Assignment 1 : "Writers On Writing"

Answer the following questions on your blog site; based on the information you gathered from the video clips and the biographies.

4. What are some of the fears these highly successful writers have about writing? John Grisham thinks that the hardest part of writing is laying out the whole book and when he has to face the final dateline.

• Ian McEwan says that for him is to catch the reader´s interest otherwise his writing would be a failure.
• Margaret Atwood says that the most difficult issue is beginning to write and convincing herself it is going forward. (her book)
• Salman Rushdie says that the hardest part is having complete control on a given situation, though a lot of events affected him when he was writing so he needs to keep calm to produce a new book otherwise he can´t do what he is suppossed to be doing.
• Paul Auster fears life itself saying that life is unexpected.
  

5. What are some of the difficulties they have when they are writing?
Some say to be calm in order to write properly, others to work against tha final dateline, others facing boredom when writing a novel.


6. What are some of the positive aspects to writing?
Some of the positive aspects of writing is that it helps you to overcome your own personal fears or problems in real life. Experiencing enormous emotion and intellect. Another aspect is that a writer is always taking big risks.


7. Do you feel these authors enjoy being writers? Why?
They all enjoy being writers, they can´t imagine life without writing.


8. Is reading an important facet of writing? Why?
Yes, definetely it is an important facet of writing because you develop different skills.


9. In your opinion, what are the 3 most important things which will make your writing successful?
First of all to have something to say, to put pen to paper, to focus on what you want to say no matter what is going on outside your book, to be disciplined in order to spend most of the time laying out your book, to catch the interest of the public so as they keep on reading without leaving the book aside.

English Literature: Old English/Beowulf Assiognment 1b

1. When was Old English spoken?
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in England and south eastern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid 12th century.

2. Name 4 language groups which influenced the development of Old English.
The 4 language groups are Germanic, Latin, Norse and Celtic language groups.

3. In the Phonology section, name 5 phonetical differences between Old English & Modern English.

Example: senġan "to singe" is [sendʒɑn] < /senjɑn/ < *sangjan

and bryċġ "bridge" is [bryddʒ] < /bryjj/ < *bruggjō < *bruɣjō

Example: hring "ring" is [hriŋɡ]; [ŋ] did not occur alone word-finally in Old English as it does in Modern English.

4. Are there any similarites between Old English and Modern English? Name them.
Syntax(word order), The way to ask questions(similar way of writing) some phonologycal sounds and morphemes.

5. In the Orthography section, enlarge the picture of the runic alphabet. How many letters (runes) are there in this alphabet?
They are 34 letters (runes)

6. Which epic poem was originally written in Old English?
Some of the most important surviving works of Old English literature are Beowulf, an epic poem.

7. In the See Also section, click on: Beowulf. Appoximately when was Beowulf written?
It was written between the 8th and the early 11th century.

8. Even though Beowulf was written in England, the story takes place in which countries?
This story takes place in Denmark and Sweden.

9. In the poem, which 3 antagonists does Beowulf battle or fight against?
Beowulf fights against Grendel, Grendel´s mother and an unnamed dragon.

10. What happens to Beowulf at the end of the story?
He is fatally wounded and then he is buried in a tumulus by the sea.

11. Who was the author of Beowulf?
It is an unknown author.

12. What were the titles and the dates of the two film versions of Beowulf?
1999 Beowulf film.
2005 Beowulf and Grendel film
2007 Beowulf film.

Assignment 7: A report

To: University Director
From: Katia carrasco
Date: December 1st, 2009
Subject: Ideas about common room

The purpose of this report is writen to analyse the location and advantages of having a common room to us at the University. As an advice, I will suggest you to choose a big room since we are a lot of students to be fitted in it.

I would recommend you a clear space with a lot of light so It would be very nice to spend our free time there, listening to the music, chatting with our friends, having a cup of tea or coffee when the weather turns bad.

I would prefer a room looking at a green area like near the main garden because the green areas relax any stressful atmosphere after a difficult oral presentation or exam. Another important point is painting the chosen room white, in that way It would look clean and spacious, the upmost important detail is to buy a microwave oven to heat our food and an electric kettle to put on when it is cold.

It is a fact that you will prepare the room taking into consideration my suggestions and If you need any help please do not hesitate to ask me a hand.

Yours faithfully,

katia carrasco

Crime and Environment review (November 18, 2009)

The most relevant concern about crimes is to learn fighting and preventing them to happen. In my opinion, we have to be aware of different types of crimes like: fraud, elderly abuse, white collar crimes that are the most popular ones for me. Apart from pickpocketing and mugging. I have been investigating on the net about fraud, concerning identity fraud or credit card fraud, so to prevent this we have to be cautious when using a credit card or withdrawing cash from a bank machine, looking around and being suspicious of any weird or strange uncommon sign.

Assignment 6: Formal Transactional Letter.

Dear Editor,

Iam katia carrasco, an active member of an environmental group and I have some complaints about last Monday´s demonstration newspaper report which is almost nothing correct in relation to what I saw there.

Firstly, apart from the protesters claim about the extinction of a rare species of snail, they protested against the destruction of woodland in Oldbury. Secondly, they were over 2,000 people gathered there instead of 200 people as you said in your newspaper report.

To make matters worse, it was a silent demonstration and not a a noisy one as you wrote in your report and the troublemakers were not just unemployed youngsters though many of them were local residents protesting against the building of a by-pass for Oldbury.

I would like you to take my points under consideration and I expect you to send a reporter to interview me so as to mend this newspaper report.

Yours faithfully,

katia carrasco

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Environmental Survey:

Today you are going to work in pairs and create an environmental survey for your classmates. Your survey should be a minimum of 10 questions focused on your classmates' opinion on a variety of environmental subjects as well as what action they think should be taken. Once you have finished your questions, go to other blogs and answer the survey in the comment.

1.- Do yuu think is normal to have weather changes?

2.- What is your opinion about the Global warming?

3.- What would it happen if the population raise?

4.- Whar are the main damages caused by the industrial revolution?

5.- What would it happen to our lives with the Global warming?

6.- What are the possible solutions to the Global warming?

6.- What would it happen to the earth when maintaining the summer heat for long periods?

7.- Which are the hottest years on record?

8.- What does it mean "mar del niño?

9.- Is the Co 2 increase damaging the earth?

10 When did George Bush pull out of environmental negotiations?

My experience about weather or natural disaster

Iam going to describe a situation that I went through long time ago, but when Iam trying to retell this event I feel that strange and weird feeling again "that we are so fragil since we are made of blood and flesh", so today Iam not taking any risk like swimming in the sea up to behind the waves break, this was a terrifying experience because I couldn´t get to the sea shore until three hours after being stucked in that brave or rough sea. From that day on I have learnt to take care of myself as a human being.....Nowdays when I go to the sea Iam only sunbathing or playing basketball with some friends.