Snapshot # 3

Small

Lights, camera and action is what you think when you hear the word 'stage'. But for me, this world is a stage and all living beings are the lively characters performing their role on this stage. Every living being has an important role and humans DO NOT have the spotlight!

Successful group work

I have worked in a group setting with several organizations. One such organization is the International Student Council (ISC). ISC is an umbrella organization for all the international and multicultural groups on campus and we host several cultural, educational and entertaining events for these organizations. It takes a lot of time and effort to organize these events as we have to work with people from different departments. Thankfully we have been successful in organizing such events every year due to our passion and love for this organization. I believe communication is the key factor. If communication is well maintained between all the sub-parts of the group, one can succeed in their goals.

Imitating Annie Dillard

Every time I enter my house, a peculiar smell attracts me. Its the smell of herbs and spices we use in our cooking. The strong smell reminds me of home in India. I can imagine the small box where the spices are kept. It is a small round box with several small bowls arranged in a flower-like arrangement. Every bowl has a different spice: chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, salt and garam masala (brown powder). Every spice has its own texture and taste. Salt is white in color and free flowing; chilli powder is red in color and it is a fine powder made of grounded chillies. Similarly, turmeric is a fine yellow powder that has healing properties and coriander is fine green powder made of dried coriander leaves that were ground. Cumin and mustard seeds have completely different texture and shape. Mustard seeds are small round black seeds while cumin seeds are small spindle-shaped brown seeds. Garam Masala is the tastiest and spiciest of all spices and it is brown in color. It adds the best flavor to the food. The box also contains one small silver tea spoon to be used while making food. Such is the arrangement of all the spice box whose contents help in making some of the healthiest and most flavorful food!

Sandra Steingraber issue

There are organizations like PAN North America that are addressing issues raised by Sandra Steingraber. They have their own campaigns and actions that we could join and support. But if we want to take immediate action on a local level, we could try to spread awareness as the first step. The different ways to spread awareness would be to have documentary showing with a discussion panel; let the school children and parents know about the health risks related to pesticide-infested food; have demonstrations on campus about the issues; market events related to the issues so that more people attend such awareness programs.

Social and Environmental changes

Education has exposed me to the environmental and social problems existing around the world. I have tried to address some of these issues on a personal as well as a group level. The various actions that I have taken to address these problems are as below:

• Recycling of papers, cans et cetra.
• Reducing consumption as a consumer and purchasing things that are required only.
• Spread awareness about hunger and poverty by organizing a 12 Hour Famine event during the celebration of International Week 2009 organized by International Student Council. The students who participated, did not eat food for 12 hours while learning about the different problems a starving person goes through. We had several simulations, games, activities, videos and discussions to help the participants have first hand experience.
• Co-founded UNICEF @ ISU to address social problems and raise money to help towards it.
  

Personal Mission Statement

I am a caring person and I strongly believe in not hurting anyone in the process of doing one's own tasks. I am concerned about the environment, wildlife and humans equally. I believe in progress of the world and not just humans. I want to be able to live justly in all spheres of my life and I want to try my best to do so without being bound by the problems of human existence.

Blood Dazzler: Part 1

How does the writer structure the poem and to what effect?

In one of Patricia Smith's poems, 'Katrina', the writer describes the disastrous hurricane Katrina's characteristics by personalizing it and writing it as if she herself was the hurricane. The usage of 'I' in the poem personifies the hurricane and thus has a great impact.

The poem starts with the explanation that it had started elsewhere and then proceeds to the change of its character while it was advancing towards New Orleans and then it ends with what it had done. The line breaks in the poem are dramatic and give the effect of the sequence of events that occurred. The writer's use of words like 'bitch-monikered' and 'scraping toward the first of you' shows the character of hurricane itself. The poem starts with a low tone and then builds to a higher one and then comes to a sudden end indicating the movement of hurricane. Such build-up from start to finish showcases the vicious character of the hurricane.

The Ninemile Wolves

Look at the transitions between paragraphs or between sections.How does he or she make these transitions? What effect do they have on the forward momentum of the piece?

The transitions in this essay are easy to follow and every transition connects to the line of thought presented in the preceding paragraphs. Such transitions gives a rhythmic flow to it where every dot is connected in a series. Such transitions eggs the reader to read further. Rick Bass uses different kinds of transitions. Sometimes he starts a paragraph with a transitional statement like "It took a lot of money to kill every last wolf out of the West" (Bass, 762), while at other times he uses a transitional statement to end the paragraph like "Our culture has replaced buffalo with cattle, and wolves kill and eat cows, sometimes." This use of mixture of transitional statements gives the flow to the essay that it has. The transitional statements do not seem to be conclusion of a paragraph but help understand a series of thoughts in one essay.

Outline

Introduction
Name of the author, article's title, author's purpose, audience, thesis statement, mention 2-3 strategies that one would analyze

Body
Analyze the strategy through usage of ethos/logos/pathos.
Use facts, quotations, evidence for the strategies for the essay.
Organization of essay with transition and summarizing statement for each paragraph.
Refer using MLA statement.

Conclusion
Summarize the essay and state how it supports the overall thesis.
Ending comments


Group

Victor
Zitao
Yuanzhen
Nidhi

McCandless/Thoreau

Differences

Thoreau built his own house in the wild to live but interacted with the society every now and then to get essential things to live while McCandless completely detached himself from the society.

Similarities

Both are looking for the truth of life and want to experience life themselves.

Snapshots

Snapshot # 1

Where?

A dead bonfire
Rising smoke,
Empty cans of beer
Silence broke
Where are all the people
who were here
Just a night before!!!

Snapshot # 2

Early morning park walks is one of the most pleasant experiences. The fresh, cool breeze; scent of wet wood and walking barefoot on dewy grass calms one mind and heart to experience heaven on earth. But today, do we have a moment to think beyond reducing our waist size?

Snapshot # 3

Lights, camera, action

The Summer Day

Find specific examples of abstract and concrete language. What are the effects?


The questions in the poem like 'Who made the world?' and 'what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?' are some abstract ideas that the author cannot answer nor can anyone else as a matter of fact. Some of the concrete ideas is the description of the grasshopper in the poem and the description of the ritual of praying. The details of the description make the poem more impactive because she segments a simple thing into a vivid visual image. Also, the use of such descriptions builds to a greater abstract idea of what one should do with their life.

Refuge: An unnatural history of family and place

The author initiates writing this essay with a detailed description of the Great Salt Lake and how its water level has changed over time. The change in the water level of the lake has affected several animals leading to extinction of some of them! The author addresses this c0ncern by telling stories about her and her family's life living near the Bear River Migratory Refuge. Hence, the main theme of the essay is addressing the issue of extinction of birds from the wetlands of Great Salt Lake.

The author is one with the environment and feels exploited when she sees that the land is depleted by men. Hence, one of the minor themes could be exploitation of women by men. The author is giving a sneak peek into her life indicating her sense of identity through her family and the refuge. Hence, another minor theme could be that author is writing a memoir of her childhood days and remembering those nostalgic moments.