Telling True Stories Reading

The section that stuck out to me the most was "On Voice" written by Susan Orlean. Often i find myself trying to write like someone I'm not. I found it interesting that she told the reader "The way you tell a story over dinner is true to who you are, whether that is deeply analytical or extremely witty." I found myself thinking about how I actually tell stories to my friends and family. Orlean goes on to say that "you can't invent a voice" and I completely agree with her. Although it may take practice and a lot of lessons from the oh-so-wise Nicole Williams, every writer will find their voice.

Expectations for Book Club

In book club I obviously expect to read a boo, but I would also like tok get to know my classmates.  I don't have any ideas about what the book may be about but I do hope that my group chose an interesting book. By the end of the semester, I hope to get a good grade, possibly an A.

Zepp's Last Stand Response

The essay “Zepp’s Last Stand” is about a man named Edward Zepp who was dishonorably discharged from the army after refusing to go to war based off of his Protestant religion. A person higher up than him put a gun to his head when he refused and that was a huge problem on top of the whole ordeal. He went so many years trying to fight it and kept getting denied a hearing. The sad about about him finally being able to get his hearing is that his wife died before he could finally fight for his status. The story tells about his journey from Florida going North on the train to Washington DC to the Pentagon. He relived his story in the military on his way up there and it seems very hard for him to deal with. He realizes that his status won’t really mean anything to anyone but him. When he finally gets to DC he meets with a young lawyer who offered to take his case for free after reading about in a magazine. Not much detail is put into the case itself when he has to fight for his rights, but he does eventually end up winning and getting his status changed to honorable. The article was very hard to follow and it was confusing because it was unclear who he was telling his story to. Other than that, all the information was portrayed in a way that made sense. There was some background information about his family included which was important because is gives character to this person rather than just telling the story of this one event in his life. Overall, the account of his story was pleasing and all the information was very relevant, rather than the other story.

Mrs. Kelly's Monster Response

The essay “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster” is about a woman named Edna Kelly who is getting an operation done on her brain by Dr. Ducker. She was born with a mass of vessels in her brain that caused two aneurysms to form.  The mass also caused her to become partly and blind and paralyzed. It had great effects on her life to the point that she had to decide if she wanted to live with a low quality of life with it, or possibly die on the table trying to take it out along with the two aneurysms. The article goes into great detail about Dr. Ducker’s day and how the operation unfolded. It describes the process of the operation down to the anesthesiologist and the the tools he used to remove the mass. The first aneurysm was removed successfully but when Dr. Ducker went to remove the second one, he ran into some issues. The mass that caused the aneurysms actually lied really close to the aneurysm as well as the brain stem which controls heartbeat and breathing. Dr. Ducker took his lunch break and at that point they figured out that Mrs. Kelly would die and the “monster” had won. The article was very interesting but I feel like there was a lot of information that was not needed. The information about the doctor’s lunch was not needed as well as the process of his day before the surgery. It should have focused more on Mrs.Kelly’s life and her journey to the surgery rather than focusing on the doctor so much since he was not the one going through the life changing ordeal.

Profile Essay!

For my profile essay I have decided to interview a woman named Debra Thompson. She is a special edu teacher and I met her through my dad. Debra is one of my dads patients, and I got to spend the day observing in her classroom. While with Debra I earned about the extremely rough patch of time that she has been going through. I thought that her story would make a great profile essay because its her chance to tell her story about what happened. I do have some concerns about making her my topic and at the moment I do not have a back up. However is the situation arises I will select a new person to interview.