Valery's English Blog

Prompt Response:  An argument that I wish I had handled differently is when I got into an argument with my dad over him not feeding our guinea pig. He said he was going to go feed her and never did which got me upset because had he told me sooner, I would've just done it myself. My goal in the argument was to get him to feed her on time as he had been feeding her late those past few days or to have him communicate that he couldn't do that I could feed her on time. However, I messed up as I immediately blamed him and didn't stop to think about how he would take the blame which ended up worsening the situation. Something that I would do now after reading Chapters 1-3 of Thank You for Arguing is switching the tense from past to future so that instead of arguing, we would've talked about about what we can do to feed her on time moving forward as that was the goal.  Summary: Today in class we discussed the first three chapters of Thank You for Arguing and we talked about th...

  Prompt Response: One time I had to persuade someone to do something was at the beginning of this school year when I was trying to convince my parents to drive me to and from school. I used pathos to try to convince them by explaining to them that I would stress in the afternoons over running to my bus to try to get a seat and explaining how bad it was sitting at the edge of a seat which made them feel bad for me. Additionally I added that if they drove me to school, I could sleep in more which is something that my mom wanted me to do since she thinks I wake up too early. Using pathos was very effective as they now drive me to and from school every day. It was effective since they didn't want me to have a hard time with the bus, especially since I've been complaining about it for the past 2 years since my bus is incredibly crowded. Summary: Today in class we spoke about the origin of our names, reviewed our argument notes, and practiced using rhetorical appeals.  Reflection: ...

 Prompt: One topic that I think I'll have to stand up and debate most often is immigration in the United States. This topic has become very controversial in the past few years and it's very important to me as my parents are immigrants. In school, I've met people with different viewpoints and there's no doubt that I'll continue meeting people who have different opinions on the topic which is why I believe that it's something I'll have to debate about often. Growing up, I've seen and heard the stories of my parents, family, and friends regarding immigration and why they had to make certain sacrifices. I've also done large amounts of research on the topic as I used it as it was one of my topics during AP Seminar last year. This leads me to believe it's something I'm fairly educated on and could debate about, which I'll definitely have to do as the topic continues to be talked about and argued over.  Summary: Today in class we took notes abou...

 Three goals that I want to achieve this year are getting my license, minimizing how much I procrastinate, and creating new friendships. To begin, I would like to get my license as I want to be able to drive to school instead of riding the bus since it's always very crowded. Additionally, I want to avoid procrastinating as I always get overwhelmed with school work when I do and I want junior year to go as smoothly as possible. Finally, I want to create new friendships as I really want to branch out to new people this year as sometimes the most unexpected friendships can end up being the best ones. I'm going to push myself to reach these goals as they're things that I think could make this year a lot easier on me.