Literacy Narrative

                                                           How I Became a Good Writer
                                                                       
                                                                        By: Cam Hall

           Most people improve as writers over the course of their lives. Depending on the individual, it may take longer for this person to obtain better writing skills than others. A large number of people have become better writers through continued pratice over and over again. Everybody has become a better writer through one way or another, or by multiple ways, as well. I have improved as a writer overtime through aid, writing assignments, and my commitment to my writing.
           Aid has allowed me to improve as a writer overtime, during my life. One important source of aid that I received was from my teachers. During my years of regular grade school, my teachers explained to me how to write research papers and essays in proper ways. These ways included using citations to cite where anyone took somebody else's information from and how to form my thesis statements. Another important source of aid that I received when I younger came from my family, mostly my mom. My mom would teach me how to spell words that I was unfamiliar with. In addition, she would proofread my writing to see if I made any mistakes and then point those mistakes out to me afterwards and then help me to fix them. The aid that I received from my teachers and my family have greatly helped me to improve as awriter, during my life time.
          Writing assignments have allowed me to improve as a writer, during my life. One kind of writing assignment that helped me to improve as a writer was in the form of basic handwriting activities, back in elementary school. These activities required a student to write capital letters extending from the top of a line space to the bottom of a line space and have the lower case letters take up half of the space while touching the bottom of the line space. I was eventually able to write very neatly and professionally in these assignments. Another kind of writing assignment that helped me to improve as a writer was research papers and/or essays. These types of assignments usually taught me how to write properly at more challenging levels and in different forms. These assignments also had lots of requirements, as well. For example, these assignments required me a times to type on computers using double spacing and 12 sized text with the Times New Roman style font. In addition, I would be required to make several different paragraphs and statements all revolving around a thesis statement, and other things, as well. The writing assignments that I received back in grade school have helped me to become a better writer, during my life time.
         My commitment to my writing has allowed me to improve as a writer overtime, during my life. One way that I have been loyal to my writing has been that I have hardly ignored and/or decided not to do my writing assignments at all. In doing this, I have allowed myself to experience different levels of writing, from easy to hard, and allowed myself to become familiar with them, so that way I can easily figure out what I want to do with other writing assignments that I will receive in the future during my college life, similar to the ones that were given to me back in regular grade school. Another way that I have been loyal to my writing has been that I have most often tried to fulfill all of the requirements that have been expected to have been carried out by myself on my writing assignments. I have been good with checking to make sure that I haven't missed anything that has been required of me on an essay and/or other kind of writing assignment. I have mostly been successful at doing this. My commitmeent to my writing has helped me to become a better writer, during my life time.
        I have become a better writer as a whole over the course of my life through aid, writing assignments, and my commitment to my writing. However, despite my great skills that I have at writing, I can still improve in certain areas of the writing process, and such. One way that I can improve is to try not to wait till the last minute or the and/or the day before a writing assignment is due to start working on it. I tend to this most of the time, since I don't like to work on certain assignments several days before they are due,especially when I know that want to have free time to use up. Starting to prepare to write out the final draft of a writing assignment that I have, by making a rough draft of it, and such, a couple of days before it is due will allow me to have more time to fix mistakes and proofread my work so I can make it look a lot better for when it is due. Another way that I can improve as a writer is to try writing more in other formats and ways that I have not tried as much, so I can improve on them, as well. These other formats include cause and effect, using analogies, and other ones, as well. In doing this, I would be able to have a lot more experience as a writer. In conclusion, the more unfamiliar things to myself in the world of writing that I might try later on in my life, the better I know that I will become as a writer in my future life time.

                    

Writing About the Rhetorical Situation

                                                        Lady Gaga Music Review Analysis

                                                                         By: Cam Hall

           Jon Pareles' article entitled Lavish Worlds, and the Headwear to Match, which serves as a personal music review of Lady Gaga, is a great informational tool to readers who know little about Lady Gaga's music career, as well as her biggest fans. This article provides basic information about Lady Gaga's image, inspiration, song lyrics, performances, and other important information that is about her music career. In the article, Jon Pareles makes a number of certain choices that relate to the genre of a music review and help to enhance the article as a whole. One significant choice that Pareles makes is to give readers an insight into how Lady Gaga presents herself in public and at big events, like her own Monster Ball Tour and an awards ceremony. He provides an example of the way she appeares during a live performance, "She first appeared behind a computerized grid, with a lighted costume that made her more a collection of white dots than a body: a figure in an electronic universe, . . ." (Pareles http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/music/22gaga.html). This choice relates to the genre of a music review, because many music artists and producers today are concerned with image over great musical talent and composition, and image is something people comment on a lot today when they discuss current music acts. Another significant choice that Pareles makes is that he compares Lady Gaga to other music artists from the past while explaining how she stnads out from these other artists. Pareles makes this choice in the following sentence, "While showpeople like David Bowie and Madonna established this career path, Lady Gaga is strutting along it with larger-than-life style and musical gifts" (http;//www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/music/22gaga.html). This choice relates to the genre of a music review, because most writers that are assigned to write articles on certain music artists often look at older music artists to see if they can trace any lines of inspiration that the artist that they are writing about got from these artists, and how he or she is bringing his or her act one step further than those that inspire him or her from generations before. John Pareles carefully considers the audience he is trying to attract when writing this article and makes certain choices that reflect an understanding to viewers as to who the targeted readers are and why these people are reading.
          The ways in which Jon Pareles carefully considers the audience the audience that he is aiming for are evident throughout the article. One way that Jon Parels carefully considers the audience that he is aiming for is clear based on his decision to include a wide array of information on how Lady Gaga is a standout music talent that presents herself in certain ways, unlike other current music artists. He gives insight into Lady Gaga's outrageous performances and costumes, which is able to easily intrigue readers to find out more about Lady Gaga. Pareles comments on several pieces of headwear that Lady Gaga has worn in the past in the article, "Onstage and in photos on video screens, she wore Egyptian-deity golden armor, antlers, a shiny red chauffeur's hat, a spiked black hood and an exoskeletonlike helmet, . . ." (http;//www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/music/22gaga.html). Another way that Pareles carefully considers the audinece that he is aiming for is evident based on his decision to provide specific information about the composition of Lady Gaga's songs. This kind of information allows certain readers to consider listening to her music, if they have not done so, in the past. Jon Pareles provides decent information about Lady Gaga's songs in the article, "Lady Gaga's songs are solid, most often pumped up by hefty Eurodisco beats . Between snappy choruses - "Just dance" or "Caught in a bad romance" - her verses sometimes revel in desire, sometimes question it" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/music/22gaga.html). Jon Pareles carefully considers the audience that he is aiming for in the article in other ways, as well.
          Jon Pareles makes certain choices that reflect an understanding as to who the targeted readers are and why these specific people are reading. One choice that Jon Pareles makes that reflects an understanding of as to who certain readers are is his decision to include a statement by Lady Gaga herself about the way she feels about her fans and how she goes out of her way to please them. This choice made by Pareles gives viewers the idea that he is targeting loyal fans of Lady Gaga as a part of his wide audience that he aims to reach out to. The loyal fans of Lady Gaga would be reading this article, because they could be looking for interesting facts on their idol that they might not know about and be curious as to how music reviewers would judge her, as well. The statement made by Lady Gaga is the following, ""When they ask me why I spent all my money on my show, I tell them, because my fans are sexy," she said" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/music/22gaga.html). Another choice that Jon Pareles makes that reflects an understanding of as to who certain readers are is his decision to provide information on what her stage persona is like and how it changes from one to another during her shows. This choice made by Pareles gives viewers the idea that he is targeting people who are curious as to what different sides exist to Lady Gaga. These kinds of people would want to read this article, because they would want to know exactly what her goals are, besides being far-out in the music industry, and if she is a kind, benevolent person, or a stuck-up, conceited person, or a little bit of both, and other things, as well. John Pareles provides information on Lady Gaga's stage persona during a show in the following statement, "Her stage persona veered from kindly - urging fellow misfits to follow their dreams, announcing that proceeds from her Jan. 24 show would be donated to Haiti relief - to bellicose, at one point taking a gun off her piano and aiming it at the audience, . . ." (http:www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/music/22gaga.html). Jon Pareles makes other choices that reflect and understanding as to who the targeted readers are and why these specific people are reading, as well. John Pareles article Lavish Worlds, and the Headwear to Match, is a great informational tool for anybody wanting to learn more about Lady Gaga and her music career.

Introduction

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                       My Introduction    
                                                          By: Cam Hall

            My name is Cam A. Hall. I am currently a freshman student at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, MA. The major that I am focusing on during my time in college is history and musuem studies. A specific part of history that I am looking to be my focus is current history, more specifically current American history. This area of American history includes all of the major events that took place in and around America from about the year 1900 up to the present day. In relationship with my major, I plan to work at a history museum one day. As a worker in a museum like this I could possibly be a tour guide or help with the organization of certain exhibits and areas around the museum. Besides my educational and occupation goals, there are other interesting things to know about myself.
           In addition to my life-long goals, there is more to know about myself. One interesting fact about myself is that I love to watch horror movies. I am fascinated by the genre and I collect horror figurines of characters from notable horror films. The collection of characters that I have includesJason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th film series, Pinhead from Clive Barker's Hellraiser, Michael Myers from Halloween, and Chucky from the Child's Play film series. Another interestingfact about myself is that I like older generation pop musicians from before my time, mainly Michael Jackson and Madonna. I like both of these musicians to a certain degree, and I have all of there studio albums, in addition to some of their compilation albums and other existing albums that they have put out as well. In addition, I also have collections of their music videos on DVD which include the following: Michael Jackson's Vision, Madonna - The Video Collection 93:99, and Madonna - Celebration: The Video Collection. One other interesting fact about me is that is that I took horseback riding lessons from when I was around six years old up until near the time when I turned eighteen years old. During a lesson, I would walk and trot the horse that I was riding around the ring. In addition, I would canter around the ring, jump over poles, and weave from left to right inbetween cones that were set up within the ring. There are other interesting facts about myself that I have not mentioned yet. This is my introduction, and I hope that everybody enjoys getting to know about me.

Richard Nixon: Positive or Negative President to America By: Cam Hall

           One of the most recognizable and well-known presidents in the history of America was Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon was the president of the U.S.A. from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Many people had mixed reviews of Nixon during his presidency, some stating that he was good in some ways but bad in other ways. Others felt complete hatred towards him or completely loved him. Personally, I feel as though Richard Nixon was more negative towards America and it's people, during his presidency. One reason why he was more negative is because of his response to the situation of low American supplies that came from the war in the Arab nations, connected with the oil crisis. Many Americans were angry to see the prices of their everyday natural resources go up, as a result of this. Bread went from 28 cents to 89 cents, and gas went from 25 cents to 65 cents. Another reason why Nixon was more negative was because of his need to not support civil rights. Many black people, and other groups of people, too, were outraged over Nixon's ignorance to their hopes of living the American Dream. Nixon ended busing to integrate schools and hr cut the funding for fair housing laws. Nixon did all of this as a result of his lack of support from the black community when he was in the process of being elected. One other reason that Nixon was more negative towards America was his whole involvment in the Watergate Scandal. Nixon tried to secretly wiretap all of the phone lines in the Watergate Hotel so he could hear the discussions of the people in the Democratic Party in hopes of copying their ideas to make his image look better. Unfortunately for Nixon, his henchmen were caught and the evidence was traced back to him and eventually the whole situatuion was made public. This made Americans lose their trust in the government and they viewed Nixon as a theiving, lying, greedy snake. This whole situation resulted in Nixon getting impeached and sworn out of office, being replaced by Gerald Ford as the president. Many bad remarks were made about Nixon after the Watergate Scandal. Overall and finally, it is clearly evident that Nixon was more negative than positive to America, especially little the positive things that he did do during his presidency did little to make him be viewed any better by the American public.

Equal Rights Amendment Reflection By: Cam Hall

               The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a very famous amendment in American history. This amendment promised that it would make discrimination based on a person's gender illegal. Many women supported the idea of this amendment, because they wanted to be considered equal to men and hold the same rights that men had, too. These women were tired of being stuck in the house all day doing what was expected of them and being what society considered normal for a lady to be like. However, there were many other women and men who opposed the idea of the Equal Rights Amendment, stating that being typical housewives was no a big deal and that the other ladies were being overdramatic and too resistant and rebellious in the entire situation. In the end, the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 but it was never approved by at least 38 states, which was a requirement for the ERA to be passed into law and into the Constitution. Personally, I do support the idea of the Equal Rights Amendment. One main reason why I do support the amendment is because I find it unacceptable for women to be considered less important than men and for them to be denied their civil liberties. Another main reason why I do support the amendement is because if we give women the chance to have full-time jobs just like men and to be able to prosper, then they can experience true happiness alongside with the good men who support the amendment, too. I feel as though the amendment should be revised today. I feel this way, because it we allow women to experience the wonderful things in society that men do, then our economy and everything around it can change for the better. If we pass this amendment into law, then we can see the light, leading us to a better future.

Jackie Robinson: A Great Civil Rights Movement Figure By: Cam Hall

    I do feel that Jackie Robinson deserves to be ranked as one of the greatest civil rights figures in American history. One reason why he deserves this title is because he carried a strong sense of courage and self-consciousness with him that made him a true hero. Jackie Robinson managed to keep a straight face while being taunted by white people and he always never got extremely nervous when being in front of large crowds of white people at his games. Another reason why he deserves this title is because he proved that talent and ability belonged to all men and people, no matter what skin color they are. Jackson Robinson blew crowds of white people away with his spectacular display of skill during his baseball games. One other reason why he deserves this title is because he encouraged people to express themselves no matter what they look like and also to encourage these people to make others respect them for who they are as people and not just based on talents and skills. Jackie Robinson will always be remembered as a great civil rights movement figure in American history.

"The Butter Battle Book" Ending By: Cam Hall

...............
Then, all of a sudden, there came a loud yell
This yell was just as loud as a bell
It came from a wise creature called the Dancer
He was a very good friend of the Prancer
He told the Yooks and the Zooks that fighting is not the right way to solve their issues
They should just learn to respect each other for their differences and this process doesn't require any tissues
The Dancer explained that love for each other and racial harmony are the keys to making the world a better place
And this would benefit the entire human race
The Yooks and the Zooks saw their mistakes with fighting each other
And after this, they all treated each other like good brothers
From then on the Yooks and the Zooks remained great friends
And this is something that will never end
                                                                   The End