Thursday, June 4, 2009
Dear Reader Letter
Going back to college is my primary goal when I arrived in Everett, Washington two years ago, but I always procrastinate that's why it took me two years before I enrolled in a community college. I came from Manila, Philippines where I grew up, and had my elementary and high school education. After high school and before migrating to the U.S., I attended a university where I spent two years with a goal of having a degree in civil engineering when I'm done. But things did not turn out quite good, for I got a failing grade in two classes during my first year, and got another one on my second year. Some of my relative said that it was because of my peers, but for me, the reason is lack of motivation, and I didn't take my classes seriously. Two years after I left the Philippines and stopped school to migrate to the U.S., I realized, finally, the value of education. I don't want to work on a manufacturing job for the rest of my working career; I want my career to climbed up. Now, motivated, I am going to take my college education seriously, and have my engineering degree four or five years from now. I enrolled in Everett Community College on winter quarter of 2009, and now, spring quarter, is my second quarter in the college.
Spring quarter's English 97 is not my very first English class; however, taking this class made me feel that I am learning to write in English for the first time. I had several English classes before when I was in a university in the Philippines. There, I learned what is a sentence, parts of the sentence, and also how to write simple sentences. We did some journal writing, but it is not a weekly homework. We did some major writing assignments too, but the instructors did not require us to turn pre-writes and drafts in. So before taking English 97 class, I really never tried brainstorming my topic for the paper, write drafts for a peer response group, and revising my drafts before turning the final draft in. In this class, English 97, I learned the basic of paragraph writing; moreover, I learned how to use them effectively.
Although I now know some rules in writing effective paragraphs, I still have weaknesses in writing. I am still having problem on narrowing a broad topic to a more specific one. Catching reader's attention, and making my sentence more descriptive are also my biggest struggle in writing effective paragraph. But, the part that I struggle the most is using correct verb tenses. In the past papers that I wrote, I always got verb tense error. On the other side, I know now how to write a complex sentence, and how to punctuate them properly. I also got an idea on how to fix and avoid sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-ons. Maybe I still could not write the best paragraph, and I still commit errors in writing, but I am trying to improve my writing little by little in every paper that I will write in my future classes.
I am glad that I am almost done with English 97, but I still have two more English classes for my engineering transfer degree. What I have learned from English 97 will surely help me on my next two English classes which are English 98 and English 101. And what I learned in this class will not just help me on other English classes, but also classes like history and humanites where I think I will have to write some papers.
In this E-portfolio, I want to show you some of the papers that I wrote throughout the quarter.In this portfolio, I included my pieces, "My Immigration Experience to the United States," "I Was Nervous," Step by Step," and "The Water Cycle." Two of them are from my major writing assignment, and two of them are from my journals. This pieces that I picked, for me, shows my improvement as a writer, in addition, as an English language learner.
Although I now know some rules in writing effective paragraphs, I still have weaknesses in writing. I am still having problem on narrowing a broad topic to a more specific one. Catching reader's attention, and making my sentence more descriptive are also my biggest struggle in writing effective paragraph. But, the part that I struggle the most is using correct verb tenses. In the past papers that I wrote, I always got verb tense error. On the other side, I know now how to write a complex sentence, and how to punctuate them properly. I also got an idea on how to fix and avoid sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-ons. Maybe I still could not write the best paragraph, and I still commit errors in writing, but I am trying to improve my writing little by little in every paper that I will write in my future classes.
I am glad that I am almost done with English 97, but I still have two more English classes for my engineering transfer degree. What I have learned from English 97 will surely help me on my next two English classes which are English 98 and English 101. And what I learned in this class will not just help me on other English classes, but also classes like history and humanites where I think I will have to write some papers.
In this E-portfolio, I want to show you some of the papers that I wrote throughout the quarter.In this portfolio, I included my pieces, "My Immigration Experience to the United States," "I Was Nervous," Step by Step," and "The Water Cycle." Two of them are from my major writing assignment, and two of them are from my journals. This pieces that I picked, for me, shows my improvement as a writer, in addition, as an English language learner.
Introduction to "My Immigration Experience to the United States"
The first piece that I include in my portfolio is my second major writing assignment “My Immigration Experience to the United States." This narrative piece was written during our mid-quarter. I picked this piece because among the three major writing assignments that we did in our class, this piece got the highest score. In addition, I chose this topic because it tells my first experience, as an immigrant, here in the U.S. I think what I developed in this writing is using sensory details, and some of the examples are: “ A cool breeze of air blew onto my skin,” for the sense of touch, and “His deep and low pitched voice,” for the sense of hearing.
My Immigration Experience to the United States
Getting to the United States of America from the Philippines made me realize how lucky I am. It was seven o’clock on a chilly Sunday morning when the airplane that I was in touched down at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s runway. The airplane arrived early, so we, the airplane’s passenger, had to wait for an hour inside the airplane because the arrival area of the airport was still closed when we arrived. While waiting in my seat, I thought about all the things that I have been through since the day that I applied for my U.S. visa. Waking up too early to beat the traffic and the long lines in government offices, ton of papers that I had to do and submit to the immigration office here in U.S. and all the interviews with U.S. immigration officers. At eight, the airport’s security men opened the gate and let us in inside the airport. While I was walking towards the airport’s gate, a cool breeze of air blew onto my skin, and I thought to myself, “So it is true that it is really cold here in America.”
When I was finally inside the airport, I headed to the immigration office for my last interview. I waited for another hour for my turn because there was a long line of interviewees before me. Exhausted because of the sixteen hours flight, I took a seat and relaxed a little on a nice soft comfortable chair in front of me. “Julius Ceasar Arevalo,” the respectable officer called in his deep and low pitched voice, trying to figure out how to pronounce my last name. I walked towards his desk, smiled, and said, “Good morning! How are you doing today, sir?”
“I’m doing good,” he replied. “Let me see your papers,” he added.
I gave him my papers, and he took it. Before he reviewed my papers, he asked me few more questions about who funded my immigration request and about my family who has been here in United States for a quite a long time. As he was reviewing my papers, without any reason, my mind starts thinking negative things, and I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What if he denies or rejects my papers? What would going to happen to me if he does? Is he going to send me back to where I came from?” Thank God because those negative thoughts in my mind shattered when he asked for my thumb mark and asked me to sign some of the papers that he just reviewed. When I gave him the papers back, he smiled and he told me, “Welcome to America!” Then he shook hands with me. At that point, I felt instantly relieved that I finally got through all of the interviews, and that I was now a legal resident of America. As I was walking to the baggage conveyor to claim my bags and boxes, and to meet my family who was waiting for me in the waiting area, I thought of how lucky I was to get through all of the requirements that they wanted and they needed. There are some people who do illegal stuff like faking their papers or identity, or illegally crossing the U.S. borders just to get inside the U.S.; thus, most illegal immigrants end up in jail, or get deported out of the U.S. back to their country. I am glad that finally I am now in what other people called, “The land of opportunity.”
Introduction to "I Was Nervous"
The second piece that I include is my fifth journal entry “I Was Nervous” that was written during our second week in class. In this descriptive writing, we had to use the show-not-tell technique where I should describe what I want to tell you. As an example, I wrote “The electric current that was flowing on my nerves subsided,” instead of saying that my nervousness is finally gone. I hope that you would feel how nervous I was in this piece, by showing and not just by telling.
I Was nervous
Every show that my band played, there was always a time where I could feel a tingly sensation running on my body. I was waiting for our turn to perform in front of a thousand pair of eyes, and I could hear the crowd cheering our band’s name. That moment, my heart was pounding like a bass drum. We have not started playing, yet my body started to sweat. Getting through the show, and giving our best performance seems to be the only oasis of my dry throat. My knees were trembling as I lifted my foot to set it on the first step of the back stage’s stairs. I made it through the staircase, or through the climax of my nervousness as I like to call it. Before I entered the stage, I whispered to myself, “I Can get through this nervousness.” As I was walking in front of hundreds of people, I took a deep breath. Finally the electric current that was flowing on my nerves subsided. The pre-show of my show, for that time, has ended.
Introduction to "Step by Step"
For my third piece, I chose my eighteenth journal "Step by Step" which was written during our seventh week in class. This journal is about telling a child how to do something he had never done before, so I had to keep in mind that I am writing as if I was writing to a child. So instead of saying, "Don't do this," I wrote, "Remember not to touch the shiny prong or insert your finger in the power outlet, or you'll be fried," as a sign of caution.
Step by Step
Powering up a computer, and installing a computer game is easy, and kids could do it by themselves if they follow these simple steps. First, make sure that you are done with your homework, and mom and dad is cool that you will play computer games. Now, it’s time to approach that sleeping computer and wake it up, so you can play computer game. You can power the computer up by plugging in first the power plug to the nearest power outlet. However, remember not to touch the shiny prong or insert your finger inside the power outlet, or you’ll going to be fried. When the power plug is connected, you can now press the power button. That button is located in front of the CPU, and it will be illuminated as soon as you hit that button as a sign that it is now starting up. You can grab some snacks while waiting, for it would take a few minutes before the desktop will appear in the monitor. Once the desktop appears, what you have to do next is to insert the game’s CD into the CD drive that can be found in front of the CPU. Just follow the installation instruction that will appear in your monitor screen, and you are ready to play once it’s done. Powering up a computer and installing a game is easy that even a kid can do it.
Introduction to "The Water Cycle"
I chose my third major writing assignment "The Water Cycle" for my last piece. This paper is a process essay, and was written on our eighth week in class. I picked this piece because I think this is the most informative paper that I did this quarter, for this paper is not about myself. My strength, as a writer, that I saw on this paper is that I gave examples for each step in the process like in the condensation part where I wrote "the moisture coming out of the glass of cold water on a hot sunny day or if you breathe in front oh the mirror" as an example.
The Water Cycle
Have you ever wondered where does the rain and/ or snow come from? Where does the rain water go after when it drop on the ground? Is there a process that covers all of this? Rain and snow are from the clouds that formed when tiny droplets of water, dust, pollens, and other tiny particles condensed. When water falls to the Earth from the clouds, it may be absorb by the plants and trees, or go straight to rivers, lakes ,and other bodies of water. Water cycle or hydrologic cycle is the process of converting salt and/or fresh water to rain and converts it back to salt or fresh water when it precipitates. Water cycle is a water recycling process that is never ending cycle and not man-made.
First, let us start this at the surface of the Earth. When the radiation from the hot and flaring sun heats the water in the sea or in the lake, the water evaporates as vapor. Evaporation is the process of changing liquid into gaseous state. A good example of evaporation is boiling water. Although they usually melt, ice and snow coming from the glacier of mountain tops could turn into vapor, not by evaporation, but by sublimation. Maybe now you are thinking, “Ice has to melt first before it evaporates.“ The answer would be yes, because of the sub-zero temperature, dry air, less air pressure, low humidity and the addition of strong sunlight that can be found in higher altitudes, sublimation occurs more on mountain tops like at the peak of Mount Everest in the Himalayan region or in Mount Rainier in Washington state. Sublimation is different from evaporation because in sublimation solid turns into gas; however, the two process still result in forming of clouds.
Second, when the vapors get into the atmosphere, it is cooled by the freezing temperature that condense the vapors into clouds. The process of changing a gaseous substance into liquid is called condensation. Condensation takes place when a vapor make contact with a cold surface. A good example of condensation is the moisture that is coming out of the glass of a cold water on a hot sunny day or if you breathe in front of the mirror. Air currents move the clouds all over the local area or the globe. While they are drifting, the cloud particles collide with other cloud particles making, the clouds grow.
Last in the process is precipitation. Once the cloud particles are big and heavy, it will fall out of the sky as precipitation. Depending on the temperature, precipitation comes in many forms: fog, drizzle, rain, snow, hail and ice pellets. Precipitation falling in low lands and/or tropical areas are drizzle and rain while mountains and high lands receive snow and hail. There are two things that can happen when precipitation hits the ground. It is called a runoff when the precipitation is not absorb by the soil and just go straight to the body of water. For instance, the snow that falls on the mountain could accumulate as a glacier. The rainwater or the melted snow will go into the drainage basin and will be release on a river. However, if the precipitation is absorb by the ground, it is called infiltration. Once in the ground, the water can join the Earth’s ground water supply, or it would be absorb by the roots of the plants and the trees. The water that was absorb by the soil and the plants will be release as a vapor through a process called transpiration. Then, the process will start over again.
As long as there is water, it will evaporate or sublimate to become a vapor. Then, the vapor will condense to become a cloud, and it will fall back to the Earth as a precipitation. The water that we have today has been cycling from the earth to the atmosphere and back to the earth for several million years, and it would continue to cycle forever.
First, let us start this at the surface of the Earth. When the radiation from the hot and flaring sun heats the water in the sea or in the lake, the water evaporates as vapor. Evaporation is the process of changing liquid into gaseous state. A good example of evaporation is boiling water. Although they usually melt, ice and snow coming from the glacier of mountain tops could turn into vapor, not by evaporation, but by sublimation. Maybe now you are thinking, “Ice has to melt first before it evaporates.“ The answer would be yes, because of the sub-zero temperature, dry air, less air pressure, low humidity and the addition of strong sunlight that can be found in higher altitudes, sublimation occurs more on mountain tops like at the peak of Mount Everest in the Himalayan region or in Mount Rainier in Washington state. Sublimation is different from evaporation because in sublimation solid turns into gas; however, the two process still result in forming of clouds.
Second, when the vapors get into the atmosphere, it is cooled by the freezing temperature that condense the vapors into clouds. The process of changing a gaseous substance into liquid is called condensation. Condensation takes place when a vapor make contact with a cold surface. A good example of condensation is the moisture that is coming out of the glass of a cold water on a hot sunny day or if you breathe in front of the mirror. Air currents move the clouds all over the local area or the globe. While they are drifting, the cloud particles collide with other cloud particles making, the clouds grow.
Last in the process is precipitation. Once the cloud particles are big and heavy, it will fall out of the sky as precipitation. Depending on the temperature, precipitation comes in many forms: fog, drizzle, rain, snow, hail and ice pellets. Precipitation falling in low lands and/or tropical areas are drizzle and rain while mountains and high lands receive snow and hail. There are two things that can happen when precipitation hits the ground. It is called a runoff when the precipitation is not absorb by the soil and just go straight to the body of water. For instance, the snow that falls on the mountain could accumulate as a glacier. The rainwater or the melted snow will go into the drainage basin and will be release on a river. However, if the precipitation is absorb by the ground, it is called infiltration. Once in the ground, the water can join the Earth’s ground water supply, or it would be absorb by the roots of the plants and the trees. The water that was absorb by the soil and the plants will be release as a vapor through a process called transpiration. Then, the process will start over again.
As long as there is water, it will evaporate or sublimate to become a vapor. Then, the vapor will condense to become a cloud, and it will fall back to the Earth as a precipitation. The water that we have today has been cycling from the earth to the atmosphere and back to the earth for several million years, and it would continue to cycle forever.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
