Page 131, questions 1-4

1. Brideau’s main point is the importance of having hope while going through a catastrophe or hard times. She illustrates this point throughout the essay by telling Lydia’s story, but she doesn’t explicitly say it until the last lines of the essay.

2. Brideau uses the third person to tell Lydia’s story. Typically, I like to read material in the first person, but I think that Brideau’s use of third person is captivating. Her simple sentences of ‘she did this’ and then this happened so ‘she did that’ make the story so interesting and made me want to keep reading it.

3. Brideau makes her narrative come alive with vivid description and detail of Lydia’s story.  To describe the setting she uses words like “chemical odor”, “toxic”, “brown rushing water”, the description of the water rising to about seven feet, “perch”, and “waited alone in the water”.” To describe Lydia, she uses “slender”, “soft spoken”, “she cried over her patients’ conditions too much.” She talked about Lydia needing to “keep her head.” These descriptions appeal to reader’s emotions because they vividly portray a small, sweet, elderly woman perched at the top of her closet while her house floods with dark, dirty water.

4. Since Health Affairs is a magazine focused on health policy and research, its audience would most likely be health care workers and medical researchers. Brideau’s tone is not overly formal and scientific. It is simple and honest, which creates a moving piece that the readers would respond to. Phrases like “countless people in shelters that had once been a hotel, convention center, sports arena, school, church, YMCA”, “enormity of the double hurricanes”, and “it was my privilege to meet and serve them” cerate the tone.

Response to page 23

1.     Writer’s Blog Post

The first piece of writing is my Writer’s Blog Post discussing the question “Is Everyone an Author?” There was no assigned genre for the post and the constraints were just to answer the question in 200 words. Although this was an academic assignment, I kept my tone more casual than formal because it was a blog post and not an essay or research paper. The assignment also allowed me to do this because it was asking if I thought everyone is an author. Since it was my opinion, there was no need for a lot of background information on the topic and I could just express my thoughts.

2.     Lab Report

The second piece of writing is my lab report for my chemistry class. Like the blog post, this was academic, but in a different context. I had to analyze my data and preform calculations; there was no room for my opinion. My tone was precise and formal. It was a very constrained assignment because it was all answering questions and discussing the lab and it had to be done in the format in the lab manual.

3.     Letter

The last piece of writing is a letter I wrote to my grandma. This was very different from the blog post and the lab report. There was no genre or constraints. It was not going to be graded and the audience was just my grandma. Because of this, my tone was able to be casual and friendly and I could discuss my life. I wrote it in a card that I had made, as opposed to typing it in a Word document like my blog post or in my lab manual.

Writers, Authors, and Genres-Robyn Harvey and Erin Molello

2. There were more similarities in our responses. We all agreed that everyone is an author.

·         Social media has had a big impact on the way people write and how often they write.

·         Writing is just putting together thoughts and ideas, and it doesn’t matter what format you write in. Writing something, in any format, makes you an author.

·         We used the example of Anne Frank and her journal to illustrate that everyone can be an author. She had no idea that her private journal was going to be published, let alone be as popular and important as it is. But even if it hadn’t have been published, she would have still been an author because she was expressing her thoughts.

 

3. Writers:                                                                              Authors:

Someone who writes as a hobby	Someone who has been published
Informal	Formal/profession
Songs, poetry	Books, novels
Anonymous	Well-known
Smaller pieces of writing	Longer pieces of writing

 

5. Types of Writing:                                                              Why You Enjoy/Despise it:

Essays	Usually not interested in the topics, forced to do it
Short Stories	Enjoyed it because we had full creative control and could choose the topic
Social Media Post	Never forced to do it, you can post whatever you want to your friends

 

6. Shopping List-Surprise Party

1.       Go to grocery store for food and utensils

2.       Get party decorations

3.       Mail invitations to attached guest list

4.       Make a party playlist

Driving Directions to Pick Up Supplies for the Party:

·         First make your way to Walmart to get the food and utensils, to do this start at home and take a left on Lincoln. Follow Lincoln for about 1 mile then proceed to take a left onto 1^st Avenue your destination will be on your right.

·         Then make your way to party city to pick up the decorations. Start at Walmart and continue heading south on 1^st Avenue, follow for about 3 miles then take a right onto Market St. destination will be on your left.

·         Then make your way from party city to the post office to mail out the inventions. Head out on Market St. for 1 mile then make a left on Baker St. post office is the first building on the right.

·         Next Drive home to make a playlist at your house.

Memo:
 Hello friends! I am throwing a surprise party for my mother this weekend and need help putting everything together! There are 4 things that I would really appreciate your help with. First, buying food and utensils. Second, going to party city for gold decorations. Third, writing invitations and making a list of people that my mom would want at her party. Lastly, making a play list of songs you think would be fun to listen to at the party. Please message me back and tell me which of these you would be interested in helping with. Thanks so much!

Is Everyone an Author?

            I believe everyone is an author. Like the textbook points out, the meaning of the word author and what writing is has changed drastically over the years. I think that is the most important comment in this discussion because being an author no longer means being someone whose work has been published. Not everyone can or does produce the work of say Hemmingway or Fitzgerald, but that doesn’t mean that they are not an author. I believe that everyone has something to say, a story to tell, and thoughts to express. However they share that, whether it is in a novel, a social media post, an essay, a song, or whatever other platform, they created that piece of writing, and therefore they are an author.  Writing in general has changed just as much as what being an author means has. This is mostly due to the Internet. There will always be authors who write books and scholarly essays, but that’s not for everyone and its not the only way to write. For example, a cancer survivor can start a blog or a Facebook page to post their thoughts, words of encouragement, etc. and reach people all around the world who are going through the same thing. The Internet has created many different kinds of writing (websites, blogs, social media) and therefore is making everyone an author.

Collaborative Writing on Writing

      For people our age, the most common form of writing would have to be school papers and writing assignments, however smaller things like sending an informal text message or a social media post seem to dominate out of school writing. The persona swings pretty dramatically between formal literature and informal communication, with a massive consideration for the audience at hand. Our writing style is adaptive to the variety of audiences we write for to make our work appropriate. Writing a paper for your english teacher differs drastically from sending a quick text to your friend. Tying these two polar writing styles together is the “personal narrative” style, meaning writing where the author uses “I” and “you” freely throughout the paper to seemingly blur the lines between formal literature and informal communication. What we have gathered through our years of school is that if you can somehow weave in tone and voice into a formal piece, then it becomes second nature in everyday writing.