"Happy Endings" Dialogue

What's the significance of Shirley Temple? What meaning does she hold for Lovey? 

I believe that the significance of Shirley Temple in this story is happiness. Lovey strives for happiness in her life, the kind of happiness that Shirley had at the end of her shows every Sunday. Since Lovey and Jerry had to attend Sunday School, they were not able to see the end of her shows, instead they would make up there own endings while in Sunday School. I think that Shirley's happiness in the story would make Lovey yearn for her own happiness, she was missing it in her life so this made her eager to want to watch her show and also write out her own endings of the shows. 

I think that Lovey lives through Shirley. Not only through the happy endings to the shows, but because she is cute, likable, smart and most of all Shirley was important. She is everything that Lovey wants to be. Jerry made Lovey feel important, I think he went along with making the happy endings to the stories because he knew how much Lovey was into Shirley Temple. He was a great friend to her. Lovey wished for a life like Shirley Temple, so with her not able to watch the end of her shows, she makes up her own and in reality I think that these endings that she makes up are really what she wishes for in her own life. 

Chapter 48

While reading chapter 48, I found that there is a couple of main ideas that stuck out to me. One of them was Generalizing- this subject is very broad but it breaks it down in the chapter. Overall generalizing is when we are engaged  in inductive reasoning. This reasoning deals with probability, not certainty.
One fallacy of generalizing is called hasty- this is when a conclusion is based on insufficient or unrepresented evidence.
Another fallacy of generalizing is stereotypes- this is still apart of hasty generalizing but has a different meaning. This fallacy is very common, that is because of human tendencies. We perceive selectively. The book states that we tend to see what we want to see, we form evidence from our own opinions and we fail to notice the evidence on the opposing side. I do this all the time, and its usually without notice, I then justify my thoughts and what I think that I heard to make my opinion be the one that is correct, not thinking about the opposing side, at the time, in my mind, it does not matter.

The other main idea that stuck out to me was- Judge how fairly a writer handles opposing views. This is when a writer deals with opposing views, some writers also address the arguments of the opposition fairly, conceding points when necessary and courting others all in a civil spirit. The books states that others will will do almost anything to win an argument. I can personally relate to this, if I feel passionate about something that I have to debate. I stereotype when I have to do this.

When reading this chapter, I have to admit that it was a little hard to concentrate on the topics. I am not to sure why but overall I found the information valuable. I think that in my future writing I will use the information on generalizing. Because the topic is so broad, this chapter breaks down the generalizing fallacies. This will help me in my next essay or writing when I have a topic that is very broad and hard to break down. The stereotyping portion of the chapter will defiantly help me, because I tend to do that often.

Rules for Writers Chapter 47

When I read Chapter 47 I found that there was a good amount of main ideas. But there was a few that stuck out to me personally.

One of them was, constructing reasonable arguments.  This is when you take a stand on a debatable issue. I personally liked reading about this subject in the chapter, because I can relate to this in my own writing. When I read what this topic was all about, I noticed that I am too passive. I am not a confrontational person, therefore, I can admit that I am wrong and I do not have to have the last word. The goal in constructing reasonable arguments not simply not to win or have the last word. You are just trying to understand and explain the truth about what it is that you you are writing about. You propose a solution to the problem or issue without being combative. The best part about this subject is that you are trying to convince your readers to reconsider there opinions by simply giving your viewpoint on the matter.

Another main idea that I found interesting in this chapter was; view you audience as a panel of jurors. This is when you do not assume that you audience already agrees with you. I thought that this was a great example on how to remember that when you have an audience to not assume that they are already going to be on your side. You have to let them make up there own minds on your reading before a decision is made of wether they agree with you or not.

Lastly, the main idea for this subject is. support your claims with specific evidence. This means you will need to support your central claim and any subordinate claims with evidence,facts,stats,examples, illustrations,expert opinions etc... This is true, and I found that out early on in my writing. I wrote a paper with all of these facts and ended up with a low grade per I did not have specific evidence, I did not cite or support my paper. So I can personally relate to this subject and I now know the importance of having all of your information that you provide in a paper to be supported by facts,stats, examples etc.. The documentation gives you credit and shows your readers that you know what you are talking about and that its is correct and true. It also give your creditability.

As I was reading the chapter, I noticed a tip that I just wanted to mention, I think that for me personally it will be helpful in the future. It entailed that a "good way to test a thesis while drafting and revising is to imagine a counterargument. If you cannot think of an opposing point of view, rethink your thesis." (pg.362) I am always looking for a good way to think of to see if my thesis is good enough, I believe that this is a fantastic way to see if your thesis is worth placing in your paper. I will defiantly use this tip in the future.

I will also use the anticipating and countering objections in the future writing, I will go to this as a tool when the following questions arise. "could a reasonable person draw a different conclusion from your facts and examples"? Or "Might a reader question your assumptions"?  You have to show yourself as a reasonable and well informed writer, and by looking at these tool sheet, it allows you to ask yourself these questions and make necessary the changes in order to have a strong paper.

"The Insufficiency of Honesty"

Is Integrity a process, outcome or something else?

I chose this question to write about because it is the first thing that came to mind after reading this short story. I believe that integrity is a process. I think this because I believe that everyone starts out with a clean slate, and you have a choice to have integrity or not, like the author says, it does not mean honesty. People have the misconception that if you are honest that you also carry integrity. They are totally two different things. Just by telling the truth does not mean that you believe it is the truth, that is where the integrity comes into play. So therefore, this is why I believe that it is a process. I think that there are three steps. Step one is believing in what comes out of your mouth, step two is to be honest about what you are going to say or do and step three is integrity, it being something that you believe in, its the truth and it feels good to say or do it!

Half of the time people only have one of the steps correct, they tell the truth about something, yet they do not believe in what they are saying, they are simply justifying the truth and not thinking anything about integrity. It is basically knowing the difference between right and wrong and being able to following the process of the three steps to earn integrity. I like the example that Cater uses when referring to a man who cheats on his wife thirty-five years prior in there marriage and when he is on his death bed and decides that he wants to come clean and tell her the truth about what he did in the past. This man clearly had no integrity from the beginning. To be able to carry on for many years after into his marriage with dishonesty he never respected his wife from the moment that he cheated, even if he did not want to hurt her, if anything he left her with a huge burden after his death and great uncertainty about there marriage.

Lastly, I would just like to add that since integrity is a process, I believe that you earn it by believing in yourself. You have to know the difference between right and wrong before you can earn integrity and even honesty in some respects. I also believe in karma, it think that it plays a huge role in integrity, what comes around goes around and if you know that you are saying or doing something that is not right it is going to come back to you in some way, shape or form. Being honest is only going to get you so far in life before you have to answer to questions that make question your own personal beliefs.

Essay #2 Father Like Daughter

Emily Lopez

L. Servais

March 8, 2011

English 100

                                                           Father like Daughter

When I was a small child I always yearned for a father that shared the same interests as I did. All I ever wanted was his presence. When he was around all I wanted was his undivided attention, but that rarely ever happened. He was always gone fishing or hunting; it seemed like one of the seasons was always present. When he was home he was either gutting fish, or skinning a deer. This was my father’s passion. I on the other hand, was disgusted with what his hobbies entailed. I was interested in singing and dancing and role-playing as a Nurse. In my mind, all of these things that I loved to do as a child sounded normal to me, but not to my father. He was not interested in any of the things that I loved as a child. He was always to consumed with his very own passion, hunting and fishing.   Whenever I bothered him with my interests he would always tell me “not right now hun, I am busy, maybe later.” Later never came. After a while I got tired of asking him to play or listen to me, and in time we drifted apart. 

When reading the short story “Shooting Dad” I found a connection to Sarah Vowell . Although Sarah and her father’s passion are different from my father and I, I felt a connection. I understood her pain, and madness. It was a love and hate relationship that her and her father shared. For example; “Dad and I started bickering earnest when I was fourteen, after the 1984 Democratic National Convention. I was so excited when Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate that I taped the front page of the newspaper with her picture on it the refrigerator door…Somehow, that picture ended up in the trash all the way across the room.” (Pg. 434) This demonstrates that her and her father both carry a passion for politics’, yet they did not agree on political parties. Over time this made them grow apart, they were not able to converse about elections without an argument. I can relate to this quote because when I was a child I would write down a song and I would place it anywhere I could think of, in hopes that maybe my father would read it and ask me to sing it or perform it. Instead I would get yelled at for leaving things around the house, and be threatened that if my prized possession piece of paper was not picked up, it would be thrown away. I just remember being crushed; I think that Sarah felt the same way. Even though her and her father did not agree on the Democratic National Convention’s running mate, he had to go the extra mile and throw the picture away. Just to show her that he did not agree with her. As a child you begin to think that your not liked and sometimes not loved.  Or that something is wrong with the way that you think. I began to think this as a teenager; I always wondered how or why my father and I thought so differently. How could he not want me to sing for him? As goes for Sarah, even though they did not agree on the parties, I believe she would of liked to be able to converse about political events, but it was not possible without an argument.

            As the years went by and I grew from a teenager to a young adult, my new obsession became college.  My father’s infatuation stayed the same, hunting and fishing. This time I was so used to him being gone, I rarely spoke to him on the phone and never really saw him. I still continued on with what I loved, which is school. I am eager to graduate college and become a nurse, this does not interest my father, and I feel that he could careless. Which in some ways I do not understand, as a child I was always role -playing that I was a nurse. I always wanted to help anytime anyone was hurt. Yet he shows no interest that I am carrying on my excitement of role-playing into reality.  Sarah’s father did not show any appeal to her love for art either, he was to consumed with his obsession, he was always in his shop manufacturing firearms. For example;  “ There were years and years where he would hid out by himself in a garage making rifle barrels and I holed up in my room reading…and we were incapable of having a conversation that didn’t end in an argument.” (Pg.434) It is painful to not have your father involved with something that you are passionate about, yet I am not sure why it hurts me so. It should be expected that he would not be interested in my schooling due to the fact that he was not interested in my role-playing as a child. Just like Sarah with her art, he father was not at all interested in her passion for art as a child, why would he be interested in it now with her as an adult, is the question I ask.   

I believe, as we get older we start to realize that our parents are not going to be around forever. You have to consider whether the bad feelings and problems that build up over the years are worth the distance between father and daughter.  Although I have not had the same kind of closure that Sarah has had in the story, I would now like to open the door to my father and allow myself to show him that I may not be interested in his fishing or hunting, but I would not mind having a conversation about his next trip. I think that it may possibly give him a peace of mind and maybe it will create a new start to our relationship that is greatly needed. I just have to understand that our interests in life are vastly different, and if something where to happen to my father, at least I can say that I tried to engage in conversation with him about his hobbies. It would give me the closure that I need to put this all behind me. Reading this story helped me realize that it’s possible that my father and I are alike in some ways also; we are both very passionate people and strive to do our best with what we believe our passion is. Sarah got the closure that she needed to move on in her life, when she went to the mountain with her father to shoot off the cannon. Clearly, she was not going because she was fascinated with cannon’s, but to show her father that she cared and loved him for whom he was. When she was there with her father she came to the realization that they are the same person, just in a different way.  “I look over at my fathers cannon, then down at my microphone, and I think Oh. My God. My dad and I are the same person. Were both smart- alecky loners with goofy projects and equipment.” (Pg. 439) This example shows that she had matured and realized that she and her father are more alike than she had ever imagined. I think that this scared Sarah in a way because she did not notice growing up how much they were alike, yet in such a different way. Sarah now had the closure that she needed to forgive her father for the detached childhood that she grew up with. 

"Shooting Dad" Dialogue

What is the significance of the title?

I think the significance of the title is made very clearly at the end of this dialogue. " I will go to the mountains with my mother, sister and the cannon. I will plunge his remains into the barrel and point it into a hill so that he doesn't take anyone with him. I will light the fuse. But I will not cover my ears. Because when I blow what used to be my dad into the earth, I want it to hurt." (pg. 440)

When reading this dialogue, I noticed that the girl and her father were total opposites, they did not really agree on anything, she thought of him as an indifferent gunsmith and crazy republican, where as she thought of herself as a passionate music lover and democrat. Throughout her younger years she was always bothered by her fathers devotion to his gun collection and his obsession to make ammo, where as her twin sister found it fascinating. If anyone was an outcast in the family I would have to say that I think it was the narrator. She never really understood why her father was so passionate about his guns, but she thought one day that if she was ever going to try and understand him and his hobby that this was her chance, since she hated everything about guns, she found out that her father had been working on a project for a couple of years, he was making a cannon, she thought that if she was ever going to understand her fathers love for what he does that this was her time, she thought that this was a great opportunity because it was not a gun, and as she says in the writing it was "... a completely ceremonial object. Unwieldy and impractical. " (pg. 439) When she first called him and told him that she wanted to watch him shoot off the cannon, he was shocked, this is because she was never interested in any of his work before. They went up to the mountains in Montana and light off the small cannon. The narrator was intrigued, in a way that she never really thought of before. She thought that it was really neat and her father thought so too.

When the two hikers come about and see how the cannon is used, they noticed that she has a tape recorder and a microphone, which is called a shotgun mike. This is when she realizes that her and her father are the now the same person, just in different ways. She states "We're both smart-alecky loners with goofy projects and weird equipment. And since this whole target practice outing was my idea, I was no longer at his adversary" (pg. 439) This is when she realizes that her and her father both carry a passion and just because they are different projects that they care about does not mean that they cannot be close and not carry a relationship. At this point I think that all of the dislike that she had for her father growing up as a child began to vanish and she begin to appreciate her father for who he was, and not judge him on the acts of his projects.

With the last paragraph in the dialogue it captivates the the meaning of the writing. I believe that she is stating that she is "shooting dad" for who he was in her younger years, and will put his remains in a cannon as a new found bond that they established together. She is saying that will respect his love for is  projects and also not be covering her ears when the sounds goes off because she wants it to hurt, meaning the pain that she felt as a child when she was in her "hole", when her and her father had no communication. This would be her would be her closure.

Rulers for Writers. Chapter 4

While going through chapter for I found some interesting points, some that I have never heard of and some that I knew about but did not know the technical terms for.

One of the main points in this chapter I believe was, focusing on the main point, I knew about this before I got into chapter four, but I was not aware of how technical it can get. As we all know the main point should be clear to readers, and all of the sentences in the paragraphs should relate. What helps people stay on point is a good topic sentence, one that they can always refer back to if they feel like they have lost there train of thought or do not know what to write next. I like how it says on page 40, " A paragraph's main point, acts as a signpost pointing in two directions: backwards towards the thesis of the essay and forward toward the body of the of the paragraph" That is so clear to me, if you are on point, you should be able to refer to this sentence and have it be able to help guide you into what you are trying to make clear in your next sentence. The chapter also states how if you do not have a supportive topic sentence it can destroy the unity of your paragraph, once you have gone off topic of your main point, you will need to go back and either delete or move around some sentences into other paragraphs. Although when this does occur its most likely that you need more evidence to support your topic sentence or adjust your topic sentences accordingly to what you are trying to but with your evidence.

Another thing that I found interesting was developing the main point, I sometimes struggle with this, I try to make such a strong point for my main idea that I tend not to think past the main topic sentence, then after that I am stuck with trying to figure of the rest of the body for my essay. Here it says that short paragraphs are fine, especially if it functions as a transition point, which I never thought about, I think that this would work good for me. But I think that I would have to be careful not to make it to brief, so that its not inadequate and does not weaken my essay.

Another main point that I found in this chapter is to make your paragraphs coherent. This is when your sentences and paragraphs flow from one to another. There are no gaps, bumps or shifts. (pg..50) The book says that this can be improved by the ties of old information to new information, For example technical details are as follows: linking ideas clearly, repeating key words, using parallel structures, maintaing consistency, and providing transitions. All of these details will make a successful essay and help you stay on track with no shifts, gaps, or bumps. I like how the chapter gave me common transitions, its a great resource for my future writings.

This chapter was very informational. I liked it, I will use this chapter when I am going to write my next essay and have it help me develop a strong main point that carries evidence that is well supported. I will now know how and if my topic sentence is strong my being able to refer back to page forty, with the sentence that I have quoted above. I will also use this chapter when I get stuck on how to make my sentences flow and not have any gaps in my sentences structure. All of the details that it provides I think will help me get my points across smoothly.