English Writing Garden

English 1108 July 19, 2018 Splash :   Mermaids and Monsters             Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “ Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” describes seven different views of monsters and how these views reflect society’s culture and fear. Cohen’s theses state that: monsters are symbols of the current culture; can never be killed or caught permanently; are neither human or a known animal; are considered not normal; often are warnings of some pending doom; demonstrate society’s or people’s hidden desires; and force us to look at our assumptions about other cultures. This essay examines the movie Splash (1984) in the context of Cohen’s seven theses. Splash is a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks as Allen, a man who cannot find a woman to love him.   And Daryl Hannah, plays Madison the mermaid. Allen runs a family produce business, and Madison comes to New York to be with him.   In the film, Allen does not know Madis...

Microhome Assignment – Unflattening Heroism Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo in their article “A Prisoner in the House” show how we are all capable of everyday heroism. They argued many heroes are like evildoers.   They acted that way because of the situation they were in.   They explain different way to show what is heroism; what makes a hero and how to nurture the heroic imagination. The prison and student-teacher experiments showed how a situation can change peoples’ behaviors, Thesis that some people believe is that people act “good” only because they have never been coerced or seduced to do “bad”. What about the observers of evil but who do nothing to stop it. We focus on the evil doers, and not on the silent majority who observe or who are aware of the evil. heroism could have the same theory. That it is the situation, and not the person, that creates the hero.   And like the silent majority to evil, there is a silent majority to heroism, since they assume oth...

Cycles of Fear in USA Immigration America is a land of immigrants. Every day , the news is filled with strong opinions on whether immigrants help or hurt America . Current opinions are strongest when it comes to illegal immigration. People fear that immigration has become a terminal disease in this country. The real question is how fear is used to change American immigration policy. Nick Sousanis, in his book Unflattening , encourages a multi-view perspective is what guides the government to make immigration policy decisions . Looking from multiple viewpoints of immigration fear, we see that changes to American immigration policy are a vicious cycle. Fear is the primary reason for these changes. Some of this fear was based on country of origin, some on religion, some on race, and some on ethnicity. Today, fear is also the driving force behind changes to current immigration policy, especially regarding immigrants from Latin America and Muslims. Patricia Smith provides ...

  Dear New Student;   Welcome to the exciting class of Public Speaking!   This is a fun class and I hope that you get as much out of the class as I do and enjoy opening yourself up to be able to confidently speak in public.   The class will teach you the right elements are you need to include in any public speaking that you do. It has also helped me to understand what to include and not include in my writing. English is my second language, I still have some trouble with use of the correct words or phrases, this class taught me what is proper and acceptable and how to be a better speaker.   Don’t get me wrong, the class is not easy. It requires a lot of time for homework, but Ms. Lawton has made very helpful video’s and her written direction is easy to follow.   The videos make the class easy to follow and are a big help in understanding what she expects from us. I have watched some of them more than once, using them as a refre...

External Resource Link to Berkeley Library Evaluating Web Pages Link - Good if you want additional information on how to tell if a website is credible http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/evaluating-resources Link to History.com - Hear some of the greatest speeches of all time! https://www.history.com/speeches External Resource Link to Toastmasters International - Lots of Good Arti cles and Videos on Public Speaking http://www.toastmasters.org/ Link to Purdue Owl Writing Lab (Great Site for APA Ciation Help)   https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Dear Kim and Laura, My friends tell me my English has improved since I started college last fall, but especially this semester. I feel I have learned a lot in this semester. In a flash, our semester ended, and I want it to continue. I reviewed this semester's learning experience. I am so glad to describe how I grew as a writer and reader by describing my strengths, my weaknesses, and some barriers I have experienced or that might challenge me in the future. First of all, I have some strengths as a reader and writer. I am so lucky I took the Culture Club for English 99/Read 94. Reading and writing, just like twins, always support each other. Culture club is great idea to help students improve their reading and writing since they are like two trains running on parallel tracks. These classes helped me take my good ideas and share them with others with my writing. I used to write in Mandarin and then translate into English. But now I write mostly in English. I was always a go...

Life can be very difficult, education gives hope my life will be better, education can help a person through the hard times. Sometimes the most worthwhile things in life can take a long time and can be very hard to find in the end. But, Education can make a difference in life. I was born in an education family where both my parents were teachers in China.   When my sisters and I were lazy about school, they always told us that we are lucky to enjoy a good education. My parents grew up in the early days of a new China. In the 1960s, there was a movement in China called "the Cultural Revolution," which is about the educated urban youth going to work in the countryside or mountain areas. They thought that labor was a greater honor than education, so during those hard years schools were closed. A ll the young students responded to the party's call to work in rural areas. The slogan, "the most glorious work," encouraged people in the cities to work in rural area...

The world knows that education is important in China, but some will be surprised that there are two education systems. There is one for the urban and one for the rural areas.  The countryside areas get the poor teachers and the least funding.  Their students tend to be poor later in life and end up doing the same poor jobs as their parents.  When rural children excel in countryside school, their lives and the lives of their families can change for the better. According to “Urban-Rural Extension: Urban-Rural Reproduction among Different Groups of Children” by Han, Jialing, et al.   published in Chinese Education & Society , “The binary urban-rural structure is a fundamental reality of China and constitutes an important structural force in societal development and stratification …” Zhang Ying’s experience moving to the US proves that good education and hard work can change her destiny. Zhang Ying is from a poor rural village. With the national economic chang...

When we see photos of American parents with different skin colors than their kids, we are often melted by their warm smiling images. We often do not focus on or care about the fact they lost their culture. We focus on the happiness of everyone in the photo.   I am Chinese. In photos of Chinese traditional festivals in America, I often see children dressed in traditional Chinese clothing and being cared for by two golden-haired American parents. In those photos, the happiness of the children is obvious, at least on the outside. Who is lucky in international adoption? The act of international adoption seems like an act of giving, but when the entire process is looked at closely, the wellbeing and happiness of the children is not often considered.   The largest number of international adoptions came from China and South Korea.   By examining these two countries closely, it will show that while initially there were good reasons for intercountry adoption, when the in-co...