Prepositions

I was always told to never end a sentence with a preposition because it was improper english. However, according to GrammarBook.com, it is fine to end a sentence with a preposition as long as you do not use extra prepositions when the meaning of the sentence is clear without them. For examples and more help, click HERE.

What We Miss About the 1950's

In the story, "What We Really Miss about the 1950's," Coontz is trying to capture the essence of happiness. She talks with many people that were living in that decade about what made it so great. A lot of people began to describe why the 1950's were so great, and when they started getting deep in their conversations, they realized that even if they could they would never go back. Many didn't like the way that women were treated, how their fathers treated them, or how the parent to child dynamics were. It wasn't anything that they could really describe about why it was so great. What I got from the text is that although times were rough and poverty levels were high, the world was a much safer place. Children's innocence was truly protected in that decade. The saying "ignorance is bliss" is correct on so many levels. The narrorator was telling of time when she was 12 and she wanted to rent a book from the library, but they wouldn't let her because the book had too much adult content. She compared it to the movies of this current decade. There are so many bad things out in the world today that were not there in the 1950's.

Looking for Work

In the story looking for work, the little Mexican boy wants his family to be just like the families that he sees on TV. The show that he refers to is "Leave it to Beaver." When he is watching the show he compares their "table talk" to that of his own. On the show the family dressed high class and had very intriguing conversations. He then talks about how his dinner table is loud and full of laughter and jokes. The point of this story was that although they were living in America, his Mexican family didn't seem to fit in. The little boy wanted nothing more than to be a white collared American citizen who was rich and sophisticated. He wanted to live the American dream.

The Em Dash

I turned in a paper in my English 1010 class to be graded by the teacher. She handed it back to me, and where I had a comma, she had a dash. I wondered why she did that but never did ask. The em dash is usually only used in informal writing. You can replace semicolons, colons, commas, and parentheses with the em dash. For more help with this, click HERE.

Political Cartoons

Who/Whom

I never know when to use who and when to use whom. The rule of thumb is to substitute he and him.
He=Who
Him=Whom
For examples please click HERE.

American Citizen

While I was reading the introduction and thinking about what it means to be an American citizen, the book brought up a very interesting thought that had never crossed my mind before. It said that an American citizen could be from North America, Central America, and even South America. That means that when we say that we are proud to be American citizens we are talking about the continent as a whole and not just a United States citizen. Another very interesting point that this book brings up is that a lot of times we take things for granted as American citizens (I think this was directed to the United States citizens). The most important thing that is taken for granted is our education. Here I am on scholarship, going to school for free, and I am still complaining that I have to do homework, read, and take tests. In other countries the women aren’t even allowed to go to school, let alone college. I am so privileged to be an American citizen; unfortunately, I take advantage of many opportunities that I have.
This book is definitely going to challenge my opinions that I have about life. Already I have thought about things that I never had before, and I am only in the introduction to this book. The book also alluded to the fact that it is good for our opinions to be challenged. I agree because if things are never challenged in life, then they are never thought about.