Post 2: Diagrams

The diagram that I have selected is a diagram that ties all the planets and characters together from the Star Wars series directed by George Lucas. It is probably one of the most interesting diagrams that I've ever seen. Diagrams are a plan, drawing, sketch, outline of how things work, or shows the relationship between things. In general a diagram has arrows pointing to what things are connected. As an example, in my diagram there is an arrow between Luke Skywalker and the Jedi. This shows that Luke became a Jedi. In writing a diagram can show how a sentence is put together, how an essay is put together, or how a story is composed of different parts. On the web a diagram can show you just about anything. The internet is a wealth of information that is waiting to be explored. My diagram is educational because if you were confused when you watched Star Wars on who was who or who was good or evil then this would help you fully understand the movie. The diagram was originally intended to be an aid to the text describing one of the six Star Wars films. Now that I have removed the diagram from the text it doesn't make much sense unless you know the movies really well. As the writer when you remove a diagram from the text that it belongs with you need to be capable of explaining it in full detail just as if it were still with the original text. Within my dragram the important parts are the character names and the color of the box in which they are listed. If they are written in a red box then they are apart of the dark side and if they are in a blue box they are on the good side. Every planet is labeled with all the people from that planet listed next to it inside the box that tells what side they represent. They also have lines that connect them with certain other people and other events. I think that this diagram is labeled very well and don't think that I could've labeled them any better. This deals with writing because the way that you present information has to be clear and concise so that anyone who looks at it can make perfect sense out of it. If you can follow the arrows and understand the diagram then there's a good chance that you understand the concept that the diagram is trying to convey.

T.I.

Blog Post 1

"If kids still write essays in school the way people my age used to, they meet the essay first as pure object. In school, it [an essay] is (or was) a written paper of a certain length, on an assigned subject, with specified margins and neatness, due on the teacher's desk at a certain date. From about fourth grade on, I wrote many essays. "An essay a week" was a philosophy lots of grammar school teachers subscribed to students back them." (Atwan 22-23)

-Ian Frazier

I completely agree with this quote. Kids, not even just elementary or middle school kids, but all kids still think that an essay is just an assignment. Homework their teacher gives them just to make them do something. It always had to have a certain length and cover certain concepts or topics with the correct margins. The paper must stick to the main topic and not stray from the main point. Some teachers even said that neatness counted just to be extra mean. All students believe that is what makes an essay. If their essay meets that criteria and is in the teachers hand on the due date then it's a great essay. Some people may disagree because they actually put a strong effort into writing essays such as these. Others may say that there needs to be no structure or order to an essay because that's the original definition of an essay. Michel de Montaigne wrote the first essay, which he called essais (french for attempts, trials, or experiments). These first essays as Montaigne said, "Were personal, tentative, highly digressive, and wholly unsystematic in their approach to a topic." There are others that would say that all an essay is a paper thrown together the night before it's due. You know, the typical "all nighter." An essay doesn't require much effort if it's done like this. Still others choose to not write papers at all because they think that they are stupid or boring. It's a total lack of effort or drive that causes a person to just skip writing an essay for a class. Whichever view you choose to believe in is fine by me but remember that what you write is a reflection of who you are. Whether you write from the heart, write because you have to, or you just don't do it at all. It comes back to show the reader who you are as a person.

~T.I.~

Test Post

Test post.

T.I.