Thoughts on Peer Review

Having someone else read and give their opinion on a paper can be very helpful. I have done peer editing since middle school and it has assisted in improving my writing in many ways. Being able to hear opinions and advice from other people can have a positive impact on writing. For the most part, I feel comfortable going through this kind of process. It allows students to notice certain things in their writing or in other students' writing that can be used to work on in increasing writing skills. I would not mind doing peer editing more often because it can't hurt and having more voices would be great. The more opinions from other people there are, the better the opportunity there is to take more advice for sharpening writing techniques.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Me Talk Pretty One Day is about a older student in his forties who is returning to school. The student moved to Paris hoping to learn French. In his first day of class, he felt uncomfortable and the teacher was very rude. The teacher was always criticizing. I think the reason that Sedaris wants to describe many people by their nationality and ethnicity is because he is trying to tell the reader that all sorts of different people are in his class. It is not the normal type of class because students from all over are trying to learn the language. I think this supports the purpose of the essay because it comes to show how all sorts of people are different in unique ways. People may look at a certain race differently and believe they shouldn't be treated the same, but they are all human beings and they all react the same way to certain situations. Not one student walked out of class on the first day feeling comfortable.

Angelou Graduation Response

Maya Angelou went through tough times as a child, particularly in 8th grade. She lived in a period of when segregation still went on. A day that stood out was the day of her graduation. Maya woke up in the morning and the day had a good start to it because breakfast was being prepared on a rare occasion and she had also received two gifts. One was a mickey mouse watch and the other was a book of poems by Edgar Allen Poe. As she was making her way to the ceremony, she felt good in her dress and was excited. Once the ceremony had started a white man by the name of Edward Donleavy made his way to the stage and gave a speech. The whole speech pretty much shut down everyone's hopes. Maya was a hard worker and the other school was getting all new sorts of equipment. Her classmate Henry Reed started singing the Negro national anthem in his speech afterward. This time, Maya understood the anthem clearly word for word. It changed her outlook on a lot of things and made her realize how big of a factor discrimination was in her life.