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1. Self- Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. its a good reading, especally in todays world where we rely on social media to tell us who we are.

3. very structured like an essay and very inteligent wording was used.

4. didnt really read it but even though i still conected with what he was saying. I love how he communitacted with people to develop his own idea of self reliance and

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1. I read a hanging by George orwell
2. I did not like it because, even though they knew it was wrong they hanged the man, and went on to have drinks and laugh about it later.
3. I would describe the writing overall as a pile of emotions and thoughts  strung together.
4. The interesting topic of the essay was the assessment of what it means to take a life. The author hooked me by dragging on the suspense of the man being taken to the gallows. The experience described was them taking a man to be hung and killed, it left me thinking about if the death sentence is a good punishment or not.

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1. Sliver of Sky by Barry Lopez
2. Yes, it was so raw and emotional.
3. It was very emotional and his writing style is very well established. He writes very passionately.
4. The "interesting" topic was abuse, the author hooked me by starting the passage off with a real life event, the experience was sexual abuse by his mothers boyfriend, and it left me thinking that you don't have to hold on to past trauma. You can overcome it. You must face it.

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1. Fail Better
2. I enjoyed it very much, it taught me that not only is a person incapable of being perfect, but so is their writing. No one's writing can be perfect, it's more important to focus on your own person style and making sure your writing represents you.
3. I would describe the writing as impressive. It intrigued me and taught me a lot but I also feel it was long-winded.
4. The interesting topic was craftsmanship and the concept of perfection in writing. The author hooked me when she described Clive's journey to writing the perfect novel.

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1. Strange Flowers by Karrie Higgins
2. I enjoyed it, because the plot was interesting and there was a very intimate mood that was created by the visual elements within the texts. However, I thought that it was lengthy for an essay and it was challenging to piece together, although the author may have intended it to be that way.
3. The writing was very descriptive and the author successfully interested the reader in their experiences. The tone consists of denial of the past experiences as the reader is taken on the journey of healing.
4. Some interesting topics include the death of the main character's brother and her overcoming sexual abuse.

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1. The essay i read was Laugh Kookabura.
2.  I liked the essay it was very interesting with the tales of adventure.
3. The essay kept my interest through dialogue and sensory image.
4. The topic was about traveling for his job but this particular excerpt was about his adventure Australia and how different the culture and social norms are.

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1. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
2. Yeah, I liked it. I mean, it was sort of self-pitying in a way that almost felt undeserved, because he's talking about how hard it is to be an oppresor, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But the more I sat and thought about it, the more I thought that maybe he suffers from the tyranny of the British as a cog in the machine in the same way those who've been oppresed suffer. Maybe not to the same degree, and he has the ability to walk away from it all in a way they do not, but it kindles hatred for imperialism all the same. It discusses the nature of power, and how it doesn't lie in nebulous rulers or laws but in everyone around us. People's opinions of us have so much power to shape who we are. The essay delves into the terrifying reality of being perceived by others and the intrinsic desire to be respected and liked, which is something I had never considered in a circumstance such as the one described in the essay.
3. The writing had a lot of powerful lines that made me sort of stop, for a second. The kind of lines only created through experience and reflection. I liked being inside Orwell's mind, as ignorantly and blatantly racist as it was. His take on the juxtaposing notion of division by race alongside an 'us vs them' mentality in regards to the people in Burma (natives and europeans) and the empire of the British created an uncertainty as to where his convoluted emotions lie. Overall, it was very interesting to see the conflict in his mind, as he debates his place in the situation and how it aligns with his morals overall. He states that he despises the British and he was "all for the Burmese," because he was against the imperialistic nature of the British empire and believed in sovereignty for all countries. At the same time, he debates how he hates the Burmese people who he interacts with on the daily - as they all in turn hate him for being British. In this way, his theoretical thoughts are antithetical to his personal ones, and this part of the essay demonstrates the individual vs the collective.
4. This piece drew me in with the little blurb written for it in the compilation article. It remarked on Orwell's feeling of no control, of being like a puppet, a means to an end. I like to ponder the idea myself, if all other people are are a means to our own successes, seeing as how every interaction we have with one another is purely an action inciting a reaction and so forth. The idea that we have little control over ourselves due to the fact that we always crack under pressure of some external force is both comforting in its relatability and angering in its feeling of futility it causes in us all. The essay made me consider the version of me that lives in other peoples minds - Orwell recognized that he was the villain to all those he was policing, and that he was hated by large numbers of people. He also recognized that even hatred garners recognition. The only time in his life when he was important was when he was hated. This made me think of all the ways we exist to other people, and how long we stick in their minds long after we're gone, based on both the good and evil we have left. It reminded me that we all view the world differently, and we will never know any other side to the story except our own, completely.

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1. The Fourth State of Matter
2.

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1. Once More to the Lake
2. I liked it because a father got to share something special he experienced with his dad when he was younger.
3. The writing fees like I'm reading a story and not reading an essay. I could enjoy it better.
4. Something I saw for a look for is not to be as formal. For me, the essay not being real formal hooked me because it felt like someone was just talking to me. The topic also hooked me in because it was a sweet memory, a dad taking his son to the lake and doing all the things the dad did with his dad growing up.

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1. Fail better, Zadie Smith
2. I liked this essay because it shows that with writing, you can turn it into anything even if it is seen as bad in someones eyes. You can learn to love what you do as a writer.
3. The writing overall was pretty good, although the structure with the number and topics were weird but helpful. It was pretty long though.
4. The author hooked me in the beginning with bringing an object in life to writing.

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1. Fail Better: What writers know
2. Yes, it was about writing  and it described me as a writer perfectly
3. It tells me what all writes believe when they write and it seems pretty spot to me as a writer
4. The interesting topic was writing, the author hooked me by describing how writer usually feel about their writing, since I am going down the path he say writers begin at does that mean I will improve to be a great writer?

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1.A Few words about breasts by nora ephron
2. I liked it because it seemed relatable in a way and it very familiar in tone
3. She wrote in a way that seemed like she was talking to me. the vocabulary kept the essay interesting
4. The essay was about breasts and she began the essay by talking about gender. It felt like she was teaching me a lesson or giving me advice. Afterwards it left me thinking about how she struggled with not feeling feminine enough due to her breast size, and im sure that issue is still relevant amongst women and girls in todays society.

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1. Why I Write, Joan Didion
2. I liked this essay. It was interesting to see how another person perceived the world, which felt so opposite yet so similar to my experiences.
3. The writing feels very blocky in terms of sentence structure, but this gives the idea of the essay more of a flow.
4. The interesting topic was how and why Didion writes, and the author hooked me in by stating she stole the title from one of George Orwell's talks. The experience was of the author going to a film festival and being sick, and how that influenced her to write her first novel. I felt weirdly seen after this, and I found afterwards that that is both a similar way to write and a new way to write at the same time.

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1. Death of a Moth written by Virginia Wolf
2. I enjoyed this essay.  I liked how there was a contrast of both light and dark themes.
3. The wording is dated, but that makes it what it is, and how it is unique.
4. I like how she compared the short struggle and the life of a moth, to the daily life of a human. It made me think about what made her think of writing about it.

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1. The Search For Marvin Gardens by John McPhee
2. I enjoyed reading this essay because I found it unique that the author used a Monopoly game property to tie into their essay

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1. Laugh, Kookaburra by David Sedaris
2. I guess i liked this essay because she was talking about her trips to Australia and childhood with his father. It was a long essay though, and i don't really like reading.
3. This writing style had lots of quotations from her father speaking, and i think its more interesting because you can imagine her reactions to what his father is saying.
4. The main topic of the essay was to talk about the trips he took and his relationship with his father throughout his life. The experience described seem interesting because he would question things like is this normal in Australia.

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1. Death of a Moth by Virginia Woolf
2. I did like this essay.  It felt worldly and had a perfect balance between lighter and darker themes.
3. It's written like an older essay, in terms of grammar and such.  The theme progresses throughout the essay.
4. The topic was about the inevitability of death.  The situation is laid out very happily and immediately focuses on the moth.  It slowly dies outside Woolf's windowsill.  The last line in particular stuck with me, just because of how well-written and powerful it is.
"O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am."

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1. Laugh, Kaookaburra By David Sedaris.
2. I liked the essay it kept my attention with the interestingly told story.
3. The writing had great dialogue and sensory images.
4. The topic of the essay was about travel specifically were they are right now

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1. Self Reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. I enjoyed it. It was a new perspective and wording into an age old phrase, "Do what you do, not what society tells you to do"
3. The writing was very old, and drawn out. Every point had enough meaning that it required three paragraphs to itself. Yet every detail was important.
4. The topic that hooked me was the immediate description of the average boy, and how they grow up. It left me thinking about myself. How I have been, turned out, and made me question myself in whole.

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1. Laugh, Kookaburra by David Sedaris
2.I though the personal essay was okay. it was kind of boring and I didn't want to continue o read it after reading the first paragraph
3. The overall writing was good but I was not captured in the first few paragraphs. The first paragraphs were extremely slow and it was hard to get through. The ending paragraphs were much easier to read and
4. The author did not hook me in the first few lines of the essay. The experience that was described was the writer and his friend going to a restaurant in Daylesford when a Kookaburra came into the restaurant. the only thing this essay made me think about is that I have no idea what a kookaburra is

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1. My Failed Attempts to Hoard Anything at All

By David Sedaris
2. I enjoyed this essay. it spoke about his view of what he seen during the pandemic.
3. The writing was very descriptive. It was writing from what his thoughts and point of view relating what is happening to past events.
4. I go hooked in by the comment that he made in the essay such as... " the gun sale have gone up, people are using it to protect there toilet paper.

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What essay did you read?
Vonnegut's "A Lesson in Creative Writing"
Did you like it?
Yes; Vonnegut has a great sense of humor and he's always great fun to read.
Describe the writing
Vonnegut's humor shows up well in this essay, as well as his simplicity and colloquialisms that directly engage with the reader. He also is one of those writers that likes to break rules, so it's nice to see him implement a visual element into the essay.
Analyze  topic, hook, how the experience was described, parting thoughts
The essay is essentially about the simplicity of stories (and at the same time, the common complexity of truth). He begins the essay with completely bashing semicolons, which is a fun start. He describes not so much an experience but an observation, taking us through the different arcs of classic stories, marking their good fortune or ill fortune on a graph. This continues until he gets to Hamlet, which he says he can't graph, because he doesn't know if Shakespeare meant for the ending to be good or bad. At the end, he leaves you questioning what the "good news" and the "bad news" expressed to us within stories actually are.

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1) E.B. White- Once More to the Lake
2) I enjoyed the essay greatly. It was a sweet account of a father and son and how nature can truly be life-changing or eye opening.
3) The writing was very formal, yet seemed relatable, not like a scholarly essay. Vivid imagery was used which captivated me in White's telling of the beautiful Maine scene.
4) The interesting topic was the relationship between tradition and nature. The author hooked me with his vivid imagery of the scene. The experience described was a father and son trip to Maine where White discovered his many precious childhood memories. It made me want to plan a trip to Maine myself.

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1.Laugh, Kookaburra

2. Yes, the essay was interesting and i liked how he told us the culture that they lived in Australia.
3. the author is very optimistic
4. the topic was that the author father said that he never actual been to Australia, but the author explains his experiences in Australia and how they done a lot of things differently.

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Tell me:
1. What essay did you read?
2. Did you like it? Why or why not?
3. How would you describe the writing overall?
4. Analyze the personal essay look-fors (what was the interesting topic, how did the author hook you, what was the experience described, what did it leave you thinking afterward?)
**EC if you record yourself!