"The American male at age 10"

The American male at age 10

Memoir

Jon Hocking       

English 101

2/28/12

Memoir

                As long as I can remember sports have been very important to me.  It all started when I turned 7 and my dad introduced into tee-ball.  After 1 season of tee-ball I really didn’t want to play any more sports. My parents knew that it was good for me to play so they wanted me to play more sports. The next year my dad got me playing basketball, soccer, and baseball. Even though I didn’t like any of these sports but I continued to play them until I got to middle school. As much as I didn’t enjoy these sports like I wanted to it was still a great experience. After years of trying different sports I finally found I sport that I loved to play. This sport was football and the only reason why I played was because my mother made me play. Was I the best player on the field? Absolutely not, actually I was one of the smallest kids on the team.  This only made me want to become bigger and better at football and was one the best motivators.

 When I got to high school the sports I played were football for 3 years, winter/spring track for 3 years, and lacrosse, cross-country, and powerlifting for 1 year. I didn’t play football my freshman year because I thought I was too small and wouldn’t play. I realized that being small was only the start of my problems. The hardest of high school was managing sports, school, and my home life. For the most part I played a sport every season with only a 2 week break between each sport.  High school was a huge step up from middle school and I learned that very fast. When I used to get home from practice I wouldn’t have the energy to study or do homework. This made it almost impossible to get all my school work done.  I knew that in order to be able to keep playing sports I wouldn’t be able to let myself get behind in my school work. To do this I would need to come up with a plan to manage my time.

The most important thing I learned in high school was dealing with sports, home life and school. I learned a lot about how to manage my time so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with everything. Playing sports in high school made it a lot easier dealing with college and working at the same time because I was used to managing my time.  Everyone says college can be so stressful but I felt almost relieved switching from high school to college because I have more time for school.

The second most important thing that sports taught me was self-discipline. I believe sports help you improve your self-discipline because practices are full of things that you don’t want to do. Even though you don’t always have a coach telling you what to do, sports still build self-discipline because they put you in the state of mind where it doesn’t matter that you don’t want to do something. Instead it makes you realize that in order to be successful you are going to have to do things that you hate.

Even though I love sports and they have taught me a lot I knew that college, sports, and work would be way too much to handle. I would love to play a sport next year when I go to a 4 year school but if I don’t I will still always remember what sports taught me. If I want something bad enough I can accomplish it by working as hard as I can to get it.

Killing chickens

killing chickens

1. " I tuck her wings tight against her heaving body, crouch over her, and cover her flailing head with my gloved hand."
2. "My anger and fear center like a tornado on having to kill this hen." 
3. "She fights me, struggling to be free of my weight, my gloved hands, my need to kill her."

The main idea of this article was how she expressed the anger to the chickens of her divorce.

I dont like this authors style of writing because they use to much detail when describing how she killed the chickens. Also I didnt understand how killing chickens is related to divorce.

What Makes a Great Teacher?

What makes a great teacher?


In this article they are discussing what makes a good teacher and all the factors of being a good teacher. This article makes alot of sense to me because I have had teachers who taught me everything and teachers who taught me nothing. There are examples of how they can become better teachers. one thing that I found interesting was asking "does anyone have any questions?" does not work. I found This interesting because in all my classes the teachers always ask that. Most of the time people dont raise their hand but that shouldnt make the teacher a bad teacher because the kid didn't want to ask questions. Its there f

Practice with Sensory Detail

My hometown was a wonderful (or choose your own adjective) place to grow up.

I grew up in the small town of Raynham. My neighborhood was quiet which allowed me to play with my friends without my parents worrying about me.

Laci had a rather crazy style.

She had purple hair that was never done and wore nothing but a lime green shirt that was way to big. No matter how hot it was out she would always wear sweatpants and rain boots.

Mr. Brown is the worst teacher I’ve ever had.

Mr.brown was always my least favorite teacher because instead of teaching he would just scream at us for getting the answer wrong.

The room seemed very distracting.

As I walked into english I knew I wouldn't be able to keep focused with all the posters and windows that made the room very distracting.

Rhetorical analysis

The purpose of this ad is to get people to order UFC 141. The ad makes it seems like it is going to be an exciting fight because they are the 2 biggest fighters in the UFC. It is also a very basic ad stating that the UFC 141 card will be on Friday December 30th and that Brock Lesnar will be fighting Allistair overeem.  This ad really catches your eye because of how intimidating the fighters are.

I see ads like this all the time FX and Spike but they are advertising different fights. Men's health and sports illustrated would be good magazines for this ad because they are the two most popular men’s magazines. Most people who watch UFC are male and in the age group of 18-36. UFC appeals to males in this age group because this is the age group that likes fighting and violence the most. These days it seems like every guy likes to watch people fight.

 If I was in charge of the UFC ads I would put more ads out because the only place you typically see them is on the channel Spike. They must be doing something right because the UFC is becoming a huge sport. It has past WWE and is catching up to boxing. This ad is extremely effective for the target audience because on average 620,000 people order each UFC event. They also generate over $465 million in pay-per-view revenue.

autobiography

As long as I can remember I havent liked reading or writing. The only time I read is when I have to for school. This is how most people in highschool and college feel about reading. I don't like reading because the material teachers have me read doesnt interest me that much. Next year hopfully i get more into it when i take classes that actually interest me.Writing on the other hand, I dont mind as much. This is because for writintg assignments the teachers usually let us pick our own topic. This semister I plan on improving my writing as much as posible. When writing I prefer to to type instead of write on paper because I can type faster then I can write.

Attention Whole Foods Shoppers

Attention whole foods shoppers

This article is about the worlds effort to help feed the hungry. the majority (62%) of all undernourished people live in Africa or south Asia. This problem is only getting worse, within the next decade the number of people undernourished will increase by 30%. In Europe and the United States they want to bring improved seeds and fertilizers to traditional farms in Africa and south Asia. Other solutions are introducing wheat and rice into poor countries. In Asia this helped millions of small farmers out of poverty. Even with this help, Africa still has a food crisis. First because Africa's population is growing faster then they are producing food and second because they very rarely use fertilizers.  

recess

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/education/15recess.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all


This article was about how some school systems felt that recess was a waste of time. Instead kids being able to what ever they wanted the schools made them particpate in games and activities. With this new recess there were alot less problems like fights and injuries. The kids still didnt like it because they enjoyed their own free time.

proposal

The theme I would like to write about is sports. The reason I would like to write about sports is because i have played sports all my life. The sports i have played are soccer, football, track and cross country. I also plan going to a 4 year school next year for athletic training. This is the only theme that really interested me. My 2nd and 3rd choice are crime and justice and family and relationships. The main topic I would discuss is the problem with steroids in all levels of sports. Instead of just discussing steroids in just professional sports i would discuss steroids in highschool, college and professional sports.