Portfolio

Dear, Students

A whole year has passed and we have been busy. The school year is coming to the end and it is time to recap. This year we have written many types of writings. Somewhere more polished than others due to amount of time. So as a final project we where to review the year and to make changes to a few things. We were to refine a paper of our choice looking for two parts of good writing. We were also supposed to change a piece of writing into another literacy form. Also we were to chose our best and worst pieces.

            The first part of the project was to revise a previous writing. For this part I chose to revise my literary analysis. I chose to revise my literary analysis because I loved the topic I was writing about and I saw so much potential for improvement. I chose to revise the sentence fluency and the word choice of this paper. I chose sentence fluency because I felt that this paper had choppy and broken sentences. I chose word choice because I believe that this paper left room for great words to be used. But I didn't see it the first time writing it. These are the two things I looked for when I revised my literary analysis. When I went to the writing center I was helped quite immensely. The person in charge who helped me perfect my essay aided me. It was a very awkward experience because I couldn’t read my essay out loud with out faltering her and there. But the experience let me learn quite a lot. About grammar and English overall.
           Next we were to change one of our former writing into a different form. I chose to change a blog post into a poem. The blog post I chose was Do You Have the Skills? I chose this post because I saw room where a poem could be used to convey the same idea. This post was about whether or not you believe that you have the mental and physical strength to kill someone. This topic was a book response to The Hunger Games. I liked to write this post because I questioned the things they aren't usually questioned. When I wrote this poem I tried to get as much imagery from the post into the poem to make a vivid picture to go along with the thoughts. To make it see even harder to kill someone.

Not all writings are good but some are. And when you write a good piece then you should celebrate but don’t forget your bad pieces. For this project we where to pick 2 good pieces and two bad pieces. For my good pieces I chose Do you have the skills and What is death. I chose Do you have the skills because of the great details that I believe to in it. Chose What is death because I loved writing it because of the question I was asking. For misses I chose the literacy narrative and the research paper. I chose the Research paper because I hated writing it I thought I was dragging when I wrote it and it was just a part of confusion for me. I also chose my literacy narrative because of the agony of trying to get as much details in to a paper. This process became boring. I think this is a great process that allows students to reflect on there year.

Over r this year that I am not good at writing research papers, I figured this out because I had difficultly writing my paper even though it was about something I liked. Both of these projects changed something about the first form of writing. Whether the revisions are as drastic as the transformation, or a minute as the revisions. But this portfolio project was one of the most interesting projects I have ever done. Solely because a teacher told us to change a piece of writing we did into another form. It was a fun project.

Sincerely,

Cameron 

Do You Have the Skills?

Peering into her eyes

Can I do it

Seeing their fear

I can’t do it

Shining off my blade

But I must

My arm begins moving

Across her neck

I fight yet don’t

Mind fights and

My arm is adamant

I see red trickle down

Stop! Stop!

My arm finishes the stroke.

I remember it still today

Rhetorical Situation 

For my writing remix I chose to write a poem based on my blog post Do you have the kills. My stance in this poem was to show how it was in human nature to protect yourself from an attacker. To prove that even though we tell our self that we won’t kill anyone. When it comes down to a moment of pure adrenaline then your instincts would take the attacker out before you could stop it.

I believe that it is in most human nature to do anything to survive. Even though most people say that they would never kill anyone no matter what it is irrelevant because human nature can tell us to do things that we don’t want to do. I chose a poem so that I could portray the thoughts of someone in comparison to the actual events taking place.

What is Death?

            In “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the author, Amboise Bierce, uses the point of view of our narrator to ask the reader what really happens when you die. He does this through the narrator’s point of view about what is going on, the setting our main character is in, and what our main character is feeling. All of these are affected by the narrator’s point of view, which forms the question in our mind, what it is like to die?

            The first point Bierce uses to ask his mind-boggling question is the feelings our main character is having and how the narrator’s point of view affects that. In Bierce’s story the narrator’s point of view is third person omniscient. Which means that he can peer into how the character is feeling, this is crucial to the questioning of how we die. When the main character dies the story does not end for the narrator pulls what is going on in the main character’s head. We would think that there would be darkness or nothing. But we see this gruesome scene, “As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead. From this state he was awakened--ages later it seemed to him—by the pain of sharp pressure upon his throat that followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen poignant agonies seemed to shoot downward from his neck through every fiber of his body and limbs” (24). This excerpt is a surprise for at the end we find out that Farquhar our main character was successfully hanged at Owl Creek Bridge. How would our narrator know that in Farquhar’s mind after dying that Farquhar did not see darkness but a whole different story where he was not hanged? So if our narrator was not third person we would not be able to see into his mind and we would just see him as hanged not bringing in this question, how do we die? Though maybe that did happen Bierce was very vague at the end if Farquhar was imaging it all or if it was \all-real. They say that actions speak loader and words.

            Farquhar’s actions should clear up the debate about whether or not the heroic scene was all a figment of his imagination or was real. But if these actions were a figment then only the narrator’s point of view would be able to interpret the actions inside Farquhar’s mind. So once again the narrator’s point of view is the only way we are able to see these actions. As we see through the narrator’s eyes, “He was not conscious of an effort but a sharp pain in his wrist apprised him that he was trying to free his hands. He gave the struggle his attention, as an idler might observe the feat of a juggler, without interest in the outcome. What splendid effort!—what magnificent, what superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine endeavor! Bravo! The cord fell away…” (24). The actions and commentary from Farquhar’s mind in the excerpt that only the narrator had access to shows that he has living human actions he attempt to survive. So this could have been real. But the average human doesn’t have the strength to break binds around their hands. That specific action nudges the scene more to the figment side than to the real side. His actions in this passage could throw the argument either way, “Ah how beautiful she is! He springs forward with extended arms. As she is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound of cannon…” (27).

An instance of pure whiteness surrounding a person and engulfing them is strange almost dream-like this moment of pure joy is met by sheer terror. Farquhar is confused about what is happening which suggest that he believes that this moment felt life like. Though we know that these things do not happen in the life of an average person; this dream-like excerpt helps the cause that Farquhar is imagining all of this heroic escape from the clutches of the Confederates. If this is true then our narrator is the only one to have access. Without that point of view we would have no access and then they would be no escape, no heroic scene, and most of all no question.

            Farquhar, our main character, in his heroic scene, sees the strangest setting. The description of the setting may be what answers the question of whether or not the point of view has a large affect on the portraying of the question, how do we die? The Narrator depicts this scene, “He dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of nothing beautiful, which it did not resemble. The trees upon the bank were giant garden plants; he noted a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the fragrance of their blooms.” (26). This is a truly amazing scene that is extremely detailed and odd. Sand like jewels these are not descriptions that we use for real life sand. Which means he must be imaging this and the only person with the key to Farquhar’s (besides himself) imagination is our third person omniscient narrator. This setting of the bank with its large garden plants is like heaven for Farquhar. Why would he be in his heaven if he were alive? That statement means that he must be dead. If Farquhar is dead and his brain is imagining this all, then how can we see it? If the point of view is third person omniscient, then we would be able to. Well in “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” it is.

             The point of view of our narrator is so crucial to Bierce planting the question of how do we die in our mind. That it is almost necessary; for if we did not have the omniscient point of our narrator, we would not be able to see inside the imagination of Farquhar. We would see it, as it would have really happened. Farquhar was shoved off the side of Owl Creek Bridge and was hanged. The rope would not break, and he would see his wife. He would die. Though thankfully we do see what is going on in Farquhar’s extensive imagination. We see him using super human strength to break the binds. We see him run to his wife only to be caught short by death. So if the narrator did not have the omniscience that it did, then we would have not story to ask a question.

Works Cited:

Bierce, Ambrose. “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” English I. Ed. Edwards and deGravelles. San Diego, CA: University Readers, 2012. 21-27. Print.

Hits:

What is Death?

Do you have The Skills?

Misses:

Literacy Narrative

Brain over Braun: How the Americans won the Revolutionary War.