Website Link

Here is the link to my website. My midterm portfolio including Essays 1 (profile), essay 2 (talk of the  town/campus) and audio recording, my introduction piece, and two blog entries. The folder containing drafts and in class writing was handed in in class on Wednesday October 29, 2014.

www.rebeccaleegagne.weebly.com

Book Club Meeting 10/29

At this point in the story I am losing interest. The story started out strong but now as facts are starting to develop it is less interesting to read. I think with writing facts it is really difficult to make them interesting because they are concrete. History and wars are not books that interest me. I am still questioning the validity of some of the events that are occurring. It is hard to tell what is true and what could have been exaggerated, especial because the only survivor is Louis. I am hoping the story will pick back up and bring my attention back in towards the end of the book.

Book club discorveries

After reading about the interviews the author has written about to tell the story, it was interesting to see how she had conducted the interviews. She had conducted her interviews by phone. It was interesting to learn that she had dropped out of college due to an illness and had written the book after that. Since the only survivor of the story is The main character, it makes you wonder how much of the story is based upon truth and what is a lie. The authors writing is believable, but when you think about the situations, it is almost impossible to think that they were battling a battle with a shark at the same time as trying to avoid the bombs. While continuing to read, I will be thinking about the situations and thinking about how true could they be.

Book club- beginning

For the first meeting we have began to read the book. So far I am enjoying the writing style. I believe the book is written in an easy to follow way and it is interesting thus far. I am not interested in World War II, but so far I am interested in this book! The book has interviews from characters within the story and what is surprising is she had interviewed 20-30 people for the book. For our next meeting the group is going to look into how the interviews were conducted. We have assigned and determined more reading sections as well.

Helpful readings for drafting

From today's readings I would say the most helpful to me in constructing my draft would be the sections on character and voice. In writing this profile essay I think the greatest challenge will be presenting the character of someone in the style of my voice. These sections were great because they discussed the element of character, and how to put the reader in their mind. Doing this in my own voice will be a challenge in itself because I want the reader to be able to connect with the person (character) I am writing about but writing about them in my voice, my words, and from my point of view while trying to stay true to who they are. I believe these two sections are the most helpful for me and I think that after this reading I have a better idea of how I want to draft my essay.

Book club reading expectations

For book club I will be reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Normally this would not be a book that I would select, but I am keeping an open mind about this. I have not began reading the book yet, but based on description, I am expecting that this book will be interesting as it talks about the soldiers life as a child and a teenager and how his life led him to be in the army. I am assuming that he will overcome the obstacle of drifting on the raft and will find himself to safety based on the tittle of the book. Overall I think the book will be about his survival to safety floating on the raft while he thinks about the past and his life until that point.

Zepp's Last Stand

Zepp's Last Stand is a profile piece discussing Edward Zepp, an 83 year old man. This article written by Madeleine Blais uses vivid language to describe Zepp in a way that the reader can make a description of the man; she describes Zepp with his physical appearance using a chronological structure to tell his story. "Zepp is bald. He wears fragile glasses. The shoulders are rounded. His pace is stooped and slow." Blais writes about an experience Zepp has had. She uses a letter he had written to his mother and his personal experience to write the story. She uses direct quotes from Zepp to make the story more personal and believable.When she writes "can you picture the man" you can actually make a guess as to what this man has looked like because her language is descriptive and figurative. I believe the language makes a story because it adds a personal element that brings the story to life and make it real to imagine to events, even if they had occurred in the past.