Blog Assignment # 8: Final Workshop Reflection

Since the first day of class I noticed that this course was not going to be bored and the typical English course as the ones I took in the past. I have takenn several English courses since High School but no one like this. I have enjoyed the exciting readings and my classmates pieces of writing. What it makes me feel so good in this course? The question is easy and simple. I liked the way we had to present the written assignments. We had to write Specials and uniques pieces. We had to write creative writings about anything we want and we don't have to follow tasks and rules, we had to write according with our own style and emotions. This type of writing touched myself because for the first time I enjoyed an English class. English is my second language but in this course I feel like in order to be a writer we don't have to write like professional journalists. I think that being a writer means share feelings, emotions, tragedies, imagination, transport yourself to another planet, be yourself and have a lot of talent writing what you feel. Definitely in this class I didn't need to be an expert English writer in order to make creative non-fiction writings. I have grown as a creative writer, at the beginning of the course I wasn't sure how to be creative but little by little with the help of the readings I started to uderstand deeply what is the essence of being a creative writer. I have enjoyed a lot all the readings but as a writer I have my favorites that touched my heart. one of my favorites is the work of David Foster " Consider the lobster" this piece is extremely good. The writer captured my attention since the beginning of the story. After this reading I will never eat lobster no more. The writer used the correct words in this piece to change people mind and capture the attention of the public. While I was reading I traveled through the time and for a couple of minutes I experienced lobester's suffereing. I was a lobster during the lecture instead of a human being. I also enjoyed reading Annie Dillard "Total Eclipse", Laurance Gonzales "Marrison Prison" , Edward Hoagland "Circus Music", Sharon Solwitz "Abracadabra". The author of "Abracadabra" involved me in the reading. I liked the way she used sentimentalism and how she express her sadness. It was a sentimental and creative piece at the same time. The last piece I enjoyed so much is made by Michael Polland, "The Omnivore's Dilemma". I think this is my favorite writer because I could feel the suffering of animals without being there in his way of writing he involved the reader to feel what animals are feeling.
To conlude: I will never forget this course even if I would never be a writer. My major is Social Scienes and Humanities and this was my last course to conlude my path in LaGuardia. I enjoyed my elective course ENG274 and of course I enjoyed every class and every reading.I think that this course will help a lot to future writers and for sure in the future I will be buying books in Barnes and Bobles from my classmates because definelty everybody in this course has a lot of talent and capacity to be a writer. I am saying goody bye to LaGuardia with a great experience and I will never forget.

Assignment # 7 Author's Note on your personal memoir

I woke up in the middle of the night sweating and nervous. I know for sure that something wrong was happening between my mother and father. I went to see my little sister Belen that in that time she had 13 years and was sleeping. I moved her arm and I said “Belen, I can’t sleep” she open only one eye and she answered me “Giovanna, go to sleep don’t stress me” I suddenly said “listen I know that something wrong is happening in this house”. She fall sleep again and I stood awake until 3am thinking and thinking about what could be the reason why my parents are acting weird. Next morning I went to school very sleepy but in the car I asked my mom “Mom, why are our maids not working with us anymore? And she replied “because I am looking for another team that can cook, clean and fix our house faster than the old staff”. That day my mom didn’t wear makeup and it looked like if she didn’t have any sleep. During two weeks I felt that something bad was happening because as a family we used to eat dinner together and for approximately 14 days I ate alone with my sister. My father was too busy at work and also my mom. One day I came from school and I saw our passports behind a lot of papers in my dad’s office. I was shocked because it wasn’t time for our vacations as of. That day I also went to the kitchen to eat something and for the first time in 17 years I saw our refrigerator empty and suddenly I looked at the kitchen and it was empty too, it had only a few plates, glasses and napkins. Right away I called my little sister and she came down from the third floor screaming “sister, sister I don’t have my bed anymore and my room is empty” I was shocked again; I told her that the kitchen is empty too. Then I called my mom at her job and she told me that my aunt was going to pick us up in about 30 minutes and I asked her why were our kitchen and my sister’s room empty? And she replied that “at night we were going to talk”.
What inspired me to write this memoir is the feelings of sadness and loneliness that I went through at the age of 17 years old. I wrote this memoir because it was very hard for me to leave my customs, culture and country when I was a teenager. In that moment of my life I saw how desolation and darkness came into my life. I was very sad and desperate but now that I am young adult woman I realized that everything happened for a reason. Now I remember the day I came to the USA like a great opportunity to succeed. When I was reading Sharon Solowitz "Abracadabra" I got inspired to write my memoir. I definitely will use this paper for my final portfolio and I will be revising the grammar again with my dictionary. I have always been writing journals because I have my personal diary in which I write every single day. That's why it was easy for me to write this memoir. Definitely I get outside myself while I was writing this memoir. I felt more comfortable now that before when someone in my family talks about this topic. It helped me a lot to write and remember. In that moment I felt sad and I cried but at the end of the piece I just felt relaxed. I revised my piece in a word processor and in my smart phone.

Blog Assignment # 6 Midterm Reflection

It's half of the semester and when I look back to the day I registered for ENG274 I still remember all the questions that came into my mind about the meaning of creative non-fiction. I had so many questions running in my brain like what it's creative non-fiction about ? what I should have to write? how long time I will be reading and what kind of reading I will perform ? all kind of questions came into my mind but once I got into the course I realized how fun and interesting creative non-fiction become in my life. My definition of creative non-fiction have expanded during this half of the semester. While I was reading the publications of creative non-fiction writers I have been learning the different kinds of examples and models that this subject offered to the public. I have been always writing essays, journals and some poems but definitively I have enjoyed more writing and sharing personal details and being creative instead of regular type of writings. I think that creative writing offered me a unique experience. However there is not only creative writing what matters; writers without reading are not writers. I enjoyed reading writings like Michael Pollan who offered his writing to make people think about what we are eating every day of our lifes. I like his writings because in a certain point he changed my mind about what I should eat and now on I am eating more healthy and avoiding meat. He changed my mind and probably the mind of many more people.Since I was in elementary school I have never been writing and reading such an interesting subject like creative non-fiction. I can say that writing personal memoirs and sharing what I feel what I think it makes me feel now more comfortable even with my own lifestyle. Writing makes me express and put all what I think and feel in a paper. Now I am more relax than before when someone talk about what I went through in life. I will never forget this great experience.the blogger helped me a lot to see what other students writes and thinks. It's very helpful and is more interesting than Facebook or twitter because I can express what I think without gossip.

Blog Assignment #5 - Reading Michael Pollan "The Omnivore's Dilemma"

• In the memoir of Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma the author reflects what we should have for dinner. As well he is a good example of a successful writing in creative non-fiction. I will choose three strong sentences that gives us a sense of this author's style or focus in his memoir .

1.  "The USDA is being used by the global corporate complex to impede the clean-food movement. They aim to close down all but the biggest meat processors, and to do it in the name of biosecurity. Every government study to date has shown that the reasons we're having an epidemic of food-borne illness in this country is centralized production, centralized processing, and long-distance transportation of food. you would think therefore that they'd want to decentralize the food system, especially after 9/11. But no! They'd much rather just irradiate everything instead." 
2. " This was when I began to appreciate what a morally powerful idea an open- air abattoir is. Polyface's customers know to come after noon on a chicken day, but there's nothing to prevent them from showing up earlier and watching their dinner being killed-indeed, customers are welcome to watch, and occasionally one does. More than any USDA rule or regulation, this transparency is their best assurance that the meat they're buying has been humanely and cleanly processed." 
3. "Joel is convinced "clean food" could compete with supermarket food is the government would exempt farmers from the ticket of regulations that prohibit them from processing and selling meat from farm. For him, regulation is the single biggest impediment to building a viable food chain, and what's at stake is our liberty, nothing less. "We do not allow the government to dictate what religion you can observe, so why should we allow them to dictate what kind of food you can buy?". He believes "Freedom of food"- the freedom to buy a pork chop from the farmer who raised the hog-should be a constitutional right. " 

 I think that the author makes his writing style effective to me because he grabs my attention since the beginning of his piece. He is very realistic and I like to read this kind of realistic themes. I realized that he is objective when he explained the way how farmers do the slaughtering of chickens. 

• How does the author develop a sense of character for him? How do they win over our attention with their story?  

The author writes about a social problem that is affecting us. He shows us what is happening with our meat before it's served in the table for dinner and also he explains that what we have for dinner every day is not just a piece of meat that it comes magically every day to our lives. The author exposes a topic that nobody talks about it. It took me a lot to assimilate what is happening with the animals and with the meat that I buy every day. He captures my attention because while I was reading I was inside the farm in his story. The way he writes is very explicit so right away you traveled inside the story.

• Why do you think this memoir was published and was successful with readers? 

I think this memoir was published because as human beings we have to open our eyes with this situation. This topic is strongly sad and real. It's a problem that we are having but we are not solving. I think this memoir was successful because Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. 

Writing Assignment #2 "Writing about a place"

I was in the middle of another world 

I still remember the excitement that I had when I saw a flight ticket next to my bed just in the day of my birthday. The long trip destination was to the Galapagos Islands. I was born in Ecuador but I have never been in that mysterious and magical place called the enchanted islands. My dad said “There is no price when it comes to visiting the most wonderful and mystical islands of the world." I answered " I will never forget this special gift because there is no price compared to the happiness I am feeling right now". When I arrived with my friend to the islands I started to feel the mist and the warm wind coming to my face. I saw a couple of clouds with a dark and deep blue that I had never seen before. I recognized from a long distance a huge and old tortoise walking slowly and eating some cactus. I got shocked when my friend said " look that giant tortoise is coming to us" I felt scared because I had never been next to a huge animal without some supervision like right here in NYC when I used to go to the Bronx Zoo I used to touch the camels but always with some animal caretakers next to me. This time I felt surprised when I saw a huge animal coming to us. I breathed and I took out some bread that I had just in case the animal wanted to eat and the magical experience just occurred, I was standing with my piece of bread and a lot of courage but something impressible happened, the tortoise kept walking and it didn't want to eat at all. I was in the middle of another world. There is no place like those wear and mysterious islands. In one day I saw so many species of colorful birds and penguins. I didn't need to go to the arctic to see so many penguins. I felt so happy to be in the middle of a lot of history. There is a unique ecosystem and it is called the "laboratory of evolution" by scientists. The Galapagos Islands were one of the sources of inspiration for Charles Darwin’s revolutionary Theory of Evolution.  His observations of the adaptation of the flora and fauna of the archipelago were crucial in formulating his theory of evolution and natural selection. I will never forget the emotions I felt when I was standing in a volcanic island surrounded by birds, sea lions, tortoises, iguanas, birds, fur seals. I lower my head and I looked the water of the ocean and I found myself in the middle of the paradise, then I turned back and I saw more water but this time I decided to see inside the clear ocean and all I found was another world inside of the ocean. There were millions of marine species. It was like a dream but it wasn't I got to know one of the most wanted places to visit in the world, "The Galapagos Islands". 

     The laboratory for the study of the origins of life, the unique living museum and showcase of evolution has been called for a long period of time. There are situated in the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 km from the South American continent.Ongoing seismic and volcanic activities reflect the processes that formed the islands. These processes, together with the extreme isolation of the islands, led to the development of unusual animal life such as the land iguana, the giant tortoise and the many species of finch that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. There is nothing in the world quite like them. This magical place is surrounded by species found nowhere else. These include the Galápagos giant tortoise.This famous and incredible place was originated around 2.4 millions of  years ago. Some volcanoes are still active. In this peaceful place you are surrounded by nature in its purest. What captures the attention of the people who visit the islands is how friendly the species are with humans. Humans are allowed to touch them if the animal wants. In this place we breathe pure air and also the sky looks deeply blue.  Also is one of the few places in the world without an indigenous population. It’s impossible to forget the trip I went one year ago to which I call the most peaceful place in the whole world. 

Blog Assignment # 4

I choose a photo of Miners by Sebastiano Salgado. In this Photo the people are working in the mines. They are wearing dirty clothes, there are thousands of people like little ants working hard, the people that are in the photo are part from the lower social class. The miners are climbing the mountain little by little to go to another mine. I can see how dangerous is that kind of job, the miners jumped from one place to another and it looks like they are having a hostile time in their jobs. The people in this photo looks sad and tired. Their emotional state doesn't look good because I can see how huge and dangerous the job environment is. There are some details that if you see the picture you can see right away like a men that is alone standing up in the ladder tired, the men its exhausted because he is in the middle of the ladder while others are almost in the top. The photographer relationship with this photo is very sentimental because the photographer was born in Brazil in the state of mines. I strongly think that the author shows how horrible and hostile the miners workers went through in his country. 

Assignment # 3 "Author's Note on the non-fiction Vignette.

I woke up sweating one morning around 1 year ago. My mother said “your phone is ringing!” ringgggg! ringggg! I grab my phone and I saw 7 missed phone calls. Right away I knew something bad had happen because it was my Father calling me so many times at once.  In that moment I called him back and I said “Dad I know something important is happening” and he answered “your grandmother is sick”.  In that moment I knew that I had to fly to my native country Ecuador and by the 4^th morning I was already waking up in the same room in which I grew until the age of 17. My grandmother a 78 year old woman was laying in her bed after having a stroke, everyone present at that moment was crying, the house was not the same as 10 years ago when we were all young and healthy including my grandmother. Together we used to enjoy family times, dancing, cooking, reading and learning about everyone experiences. I opened my eyes and all of a sudden I saw my grandmother and on her all the years that had pass since I left. My aunts and uncles were around her bed crying and talking about her health suddenly my grandmother woke up and the first words that came out of her mouth were “come to me my child, come to me” I jumped to her arms, crying with her and I said “everything will be good grandma am here to take care of you the same way you did with me when I was a child”. That moment was very special for her because she saw me there in her house. Her eyes were shining with happiness and the liberty of having me so close to her. Something was sniffing my feet; it was my so long companion “Pinina” (the dog/guardian of the house). 


1.- What inspired you to write this non-fiction story?
I got inspired to write this non-fiction story because the trip we made with my husband was unforgettable. I didn't visit my country for almost 10 years. The reason why I traveled to my country was because my grandmother was very sick. It wasn't planned but I enjoyed so much. 
2.- Is there anything we need to know to understand the piece?
What I would like my audience to understand is that my presence was very important for the recovery of my grandmother. This happened because she raised me. 
3.- Did you have a writer in mind when you were writing? 
I am a free writing person. I love reading but when it comes to writing I love to be created that's the reason why I have my own writing style. I wasn't thinking in any writer when I was writing. 
4.- How you will be revising this piece for our final portfolio ? 
I will be revising this piece carefully and follow all the feedback and the corrections that my professor gave me. 
5.- Have you written shorts stories before? 
Unfourtunetly I haven't written short stories before but I enjoyed a lot writing the vignette. What was different about writing non-fiction versus writing poetry or essays is that in essays we have to follow certain rules and it always has to be according to the professor's way of teaching. The short stories offers to the writers more free writing and it could have an ending or not but in essays we have to write always a conclusion. I definitively enjoyed more writing short stories because I could be myself and write freely.  
6.- What did you learn from writing this vignette?
I have learned about this vignette that creativity plays an important role in writing non-fiction I didn't got surprised when I had to write the story down because non-fiction is all I thought before. 
7.- How did you write and revise your piece? 
I revised my piece in a long hand with a pen and my dictionary and also using my book of non-fiction writing.