Personal Narrative: Harsh Criticism of my Writing Essay -- Narrative E

There are certain moments in my writing process, even more than twenty years later, that I can still imagine hearing that sharply critical voice striking a deep and lasting blow as the journalism assignment replete with bloody red ink landed on my desk. â€Å"This is all wrong,† were the words my high school journalism teacher stabbed me with as she passed down the aisle pausing only long enough for me to catch a whiff of her nicotine breath. At the very same moment my stomach muscle knotted, my face burned as if with fever, and those four words echoed out of control over and over again in my ears. Notoriously late for class due to her love of smoking cigarettes in the teacher’s lounge (in those days smoking was allowed in school buildings), Ms. B’s entrance into the class on this particular day was no exception. With a flurry of authority, arrogance, and impatience, she appeared before me-the subservient and humble student. Her disdain for my writing was obvious in her written comments on the returned assignment. But it was the spoken word about my writing that intimidated and humiliated me, even to this very day when I allow myself to think back on the incident. Hearing that my work was â€Å"all wrong† in the presence of other students was the worst embarrassment I could imagine as a shy and overly sensitive teenager. I wanted to crawl under my desk and hide. I managed to fight back tears until my retreat to the lavatory at the end of the period. Any confidence I had in my writing died that day. From that moment on my dreams of being a writer were severely compromised. Ms. B had taken advantage of her position of power over my writing. Whether this was intentional on her part or just a case of insensitivity or carelessness has no bear... ...well, it is difficult for me to do so. Perhaps it is his never-failing encouragement and my appreciation of his teaching methods that won’t allow me to take the role of an English teacher when reading his work. It has been my experience that young student writers can be very vulnerable to harsh criticism from a teacher or person in authority. And in my own case, that criticism didn’t disappear at the end of the semester but in fact, stayed with me for many years. I still have to push that ghost of criticism out of my head when I sometimes have difficulty with my writing. For the most part, the wounds from the red pen have healed and the scaring has been greatly reduced. Since the process of writing is difficult enough without discouraging words from teachers, it is imperative that harsh criticism be chased out of the writing classroom for the good of all students.

Private Life on Social Networking Sites Essay

Social networking sites can be defined as an online platform where people create their own profiles, share them with the public, and communicate with other users on the Internet. The increasing popularity of these sites affects our lives in many aspects and the most important one is the privacy issue. It can easily be observed that social networking sites are a real threat for the user’s personal privacy. First of all, there are some threats arising from security vulnerability on social networking sites. Generally, users give a lot of personal information to become a member of these sites and it is easy to access this information for hackers and identity thieves. For example identity thieves who could gain very private information such as birth name and date, addresses, phone numbers and relationship status on social networking sites can verify themselves as being the profile owner. Therefore, they can access the users’ credit card number and steal their money easily. Moreover, identity thieves cause not only loss of money but also loss of personal respect and good name. They can use the information to communicate with users’ other friends in order to obtain their information too. Rebecca Sweeny (2011) summarizes that users’ lack of awareness of sharing information helps hackers and identity thieves to steal their money and damage good names. (as cited in Acquisti& Gross, 2006) The second threat arising from security vulnerabilities is marketing companies’ accessibility to users’ information without permission. For instance, spamming the users with unsolicited advertising contents can be annoying in most cases. Furthermore, the companies sometimes obtain personal information and spread them with other companies and individuals in order to make advertisements more effective. Secondly, people share very private information on social networking sites, as Nico Reiher(2009) mentions, â€Å" If the receiver of the information is not trustworthy, the user does not have a chance to track or remove this information back into trustworthy hands.† causes some serious troubles. Firstly, people tend to announce where they are at that moment and what they are doing, therefore, they share real-time location based information on social networking sites. To illustrate, people who share their locations and especially notify others that they are not at home on social networking sites such as Foursquare, provide an opportunity to thieves to rob their houses. In addition, Facebook which is the most popular and preferred social networking sites, also enables people to share that much private information with the â€Å"check-in† application. Secondly, sharing awkward and embarrassing information or political views on social networking sites lead to trouble in people’s social and professional lives. For example, some companies prefer to look to social networking sites in order to get information about prospective employees. According to SNAPR project team, â€Å"Even future employers,†¦, may be able to view your posted information and draw specific conclusion about you as an individual, which could have the negative effects. â€Å" Moreover, disgraceful posts on users’ profile which can be seen also by instructors or bosses will cause loss of reputation in educational or business lives. Those who are not in favor of this opinion seem to believe that social networking sites are safe and information is inaccessible for the public. They think that there are some restrictive privacy settings which allow users to specify who can see their information and profiles. Moreover, there are firewalls which help to prevent users’ information from hackers and identity thieves. Although it may be true to a certain extent, this claim is not strong enough, because these settings are not default without users’ knowledge. Generally, users are not fully informed about privacy issues and share all information without any restriction. In addition, they are unaware of how much information they share to the public. There is not any explanation about the amount of the disseminative information. To sum up, the users’ unawareness of the privacy settings on social networking sites and their insensibility on this issue cause a lot of troubles. In addition, digital information’s easy accessibility and fast spreading also pose a danger for users’ privacy. In order to prevent people from these threats, improving the privacy settings and informing them completely should be the major precautions. References Reiher, N.(2009). Privacy on social networking sites and its impact on computer-mediated communication. Retrieved April 9,2012, from http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/154916/privacy- on-social-network-sites-and-its-impact-on-computer-mediated-communication SNAPR Methodology project team. Dear social networking user: Are you at risk? Retrieved April 9,2012, from socialrisk.weebly.com/index.html Sweeny,R.(2011). Social networking sites; More harm than good? Retrieved April 9,2012, from http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2011/04/social-networking-sites-more-harm-than- good/

The Beginning Of Creative Nonfiction - 1517 Words

The history of creative nonfiction is vast and diverse, spanning from the earliest known civilization to the present. This literary genre includes memoirs, essays, travel writing, and journalism. The literary essay is the mode of creative nonfiction I have chosen for my course project, and I will address the general history of creative nonfiction, focusing on the development of the essay. The origins of this genre date back centuries before Montaigne coined the term â€Å"essay.† The beginning of creative nonfiction began in Mesopotamia (D’Agata 1). John D’Agata states that the Sumerians created the world’s very first writing system, and their earliest accounts were of trade and commerce; in other words, writing began as nonfiction. Sumerian’s†¦show more content†¦In 500 B.C.E., the Greeks were discovering the atom, and Heraclitus drew from these studies to form his belief that the universe is susceptible to change (D’Agata 9). He believed that everything was instable, and his writings projected this view. Even though only fragments of his writings have survived, he has still managed to imprint himself in the ancient roots of the essay. Heraclitus was known as â€Å"The Riddler† because his sentences sometimes used the exact same word to simultaneously signify both a subject and an object (D’Agata 15). E ven the philosopher Socrates found it difficult to read Heraclitus’ works. Socrates said, â€Å"Heraclitus is a writer of the most splendid sort, but I think it would take a diver of the world’s deepest seas to get to the bottom of him (D’Agata 16). Aside from his ambiguous writing style, Heraclitus is also one of the first well-known writers to ask a question that has produced many future great works of creative nonfiction—What do I know? After the birth of Christ, literary nonfiction and the essay became overlooked due to the rise of the information age. Roman writers rarely wrote in the essay form, yet a few authors maintained the nonfiction tradition. Lucius Seneca wrote letters to battle his extreme uncertainty about himself. Like other letters, Seneca’s pieces are personal expositions that are addressed to another person;Show MoreRelatedBased on True Events A Glance into the Nonfiction Novel Genre979 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The best nonfiction recognizes the impossibility of perfect representation, the dream of the 1:1 ratio,† (Sharlett). What Jeff Sharlet means in this quote is that facts cannot be perfectly represented, regardless of any type of imagery or descriptions, so a good nonfiction work uses only what is needed to get the message across. Beginning in the 20th century, many nonfiction writers would even look towards fiction for the resources to describe what was considered impossible t o describe (Taylor)Read MoreA Literary Magazine Is A Distinctive Publication That Focuses1014 Words   |  5 Pagespublication that focuses on different genres. Some genres that the magazine concentrates on is creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama. In addition, a literary magazine is composed of different productions such as memoirs and book reviews. They contain interested topics and can be found in local bookstores, libraries, and online. One unique magazine that showcase works of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry is Ragazine.CC. Ragazine.CC is an electronic based magazine and it is publishedRead MoreThe Things I Know Nothing At All : A Little Thing From Experience1632 Words   |  7 Pagesmicro fiction, or creative non-fiction. 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My first poem is called Poem I in the Untitled Series by Samantha. I chose to not name my poems because I didn’t want to limit the reader. The first poem is four quatrains and is about fall and winter. I tired to experiment with end rhythm. I decide to follow the rhythm pattern A, B, C, B. It’sRead MoreTruman Capote s The Cold Blood1375 Words   |  6 Pagesfascinating portrayal of the Clutter family’s tragic murder. A typical novel, flooded with the complexities of the author’s creative mind, conveys the plot amidst vivid descriptions of the setting and characters to develop a fantasy; however, In Cold Blood utilizes the same elements to portray a stark, sometimes unsettling, reality. From the very beginning of the novel, Capote describes the setting of the Clutter murders, the town of Holcomb, with the vibrant flare of an extroverted gossiperRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Guns Of August Essay1566 Words   |  7 Pagesperhaps the most famous war in American history. 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From the beginning I remember hearing someone read to me or reading to myself.Most of the time it would be Captain Underpants or Magic Tree house.Now that i’ve grown up the books have gotten bigger and sometimes I have to write essays on them.I am not great at writingRead MoreThe Art Of Reading874 Words   |  4 PagesJeremy Lutz 5/4/15 Mrs. Bowen The Art of Reading Reading has shifted the culture and social atmosphere of society from the beginning of time. Reading started as a form of communication then became a necessity as civilizations grew. People depended upon reading to foster intellectual growth throughout their traditions as early as 40,000 years ago. From this great historical timeline of books, come the early literary masterpieces such as The Iliad, The Odyssey, and more profound books still applied