E. Jann Harris

My 5th AP period class got to meet my friend, E. Jann Harris.  Jann and I work together as part of the CSULB ERW team; we co-teach that 3-day workshop on teaching writing in high school and college.

Anyway, today she mentioned the 20 Most Common Writing Errors committed by college freshman...here is the same list in Andrea Lunsford's new book, The Everyday Writer.   Andrea Lunsford  heads up the Rhetoric and Comp department at Stanford, and is a rock star among composition teachers; when she's in town, we get giddy and want to skip work to go hear her speak.  (Jann got to go; I did not.)

So, for heaven's sake:  click the link!  Study the errors!  Look at her book!  Ask Santa to bring you her book this December because, after all,  you have been very, very good...and with that book on your desk, you'll be EVEN BETTER.  

[You see?  In THIS case, I believe the repeated use of the word "very" in the above sentence serves an important rhetorical purpose.  Believe me, I thought about it first, but finally decided its use was justified.]

Revision Minilesson 11/13/12

Posting today's lesson, buy popular demand:

AP Writer’s Workshop

Book Review Revision Checklist

We are not working on the rhetorical précis today, so if you wrote one, set it aside for now.

EXERCISE ONE -- PARAGRAPH STRENGTH
In black or blue ink, underline the topic sentence in every paragraph you wrote.
Check:  Is it a complete sentence?  Does it say something worthwhile?
Next, check every sentence in every paragraph.  Does every sentence illuminate the truth of that topic sentence in some way? (Go ahead.  Check.  We’ll wait.)

EXERCISE TWO -- SENTENCE STRENGTH
Looking for weak, passive sentences
With a yellow highlighter, mark every occurrence of the “to be” verbs, and the modals:

am	is	are	was	were
be	being	been		ought to
do	did	does	shall	should
have	has	had	will	would
may	might	must	can	could

Again, the "to-be's" are not inherently bad; we need them. But their overuse can signal a break down in thinking, passive sentence construction, and boring, repetitive writing. Re-crafting even a third of your sentences to eliminate the "be" verb, and replacing it with an active one will improve your prose style.

RED PENS NEXT:  Check for these sentence sappers

• Avoid most adverbs: basically, obviously, surely, certainly, very
• Look for clichés:  thinking outside of the box, a picture’s worth 1000 words, it is what it is
• Don’t you dare say the author paints a picture in the reader’s mind
• In fact, get rid of “the reader” right now:  draw a big red circle around “the reader," and vow to get rid of at least half of them (some of you have used "the reader" infrequently or not at all; some of you will have as many as 12).
• Hold your paper up and look at it from 3 feet away.  Squint your eyes.  Look for “I”. Reduce usage by 50%.
• NO HOMONYM ERRORS ALOUD ALLOWED.  Check for the usual suspects:  there/their/they’re; its/it’s; your/you’re

CHECK FOR UNINTENTIONAL HYPERBOLE AND ABSOLUTES

• a million times more
• 99.9% of the time
• every, always, all, never
• And please, stop complimenting the writer.  Don’t say she’s amazing.  Don’t say she did a great job, or he does an extremely well job.  Don’t say he’s extremely dedicated.   Don’t even say he’s proficient.  Also, she’s not “the author of your book.”  She’s not.

GET RID OF THE STUFF FLETCHER HATES, including the little qualifiers that chip away at your veracity:

• In today’s society
• What the author is trying to say

• Nowadays
• I think, it seems to me, in my opinion, maybe, perhaps, seems to me

IN FACT, AS A CLASS, LET’S JUST ADOPT GEORGE ORWELL’S SIX RULES.  MEMORIZE THESE:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word when a short word will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, cut it out.
4. Never use the passive when you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.

---

I found many terrible sentences lurking in the stack I brought home; here’s one now.  Take a moment to gawk slack-jawed at the many problems piled on top of one another like a 6-car collision on the 710 freeway.

Although the information was presented in a manner sometimes too straightforward, it was made up due to the various information Bixby includes and eludes readers to question trust as Franklin tried to plead innocence through his memoir.

No one reading that sentence is going to be happy.  We intuit that the writer is suggesting that there’s a pleasing balance between the writer’s terse tone and the many details that are included about...something or other.  Various information? trust? innocence?  Not really sure.  

It is our responsibility as writers to make our thoughts intelligible and clear.  

---

NOW THAT WE’VE COME THIS FAR TOGETHER...a few pointers about English usage:

• number/amount • well/good
• fewer/less • all ready/already
• effect/affect • allude/elude

✩FINALLY:  Grab your reader by the throat with the very first line.  Take your time writing this very important sentence, and make it count.  It should be impossible for any thinking, curious person to stop reading.  Write an opening sentence that is tight, and clean, and smart.  Refer back to Orwell rules #2 and #3.  

Week of October 15

Monday:  Read the "Genre Studies: Book Review" blog post together; go over the Descriptive Outline assignment.  On Thursday, two copies of the same outline are due.  Then, SSR.

Tuesday:  Computer Lab --> Read book reviews; research your author and any previous work; collect Marian Lewes essay.  Reading Homework:  assign And The Firewalls Came Tumbling Down.

Wednesday:  Descriptive Outline of "And the Firewalls..." in 10 minutes or less;  talk through "Deciderization".  Assign vocabulary words from article.  Vocab quiz on Tuesday, October 23.  Handout:  Spectrum of Purposes.   Homework:  Study Spectrum of Purposes.  Begin vocab work.  Finish Descriptive Outline.

Thursday:  Create graphic organizer in the notebook; collect 1 copy of the Descriptive Outline; save second copy for tomorrow.  Genre talk:  reflective memoir.  Assign weekend essay:  Richard Rodriguez.  Debrief Marian Lewes -- top, middle, low.  Homework:  Read nonfiction; work on vocab; bring nonfiction book to class tomorrow with second copy of Descriptive Outline.

Friday:  Substitute Day.  First 25 minutes, SSR.  Second 30 minutes:  Descriptive Outline Table Readaround.  Work on graphic organizer (created in notebook on Thursday).  Based on your descriptive outline and those of your tablemates, consider the paragraphs that you may write for your book review.  Weekend homework:  Rodriguez essay.  Draft a book review.  Vocabulary from Deciderization.  Continue to read your nonfiction book.

Genre Studies: The Book Review

You want to take a look at the characteristics of a book review before you get ready to write yours.  To do a good job with a book review, you have to determine the author's purpose, and whether the author was successful in achieving that purpose.  Writing these can be a little tricky (our impulse is to try and judge quality), but when you start to see the rhetorical moves, it's a writing task that is easy to replicate.

Step One:  Read at least 6 book reviews.  Your approach:  casual.  At this point, you are getting a feel for the genre.

Step Two:  Pick TWO book reviews to read CLOSELY (think, Hunger of Memory.  You read line by line, paragraph by paragraph, asking questions the entire way).  Chose reviews on books that are roughly similar to your book in approach and purpose:  Is the book a historical narrative, such as The Devil in the White City, and The Warmth of Other Suns?  or a memoir (Dust Tracks on a Road, Beautiful Boy, The Glass Castle),  or reportage (Blink, The Year of Living Biblically, Nickel and Dimed) ?  

I am NOT suggesting that you study a book review that has already been written about your book; you may certainly look at those initially, but then, turn your head away.  Learn to write without flirting with plagiarism and intellectual theft.

I AM encouraging you to choose reviews to work with that will give you the best help when it is time for you to write.

Become a Noticer:  Look at verbs.  Study sentence length.  Pay attention to point of view, and perspective (how often does the writer refer to herself in first person?  As "the reader"?)  Look at the level of praise or criticism.  Note that there is little in a book review that discusses "goodness" or "badness." Value judgments are carefully avoided.  Ask me why.

Step Three:   Print both reviews out.  Annotate both; write a descriptive outline for just one.  Two copies are DUE Thursday, October 18.

• HOW TO WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE OUTLINE:
• Paragraph by paragraph, write the following two things:
• WHAT the paragraph says - 1 concise, complete line of summary
• WHAT the paragraph does -- in other words, its rhetorical purpose for existing - 2 lines of effect, impact, work done by the paragraph

We will gallop through one of these in class.  I plan to whip through the example.

Nothing can replace the benefit of real work.  Don't be tempted to rush through your part of the process without taking the requisite time to read (casually) through at least a half-dozen book reviews; then, find two to focus on and annotate; finally, choose the one you will write a descriptive outline for -- methodically working through this process has plenty to teach you about writing analytical review.   Start to understand what we mean when we say, "Everything is an argument."

So read some reviews. (Music, theater, movie reviews follow many of these same rules, but for our purposes here, read book reviews.)  Yes, you should feel free to read book blogs, reviews on Booklist, Amazon, or LibraryThing, but these reviews vary widely in quality and are therefore not suitable for this assignment.  I want you to read reviews published by respected news sources:

The Sunday New York Times Book Review

The Los Angeles Times Book Review

The Washington Post

The Wall Street Journal

and others of this caliber.  If in doubt, be safe and check with me.

Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks, by Selah Park

Having no luck in finding a non-fiction book that caught my eye, I unfortunately came to class unprepared. Thankfully, Ms. Fletcher was able to hand Gemma and I some books we could choose our pick from. I chose Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston. Reading the foreword by Maya Angelou, I realized that I had gotten myself into an African American historical book about Hurston's own life. Having an interest in the history of the United States, I was glad that I had picked a book on that subject. 

Although I haven't really read most of the book yet, I am starting to get a jist of the story and the protagonist's chracteristics. This book is about Zora Neale Hurston, and her young life as a daughter of the mayor of the 1st all Negro community in Florida-in the whole United States to be exact. It takes place in Eatonville, which was chartered by an especially kind folk who were unusually tolerant of race during this time of racial segregation in the 19th century. A group of African Americans separated from the main town of Maitland to settle the community of Negroes nearby. What I know from the rest of the book is that there is a bit of a Cinderella twist in it, as Zora's mother passes away and she is forced to deal with an unforgiving stepmother, who thankfully, her father does not side with.

This book won the 1942 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for its contributions to race relations. I have read that Zora Neale Hurston's fans did not want her to write this book, and she did not want to either. There are many paradoxes about the book. For instance, Zora seems to defend her peopel and their cultural rights, but she also embraces the whites with their kindness and she honors them. The book was heavily edited for her rash opinions on imperialism in Asia and politics.  Although I honestly have no interest in non-fiction, I believe it was a good idea to learn more about the African American culture many people disregard. This is a good book choice for people who enjoy historical fiction, but must read a non-fiction book for an English class.

Eating Animals

 I am reading a book by the name of Eating Animals written by Jonathan Safran Foer. In this book Jonathan discusses why he transitioned between being an omnivore and a vegetarian, during his time as a student in high school, and college. He talks about his wife and how she believes the same things that he believes in. When his child was born he had to make dietary choices for his child. His questioning toward dietary choices  became an urgency. His impatience for answers quickly lead him to factory farms to see the ingredients of meals from his childhood, and explore some of his most primal intuition between right and wrong. He descriptively mentions how some animals are produced and handled. Most of the things that i have read are very disturbing, but yet very interesting. It is crazy to think how the things we eat get processed  but also is very sickening to see a plate of chicken and remember how it is produced into the form it is in. Overall I am loving this book and am seeing food in a different way. I really don't want this book to end and cannot wait what other animals he describes later on in the book.

The Glass Castle

I started reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It is a memoir written by Walls herself. It tells her own childhood story. Her parents were unique but highly dysfunctional. Walls, her sister, and brother moved around all the time. They never really had a place they could call home. Her dad, Rex Walls, had a drinking problem and could never hold a job for more than a few months at a time. Her mother, Mary Wells, was an artist and a dreamer. They were both free spirits, skeptical of government and big cities. The family had to move because they were constantly chased by their creditors and in search for gold. Her father always thought that with his invention, the Prospector, he would find and gold and strike it rich. Then the family could he would build them a glass castle. They would have a home and have whatever they want. However, until then they would travel from place to place seeking out the gold. Walls loved her parents though. They taught her and her brother and sister well. They learned physics, geology, and to embrace life fearlessly.  They loved them but they had an odd way of showing it. It is a very intriguing book and feels like I'm reading a novel. It makes me want to keep reading to find out what happens next. I become engrossed in Walls life. I   find myself angry at her parents or empathetic towards her siblings. I become part of their life, moving around with them and feeling their love and anguish. I cannot wait to find out what happens next and to finish the book.

Darkness, and shine

I've been reading the Devil in the white city by Erik Larson. This book has been splitting the reader to look into too lives. That of mr Burnham, one of the head architectures of the world fair, and the so called mr Holmes, who appears to be an increasing looming danger to the novel an the sanctity of the fair. The fair at first is in slow progress because of the cities inability to chose a spot. The architects finally chose a spot, Jefferson park, chosen with the help of an elder assistant. They finally begin building but when that ideal spot is chosen another insidious undetected problem is luming in another par of the city. "Mr. Holmes" has come into the as a charming man , he has deep blue eyes and seduces almost every woman he meets. It appears he has gotten hid of an old couple and married two women at the same time he is a threat. This. It's is going to attack more than just the world's tourists fair, it's going to be a place of dark light .

A Journey Into Substance Abuse

            Getting drunk at the age of eleven, smoking pot all throughout high school, doing ecstasy and cocaine, and an obsession over crystal methamphetamine and heroin: this is the life of Nic Sheff. In his book, Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, he elaborates on his struggle to regain control of himself after developing an intense reliance on drugs.

            As Sheff reminisces on the years of his life preceding his substance abuse, he cannot help but wonder what happened. He had a 4.0 GPA, an interest in surfing, was a published writer, part of the swim team, and a great big brother. As he went through his phase of smoking pot, he gradually began to opt for stronger substances, and developed addictions. He still felt as though he was in control and that he could cut his usage whenever he wanted to. This, of course, was a big fat lie.

            I have not gotten as far as I had hoped with the book, but I am sincerely enjoying it. Sheff, so far, has discussed the reasons why for his constant use drugs, and when he actually began to realize his addiction. He religiously denied that he was an addict at a young age; he was only experimenting. But when he began to manually inject the drugs into his veins, it gave him a high so powerful that all he ever wanted to do was recreate that moment. All his life aspirations blurred in front of his eyes, and he just wanted to reach that first high again. He began to change as well in order to support his addiction. He wrote himself checks and stole money from his family, amounting to even as little as five dollars from his younger siblings' wallets.

            He has also continually demonstrated his lack of self control by repeatedly relapsing after making progress with twelve step programs. Each time was different, depending on whom he was with and what he could get his hands on, but it was a cycle: go into the twelve step program, make a bit of progress, relapse. Although this book claims to be of Sheff's recovery, I have not quite read anything regarding his progress. He has, however, shared that he loved drugs and that he felt as though the drugs made him belong in the world where everyone seemed to have instruction manuals to life. The drugs were his personal instructions. They were his reason to be alive. This emphasizes his obsession with the substances, allowing readers to see that the road to recovery from substance abuse is not an easy one.

            I found myself in intense reading sessions with this book, and I find it to be an interesting read. I hope to see quite a bit of progress some time soon, but I am thoroughly captivated by this book. Look into it if you have time.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

      For the past couple of weeks, I have spent my time reading the story of a man willing to be the guinea pig of many outrageous experiments. A.J. Jacobs, the New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically, introduces The Guinea Pig Diaries with great humor and wit. Jacobs explains that he has been tested to attempt these experiments, so he gladly accepts the challenges. Among his experiments, Jacobs hires "executive remote assistants" in Bangalore, India to saying anything that came to mind (without a filter) known as radical honesty.

      I am truly obsessed with Jacobs' work. I cannot contain my laughter in each chapter. So far, I have only read half of the nonfiction book, but I know I can finish it very soon. On only the second page I was laughing out loud during our silent reading session last Monday. In the opening chapter about his nanny, he mentions how unbelievably beautiful she is. He states something along the lines of questioning his wife's sanity  and how Julie has even given him permission to have an affair with the nanny simply because Michelle would never be interested. Michelle was Catholic, loyal, and young (definitely out of his league). For his personal enjoyment, Jacobs set up an online dating account for his beautiful, single nanny, Michelle. He become so addicted to the control he had over the relationship-thirsty men, that he decided life comes with much more responsibility with beauty. In chapter four, he takes advantage of his similar features of the movie star, Noah Taylor. He attends the Academy Awards in place of Taylor, realizing fame leads to narcissism. He was drunk with fame after only one night. Most of Jacobs' encounters are totally relatable which makes his story even more humorous. For the most part, it is as if each chapter teaches the readers a lesson from what Jacobs has experienced. 

      So far, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a source of entertainment. Just drop your iPad or iPhone, etc. and open up one of Jacobs' "irresistible page-turners". His attempt to complete these crazy tasks is uplifting and inspirational because he enjoys himself as he risks his relationships with his family and close friends. All I can say is his risks are what appeals to us readers, so he had the right idea!

Repect is not given, but earned.

     Lately, my coach has been on the team's case about grades, respect and dedication. He wants to teach us not only how to wrestle, but also the skills and necessities we will need in the "real" world, outside of school. As I was reading The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell, I've noticed how things have changed throughout the years. This novel is filled  with the emotion, dedication and hearts of students of Wilson High School. What connected me to this book and took my attention was that all these kids where raised in Long Beach. My family, mainly my mom and grandparents started their lives over in Long Beach, a fresh start. We had to suffer the pain of hard work from bottom of the food chain to the top, low pay, and also reconnected with a new community. Though times now aren't much different from theirs, these kids also had it hard, they were not the high educated and financially blessed generation, but the children of welfare and food stamps. Thinking back, all of these kids were living in Long Beach's worse times of gangs, murder and discrimination. A simple difference in ethnicity or a simple wrong look, could get you killed.

     In the beginning of the novel, the students are blessed with a new teacher, Mrs. Gruwell. She had no idea what she was getting into, a white, educated, energized and beautiful woman coming into the ghettos of Long Beach crammed within a high school. The first few diary entries were all about how she will never last a month, some even said a week, but others talked about the "war" and drama going on outside of school. How all the pains of emotion, deaths, fighting and the students voracious need of revenge will soon subsume this little high school.

     Though I'm not finished with the book, I feel as if I'm already connected with each character. Their emotion is my emotion and their experiences flashes before my eyes. My favorite character, though I don't know the name yet, is definitely diary entry three. The student begins the entry right off with emotion and the hardships they're going through. I feel, because I'm a teenager myself, I can connect with this character, the mindset and the emotion. Even though i didn't experience what this character has experienced, he/she wants me to feel her pain and wants me to experience what they've experienced. Asking the question, "if you were in my position what would you do?"  Over and over.

The Tipping Point

       So far Malcom Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, has really impressed me on the way he organizes his thoughts into the book in an effective and structured way. The way the author writes is incredible, allowing him to get to his point quickly. At first he started of with an anecdote about how Hush Puppies were worn by normal kids as their style, to fashion designers, and eventually all the way up to a nationwide Hush Puppies epidemic. Then it just hit me, little changes can yield a big difference and may even start an epidemic.  Simple changes like going from 34 *F to 31* F can make a difference. Instead of having rain we now have snow with just 3*F drop.  The author later identified the three rules of the Tipping Point which were the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. The law of the few states that it takes a handful of enthusiastic people to start an epidemic. The stickiness factor states that in order for an epidemic to occur, the idea must be catchy. As for the power of context, I have yet to finish reading. I just love the way the author subtly makes valid points for his opinions, and then it is right in your face and no way you can miss it.
        The author also mentioned how yawning is contagious and even me just writing the word makes some want to yawn.  In class someone yawns then another person yawns and another person yawns and so on; makes me think what if we smiled or  performed an act of kindness to a peer. Would that make them feel better and be nice to another person, and eventually will we have a Mayfair High School nice day epidemic?

How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference

I am currently reading the international number one bestselling book called The Tipping Point  by Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell covers many topics throughout his book based on connections and coincidence within people and all worldly occurrences. In one part of his book he tells the reader to go down a list of 250 surnames pulled out of the Manhattan phone book and give themselves a point for every name that is shared by someone they know. This was supposed to be a good and simple way to estimate how many friends and acquaintances one might have. I went down the list and I ended up counting roughly 21 surnames. I read on and Gladwell revealed that he had given that test to dozens of people in their late teens through early twenties. He did the math and averaged out about 20.96, so each person in that class knew 21 people with the those last names. I was shocked to have gotten the same score as on Gladwell's data. This proved to me that the world is somehow connected in some way and has more in common than one would think. Who knew the world could really be such a small world? Ever since i have started reading this book it has really made me think about how fast and easily things can be spread or connected. For example, in the first chapter of his book Gladwell talks about an epidemic of syphilis that broke out in the mid 1990's in Baltimore. The cause of the break out was the increase in use of crack which lead to risky sexual behavior. An increase in sexually transmitted diseases would be the last thing one would think to happen due to the increase of drug use, and yet it was the first to occur. Basically, from what I have read so far Gladwell seems to have a point. How things can go from being one way to drastically changing and turning into a completely different way. I like this book, I can relate to his explanations for the constant, unexpected, and dramatic changes in scenery and ideas.

Leverage

Leverage is a great book that was recommended too me by a former AP student (Eze Egeonuigwe).
From the first couple of chapters, I can predict that this is a motivational non-fiction book. The interesting thing about this book is that it shows the life of two teenage kids who have struggles in their lives that effect them in different ways. It switches off every chapter on each boy side of the story which helps to interpret everything better and more efficiently. The story starts off with both of the boys being in the same class in school then it separates from there. Kurt Brodonsky is a poor football star that was recruited to go to the school and has had four different foster parents and finally thinks he has found the right place at his new school with his new parent. Danny is a very petite freshman who is terrified of everybody at the school. He is mostly terrified of the new football player named Kurt who just was assigned to his algebra class because Kurt is very stocky and big and has war scars all over him. Another reason Danny is terrified of high school is because he hasn’t hit puberty yet and is scared to get bullied by all the "monstrous football players" as he describes it. He is also on the school gymnastic team and the football players hates the gymnastics team and tries to bully them every chance they get. Danny has been lucky enough to avoid every attack but sooner or later he will be next to get bullied. I left of reading where Kurt is just now getting introduced to the head coach.

New Jack: Guarding Sing Sing

      My book, New Jack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover, is about a former New York Times Magazine journalist (Conover) venturing into one of the most dangerous maximum security prisons. Conover seeks to discover the truth behind the prison guard stereotype of brutality and mercilessness. Also, his goal is to understand the daily lives of prison guards in the country, along with writing a good story. However, he finds that in order to get a "true-to-life" account on what prison guards experience, he finds himself enrolling into a correctional officer (CO) academy to be a prison guard at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York.
       So far, Conover is beginning his first days of intensive training at the academy. He is introduced to an array of students and authorities. A notable authority, Sergeant Rusty Bloom, is the head officer of the academy. During his imperative introductory orientation, he describes to the new students the hardships of being a prison guard simply stating that "It is not any easy job". Conover quickly learns this to be true after going on a field trip to Coxsackie Correctional Facility. He and the other students are told gruesome stories of various inmate attacks on guards at the prison, and he experiences constant verbal abuse from the caged inmates while touring the facility.
       The book is a very interesting and engrossing read. It's really thought provoking to learn about the mental stability and hardships that one must endure while working in this rough environment.  It's admirable that Conover would sacrifice his well being at Sing Sing for the sake of the story, and is challenged with "overcoming my [his] fears".
     

"When he entered a room, it was like being alone with a black panther."

After rejecting book after book for this assignment, I decided on The Autobiography of Malcolm X which conveniently is a book I had been interested in readingfor quite some time. This book was put together by journalist Alex Haley and published in 1965, forty years after the assassination of Malcolm X in 1925. Although I was initially intimidated by the length of the book, after picking it up a few times and seeing how easy it is to mow through the pages the length seems manageable. My initial outlook on nonfiction as “dull”, has taken a definite turn.

When a white man by the name of Mr. Handler meet with Malcolm X for the first time, he is in awe of Malcolm’s grace and describes him as a black panther, majestic and elegant but explosively dangerous and ready to attack at any given moment. He goes on to describe many of Malcolm’s accomplishment as organizations. More than anything, he explains that Malcolm was a man of great power and ambition within him.   

 The book is then told by Malcolm X, himself as he starts to tell the story of his parents and the way he grew up in a family and environment such as his. Malcolm explains that his skin is light because his grandmother was raped by a white man and his mother was born with the complexion of a white woman, and as he grew old enough to understand this, he began to understand and believe that any drop of white blood was blood of hate and malevolence. With a family stained by the affliction made by the white man from the very beginning, It seems as though Malcolm X was meant be a leader in Civil Rights movement all along.          

What I like the most about Malcolm so far is how he doesn't try to make people see him as a good-doing, fine man. Even as a child, he showed the need to always push the limits. One day while Malcolm was still a child a woman in the neighborhood tells him, “You know what I like about you? You're no good, but you don't try to hide it. You’re not a hypocrite.”

White Lies That Do Mean Something

            For my non-fiction book, I chose Joel Best's Damned Lies and Statistics. It is a book that delves into the world of political and social statistics. Best elaborates what statistics are used for and what we don't see. He notes that even though statistics are believed to be truths, they really aren't because their reporters bend them to benefit their agenda. He refers to these as "bad statistics" and accurate numbers as "good statistics". Because numbers seem to be the skeleton of reasoning, we want to blindly accept them.
Unfortunately, groups know this and corrupt them for benefiting their cause. He makes the case of activists exaggerating numbers to make their problems they were addressing seem more large while the authorities down played their estimates to seem like they were doing a good job. By making lies out of statistics, the lying side bolsters their argument significantly. Best states that the innumeracy, the inability to comprehend numbers, in people makes this easier to get away with.
           I would like to make much more relevant example of what Best is trying to convey. In the recent debate between President Barack Obama and opposing candidate Mitt Romney, they discussed the economic policies. Romney attacked Obama regarding his green power investments. He claimed that Obama's investment in the clean energy companies still ended up with half of them ( there are about 3 dozen of them, he does not specify how many there were) in bankruptcy. However, that was a complete lie considering only three were  bankrupt, yet Obama did not call Romney's bluff. By doing so, Romney added this to what spectators believed was his victory in the debate. Before reading this book, I would have regarded Romney's made up statistic as a white lie. Now, I realize the extent of his lie and what it caused. It proved his point of Obama being an inferior president, helped him win the debate in many spectators' eyes, brought him many voters to his side, and made the green power business seem like failures. All of this happened because of some number he made up.
          I picked up this book for the sake of enlightenment and it does its job. What I like about it is that it explains the thought process behind people who make up fake statistics.  I find it fascinating to learn a truth that isn't so apparent. More or less, it also provides the reader a great reason to be cynical.

Hi Bloggers!

It's just after 9:00 p.m., and I have other work to do so I have to go soon, but I just read through your blog posts, and I am delighted to see many of you experiencing the joys of quality nonfiction. Most of my incoming AP students -- bright, curious young people -- have never really explored this genre fully, and so the surprise of discovery that I see in your posts, such as "I never really thought I'd like nonfiction, but I want to read this book!" is wonderful to see.   If I ever complete a MFA, it will be in creative nonfiction.

Posts that I've read to date are (alphabetical order and by period):  Austin, Bonilla, Bryant, Bunch, Chavarria, Chikuma, Dayan, Figueroa, Lapastora, Mehta, Mendoza, Rajan, Rexwinkle, Tawfik, Thomas, Tovar, Villagran, Wielt, Wu, Yoder, Abellanosa, Benons, Chikuma, Coleman, Elasmar, Farquhar, Kang, Khennavong, Khondaker, Lasao, Mendoza, Miller, Moore, Ngo, Nguyen, Osorio, Reece, and Remulla.

[PS:  I am able to see drafts of work in progress:  Duy, Gardea, Jaime, Parker and Nwabuzor.]

If the rest of you post later tonight, I'll see it soon!  Keep reading, and bring your books tomorrow and on Wednesday.  And Ridhi, get another book.  That one was too easy.  I'm glad you read it, and I'll bet you'll be able to use something from it someday in an essay...but really, shall I bring you another one?  I have some good ones here in the Fletcher library.

Kids, I recommend everyone check out Byliner.com.  Short, high quality nonfiction!  And fiction too, for that matter.  I read some great Amy Tan and Margaret Atwood this summer that I got from Byliner.

I'm going to download Every Love Story is a Ghost Story RIGHT NOW.  I must read this immediately.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.  How are you doing on this week's puzzle??  I haven't sat down to draw it yet.

Next week's challenge: Draw a regular hexagon, and connect every pair of vertices except one. The pair you don't connect are not on opposite sides of the hexagon, but along a shorter diagonal. How many triangles of any size are in this figure?

The Devil in the White City

For this reading assignment I have chosen to read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.  At first I held a feeling of hesitance over this assignment due to the fact that I am not particularly fond over books of nonfiction.  But this book has caught my attention with its addition of the true tale about Dr. H.H. Holmes, one of the first documented American serial killers.  The setting is in Chicago circa 1893 and it intertwines the true tales of Daniel Burnham, a famous architect who is behind the creation of the 1893 World's Fair, and H.H. Holmes who is the serial killer that lures his victims into his "Murder Castle" and leads them into their deaths.  I very much enjoy how Erik Larson presenst these two true events in a style that would be used for a novel. 
As I go along reading through this book I would always find myself trying to create a vivid picture of the previous construction of Chicago circa1889 with its own environmental image of poverty and the women who come to Chicago for a place to work and have independent lives.  H.H. Holmes would take advantage of this predicament and would fool these women into coming and stay in his “World’s Fair Hotel.”  The construction of this hotel goes along well for Holmes misdeeds, containing a gas chamber and crematorium so to dispose the evidence of his sadistic manner.  I also liked the introduction for the famous architect known as Daniel Burnham, as well as for the others, the introduction just sounds so grand that it’s almost hard to believe that this is beginning of the ideas and creations that would form the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair.  Although, it did take me awhile to overcome the feeling of boredom in the first chapters of the book because I was more determined on reading about H.H. Holmes, the other story about the architects started to gain my attention when Burnham starts to talk about Root’s interest in the arts and how he envisions a structure that possesses a unique artistic style.

Do I have Bones?!?!

Sometimes I wonder about reality.  How do we know what is real?  To be honest, I try not think about it that much, because the answers seems so obvious.  When I started reading Girl Interrupted, the story of a young woman who in the late 60's was checked into an insane asylum, I started questioning what it means to be normal.  I began to wonder about reality and sanity, and what drives someone to be insane.  This story truly captures the horrors of being institutionalized during this time while also adding elements of humor.  The comedic relief balances out the disgusting descriptions of cruel treatments that took place during this time such as shock therapy.  She recalls how patients were forced to take mysterious drugs without knowing what the drugs were, or what side effects would take over their bodies.

At first glance, Susanna Kaysen seems like a normal girl, and I wondered why she had checked herself into the mental institution.  This was until she described an episode she had experienced where she bit into her hand in order to "make sure she had bones".  Leading up to this event, she expressed her inner thoughts in which she questions what is true.  She became so paranoid about whether or not she had bones, that she had to find out.  I was inspired by this particular scene of Girl Interrupted, because it made me think about all of the things I never had before.  What if we really didn't have bones.  We would never know, because we have always been told that we have them, we accepted this as the truth, but what if it wasn't.  What if everything that we have accepted as true, was actually a lie.  How do we know what is real?  How can we be sure? 

I think this book might be driving me insane. 

This book begs the question "Who decides what is normal?"Girl Interrupted reflects the tragedy of mental illness, a sane person trapped in a deep haze of uncertainty, a normal girl who lost her mind.  It demonstrates the control that exerted over the weak, and the harsh reality of mid twentieth century mental hospitalization.    Kaysen revealed the social implications of being institutionalized, which included losing all family ties (nobody wanted to be known as a relative to a crazy person at the time).  She clearly shows the relation between losing your mind, and losing your freedom.     

 

Die Amerikaner

During the visit to the library, I was divided between three books:  The Year of Living Biblically, The Devil in The White City, and In the Garden of Beasts.  In the end, my history buff took the best of me. I chose to read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, who also happens to be the author of The Devil in The White City.

The title, In The Garden Of Beasts, is a metaphor for the Dodd family’s experiences in the garden of the beasts, Nazi Germany. The book centers on William Dodd, a writer, historian, and professor at the University of Chicago. Dodd is appointed United States ambassador to Germany by FDR because no one else was willing to fill to job. Both William and his recently divorced daughter, Martha were initially sympathetic with the Nazi regime. William received his doctorate in Leipzig in 1897, so he believed that the Nazi’s weren’t as evil as everyone believed. Martha was so focused on the glam and glory of the Nazis, that she was defensive of their actions. She was known to even sleep with Nazi officials, such as Rudolf Diel, head of the Gestapo.

While reading the book, I noticed that Americans during this era had much different values than we do today. In today’s world, if a tyrant decided to persecute innocent citizens, Obama would probably intervene with the military. Back then, FDR was reluctant to do provide aid to those persecuted, instead he merely disapproved of the actions. The whole world was too traumatized by World War I and the Great Depression to do anything. Americans favored a policy of neutrality and believed that the Europeans should handle their own affairs. In a 1930’s poll, 41% of Americans believed that the Jews were too powerful and 1/5 believed that the Jews should be exiled, as opposed to 13% in 2009. It is shocking in the 20^th century, Americans shared such xenophobic tendencies.

 I look forward to learning about Hitler’s rise to power and the effects his actions have on normal citizens. The drama and political intrigue surrounding the Third Reich will make this an interesting read.

The Year of Living Biblically

The book I'm reading for our first report is The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. I wasn't too sure on which book to pick because I'm not a fan of reading non-fiction books, but I'm very glad I picked this book. I talked to the librarian and she convinced me to endure in reading this book, and I've been interested since the first page. The main idea of this book is an ordinary man, coming from a Jewish family but doesn't participate in any religious rituals, decides to live a year following the rules of the Bible. He's a middle class American with a wife and a young son, his wife is skeptical about his project but he continues to pursue it anyways.

It was a very tiresome job to go through the Bible page by page to list and understand each rule from the holy book, but Jacobs was anxious to begin as soon as he could. Some rules that modern day Christians don't even abide to, "keeping from wearing clothing with two mixed fibers" he obeyed. He went as far as hiring somebody to come to his house and go through each article of clothing he owned to check what he was able to wear without committing a sin. Also, he bought a special chair for his wife while she was on her menstrual cycle, because they aren't allowed to sleep or sit together for that week.

I read an interesting chapter where Jacobs and his wife traveled to an Amish country, and stayed in the hotel for awhile. They described the Amish as peaceful, humble people. And ultimately, his plan and their way of life were the same. It amazes me how those people can live that way, and I'm planning on someday going to observe their ways. Jacobs wrote that after about two months, he found himself starting to believe in his prayers and feel the holy ghost, and he felt like a different man. The man living by the Bible was called "Jacob" and he was different than A.J. Jacobs. It's an intriguing theory that if you live a certain way for a certain period of time, you'll start to really live like that.

So far this book is great, I'm looking forward to these next couple SSR sessions so I can get deeper into my book. I'm only about 80 pages into The Year of Living Biblically, but I'm sure I'll finish it within a week. Highly recommended.

Devil in the White City

My first semester book choice is the Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson.  This book is placed in the 1800's as a predator stalks young, mostley poorer women, whom have flocked to Chicago in search of jobs.The city adopts an exhilarated yet uncanny atmosphere as chaos ensues in the city due to the frequent freak-accident deaths of decapitation, fires and murders. In the midst of this chaos of overpopulation and under qualified police force, America attempts to boast of its economic and political power and influence by striving to dominate France's famous World Fair. On a smaller scale, Chicago competes with the popular state of New York to have the privilege to host the event.
Famous architect, Daniel Hudson Burnham, is put in charge of the demanding job of designing and creating the most anticipated event of the decade. While he puts his talents together with a fellow architect genius, John Root, H. H. Holmes, the evil-doer of the story,is introduced into the setting of chicago, whom is described to have the eyes of a murderer and the ears of a satyre. Yet, women adore him due to his looks, his seamingly romantic side and the air he carries of confidence and wealth. So far in the story, Holmes expressed how much he detested the field if medicine with its cadavers and skeletons but once coerced to face his fears, he grew and interest for the subject and began his practice in medicine and profession.

Understanding Terrorism From a Deeper Perspective

To be honest, when our class first went the library to choose a non-fiction book, I started searching for the smallest book on the table. While Ms.Fletcher, Shannon (the other librarian), and Ms.Ellis were explaining a handful of select non-fiction books, I asked myself what I would actually learn from reading the thinnest book. The thinnest book might have been an amazing book, but I convinced myself that it would be best to choose a book that I would truly want to understand. That is why I chose Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern. Readers can assume that the non-fiction book is about terrorists, especially with the cover being the picture of a bombed area. However, in modern society, especially in the western world’s perspective, the word “terrorist” automatically implies a Muslim terrorist, and people are reminded of the horrific 9/11 scene. This is why not only did I want to learn more about other violent leaders from other religions, but I particularly wanted to know how people who follow the same religion as me can interpret holy teachings so differently. Why do these people stain their religion in the perspectives of others? How could they justify these cruel actions of bloody, mass murder with a religion that is in reality peaceful and completely against murder? I wanted a real reason because I was tired of the daily news giving me the same superficial reasons we’ve all repeatedly heard.

In this book, Jessica Stern interviews terrorists of all religions. Since I have only read the beginning of this text, the only terrorist group mentioned so far is a Christian group based in Arkansas called the CSA; Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord. Stern’s interview explores what the CSA’s second-in-command, Kerry Noble, had going through his head. She helps us explore into their corrupted ideology on how they justify their beliefs of what the CSA is doing…is right. Furthermore, she reveals how normal or innocent some of these people among the terrorist groups can be, such as the little kids. What saddens me the most is the unanswered question of how many of them became so easily brainwashed? They justify their terrorism as religious acts. In my opinion, religion should not be something that destroys, but it should be something that creates and saves. Stern reveals how these "grievances" make the people greedy for money, political power, and attention.

So far, the book does have me wanting to read more about these people, but I had to stop because of Mr.Nguyen’s Calculus AB homework. I would recommend this book for those who are curious as to what the psychology and ideology is inside the heads of terrorists of all religions. It does not just discuss about things on the surface but does a deeper research and analysis of their behavior influenced by their surroundings and events.

The Untold Migrations

For my non-fiction novel, I am reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. I am not very far into the book but I am already hooked on it. Wilkerson’s simple dialect and unique writing style makes the book easy to understand while her words still hold a deep meaning. The structure of the book is also very interesting but confusing sometimes. The book is sectioned off into five parts, each with their own set of sections. Under these sections, are more sections that tell the story of a person at a specific time and location.

This book takes place in the twentieth century United States during the Jim Crow years of segregation, discrimination, and racism between whites and blacks. Wilkerson’s book maps out the journey of three individuals who travel from the South towards the West and North during this time of prejudice. The three individuals represent the larger, often undermined migration of blacks during the twentieth century, who migrate for similar reasons: to escape discrimination and prejudice and to seek opportunity.  

By mapping the lives of Ida Mae Gladney, George Sterling, and Robert Foster, Wilkerson portrays the general lifestyle and treatment of blacks in the United States. They lived in a time where blacks could not even pass a white person on the sidewalk or in a car. Blacks could not eat or use the same restrooms as whites. Wilkerson highlights the cruelty behind this segregation and prejudice during the 1900’s but shows the pride and strength that the blacks hold on to.

 

What surprises me the most about the book is its depth in detail. Through interviews, Wilkerson was able to vividly describe the lives of three individuals efficiently and clearly through her words. Her work is able to hold on to the emotion of her three subjects. To be honest, I do not usually like non-fiction books because of the lack of emotion in the text but Wilkerson’s book overrides that. I wish read this book from start to finish in order to learn more in depth about the lives of blacks in the 1900s.

Scary Night

Non-fiction books have never really been my favorite things to read unless they were about sports, so I came into this assignment expecting to get a biography from an athlete. I ended up choosing The Devil in the White City by Erick Larson, a very accredited author. I ended up choosing this based off of the short preview we got in the library, and through the first chapter or so I am beginning to get impatient. However, I am determined to continue reading because it combines two separate stories of a serial killer, and an architect.

It starts off by explaining the way of life in Chicago during the late 1800’s, as Chicago is one of the main cities in the United States at the time. France had just finished building Eiffel Tower, which America took as a challenge, for they had not begun any extravagant architecture themselves. American minds planned on how to rival Frances new wonder of the world, and Daniel Burnman eventually came up with the idea of a World Fair. Burnman was also known for designing the Montauk, or the first building to be known as a skyscraper. The other part of the story surrounds Doctor Holmes. He tricked the new incoming women to staying at his apartment complex and eventually killed them. This White City that Burman had come to create was now showing some problems and headaches for the architect. He was the man to create electricity and lighting that is common in our households today. Both of the men that the book follows are very ingenious ones in their own respect. Burnman went on to make a great and successful World Fair, where Holmes would go to make a World Fair Hotel with gas chamber and crematorium.  When I first heard about the book, it sounded like a fiction novel because of the storyline, but Erick Larson was able to pull out a story from the world fair in Chicago.

The book does start off a little slow when one hears about the mass murder of women and a huge World Fair, but does an excellent job setting up the story. Chicago, who had recently suffered from the great fire of 1871, was finished rebuilding and wanted to show it off to the world. Larson writes of Burnman, whom starts to relive the beginning of the World Fair. Even though the story started of slow, it is interesting, and I am looking forward to the rest of the story.