Coming to a Magazine Near You

Last Grammar Post YAY!

I have lots of trouble dangling modifiers. I never knew what they were but i have seen that in a lot of my papers this is what I get marked for. In my papers I always have sentences that are not complete that are just "dangling" there like the phrase suggests.

A dangling modifiers is a word or phrase for which the logical headword cannot be found within the sentence.

Ex:

After reading the chapter, the author seemed to have a sound argument.

Many useful techniques are learned attending this seminar.

Correct Way:

"After reading the chapter, I believed that the author had a sound argument."

"Attending this seminar, you will learn many useful techniques."

For further explanation for the reason of the use of dangling modifiers use this website:

http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/6354/grammar.html#Modifiers

Oh Beautiful

For me I feel like most of the people that lived in America, blessed, thankful, and lucky. In D'Souza's essay its says that most people in America believe that this is the best country in the world and that is true. Most people love the fact that they are living in America and are truly proud to be called "An American." There is a lot of " American exceptionalism," in this country we believe that there is no better life than the one that we live here in America.Sometimes a lot of us take what we have for granted though living in this nation. Many other countries do not have what America has and we do not knowledge that enough, that could be one of the reasons why we did not see 9/11 coming.

Many other countries wish that they had what our country has, freedom, a better government and liberties. I did not really realize that by having all of these amazing things that everyone else would hate us.

common words that sound alike

On problem that I encounter in my writing is that i tend to get words confused that sound the same but are spelled differently. I bet that this happens to everyone. I get to these words and I just cant see which one sounds best and I don't even bother to look them up. In this class I have learned that I can't be lazy and that I need to look up the words that I don't know.

Some of these words are like:

except and accept

affect and effect ( this one kills me)

advise and advice

conscience and conscious

and there are much more...


For more of these words and how to tell them apart visit this website:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_spelhomo.html

Grammar Post

Thesis statements. I don't know if thesis statements are actually a grammar problem but it is something that I have trouble with in my papers. I never seem to be able to write a strong thesis statement. When I go to write my thesis statements I have all these ideas but I do not know how to incorporate it to become a good thesis statement. I want to be able to know how to make my thesis so good that when people read my papers they will know exactly what my paper is going to be talking about.
These following two websites below helped me get a better understanding on what a thesis statement requires and how I can be better in writing mine.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

Possible Modes

One of the modes that I am looking at to write my paper in is cause and effect. Here is a website that lets you practice doing some cause and effect situations:

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/causeconnect.html

this other link talks more thoroughly about what a cause and effect essay is:

http://essayinfo.com/essays/cause_and_effect_essay.php

Another Mode that I am thinking about using is exemplification mode. For more understanding of what and exemplification essay entails these websites proved to be helpful:

http://www.swiftpapers.com/howto/22-Exemplification___Illustration_Essa.html

http://www.essaytown.com/writing/exemplification-essay

effect and affect

When i started writing my research question for my research paper I found myself having a hard time knowing if i needed to use affect or effect. It was very frustrating not knowing which word was correct. Effect and affect both sound so similar and I thought that they meant the same thing but I was wrong.

Effect and affect sound similar but they are still used differently in whatever case you may be in.

Effect


Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo."

Affect

Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Ardvark," or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo." Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don't feel," as in, "She affected an air of superiority."


For more about effect and affect I found this website that is very helpful:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx

Up-Date on Research Paper

Amiee and Jessica,

I stuck to my dealine I got my research topic which is:
What are the effects that bullying has on a students education and on themselves?

I also started writing my paper and i have about six pages typed already:) I talked about

• Introduction to bullying
• who are the bullies
• who are the victims
• effects of bullying

I also have nine sources right now but i am still looking for more.

I am not done yet but its a working progress. If you have any ideas for me let me know.

Rosanna

Suject- Verb Agreement

I apparently stink at subject -verb agreement due to what my rhetorical paper said so I am going to do my grammar post on it. I really do not even know what subject-verb agreement is. I know I must have learned it, but in the process of remembering so many other rules I just forgot it. It is probably the reason why I did not check it in my paper, because if i would I have I would have not gotten those points knocked off for it.

Subject -verb agreement is basically what the term says that the subject of the sentence needs to agree with the action.

For Example:
Singular subjects need singular verbs
plural subjects need plural verbs.

My brother is a nutritionist.

My sisters are mathematicians.

In these two sentences the verb and the subject agree with each other. In the first sentence brother is singular so there for the verb is singular too. Then in the second sentence sisters is plural so the verb, are, is plural as well.

These are not the only rules that come with subject -verb agreement, there is much more.
For this rule and many more visit:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/sv_agr.htm

Lets Play 20 Questions

Education

1- Is homeschooling a good alternative education?

2- Is home schooling becoming more popular?

3- How can bullying be stopped in schools?

4-What methods can schools use to prevent school shootings?

5- What does Obama think to do about the education in U.S. schools?

6- What are the top problems that students face in schools?

7- Is zero- tolerance good to have in schools?

8-What are school vouchers?

9- Should we require students to start learning a second language at a younger age?

10- Should high schools allow open campuses during lunch?

11-Is special education getting better in schools?

12-Why do teachers recieve such low wages?

13-Should cell phones be allowed in schools?

14- Should we teach sex education in schools?

15-What can be done about truancies in schools?

16- Has the drop out rates in U.S. schools gone up?

17-Why do students drop out of school?

18-Does poverty affect learning?

19-How is it that profiency in schools is going down?

20- What has No Child Left Behind really done for U.S. schools?

Underling and Italics

Underling and Italics when do we use them. I remember learning about when to use them in high school but i can never quite remember when I need to use them. Do I underline the title of a book or put it in Italics? The only reason I have trouble with these rules is because I can never seem to remember which rules go to which category.

When wanting to know when to use Italics and when to underline a word there are only some simple items that need to be remembered:


Italics

• words or phrases that you wish to emphasize
• foreign words that are not commonly used in English
• Journals and Magazines
• Plays
• Long Musical Pieces
• and much more

For examples this is a very helpful website:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/italics.htm

Underlining

• words used as words themselves
• television programs

For more explanation go to:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_overvw.html

Television in our lives/ Wome Do Get Hurt!

In the essay Framing Class," Vicarious Living and Conspicuous Consumption" I liked how the author Diana Kendall viewed how television has shaped the way that people in America view and see how the classes in our society are. We see shows on Television shows that are really not that good but the actors in it become famous and known for the ridiculous things they have done. For example like how Kendall talked about the Simple Life. In this show they either play class difference for fun or just put everything under the rug to make it invisible. Paris and Nicole are not like the normal family that can live on a farm and work but in this show they make it seem that they can be just like everyone else.
Television has a huge effect on our society right now. Billions of people watch it everyday and they see many false ideas on how life really is. They encourage people to think that they can just rise to fame with ease, like Kendall said," they too can be the next American Idol." People spend so much time and money dreaming of ideas that they have seen on television. I bet each one of us has wished that we could be like that person on that show one time or another.
We spend so much money on televisions shows and commercials everyday. I think that instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on commercials and shows, they should save it on things that are way more important especially with society we have now. I really like this essay it made me think and see how some of these shows are really portrayed.

In reading," Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt," it ties into the first essay that I read about the media. Once again it shows how the media plays a big role in our lives. In the being of the essay it says that, " glorify," rape and violence on television had made it seem to be okay in real life. The author of this essay, Jean Kilbourne, does a good job in using the advertisements to show her readers examples of how the media has become so much about sexuality and how men are dominant over woman.

In the media we can see for ourselves all the abuse that goes on the television, it is everywhere. When there is so much violence on television, it makes people think that it okay to just go around and maybe beat their wife or partner. We see how celebrities are always on the news for beating there girlfriends or wives and not getting any real consequences for their action. It is all because they are powerful rich men that dominate over everyone. Also, in the media like Kilbourne said it makes men think that they have to have control over the woman or else they are, " whipped." The media just needs to change its point of view because it is giving ideas that are not good for their public. Yes, they might be making money from all the advertisements they make or the shows they put on but is it all really worth it if it hurts someone?

Check Please!

When reading the article called, " Serving In Florida," it made me appreciate the things that I am doing in college so much more. I know that college is hard sometimes and that we all sometimes say to ourselves if all this stress is really worth it.. and it is. As I read Barbra Ehrenreich's essay it made me see that being in college is one of the best choices that I have taken in my life. I could not stand to be in a fast food and earning minimum wage when I know I am capable of more.

When I read this story it reminded me a lot of the job right now and I keep thinking to myself how lucky I was that this job was not going to be permanent. I work in my town's Dairy Queen right now and even if it might not be as hectic as a real fast food restaurant it does have its crazy times. When I read Ehrenreich's descriptions of the customers that she saw coming in, it took me back to all of the different types of people that I have encountered at my job. It was neat to see how this story related a lot to me as I bet it has for a lot of us.

In " Serving In Florida," it relates back to the poem by Sharon Olds's called , " Seven Floors Up." Both of the writers are observing and talking about these people's lifestyles but the only difference is that Ehrenreich in " Serving In Florida," is not just observing it see is living it as well. Olds's in her poem was just observing the homeless man and thinking of what he might be feeling but Ehrenreich actually knows what the people around her are feeling because she is one of them.

" Serving In Florida," was a really interesting essay to read. It made me see again, like all the articles I have read in Rereading America the importance of furthering my education. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be working at Dairy Queen forever and making banana splits until i die. :)

A or An??

A and An might be a grammar rule that may seem easy to follow but sometimes it can be a little tricky and you find yourself using the wrong one. I always do this when writing papers, I get confused and do not know which one would sound better in my paper.

One thing that has worked for me to remember these rules on An and A, have been writing lots of sentences and seeing which word would sound better in them. Also, i looked up the rules that i need to follow for A and An so to know that I am using them correctly from now on.

Rules:

"A" goes before all words that begin with consonants.
a cat
a dog
a purple onion
a buffalo
a big apple

with one exception: Use an before unsounded h.

an honorable peace
an honest error

"An" goes before all words that begin with vowels:
an apricot
an egg
an Indian
an orbit
an uprising

with two exceptions: When u makes the same sound as the y in you, or o makes the same sound as w in won, then a is used.

a union
a united front
a unicorn
a used napkin
a U.S. ship
a one-legged man

For more help with An and A this website has proved to be helpful for me:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/esliart.html

Art and Politics

In the poem called, " Money," by Dana Giola, she talks about the way people see money and how it affects our lives ever day. She invites her readers to stop and think about the ways that we use money and how it is so relevant to our everyday lives. When we think of money we do not really ponder about the subject much but when we read a poem like this one it really makes of see how important things like money is in our lives. We need it to survive just like Giola says," makes both ends meet." Money is what keeps us eating, living in our homes and buying all the luxuries that we want.

In the next poem called,"From Seven Floors Up,"by Sharon Olds's a man is up in his building and he is observing a homeless man. He goes on to write a poem about the differences between himself and that man down on the bottom of his building. He has a nice warm place to go to at night and the homeless man just has to go to where ever he can find shelter. Olds's wants readers to see how it would be like to be a homeless man and have the feeling of what that man has to do every day. She gives us a very good visual of what is happening, with her use of detailed language. It is almost like you are the person that is on the seventh floor, looking down at the man.

Art can relate to politics in many ways, whether it be a poem, painting or photograph. The people that are writing these poems or drawing painting could be expressing what they feel about the government. It is a way for them to represent themselves differently and not having to go out there and speak what they are feeling. When we look at art it can be of any subject you can think of and of course that includes politics.

Transtions

Transitions, I have always been pretty okay with transitions, but i soon forget putting them in my papers and that's where I get frustrated. I will learn about then in my English classes and be doing so good in adding them into my papers but then I leave for summer and it is like it has left my brain. I start writing papers and forget all about transitions and adding them into my papers.

I know that there are a lot of words that can help a transition in your paper such as:

Addition:also, again, as well as, besides, coupled with, furthermore, in addition, likewise, moreover, similarly

Consequence:accordingly, as a result, consequently, for this reason, for this purpose, hence, otherwise, so then, subsequently, therefore, thus, thereupon, wherefore.

They come in categories and there are so many other words that one can use and you can find these and other words at: http://www.studygs.net/wrtstr6.htm

Transitions really help a paper flow better and help the reader not be overwhelmed, for these and other explanations of what transitions do go to:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/574/01/

Who is it? Whom is it? Who knows??

A grammatical subject that I have never quite got the grasp of is when to use who and whom. To really tell you the truth I never use whom ever, but I have seen throughout my English classes that there is a difference. I think I struggled with it because I can never tell the difference. I do not know if i need who or whom when I write. I some cases I can see that it is obvious that I need to use who, but sometimes ill get corrected and they'll say that I need to use whom. Who knows really?

The way I now remember how to tell the difference between who and whom are with these simple definitions:
Whom: is an object
Who: is a subject

Also you can try the he/ him approach.
Whom = him
Who= he

Ex:Original statement: James didn’t know who/whom would win.

Replace with he/him: James didn’t know he would win.

Therefore: James didn’t know who would win.

Original statement: With who/whom should Trey go?

Rephrase and replace with he/him: Should Trey go with him?

Therefore: With whom should Trey go?

For more help these following websites are the places to go:
http://editing.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_use_who_and_whom_correctly
http://web.ku.edu/~edit/whom.html

Bro.. i think not

I will never forget the way he said," Get on your knees," when I asked if I could go to the bathroom. Also the way he would place his hand on my shoulder and i got the feeling that I would get sick to my stomach. Mr. Brotherson was my math teacher when I was a Senior in high school and he was a teacher that I can say did not have a positive affect on me. I dreaded going to that class everyday because I knew I was going to have to be in the same room with that man. I thought that teachers were suppose to inspire their students not make them loathe and detest them. He always said that I was his best student but to hear that it did not make me feel good at all. I just had never had a teacher tell me to get on my knees when I asked to go to the bathroom. It was so not needed and he thought that it was as normal as anything. But this experience has taught me a lot and now that I am going to be a teacher it has taught me how to to act with my students. I am going to be nothing like Mr. Brotherson. The only thing now that concerns me is that my younger brother now has him and is having many problems with Mr. Brotherson as well.

On and On and On..

I don't know about you but run- on sentences have always been a stuggle for me. I alwasys seem to make my thoughts too long and before i know it i have a run- on sentence. I always try to break up my sentences so that they won't become into run on sentences but it is sometimes hard. I just write the sentence and end it where i think it should without even thinking about the structure.

a run-on sentence is when a sentence has too many ideas and runs on too long . If you have this problem, don't worry. It is quite easy to fix. The first thing you need to do is identify when a sentence is a run-on. A run-on (or run-on sentence) is a sentence that really has TWO sentences (or complete ideas) INCORRECTLY combined into one. It is okay to combine two sentences into one, but you must follow some rules.



For example: I saw a teacher who cares.

It can be fixed to say: I saw a teacher. Who cares?

For more rules and insight visit:
http://www.myenglishteacher.net/runonsentences.html

Average Joe

I really like Mike Rose's essay called. " I want to be Average." It was so full of detail written with so much feeling. When he described all of the situations that he had faced i felt like I was right there beside him. He really knows how to keep a reader attention and put all of himself in his writing and I think that is what I liked the most.

In his essay Mike Rose goes on to describe how he was placed incorrectly in classes that he was not suppose to be in. He never knew about his incorrect placement until two years into his eduction and by then he had already built an image of himself as being a poor student. Then after he finds out that he was placed wrongly he has to change his classes and is more confused than ever. He just wants to be average he says like he remembered one of his classmates say one time in class. But it was hard for Mike to ever feel that way when he was always being confused about who he truly was. I would have been confused too if they told me I had to be in some certain classes because I had failed miserably in my entrance exams and then tell you that you weren't even suppose to be in those classes in the first place.

The essay makes us look once again at our education system and how it is full of flaws. We need to try and make sure that we check everything when we are getting out eduction because it is one of the most valuable treasures that we have. Many students could be like Mr. Rose, being placed in classes that they shouldn't and making them feel something that they shouldn't. I know this from experience because one of my younger siblings was placed in a ELL class that he did not need at all. My brother know English better than most Americans, no accent or anything and they put him in this class without any of my family knowing. He had just been in these classes and he had the same feelings that Mike Rose had been feeling in school. Hopefully one day all these flaws in the education system will be worked out because like Mike Rose there are so many students that have gone through or are going through the same thing. And when they finally do find out what happened it is a little to late.

I Semi Understand this...

Semicolons to me are just as confusing as trying to figure out where to place commas. When do I need one, where do I need one? It is all so confusing to me and sometimes even down right frustrating. Many people agree with me, because it stinks when you write a paper to turn in and you get it back and it is covered with a whole bunch of red marks some of it due to those semicolons.When I am writing my essays I never put any semicolon in my writing because I have no clue where I need to put one so I just rather leave it out. For example this paragraph could need some semicolons, but heck if I know.
But now I have the solution to my semicolon dilemma. I can say goodbye to not knowing where to put a semicolon and hello to knowing what the heck I am doing.

A semicolon is used to separate coordinate elements, usually independent clauses. It functions more like a weak period than like a strong comma.

Ex: You should apply for that job; you have the qualifications, and you are not happy in your present job.

They could have just simply put a period after the word job but instead they put a semicolon so that they could continue with the thouggt and make it complete.

http://www.essortment.com/all/semicolonrules_ruhi.htm

American Idiot!

In reading Michael Moore's essay he is very blunt on how he feels about the nation he lives in. He gets right to the point and starts criticizing most everyone in the United States. One of the conflicts i had with him was that he was saying all these defects that the United State's people have but he never said any of the ones he had. There is not one country in this world in this world that is perfect and of course that includes the United States. So in a sense Michael Moore did have a lot of good points on his essay. Many people say that the United States is one of the greatest nations in the world but sometimes they lack the knowledge of how our nation really is and Michael Moore is just letting everyone see that we are not as perfect as people think.

He has a lot of facts to back up his information and I really liked reading about all of the facts on the people of the United States. Who knew that students at Harvard, Yale and those other high performing did not know when the Civil War took place but they sure knew who Beavis and Butt Head.

Changing American Families

In the reading of Judy Root Aulette’s paper it was actually not as bad as it was said it was going to be. It was actually interesting to read about the different types of families and social classes. Many times we read articles of writing like these and say that out families or social groups are not this way but as I was reading the essay I saw that it was very much true. I found myself wondering what group my family and I fit into and when I figured it out, it was read exactly how we were.

One can see that Judy Root Aulette’s researched a lot on this topic and was able to use what she discovered to make a well written article. She could have made her writing boring and just have made it been all about the research, but instead she was able to use it as a guide for her paper. I liked how she would write about the different social groups and then use an example of a real person to back up what she was saying. In doing so, she gave the readers more in depth about the subject and let us see that these social class differences really do exist. The research in this essay was really essential because without it the writing would have not been as effective and would she would have not been able to back up what she was saying. Some people when they use research in a paper, they just let it take over and the paper becomes fact and not them, but not this paper. Judy was able to distribute all of her research in a way that made her paper flow and transition smoothly from one subject to the next.

Also dealing with the Moynihan Report, Judy shows that this report has many flaws and that it is not correct. These reports are no truly describing the African- American families for who they really are. These reports are misleading people and saying things that aren’t actually true. Aulette did not look to write a lot about the Moynihan Report because she did not approve of what it said. Instead she goes and proves it wrong and that is what a good researcher does.

Lie vs. Lay

Lie and lay really frustrate me in many ways. First of all I never can remember the proper way to use them. What is the difference, they sound the same to me. Also, the words have too many rules to them like any other piece of grammar and is hard for me to remember. Often if I can't remember the rule to lay and lie, I will just put what ever word sounds good to me. Lie and lay to me sound like the same thing but in reality they are not.

The correct way to identify the ways to use lay and lie are these rules:

Lie-to recline
The present tense of lie (to recline) is lie or lying.

Ex: I am lying on the bed.

I lie on the bed.

Lay- to put or place
The present tense of lay (to put or place) is lay or laying.

Ex:I am laying the book on the table.

I lay the book on the table.

A site that is has these rules and more helpful tips is :

http://hubpages.com/hub/Grammar_Mishaps__Lie_vs_Lay

High School Prepares you for College?

In this political cartoon it trying to show us how it is going to be like if we do not go to college after high school. We are going to be put in the same situation that this political cartoon portrays. There are some many people out there that think that there is no point in going to college. I have heard many say,” I just spent most of my life in school, why would I want to keep going?” They do not realize how hard it is going to be for them if they do not continue their education. Like this cartoon they are going to be stumped at the questions that their employers ask them.

For me this political cartoon stuck out because I know of so many people that just went to high school but they never did anything afterwards so they are stuck in the same town with minimum wage jobs and they aren’t progressing in their lives at all. This political cartoon like all the other ones I have seen is to make people realize about the real situations that people go through and that is happening to possibly people we know. In the cartoon it’s telling us that graduating high school is not going to be enough. We all need to keep going with our education if we really want to succeed in life and not end up in Human Resources like the guy in the cartoon.

The cartoon has just made me realize how lucky I am to be going forth with my higher education and not going to be in the picture like that one guy wondering how the heck high school prepared me for the real world.

Education and War

In this Political Cartoon the first thing that came out to me was that it was trying to say that after we graduate college it is going to be really hard for people to find jobs. The cartoon actually made me think because, I do know many people that have graduated college who have still not found a job in what they graduated in. It is kind of a scary thought to think that we have spent so many years in school and then graduate and have a difficult time to find a job.

Like every political cartoon, they are intended to make us laugh, but also many times it lets us reflect on what is really going on in the world. Because even though these political cartoonists are poking fun, they are also talking about real issues in our society.

The political cartoon would be really affective right now in this time that we are at in the United States with the recession. It hits right on with the issue of job storage that is affecting so many people right now. It is getting very difficult to find a job right now and there are some many others that have lost their jobs. I know this very well because it has affected both of my parents. So to me this political cartoon was not really funny, but helped me realize about the tough times that are ahead of us all.

Commas Everywhere!

For me, like I bet for everyone else as well, commas are a nightmare. I never know when it is the right time to put one in my papers. I am always sticking them in places I think is right, but that does not seem to be right. For example in that very last sentence, did i need one before the word or did i need it after or really did i need it at all? There are just so many rules to commas that i just give up and sometimes don't even place them at all.

A comma by definition is a punctuation mark used to indicate the separation of ideas or of elements within a sentence. The definition seems simple enough but still many people like myself still struggle with the rules.

Here is a site that gives you all the comma rules, and can be handy to have when writing any paper.

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp

Life as once knew it

In Gary Soto's story called, " Looking for Work, " he uses the element of comparison to show the life of this Mexican-American child compared to the "perfect lives," that are shown on television. By using this, Soto is showing how some lives really are and that not all lives are made up of perfect families with their perfect house and perfect jobs. This style of writing is effective in the way that we, the readers, get to see the point of view of this nine-year-old Mexican American, who wishes his life could be like the one on Leave it to Beaver. If Soto had not used pop culture references like these the point of view would have been a little different. The child would have probably been okay with his life and not compare it to the ones of those on the television. Therefore the story would have just been about a child talking about his day.

Now when we look at Stephanie Cootntz passage called, " What we Miss About the 1950's," it is also comparing life of the 1950's to the life we have now. She talks about how her mother had so much respect for her when she was a child and let her make her own decisions on many things. Although as she looks back she would not let her own twelve- year-old son do whatever he wanted now in this day and age. It even said in the text that the people who said that 1950's had been the best decade did not mean in a literal sense. The 1950's might have been a good period, but really no one wants to relive it again.
My interpretation at first when i started reading was that Cootntz was going to talk about how everyone loved the 1950's and how they wished they were back in that time, but really that was not it. In the 1996 poll by Knight Rider, most people might have chosen the 1950's for the best time to raise children but really they didn't seem to mean it. It was as if they were contradicting everything they had just said. The passage maybe called, " What we Really Miss About the 1950's," but really do they miss anything at all.

Both of these authors though both convey the same message that life is not really all that it seems to be. There are not the "perfect lives that are seen on T.V. and no one really wants to go back to the 1950's. The first author uses a story so that readers can interpret it for what the true meaning of it really is and the second one states fact based on a poll so that people get the literal sense of what life was really like in the 1950's. They both really make you think and see how your life is right now.

Introduction to Rereading America

What does it mean to be an American citizen? To me being an American citizen is being able to live in a country where i have a freedom that may other people in other countries do not. We live in one of the best countries in the world. We have to right to express what is on our mind and what we are feeling. We may get funny looks and stares but as citizens of the United States we are able to express ourselves as freely as we would like.

There might be some books, people and many other things that may contradict what you believe as an individual. In this book Rereading American, the text in the with in these pages might challenge or complicate our opinions. We all have our different beliefs about things and may say that we stick to those beliefs, but sometimes there are many things that make us question the things we believe.

This book can change the way we view our relationships, heritage, religion and beliefs. Also, since this is a English class, we may find that this books shows us many different ways of writing that we had never thought of. I might always stayed with one way of writing a paper and maybe after i read the contents of this book i will have gotten a different perspective of how to write.