"This I Believe" -- Individual Response

[Mr. Kitsmiller]

Choose a "This I Believe" essay from either the text or the organization's website.  Once you have read the essay (at least twice), please respond to the following questions:

1.  Who is the author?

2.  What is the title of the essay?

3.  What is the main topic of the essay?

4.  Where does the statement of belief exist in the essay?

5.  Given our study of different styles of essays throughout the semester, how many different styles can you identify that are being used in this essay?  Likewise, where in the essay are they and how are they used?  (Examples:  Narrative, Description, Exemplification, Compare / Contrast, Definition  -- are all possible choices that you could see...)

[Savanna McClure]

1.Susie Green

2.Considering Adoption

3. to make you think about adopting a child (even if you have your own birth children)

4. at the end where she says "We do not fear whether the child will love us, but whether we have the capacity to understand and to love the child."

5. Exemplification and narrative 

[John Butler]

1. Penn Jillette

2. There Is No God

3. The belief there is no god can help you agree with reality

4.  At the end when she says "Believing in no god gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth,beauty,sex, JELL-O, and all the other things I can prove" 

5. Description and Compare/ Contrast 

[Daniel Ely]

1.Jay Frankston

2.Speak Up

3. The main topic of the essay is speaking out against wrongdoing.

4. Pretty much after the first paragraph the author spends the rest of the essay speaking out about how the Holocaust and recent events cold have been and can by effected by speaking out against wrongdoing.

5. Description is used in the first couple paragraphs to illustrate how the Holocaust could have been changed. Compare and contrast is used in this section as well to further illustrate his point. From then on Narration and exemplification are used to wrap up how his examples work in the real world.  

[Noor Bibi]

1. Joe Reagan

2. In God Alone

3. Joe Reagan used to believe in caring for his wife and kids was entirely up to him. But when hard times struck and friends offered to help feed his family, Reagan realized the grace of God was at work in his life in ways he hadn't previously understood.

4. When he asked for help and he was helped from his friends he realized that he is being helped by God.

5. Examplification

[Evan Kraus]

1. Jean Edwards

2. War Is Never the Answer

3. The main topic of the essay is how much war effects our country and the young men that go off to war. It also expresses that our country uses war as an answer to a lot of things and that we shouldn't count on war so much. 

4. The statement of belief is in the essay towards the end of the essay and is followed by a quote from Albert Einstein that says "you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

5. While reading this essay, I noticed that the author used some narrative style. He tells how his teacher told his class about why another world war was about to take place and how "we will continue to have wars until the young men refuse to go." 

[The Dark Lord SATAN!!! (christian haley)]

1. Penn Jilette

2.There Is No God

3.Him nor believing in any god

4. "believing there is no god gives me more room for belief in family, people, truth, beauty, sex, jell-o, aned all the other things i can prove..."

5. exemplification compare/contrast definition

[Connar Benson]

I read "Be Cool to the Pizza Dude" by Sarah Adams. Basically she is saying some point in life you will have to endure a crappy job such as being a pizza delivery guy, so when you aren't in that position take the time to take a step back and remember they are going it for money, everyone needs money so just be cool to them, after all would you want to be doing that? The statement of belief comes throughout the entire essay she is constantly talking about how she thinks one should act towards a pizza guy, its what she believes in therefore it is entangled in and out of the paper itself.   

[Connar Benson]

oh and two styles are Description and exemplification! 

[Jenicka Roche]

1. Frank X Walker

2. Create solutions to life's challenges

3. The main topic was that you should make good from things that are harder to go with like no tv and having the mother have to be more creative when they only have certain items. 

4. "I believe that the highest quality of life is full of art and creative expression and that all people deserve it."

5. Narrative and Exemplification 

[Briana Everhart]

1) Mary Cook

2) The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do

3) Humility and Grieving

4)At the end of the essay where she say," I beileve there is strength in surrender."

5) Narrative because all throughtout the story she is say "I". Descrition because she tells the story in great detail. Exemplification because she gives examples of how people are treating well.

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[Madison Smith]

1. Parisa Norton

2. Not Yet My Time

3.The main topic of the essay is darkness is a sense of darkness of the soul.  

4.The statement of belief is, "I saw this darkness in his eyes as he pointed the gun at my head and I heard the hammer of the gun being cocked."

5. Narrative, description, and exemplification are all styles of writing used.  The author tells a story and describes the scenery with her emotions.  

[Folasade Aiyeru]

1. Jane Hamill

2. A Grown-Up Barbie

3. Being a feminist

4. She believes that women do not need men to be whoever they want to be, just like Barbie.

5. She compares and contrast her life when she was younger and her views on barbie and how she has become the modern day barbie. 

[Flood Davis]

    1.)   Adam - Danbury, Connecticut

    2.)  Pick-Up Basketball

   3.)  The excitement of the whole game down to the trash talk and the history of the game and little before the histoty of the game

   4.) in the second paragragh when he says.  A timeless crossroads where Kobe and Shaq meet Cousy and Russell through the softer limbs of lesser-known glories — a high school ring, a lawyer’s league jersey, a day laborer’s son planting his pivot foot firmly in America.

 5.) compare and contrast i say this beacuse basketball  gets alil differant each year so to me it gets better and hared each time.

[Fowsia Mohamed]

1. Elvia Bautista

2. Remembering All The Boys

3. No matter what and who someone believes in during their lives, they deserve to be remembered. 

4. At the very end. " I want everyone to remember all the boys, red & blue..." 

5. Narrative. 

[Anna Burica]

1. Kate Debiec

2.Finding my Father in a small World.

3. When a loved one has passed, that doesnt mean to forget who they are and their spirit is still with you.

4. when  she was saying his presence is still with her and she can still hear him .

5. Narrative

[Nathan Konik]

1.)silas house

2.)the knowing

3.)how much dogs could make us better people

4.)when he says that dogs make us see the love in things and we slow down to love them

5.)narative

 

[Lane Lightle]

1.Collin

2.Jacksonville, Illinois

3.4th and Goal he is talking about a football exsperence

4. when he says that he belives that life somtimes knock you down and nothing gose your way

5. it is a narrattive and description this for the reason that it is describing a life situation that he went through.