comp1 portfolio
Josh’s comp 1 essays
Composition 1
section 10
May 1st 2007
1. The pressure in Basketball- Narrative essay of basketball
2. Living with parents vs. living on my own- Compare, Contrast living with grandma, now living on my own
3. Wal-Mart- Classification of pot heads, drunks, over worked
4. The three main causes of death- Cause or Effect of my grandpa heartattacks
5. Children of men- Persuasion that it’s a good movie
Joshua Henderson Introductory essay
Steve DalagerSection 10 Comp 1 (12:30-1:50)April 30th 2007 Composition 1 Experience
Life as a college comp student has been an amazing learning experience. I remember when I was in Steve Dalager’s writing 1 class. I actually thought back then that I could write a paragraph, but an essay was the scariest thing in the world to me. In Composition one I had to write five essays. A narrative, compare and contrast, classification, cause or effect, and a persuasion, and I have learned many different writing techniques doing those essays. I have learned that there are many components that make up a good essay. For example, an attention getter in the first line of the introduction. It makes the reader more likely to want to read the essay even further with more interest. Also in the introduction there must be a thesis statement that is clear and makes sense for the rest of the essay. A thesis statement is a sentence that says what the entire essay is going to be about. Writing a good body paragraph is the meat of the essay, it tells the facts and stories of what the writer is trying to get across to the reader. A conclusion is like an intro, but in a concluding form. The difficulties that I did have in this class was finding good topics to talk about in the essays that I wrote.
I chose five topics for my essay, and I think that they were adequate topics to talk about. My first essay was on my experience being a starting point guard for my high school basketball team, and It was a narrative essay. The reason why I chose that topic was because I liked basketball so much that I talk about it all the time, and when choosing a topic for a essay it seems sometimes that is all I like to talk about. My second essay was about a compare and contrast essay on what it was like living with my grandma compared to living on my own now. I chose this topic because it has affected my life in the past few years now that I have been now completely on my own now. My third essay was on classification of the Wal-Mart customers that walk into the store at night. I worked as an overnight stocker in grocery isle and I classified the pot heads, the drunks, and the over worked people who never sleep (insomniacs). My fourth essay was a cause and effect paper. I chose to do this essay on the cause of my grandpa’s death. He died from a heart attack because he was over weight, old, and over worked. My fifth essay was on a movie of my choice. I had a really hard time finding a movie that I wanted to write about in a essay because there are so many good movie out there to talk about. I finally decided on the movie Children of Men. The movie was about twenty years from now and no babies have been born in eighteen years. Then a black women becomes pregnant in the mist of a world war and Theo (the main character) has to protect this black pregnant women so she can have the baby in safety.
My favorite piece was when I wrote about my basketball experience at my high school because that is my favorite thing to talk about. My least favorite piece that I wrote was when I talked about my grandpa’s death because I really don’t like talking about death. The topic that I chose for my cause essay I thought was a little weird because I chose the cause of death of my grandpa.
The way our class peer reviewed each other in class was very effective. Comment really helped because my group would read my essays and add suggestions, comments, and punctuation solutions. My classmates would also give advise on what to do to improve the essay and tell me if they thought it was a good essay or not.
I also learned a new way of communicating through Blogs which I thought was very interesting. I had to read articles in my comp book and write about what I had read in the Blogs. I think the Blog system is a good tool for students to use because it’s another good way students in the classroom can communicate.
Composition one this semester has been really fun. I have one more class which is composition two which will be a breeze because I am prepared from all the English classes that I have been taking at LSC. Steve Dalager is a great teacher, and I have learned a lot of useful information that I will use in the future when writing essays.
Joshua Henderson
Steve, DalagerSection 10
Comp 1 (12:30-1:50)February 13, 2007
Revised April 30th 2007 The Pressure in Basketball
When I played Varsity Basketball in high school there was one game during my senior year that I had pressure to do well in more than any other game in my high school career. The pressure came when my Kennedy senior varsity basketball team played Jefferson (our town rivals), and I was the starting point guard. The expectations to perform well under pressure were from my coach, teammates, fans, and myself. That is what basketball is all about.
The day before the big game I had basketball practice and there was a lot of expectations towards me because I was the starting point guard for my team. I practiced plays with my team over and over again until they got stuck in our brains. We ran “killers” , that’s when we ran back and forth on the court until we felt like collapsing from dehydration. In practice we also worked on our shooting and free throws. For example, my coach had this contest where who ever made the most free throws out of twenty didn’t have to do “killers.” I shot nineteen out of nineteen, and I felt the pressure of making my last shot. If I made my last shot I wouldn’t have to run, but if I miss the shot I would have to run. I took a deep breath and bounced the ball a couple times on the free throw line. Then I shot the ball into the air hoping that it would go in to the hoop, and then the ball hit the side of the rim and bounced of the back board and into the hoop. I was so relieved. I said to myself “Man was that close?!” I didn’t have to run the next killer, and I was proud of myself as well because I had made all of the free throws that my coach had expected me to make. The reason why my team practiced free throws and “killers is because free throws are very important when it comes time to making a critical free throw when the pressure is on in a game. Running up and down the court builds up our stamina, so we can get into position when we are all needed to defend our opponents.
The next day there was a moment before the big game when I looked into the stands where all the fans from Kennedy and Jefferson were cheering, and they were all excited about the game that was about to start. I thought to my self “Wow there are a lot of people here to see my team play.” At that moment the pressure to do well and all the people watching my every move made me very nervous. The pressure that I put on myself overwhelmed me because I considered myself to be a good basketball player; and if I was to have a bad game by making poor shots or making bad decisions, then I would be in such a bad mood after the game.
The game started and I was point guard, so I brought the ball up the court as my team mates get into position to run our next play. As soon as I get to half court, I raise my hand in the air signaling our play that we have been practicing in practice, so my teammates move quickly and try to get into position to get open. I dribble the ball to my right, and I saw my team mate kind of open, so I passed the ball as quickly as I could to him. The person that was guarding my teammate was to close and that was when he jumped out in front of my teammate and stole the ball, then he ran to the other side of the court and did a lay up and scored two points. As I take the ball back up the court I looked over to my coach, and he gave me the dirtiest look anyone can give a person. The look meant that if I made that kind of mistake again I would be on the bench for sure.
The reason I think I made that mistake was because I was kind of nervous on the first play. For the rest of the game I was really pressured by my coach to not make another mistake like that, so I didn’t make any more mistakes. In the end I had scored a total of twenty-five points. I was a happy guy but I still felt bad about passing the ball when I knew that I shouldn’t have.The reason why my couch got so angry with me was because we all practiced that particular play so much. I should have not made that kind of mistake. Sometimes even the most sought out plan doesn’t go accordingly and you just have to move on and try harder the next time. Kennedy ended up beating Jefferson seventy-five to sixty-five. Everyone on my team was very proud of me for scoring so many points. My team and I were really happy that we all stood up to the challenges of a tough basketball game and beat Jefferson.
The pressures of basketball can be really stressful if you cannot remember the plays that are put forth in practice. Remembering to keep your cool and not getting nervous when making a shot or passing to a teammate is the key to being a good basketball player.
I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well because that is the only way I can get better at Basketball. If I can get past the pressure of failure and the fear of making a mistake in Basketball I can do anything. I have learned that sometimes pressure makes people crumble and that is what I fear the most. I see pressure as a challenge against myself, to beat the odds, to show a sense of accomplishment against the pressures of life.
Joshua Henderson
English 1106Steve, Dalager March 13th 2007
Revised April 30th, 2007
Living with parents vs. living on my own
Living with your parents can be really tough. That is why I moved in with my sweet little old Grandma. I paid three hundred dollars a month for rent when I lived at my Grandma’s house. When I came home from work there was a home cooked meal waiting for me at the dinner table. Now it’s so much more different than I had ever imagined because I live on my own, have a wife, and responsibilities to take care of for myself without the help of my Grandma. This is because she did my dishes, washed my clothes, cleaned my room, went shopping, and took out the trash and did everything else for me.
I loved her for doing everything without asking anything of me. Then I met the girl of my dreams and ended up wanting to spend the rest of my life with her. That meant that I had to grow up and start doing things on my own. After about six months of dating my girlfriend we decided to move in together.
My family disapproved of me moving out of my grandma’s house because my dad wanted me to live with my grandma as long as I could, so I could save up money to get a house someday. My dad said, “You have life made living with your grandma why in the world would you want to move?” I thought my dad was right about me having it made and life was easier living with my grandma, but I was not satisfied with myself. I knew that I could do anything on my own, and I didn’t need the help that they were giving me anymore. They also thought that long distance relationships never work, and I should find a girlfriend in cities, but I wanted Alicia from Duluth. So I moved. I packed all my stuff and moved to Duluth. Now I still live in the same apartment that I moved into three years ago, and I couldn’t be happier. We have both been going to Lake Superior College for a year now and I am majoring in Civil Engineering.
As of right now I pay six hundred and twenty dollars for rent and have to do my own laundry, dishes, trash, grocery shopping, home cooked meals, and getting myself out of bed every morning for school. I have to pay for new furniture when something breaks, and I have take care of my health by taking myself to the hospital when I get hurt or sick. Some people probably would say that I should have stayed with my grandma because she did all the things that I was supposed to do for myself. I think Alicia helped me become a better man and I learned to do things for myself. Life is hard, and yet I love living on my own because I get to do everything my own way.
Alicia and I do all the things that normal people do to survive everyday. I think life is so much easier when you have a partner to help with life’s obstacles. Now I share the responsibilities of chores around the house and don’t depend on grandma cleaning up after me. I have been living with Alicia for three years, and we finally got married, and I couldn’t be any happier. I have no regrets about moving out of my grandma’s house.
I still love my grandma to death because she is the most sweetest lady in the whole world. My dad still thinks that I should move back to my grandma’s house or even to his house, so I can save money. He is and always will try to look out for my best, but being out in this world with my wife has made me a stronger and more independent person. I love living on my own because it gives me pride in taking care of my place, myself , and my future. Compared to living with my grandma where I got everything handed to me which was nice, but just wasn‘t deserved. I want to earn the best things in life and not take them for granted.
Joshua HendersonComp 1Steve, DalagerMarch 27, 2007Revised April 29th 2007
Wal-Mart Customers
I worked at a Super Wal-Mart as an overnight stocker in the grocery department. As I worked in the grocery isles of Wal-Mart, I used to classify customers that I saw shopping in the grocery isles. Each customer had a unique and different character to them. There were many different customers that I liked to classified that would shop at night. People from all walks of life came in at the latest hours of the night. The most frequent visitors to Wal-mart are the pot heads, the drunks, and the insomniacs.
Pot heads are usually in a group of two people or more, and they are always on a mission to fulfill a craving of some sort. It could be the weirdest thing to the mundane things like Pizzas, cheese, pop, or potato chips. They call this the munchies! They are usually really mellow and dazed and confused. For example, a guy in his twenties walks up to me as I was stocking the shelves, and asks me with an uncontrollable laugh “Hey dude where’s the dill potato chips ?” I showed him where the dill potato chips were, then he says to me “Dude man you’re a life saver! Thanks man.” Then he started to open the bag of chips right in front of me and started to eat them. I noticed his eyes were blood shot and he smelled like pot. I thought to myself, I hope he pays for those chips, but I didn’t really care, so I went back to work. I don’t know why, but its seems that every Pot head that walks in the store likes to say the word Dude like there some kind of surfer, stoner, action hero. They can find the simplest thing and find it amazing. I can usually smell them as they pass by the isle that I am stocking in. At night most of the stores are closed, so Wal-Mart is one of the few places pot heads can go because it’s open twenty- four hours a day.
The drunks normally visited Wal-Mart on a Friday or Saturday night because that is when people have big parties. The drunks came in bigger groups usually in packs of six people. There is normally a sober driver in the group, and I can always tell which one is sober by looking at which one is the quietest. They would take food off the shelves and start eating it, and they would throw things from the shelves like they are playing football. I think drunk people come to Wal-Mart because they just want to browse around, and it’s something to do when they are drunk. As a Wal-Mart employee I was supposed to watch these people just in case they get out of hand. If they did get to out of control I was supposed to throw them out. Drunk people don’t usually come to Wal-Mart during the day because people don’t normally have parties during the day. That is why I saw so many drunk people at night all the time when I was stocking the grocery shelves.
Some customers at night are the over worked customers that would come to get groceries at night because they probably work two or three jobs and have kids at home, so they come to Wal-Mart and shop. These are the customers that I call the “insomniacs” these people are so tired that they seem to forget where things are in the store. For example, an over worked dad came up to me as I was stocking the shelves in the grocery isle. I noticed that he kind of smelled, and he had bags underneath his eyes like he hasn’t got a decent night sleep in weeks. He said “Where’s the peanut butter?” Then I said “it’s right behind you” The dad was shocked and amused because he was right next to the peanut butter and he didn’t even know it. I thought to myself he probably just needs some sleep.
The older people of fifty to eighty years old usually came to shop about around three to four o’clock in the morning. I could always find an elderly lady in the coffee isle during that time. When I was stocking in the coffee isle I could all most guarantee that I was going to be asked a question pertaining to where something was or if there was anymore of what they were looking for in the back. Old people are usually understanding people. For example, an elderly customer asked me if there was anymore creamer in the back stock room. I said “There might be, let me go back and look.” I came back and the elderly lady was waiting right next to where the creamer was supposed to be. Then I said “I’m sorry ma’am we are all out of creamer. We’re probably going to get some more creamer tomorrow, but I can write you a rain check if you want.” The elderly woman says “that’s ok I’ll just come back tomorrow.” Compared to a middle aged person that would hoot and holler and ask for my manager because they would say that we should always have overstock of any product, I guess that some customers just don’t know that the suppliers don’t always supply right on time and that we don‘t always have everything.
Wal-Mart was a fun job, but it didn’t work out with my schedule so I quit. Classifying people is something we humans do all the time because we like to categorize the different people that we see in life. Classifying definitely helped me become more aware of the different people to look out for, especially working at Wal-mart. Joshua HendersonComp ISteve, Dalager4-10-2007Revised April 29th
The Three main causes of Death
Death is the only thing guaranteed in life because everybody is going to eventually die someday. There are three main causes of death in the united states, and they are heart attack, cancer, and stroke. My grandpa had several heart attacks and a stroke and my great grandmother died of cancer. There are many reasons why people get heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The main reasons have to do with the way they lived, what they ate, and if they smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol.
Heart disease has become the number one killer in America; my grandpa was one of those statistics when he died of a heart attack. The cause of his heart failure was because he had high blood pressure, and he ate lots of fatty foods. My grandpa died from a heart attack and that causes me to be fearful of heart attacks because high blood pressure and cancer runs in my family. Heart disease is the reason heart attacks are the number one cause of death in the united states . This is because America is one of the fattest countries in the world. I think about the amount of fatty food served in restaurants such as McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza Hut and it’s no surprise that we are all overweight..
I also think that in America, too many kids are playing video games which leaves them with no time for physical activity therefore becoming lazy. A heart attack causes a sudden failure of the heart to not function correctly, sometimes causing death even at an early age. A heart attack can cause a person pain in the chest, and a sudden loss of oxygen because of a major artery that is blocked. My grandpa was over weight and that can cause a heart attack because he had to much cholesterol clogging the arteries of his heart. My grandpa liked to watch TV, sleep, and eat. He didn’t work out or exercise, and that caused his heart to fail . He also smoked cigarettes for forty years and drank alcohol as well.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America. My grandma’s mom died of breast cancer. What caused her to die was that her doctor removed her cancer from her chest, but then found out later that the doctor didn’t get it all out and it eventually spread to the other parts of her body. Cancer runs on my grandma’s side of the family, and my grandpa’s heart failures run on his side of the family. When I think of the chances of me getting cancer it causes me to think, “Hey it won’t happen to me”. Then I look at my family history and it’s obvious that it will probably will happen to me or one of my close family members. Cancer can be malignant, a growth or a tumor. When a person finds out by their doctor that they have cancer, it causes people to be depressed, angry, sad, and even suicidal. Some people say “ I’m going to beat this disease and I’m going to fight it.” That kind of attitude causes people to have Radio Active Therapy and then they have to take all sorts of experimental drugs, so that they can fight the cancer. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in America. A stroke is a sudden loss of brain function caused by a rupture of a blood vessel to the brain. For example, My grandpa also had a stroke and it caused him to lose half of his bodily functions and the ability to walk. His stroke caused him to lose his abilities to remember who he is, what he did in life, and who his sons were. The causes of stroke are hypertension, heart disease, and cigarette smoke. Most people survive a stroke, but it leaves them extremely handicapped and unable to live life. If I was to have a stroke I would hope it would kill me because I wouldn’t want to live life like a vegetable.
There are many ways to die, but heart attacks, cancer, and strokes are the leading causes of death in my family and for most families in America. The cause of my grandpa’s death was a heart attack, but he did live to be seventy-four years old. My great grandmother died at a very young age because of a doctor error, but now days these causes can be detected early on and may also be prevented. Death causes a lot of pain and suffering, but that is life and I treat everyday like its my last because at anytime it could end.
Joshua Henderson
Comp 1Persuasion Steve Dalager 4/18/2007 Revised April 28th 2007
Children Of Men
Imagine what life will be like twenty years from now. Could you imagine never hearing the sound of a baby crying or children playing and laughing in the yard? Could you picture a life where school was no longer needed to teach the future generation of the world? In the movie Children Of Men this is the way life is in the year 2027. In this movie there has not been a baby born in eighteen years. The youngest human on earth was considered a major celebrity because he was the last baby ever born since a pandemic hit the human race. Many thoughts and studies are done in the movie to find out why this was happening to mankind. What caused such terrible fate for the human race and why is this not happening to any of the other living creatures in the world? Could this really ever happen to mankind or is this another sci-fi movie made up to entertain the youth that’s always looking for something new in action? These are just some of the questions raised in this movie. College students should watch Children Of Men because it’s a very spectacular, action packed thriller, and everyone should take the time to discuss the real issues of immigration, terrorism, a falling economy, war and famine in this movie.
The sense that I got from the movie is that there’s no point to living since the end is coming anyway, but its all worth living because of our children. I think that’s why its called Children Of Men. In the movie Children Of Men the year is 2027, and it was surprising to see in this movie that not much has changed from now. The technology is still the same and style of cloths is the same as well. On a side not, in the year 2027 I will be forty three years old, so I hope what happens in this movie never really happens to me in my life time. The Main character “Theo” lives in Britain, he is a depressed man that lives life in what he calls “hell”.
Then a true miracle happened. Theo was confronted by his ex wife and was asked to escort a young lady out of the country for a lot of money. She was an illegal immigrant, so he automatically didn’t think anymore of it and said “yes“. Eventually Theo found out “Kee” the young woman was pregnant. Kee was Nine months pregnant, and Theo was shocked to see a women pregnant because there hasn’t been a baby born in such a long time. The tables turned and he realizes that maybe what he is doing is very wrong and that she needs medical help as soon as possible. Kee was not into this idea and was very much wanting to leave the country and find a safe place where she could keep her baby.
This movie depicted a lot of issues that are happening in the world today such as terrorism, a falling economy, war and famine. This movie had a lot of action in it and was jaw dropping in the sense that this could one day become a reality. I thought that the special effects and graphics where incredible and all of the characters were perfect for the movie. On the other hand if someone were to be offended by this movie it would be because of all the people that die in this movie. A lot of new faces were seen which made the movie more plausible in a sense of belief. I think that this movie was really great and it was nail biting up until the very end. I recommend college students or anyone to watch this movie, so that they can get a real perception on what the world might be like twenty years from now.
