Raku Firing (Ting Shu)

Raku firing was so cool! I took ceramic II this semester. Most of my works during this semester were doing onthe wheel. I had a hard beginning, because it was really hard to control the clay and throw it on the wheel, but is easier to make a blow trimmed than hand buling. In the end, I got a chance to Raku fired my works.

"Rakuyaki (楽焼) or Raku (樂) is a form of Japanese pottery characterized by low firing temperatures (resulting in a fairly porous body), lead glazes, and the removal of pieces from the kiln whiel still glowing hot. In the traditional Japanese firing process, the pot is removed from the hot kiln and put directly into water or allowed to cool in the open air. Raku is considered the traditonal method for creating bowls for the japanese tea ceremony. Raku tea bows are hand-made from earthenware, each with a unique shape and style. Raku techniques have been adopted and modified by contemporary potters worldwide."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raku)

The kiln of raku firing on our campus. The works were firing in the kiln.

It was really hot when you approach the kiln. Unglazed was still white when it firing in the kiln.

Put some of the incendive firewoods in the metal pail.

The firewoods were burning by the high temperature from the works.

Cover the pail, and wait about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, unglazed changed black.
They were still so hot!

Water let the works were cold quickly,

and made some pretty cracks on the glaze.

At last, washed by the cleanser.

This is one of my ruka firing works.

work cited

"Raku Ware"

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raku>04/29/08

What I have learned from my writing experience (Andrea Schwaiger)

As the spring semester is slowly coming to an end, I look back to the past year, I look at all the work I did and I see this different “Anni” that I have become. I remember the first day of school, the excitement, the nerves and anxiety and I see myself now, so much more confident and really content about life. I always thought I could speak English but when I first arrived in New York I realized that I had a lot of gaps. Now my vocabulary is wider, I’ve learned how to use words and it makes me somehow powerful.

Besides from having changed a lot personally I believe that these past month have been academically one of the most challenging and interesting moments in my life. No need to say that the transition from high school to college is a big step but some forget that for foreign students it is even a “bigger deal”: we had to get familiar with the culture, the customs, the food and we had to learn to express ourselves in a language that we do not feel familiar with. Is there a bigger frustration than not being able to say what you feel? It’s like everything that people say flows into you, you understand almost everything but your answer gets stuck somewhere on its way out: blank…no words… The only thought is “how do you say this in English?”. Then you get theses looks, the people you are having a conversation with wait, I understood, I am thinking but not speaking. Finally they assume I am slow-minded and repeat everything. This is a sort of frustration that only people who have gone through this know and it makes you feel weak and vulnerable.

I think that until now I never knew how powerful words are. How hard must life be for mute!

When I think about words and my thoughts I realize how my hard effort, the desire to succeed, the stress and my sleepless nights are hidden behind the dozens of pages I have filled this year for my curriculum. These essays and research papers could as a matter of fact be the only evidence for others, that I have been actively thinking and working. Some professors might see the endeavor and good will of some students but some don’t and after all, getting no recognition of one’s own work is depressing. I like getting criticism on my work so I can eventually get better but the job of our educators is also to give incentive and one not always get it.

I could ask myself what all my effort was for and if it was really worth it but I don’t because in the end I enjoyed it. However I remember the moments I was desperate and I thought I couldn’t do what was expected. I would be staring at the empty white sheet of paper or actually my blank screen. The cursor is blinking : tick tick tick tick and I have no idea how to fill that page until I start writing one word, then a sentence and I can not stop going on. This sensation of putting thoughts into words is awesome and everybody has most likely experienced a moment of inspiration and urge to write. Personally I have noticed that I especially feel like writing when I feel sad: it helps me articulate my feelings and while writing it helps me to reflect about what happened and sometimes I realize that life is after all not so bad. Writing my English research paper also made me develop a firm position on a specific issue (homosexuals) that I could not have supported without reading so much. The entire research process thought me how to deal with and process the immense amount of information we are all exposed to.

Another experience about writing is that it frequently involves reading and that is definitely something I take pleasure in. I admire authors who know how to play with words and make them powerful. I particularly like similes, metaphors and quotes because they make me think and they express so much in only a few words: this is an art.

Nonetheless coming back to my personal writing experience, I have to say that it has after all been a very inspirational and enriching process. The feeling of achievement after fulfilling my duties was stronger than the “suffering”. Could I have learned the same and prove my acquired knowledge if I have not been pushed by my professors? Probably not and I truly think it has built up my self esteem: the temptation to plagiarize has often been an easy alternative but once you see that your own work is better (or at least “real”), plagiarism is no longer an option. Personally I do not only work for my professors, I do it mainly for myself but I do in fact look for some recognition. Receiving credit from my professors, even if they do not agree with what I wrote, makes me proud. Everything I learned this semester will be part of my life and I learned from it but I also somewhere hope that the people who have read my essays enjoyed it. There is a quote about writing from Anaïs Nin, who describes what we should try to do: “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say”. When I was choosing the topic for the research paper I was tempted to pick a more ordinary topic (which other classmates had chosen) and it would have been probably easier than my controversial topic on the effects of homosexual parents on children but I decided to opt for challenge.

I don’t consider myself a “good writer” but I can see some improvement since September 2007. Also I have found out a lot about myself: I know now that facing defies is hard but you get rewarded. In the end I can only agree with a quote from Norbet Platt, that says: “The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.”

Works cited:

Nin, Anaïs, “Quotations about Writing” http://www.quotegarden.com/writing.html,04/29/08

Platt, Norbet, “Quotations about Writing”, http://www.quotegarden.com/writing.html, 04/29/08

Ting Shu

Actually it is really hard to give a topic for this picture and explain why I took it, but I like this picture very much. It also was the first time I went to Manhattan. I took this under Gucci’s billboard. It is easy to find a lot of luxury products in New York City. People say New York is a luxury city for some people it may not be a luxury city for all of them. When I look up at the sky, I feel a void. In this flourishing city, some people come here for the sake of fame and fortune, but they lose one important thing—what do we really want? Do we just want the fame and fortune, or to find our true selves?

Free Writing (Chenghong Wang)

Writing is the method to express the personal perspective, people write for releasing anger, to convey motion through the expressions, to record what happening in the life and also what they expect to achieve in the future.
I love to write staff which is exactly like free writing, this is a kind of writing style has no stupid requirements, no words limitation, no outline for the paper, or maybe writer can even curse in the paper which is regard as crazy if anybody write a fuck in the regular paper.
After started to write this paper, it made recall a lot of memories of mine from high school, which is unforgettable forever in my life. Too much stories, too much crazy staffs. I would prefer use as terrible as hell to describe the high school life in china. Woke up 6 in the morning, go to class until 6, student usually have average seven classes everyday, life was always follow the same pattern for three years. However, what can make up our student life was writing the journal during the class, test, meeting anytime we can use. Writing helps us to get loose from the stressful high school life

I had ever dreamed I would be a well known writer one day, because the read fiction was ever popular when I was middle school age. Honestly, the original motivation of mine to interest in fiction staff just because I want to follow the time, cannot out of date. I still remember I got extremely good comment from one my papers which is about the excellent job I have done in my paper in high school after I finish read the first fiction, and then I gradually realize I need to read more staff. Reading is like stock the resources, all the knowledge I read from the book, newspaper, magazine anything maybe will be used by me in the paper one day.
In my opinion, writing is not fast food. People cannot expect to achieve the highest level of writing after just reading a book or reading a bunch of newspapers. Writing skill improvement is an endless process that learner really has to be patient, to make effort, and finally to share the happiness of the achievement.
In china, people think pen is another weapon to fight in the wartime. Solders fight with gun, writers fight for their country with their weapon which is pen. This is a viewpoint which I really agree with. Just think about why an article can encourage people to fight without consider life, and also what is the reason can make reader cry for an article of love story. That's all the fascination of characters, and also the reason I like writing.
However, I am in a dilemma situation right now. Chinese is my first language which I used to use though my paper, since I came to America, everything has changed from Chinese to English. That mean I have to write in English, and thinking in English as well. It is a big challenge, but I can still overcome the problem. Actually, the big problem for me is lazy. Sometimes I still write in Chinese, which I think is more realistic. Writing center is really a premier place to recommend. As a Chinese, even though I can be proficient in writing in English as good as native speaker, but we still could be good. As long as keep on practice with talent.
People need spend a lot of time to finish a good paper. I will definitely bet nobody would be able to write a fantastic paper within one day. Innovation is very important for a writer producing a paper. Because they need keep on have break, keep on reading a lot of staff, and also going out for a walk. As a good writer, they need to have writing need the comfortable location, good weather, delicious food or maybe with right people. People sometimes could be in bad mood, and then they definitely cannot make it even though they write a good paper.

Informal Writing by Lorraine Cheung

Gathering my thoughts on “writing”
Writing, to me, is a way to express oneself. It is a record of what is going on in our minds. It can be about very personal issues in daily lives, like how your professor gave you a C and how mad you are. It can also be a tool to express one’s opinions on serious, profound issues, such as global warming and female politicians.
I learnt the huge difference between research papers and normal argumentative essays. They two types are similar in the sense that you need evidence to proof a certain belief. However, in the basic type of argumentative essays, we take a stand point and try to include evidences that support our view, so as to persuade others to take our side; while research papers are used to study issues in a thorough and objective perspective.
After taking this course, I know myself better now than I used to be. I realized that I am a person of strong beliefs and I like expressing my own opinions. This is the first time I felt that I am weak at researching for materials for reference. While working on my research paper, I faced a high degree of difficulty in finding creditable and helpful resources, especially on the internet.
Currently, I feel that I am stuck in a stage where I have slowed down improving and it is harder to move onto a higher level. In general, I’ve always been told that I am good at structuring essays and I don’t have too much grammar problems. Yet, I go through a lot of struggle in attempting to make my writing interesting. Even though I always have very solid and powerful points, sometimes I put them in a too “mechanical” way that may bore my readers.
I tried numerous times to keep a diary, but I just couldn’t, because I don’t feel like “talking to myself” and I don’t like the fact that there is no audience except myself. I had a blog in English and now I often write on my Japanese blog. Even to my own surprise, I am able to continue posting.
For me, the most enjoyable part of writing is not the actual writing process, but when I get feedbacks from my readers. I enjoy reading comments on my blog very much. In fact, their comments are motivations that encourage me to continuing on writing, since keep updating a blog is such a painful thing. I usually spend a minimum of one or two hours every time I write a new post.
While language and writing are closely related, language sometimes becomes a barrier when we try to express ourselves. And it should not be. Luckily, I speak four languages and I always find it very useful to combine different languages to truly convey the message I’m trying to send out. And that means my readers have to be multilingual, too.
Ultimately, writing is very important because our brains can only remember so much. If we keep a written record of our thoughts and happenings in our lives, and read it again after five or ten years, we will be surprised that we don’t even remember something we felt so strongly before.

informal writing/ Ju eui, Lee

Writing is always hard to me. Sometimes, I thought writing is so annoying. I really didn’t know how I can write. I was depressed when I wrote. At the beginning of this semester and last semester, I was under the stress of writing. I always spent a lot of time for writing but I couldn’t make paper well. I thought what I could learn by writing assignment. This thought was a ridiculous. As time goes by I could know that I got many writing skill and learned English by writing. My mind also changed. Writing is not annoying to me anymore even though writing is still hard to me. . I expect how I can improve by writing.

Now, I took writing courses for 1 year. I wrote many topics’ papers. I was afraid of writing at the beginning of this semester. As time goes by I learned many thing even English. I really don’t know how much I can improve in future, but I am sure if I practice writing hard, I can write well. I hope so.

Trang, baby!

i love your blogs! haahahhahaha

-abby

Manner by Trang Dao

I was in a class today when we have a guest speaker. We were talking among each other about the project we were supposed to be doing. The guest speaker was giving instruction and some comments on our work. I felt pretty pleasant about what I have written down and contributed to the group. So I was in a very good mood and also feeling very enthusiastic. It was time to present what we’d done. The guest speaker was listening to us and giving out comments what he thought of the work and what could have been better. When it was time for the group after us, there was this girl trying to proof herself and show off her knowledge. She was talking back to the guest speaker on how she has worked on this kind of thing everyday and she knows how it should be done. The guest speaker, I guess, was a bit startled at her attitude and he asked her not to text messaging and closes her phone. So being a stubborn girl she is, she shut the phone loudly as if we were all deaf and we would not know she just did that.
I feel a bit disturbed by how she acted. I probably do not know her personally; she could be a very sweet person. But I can not bring myself to agree with how she acted. If she knows a little too much than us, then don’t go to class or at least be nice and stay quiet! She was probably having a bad day and such, but that was across the line. There was no reason for her to vend her anger on us. The least thing you should do is show some respect to your classmates and more importantly your professor. And there was no reason whatsoever, to act like that with a person your dad’s age. I seriously wanted to give her a death glare and trip her over ---ok, no scratch that, am just kidding (lol) I need to control myself from that temptation. But it’s true I was really irritated. I really do not like people who don’t have manners, especially to some one who is older. It is probably because of how I was raised in my culture. But I think respecting others should the priority to wherever you go. I don’t know if she has taken education for granted, but as a student to some one who is teaching her, that is not the right way to act.
I know it’s kind of meaningless for me to write about this, but I just got angry and had to write it out.

Change by Trang Dao

I talked to one of my good friends today. It’s been so hard to talk to her because we both have different schedule and we could not really find any spare time to even call each other. I have missed her, beside the fact that she is the only one of my close friends who goes study abroad in the State like me. It has always been nice to have her company. We had a lot to catch up and we talked for hours.
She told me about her emotion dilemma between these two guys she’s seeing. Aish, sometimes I wonder why she makes it so complicated. She has a little too many feelings for more than one guy lol. She was struggling between choosing one of the many she’s flirting with so she called me and asked me for advice. I feel so confused. I thought she would know better to act however her feelings lead her. But instead, she told me it would be regretful for her to let go of a guy who has a lot to offer.
I suddenly remember one of the saying I came across a while ago watching a movie of some sort that I can not really recall now. “Men give, women receive”. I start to think whether it is the right thing to do. I have always been raised to be self-sufficient and I’ve always looked up to women who take charge in their life successfully. I was quite a bit taken back at her story. To be honest I found it quite disturbed that she knew me well and yet confronted me with a matter she knew my answers. I didn’t know what to say so I stayed quiet and listened to her story for little more. But the more I hear her, the more I feel like she was not someone who I’ve been comfortable around anymore. There were obvious huge differences in our views of life and such. Suddenly, it did not feel like that hot summer day when we went boating and daydreaming non-stop about growing up and music and fashion and whatever come across our minds. I told her frankly how I felt, and we kind of getting ourselves in a little argument, in which I slightly regretted telling her my feelings. I have my own beliefs and she has her own. And we both think we were right, so it’s hard to convince one another.
Then it hit me, I realize that maybe, the only constant in life is change. Just like how she has changed her views, and how I change my feelings toward her. To think about it, we see more things in the past 3 years, we meet more people and encounters different problems, we have different ways of solving problems too.
So by the end of the phone call, I’ve decided to keep the nice memories about her with me and never to ask about her relationship unless she wants me to listen and calm enough to handle my point of views. She is still one of my favorite persons. And I hope it won’t change ^^. On a lighter note, I truly hope she would choose someone who she has really fallen for so I could strengthen my belief in true love.

Aging by Trang Dao

I was doing my homework when one of my friend who I rarely talked to calling me. She was one of my rare childhood friends who I used to hung out with a lot when we were in elementary school. She is also an international student like me. Except for we don’t talk as much as before due to difference circle of friends and it’s been quite a long time she has her world and I have mine, she and I remain good friends.
And so anyway, she made me listen to this soundtrack she randomly found after hours surfing the internet. We both had good laughs, and reminiscing the time when we were little. I remember back then, it was from a Chinese TV drama and we were all crazed over it. The OST brought back so many memories, good ones of course.
I just wish we could have a time machine and go back to all these times. I just want to be a kid forever…and never has to grown up. Just like Peter Pan in Never Land. Sometimes I feel it’s so hard growing up. I started to see more things and there are times I just feel useless. I see much unfairness and yet I can’t do anything about it. Then I have to think more about the relation with other people. When I was a kid, if I would make a mistake it would be easier to be forgiven as well. Friends are also changing, I used to be very naïve to think that every one would just go ahead and say whatever they think but later I know there is something call “COOL BY ASSOCIATON”. I sound so old, it feels so weird. I feel like those grandmothers who gather together with their friends and talk about Vietnam war or stuff like that. haha… anyway, I had a good talk with my friend and I cant change the fact that am aging, mentally and physically. Lol.

Summer byTrang Dao

I have always wondered

Is there a question mark because one is curious…
Or one is curious because there’s a question mark?

Anyway, my random ranting for this journal would be about summer vacation. Yes I know I am thinking wayyyy ahead, but I can’t help drooling about it. I am such a bad student, aren’t I? I miss Vietnamese food so much. It’s so weird that even some of the food I used to hate, to my surprise I come to crave for them. I have too many plans for the summer I don’t think I can do all of them but anyway, just for the record~~
I’ve been planning to learn ball room dancing (blame Dancing with the Stars)…
I’ve wanted to take fashion design…
I’ve been waiting to come back to take wushu class…
And I’ll definitely take class for cooking…
I am dreaming of going off to the beach and gossiping hours with my girl friends. We have been away from each other for quite a while, I’ve missed them dearly. Of course we talk now and then but still … seeing them face to face would be the best…
I missed the times we all went on the motorcycles and just go around lakes to lakes and talked about random stuff.

Summer ah~~~~ come come soon…..

Climbing the intestinal wall of writing

by Deokhee Ko

Actually, writing, essay…and all of like writings were an annoying process to me. In addition, they made to frustrate to me. For example, when I took ENG1F, I felt nervous every time because of essay. But now, I knew that ENG 1F and Eng 2F were very helpful to me. Thanks to these classes, I feel better than past when I write something. For this reason, I think that international students have to do these courses.
The first reason is that these courses offer to practice writing to international students before they write real essay and paper in other classes. And they can learn structure about essay such as MLA format and various types of essay. Even though writing is obstacle to me and international students, we can learn not only writing skills but also reading, grammar and other things. That reminds me, I just do not think about my purpose about writing. Aimlessly, I just write essay and research paper. Sometimes, not sometimes, usually, I feel very confused when I write new essay or research paper. Maybe, my main problem is that I do not have vivid purpose. Of course, I have ultimate purpose, it is successful study abroad. Therefore, I have to get good grade. But, I cannot sure whether it is right or not. In addition, other problem is that I cannot translate easily from Korean to English. Actually, in Korea, I really enjoy to write something but now I cannot translate well as my own word. Undoubtedly, these problems make to unclear to my essay. For instance, when I wrote research paper, I really felt difficult to write objectively about research paper. This problem is caused by my fixed concept and habit. In fact, research paper was really challenge to me, and I could not have any idea about that. Most big difficult thing was that I could not write all of my materials objectively. Now, I understood why professor gave this homework to us. For this essay, I can learn
exactly what big problems to me and my essay. Always, I just think that I cannot write well because I am not native. However, now I know that this is just my preconception. When I wrote research paper, I thought why I have to this. Think about this, it is good way to learn another type of writing. In addition, another misunderstanding is that I think that essay and writing mean just homework.

Through this evaluation, I thought about solutions which can help to overcome my problems. The first thing is confidence. I thought that I felt every time too nervous when I wrote something. I want to be more active person when I have to do something included with writing. The second things is creative and critical thinking, they help to make essay more enjoyable. I really need to these things because my essay usually just enumerates my own opinion and explanation without creative ideas. So, in my opinion, both creative and critical thinking, confidence really are necessary to me. Of course, most good thing is practice writing such English diary. Frankly, I did try to write English diary little bit, but I did not keep going on. Accordingly, for improving my writing skills, I want to try again it, and I want to be a good writer in the near future. Please pray for me! Lastly, I really appreciate for this class and instructor Leslie bai even though I still have to study more and more about writing.

Have a break!!

by Ako Ando mad cute!!

My writing development -Hanayu Hiroto

Writing was never my speciality, even in my home language.If I want to express my feelings, I would rather draw a picture instead. Or if I want to organize my thoughts, I would search for lyrics online that relate to my thoughts and make myself understand. And so writing essays weren't always fun to me. However eventually, this class helped me in four different ways.
One is, it gave me the opportunity to organize my own thoughts without the help of someone else's words or lyrics and made me realize how hard it is. I believe that humans are all thinkers, and so we all have the possibility to write great original essays full of our own ideas and perspectives, but somehow every single person has different difficulties in writing. In my case, the difficulty was to organize my thoughts. Once the switch turns on, my thoughts flow out from my hand and it feels very good, but if I read it all over the sentences are inconherent.It was very depressing at the beginning not to write freely too much, but gradually I got used to write step by step. And eventually, this class helped me in four different ways.
Second of all, it was very good for me that the professor kept telling us to expand our vocabulary and use variaties of words. Learning how to express the same feelings in many different ways, made the writing so much fun, and also made me want to know English more and more. I was so surprised by how fun it is.
Third of all, everytime I handed out my 1st draft, professor Bai kept asking me 'why do you think that?''why do you believe that?' why, why, why. This pushed me to dig deeper and deeper in my mind, and it eventually made my imposing writings softer because my explanation became more specific and understandable.
Lastly, I am a very neutral person. I don't judge things. Therefore sometimes it was very uncomfortable for me to state firm opinions in my writings, because I didn't want to be against the opposite opinion. But through this class, I realized that even though I don't have a strong opinion, if I just keep writing and writing relating to the topic, it reaches to something very strong and clear conslusion that I wouldn't want to concede.

Right Brain vs Left Brain

by Ako Ando

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Source:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

Let's use unique thoughts! (Ayaka Katakawa)

These art works are exhibited in the gallery located in the Metropolitan Opera. They are so unique and they are created by using unique thoughts. What is unique is that they are made by "Post-it". Unique thoughts create good art works. As them, unique thoughts can create good essays as well.

English 1F & 2F Help me a Lot! (Dong Jian)

English 1F,2F let me konw how to write a good essay,and let me master many writing skills.English 1F 2F also help me make a lot of friends from different countries. English 1F,2F help me a lot!

There is a Chinese proverb: lead, Zhudu, Feng Wei. English 1F,2F let me know writing a good essay is much like preparing for a debate, I need to study my
persuasive essay topic from various perspectives, establish my main argument and gather supporting evidence. I never pay attention on writing skills before English 1F,2F.I only write what i think, I never considered finishing sentences and paragraphs.Now i remember writing a good essay I need to pay particular attention to the first sentence what I am going to write down, namely a lead-in. It is the most important part of the whole persuasive essay.If the first sentence can give a special feeling ,entire article give people impressed.From English 1F 2F,I remember how to write a strong and impressive lead-in.First start with an unusual detail; second put a strong statement; third quote a famous person; fourth open the essay with a statistic or fact; fifth start with an emphatic rhetorical question. For the body, I know that I must Prove my point of view, and say why. The end of essay must be strong, must be a summary of the full text. These is what I learn from English 1F 2F, it help me a lot.

English 1F 2F also help me make a lot of friends from different countries. Always talk with them let me have a better understanding between our different cultures,make more friends help me improve my English speaking.English 1F 2F is international students' class,We come from different countries, we are also away from home,we miss our home,we remember what is our problem and what we need,therefore, we have more topics.Our English 1F 2F class made by an international teacher, a group of international students. I like this class.

English 1F 2F class is made by international teacher and students, this class make me learn a lot of writing skill and help me make a lot of international friends,improve my English and help me adapt the life in united states, I like this class!

My mighty weapon: writing (By Jihwan Choi)

I think the purpose of writing is expressing my feelings. I think that writing is more accuracy way to express my feeling and idea than speaking. Whenever I have conversation about my feelings with my friends, I often regret after the conversation. “I should not say like that.” “I should not say that word.” “I should say something, but I forgot.”These regrets are always followed after conversation. However, writing reduces my regrets. When I express my feelings using writing such as letter and massage, I can express my feelings well. In speaking, if you say something wrong, it is no use crying after over spilt milk. In writing, however, if you write something wrong, you can change that part. That’s it. You don’t need to regret or cry over spilt milk.
I think that writing course is necessary to international students. I think writing is the most important skill to improve English skill for international students.’ When international students have basic writing skill, they can improve their reading, listening and speaking skill.
If they don’t know how to write ‘apple’, how can they read, listen and speak ‘apple’?
I have learned about expressing my own idea and supporting my own opinion using references. I think that writer should be honest by themselves to be a good writer. If the writer is not honest and try to write something with falsehood, the writing would not be good writing with lack of own feeling and soul. However, it is really hard to express their feelings in English for international students. Therefore, it makes them think about plagiarism. However, I have never tried to use plagiarism. Sometimes, my friends who wrote essay with plagiarism in two or three hours get same grade with me. It makes me get angry, however, I firmly believe that writing by myself would be really helpful work. Plagiarism is the obstacle for international students. “If I do plagiarism, I will be never able to improve my English skill and this writing would not be mine.” When I have hard time with writing essay, I think deeply about that saying.

Actually, I have enjoyed writing something since childhood. I mean I like writing something because I’m not good at speaking to explain something. Even in my native language, I’m very nervous when I speak something. In English, it’s more serious. That’s why I prefer writing to speaking. If I have to choose one among writing and speaking to explain something, I would choose writing. For example, I used to send messages using cell phone instead of calling. Neverthless, it was really hard to write papers in English. I spent more than twelve hours to write each essay1 and essay2. It was really hard time for me with three essays. I passed a night without sleep every due day. Especially, writing research paper was really hard to me. I spent more than 30 hours, but I think I ruined it. I barely finished writing research paper, but I have an unsatisfied feeling with it. However, I firmly believe that writing would be really helpful work. The pleasure of accomplishment is beyond words when I complete writing. I fill my heart with pride whenever I complete essays. So writing is an enjoyable process to me.
My favorite type of writing is writing lyric. I think lyric is soul and pure emotion.
In fact, in my country, I used to write lyric for rap (hip-hop music) because I was in hip-hop crew in my college. Since that time, I have enjoyed expressing my feelings in writing. Sometimes, I recollect my memories as I read my lyrics. Writing is a good record of my life track. Sometimes, I read my essays, journals, diaries and my lyrics. The writings I have written bring back to me many memories of my past.
Yes, writing is really enjoyable to me.

"Brings the sky down on the ground" (Ayaka Katakawa)

What is the boy watching?





This art work is very interesting and artistic, isn't it? It is called "Sky Mirror" made by Anish Kapoor, Indian artist. In 2006, it was put near the Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The diameter of this mirror is 35 feet. It is huge. People seemed to enjoy the sky from the mirror. Generally, sky is very far from us, but through the mirror, we can feel that sky is nearer and more familiar.
What a unique art work it is!

Incomplete Recipe (by Mirim Chang)

Incomplete Recipe
Writing was really not an enjoyable process to me, much less English writing. It is fact that writing in English is not an easy work as an international student. However, it is an essential process like a mountain to go over to study and to get a job in America. As I have taken the English writing course, I have tried to put my thought into the frame of English writing whenever I had to write essays with new topic and new style. Now, I am in an early stage of English writing like beginner cook who knows a new recipe for some food but don’t know how to cook it well. I learned a basic frame of English writing but I still have what I should improve in my essay.
The first thing which I consider is the basic frame of English writing when I start to write an essay. Through finishing several essays, I surely learned the basic frame how to organize well. The frame consists of a creative topic, an attractive introduction, a clear thesis statement, supporting the idea in the body, well summarized conclusion and MLA format. As I repeated to write according to the frame, I got eyes to distinguish good writing. Now, I try to find out a thesis statement even if I read some articles or other’s essay. Besides, I look over whether each body supports the idea or not.
Of course, it’s not mean that I fluently write, and at least I can find out what problems are in my writing and try to fix or improve it. I think that these basic skills make me confident to write in other subjects.
In addition, I could naturally learn American’s culture through the English writing process. I could understand more about American as I wrote about American’s culture. For example, when I wrote about American’s culture through American’s food culture, I realized that two big flows of fast food and slow food culture exist in our time in America even though various foods coexist in America. Reversely, if I had to write my culture in English writing, I need to know more about American’s culture because I wanted show Korea’s culture which is distinct with American’s. In addition, when I wrote essays like research paper, I could learn America through searching a lot of information on the net for reliable. For instance, I knew that the 70% of married women are working in America and I understood the situation of adopted children by homosexual parents in America. I believe that these knowledge what I got indirectly can be helpful to not only better writing but also a daily life. However, I still have the high wall to conquer to be a good writer.
I have difficulty to use proper and profound expression in English. My writing has no depth and there are a lot of wrong expressions in English. Sometimes, I feel pain to explain my
intention in the sentence when my professor or other Americans don’t understand some sentence or some words in my essay. Therefore, I change the sentences to simple sentences at variance with my first intension or eliminate the sentences completely. Sometimes, I make weird sentence since I choose the literally translated word in Korean –English dictionary. For example, it happens that I make a strange sentence “Creative education become manure of success” when I want to express “Creative education become nutriment of success.” Unfortunately, it takes long time to use completely proper expressions in English and continuous efforts to think in English are required.
In conclusion, through writing several essays, I got the basic frame from interesting opening to well summarized conclusion to organize essay well. I could also naturally understand American’s culture in the process to search some information for more reliable essay. I still have difficulty to use proper and profound expression in English. However, I strongly believe that I can be a good writer in the future if I continuously make an effort to think in English and
Don’t be afraid to express in writing as if a beginner cook can make complete his own recipe through continuous repeating and improvement based on the basic recipe.

Writing is what I'm used to love and hate

After my registration last Fall semester, I thought my English subject is more on reading comprehension. I was wrong. It focused more on writing skills. I wanted to quit but told myself to hang-in there. I hate doing papers since it was introduced to me in middle school. I hate its demand. To be honest, I would often ask my brothers, sister and father to help me or rather, tell them to do my stuffs. But now, I see a very big difference on past and present situations. If way back in elementary it was “write a paragraph about this, etc“; high school “write a page about whatever“. Now in college, it is an ultimatum “write 3-5 or 8-10 pages". Snap! I am not quite ready for this.
I‘m guessing my personality has something to do with this. I’m the kind of person who has difficulties expressing how I feel or think in writing even in conversations (even with my own language). I seldom share my thoughts and opinions. All I do is listen, analyze and verdict on my own. I don’t have personal blogs ,moreover, diaries! Because I don’t wanna bother myself getting paranoid that someone like my childish siblings stole and read it.
To international students, this writing course is essential. This is a good training on how the real English writing paper is done. The probable problem international students face is clarification, unity and coherence of ideas in paper. All the thoughts are running smoothly in your head but when you have to write or say it, it goes wacky. I think it is normal for anyone not to be able to speak their minds right away. Although there are a lot of difficulties encountered, having this course is indeed helpful. Everyone can apply things tackled or learned on how to write paper and do proper citations. I remember my first paper in Philosophy I got C+. I deserved it because the amount of seriousness I put was not as much effort I gave. I just sat down in front of my computer for hours, searched articles, read it and make the most out of the ideas. The worst is I didn’t even followed the guidelines I learned in English class. In the end I regretted it so badly and lesson learned. On the second paper, I tried to comprehend Plato, Socrates, Mill’s writings and used the proper writing guidelines. Thanks to the guidelines, I was able to justify my paper better and rose my grade to average B. So overall, this writing course is good and effective because it let me explored more vocabularies, grammatical structures and formats. I want to say that it was sort of fun because of the mind challenges it brought me. On the other hand, I would still not deny the fact that writing is not my interest.
Personally, I wanna say a million thanks to my Professor Leslie Bai for everything she taught us. She’s always been kind, patient, generous and understanding. Eventhough she is Korean-Chinese, she treated all students from other countries fairly. She never showed she is just favored to both my Chinese and Korean classmates. I’ve been in her class for a year, what I admire the most is she never humiliated anyone. She did not once opposed or contradicted one‘s opinion. I don’t even remember a time she got pissed! Hands down to her, I would gladly recommend her to my juniors or other international friends who haven’t taken English course yet.
Lastly, I also wanna thank our school for offering an English course for international students (and hiring Prof. Bai! hehe). In this way, all of us can be comfortable with our English subject matter because we have asian teacher ,and also, feel at home even for an hour and 20 mins.

Writing is a Tool to know about Myself

by Ako Ando

I loved to write something when I was very young. I was always with a pen and a notebook when I went to somewhere with my family because I had have wanted to be an author of children’s books since I was in a kindergarten to an elementary school. I wrote a story even though I was in jazz club with my parents. When I didn’t have a notebook in a restaurant, I always wrote something on the back side of a place mat and a drip mat which were made of paper. I made and wrote a lot of stories and pictures and I still keep those notebooks in my house. I sometimes let my parents read them and sometimes I didn’t show them to anyone. I have asked Santa Claus to prepare many picture books when I was 7 years old. The middle finger of my right hand was changed its shape because of a big corn and it is still a little bit strange. I have written not only picture books but also novels and cartoons, but I hate to write diary at that time. However, somehow I didn’t come to write stories gradually as I grew up. Instead of that, I came to write diary often before I went bed or when I wanted to think about something deeply. I was getting to know the importance to write diary for me.
I still love to write something but only when I can write freely. Pens and notebooks are always my best friends. Therefore, writing is basically very enjoyable for me. However, it is not always enjoyable for me. Even though I don’t hate the course writing, it is sometimes very annoying for me depending on topic. I am often struggled with my essay and it is difficult for me to have a strong opinion. As one of my friends said in her presentation, I also tend to be neutral. Perhaps, that is the most serious problem of mine on the process of brainstorming. Therefore, I often use a lot of time to think about the topic. Before I start writing, it is so annoying for me, but once I start writing, sometimes I can enjoy it very much. It is very similar to the situation that before and after I take a bath.
I think writing something is to know about myself. I write my diary almost every day for 5 years by Japanese, though. When I am confused about something, I wrote down whatever I want like free-writing. It is very helpful to organize my thoughts and opinion. I often realize what I want to do or what I should do through writing diary. When I find a lyric that is very similar to my mind, I often quote it in my diary. I always try to be honest when I write something in my diary. It gets rid of my stress and it naturally becomes the record of my life track. Some people talk to their stuffed animals or their pets in order to organize their brain or remove their stress. In my case, I talk to my diary. Perhaps, I talk to myself through my diary.
It is very interesting to read the past diaries and I often realize something new from the old diaries. While I read old diaries, I feel…oh, I was changed or how childish I was!! However, I also feel… I didn’t grow up mentally comparing before and now in some part. So I can know about myself deeper through writing and reading diary.
Of course, I regard the writing course as a totally different thing from diary because I can write whatever I want in my diary but I have to think about readers’ point of view when I write essay in the course. However, I still think both of them are very good to know about myself because we need to think deeply when we try to write something good or something interesting. So for me, writing is to know about myself, and it is also a good record of my life track.
Finally, to be a good writer, I think it is necessary to have a specific purpose. Before start writing, we should ask myself…What do I want to do through my work?...Do I want to persuade someone by my essay?...Do I want to attract people by my poem? or...Do I want to inform something to people? And so on.
Besides, one more important thing for me to be a good writer is trying not to be a narcissist when I write something. When I am so excited to write something, I sometimes get drunk on my work even though it doesn’t make any sense. Therefore, we need to see our work objectively from the third person.

a chance to express mind

by Sayaka Muratomi

The older I am, the more often I have written essay and journal. Writing is usually enjoyable for me, though depend on the topic. Writing can express my mind and it remains without change. Some writing like research paper don’t include personal feeling but I believe writing is usually a chance to express my mind, knowledge and what I usually think and feel as records. In this writing course, to be honest, sometimes I wrote to get credit because I didn’t have any interesting about the topic. I think to write well is important to think of topic very much. Some topics are the topics I have thought of before and I have interesting in. Writing such topics is very interesting for me and I believe the writings are more valuable than writing topics which I don’t interesting for me. Writing about the topics which I have usually thought of makes my mind clear and tidy. I could find that my thought has contradiction or my thought is not logical because I can see my thought from objective view. I think this is a good way to practice logical thinking. And also what I write with my thought would be absolutely a good record of my life. When I read it again a few years or a few decades later, I can remind of exactly what I thought and feel then. The thought would be change and the thought would not be change. If it changes, I could feel my growth like I find the drawing which was painted when I was 5 years old. If it doesn’t change, I might feel strength of my thought. I prefer writing which I can express my thought and my mind like essay and journal. However, in this course I found that depend on topics, I like research paper, too. To research and analyze the topic is not a chance to express my mind but a chance to save knowledge and to practice logical thinking very well. I believe that to be a good writer, logical thinking is essential. Logical thinking is important for not only research paper but also for any writing because without logical thinking, there is no unity and also readers couldn’t understand what a writer wants to tell what a writer wants to tell. Even though writing is a chance to express mind and idea, without logical thinking, it is meaningless if readers couldn’t understand what a writer says. Logical thinking helps a writer to order what the writer wants tell from thesis to conclusion. Any writing with order is easy for readers to understand what a writer says and has great power of persuasion about the thesis. These writing fascinate readers and draw readers into the writing world. Actually, I learned how to think logical thorough writing a littele. In general, I think of, feel, hear and know many various things. Sometimes, I would insist on and talk about that with my family or friends. Later talking, however, there is nothing as form and I wouldn’t remember exactly what I say. Writing is the best way to express what I think of, feel, hear and know in general not only because it remains as forms but also because writing helps to order my mind and view it objectively.

Writing: A Precious Opportunity to Learn a Lot of Things (Ayaka Katakawa)

English 1F and English 2F became my precious experience in my life. To be honest, before taking the course, I regarded English 1F as an only mandatory class and felt writing course was annoying for me because I like writing in informal way in my native language, but I felt I was not good at writing in English in formal way. However, after I came to get used to attending class, my thought totally changed. English 1F was only class which I could relax and I could study without any pressure because it was only for international students. Also, my thought about writing and my behavior towards writing could change through this course.

I am an international student, so I did not have any confidence about grammar, structure, and the way to organize the essay before. In English 1F and English 2F, I wrote 7 essays including informal essays and very formal essays such as a research paper. In each time, I could focus on a certain field and learn what is necessary to write in English one by one: the way to decide a topic, the way to organize the essay, grammar and language, and MLA Format. When I finished final essay in this semester, I felt that I was improved more than before to write essays in English and I could get confidence. Also, I felt English 1F and English 2F were very useful. Whenever I wrote an essay, I could get the chance to revise and make it better. In this process, I could figure out what is my weakest point and consider it by correcting mistake. By understand my weakest point, I could care about it when I wrote other essays and essays which were assigned in other classes. As a result, English 1F and English 2F provided me a lot of necessary skills for writing.

I learned not only general writing skills but also other important things in English 1F and English 2F. First of all, I could know importance of thinking things from not one perspective but a lot of different perspectives. Also, generally, everyone tend to think by the same way, but I learned thinking differently was very unique and interesting and it was very important. Also, my vision could be widened. Some topics which I wrote about were new and what I did not know before. As a result, I could gain knowledge and broaden interests. By this experience, I could look at things from a broader point of view. Moreover, the topics which I wrote about in English classes were very necessary to live in the United States. I have lesbian and gay friends here, and I could understand them more through the classes and writing essays. Also, in the United States, there are a lot of people who have different background, so I could learn the importance of identity and cherishing my own identity. Therefore, English 1F and English 2F are very helpful and useful courses.

Any writing became the enjoyable process to me if the topic was very interesting and descriptive. In my theory, writing is an opportunity that I can say whatever I want. However, before I took English 1F, only diary and formal writing were enjoyable. The reason was that I thought they were only writings that I could say whatever I wanted. However, my thought became totally different from my previous thought. I figure out that I could say whatever I wanted for any writing through English 1F and English 2F. I write a diary on my blog almost every day. Although I do not write in English, it is a good opportunity to put my ideas, thoughts, and opinions in order and learn about myself. Writing a diary is the chance to look back at myself and think about myself better. Writing essays has similar concept to writing a diary. In the case of thinking about the topic, I could understand what I was really thinking and I had to put all thoughts and ideas in order about the topic in order to write essays. So, writing essays is self-recognition as writing a diary. Without self-recognition, the way to think about the topic might get out of position and it is possible for me to lose aim and purpose for the topic. Also, writing essays is approach to make my voice heard. There is no mistake about my thoughts, opinions, and ideas for any topics, so whatever I come up with is everything. Through writing, I could talk about my idea about the topic under no pressure by using my experience and my investigation of research. Consequently, writing can be a good record of my life truck. It can be said for any writing including a diary, a journal, an essay, and a research paper although the type of writing is different each other.

In conclusion, before taking English 1F, I liked writing but I felt annoyed about writing a formal one in English because I thought I was not good at writing in English and I believed it was tough. However, after taking a course, my thought and behavior about writing changed. I could get confidence to write essays in English by leaning about writing skills throughout English 1F and English 2F such as the way to choose the topic, the way to organize the essay, language and structure, and MLA Format. Moreover, I figured out that any writing was enjoyable. Through writing, I could learn about the topic deeply and understand what I never knew before. Writing essays widened my point of view and my interests. I also could learn about myself by understanding what and how I was really thinking. Moreover, I found that, for any writing, I could say whatever I wanted based on my experience and my investigation of research because whatever I came up with was everything and there was no mistake for my thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Any writing is a good record of my life track. Writing always gives me the opportunity to learn a lot of things including myself, writing skills, and new discoveries including what I never knew before and what I have already known.

TIBET ! THE HISTORY BEHIND TIBET AND CHINA (Yongfei Gu)

I don't know whether it is a very suitable occasion to talk about this issue. So, first of all, I apologize about it.
I saw this video on YouTube, and there are quite a lot of commons following it. I think you may figure out what they were saying without my explaination. Actually, after I watched this video, I was very...very...very... exciting, because it is MY country,and the guys who left the commons were attacking MY country.
China is my motherland. I lived there for almost 20 years, I understand the history and the people there quite well. There is no doubt "Tibet was,is and will a part of China".
Anyway,I am really proud of my motherland.

P.S. I Love You (Yongfei Gu)

This film is just brilliant, beofre you have an actual chance to cry your suddenly laughing. The endings a tear jerker & Gerry is mega hot which always helps.
I saw this movie with my best friend.The movie was AMAZING! i cried many times and i NEVER cry during movies,NEVER. the movie was just THAT moving and amazing that i cried. the best thing about this movie is how it makes you cry and laugh within seconds of each other.
it is telling a very good story. Husband has died and wife was quite sad. The husband prepared many letters to send to his wife after he died. At the end of every letter, there is a sentence "P.S. I Love You"...

Thank You, Professor Bai (by Jieyu Hu)

I don’t know how to express my feeling at this moment. I can just feel my heart beating so quick. Until I realize that it is already the end of the writing class and we have been together for almost a year, I know I am not willing to leave this big family so much.
I still remember the first day when I stepped into English 1-F classroom with a little bit timidity and found a seat in the last row of the class. After the first class, I knew our writing professor was a Chinese, which made me not so nervous like before. Her name is Leslie Bai. I always thought she would treat Chinese students better because we are from the same country. However, she never did like that.
To tell the truth, I have not been so serious with the writing class from the beginning to the end. I have been treating writing class as a place to relax myself. Though I really want to write perfect essays, I never try my best to reach the goal. I treated submitting every essay as my target but not the essay’s quality. Last time when we wrote the research paper, I directly copied so much from the website. Expectedly I received professor Bai’s mail. But to my surprise, she wrote she was so disappointed with what I had done, not just my paper. At that time, I just had nothing to say. I had to accept the result of my own behavior. What she said made me think so much about my writing even my attitude towards study and life. Finally, I woke up from my own world. In one minute I understand the meaning about the existence of writing class. It is not only a class, but also a place where I can learn about life and the society. I begin to regret what I did in the past days. However, it’s really a good lesson for me to go on my future life. What’s more, from writing class, I realize a lot of truth.
I think wring is an enjoyable process for me because I can write whatever I want to say and it’s a process to improve my way of thinking. I want to say writing for me is not only a course to get credits. It’s an approach to make my voice heard, a good record of my life track and a process of self-recognition. I understand what I am really thinking about from writing. It corrects my wrong attitude to writing and life. Besides, I am an international student, whose English is not so fluent as foreigners. So writing is much more necessary for me. Sometimes I feel it difficult to write a satisfied essay because of the lack of words. It is the biggest challenge for me. So I tell myself I have to remember more and more words from now on. Also, organizing the sentences perfectly seems difficult for me. I prefer Journal writing. Because writing a journal everyday makes me feel substantial. Furthermore, by everyday writing, I can accumulate more life experiences, which benefit my future life.
However, other kinds of writing also gave me much knowledge. From blog posting, I understand life is controlled by your hand. I have to post by myself and nobody would help you do it. It’s not only the blog posting, but also the test for my positivity for life. Essay seems a big challenge for me. But I still learn a lot from writing essay. Sometimes when I write my own experience, essay reminds me of the past days like childhood and the life in High School, which gives me so much courage to go forward. I have never written poem in English, so I won’t tell poem. When I mention research paper, I know it is the biggest lesson for me. I learn a lot from research paper. I know we can’t just copy from the Internet. We have to write our own ideas. Website is just a place where we can see the reference. Writing a research paper needs our patient and our talent for logic thinking.
A good writer must be an honest person. He must have many experiences about life. He must be so anxious about looking for the truth of life. He must write every word using his heart. Thanks for writing class. Thanks for professor Bai. I reach the meaning of wring and the meaning of life after one year’s writing class. Though next semester there won’t be writing class for me anymore, I will stick to wring journal every day. Professor Bai makes me understand so many things I didn’t know before. I think I will remember the days with you. I will remember the experience in writing class. Thank you, Professor Bai!

commercial (JINHO YOON)

WHEN YOU SEE COMMERCIALS ON A TV, YOU MIGHT THINK THAT YOU CAN MAKE IT ONE LIKE EXACTLY SAME. WHEN I WAS SEARCHING FOR THE FUNNIEST COMMERCIAL, I COULD NOT HOLD MY BREATH, OMG, SO PERFECT AND HILARIOUS. SOMETIMES WHEN YOU ARE STRESSFUL OR WANT TO LAUGHT, IT IS GOOD WAY TO TRY..



FUNNY AS HELL MAN.

"The Devil wears Prada" (Shuhui Wang)

This custome is after Andy left RUNWAY
The coat is Vince; the dark cloth which is inside is DKNY,a Japanese Fabric jean and a Calvin Klein shose.



No wonder Anny is a breaty women: small face and big eyes
Look at her costume:the shoes are Dolce & Gabbana;the white knitted sweater is Calvin Klein; J. Crew--sweater and Petro Zillia's dress. The cellphone is sidekick　



In this picture, nearly everthing is Chanel: the dress is Chanel, the coat is chanel, the boot is Chanel and the necklace is also Chanel




Anny wears John Galliano's dress and the ring on her finger is Chanel
Miranda wears Valentino's dress.



This dress is PRADA! The most important cloth in this film!

Chewing Gum (Shuhui Wang)

Is it cute?

Sherlock Jr.(Shuhui Wang)

Sherlock, Jr. (1924) is an American comedy silent film directed by Buster Keaton. The movie was written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell. It stars Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton and Ward Crane.[1]

On June 14, 2000 the American Film Institute, as part of its AFI 100 Years... series, ranked the comedy #62 of the funniest films of all time (AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs).

I like this movie it is worth to watch it!

The Great Train Bobbery(Shuhui Wang)

The Great Train Robbery is the name given to a £2.6 million train robbery committed on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.[1] The bulk of the stolen money was not recovered. This was probably the largest robbery by value, in British history, until the Securitas depot robbery of 2006 in Kent.

scarface (JINHO YOON)

AL PACINO'S ganster movie.. i watched last night with my roommie.. he said, at least you're in the U.S. you gotta watch this movie.. 'Scarface'
even though it's hard to understand his pronunciation.. it was a good movie..

Prisoners Do the Soulja Boy and Thriller!

i just find it cute.





-abilene

A Fuller Definition of Writing to Learn
http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop4a.cfm

Although how writing fosters critical thinking is not clear (Applebee), theoreticians and practitioners alike agree that writing promotes both critical thinking and learning (See Adams, Britton, Bruner, Emig, Herrington, Knoblauch and Brannon, Odell, Parker on the linked bibliography.) As Toby Fulwiler and Art Young explain in their "Introduction" to Language Connections: Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum:

Writing to communicate--or what James Britton calls "transactional writing"--means writing to accomplish something, to inform, instruct, or persuade. . . . Writing to learn is different. We write to ourselves as well as talk with others to objectify our perceptions of reality; the primary function of this "expressive" language is not to communicate, but to order and represent experience to our own understanding. In this sense language provides us with a unique way of knowing and becomes a tool for discovering, for shaping meaning, and for reaching understanding. (p. x)
In "Writing to Learn Means Learning to Think," Syrene Forsman makes the same point, but she directs her attention not to a theoretical justification but a practical rationale for writing to learn:

As teachers we can choose between (a) sentencing students to thoughtless mechanical operations and (b) facilitating their ability to think. If students' readiness for more involved thought processes is bypassed in favor of jamming more facts and figures into their heads, they will stagnate at the lower levels of thinking. But if students are encouraged to try a variety of thought processes in classes, they can, regardless of their ages, develop considerable mental power. Writing is one of the most effective ways to develop thinking. (p. 162)
The Consequences of Writing by Robert P. Parker and Vera Goodkin is an especially good resource on writing to learn. Following a detailed discussion of the theoretical links between language (especially writing) and learning, these authors outline projects that focus on writing in entomology, clinical nursing, psychology, and mathematics, all with similar results: students learned key concepts and understood material more fully while also practicing some features of discourse for the specified discourse community. Thus, writing to learn can have additional positive effects in helping students mature as effective communicators even though the initial goal is to help students become better learners.

-abilene

Another Way of Expression; Writing, instead of speaking

I believe that writing is one of the important parts of language learning as a foreign student. Writing is basically another way to speark or express what i believe, see, hear, or feel.
In my case, i'm still learning English as a foreign student in the US. I like writing the most among four skiils of English which are reading, listening, speaking and writing. Writing is adcantageous because i can express my thoughts and then recise to improve my skills. Sometimes it is better to speak than write because speaking is easy. Putting ideas into writing is hard work, especially when students are learning foreign languages like English. For example, for me, speaking in French is easiler than writing which i like. I think this applies to every language. Writing in English is not easy work even though i have an interest and i have been studying English for a few years in English-speaking countries.
In particular, for international students, there can be several obstacles to learning English. In English, a sentence usually starts with a subject followed by a verb and then an object. On the other hand, in Korean writing, it starts wirh a subject followed by an object and then a verb. This different grammar style is the first conspicuous characteristic. This is very confusing when we are writing in English for the first time. Another problem is the lack of vocabulary. If students do not know any words except pronouns, of course they cannot finish a sentence. To memorize some vocabulary is important so that students attempt to make sentences. They can also write whatever they want to say as sentences and these sentences could become a paragraph.

......

- Soo Yeon

Really helpful information to international students (JINHO YOON)

if you're international student, you must be going back to your country in this summer. when you're go back, do not forget your grandmother's present.. they are going to be sad if you're not buying something. haha,, so buy Vitamin.. i was thinking about what do i have to buy it.. finally, i bought vitamin for my grnadmother yesterday.. it's my suggestion.

Halloween History(Yongfei Gu)

Halloween isn't just costumes and candy; it's a cultural holiday rich in tradition.
It is one of the most important holidays in the US.

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Avril Lavigne & Lil' Mama MadTv - Black Friend / BlackFriend(Yongfei Gu)

Piranhas - Piranha adventure - Fish Piraya, Cariba Attack（Yongfei Gu）

Computer addiction

From AHAJOKES.com

How to Tell you are Short on Time...

Have you ever thought of turning your toilet into this?!
The only worry is that sometimes you just don't know what you did and what you didn't.
If you don't know, then who knows!

Gossip Girl^^(Yongfei Gu)

Blake Lively talks to Hannah Storm about her current project, "Gossip Girls," and the sequel to "The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants." (CBSNews.com)

Gossip girl^^
i really really like Serena.
Blake is very beautiful. she is so what i thought Serena would look like. of cource i thought from reading all the books ( just finished the last one) that S would have a different attitude about things. in the book she still wants to party and still loves nate. In the show she wants to change everything she did wrong. I like the show serena better than the book Serena. :P

my love mac.. (JINHOYOON)

im going to buy MAc defenitely later,, i want to use programs in the mac. mac is incredibly cool and so fancy..

Mariah Carey - Touch My Body（Yongfei Gu）

Mariah Carey^^
one of my favourite singers~

Mariah Carey(born March 27, 1970)is a biracial, American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, and became the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. According to Billboard magazine, she was the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States.

She's a really amazing singer who has a sound of nature. She can sing my troubles away~
I LOVE MARIAH CAREY~^^

The Evolution of Dance(Yongfei Gu)

The funniest 6 minutes you will ever see! Remember how many of these you have done!
Judson Laipply is dancing~~~
=^0^=