First Year Composition Course

By: Kaitlyn W. The value of have a composition course in the first year of college is very important. I think it is important because having this course can help students in their writing and other skills that they are not very good at yet. When I was in high school, I hardly ever wrote essays and I really did not know what to do. Having a composition course my first year has helped me because I can now write essays. Even though the essays I write still have mistakes, but I am still learning. I like writing essays a lot so this class was fun for me. I learned tons of things, I did not know how to cite sources correctly, so I learned that in the first year composition course. I now think I can cite things without a problem. I learned how to develop my paragraphs better than I have before this class. I learned how to write an outline before I start writing my essays. I always write and outline so I can have all my ideas down on paper so I won’t have a hard time writing my paper. An outline is a lot of work but it really helps me write my essays. My outlines are really descriptive and long. I write my paragraphs down in an outline form. I don’t really think that there was not anything I expected to learn that we did notI just thought the class was all about writing and we did plenty of that in the class. We wrote four class essays and a research paper. All of them were fun to write and the topics were good. I really liked having this composition course my first year of college. It is important that every first year college student has a first year composition course in college.

The value of research in a first-year writing class

By: Kaitlyn W The value for of research in a first-year writing course is important. All through the college years, all college students will have to do some type of research project. I think it helps people learn about how to research and how to cite all the information that we have to find in order to write a research paper. I think that having a research paper first year in college is important because in high school, I hardly did research projects. The only research paper I did in high school was in my Intro to the Majors class. Where I had to write a twelve page paper about what major I wanted to do. There was so much work to do plus we also had to do a presentation with it. I think I did pretty well on that project, but it was the only research project I did in high school. Now that I am in college I know I will have many research projects to do in many of my classes. Having a research project to do in my English class makes me think. The project is a ton of work but it is not hard work. So far I have found my sources that I wanted to use in my paper. I liked reading the sources I found. Like I said before having to do a research project is important because it teaches people a lot about how to source and many other things along with learning to write about the topic that I chose. A research project has many things that you have to do and it’s a lot of work. I like having to do a research project because I only did one during high school. I know many people think that a research project is not necessary in your first year but I think it will help you in the long run.

Rethinking the SAT and ACT

By: Kaitlyn W I remember taking the ACT the summer before my senior year of high school. I remember being nervous and not ready to take it. I thought that I wasn’t prepared enough to take the ACT yet, but at least I tried. I just took the ACT test and not the SAT because I thought I would not do well on the SAT. I was so nervous before staring the test and when I started taking the test I was even more nervous. Taking timed tests was never an easy thing for me to do. During a break in the middle of the four tests, I was talking to a friend and she said she was not finishing her tests because she didn’t have enough time. I was thinking the same thing. The ACT test times were not long enough to be. It seemed like the people over the test told us to start and five minutes later they were saying time is up. After I finished the test and I was on my way home, I just felt defeated and was being hard on myself because most of the things on the test I did not know. I thought the math and science part were the hardest for me because I am not very good in those subjects anyway. My scores were not that great and I remember crying because I was not happy with myself. Having such low ACT scores, it made me have to take fundamental math and English classes in college. I know that I am a good English student and I should not have been in fundamental English class because everything we did in the class I already knew. Now math is another question, I know I am terrible in math and I think being in fundamental math is helping me a lot to become better in my math skills. I don’t think college admission tests should be abolished because they help see where students are at. I do agree with the article “A New SAT Aims to Realign with Schoolwork,” by Tamar Lewin saying that low income students will be given free waivers allowing them to apply to four colleges of their choices. I think that having students pay for applications is crazy. I think why we should have to pay for college applications that we might not even get into the college that we applied for. When I was taking the ACT, I did not know many things that were on it because we never went over them in high school. They need to either focus more in school about the ACT or have the ACT focus more on what students have learned.

Altruistic Acts

By: Kaitlyn W I have performed many unselfish acts. One was when I was in high school a group I was in wanted to help kids around Christmas have gifts. It was called the Angel Tree project. It was a really special thing to be, helping a little kid have presents on Christmas morning is really cool. I know a lot of kids at my school signed up to help more than one kid. I choose a girl to buy for, she wrote a list she of what she wanted to get. We couldn't get all of the things but we could get most of them. The girl I bought for wanted a Barbie and some other princess toys. The girl was five years old. I wish I could have met her but I couldn't. I really liked helping little kids have a Christmas and be happy. My feelings after helping that little girl was very emotional because I cannot think of what it would be like not to have Christmas presents because I was fortunate to have presents for Christmas since I was a baby. I really wanted to help more kids but I just figured helping one would be just as special. I believe the little girl I helped was really excited about her presents. I have never done anything for money. I would never do that anyway because I believe helping someone very little or a lot should not mean I have to have money after I help someone. I know all of my family has helped people in an altruistic way. My family loves helping people in any way they can. That's what is so special about my family, they are so unselfish and they will help anyone they cannot matter what it is. My aunt and grandmother help out at a Hospice House once a week which I think is really nice of them. I wish there were more people in the world that would help someone because they wanted too and not because they want the money. My family that helps out at the Hospice House do not get paid to be there, they just want to be there. If I ever did get paid for something I did, I would not take the money. I think helping someone should be for free and no one should be paid to help someone. Like charity work, no one should get paid for a charity act. I want to help people because I want to and not because someone wants me too or wants to give me money for it. I just think that doing something unselfish, you should do it for free and because you want to and not because someone wants you too. If I have not of done a altruistic act I would think there would be many things that people could do. One would be helping out for a charity. It is a great way to help people. Helping out in a soup kitchen is a good way of helping someone too. I have helped out in a soup kitchen too. It was hard to see all of the people there that had no home or food but it was worth it knowing I helped them have food in their stomach. There are many other acts that are unselfish and altruistic.

What Makes a Good President?

By:Kaitlyn W I think there are many things that make a good president. One being listening to the people of the United States. Having a president who listens to what the people want is very important because if he/she just says they will listen and then get elected, they need to keep up with that promise he made. If the president does not keep a promise like listening to people voice their opinion than he/she would be a really bad president. For me having a president that listens and helps the people of the United States they would make a great president. Another thing that would make a great president is if they would visit all of the states and meet some of the people and visit some schools. I know the president already does this but he does not go to all of the states. I believe if the president would visit the states it would make people like them more and have more respect because the people would know that he/she cares for them and want to help them anyway the president can. The last thing I believe would make a good president is helping out more with disasters. Having so many things happen in the states, the president should visit and try to help with the problem. I think that would make a really great president. Not just national problems but little things like the water crisis in West Virginia. He could have helped in some way but I do not think he helped at all. I think the president should listen to people, visit the states so more people will like he/she, and help out with disasters more.

Freedom

By: Kaitlyn W Freedom to me means to do whatever you please and get to say want you want without getting in trouble. Were Amanda Knox, Nelson Mandela and Rubin Cater free? I think that Amanda Knox should not be free because of all the evidence found. Nelson Mandela should not have been freed and gotten out of jail. I think Rubin Cater should not have been in jail. What I read on him I think that he did not do whatever he was convicted for. I honestly think that Americans have more freedom today than previous decades. I think that because I feel a lot more people do things that they should not do and they do not get in trouble. Other decades, I feel were stricter on people and put them in jail for reasons that did not make sense. I enjoy the freedom such as the freedom of speech and how I get to be who I want and dress a certain way without getting judged. I feel if people in the past decades did these things they would be judged and made fun of because they think it is wrong. Now in this decade I think we can be who we want and that’s the kind of freedom I like.

Argument and Logic

By: Kaitlyn W Argument to me means to have a fight or a disagreement about something with somebody else. Logic to me means knowing something and knowing a lot about it. I had to debate a lot during school in my civics class. We would have to pick a side and stick with it and support why you choose the side I was on. I thought having a debate was really fun and I got to here many other opinions from people. I never really wrote an argument essay before so I want to learn how to do that. The side I am going to take on my essay is that the people should have had a better warning system other them TV and radios to warn about the storm of 2012. People had no idea that this storm would knock off power for weeks’ time. It was a hard time for a lot of people and I think there should have been a better warning. I know I was effected from the storm and had to stay with grandmother till my power came back on. If people known before the storm was happening people could have been ready with extra food and water. That’s why this is so important to me.