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Dear Classmates, 

This year we did a lot of writing, between the papers we have written and the blogs that we had done. Everyone has there good writings and a few bad ones, because no one is perfect, and no ones writing is perfect. I decided that I want to reanalyze my literary analysis, it was not the worst paper I have ever written, but it could have been better. I chose to do this because it was a paper that has interest to it so not every time I go to fix it I won’t be feeling like I have to force myself. The two traits of good writing that I am going to be focusing on the most are organization and voice. I am also going to be fixing any convention problems and formatting problems that I had. 

The writing remix that was done was on my blog from March 11, and it was about people being different around different people. When I redid what I had to do it really helped me to even understand better what I had written about. What I turned my blog into was a zine and a poem, because I wanted to do a poem but doing the zine helped me write my poem because I was able to visualize it better so that I was able to write my poem. 

I chose to revise my Literary Analysis because It was a paper that I enjoyed writing about, because it was on a short story not something that I don’t want to have to write about. The literary analysis was originally written about “The Sniper”, and I don’t mind writing about that because it wasn’t a really boring story, and it was something that was easy to read and be able to write about. I am going to be fixing the formatting since I had a few problems with things like page numbers, and another thing or so. I will be focusing a lot on word choice and organization, making sure everything is in the correct order, while still having strong, powerful, and meaning words. My hits were more of things that I enjoyed to write and didn’t feel like it was something that I didn’t really want to do too much. My miss were things that I didn’t like to write, and they weren’t my best writing. 

Everyone has there better writing assignments, and there misses in writing.  I think this was one of my better ones along with my blog from March 11 and my Narrative. Some of my misses in writing this year would probably be my research paper and some of my free post blogs. It’s not that they were that bad of writing, but I didn’t like writing about them, especially about the blogs. When I write blogs, I like having a topic that I have to write about because sometimes I find it harder to have to come up with a topic that I have to write about. 

I think over the course of this year I have grown in writing. I have learned a lot about writing and becoming a better writer. Overall, I have definitely learned my strengths and my weaknesses as a writer.  I know that I need to take my time when I write and have everything finished like a day or so before it is due so that I can go back over it and check for any mistakes that I could have made while typing or writing. I think one of my strengths in writing is creative writing, and some of my weaknesses are conventions, and spelling, but those are both things that can be easily fixed. 

While improving my revision, I need to focus a lot on revising along with the other things that I have chosen to focus on.  I am going to be using a thesaurus to help me be able to have strong words, and I am going to really focus on making sure that everything is really organized in my revision of the paper. Having everything as close to perfect as I can get it would definitely be essential for my knowledge and grade. I think that doing this will help me with my future papers and anything else that will soon have to be written. 

Hits and Misses:

Hits: Blog 3/11 and other blogs, and literacy narrative

 -Not that these were the best things that I’ve written, but they were on the more enjoyable side of things that we wrote.

Misses: Research paper, free post blogs 

 -The research paper wasn’t my best, but I also didn’t like writing it, I felt like I was dreading it the entire time. 

 -Free post blogs, I rather be told what to write about most of the time, I don’t like having to come up with something like that. 

Remix:

Everyone is different,

but what can you expect. 

Everyone acts differently, 

but that’s normal. 

Everyone acts differently

around certain people. 

Are you quiet?

Are you loud? 

Are you funny?

Are you helpful?

Are you outgoing? 

Are you shy?

Who is to tell us

how we act around people. 

We can act how we want. 

What’s different when

we are with other people? 

Why do we act different? 

Are you expected to do different things?

Are you usually willing to do them? 

Are you expecting different things from people?

Why do we act different?

Is there a reason we change depending on who we are with?

Is it even normal? 

Revision:

                                                          Attack of The Sniper                     

In “The Sniper,” the sniper is going through a tough time. O’Flaherty gives the sniper goals that he must accomplish. He has main goals and personal goals. Sitting out, making hard decisions based on what the goal needs to be could save his life. He needs to know what effects his decisons will have on his life. He makes bad decisions, and if they are not resolved soon, his life could be ended. Soon, he might not be here, if he does not reach the main goals of survival and safety. Right now he is only sitting on the roof top across from the enemy, only hoping that he will make it through this. It is dark outside, while on the roof top, “Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that has shone through fleecy clouds” (145). Alone, where is everyone one else on this cold night?  Boom, he is shot. Where is everyone when he needs them? Safety must be near. His arm is shot and unable to be used. 

What’s going to happen? Will he be okay? He had to do something, but he “Couldn’t lift it. His forearm was dead” (146).  Quick decisions must be made to save his life. Now, the main goal is for him to get back to safety while having an arm that is not working properly. The sniper is injured and his arm is not able to be used right now. This is a desperate time that it needs to be used to make it back alive and safe. Pushing through the pain of his arm, he has to make quick decisions. What is going to happen? Why is this happening to him? All of these you may ask, and he is probably asking himself. He is a very curious man. He wants to know what will happen if he lights a cigarette in the middle of the night during this war. This is done partly with curiosity, but also because he wants to smoke.  Sitting on the roof top, his curiosity leads to a bad decision, “He paused for a moment, considering wether he should risk a smoke” (145). He makes the decision, wich causes xhim to end up being shot in the arm after he killed a few of his enemies that were sitting only a rooftop away from him. . The sniper knows the enemy is near, and the enemy knows that the sniper is there after he lights the cigarette, and an older woman telling the enemies that his is up there hiding. 

The Sniper lays on the roof top, wondering what is going to happen next. Is curiousity going to get the best of him? Quick choices and curiosity do not seem to go too well together in the middle of a war, especially  while you are alone only yards away from the enemy.  While he is laying there, one bad decision, becasue of curiosity leads to a bad consequence, causing him to almost die.  He has been laying on top of a building only yards away from the enemy. He hask laying there for a while, and he is starting to get hungry since he has not eaten since the morning. He is anxious, causing him not to eat before. Soon he concludes eating his sandwich, takes a quick sip of whiskey, but he wants a cigarette.                   

                The sniper has a tough decision to make; to smoke, or stay safe. He thinks about it, he makes a bad decision; “Placing a cagarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light” (145). Quickly after, a bullet flies by and hits a barrier on the roof top. The sniper has to be extremely careful about what he does next, then again, another bullet flies by coming over his head, causing him to drop down quickly.  He has to think of a decision of what he needs to do, there is many options, but he choses to roll over to the chimney in the back of the roof. He knows his decisions are between life and death at this time. The sniper knows he must make the right decision, and this time he did.  The main goal for him to accomplish now is getting back to safety. 

He needs to get off the roof and back to his troop.  How will it work with people shooting at him, and his arm being shot? Fast decisions have to be made, and the concequences could have a huge effect on what he decides the best thing to do is. Trying to reach the goal, he comes up with ideas and decides what will help him reach the ideal goal he has. He knows he must kill the enemy before he can escape. Acting quickly, he pickes up his gun and shot. The enemy’s head fell onto the turret wall. Another shot is made by the sniper, and this time he shot a woman, and she spun around  and fell into the gutter. Then, all of a sudden, he is shot What will he do? Decisions, he picks up th egun and it cannot be lifted up. Quickly he decieds to try to bandage his arm and he realized he must get off the roof as soon as possible. He must act quickly to accomplish the goal. He starts on the process of escaping, 

The sniper is laying hurt, “Taking off his cap he placed it over the muzzle of his rifle. Then he pushed the rifle slowly upward over the parapet, until the cap was vivible from the opposite side of the street. Almost immediately there is a report, and a bullet pierced the center of the cap. The sniper slanted the rifle forward. The cap clipped down into the street.” (146).  After, he drops his arm down to act as if he is dead, then he drops the gun and went back down onto the roof.  He realized if the rest of his plan is executed correclty then he would escape alive. At this moment, the sniper really uses his intellegence for his advatage. Fast and smart decisions are what saves his life. He is able to outsmart his enemies inorder to save his own life. 

Finishing his escape plans, he shoots about fifty yards into the dim light. Making sure everything is steady and perfect, he took his time to shoot becasue it is a hard shot for him to make. His enemy is shot, “Reeling over the parapet in his death agony” (147).  he has succesfully excuted the final steps before getting back to his troops, and now all that is left is for him is to make it back safely. He sees the enemy fall, then “he became bitten in remorse” (147).  The sniper starts to make his way back to his troop and his curiosity gets the best of him. He wants to know who is killed. Over safety, he makes the decision to go see who he killed. He gets to the body. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.” (147). His curiosity made his safe escape into a bad nightmare for him. 

By the middle of war, the sniper has some harsh decisions that he must make. He has goals to accomplish; his main goals and his personal goals. He wants to be able to survive and be safe, while still being about to eat and smoke in hiding. In order for him to escape with safety he had to make sure everything is done perfectly. One mistake could have him ending up dead. He must make sure he is back to his troop safely in order to make sure he accomplishes his main goals. Even though he accomplishes his goal, he did make a few mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes he make is smoking in the dark creating light for the enemie to see.