13

"Hey, this movie came out this weekend! It looks pretty awesome, let's go check it out!"

"No, it actually sucks. Don't waste your time or your money."

Conversations like this happen on a constant basis. What makes that movie "super awesome" or "absolutely terrible"?

First off, this shouldn't be a generic topic about movies. There are so many different kinds of movies in all sorts of categories. There are funny movies, and scary movies. There are dramas and musicals and romantic movies. 

I personally like the darker movies, especially those associated with Tim Burton. One of my favorite movies from him is Corpse Bride. I would classify it as a good movie because of all the elements it combines effectively. There is always the need for visual appeal, especially in animated films, and Corpse Bride has some great graphics. As an artist myself, I know how difficult it can be to make an art detailed while trying not to clutter it. The artwork in this is very detailed, but it does not give any sense of clutter to it visually. A movie like this also needs a good storyline. While Corpse Bride is a completely fictional tale (there's no way a corpse could talk in real life!), it ties in realistic elements. For example, the corpse bride, Emily, was betrayed by a lover before her death. The betrayal led her to wait for the marriage vows. This is a natural human emotion of hope. I believe that hope is one of the main themes of the movie.

On the contrary, there are elements that can make a movie "terrible". For this, I will use the film The Last Airbender as an example. The Last Airbender is a film based upon an animated series, "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The previews tricked many viewers into thinking that high tech special effects could be the basis for a great movie. Personally speaking, I felt that the special effects were the only part of the movie that was worth watching. This film had many actors that I had never heard of before, and their lack of experience showed. With a film based on a series like this, it leads a lot of viewers to have high expectations, and this movie did not meet those expectations. The Last Airbender's viewers expected the film to move along the same plot as the series, but were disappointed when so much from the series was left out of the film. There were some viewers who were mad about the mechanical details in the film, like the name pronunciation. The names are Asian-based, so it's easy to see how they could be difficult to pronounce, but viewers believed that the actors should have watched the series to get into character better.

The movie industry is a serious business, and there is always a risk involved when making a movie because of the public opinion. However, as long as they put forth their best effort and make the best movie they could make, hopefully the public will appreciate it.

12

I answered the Pink Flamingo prompt, but I could have added more to the beginning of the thesis. I did not really explain my point until the end of the essay. My thesis was there, but it was not as clear as it could have been. My paragraphs were linked, but my transitions were a little off. I think I tried to cover too many ideas, so I was not able to develop all of my ideas as fully as possible. I feel that I included a lot of details and quotes to support my analysis.

I felt more organized during this timed write because I had the experience from the Rodriguez essay "under my belt". My thesis did not go well, so if I had the chance to revise this, I would work more on what my essay would actually be about. If given more time, I would change my essay to incorporate a better-thought-out thesis. The organization went mostly according to plan, but as I wrote it, I changed some of the structure here and there to make the language more vivid. As I wrote the essay, I began to understand more of what the author was trying to say. I saw her point of view more clearly as I wrote this essay. If I had to write a timed essay tomorrow, I would try to organize my thoughts on another sheet of paper before beginning the writing process.

11

Upon entering the class, I've become more aware of how I write almost every time I pick up a pencil. Since August, my writing has changed because I've noticed I've used a more mature voice. I've written with a more formal attitude about my topic, and I haven't used casual sentences. My writing has stayed the same since the beginning of the class by always needing improvement. I am very critical of my work, and almost always feel like I need to add just something to improve it. As a writer, my strengths have almost always concerned grammar, punctuation, and spelling. I read everything I write to myself in my head first, and once more after I write it. If there is a sentence that sounds odd, I take another look at it to see what I can fix about it. However, I still see a weakness of it being too basic. I have not strayed from my "comfort zone" as a writer, and I feel that I need to take a little risk with my writing to improve it. I plan on using more action in my writing to make my words stronger.

If I had time to write another draft of my definition essay, I would organize my ideas and put more thought into making the essay flow more smoothly. I rushed through the essay, and I feel that if I had the opportunity to fix it, I would be able to produce a better essay if given more time. Unfortunately, my essay was not read and given peer feedback. However, I am still revising the essay because I was not satisfied with my grade. So far, my biggest problem is organizing my thoughts to flow smoothly.

So far, through my revision, my biggest success has been a thorough organization of an outline of my topic. I've listed what points I want to keep in the essay and what points I felt pulled me away from my topic. So far, my narrative, descriptive and illustrated elements are not combined all into one, but they are in the essay separately. My best success considering audience is that I understand that not everyone in my audience is as familiar with my topic as I am, so I am careful not to go into a description that will be difficult for an average person to understand.

I was intimidated by the fact that it was the first major AP English essay. In my sophomore English class, my teacher let us read some essays that his AP students wrote, and some of the essays really impressed me! I was always unsure of whether or not my essays could come out as impressive as those did. As we studied methods in class, I was influenced to use more vivid language in my essay, since normally my essays are very bland with a lot of boring simple sentences. After hearing some student examples, I wanted to try to incorporate a story into my essay, which I will hopefully accomplish in my revision. My peers also helped a lot when I asked them if my essay was "good or not". Most of the time, they said that I wrote such a good essay, but they are also my friends. The best advice I received was for me to slow down my writing because it sounded like it rushed too much to get to the point. After completing this writing assignment, I feel that I have grown as a writer, but there are still many writing techniques to learn and incorporate into my essays to come!

10

It's the feeling that everyone in the world ignores your problems. It's feeling like everything in the world can and will go wrong. It's feeling like you don't exist.

This is what it's like to be a "nobody". They are always in the background of life, and unnoticed. Perhaps they don't know how to be noticed. Everyone has been a "nobody" at least once in their life. Some people choose to get away from that status by doing wacky things. We can all remember that one "crazy kid" from middle school who did something insane. Other people get away from being a "nobody" by doing things to make other people like them and know who they are. 

It's our desire to be noticed that makes the idea of being a nobody one of the worst imaginable situations. Humans want people to know that they exist, that they aren't just in the background. Humans want to feel that they have a purpose in life.

9

How should we live? This is a very easy question that Morrie Schwartz would answer. In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie is teaching one of his old students, Mitch Albom, about how to live.

"Learn to die, and you learn to live."

My father passed away in 2007 from multiple myeloma, a cancer that affected his bone marrow. Before he passed away, I took him for granted. I always believed that I would have my parents forever, and that in the future, my own children would be able to know their grandparents.

I can remember the morning that my mother told me that he was gone. It was so hard for me to believe. I didn't want to accept the truth. On December first, a part of me died.

As I read Tuesdays with Morrie, I kept thinking back to my dad. Reading what Morrie had to say about spending time with loved ones made me realize that I don't want to make the same mistake. My mom is perfectly healthy right now, but I don't want her passing away at a young age like my father did. I don't want to take advantage of my mom being in my life. I want to cherish every moment that I have with her.

It's only when we lose someone that we realize that we should have spent more time with them. Why is it only after a death that we realize this? It doesn't look "weak" to say "I love you." Loving people can only make you stronger. Material things like laptops and big screen televisions aren't going to be by a death bed mourning. Human beings are the only ones who can mourn.

8

I'd like to meet a child who has not read and loved The Roly-Poly Puppy. What makes this book so lovable to small children? I personally think it is because of the "roly-poly" in the title. Hearing this phrase brings a smile to most people who hear it, even if they don't want to admit it right away. So what makes the phrase "roly-poly" sound so gosh darn adorable? It's a word that can relate to fat, chubby, and even obese, all of which are words that we sometimes cringe at hearing. Roly-poly is a phrase that we've been familiar with from a young age, and with that phrase we've related it to another positive being, a puppy. Other words have been associated with negative subjects; like "unhealthy", "ugly", and "diseased".

Roly-poly, on the other hand, is not used in the medical field, so it has no association with anything that has to do with the concept of unhealthiness. It has sounded and will always sound like one of the cutest phrases a child could say.

7

Money doesn't always mean that you're happy. If you don't believe me, then just pick up a copy of The Great Gatsby and read it. It might not seem like the author is making an argument, but every piece of writing makes an argument because it's telling you something that you may or may not have known previously. 

The Great Gatsby is about a rich man by the name of, you guessed it, Gatsby. He lives in a huge house, no, I'd call it a mansion, and throws big parties on a regular basis. Everybody knows of him, and a lot of people like him, but he's still not that happy. He's in love with a girl, Daisy. Daisy also lives a "good life", with a "good family". Her family would be good if her husband wasn't cheating on her (and to make matters worse, he brags about it to his friends) and if she knew her child. Nontheless, she has quite a bit of money, so that automatically means that she's happy. Right?

Wrong.

Fitzgerald brings the point across very clearly that you can be the richest person alive and still have something missing in your life.

6

From a young age, most of us have dreaded this. Children cry, "No, Mommy! Please don't make me!", only to be set down at the dinner table to face them. Vegetables. They are the definition of evil to almost every child in America. It's as if one bite of them will kill you.
I think I might have been one of the few kids who ate vegetables on a regular basis, and still eat them to this day. It all depends on how the vegetables are served, and how parents act when they serve the vegetables to their children. My parents served up vegetables on a regular basis, and my absolute favourite vegetable is broccoli, when my mom steams it up with soy sauce. It's ironic that I love a vegetable so many young children shudder at the thought of. There's some things in the world that, as the old saying goes, you shouldn't knock it 'till you try it. That saying is absolutely true about vegetables.