Reflection--Learning from you Classmates
One thing I learned from my classmates was to use figurative language. In her nature essay Jessica Garner does a very good job of this http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhn2ck7j_3dszqqc&hl=en. "My mind is a treasure chest and nature is it's key" in this quotation Jessica uses an excellent metaphor. I have no similes or metaphors in my writings but now I feel like that is important to add. From Dylan Jarrets writing I learned how to make your writing interesting. Dylan's writing is fun to read because he is very sarcastic and at the same time entertaining. I think it is important to make your writings fun to read! http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dd84rq4f_3khj3vh&hl=en. Allie Elrod also taught me an important part in writing. Sometimes your pieces have to be positive. When Allie wrote the nature essay she took a very positvie tone. Her piece was fun to read because it was happy and uplifiting. I think we sometimes get too stuck in the negative. Her piece shows that if you take a positive tones at some parts it can help relieve the negative. http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dv4pbwk_5gvxd86&hl=en My classmates pieces were excellent and they taught me much. I can now start incorperating these things into my writings!

Nature Essay
Mrs. Turner decided we all should try to pursue a higher level of thinking similar to Emerson and Thoreau. In order to accomplish this, we decided to go on a nature walk through the woods. To help keep our train of thought on becoming one with nature, Mrs. Turner set some guidelines. Those guidelines included no talking (not a soul followed this rule), no jumping in the ditch, and try to observe the simplicity of nature. It started off as a good idea. It always helps when you are studying other authors to try to see where they are coming from, but I don't think this idea will ever be able to be used to do this. Arriving in the woods, I found a hot sticky mess. It was very humid under the dense canopy of leaves, and I noticed the dense patch of thorns that seemed to have taken over the woods. The woods did not have a pleasant odor it smelled of rot and leftover traces of food items that were scattered about. My first problem going into the woods was that I was not focused on trying to put myself in the shoes of Emerson and Thoreau, but instead I was bent and determined to find that ditch that she had spoken of. Most of my efforts went toward looking for this mysterious place that was never to be found. Then, despite my efforts I couldn't think like Emerson and Thoreau and admire nature. It was very hard to concentrate past the dozens of beer cans spread about. Apparently this was the JROTC obstacle course, so in the middle of the simplicity of nature we had random objects that the JROTC uses as team building activities. Halfway through trying to achieve our enlightenment, my stomach started growling. With this new concentration stealer, there was no way I was going to focus on nature. Eventually I gave up on my efforts and started following Meredith through the woods. I am about seventy five percent sure this new venture led us through poison ivy, but I no longer cared I just wanted my turkey sandwich. Unfortunately our society has lost the importance and value that Emm
erson and Thoreu one saw in the woods.
Emerson and Thoreau had quite a different view on nature than I did. Emerson stated that "I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental." Emerson thought that a walk in the woods was very close to a religious experience. This differed from what I experienced because my walk in the woods was almost a punishment. Emerson thought that when you went into nature that you could take yourself out of the picture and become one with the currents of the Universal Being. He even said that he was so deep into thought that the sound of a name of his friend sounded foreign and accidental. When we went through the woods almost all we could focus on were our friends. We never viewed our experience as becoming one with God. Emerson thought that nature was the key that allowed him to be a part or particle of God. Thoreau also had a similar view on this "I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die discover that I had not lived." Thoreau saw the woods as a place of simplicity. When we went into the woods we could not get a true experience nor did any of us want a true experience of simplicity. We could hear the cars rushing by, and I bet that some of the students had pieces of technology on them. Thoreau thought that if we did not go into the woods and try to become one with nature and find a more simplistic life that we would discover we had not lived. I was quite the opposite I am pretty sure I would not be able to live if I tried to live a more simplistic life. The views of Emererson and Thoreau are captivating, but I don't think they are applicable to the twenty first century.
Its a wonderful idea of going to nature and becoming one with it, but I don't think we can easily achieve it. Right now in the time that we live we have cars, cellphones, and other things that we cannot live without. These things will never allow us to return to nature. Emerson and Thoreau were able to lose themselves in the woods and were awestuck by the beauty of nature. Now we have lost this appreciation. We see going into the woods as more of a burden than an enlightening experience. If all of us were able to lose ourselves like Emerson and Thoreau; we would be more able to adjust our values to what's important instead of values based on technology.

Reflection--Process of Revision



In all of my essays I had to revise for new ideas. I used several of my craft lessons to put in new adjectives and especially elimenate passive voice. One example of me elimenating passive voice can be found in my scarlet letter essay. http://natalierocksyoursocksoff.blogspot.com/2007/10/scarlet-letter-natalie-royals-one-part.html On this essay I had writtn "We also see that because Roger Chillingworth did not." In this sentance I was not using present tense so I had to go back and edit it so it became "We also see that because Roger Chillingworth does not." I also used the exended metaphor for my crucible essay. http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dc54h7ch_6dbb3nr&hl=en. In this essay I compared Elizabeth to a shoe through out it creating and extended metahphor. I also revised my paper to clarify confusing lines and awkward sentances. I also decided to re edit my Nature walk essay. In this essay I had to revise, I added much more descriptions about the woods. I also put a thesis statement in. Upon revising I found multiple comma errors which I had to go back and correct. "Arriving in the woods, I found a hot sticky mess." In this sentance I had to add a comma between woods and the I. I also had to delete several words that didn't make since in the progression of it like also and that. I had to fix run on sentences to either to seperate sentences or use comma rules. I had some repeated words that I had to delete because I had accidently added them. http://natalierocksyoursocksoff.blogspot.com/2007/10/nature-essay-mrs.htmlOverall I found my revising effective and worth my time because of the numerous errors I found.

Reflection--Thinking and Writing
We have written four pieces in English. The first piece I wrote was titled Scooter Ride this was a memoir about an experience you have had earlier in your life. My memoir was about a scooter ride that went terribly wrong. Through out this piece I was trying to figure out how to apply the brushstrokes we learned in class. The main idea of this essay was just a humorous account of an event in my life. During this piece of work I learned how to effectively apply the brushstrokes to make my writing much more interesting. My second piece was the Scarlet Letter. For this essay we had a choice of whatever essay we wanted to do that pertained to the Scarlet Letter. I choose to do an essay on the values that the Scarlet Letter teaches. This essay I was trying to figure out how to take some of the events that happened in the Scarlet Letter and apply lessons that you can learn from them. The main idea through out this essay was that you can learn from other people's mistakes instead of having to make them yourself. My next essay was the crucible I compared Elizabeth to a shoe in this essay. In the crucible I had to learn how to think out of the box. I had to apply my logical mind into making a connection with a character and an inanimate object. This essay really took a lot of work and thinking. The main idea of this essay was just how Arthur Miller really did give Elizabeth a cool character and how it can be compared to a shoe. My last essay was an essay about nature we had to reflect on our experience on our walk through the woods. In this essay I was trying to figure out how to do a reflection. I had to figure out how to balance my thoughts with Emerson's and Thoreau's. The main idea of this essay was comparing my experience in the woods to Emerson's and Thoreau's. I really had to put a lot of work into Each piece. For almost every piece I had to take a painstakingly long time to go back through and look for comma errors. I also learned how to use several creative techniques to put into your writing so it isn't boring. For the crucible letter I had to really stretch myself. I had to sit there and use my VERY logical mind to think of how in the world to compare Elizabeth to an object. For my nature essay I had to learn how to state my opinions in an organized way and think outside of the box. For each essay I had to apply what I was thinking into writing. This can be quite challenging I really had to learn how to put my thoughts onto paper in a way others could understand. It is hard to learn how to put what you are thinking into an essay but I feel like I learned how to accomplish this. Three things about writing that I have learned from this class are how to properly use comma's, how to translate your opinions into organized thought, and how to structure a good essay.

The Scarlet Letter

One part of growing up is learning important values that contribute to the person that one wants to become. I find The Scarlet Letter teaches many values which are helpful toward becoming a better person and one step closer to becoming the person that is desired. The Scarlet Letter not only gives you an insight into Puritan times, but it teaches morals and lessons that are very important and are a key part in being a good and well-rounded person. The Scarlet Letter teaches three main values: don't be judgemental, don't hide the truth it will only destroy you, and don't be revengeful.
The first lesson The Scarlet Letter teaches is not to be judgemental. The puritans are very judgmental of Hester. All they think about her is her sin and the scarlet letter. "None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty; even thought the bitter hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door" (112). This shows that even the poor people or the paupers are judging Hester when she is giving so much to them. Even though she is giving them food and clothes they still continue to characterize her by her sin now seven years past. They refuse to see any good she does and they make fun and continue to judge her for her sin. Hester really is one of the most giving, and now moral people after her sin, but no one will recognize this. No one will see the good she does they only see her sin. This should teach people that you should not characterize and judge people by their sins, but that you should characterize and label people according to the good deeds they do. Not to be judgemental is not the only lesson The Scarlet Letter teaches, it also teaches not to hide the truth.
The second lesson The Scarlet Letter teaches us is not to hide the truth. Roger Chillingworth is one key person in The Scarlet Letter. He decides when he arrives and finds out that Hester has had an affair, not to reveal his own identity. Now no one but Roger, and Hester know that they were once husband and wife. When he arrives he finds that Dimmesdale is very sick and consequently he goes to live with him and to help him out. Dimmesdale hasn't been honest either. We find out that Dimmesdale has had an affair with Hester but has not told about it. Roger finds out about the affair and does not tell Dimmesdale that he was once Hester's husband. Instead Roger keeps this inside and becomes filled with revenge. We then slowly see toward the end of the book how Dimmesdale's secret is destroying him and possibly is causing some of his bad health. We see that Dimmesdale even goes as far as to physically punish himself for his secret that he refuses to reveal. "In Mr. Dimmesdale's closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge" (96). By the end of the story Dimmesdale transforms into a small shriveled person who can barely support himself in his thirties. We also see that because Roger Chillingworth does not reveal his identity and that he becomes completely consumed with nothing but revenge. If both these men had just been honest Dimmesdale would not be so quickly deteriorating and Roger would not be wholly consumed in revenge. This lets readers see how keeping secrets can transform them for the worse. The Scarlet Letter not only teaches not to keep secrets but it also teaches not to be consumed with revenge.
The third lesson The Scarlet Letter teaches is not to be consumed with revenge. "But the former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet, which was what she best remembered in him, had altogether vanished, and been succeeded by an eager, searching, almost fierce, yet carefully guarded look. ... There came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man's soul were on fire and kept on smoldering duskily within his breast...In a word old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil"(122). This shows how revenge can transform people. Roger Chillingworth according to Hester was smart, calm, and quiet. He let revenge transform him into a crazy man who is bent wholly on torturing and revenging Dimmesdale. Hester even goes as far to say that through revenge he is letting the devil work in him. This just shows what revenge does to you. Revenge takes the person you used to be and transforms you into something you never wanted to become. Revenge destroys you.
One way to learn a lesson is to make a mistake and learn from that mistake. While this is a very good way of learning values and lessons there is an easier way. One can look to the examples of others' mistakes, whether fictional or not, and learn from their lesson. This allows the same lesson to be learned but at much less of a price. Seeing that The Scarlet Letter teaches not to be judgemental, not to hide the truth, and not to be revengeful can allow one to learn from these mistakes without having to make them themselves.