"Shooting Dad" Dialogue

My dad always wanted a boy as his firstborn; a son who would grow up to be just like him but instead he got me.  I know the story very well of how my parents were so excited when they found out my mom was pregnant with their first baby, how my dad swore to everyone that it would be a boy, and how my mom waited for him to find out on his own whether or not he was right, on the day of my birth.  Since that moment and on, I’ve always been so much like my dad that it’s even hard for us to get along.  I believe this what happened to Sarah Vowell with her dad; not the part where my dad expected a boy but the part where they’re so much alike on their own different ways that it becomes difficult to relate to one another.  On her story, Vowell explains how her relationship with her father is complicated by their differences on politic matters, hobbies, and their similar opinionated characters.

In my mind, I would always judge my dad of being a “crazy old man” when he would come up with his “macho man” ideas.  That’s probably something that Vowell would also think about her dad making guns, that he was crazy.  My dad was raised by his parents to be that way so I do understand where his coming from yet, that has been the reason of most of our disagreements, since I’ve become a bit “feminist” myself. Nevertheless, just like Vowell, I’ve also come to realized that I’m just like my dad; I fight for what I believe in, which is something that I’ve learned from him.  Perhaps, Vowell and I were meant to be just like our respective fathers but with a little twist due to the time in which they grew up compare to ours. 

I respect the fact that my dad never forced me to believe that I should be a stay-at-home mom who should also obey her husband’s will with not right to express her own opinion but instead he has encouraged me to pursue a career so I would never depend on a man, like my mom did for many years.  Vowell didn’t like arms but was decided to shoot her father’s remaining with the cannon that he himself had built; she wanted respect his last will just like he had respect her ideas from the moment she was born.

Rules for Writers Chapter 3

On Chapter 3 from “Rules for Writers” by Diana Hackers, she talks about how to revise an essay.  First, it’s important to divide the process in to two sections: a global revision and revising sentences.  A global revision would focus on the purpose, the organization, the content, and the strategy of your essay, while the revision of sentences would focus on possible improvements to the sentences, choice of words, grammar, punctuation, and the mechanics.  Hacker suggests that it’s good to take a day or more before going back to your essay to begin with the global revision and to “try to play the role of your audience” as this might help you come up with some questions that your readers might have.  Later, when you move down to your sentences, Hacker advices to revise first your sentences focusing on “effectiveness” and then work on edit them by checking for “correctness”.  She also mentions how some computers have a spell and/or grammar checkers that can be helpful.  The problem with spell checkers is that they would only mark as wrong words that haven’t been found on the dictionary regardless of its misused, and grammar checkers don’t count with “an understanding of grammatical structure”, therefore, it’s good to keep them handy but not to relay on them 100%.  Finally, it’s time for proofreading.   On this final step, try to read your essay slowly as you are looking for “misspellings, typographical mistakes, and omitted words or endings”.  Hacker suggests reading a loud your essay or reading your sentences in reverse order, as this would make you think of the sentence itself and not on how the essay works as a whole.

I found something very interesting on this chapter; I never would have thought of reading an essay “backwards” starting on the last sentence and moving backwards till the first one.  I tried reading a couple sentences of something I wrote in that manner and I found it a little confusing, perhaps, because as I’m reading I’m not sure on what to expect next.  This would probably be of much help as I try to revise future assignments since, just like Hacker says, I don’t read what is actually written on the paper but what I think “should” be written and this causes me to skip a lot of errors.

"Coming Home Again" Dialogue

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the word ‘home’?  Is it house or, perhaps, a place where to live? Or is it safety and warmth?  For most people, from the moment we are born our natural instinct is to seek for safety; and usually, we find it on the arms of our mothers as she is the primary person to care for us.  As we begin to grow older, some would become more attached to a different family member or even things, such as a toy, a picture, a room or a house, simply anything or anyone that could make us feel saved, feel home.  On the essay by Chang-rae Lee, “Coming Home Again”, Lee tells the story of how it was for him to come home after being away for 10 yrs. 

My dad would always say that ‘‘home is where family is”, and I honestly believe that.  My grandfather works at making the soles for shoes.  He has a little workshop on the very back of his backyard, and I always love that because that would make it easier for us to spend time together.  As a kid, I would spent hours and hours on the little shop just watching him make little holes on the soles with machines the size of train, of course, at the time a was like three feet something so everything was enormous to me.  Sometimes, if I was persistent enough he would give me a couple of soles and have me cut the extra plastic on the edges but normally after feeling accomplished for a brief moment, I would normally realized how my cutting pliers would always be really small and with not sharp at all, “so you don’t cut a finger” he would say, then laughed and ask me to go play with my dolls.  He didn’t want me to get hurt.  If I would of stick a bit longer around him, I would probably still be trying to figure out how to use those machines on his backyard, just like Lee turned the kitchen and cooking, following his mom’s passion.  I can almost bet he’s working on something back there right now.  He’s my home, I know that because he gives me that peace in my heart that I need, I feel safe knowing he’s around, and because, even though we’ve been apart for so long, I know that losing him would be like losing the walls or roof in a house.

During the years Lee spent away from home, he had various disagreements with his mother that compromised their close relationship.  Lee calls his essay “Coming Home Again” but what he’s really referring to is the bond between him and his mother and how he tries to get closer to her on her last days. 

Rules for Writers Chapeter 2

In Chapter 2 from “Rules for Writers” by Diana Hacker, she talks about ideas to consider while writing a rough draft of an essay that would also make the job flow easier.  First, Hacker suggests taking some time before beginning to write to organize the main points of your essay including your thesis or tempting thesis, for example, on an outline.  Once you have an idea of the points that you would like to cover on you essay, you can begin by writing you introduction which would include your thesis.  An introduction would normally be a paragraph between 50 to 150 words but in the case of a longer paper the introduction might even extent to be more than just one paragraph.   If you feel like you’re stuck on your introduction, Hacker mentions that giving it a little rest and leaving it for later could be a good way to relieve some of the pressure off; you can start by working on the body and then go back to your introduction.  It is very important to hook your reader from the beginning of your paper, so Hacker gives some ideas that could help you accomplish that goal, such as:  giving a vivid example, a description, a quote or an anecdote.   While working with your thesis is good to ask yourself if your thesis is too factual or too broad or even too vague for the kind of essay that you’re writing.  Hacker says that is good to write a paragraph on each of your main ideas this would give a more “workable order” to your ideas.  Lastly, the conclusion is also a very important part of the essay, just like everything else; It must “remind readers of the essay’s main ideas” but trying to avoid repetition as well as introducing whole new ideas.

After writing this summary I realized that it could have really helped me out working on the chapter before I wrote the conclusion of my essay.  Luckily, there is three more essays coming up and I know this chapter would be very useful.  Also writing a thesis scare me a little, because I’m always afraid it might be too broad so I’ll use many of the advices that Hacker suggests on this chapter for my next work.

Unexpected

My sister, Amelia, holding my nephew, Jesus.

My family is a typical, very conservative, Mexican family so when my younger sister told my parents that she was pregnant their disappointment was to expect but what no one would have guess is that her unplanned pregnancy was about to save her life. My sister’s name is Amelia Bustamante. There’s only one year and a half years difference between us, that must be why people think that since our births were so close together that we keep a very close relationship but truth is that we’re two completely different worlds, which has made it extremely difficult for of to get along. Everyone in my family always said that someday I would be the first one in the family to simply run off with some guy and come home later with one or two little kids by my hand, maybe because I’m the eldest because honestly I never knew what gave them that impression. Anyway, I always wanted to proof them wrong, but I never wanted to be this way.


I remember the day I found out my sister was pregnant. Amelia and I shared a room, which would normally cause big fights between us, especially at night, because I would be on the phone with my boyfriend, David, and she would also be on the phone with hers, and either her or I would be really loud making the other one mad, and vice verse; privacy was also a big problem among us since you don’t get much of that when you share a room. The night I found out about my sister, it was a night just like any other; we were both on the phone talking to our significant others and fighting over T.V., she wanted to watch “Family Guy” and I wanted MTV. I recall telling David a few days before that I felt like something was wrong, I just didn’t exactly knew what it was; I just knew it was a uncomfortable feeling like anxiety, almost like if I knew something was about to happen. While I was on the phone with David, I sent him a text message, so my sister wouldn’t hear me talking about her. I told him “I think my sister is pregnant” and, of course, he asked me what would make me say something like that. I stood quite for a minute. It wasn’t something I could easily explain over the phone, I never actually hear Amelia say “I’m pregnant”, all I could over hear were half responses saying “…huh?”, “…I didn’t know if I should tell you…”, “…don’t worry about it…”, and “…I can do it on my own…”; my sister had told me a couple weeks before that Gerardo, her boyfriend at the time, and her were not together any more so it immediately hit me; she was pregnant.

I was in a bit of a shock for the rest of the night but I tried to remain calm hoping I had misunderstood everything. The next morning, my sister was her usual self, happy, loud, playful, and full of energy, did I mention loud? She didn’t look worry or stress or even sad, she seem just “fine” so I tried not to pay much attention to the matter after that, I got ready for work and took off. Probably most of us wish that taking concerns off our heads was as easy as simply wanting to but who are we lying to? Work took my mind off the subject every now and then but not enough to forget. When I got off from work I called my dad and asked him to pick me up, just before we pulled in our drive way the truth slapped us both, my dad and I, on the face; Gerardo and he’s parents were standing in front of our house. Inside of me, I felt the blood rush that one gets just before the scariest drop on a roller coaster, it’s a mix of emotions; I was scared, and happy, and useless. As my dad parked the car, he said to himself, “Ay, Amelia”, by the tone of his voice I could have sworn that he already knew what was coming. I guess parents do have a sixth sense, after all. I wanted to stop my dad from going in to any cost but avoiding the unavoidable was not the solution. At this point, my greatest concern was my dad’s health; he’s high blood pressure and the news of my sister’s pregnancy would sure worsen his situation. We, both, gathered the courage to get out of the car and approached the guesses that were now inside the house, invited in by my mom who also waited inside for us. After saying hi to everyone, I prompted my brothers to their rooms and locked myself on my own as well. The first few minutes when by on courtesies, and after a long minute of silence that seem more like 30, Gerando’s dad began addressing my dad “well, the reason why we are here tonight is to ask for yours and your wife’s permission to let your daughter marry our son…”, my dad remained as calm as possible and argued that they were to young, and that they should wait a bit but no objection would hold those words that he for so long feared. Suddenly, someone said “Amelia’s pregnant”, I felt dizzy and wanted everything to be over but the end would not come soon enough. My dad didn’t say a word. After the big news, the reunion was mostly a talk between moms, since my sister and her boyfriend wouldn’t say much. Once Gerardo and his parents left, it was time for my mom to talk to my sister. I heard them both cried, but tried my hardest not to hear their conversation; everyone when to sleep that night with a bitter-sweet taste on our mouths.

There was a baby coming whether we liked it or not, and so, I decided that it was not time for “I told you so” lectures. As soon as I could, I went to the store with my boyfriend I got a baby outfit. I convinced myself that was the best way to show my sister that I was happy with the news without having to actually talk to her about it. Two months when by and my parents grew happier and happier with the idea of a new baby in the house. When everything seem to be going just fine, something started feeling again but this time everyone was feeling the same way. My sister was 3 months pregnant but her tummy showed a five or even six months pregnancy. On her following appointment her doctor noticed the same thing and decided to send her to get some tests done. When the results came back, they showed she had a cyst cause by liquid that had been released by her left ovary over the period of a few years. At home, we always noticed she had a little belly but assumed it was due to lack of exercise and the way she walk, it never crossed our minds it could be something to worry about. Since the cyst had been growing inside of her for quite some time, its size represented a significant threaten to the baby and since she was pregnant it wasn’t possible to identify if it was cancerous or not. Doctors agreed on waiting a few more months before putting them both, my sister and the baby through a surgery so the baby would gain strength and have a greater chance at surviving. Three more months when by and the time came for surgery. Thank god, everything when as planned and doctors were able to extract a cyst the size of a gallon of milk. They also had to remove one of her ovaries since it was connected to cyst but other than that my sister recovered successfully and as well as the fetus.

Last year, on November 6th my sister gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy who they named Jesus Pinto-Bustamante. I like to think that everything happens for a reason; it might sound much of a cliché but if it weren’t have been for an unexpected pregnancy, neither my family nor my sister would have known of the existence of the cyst on her stomach; it could have kept growing and probably provoke more serious problems along the way. My sister and Gerardo are now married, and living on their own with their baby. Marriage is not easy, and raising a child is also a big package all on its own, but they’re both strong and in love so I can only hope they would manage to make it all work.

Rules for Writers Chapter 1

In Chapter 1 from “Rules for Writers” by Diana Hacker, she talks about ways to generate ideas and lists important points to consider while writing a paper such as purpose, length, format, etc., as well as, she goes over ways to analyze the writing situation of the paper, how to analyze your subject, and narrow if necessary, how to come up with a thesis, and lastly, she explains when are outlines useful during the writing process. There are some important components of an essay and Hacker provides a list of these whether is and analytical essay or a research paper. The components that need to be identified are such as the subject, the sources that would be use, a purpose to the writing, and the audience to whom the writing is direct to, also the format, the length of the paper, the reviewers, and the deadline, among others. Sometimes, the subject for a writing might be to broad, which would make it harder to cover all the important points to it, in this case breaking down the subject would make it easier to narrow it; it could also be helpful to focus your attention on a smaller audience instead of a more general audience. Hacker explains that personal experiences, readings, interviews and questionnaires could be very helpful to get information about your subject. There are many purposes for writing; the purpose could be informing, persuading or even entertaining, follow by many more. If a purpose has not been given, asking questions about the subject could be useful. In most academic essays you would have a general audience, unless specify; Hacker mentions that it’s good to keep in mind how some teachers would play different roles while reading a paper. The thesis of a paper is its central idea resume in one to two sentences. A good way to come up with a thesis is to ask yourself questions about your subject, Hacker gives a series of questions that could help polish the “tentative thesis” (9) that you have create. It is very important to keep in mind deadlines to have a better management of time so that you can cover all the key elements of a “good” paper. In the process of generating ideas; freewriting, clustering, listing, and making outlines are of great use, Hacker explains how informal outlines can be very useful during the early stage of you writing since there quick, and easy to make, also a formal outline could help you see if your more fully develop ideas work well together, if not, it is easier to see what you don’t need and where you might need farther explanation and details.




I’ve always have trouble coming up with a strong thesis so I will be using some of the questions and advices that Hacker provides to get a clear and strong thesis. The first draft of our first essay is due next Thursday, so this chapter would be in general very useful. I’m still not sure of my subject for the essay, therefore, I will also be using brainstorming and freewriting to come up with one or to decide for one of the ideas that I’ve have already in mind.

"The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" Dialogue

As a kid, and even now, I remember hearing this two phrases very often: first, “study hard, since education is the only ‘true’ inheritance your parents would leave you that can last throughout your life”; and second “marry someone rich, so you don’t ever have to worry about a thing”. I have to say, they are both really tempting but I much rather stick to the knowledge since I’ve never seen money as the key to solve my problems. I can very easily related to Alexie’s experience growing up, my family just like his, was very poor, my parents didn’t have much education, although my dad has a very privileged mind, and being Mexican doesn’t help much, since I’m stereotyped as someone how would never do much with her life, just like Alexie. My mom was forced to leave me with her mom when I was still a newborn, I would always see her and my dad, but most of the time I was alone since my grandparents were always busy just like my uncle who still lived at home at the time. I was pretty much raised by the T.V. and yet I didn’t turn out so bad. I also learned how to read on my own, I cannot recall the exact moment nor how I did it, but I do remember every one being surprise when I was caught reading a book on kindergarten. The teacher called my parents and suggested that it would be good for me to be transfer to a different school where I could explore my talent on a more advance level; of course, she was talking about a private school, something that my parents couldn’t afford and that I do not regret. From that moment and on, I was always first place in class. I took two of my schools onto the estate competitions and both times ended up on 4th place, which wasn’t exactly what I wanted but it was still 10 times more of what the teachers expected since I put both schools among the best ones on the country, a place they had never had before, or ever since. Many Mexican girls before me have brake the odds, simply graduating from high school and by making many wonderful things out of their lives, but for me, being the first one to graduate from high school out of my family and with high honors has change my life. I want to do more; I want to show my brothers that we don’t have to be like the rest. I want them to know that we can do anything we want and the only limit is the sky, and even then, we know have spaceships.


Alexie tries to save the lives of the students he visits by showing them that they can do more than just what they’re expected to do. “We were Indian Children who were expected to be stupid.”(par. 6) but it doesn’t have to be like that at all. An old saying says that “monkey does, what monkey sees”, and by letting them know that he was just like them, just a little Indian boy coming from a relatively poor family, like most, and yet was able to become a famous writer he lets them know that they can do great things; if he was able to do it, why not them? On paragraph 6 from Alexie’s essay, he implies that the Indian kids my feel inhibited by the presence of non-Indian teachers, therefore by visiting schools and working with the Indian kids, being and Indian himself, Alexie tries to provide them more confidence and the power of his knowledge.

The more one reads the more one learns about the world, which is probably what happened to Alexie. Before you start going to school, there isn’t much out there, your world is normally as big as your house, your family, and the people that you know. We want to grow up to be like mom or dad, uncle Lou or even Santa, why not. Once we start learning about normal people doing great things is when, for most of us, the decider to do be great, to do more, awakes. In Alexie case, the world was the size of the reservation he lived in but he discovered the great power of knowledge, through his dad’s passion, reading. He didn’t want to be an average Indian kid who would probably grow up to get married and support his family with a minimum-wage job that would help him and his family have an “ok” life, with many limitations but, after all, that’s what was expected from him or any other kid at the Spokane Indian reservation. He saved his live by not being average, by not giving up before even trying, by being “an oddity” (par. 5). None the less, even though he's already become a successful writer, he's job is not done yet. As his explains on the last few sentences of his essay, “I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.” (par. 8).