Socratic Seminar Reflection - Hero Poems

Honors Reflection Essay

Ethan McFerren

Mr. Koch

English 9H

March 17, 2015

2014 Writing Checkpoint

            I have improved on structure, grammar, and diction in my pieces of writing this year. The six pieces of writing that I have improved on include a Reader Response called the Thrilling Book Review: Hatchet, a Creative Fiction on the beginning story of a captured African teenager entitled The Story of a Slave, Original Poetry where I describe the memories of pumpkin pie, also known as Oh Yum, Pumpkin Pie, a Personal Narrative named the Slide of Doom where I recall my experience with a horrendous water slide, a Business Letter entitled Nerf Business Letter in which I describe an issue with a Nerf Gun, and a Big Question Essay stating the advantages and disadvantages of robots called Should Robots be Allowed in Our World? I still have weaknesses and flaws that I need to address, including the use of more semicolons and a stronger, more mature vocabulary. In structure, I have improved with analysis, in grammar I have gotten better in quotation marks, and finally I have increased my skills in diction, especially in the use of strong verbs.

            The crucial part of writing I have gotten better at is structure. Specifically, I improved on analysis. I did not know that analysis was an important part of writing until a couple of years ago, but now I know how to consistently find the purpose of a piece of writing. For example in my Big Question Essay titled Should Robots be Allowed in Our World?, “According to these articles, I think robots are good for society to use only in the workplace.” Analysis is important in writing because it shows that you are trying to dig deeper and farther to really examine something further than other people would. I can improve my analyzing skills by constantly questioning and finding a purpose in every paper I read and write.

The second strength I have gained in writing is command of grammar, especially with quotation marks. In the past, I rarely used quotation marks when I was writing and had no idea how to properly use them. This sentence shows evidence of my improvement: A robotic voice soon announced, “Five, four, three, two, one.” I used this quotation in my Personal Narrative The Slide of Doom writing. Quotation marks are crucial, especially in stories. The reader needs to be able to follow the story easily and know who is saying what. I need to improve in this skill by making sure that I am using quotation marks correctly in personal accounts and book reviews.

            My final strength I achieved in writing this year is strong verbs. This can be tricky to find a perfect verb to describe somebody’s reaction or a memory, like mine, pumpkin pie. One instance of this strength as shown in my Free Verse Poem “Oh Yum, Pumpkin Pie” is: “Do you remember spraying and spurting whip cream, that wonderful whip cream, on to the back of your pie for five long seconds near the crispy crust …” Using strong verbs is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspect of writing. A reader needs to have a mental painting or image in their head to visualize what is going on so they can connect with the story from their own experiences. Using stronger verbs can be achieved by reading; which is something I need to keep up with. Of course, I have weaknesses in my writing that I need to fix to become a better reader, writer, and thinker. Some examples of my weakness include thesis statements, semicolons, and a mature vocabulary. I can fix these issues by using them more in my writing repeatedly and to read consistently.

            I improved in analyzing, quotation marks, and strong verbs throughout the school year. Overall, I am satisfied with my growth and development as a reader, writer, and thinker. I am also eager to expand my horizons even further than before with the help of my teachers, classmates, and practice. With these aids in writing, I know I can produce high quality papers and become a better writer. I will to continue using my skills, improve on weaknesses, and gain new strengths in writing that I have yet to master.

Emergency Delivery


Tyrone Johnson has a couple of years left until he retires from his job in Boise where he has worked for over 15 years. Tyrone is a cardiac surgeon. Tyrone has loved this job as it has involved him saving lives.

Tyrone is 5’11”, has lots of dark black hair with a few greying pieces at the side of his head. He wears small dark round glasses and has a moustache that is almost completely black. Tyrone is a large man. Tyrone is a very kind man who is always so calm and patient with everyone.

To work, Tyrone wears a red tie, with a sharp white shirt, some shiny loafers and a classy grey suit. He has a very precious gold ring that his wife Laquisha gave him as a wedding gift 30 years ago and a small gold watch that a client gave him. Tyrone has twin boys called Demonstrell and Dontavious who are 9 years old who are both in preschool.

Every day Tyrone travels into Boise but today was going to be a very different day, he was flying to Boulder on a business trip to a meeting with all the top doctors in the world. His alarm did not go off and he overslept. He missed his train to the airport and had to get a later flight. As he settled into his seat on the plane, the air hostess offered him black coffee. He read the news and then closed his eyes. This afternoon there was going to be an important meeting and he didn’t want to be tired.

In his sleep he could hear voices screaming at the back of the plane and then an announcement asking if there was a doctor on board. He waited five minutes until another announcement came and by this time he could tell it was a ladies voice that was screaming. He got up from his seat and looked for the air hostess to let her know that he is a doctor and can he help. As he got closer and closer he knew that she was pregnant and was about to have a baby. Tyrone had never felt himself panic before. He was now not going to operate on a heart but instead was going to help deliver a baby. Tyrone took a deep breath and decided to calm down. He was normally so calm but this time so many people were watching him and he did not know if he could do this. Taqueen was moved to the front of the plane to have the baby. Normally, Tyrone saved lives but now high above the Atlantic Ocean he was bringing a new life into the world. After the baby had been delivered Tyrone sat there holding the baby in his arms. Taqueen decided to call the baby after him – Lil Tyrone.



Tyrone arrived in Boulder exhausted but was proud of what he had just done. He left his luggage at the hotel and went to the meeting where he could tell the other doctors this crazy story.

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'via Blog this'

Elephants in the Sky

Imagine 6.5 billion female elephants in the sky every year. Now imagine that every person in the US was responsible for 5 of those elephants up there while people in third world countries each put up 5 baby elephants.  This may be a farfetched thought, but now imagine each of those elephants being made out of carbon dioxide. This is how much CO2 is in the sky. Let me reiterate: every year, twenty six billion tons of CO2 is put into the atmosphere each year. And Americans put an average of twenty tons of this noxious smog there, while each person in a third world country puts about one ton. This is a severe problem, as we have climate change occurring so much to the point that the Dead Sea may be completely evaporated by 2050 (Deal Could 'refill' Drying Dead Sea.)  The world still needs energy, however, and third world countries need it even more than anyone else in the world in order to have a good future. So how do we solve this dilemma?

Recently, hydraulic fracking has been on the news for giving us a great amount of oil and it is great that there is more energy available, but this is causing people not to worry about energy problems. On the down side, oil can last for only so long and shale oil may only last until 2020. Even further, oil itself may only last until 2040, giving us less than 26 years to put our act together and find a solution. (Dimick, Natural Geographic) Along with this, communities surrounding oil fracking areas have reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, industrial disasters and explosions. (Fracking Across the United States)

Looking at this prospect, we have to find a solution to lower the amount of carbon dioxide put into the air as close as we can get to 0. This can be found through simple multiplication; the formula is the amount of people times the amount of services used, times the energy each service takes, times the amount of CO2 released through the service. (Gates, TED)

In the formula, we first have the amount of people on the planet. We know that we cannot somehow rid the Earth of people, so this number will either stay the same or go higher. Next, we have the amount of services that each person receives. These services may be having enough drinking water, being able to have light at night, or even being able to cook food. We could remove these services, but it would be harmful toward society, especially to poorer countries where having simple pleasures such as food or light are difficult.

Thirdly, the amount of energy services are taking is generally going down, which is a good thing. We have cleaner cars, televisions that use less power, and more cleaner forms of electricity coming out, such as solar or wind power. At the same time, we have services that are using too much energy such as making fertilizer or burning coal.  Therefore, this may lower the overall number, but it is going to make a small difference.

Finally, we come to the last variable in this problem: the amount of carbon dioxide released by the service . Inside any multiplication equation, in order to have a result of zero, it is required to have a zero in the equation. What’s great is that it is possible to bring the amount of carbon dioxide required down to zero! However, in order to accomplish this, we need to have energy breakthroughs, and we need it fast. There are many possibilities, but the ones that seem to have the most promise are nuclear energy and renewable energy. However, if there happens to be more successful sources of clean energy, then the better it will be. But once again, at this time, these sources seem to be the most promising.

In the field of Nuclear Energy, many major innovations are being made as a company called Transatomic Power, founded by 2 graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have possibly found a more efficient method of energy creation. Nuclear energy creates a lot of toxic waste. What Transatomic Power has done is find a way to convert this once thought useless sludge to an abundance of energy. In fact, Cofounder of PayPal, Peter Thiel has invested more than a billion dollars to Transatomic Power. (Kim, Business Insider) This is the kind of action that we need in order to move forward in society.

In the field of renewable energy, there is an abundance of potential for success. However, compared to oil, these renewable energies only give a fraction of power. Research needs to be done in order to increase efficiency of this type of power. For example, wind power generates less than 5% of the energy that oil provides us. There is much work that can be done in this field, but if it works then, it will be very beneficial toward the future of energy.

In the end, we need to reduce the amount of CO2 in the air. Along with that, we need innovations that can take us there. We may find more ways to obtain oil, but there must be a better method that can be found in order to not only help this country, but the whole world. And we have to do it fast. We cannot have anymore elephants in the air. Not even one.

Bibliography

"Bakken Shale Oil." The New Oil Landscape. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

"Deal Could 'refill' Drying Dead Sea." BBC News. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

Dimick, Dennis. "How Long Can the U.S. Oil Boom Last?" National Geographic. National

Geographic Society, 19 Dec. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

“Fracking Across the United States." Earthjustice. 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

Gates, Bill. "Innovating to Zero!" Bill Gates:. TED Talks. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

Kim, Eugene. "Billionaire Investor Peter Thiel Now Wants To Disrupt The Nuclear Energy

Industry." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

SeaWorld. "Elephants." SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment. SeaWorld Parks and

Entertainments. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

"When Will Oil Run Out?" When Will Oil Run Out? Web. 4 Feb. 2015.