water is harmful. The EWG thinks that bottled water contains chemical pollutants and, in some cases, even bacteria. People who think bottled water is safe would say that companies make sure their water is as clean as it can be and that they are very cautious with their water. The cost of the bottled water is another reason why people do not like bottled water. A whole-house carbon filter that strips chemicals from drinking water, shower, clothes washer and dishwasher for an average four person household has an average of about $0.25 per person each day for this system. For a single gallon of bottled water it costs 15 times this amount. The other side would say that bottled water is easy to grab and go and the water bill is not as high as it could be if they used a lot of water during the day. Also, bottled water is harmful because they end up in landfills, incinerators, and as trash on land and in streams, rivers, and oceans. People would say just to clean it up or not to litter.

Bottled water is produced and packaged in a sanitary environment and in safety sealed containers. If the water is in a safe container, the water has to be clean and safe. Water has to meet standards, right? Well, if they are met the water has to be safe because of the strict rules that were followed. Lastly, the water is always being tested for harmful substances that are in the water and companies make sure that they get their water from places that they are supposed to. If they get the water from safe and clean places, then the water is just getting freshened up for the people to buy, and that is what people like, fresh water. This is why I think bottled water is safe.

Love Bugs

In 6th grade, at All Saints Catholic School, I was on the JV, A team for basketball. We practiced three days a week for one and a half hours each practice. At the conclusion of one practice, on snowy night, my team and I were doing a backwards running drill and I fell. After I fell, I got up and ran to the bathroom and fell onto the floor. One of my teammates ran out of the bathroom, looking for help for me and looking for my mother. My coach came into the bathroom and asked me what was wrong, I told her my arms hurt. I almost fainted when my coach tried to lift me up to walk, that’s when they knew something was wrong.


My mother then, drove me to urgent care at Henry Ford Livonia. When I got up to the desk the doctor immediately sent me to x-ray, I had several x-rays taken of both of my wrists. Oh, it was a painful night. The x-ray technician told me that both of my wrists were broken. The doctor then sent me to Henry Ford Fairlane Emergency Room. I then had to wait for an orthopedic doctor to cast my wrists. When the doctor arrived he told my mother and I that this was the first time he had to cast both wrists on someone.

As days went on I was referred to a specialist, his name is Dr. Zoltz. I went to go see him for two Wednesdays in a row to see how my bones were healing. On my second visit I was told I had to have surgery on my wrists because my bones were not healing the correct way. Dr. Zoltz wanted to do surgery that evening but only his partner was available that Wednesday night and my mother only wanted Dr. Zoltz to operate on me. So, Dr. Zoltz made arrangements for me to have surgery the following evening, Thursday.

My surgery was scheduled for 5pm Thursday evening. After surgery I had to spend the night at the hospital, and my mom stayed with me. Friday morning, my grandma and grandpa came to visit me and gave me a book called, “Love Bug.” My grandma read me this book because I could not hold it. After she read it to me, my grandma and I started to cry, and she told me how much she loves me and how she will always be by my side forever and always.

“Love Bugs” inspires me to be good, and that I am always loved by everyone. In pain or in good health, I am always loved. My grandparents came to visit me every day and read me “Love Bugs” so that I would remember how much they love me. This book made me feel like a really good person inside and out. It always made me the best I can be and treat people how I want to be treated. I will never forget about how my grandparents told me they loved me.

A few times a year I will bring out “Love Bugs” and have my grandma read it to me. My grandma always loves reading to me, but this one book is her favorite to read to me. She always has a good time reading it; the pop-ups in the book always make her happy.