Our first assignment of the semester is going to be a personal essay entitled,
This I Believe. This will be an extremely short essay (between 350 and 500 words), but it will help us to get to know each other and to explore the concept of voice and tone in our writing. Below is a description of the project as found on This I Believe's website.
"This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. More than 90,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here on our website, heard on public radio, chronicled through our books, and featured in weekly podcasts. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow" (
http://thisibelieve.org/).
This assignment is a great way to find your voice as a writer. Please visit the link above and listen to at least two essays (by one male and one female) before class on September 3, 2010. Please let me know which essays, authors, and your thoughts about what you read/ heard in the comments section below.
Mrs. McNeely
Quique Aviles- I Will Take My Voice Back
ReplyDeleteI thought Quizue's act of writing this essay about his addiction, while noble, will lead him to an unstable place. His last statement, "I believe that crack can kill me, but in the end, communication and direct human contact will save me", makes me hurt for him. Yes, direct human contact and communication might break Aviles from his addiction and hurt here on earth, but, "in the end", communicating will do nothing for him if God is not in him. My heart aches for Quique Aviles.
Betsy Chalmers- The Faith That Brings Me Peace
Heroic, Biblical, astounding, and thought-provoking. All, I believe, apt words for describing Betsy Chalmers's essay.
(It said that Lauren Batchelor is posting these comments, but, this is actually Katie Batchelor.)
ReplyDeleteThere Is No God
ReplyDeletePenn Jillette
Mr. Jillette is a comedian who lives quite contentedly in Las Vegas, Nevada with his family, his friends, and his blindness. He calls himself an over-zealous atheist, and he believes there is no God, and no need for a God. He chooses to blindly ignore the possibility a judge, yet he gazes at the judge’s gifts and realizes that they are good. He says, “Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have…” I pity this man, for one day he will discover that it was the very God he denies that created the things he idolizes…
My Father Told me I was Fat
Cherie
This essay, though not professionally written or outlined, made a strong impression on me for two reasons. First, the author shows just how powerful words are, and that damage, once inflicted, is not quickly healed. Second, the author showed the importance of writing, and how the strokes of a pen can wipe away all tears…