#20

Dear future 1050 thoughts and writing student:
I use to love English and then i loved to hate it. Upon hearing I had to take this class i first felt annoyed and then dread. I did not want my first semester of college to be writing papers. Fortunately, I got a good professor who eventually grew on me and showed me a lot of new things I don't usually care for. I have already told people that if they're going to have to take Eng 1050 to make sure they pick Sanders. I loved how he made it a priority to learn our names the first week of class. I also love how we only did projects, not tests. Projects test our knowledge and skill of a new objective just like, if not more, than tests. I also appreciated the time we had to complete each project, the extra credit opportunities, and the out of class readings we had to partake in because they actually had to do with what we were learning, they were quick, and even interesting. I don't speak for all Eng 1050 class, but if you get Sanders, consider yourself lucky. He was probably my favorite professor this year and I will take his knowledge with me when i become a teacher.

Kyra Elston

#18

I think the hunger games were a warning toward our world currently. It warned us about rebellion, a destructive future and selfishness, both in the Capitol and throughout the hunger games. Panum is a future earth and i think it made the audience along with all the readers, their friends and some take a step back and realize what we are doing to not only ourselves but more importantly to our earth and everyone around us. It scared me. I got so wrapped up in the world of the hunger games while i was reading the book it was hard to snap back and into reality. We need to also savor our resources and not be so greedy toward everyone and everything. While watching the movie and seeing whats going on and where they were living its like they rewinded 200 years, back to the 1800 where they bathed in basins and suffered from disease and small illnesses that could easily be taken care of in today's generation. I'm sure everyone the hauntings of the hunger games haven't left any of its readers and i hope it hit home to most people because even though the book was fiction, fantasy, its a lot closer to reality than we think.

#19

A young man was expecting a baby. The minute he found out he went out to find a gift. He came across pink satin shoes that he knew would catch anybody's eye on his wonderful baby's little feet. He bought them with the last little money he had and took off urgent to get to the hospital before she was born. What he found in the hospital was his dead wife and a near death daughter. He took her home for her last hours and held her in his big strong arms. He prayed. He pleaded. He begged. He negotiated. He mostly cried. He woke up the next morning to find his baby girl stiff on top of his chest. He cried harder. He pleaded, he begged, he negotiated harder. He set up a table outside, scribbled something across the paper and packed his bags before he took off. The paper read:

For Sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn.

He was found later crashed into a small bridge in a rural area. He appeared distressed with lots of shoes in his car. Never Worn.

#17 Hunger Games

I woke up for work early this morning, kissing my wife on the cheek and checking on my two daughters, Katniss and Primrose, as they slept sweetly. I dressed quickly patted Butterscotch on the head as i walked out the door in the cool morning dew. This morning was just like every other morning. I walked to the coal mines, where i work, and hummed a tune i usually only sing with Katniss when hunting, but it made me happy, so now i often sing it to keep my happy even though my family is hungry and the Capitol is ruining this country. I nodded to the men outside the quarry as i climbed down into my post I've been at for weeks now. There were already multiple men down there working away. The stiff dusty air use to strangle me, but i became accustom to it after working for so many years in the mines.  I was only working for a few hours, i hadn't even eaten lunch. You know how some people know when they are about to die? Or their life flashes before their eyes? I didn't even have enough time to think. I didn't have enough time to think of my wife or our two beautiful children or what would happen to them after i was gone. I didn't even get enough time to breath in another deep breath of dirty thin air before the explosion hit me and destroyed everything it could reach, including my family's future, my wife's husband, my daughter's father, me.

research paper grade

on effort, i would give myself 100% the reason being I spent hours researching and typing notes on my computer that i would use in my paper. without saving the document, i closed my computer, like usual, and decided research some more the next day. I had 8 pages full of notes. When i went to work on it the next morning i realized my computer had updated which meant wiping away all windows i had opened on my desktop, including my notes. Although i take full responsibility of it, it still set me back a few days and it took me awhile to get that motivation back. As you can see with the longevity of my paper, i spent a lot of time researching, writing, and editing my paper to give it a flow. Since i knew nothing about this topic before hand, all the information i wrote about was knew and it took awhile to organize the thoughts and information i had.
However, i still don't feel like the flow was steady. I lost focus a lot while trying to reread and edit my paper and i' m not sure if it was because of how long it was or because of the vast facts and opinions i took from all my sources. Consequently i feel like my grade was brought down from that.
I also noticed I forgot to edit one of my block quotes that weren't long enough after i had already sent you my final draft. Regardless I think i matched most the requirements and i will be expecting a pretty good grade out of my argumentative research paper.

jake

born at 4:30am, on May 27, 1994, just eight minutes before me, Jake Elston came into the world. Gray, scrawny and needy, he was the less flamboyant of the twins. However as we grew up, and most of the positive light was shone on me, he was the one i looked to. In my times of need, my times of success, my times of sadness and happiness and desperation and celebration and difficult and easy and forthcoming, Jake Elston was the real star, I was just more...flamboyant. Jake is the smartest person I have ever met which is why his poor grades are so shocking. His laziness and lack of motivation is seen through almost every tasks he performs, however I see the real Jake. I understand his need even though i cannot describe it and i wish more than ever i could give him what he wants and what he needs but i am no longer the person he comes to. Somewhere along our journey i became ignorant and passed him in the race to success. some would call it negligence, i would call it my biggest mistake. Jake now is failing out of college and wrapped up in the wrong group of friends, 3 hours away from me, out of my control, and out from under my wing. I made it my duty to protect my best friend, my blood, my twin brother, but I no longer have a say in who he hangs out with and what he does in his spare time. The worst thing about smart people is they don't realize how smart they really are, or how much potential they really have. Jake has a supportive crew, good looks, and the knowledge- everything he needs to be successful. hopefully he'll come back.

thoughts and writing review

Thoughts and Writing is an English class taught at Western Michigan University- usually a Freshmen class. Upon signing up for the class, I was anything but excited. After A.P. english i have grown to hate, reading, writing, literature, grammar and the like. The worst thing in my opinion is writing a paper. However, my professor changed my mind just after my first class. First of all, there are no tests. Any college student would jump at an opportunity to have no midterms or finals, especially while taking 15 credits their first semester. Secondly, there is not much writing. A few blogs here and there, but there are really only about six projects and the beauty of it is that they aren't all essays, actually they are encouraged and sometimes even forced to be different genres of writing which does make me excited to write again and even read. I was given a little over a month to read the hunger games. After less than a week, I am about 4/5 done with the book.  This class has showed me a whole new side to writing and the small class size and easy going professor are only bonuses to this  first-year-college writing class.  Maybe all courses of Thoughts and Writing are not like this, but with Joe Sanders you will be pleased.