CLass of 2011

I WILL MISS EVERYONE!!! CLASS OF 2011!!! HOOAH

The Missing Baby

My Action Adventure Story

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Peer Editing Task List

The following is a copy of the Peer Editing Task List we worked with in class.  Use it to go through your own drafts as well as your peers'.

1.       Reading and Marking. Read through the entire rough draft carefully.  Be sure to go sentence by sentence.  Consider marking on the draft in pencil or lightly in pen and leaving the writer comments from “Good” to “Awk” to “Start new paragraph here,” or anything else you deem relevant and constructive.

2.       Overall thoughts. What are the main strengths and weakness of the draft?  What might be confusing to readers?  What will the readers want to know more about?

  

3.       Fit. How does this draft fit the assignment?  In what areas might the writer struggle to meet the criteria?

  

4.       Potential. What ideas in this draft are worth developing more? 

  

5.       Order. Consider only the parts that are worth keeping.  What sequence do you recommend?  What new sections need to be added?

  

6.       Paragraphs. Which paragraphs are clearest and most interesting?  Which paragraphs need further development, and how might they be improved?

  

7.       Narrative Elements. Complete the Narrative Elements chart below:

Narrative Element	Example from the story	Connection to story’s theme
Internal/External Conflict
Resolution
Setting
Characterization

a.      Narrative Elements (continued). What other narrative element does the writer use successfully?  (Consider motif, figurative language, repetition, symbolism…).  How? Be specific.

  

8.       Suggestions. How can the writer use one of the narrative elements above to enhance his or her story?  Be specific.

Monsters film review

Since Netflix sorts everything by genre I decided to look through the Horror/Thriller section. I decided to watch Monsters because I had heard good things about it.
The movie starts off as one of those hand held camera movies, which I wasn’t crazy about. The camera belongs to someone on a military truck and is cut off when an explosion blows the truck (and camera) up. After that the movie switches between regular filming.
The remainder of the film follows two American’s trying to get back into America to escape an Alien invasion that have taken over most of Mexico. The Aliens reproduce in the trees so the large forest provides the perfect place for them. The main character Andrew is sent to pick up Samantha, the daughter of a wealthy businessman because she is engaged to be married. Even though he is just a photographer he agrees to bring her back. Unfortuantly, the two of them miss the last boat out of Mexico. The two decide to go through the forest with a small group of guides to try and cross into the U.S. by foot. After having several near death encounters with the aliens the two finally make it to the boarder, only to realize that it’s been destroyed and the aliens have moved into the United State. Once in the U.S. they take refuge in a gas station convenient store. By this time a love interest has sparked between the two so they’re sort of forgetting about the whole alien invasion causing them to walk right in between two very large aliens mating. They finally find a phone and call 911 who say they’re sending a military truck. Right afterwards Samantha tells Andrew she doesn’t want to go home to her fiancé and they finally share an over dramatic kiss. Shortly afterwards the army picks them up and the screen fades.
Now I was very disappointed with the ending because I thought they had left me hanging for a sequel. Turns out the opening scene on the military truck is really them with the soldiers that picked them up and that they die along with the rest of the soldiers. So basically the whole movie is just how they came to be with the soldiers and die. If you like being confused and a bit disappointed I would definitely recommend this movie.

Twilight Parody

This is a parody of the book I read, the parody is created by Ryan Higa, one of the most popular YouTubers. Enjoy!

Twilight Book Review

Twilight is a pretty interesting romance book I will say. At first it didn't sound like a romance book at all in the beginning, it was slightly confusing knowing what kind of book it is at first. What makes it not sound like a romance book is that it talks a bit about vampires and werewolves. Which is something an average romance novels wouldn't have.

Twilight started off with Isabella Swan, Bella for short, moving into her father's home in the town of Forks, and she attends a high school there. Her first day wasn't so bad for her as she made a few friends, she also met Edward Cullen, one of the major characters in the book. Edward seems quite mysterious to Bella and she wants to know more about him. Edward and Bella later becomes somewhat friends but Edward warns Bella that they are better off not being friends. Which makes Bella even more confused about him. Later when Bella goes to La Push with many other kids, she meets Jacob Black, another major character in the book, Jacob and Bella heads off somewhere away from the group of kids to talk. Jacob tells Bella some legends about werewolves and vampires. Soon everyone had to leave as it was going to rain, later at home Bella had a dream about Jacob being a werewolf and Edward being a vampire. She then later wakes up from the dream and looks up vampires.

Overall, Twilight is more of a romance fantasy with all those supernatural creatures like werewolves and vampires. It quite interesting how the characters are characterized in a way that it makes the reader very curious about the character, take Edward for example, Edward is characterized as a nice looking guy and is quite mysterious in a way as he doesn't say much about himself. I will say that Twilight is a good book for anyone who likes romance with some fantasy in it.

What makes a good horror story?

http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/scary.html

So I'm starting my senior project and my genre it horror so just for fun I typed "what makes a good horror story" into google, and I found this link pretty helpful (and true according to the things I've read).

The Shining Movie Review

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a great film adaptation of Stephen King's book. Stanley Kubrick sets the mood and tone of the film showing a some what torn house hold. Also Danny has a friend call Toni. Toni shows Danny things that he can't normally see. Jack is a the hotel being interviewed for the caretaker of the overlook hotel. The role of jack is played by Jack Nicholson. he perfectly fits this part because as watching it jus the vibe you got from him along with his facial expressions tell you that he can't be trusted and that he has a hidden past. The way he treats his family tells you that he is a family man but yet at times likes to distance himself from them. Also there is just that rage that jack is suspose to have built up inside that Jack Nicholson is able to portray very well. The hotel setting is done very well and you could tell that the director wanted to put his all into the movie.The hotel has everything from the narrow halls that create that closed in feeling a character can have during a horror story. Also it has the spaced out rooms where it leaves you with a feeling that the character has a chance to escape with out being harmed. It provides the echo feeling that someone is coming after you and you can hear every move made by any person in the hotel.The way Danny begins to speak REDRUM and write it on the door tells you that things are going to get worst. The anger Nicholson portrays in the famous scene "here's johnny" is excellent. He gives you that feeling that nothing is going to stop him and from killing his family and it also gives him that vibe that he is possessed by the spirits of the hotel. The ending photo shows how jack's anger and alcoholism led to him being possessed by the spirits of the hotel due to his weakness to fall into temptation.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I just finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and I wanted to conclude that this book was extremely hectic. It was confusing at first because it switched narrator to narrator. It jumped to letters from Oskar Schell's grandma written to him to his grandfather writing letters to Oskar's dad who died in the World Trade Center. The book revolves around Oskar, a nine year old boy, trying to find what relevance a key has to do with his father. He gets closer and closer to finding out and once he does, he finds that the key had absolutely no relevance. He meets his grandfather for the first time since he was born because his grandfather becomes present in their lives. The book talks about the horrid events in Dresden and the lack of love the grandmother felt when she was married. It talks about the different lives of the different characters, especially the protagonist and how he came to be.

I personally did not enjoy the book in the beginning because I was confused as to what was going on. The author has a very different style of writing and sometimes it feels like his writing is all over the place but he explained a lot dramatic events pretty well. I started enjoying it later on because I started understanding what the letters in between were and what the author was trying to explain. All in all, it was an original story about 9/11 which I thought was very different from a lot of the other stories. It did not only talk about one event but how the character dealt with death and fear of losing someone and it talked about other events in history as well.