"Swiss Miss"

        In Amanda Thompson’s personal essay, Swiss Miss, (2015), she suggests that it’s not all the bad when someone figures you out and wants to try to socialize with you, even if it may scare you at first. The author develops her stance by recalling an experience she had when she was younger. Thompson wrote this essay in order to demonstrate that showing feeling, breaking out of your shell, and letting people figure you out a little is totally okay. The intended audience of Thompson’s essay was people who may be socially awkward or apprehensive of making friends with others.
        I can relate to Thompson’s essay in so many ways. I myself can appear nonchalant most
of the time. This leads to many people misinterpretation of who I actually am. Unless someone
is my friend, they tend to think I have a “I’m too good for everyone” type attitude. I realized
when somebody fully understand you, they start to develop negative judgement of the kind of
person you are. I feel that’s because we’re only human. We always have to understand and
know everything. The girls on the bus for example. They couldn’t understand Amanda’s stoic
personality; they thought Amanda hated them. Towards the end of the essay, they came to
their own conclusion of her, trying to make sense in their mind of her passive behavior.
       Everyone knows at least one anti social person. This personal essay was written as a way to get people to better understand a person’s decision to separate themselves from others, at least a little bit. In the text we can see that in the time that Thompson took for herself, she was simply thinking. “... I refused to participate when I wasn’t needed so that I could observe and think about the things that piqued my interest…”(Thompson, 134) However, because this behavior is not seen as normal, she was often misunderstood. When they were on their trip, the girls that were roomed with Thompson tried to identify what ever emotion she was feeling that caused her to appear mute and separated. This is because that sort of behavior is always paired with a negative emotion. The girls finally realize that Thompson would rather just stay separated from everyone as to not get too involved, however they still made an extra effort to make her feel included. “Regardless of my apprehension, i continued to spend time with the very people i had once detested...”

"Watch Your Language"

       In Mark Larson’s English journal, The Great Debate (Again): Teaching Grammar and Usage, (1996), he asserts that the effectiveness of a piece of writing is more important than the correctness of it. In this piece of writing, Larson supports his thesis by explaining personal experiences of his and by quoting people who are experts in the field of linguistics. Larson wrote this piece in order to inform people that it’s okay not to have totally correct grammar as long as you know how to effectively get your message across depending on the context in which you are writing. The intended audience of Larson’s writing is English teacher and experts.
        I was really happy when reading this article because I didn’t believe teachers like him existed. Mark Larson believed student should contribute their own “language” to their work not just the standard English. He’s not the strict stick to the book type of teacher which is why I like him. He works towards individualism in each student. I definitely agree with him when it comes to students doing the work just for the grade. Writing should be a tool for student to express themselves. Forcing students to stick to the rules and regulations is taking the true purpose of writing away for many people.
       The purpose of this essay was to open the eyes of many who are blinded by the rules and regulations of grammar. Being a teacher, Larson figured out that students see the many rules placed on our language as impassible barriers, simply because we are told that what we know is wrong. “‘...the linguistic form a student brings to school is intimately connected to loved ones, community, and personal identity. To suggest that this form is ‘wrong’ or even worse, ignorant, is to suggest that something is wrong with the student and his or her family’”(Larson, 93). The purpose of writing is to bring your point across in a way that other people will understand as well. “...[writing] is, as Anne Lamont (1994) says, ‘about our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong.’”(Larson, 95) However, when these rules are implemented so harshly, it stops being something we enjoy, but rather becomes a task to write. It is not very enjoyable to write a piece that is just going to be considered wrong and incorrect. “It is not as if our students do not hear the standard form of English every day. Much of what we witness and are likely to misinterpret in the classroom is resistance, shyness, and disinterest, not lack of linguistic ability.” (Larson, 94)

"A Trip to the Library"

In Richard Wright’s, personal essay, A visit to the Library, (1945), he suggests that reading is important because it can have an immense impact on the way people view their environment and others around them. In this essay, the author supports his thesis by recalling events from his past. Wright wrote this essay in order to inform people of the impact that reading can have on a person, especially when reading hasn’t always been accessible to them. The intended audience of the piece is people who face discrimination and people who would really benefit from the new knowledge that can obtained by simply reading.  

I enjoyed reading this essay because it reveals the struggle African American faced back in the Civil Rights era. It amazed me the risk one man will take just to educate himself. Richard was really brave to ask a white man for help. It became very sad at the end. After reading many novels, it became evident to Richard that he missed out on so many opportunities in life because of the color of his skin. At first, he was like a child and candy, always wanting to read books. Then the harsh knowledge stripped his innocence away. He became more aware of the world he lived in.

One of the reasons for this story was to portray the importance of reading and the effect that reading has on an individual. Whenever he was caught reading, he was either warned or it peaked the interest of the person who found him. And one thing he constantly heard was “... when you’re through reading those books, I want you to tell me what you get out of them.”(Wright, 129) At the time, it was very taboo for a black person to actually read, but that just made him want to read even more. However, the more he read and gained knowledge, we can see the change it made in him and on his outlook of the world. He began to see differently because he was no longer ignorant to how other people thought. “Again I would read and wonder as only the naive and unlettered can read and wonder, feeling that I carried a secret, criminal burden about with me each day.” (Wright, 132)