Class Anthology Part II

The second half of the Class Anthology was equally as interesting as the first. I was again able to compare my writing ability and style to others. There were several essays that I enjoyed. It was great to see how different everyone thought about the same essays. There were multiple essays written on Annie Dillard’s “The Wreck of Time,” but each essay had a different outtake on it. Another frequently used essay was “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” and the essays on this were all very different from each other.
One of the essays that I liked was “Life is a Gift”, by Will Callander. In his essay he discussed how life was precious like in Annie Dillard’s essay the “Wreck of Time”. Football was a frequently used analogy, and I thought this was a good analogy because it talked about talent. Talent truly is a gift that we are given by God, and it is unfortunate when it’s taken away in the blink of an eye. Heath Ledger was a very talented person that many people enjoyed watching in movies. However, when he passed away, there were many upset people because of his talent. I think that life is something I frequently take for granted myself, so I really appreciated this essay.
Another essay that I enjoyed was “How Do You See It,” by Chelsie Stevens. I like this essay a bunch because it spoke about significance. Leo F. Buscaglia does have a really good quote “Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance.” A person really does choose if their life is significant or not. There really is not a hard definition of significance because everyone decides what it means to them. For some people significance may be a measure of how people perceive them, or maybe having name brand items is what they feel makes them important. Significance is how important a person decides they are in other people’s lives. It is important to decide what significance is to you because it is very difficult to meet everyone else’s expectations for significance. With your own definition, life will be a lot better because you’re meeting your standards, so your life will also be a lot happier as a result.
All of the essays were very well done. There were good points in all of them, and I feel that I have learned something from each of them. One thing that I learned was that it is important to know your definition of significance is. With this class, I feel that I have improved my overall writing ability, and I think that it will keep continuing to get better the more that I write.

Class Anthology

I think that our class anthology is very interesting to read since each essay is something that I wouldn’t think about. The one essay that I liked the most was about character. This essay was written on Malcom Gladwell’s “The Power of Context”. The essay discussed the many factors relating to character and how the environment influences it.
The essay had several good examples of character. One of these examples was trash along a highway. I thought this was a good example because I have also cleaned up an entire alley in my town. I think that people are more prone to toss their trash along areas that already has litter lying about, and if there is an area that has no litter doesn’t become littered. There was a good point about this example which was that the litter lying on the ground could potentially cause a person to act out of character. The litter encouraged a person to throw their trash carelessly because someone else before them had, so they stepped out of character. This temporary change in character does not mean that the person is a litter bug, just that the environment had encouraged them.
This idea of having an encouraging environment is not out of the norm. A person’s attitude and actions do change depending on where they are at. This means that a persons’ character is not always concrete. I know that my character definitely changes when I go to the dentist. I become far more cowardly than I normally am due to the terrifying drills that lurk behind the receptionist’s door. This is definitely a character change for me, so it is normal to behave differently at times.
Overall, what I have learned from reading my peer’s essays was that we all think differently. The reason we all have different ideas is because we are all unique. We have different values, activites/hobbies, influences, backgrounds, etc. I think that it is valuable to read other people’s work because of this. Whenever I read someone’s opinion, I sometimes realize that I may be wrong, or just simply know what the other side of something is. Another valuable lesson that I learn while reading other’s work, is how to write. Whenever I’m reading, I frequently make a mental note of something I liked or didn’t like, and I use it for the next time that I must write.
The essays that I have read this year have greatly influenced my writing. My writing has been influenced because I have been exposed to new opinions and thoughts. These essays have also helped me to realize how I want my writing style to be. Writing is a vital part of communication because it spreads a person’s feelings/thoughts, and it is important for everyone to master this skill in order that they may be able to express themselves.