Entry 7

Argentina Offers a great choice of cultural activities to enjoy the leisure time. For those people interested in music, the variety is enormous, from local little bands in a small pub, to international artists that play mainly in Buenos Aires. For those who want painting exhibitions, the number of museums has been multiplied lately, and there are also street muralists, such as Florencia Melendez, who are making the cities look prettier. For the theatre lovers, "cafe concerts" can be found all over the country, no to talk about Corrientes street, where the main plays are presented. And for the Film buffs, there are different festivals along the year, and the "malba" museum presents classics and non massive films. This wide variety of cultural activities is increasing every time, therefore, different expectations about enjoying the free time can be fulfilled.

In my country, cultural development has made it possible for everyone to be able to enjoy its different manifestations without having to go far. For those people interested in music, the variety is enormous, from local little bands in a small pub, to international artists that play mainly in Buenos Aires. For those who want painting exhibitions, the number of museums has been multiplied lately, and there are also street muralists, such as Florencia Melendez, who are making the cities look prettier. For the theatre lovers, "cafe concerts" can be found all over the country, no to talk about Corrientes street, where the main plays are presented. And for the Film buffs, there are different festivals along the year, and the "malba" museum presents classics and non massive films. No matter where one lives or one likes or enjoys the most, there is always something to do or somewhere to go.


The meaning doesn't vary in both paragraphs, but I preffer my partner's topic sentence, as it presents better the idea. I tried to be carefull about the balance, and I can see I have improved in that field, as I read carefully the topic sentence, took into account whether all the elements where developed or not, and tried to close the paragraph including the main ideas, and with lexical cohesion.

successfull academic writing

Parts of a paragraph:

• Topic sentence (what are you writing about) it should be interesting and not very long.
• Body ; it should follow the order of importance or a chronological order. 
• Closing sentence; it should restate the main idea and  add something to think about. 

Source: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cCuExRE6N-4 last visited on may 30 2013. 

Structure of paragraphs in academic writting 

• what a paragraph is: a distinct section in a piece of writing
• Types of paragraphs: persuasive, narrative, descriptive and explanatory. 
• qualities of a successful paragraph: unity, coherence and development. controlling idea answers to the "wh" questions. 
• tee rule: topic, explanation, example, evaluation. 
• concluding paragraph:  should summarize the main point, state main conclutions and answer to the presented questions, it shouldn't introduce new material, end with a generalization or end with a quotation. 

source: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w183qB0KDFg last visited on may 30 2013. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a thirty five year-old Nigerian writer. She is the author of three novels and many short stories, she has received numerous awards, and she has testified her own experience in several public speeches. Adichie described in one of those speeches the way in wich she first enjoyed literature: with the traditional  way of western  life, which also changed her own consciousness of being, as people like her could not exist in the stories she read, and later started to write. It was only when she became aware of her identity and traveled abroad, studying in philadelphia and not fullfilling other people's expectations about what an African would be like opened her eyes. She rejects being treated as a stadistic, she explains people know a lot about how africans die, but not much about how they live. A book, a powerfull object in the writer's words, can change the way people think about the others, and even about themselves.



"I write because I have to, I love its sound, I love characters, I touch other people with my work."

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Her web page: http://chimamanda.com/

Nelson mandela described the book "things fall apart"by the Nigerian  author Chinua Achebe, as the book in whose presence the prison walls came down.

Apa citation rules

APA citation style refers to the rules and conventions established by the American Psychological Association for documenting sources used in a research paper.

Books

References to an entire book must include the following elements: author(s) or editor(s), date of publication, title, place of publication, and the name of the publisher.

Audio-visual media

References to audio-visual media must include the following elements: name and function of the primary contributors (e.g., producer, director), date, title, the medium in brackets, location or place of production, and name of the distributor. If the medium is indicated as part of the retrieval ID, brackets are not needed.

web site
When citing an entire Web site the address for the site is cited in the text of your paper with the URL if a speciffic entry of the web site is cited, date is needed, as well as the specific URL.

Essays or chapters in edited books

References to an essay or chapter in an edited book must include the following elements: essay or chapter authors, date of publication, essay or chapter title, book editor(s), book title, essay or chapter page numbers, place of publication, and the name of the publisher.

Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers

References to periodical articles must include the following elements: author(s), date of publication, article title, journal title, volume number, issue number (if applicable), and page numbers.

source:

http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa

Prepared by Cornell University Library PSEC Documentation Committee
November 2002; Revised April 2011

context and metacognitive analysis

Most of the argentinian population is composed by Spanish descendents. And many argentinian-born travelled back to Spain in 2001. Both migration movements were due to the same  pushing factor: crisis. Spanish crisis is pushing its inhabitants from the country, education is still way behind the rest of Europe, and the health service has became a chaos, as for the economy, there is no immediate sign of an end to the recession. Accordingly Aegentinians had traveled before due to almost the same causes. Hence, these migration movements do not seem to be changing in the near future. 

This paragraph gives context to a quite formal sentence, I tried to go on with the formal style avoiding common links, using apropriate vocabulary, as to fit this paragraph in the "essay" gendre.

am a writer (analysis and improved version)

-The teacher said clearly she hated the technique of just saying a topic and making students write, then she said "but today I wil do it" and I was not smart enough to notice it was tricky.
-I just started writting what came to my mind without a plan, structure, different drafts or corrections.
-I didn't take into account the steps of writting
-I didn't have a dictionary.

I am  not a writer

   Postmodern culture is making each of use believe we are artists, and we deserve social recognition,  I don't agree with that widely spread idea. Even when the great writer Jorge Luis Borges said once he was much more proud of what he had read than of what he had writen, there is still a tendency to show off about artistic activities such as writing. we all sing in the shower, and we are not singers, we speak to an audiece, and we are not radio speakers. So writting doesn't mean we are writers.
   There are a few bright persons who have the gift, the others, us, the simple mortals, can play to  Construct new realities, give life to interesting creatures, and enjoy the process, however, we wont still be writers, we are persons that write. I love using the social networks to make my friends laugh, and I have been writing jokes since I learnt how to write. I also write some short stories, and desordered "out of any gender" notes. I do enjoy it. Unluckily, I am not gifted, so this writings are not of outstanding quality.
 To read and to write, two sides of the same communicative process. both of them are really enjoyable, and helps us to increase our cosmovision. As writers need a lot of reading. There are different ways of scaping from realitty, literature is far much better than drugs. So, give books a try.

I am a writer

     Doesn't it sound funny when someone introduces themselves as "I am an artist" In a sense it could be even petulant. The great Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges said once he was much more proud of what he had read than of what he had writen. So saying "I am a writer" doesn't fit me.
     I am attending the last year of the teacher trainee collegue, and I am completely consious about the fact that my level of English has to be improved, unluckily there is no magic spell for that, so I will have to make a huge effort to achieve that improvement; and writting is one of the skills to work on. From an academic point of view I am a "developing writer"
     There is, however, another aspect of writing strongly attached to my life, and that is humour: when I was a school girl, I used to write jokes in pieces of paper which passed round over the classroom. Some of my classmates had to put their hands on their mouth in order to soften their laughter, and I was very happy of being the cause of that.
     Nowadays with the development of social networks, my jokes are almost a must, My five siblings, twenty some cousins, friends, mates and old mates wait for my "daily vision of reality" on the net. ANd even during sad episodes of my life, making others laugh, make me happy.