A Letter

To whom this may interest,                                                                           March 20, 2011

            I am writing this letter in regards to English 102. At the beginning of the semester I was very nervous! I thought this class was going to be difficult because we had to do blog postings, many essays, and doing things on the computer I have never done before. It’s always a little scary heading into the unknown. It was a little challenging at first, but once I got used to the systems it wasn’t bad at all. Just like Laura Cline had said in the beginning.

 The biggest challenge for me in this class so far is getting started with writing an essay. The thought of how I am going to start an essay and what I am going to say in the essay and how I am going to write it, is challenging. Once I finally get started and begin writing, I look back and wonder why I was so uptight about writing the essay after all. I also find it challenging getting my thoughts down on paper. I feel I have a hard time explaining what I am trying to say in writing. My biggest success so far in this class is learning the correct way to write papers, for example having “PIE” in each paragraph. It has helped me out tremendously! Information in each paragraph regarding the thesis sentence is also needed.  

            The readings we have read in this class have been very informational. It’s interesting to read the different views soldiers had about war and what goes on that many people are so naïve about, including me! First of all I have never been much of a reader, so I fall short of knowing what goes on with history. The little I do know is from my husband, being he loves knowing as much as possible with history. This has been a great opportunity for me to learn about what happened to a few during the war.

            Literary analysis is different from the other class I have taken because I don’t have to do much research. Literary analysis is a little easier because I can write a lot of what I think and compare different ideas and write what I think the writer is writing about or why the writer is writing about a certain thing.

            My goals for the second half of the session are to continue working on being a writer. One of the ways I am going to try to accomplish that is by getting my words out on paper first then going back and redoing it. Also I am going to work on keeping my essays easy to follow. I have had trouble with my papers jumping around a little too much. I would also like to accomplish getting over the anxiety I have prior to writing an essay. I just never know where or how to start a paper and trying to figure out what I think is important for me to write about.   Thanks for your interest in reading my letter.

Sincerely,

Heather Wittenberg

The Sand Storm

                                                    

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=the+sandstorm+photos&view=detail&id=55A9007FCA3C9B7D55723AD379ACF4A15E3533BE&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR

“The Sandstorm” is a play that will bring a tear to your eye. It is a play regarding the war and the men that were there to witness the indescribable and terrifying events that happened to the innocence man, women and children. Also it is about the things that go through some of the minds of the men and how they cope with the situation. They describe a few different scenarios of what they saw and what they were doing in the particular area they were in. They were on a mission and they were there to finish what they had started whether they wanted to or not.

          Many of the men fighting during war had left wives and children behind to go fight for the freedom of The United States of America. They had no idea of what they were heading into. There is no way a person could prepare for what was to come during war. We who are at home safe and sound cannot comprehend what goes on in the war territories.

          When the men are in “fight to survive” mode, they are a totally different person. They do things that they normally wouldn’t do if they never went to war. Here is an example of just one of their mind sets, “I took pictures of the dead hajjis. Hell if I could shoot ‘em with my M-16 I guess I could shoot ‘em with a camera too, you know” (Huze 3). This would not be normal behavior if LCPL DODD wasn’t at war. It was an interesting read. To watch the play would be very interesting.  

Here is an interesting read on war heroes:

http://homeofheroes.com/DG/index.html