Vanessa: Willing but Uninspired

“I hate writing,” Vanessa, a 10th-grade student, told us. “I don’t like reading, but I really hate writing.” Pressed further, she added this reflection to her comment: “It’s like I know what I need to say, but I can’t get it to be the way my teachers want. It always sounds fine to me when I read it, and then I fail.”

Essays are concepts that try to explore the mind and it tries to get a student to gain more knowledge in their writing than they would not have understood. It is required to choose books and think of a common theme that would allow us to see a relationship between books. All types of books have some relation to one another, which can enhance the thought of others considering each one has a different view on most things. For this research essay, I have chosen the selec tion of books which are based upon the common theme of containing characters who resist authority in various ways.

Mr. Hall’s Assignment:

The House Plan

Dear Mr. Hall,So look, once I was at Barbara’s house. Well, I go there a lot. Anyways, we were outside sitting on her porch looking at this tree in her yard, right? So we’re sitting outside, and we’re talking about the tree, then the conversation lags and we just sit there. But what’s that we hear? We both turn around to each other and stare at each other with inten sity and our mouths are just totally open. And so then Ashley goes, “Is that the ice cream truck . . . ?” And Then I’m like “OH MY GOSH. IT IS. RUN RUN RUN!!” So Barbara runs into her room and I start to follow her then I’m like NO, and I go throw open the front door and run down the street to the ice cream man and I’m running after him like “WAIT!!” And then he waits, and we get Spongebob popsicles. It was pretty grand.

Even though my uncle was young during the Viet Nam war, his life was still affected by it and he still remembers important moments to this day. Viet Nam was a life changing not only to America itself, but also the citizens and families within it. When I zeroed in on a person who was directly affected by the war instead of just reading about what happened it made me realize that no matter how young or old you are, if you are involved in an event like Viet Nam it will shape who you are in that moment and make you who you the person you turn out to be.

“It didn’t get an A,” Vanessa said of the assignment. “But it did get a B. I made some errors, even in the final draft. But I worked pretty hard on that paper—I really did the research in the library and online, unlike most of my friends. Partly that was because I knew my uncle would see it and partly because I wanted Mr. Hall to like it.”

Sarah: Voice

Problems

Names are a very important part of one’s personality. The name Sarah, for instance, comes from the Bible. This shows that names have a long tradition for many people. Tradition helps to determine the adult one becomes.

My name is Sarah. It’s a name from the Bible, but that’s not why I like it. I love my name because it rolls on your tongue, because my mother gave it to me as a gift, and because it ends with the sound you make when you see a beautiful mountain or sunrise. I like to think of my mother holding me after I was born, looking down at me wrapped up like a present and saying my name: Sarah.

I don’t know what the grown-up Sarah looks like yet, just like I don’t know what grown-up Sarah does for a job, where she lives, or whether she has a family of her own. When she looks back, I don’t know what she’ll remember about me. But we’ll have one thing in common: a name.

Several drafts later….

The correct way to pronounce my name is “a’-kee-eh”. Each sylable pronounced distinctly and sharply without blending into the next sylable. Unfortunately, when people try to pronounce it “in the right way,” they actually mispronounce it by creating a whole different word, sound, and meaning: a’-ki-ya. Which means an “empty house” in the Japanese language. In my opinion, being “a key” is better than being an “empty house,” because akie is from the word aki. Which in Japanese language means autumn the best season of the year! Even though the pronunciation of autumn aki is different from the English word “a key” I am willing to be “a key”. I could lock door of an empty house.

-Akie Maekawa

Katy: Kindergarten Writer