scary storyyyy

Chloe Brotherton

English 1510

October 30, 2012

Scary Story

                It was a lovely day, one April morning.  I went to school, ran errands with my mom, and hung out with friends, nothing out of the ordinary.  But something was very unusual; I kept seeing this baby along with a black cat throughout the entire day.   I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, but I swear it was the same baby but in a different woman’s arms everywhere I went.   It was unlike any baby I had ever seen; his skin was white as snow with black hair, and a face that held no emotion whatsoever.  Moments after I would see the baby, a black cat would appear outside of wherever I was.  The baby and the cat would just stare at me, motionless, but I didn’t think much of it.  I fell asleep that night wondering if the two had any correlation, but I figured I was just being paranoid.  A few hours later I woke up to see a pair of eyes staring at me at the end of my bed.  I sat up to get a better glimpse.  Was it my dog?  No, I sleep with my door closed so there was no way Marley could have gotten in my room.  As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I made out a figure that looked somewhat like a baby.  My heart jumped; the baby from earlier?  How could that be?  I closed my eyes for a second and opened them again, only to make eye contact with the pale, evil baby at the edge of my bed.  I immediately shut my eyes after making the eye contact and went into panic mode.  Was this real?  What should I do?  “Just go back to sleep, you’re probably just imagining this,” I told myself, unconvincingly.  So, with my eyes closed, I slowly lay myself back down in my bed, trying not to disturb the imaginary baby.  Does he know I’m awake?  Before I knew it my head was back on my pillow and I let out a sigh of relief.  After a minute passed, I began to relax a little bit and dozed off again; I knew I was imagining the whole thing!  Suddenly, I feel an object at least 100 pounds spring onto my chest and start biting me.  It was the baby.  In an instant I was wide awake and attempting to get the baby off my chest, but it was too strong.  I began screaming, “Mom! Dad!” and flew out of my bed but the baby held on to my chest tight, eating away at my flesh.  I open my bedroom door and immediately feel something attack my leg; I look down and it’s the black cat.  Both of these creatures were extremely strong and I could feel myself succumbing to them.  But I wasn’t giving up just yet; I was still screaming for my mom and dad and fighting off the baby and cat.  I ran down the stairs and realized that I was not in my house.  Where was I?  “Mom! Dad! Anyone!”  I cried desperately but no one was there.  I was alone in a strange, scary house with a baby and cat eating away at me.  Just when I thought all hope was lost, my mom appeared with a wooden cross in her hand.  Mom!  I was more than happy to see her.  “Mom!  Save me!”  I screamed, but she was hesitant.  As she moved closer to me, she didn’t speak.  What is she doing?  Why won’t she talk?  She was now inches away from me.  She slowly reached her hand out with the cross and placed it on my arm.  It began burning, hurting even more than the cat and baby who were eating away at my flesh.  I began screaming.  “Chloe, this is for your own good.  You’re possessed!”  My mom said as she pressed the cross against my skin even harder. 

                All of a sudden, I wake up.  The first thing I notice is that I’m in my own bed, sweating; it had all just been a bad dream.  But what was weird was the fact I was sleeping on my back (which I never do) with my arms spread apart and my legs together… I was sleeping in the position of a cross.  After this experience I was convinced I was possessed by some sort of demon and went to church the following Sunday, and after that everything went back to normal.  That’s my scary story!!

Chloe Brotherton

English 1510

October 24, 2012

Swales/Gee Dialect Journal

 

“In this chapter we ask you to consider the idea that literacy learning is never over.” (Page 463)

What exactly is “literacy learning” and how would one define it..?  Seems like a pretty broad topic to me.

“We need then to clarify, for procedural purposes, what is to be understood by discourse community and, perhaps in the present circumstances, it is better to offer a set of criteria sufficiently narrow that it will eliminate many of the marginal, blurred and controversial contenders.” (Page 469)

What a long sentence!  At first, I didn’t quite understand what the problem was with a discourse community and now I’m starting to understand what Swales is saying.  It’s more of a suggestive term and cannot be defined in just a sentence or phrase; a discourse community is more like the center of ideas rather than a settled notion.

“1. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.” (Page 471)

According to Swales a discourse community is a group of people that share goals or purposes and use communication to achieve them.  This definition of six backs up that statement.

Overall, I found this reading to be a little dry and boring to read, but I think it’s safe to say I officially know what a discourse community is.  A discourse community, broken down into six characteristics, must contain the following: broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, provide information and feedback, possess one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, acquired some specific lexis, and threshold of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Chloe Brotherton
English 1510
October 2, 2012

We are all familiar with the Peta ads; sexy, attractive, half naked celebrities with the slogan "I'd rather go naked than wear fur."  And this ad is no different, with these five beautiful women naked holding the sign just below their clevage.  The background color is a plain whitesh gray, with both black and white ethnicities.  This scene makes their skin color really pop out at us.  And the sign is simple but definitely catches the eye; this is overall a really nice looking picture and Peta knows this.  The fine print reads, "Animals killed for their fur are beaten and often skinned alive.  Be comfortable in your own skin and let animals keep theirs.  Don't buy or wear fur."  The word "skin" and "fur" and repeated to emphasize that our skin is equal to an animal's fur.  The picture is alligned perfectly except for the sign which is a little slanted.  And the girls are ordered in short, short, tall, tall, short, which is appealing to the eye.

dialect

Chloe Brotherton

English 1510

October 5, 2012

Dennis Baron Dialect

“For many of us, the computer revolution came long ago, and it has left its mark on the way we do things with words.”

For me, the computer revolution occurred while I was growing up, so that was pretty neat.  I remember I first used a computer in kindergarten, and it was on a Microsoft Word.  I would write the word “cat” (but I didn’t use a keyboard, we had this thing were we picked a letter out of the alphabet with our mouse) and then used clip art and added a picture of a cat… Oh have things changed since then.  I wish it was still that simple!

“I readily admit my dependence on the new technology of writing.”

I don’t know how I would survive without Microsoft Word or any of the new technologies of writing on computers, either.  I can’t imagine school without it.  I have Microsoft Word 2010 on my computer and my mom has either 2005 or 2006 and I cannot stand that version!  I refuse to use it—this shows how much the new technology means to me.

“Of course the first writing technology was writing itself.  Just like the telegraph and the computer, writing itself was once an innovation strongly resisted by traditionalists because it was unnatural and untrustworthy.”

It’s amazing, if you think about it, how far writing has come.  I never really considered writing a technology like the telephone or computer until now.  I cannot imagine college writing with only a pen and paper.  Writing is really something innovative.

hook

Chloe Brotherton

English 1510

October 2, 2012

Bell Hooks

QDJ

1.        When Hooks wrote that she wanted to kill herself, she meant not actually dying, but killing herself in her writing.  She wanted to kill herself in the writing because she saw it as freeing herself from her past and troubles.

2.       Bio mythology is writing that is both fiction and autobiography.  Hook’s example is not bio mythology because it’s not fiction; her writing would be considered just an autobiography.

3.       Hooks uses a hope chest to frame her autobiography.  It was her mother’s and it was very valuable to her.  For my autobiography I would use a puppy because I love puppies, they are crazy, playful and sleepy like me.

AEI

2.  Identity is something that can definitely be changed through text.  I think it would be easy to write about yourself and give yourself the identity you’ve always admired.  You can achieve this by writing a fictional book but perhaps basing the protagonist off you, giving yourself new qualities and a different identity.

shitty first draft

Chloe Brotherton

English 1510

October 2, 2012

Shitty First Draft

                I have always loved writing ever since I can remember.  When I was ten, I would keep a little notebook full of stories I would write; I never finished any of them though, for some reason.  I would get bored with the story after writing it for a week or so and start writing another.  I never really planned what I wrote either, I just wrote whatever came to mind, which is why I am horrible at rough drafts.  I don’t believe in rough drafts and I sort of see them as a waste of time.  I mean they are better for whatever you’re writing and make your writings more efficient, but rough drafts are not for me.  One time I did do a rough draft for a paper, though, and I got a C on it (the paper), so that was a fail.  I’m really ADHD and a master procrastinator so maybe that has something to do with my hatred of rough drafts.  Papers were meant for doing the night before, under a lot of pressure and stress, so that way all of your stress and anger is taken out on the paper and it ends up being really good!  I hope I am doing this paper correctly haha.

Brandt

Chloe Brotherton

1510 English

October 1, 2012

Dialectial Journal

“Throughout their lives, affluent people from high-caste racial groups have multiple and redundant contracts with powerful literacy sponsors as a routine part of their economic and political privileges.  Poor people and those from low-caste racial groups are less consistent, less politically secured access to literacy sponsors—especially to the ones that can grease their way to academic and economic success,” (Brandt 337)

I found this interesting that Brandt is using race in her article.  In the section “Sponsorship and Access”, the first paragraph starts out with comparing races, which I found surprising.  Apparently race-status really matters in a literary sponsorship.  Also, family background, income, and education contribute to one’s sponsorship.

“When this process stirs ambivalence, on their part or on ours, we need to be understanding,” (Brandt 348)

I agree with Brandt that teachers, professors, and writers need to be more understanding.  Not everyone is good at writing; I believe that a good writer is one who is just born with it.  If college students are not yet “good writers” then teachers need to understand and if they are getting their work done then that is all that matters.