“During this time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write. I then commenced and continued copying the Italics in Webster’s Spelling book, until I could make them all without looking in the book. By this time, my little Master Thomas had gone to school, and learned how to write, and had written over a number of copy-books. These had been brought home, and shown to some of our near neighbors, and then laid aside.” (pg 6)
In this passage, Frederick Douglas is describing his experience in learning how to write. He paints a picture of the tools he used in this process by describing and comparing them to what his Master Thomas was using at the time to do the same thing. He talks about how he copied everything in the spelling book until he finally could write everything down from memory. This was a very significant part of the text because it highlighted his drive and motivation to achieve his goals, despite the circumstances. However, his master was lightyears ahead of him in this; he was already writing books at this point. Because of the difference in opportunities and access to education, the gap between Frederick Douglas and his master was wide, but him teaching himself how to write shrunk this gap slightly.
Part B:
In all my 12 years of school, I have faced many challenges and struggles. One of the biggest issues I’ve faced is keeping up with my homework. For as long as I remember I’ve always had a complicated relationship with homework, to put it lightly. The root of this issue has always eluded me; sometimes being my chaotic household, other times my attention issues. It has always been a problem I’ve solved by simply excelling in other aspects of a course . However, upon enrolling into College, I realized that this strategy wouldn’t work anymore so I’d have to come up with something else.
After taking a self inventory and having a long difficult conversation with myself, I realized the main cause of this issue; Procrastination. Throughout my life, and my tumultuous relationship with homework, I noticed that every single homework incident ended the same way, with me procrastinating on completing the homework. This in turn, leads to the homework never getting completed. To combat this issue, I created what I like to call the one push rule. This means that if there was incident in which I felt the need to procrastinate doing my homework, I was only allowed to procrastinate once. If a task came to mind and I had already pushed it over once , I had to just complete the assignment then and there. This greatly increased my productivity and has been working great for me so far. I have learned that I wasn’t a bad student or a student that lacked merit, I just lacked structure . And this rule helps give me that structure which I so desperately needed.
I relate with you. Procrastination is one of the hardest obstacle that im trying to get over, especially that im back in school. Not leaving my homework for the last minute is going to be my top priority for this semester. Although i am a freshman and school recently started i have big hopes that i can make some changes before this semester ends.
Part A — good, but look at my example of how to do this kind of HW. It’s in Announcements! I am asking you to translate the writer’s words — sentence by sentence in your own words.
Part B — oohh SO GOOD. I love this part: the one push rule. This means that if there was incident in which I felt the need to procrastinate doing my homework, I was only allowed to procrastinate once. If a task came to mind and I had already pushed it over once , I had to just complete the assignment then and there. EXCELLENT rule!
And it’s good you realize the importance of structure and organization. Doing the HW on time is of utmost importance in this class. It’s on the Slide Show I assigned.
Good job overall!