Englis 111

This year I finally decided to retake English since I did not finish it the first time that I attempted to go to school. I struggle with English due to my dyslexia. I have always had a hard time with it, and because of so, have never really liked English. I work in an office where computers and writing are a part of my everyday world and with struggling with this it had made it harder and harder to do even the easiest tasks. So I decided to retake the course and try to better myself. On the very first day I knew that I would like the class since the teacher seemed very unorthodox. I don’t respond to the normality of lectures and tests. I prefer to get involved with the class and actually discuss with what is going on with the world. Just because the classroom door closes, does not mean that the world closes outside. Many teachers want to leave the world at the doors, but for every student there they bring the world with them and don’t know how to live any other way. With it being a night course, every student has just finished there long day of work and now have to sit thought a three hours zone of learning, and everyone is thinking the same thing, “I’d rather be home.” Night classes are for the ones who have the busy lives and want to better themselves for what ever reason. They are there for a purpose and all want to learn. But the problem is getting and holding their attention long enough to instill greater knowledge into their minds. I can firmly say that my teacher got my attention in more ways than one. The methods were unique, which made me think, “Hey, he’s a little bit different.” But different doesn’t always mean better. The material was always good, but the planning was always all over the place. The outline of the class would change every week to the point that no one new what going to happen when we walked in the door. From how I felt in the beginning of the class was no where near how I felt towards the end.

My sister is a teacher in Portsmouth, VA. She spends hours on her lesson plans in trying to make sure that it structured and so it flows from assignment to assignment. When you have a job where you have to teach someone skills you have to do it in some kind of an order. It would be the same equivalent of giving a 10 year old a new game for his birthday and never telling or showing him how to play the game. He may learn how to play it one day, but without someone there to guide him step by step, hey may never learn how to do it properly.

I very much enjoyed my class in spite of how much I despise English, but I do feel that it could have been ran more efficiently.

Diagnostic Essay

Original:

Growing up in a world where life isn’t perfect, people tend to wonder how they could make it just a little bit better. I have often thought what it would be like to posses an ability that would alter my own life, as well as the lives of others. As we take a glimpse at people around us, we notice that health has become a major concern. As hard as scientists are working, trying to come up with cures, there just seems to be a barrier stopping them from reaching some of their goals. This is one of the reasons why I think it would be remarkable to contain a gift that gave me the power to heal.
Within possessing such great power, comes great responsibility. So if I choose to expose my power, there would be a lot of duties to follow. The first thing I would choose to do would be to find a way to use my power to help heal ones with cancer. Cancer has been one of the most difficult illnesses to hit mankind. No matter how hard people attempt to find a cure, one still has yet to be found. It has recently been discovered that certain viruses have caused cancer, but that is only a portion of what is acknowledged. Viruses are not alive, so finding a way to kill something that is not a live is what causes frequent problems in trying to find the cure. Countless numbers of people have suffered and died through endless treatments. This is why I would choose to use my gift to help cure the ones with this terrible disease.
Also I would use my gift to help cure mental disorders, such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and depression. My mother suffers from ADD and depression and these disorders factor in the way she lives in her life everyday. ADD makes it hard to focus, so processing information is quite difficult. Depression affects the way men and women interact in the everyday world. They over think situations and have a hard time extroverting themselves. Your mind is the most powerful tool you have and with out it, life can seen dreadfully complex. Therefore with eliminating the problem all together, people can process information more elegantly.
By having the power to heal, I will not only be able to heal others, but I can also keep myself healthy. Over the past year I have had surgery due to an infected gland. There is a possibility of having this infection come back, so with having this power, I would no longer be fearful of having this problem repeating. In addition to healing my self of further infections, I would not dread pregnancy. I would like to have children one day, but there is always a chance for complications to occur. So with having this power, no matter what problems arise, I could use my gift to insure my safety and the safety of my child.
Containing an ability that no one else has would be a very difficult thing to deal with. I would be the only one on earth with this power, so no one else would know exactly how it feels but me. That would be the only unsatisfying aspect. I like to share my feelings with other people that understand where I am coming from. It is hard to make a person comprehend something if they haven’t felt it before. So the sense of solitude would probably be overwhelming at times, but knowing that the power I possess was helping mankind would suppress that feeling.
To have the power to heal would not only be a gift but a blessing. True, life isn’t perfect. So why not dream of a way to change it. We can all use an escape from time to time and thinking of having a power to change our lives for the better is always worth while.

Revised:

In reality life never turns out how it should and people tend to wonder how they could make it better. I too have wanted to change certain aspect of my life for the better. I wonder what it would be like to posses an ability that would alter my own life, as well as the lives of others. As we take a glimpse at the world around us, we notice that health has become a major concern. Scientists are working, trying to come up with cures, there just seems to be too may obstacles in their way. This is one of the reasons why I think it would be remarkable to contain a gift that gave me the power to heal.
Within possessing such great power, comes great responsibility. So by choosing to expose my power, I would have to use it for the greater good. The first thing I would choose to do would be to find a way to use my power to help heal ones with cancer. Cancer has been one of the most difficult illnesses to hit mankind. No matter how tough it is attempting to find a cure, there still has yet to be found. It has recently been discovered that certain viruses can cause cancer, but that is only a portion of what is acknowledged. Viruses are not alive, so finding a way to kill something that is not a live is what causes frequent problems in trying to find the cure. Countless numbers of people have suffered and even died through endless treatments. This is why I would choose to use my gift to help cure the ones with this dreadful disease.
Also I would use my gift to help cure mental disorders, such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and depression. My mother suffers from both of these disorders which factor in the way she lives in her everyday life. ADD makes it difficult to focus for long periods of time and processing the information is even harder. Depression also affects the way men and women interact in the everyday world. They over analyze situations and have a tricky time extroverting themselves. Your mind is the most powerful tool you have and with out it, life can seem awfully complex. Therefore with eliminating the problem all together, people can process information more elegantly.
By having the power to heal, I will not only be able to heal others, but I can also keep myself healthy. Over the past year I have been sick due to an infected gland. It spread to the point of surgery and since then it scares me of a possibility of having this infection come back. With having this power, my apprehension of having this problem repeating would decrease. In addition to healing myself of further infections, I would also not dread pregnancy. I would like to have children one day, but there is always a chance for complications to occur. My family has a history of birth defects, so with having this power, no matter what problems arise, I could use my gift to insure my safety and the safety of my child. Being a mother is very important to me and the idea of not being able to give birth would simple be unbearable.
Containing an ability that no one else has would be a very difficult thing to deal with. I would be the only one on earth with this power, so no one else would know exactly how it feels but me. That would be the only unsatisfying aspect. I like to share my feelings with other people that understand where I am coming from. It is hard to make a person comprehend something if they haven’t felt it before. So the sense of solitude would probably be overwhelming at times, but knowing that the power I possess was helping mankind would suppress that feeling.
To have the power to heal would not only be a sixth sense but would be a blessing. True, life isn’t perfect so why not dream of a way to change it? We can all use an escape from time to time and thinking of having a power to change our lives for the better is always worth while.