Journal 9 - Parts of a Paragraph

A paragraph is a unit of writing. It is one of the most common units in the world of literature. It tends to have multiple sentences, although in cases of dialogue, it may be as short as 1 word. The type of paragraph we are talking about today would be the paragraph in an essay. An essay is a multi-paragraph piece of writing. What is an essay should be covered in the previous journal, so here are the parts of a paragraph. A paragraph starts out with a topic sentence. The topic sentence acts as a thesis to the paragraph. It talks about or comments on the subject that is going to be in the paragraph. Then, there is the chunk. The chunk is the smallest unified group of thoughts that you could write. It is made up of the concrete detail and the commentary. There is usually a ratio to the amount of concrete detail and commentary to the paragraph. The ratio would be 1 to 2 or more, concrete detail and commentary respectively. The concrete detail is the backbone of your paragraph. Almost all of the parts are built up from the concrete detail. It is a specific detail from the subject you are talking about. The commentary is your comment on the concrete detail. It can be an opinion, an inference etc. Lastly, there is the concluding sentence. It is the last sentence of the paragraph and it is all commentary. It gives a sense of conclusion to the paragraph.

Journal 8 - Pig Paragraph

The little pig was successful because he arrived earlier than the wolf did to the appointment he had with the wolf. As shown in the story, the little pig arrived before the wolf such as when he arrived to the turnips at five when he was supposed to go with the wolf at six. This shows that he followed his mother's advice on being early. His mom, at the beginning of the story, told his two very important advice, both of which he followed carefully. One of the advice was to be early, which the third pig did with all of his appointments with the wolf. It was smart of him to follow his mom's advice. The pig was also brave and witty. This is because if he was scared of the wolf, he wouldn't have gone anywhere in the first place. He was scared of the wolf when he saw it but this is usually the case when everyone face dangers. What makes the little pig brave was that he dealt with it without hesitation. He went earlier by his own choice without fearing the wolf. That's why he was brave. He was witty because he he knew that the wolf will try to eat him when they went together. He therefore went earlier also tricking the wolf in the process. About half of the story was about the little pig going earlier than the wolf, tricking him in the process. Therefore, the little pig was an early bird.

Journal 7 - Parts of an Essay

An essay is a piece of writing that tells your thoughts about a topic. A multi-paragraph essay does the same thing, just in multiple paragraphs. First, there would be the title, which is the name, the student's number, the date, and the assignment. This would be usually placed on the top-right corner of the page. Then, there comes the introduction of the essay. All the paragraphs of the essay should be indented so we would indent the introduction first. The first part of the introduction is usually the hook. At the end of the paragraph, the thesis of the essay would be stated. A thesis is a sentence with the subject of the essay and the author's opinion on the subject in it. After the introduction, there would be multiple body paragraphs. The body paragraphs start with a topic sentence. The topic sentence is a subject and opinion about the paragraph. Mind the details here. It is a paragraph. It is followed by a concrete detail, or CD, which are specific details from the topic. It can be direct quotations from the text or person you are writing about or even just a paraphrase of it. Following the concrete detail is the commentary which is also known as the CM. It is mainly what you have to say about the detail such as what you thought about it or what you could connect it to. There is a ratio between the CD and the CM. For 1 CD there would be 2 or more CM. The complete set of CD and CM is a chunk. Finally there would be a concluding sentence which adds a finished feeling to the paragraph or your personal statement. There would be about 3 paragraphs in the body of the essay. Finally, there is the conclusion. The conclusion sums up, reflects and gives a finished feeling to the essay. It says more commentary about the subject and gives a personal statement. If done well, an essay is never boring to read.

Journal 6 - Commentary on Success

"The Story of the Three Little Pigs" doesn't seem much but it packs a lot of morals, lessons and advice along with it. There are many reasons to the pig's success as discussed in the previous journal. Some of them are the pig's wittiness, the pig's choosing of the brick house, and the pig being earlier than the wolf. The pig's reason for success was that he chose to build his house out of bricks. It kept the wolf out but there might also be other reasons behind it. Firstly, to comment on his decision, it was the right choice. He might have chosen the brick house because he knew brick was a strong and that he could build a strong house with bricks. There is a possibility that the pig built his house similar to that of his mom. His mom is an old sow who survived the dangers and raised three kids. Her house might have been brick or other stronger material like metal. The 3rd pig followed his mother's advice. He did the hard work and woke up early. He took advice from his elders and he succeeded. He witnessed failure of his brother and he wanted to do better. However, there could be one other explanation for his main reason of success, the choosing of the brick house. It is that it is out of sheer luck. This is because the story doesn't say anything about the pig rejecting the hay and the sticks in order to get to the brick house. The story just told us about the three pigs each meeting a different man with a different material. All in all, his choice of the brick house allowed him to survive by protecting him from the wolf and may be even seeking revenge for his brothers. I therefore believe that the right decision is sometimes all you need.

Journal 5 - Keys to Success

In "The Story of the Three Little Pigs," one of the little pigs has a lot more success. Why? There are a lot of reasons for his success. The surviving little pig tricked the wolf and ate him. He basically defeated the one who killed and ate two of his brothers. Looking at this, we can see that he is witty. He could not have deceived such a strong wolf that killed his brothers if he did not have wit. He successfully overcame his problems with a cool head. He also had the ability to work hard. He also chose to work hard. These are some qualities of a successful person. As his mother said, he did not need to want anything because he worked hard. He was also an early bird, going to places an hour before the wolf came. The main thing reason why the little pig survived was because he chose to build the brick house. Choosing to build the brick house might have just been out of luck because from the story, the pigs chose what they saw first and built it as a house. He made the right decision because if he didn't choose to build the bricks, he might have died unless he had stronger material. The brick house was hard to build and he built it knowing it was hard to build. This shows that he made the right decision. To make it short, the little pig was successful because he made the right decision.

Journal 4 - Advice

A lot of people give me a lot of advice. I have gotten advice from my friends, from my family, from monks and many other people. I would usually listen to them but sometimes, I didn't care. Teachers give me advice about trying to be a better student and person. I listen to that. My parents tell me that I should be a better student and that I should play games less. Sometimes, I listen to that. I want to write about two pieces of advice I remember that two different people gave me. The first one is around 7th grade and the second one is the summer after 8th grade. When Leo, who left our school, was here, I almost got in trouble with this kid. Leo stopped me and told me that I shouldn't try to do anything if I don't have support. This made me think a lot. I ended up following his advice, staying out of fatal trouble. That kid's brother had a lot of connections and I might end up getting into big trouble. Another piece of advice I received was when I went to a monastery. I was a monk for around 17 days. In the end, I was ready to leave. It was then that an old monk called me to him and gave me advice. He told me to not do drugs, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes etc. He also told me to get love from the six sides: the back, the front, the left, the right, the up and the down. I don't remember what they exactly are but I remember that it meant getting appreciation from your friends, your family, your parents, your teachers, your siblings, people who work for you and people you work for etc. First, I thought his advice was really long and boring. Later, I came to notice that there was a lot of good things to consider from what he told me. Starting from that moment, I try to listen to the advice people give to me. Sometimes, I would forget them but I hope I am improving over time.