Writing to Explore Prompt 8

8/8/2019 Writing to Explore Prompt 8

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Sarah Obeid

Professor Jan Rieman

ENGL 1103

October 2, 2010

I Never Want to See This Book Again

I have done a lot of reading and writing in my lifetime. I started reading and writing when

I was in kindergarten and continued to read and write ever since. Some of my reading and

writing experiences were not always pleasurable, but then again, many were also pleasurable.

Some were even life changing. From what I can remember, many of my reading and writing

experiences that I truly disliked and enjoyed took place during my sophomore year and senior

year in high school at both the American School of Doha and North Mecklenburg. Also, there

was one experience that happened while I was a middle school student at Davidson IB.

One of the classes that I was required to take during my sophomore year was chemistry.

The only writing we had to do was for labs. There was one particular lab that dealt with single

replacement reactions and my class and I had to work with different metals to see which ones

formed a chemical reaction and which ones did not. Since I am not a fan of chemistry or most

other sciences for that matter, I despised doing labs and having to write up chemical equations.

Writing up the lab was really tough and I was forced to get help from my group members. I

never really understood how to do chemical equations. The data analysis part of the lab report

had to be a certain length every time and I never knew what else to say after a few lines. This

made me not want to write for another lab again. I did not enjoy chemistry whatsoever and to

this day I am so glad I never have to take another chemistry class.


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The same goes with a novel we had to read that same year in English about a Hispanic

family based around the theme of nostalgia. I didnt like the story that much that I cant even

remember the name. I printed off the online version of the book, which was about a billion pages

long. I would start reading it and then after ten minutes, I would have to get up and do something

else. I had no patience reading it mainly because the story itself was not interesting and the

chapters were incredibly long. Last year, I had to read the book Moll Flanders and write an essay

about it. That had to be the worst experience ever. After getting through such a boring book, I

than had to write my essay. It was about Molls character and how her characteristics express the

views of the society along with its values and culture. We had a week to complete the assignment

but I literally had to write a paragraph each day because it just seemed so difficult to keep my

paper on topic and my ideas clear and concise. I would read the paragraph I wrote the previous

day and think, Wow this makes no sense. The next week we had to revise our papers. I had to

revise mine two times until I had a fairly well written paper completed. It would have helped if I

had enjoyed the book more. I did learn a lot from this writing experience. The lectures about the

book in class taught me a lot of morals and values of the time period in which Moll lived which

helped me understand the reading a little more. In a way, I did benefit from this particular

reading and writing experience.

On the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed writing a Palestinian/Israeli conflict opinion

paper in Junior High. Since I am interested in world history, politics, and cultures of the world, I

found this paper particularly easy to write. I stormed through it with no problem. I actually

enjoyed writing it. I also wanted to include more facts and arguments within my paper since I

already knew the basics about the conflict. It allowed me to research further, read interesting


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foreign affairs articles, and gain more knowledge about the conflict. I am a huge lover of

languages, too. During my sophomore year while I was residing in Qatar and taking Arabic as a

class, I had to write a letter to a pen pal in another Arabic speaking country. I remember I spent a

long time writing the letter, but had a wonderful experience doing so. I wanted to let my pen pal

know everything about myself and take the opportunity to ask my pen pal all sorts of questions

so I can get to know him or her. I was hoping my pen pal would become a long distance friend

that I could practice my Arabic with. I received help writing my letter from my father and my

friends, which was a nice bonus, considering I was only in level one beginner Arabic at the time.

I have a passion for the Arabic script and writing the letter was no chore for me at all.

Last year, for my IB Theory of Knowledge class, we had to write a final paper as our

exam about a topic that we covered in class. I chose to write about the weaknesses and strengths

of the concept of reason as a way of knowing. The paper had to be at least 1200 words. Writing

that paper was not entirely fun, but I was really focused and engaged while I was writing it. As I

was writing the paper, I learned a lot of new things and came across so many different insights

about reason and how it can be flawed in helping people understand what is true and what is

false. I was able to use a variety of examples for this paper in order to help get my points across

to the readers. The paper required me to use a lot of deep thought which was difficult at times

while writing.

(I know we werent supposed to w rite more than two pages, but I felt I had to add all these examples. Sorry Dr.

Rieman!)

Documents

Writing to Explore Prompt 8