Dear Sir or Madam:
My name is Eileen Chen. I am a 20-year old girl with a bit introverted character. Originally from Canton, the southern part of China, I am now a sophomore in Fudan University in Shanghai where I have been living and studying since I graduated from my high school in 2005. Owing to my interest in international affairs, I choose politics as my major specializing in international level.
At the outset, please allow me to express my heartful thanks and deepest gratitude to you for kindly sparing time on reading my selective works. To my great relief, the past several months witnessed my step-by-step progress in writing, maybe weeny but undoubtly vital to me. All these precious achivements should largely owe to my respectful tutor Ron and my adorable fellow classmates whose unremitting support and encouragement keep pushing me to march on and on. The four articles listed below, from bad to good, stand for the different stages I was in during my whole learning process this semester. Each of them, even the one you do not appreciate at all, contains so much efforts that I will look on it as my newborn baby. So if possible, I would sincerely recommend you to browse each item to have a complete understanding on my writing experience and what’ more, comments are always welcome here! Now it’s high time that I made a short introdution on my writing works selected below. Join me and let’s check it out!
The whole protfolio begins with my final timed-writing. Actually for me, this is the most challenging section in this writing course. Distinguished from other forms, timed-writing, as its name indicates, is a writing test with limited time. That means, you have to finish all the writing process in a relatively short period including doing comprehension, making conception and finishing composition. So the main obstacle for me is lack of enough time to get all these done marvelously. The one I posted here is the final one,however honestly speaking,not the most satisfactory one to me. What makes things worse is that it uncovered most of the weak points in my writing, like vague expression, Chinese-based thoughts or silly mistakes in grammer. So I would like to consider this work as a drive for me to make improvement in the coming study.
What comes next is a collection of my thesis which contains three drafts. Through comparison, I am sure,you can strongly sense the magical power of proofreading just as what I did before. Frankly speaking, making modification is such a painstaking and boring business that you can not persist easily. However, “No pains, no gains.” My personal experience makes me believe that if you can bear such indispensable hardship, a huge success must be awaiting for you. From draft one to draft two, I concentrated on the basic errors mainly appeared in vacabulary and grammer in case my idea can not be accurately conveyed. Then comes the second section from draft two to draft three, which I think, needs more edurance than the first one. Why? Because this time you have to pore more deeply into the article to examine the structure, strengthen the focal point and evaluate the evidence and so on. All in all, it is more than an easy task that you can imagine. During the whole procedure, I failed, I got frustrated, I even lost my confidence…But luckily, it pays to do so.Not only in vacabulary but also in expression, I found myself is making a noticable improvement and it is beyond doubt that I will keep working on it in the coming future!
The final essay is, in fact ,the first assignment I finished in this course. I selected this one from all the reading logs I wrote this sememster because, to a large extent, it means a lot to me. Despite the fact that this paper doesn’t have gorgous words or may be weak in thesis statement…Even it may be naive to some readers ,however, I would rather use it to represent my attitude in writing, which contains aspiring and enduring.
As to English-learning, I used to think that it is but a useful tool to earn marks instead of a tool for communication.However, things changed after I took Ron’s course for several weeks.Ron is such a nice person that we can not help having a liking for him. He is the one with charming character and cute smile. When feeling disapointed,he may talk in a deep voice; When feeling joyful, he will make a laugh of joy. He will share his snacks with us and try hard to memorize all our names.How sweet he is! Actually to me, sometimes I would rather consider him as a friend to me more than a severe teacher. It is he who leads me to find the fun in learning and reverses my erroneous view on English. Score is not the only thing we should pursuit and remember to study for youself! Your hardworking will be rewarded by God one day!
Once again, thanks for your time and patience in listenning to me here. Thanks Ron who gives me so much guidence! Thanks my peer who helped me a lot during workshop! This course is really like an fantastic journy to me and I did enjoy every moment here in this big family! Cheer up and keep going! We should be confident of the forthcoming vitory!
Sincerely yours,
Eileen Chen
0514025
Eileen Chen
June 21, 2007
Timed-writing Three
Directions: If you were to create a filmed ad (a "trailer" for a movie based on the Grass-Eater, which scene would you choose? Why? Discuss ways in which might film the scene.
“The Grass-Eater”, one of the best representative works of Krishnan, presents us with a sarcastic story concerning wealth, family, job and so on. The story is full of bizarre plots and frequent-changing spots which can, to great extent, arouse the imagination of the readers. Owing to this, I would like to endue my trailer with a theme of “Imagination”!
The complete work is based on the idea of location-shifting. Why this comes out? Because, as far as I am concerned, the transformation of the man’s habitation is the main way for the writers to indicate the terrible situation in India. So I want to keep that tone in my ads. The trailer begins with that interesting family with people in different shapes which for the sake of attract audiences at the first sight. Then come the fast-shifting scenes one by one, picturing the different plots the family has lived. At the end of the ads, a hot title : “ Want to see more? Enjoy our movie!”
Then I will choose the appearance of that wealthy family as my major scene. Shooting the situation they are talking to their teacher. The decoration is that house is a shining point and we should make it as luxury as possible. The appearance of the teacher, on the contrary, should be terrible and even lousy. The violent shock results from the contrast makes people feel impressive and lead them to dive deep into the actual theme of the story. Do it in a strong way is the point in this shot. Why I prefer this scene? Basically, two reasons are responsible for my choice.
First and foremost, as I have described above, that scene is kind of weird and funny which can greatly attract people by the first hit! Ads are everywhere in our life and people in growing numbers are getting tired of that worn idea and the same plots. So imagination is our vision. Try to be creative!
What comes next is because the tone the author used in the story. It is sarcastic and ironic. We should maintain it and develop it in a larger way. So my thought is we can make it more exaggerated in the ads by adding crazy shapes and funny phiz. By using the strong combat, we can easily get to the destination of theme expression.
In addition, the vital point, I think, worthy of noted is that the ad should be short and quick without long and boring plots and description. Different from the movie itself, the purpose of using an ad is to attract people to the movie theater but not only to make them concentrate on the ad itself. So the work must finish in one minute and the scenes should switch fast enough so that the audiences will not feel bored.
All in all, one key we should always keep in mind is that the trailer is used as a tool for the movie, which means, there should not exist any conflict between them. On no account can we create something shadowy. But colorful scene, strong comparison and creation are always welcome for an ad!
Eileen Chen
2007-5-22
Draft three
What is the major cause of Losiel’s tragedy?
Introduction:
“The Necklace”, as one of the most famous representitive works of Guy de Maupassant, tells a story that happened in late nineteenth-century with a social background of strict hierarchy system. Mathilde Losiel is the main character in the story who is of relatively humble birth at that period.The story is about Losiel’s mistake of loosing a gorgeous necklace she borrowed from her friend after a party in which she “made a great success” by her perfect appearance. Although at the end of the story, that necklace turned out to be a fake one, Losiel and her husband paid heavy price---they worked day and night for 10 years to pay back all the debt.The story seemed to be like a tragedy for Losil and people always blame her for her vanity to be a shinning star at that upper-class ball which ,in their minds, does not belong to her ,or to say, her class. They think that what she did makes the result reasonable. However, personally,I still have doubt on that thought. I cannot help sprouting a question:Is Losiel’s vanity really the major cause of her tragedy? As to it,basically, I will not hesitate a moment to say “no” .
After browsing “The Necklace”,written by Guy de Maupassant, it is common that most readers will form such a view---Greed and a total lack of rational faculty should be regarded as the major cause leading to Losiel’s harsh tragedy. However, to get a more objective understanding, I insist that we should go deeper into the story and actually, from my point of view, I firmly believe that class distinctions,instead of Losiel’s vanity should be responsible for her misery. Is it really the case? If you really feel uncertain about that, please follow me and let’s check it out!
First and foremost, thinking from a different aspect we may find out, at that time, social system did play an essential role in the whole story and finally made the sad ending inevitable. As to this, why not come back to the background of the story. “ ‘The necklace’, is set in late nineteenth-century Paris, where society was organized on a class basis.” (38) Yes, actually that is a period of time when people were born with some unchangable class, no matter hwo hard they work on it. So, from my angle alone, that unique background, to some extent, resulted in the formation of Losiel’s character unconsciously. That is to say, making Losiel’s vanity the responsible factor concerning to the tragedy is but a superficial way to judge the cause. Just as what is said in the story, “She(Losiel) was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks”(38). So if trying to ponder it over and over again, we can easily reach an agreement that ,in reality,it is the class distinction that forces Losiel to do so but not her own character. From other perspective, maybe we had better say Losiel herself is also the victim of that cruial and severe class system. Pretty is her nature gift from God , blue blooded is a dream inside every pretty girl’s heart and Losiel is just no exception. Given to this, how can we have the heart to blame her anymore for such a pardonable desire. She was not willing to bother anyone or to pursue anything evil . On the contrary, in my eyes, she was just a poor girl who kept trying to realize a dream of being Cinderella. What desevers to be blamed?
Besides, considering the background of the story we can also reveal that the class distinction has a great affluence on not only Losiel’s character but also the atmosphere of the whole society. That,in my opinion, makes what Losiel did more understandable. Let’s prove it from the invitation of the party, “it is very select, everyone wants to go” (39) From the description, we can clearly see that people at that time were tied closely to the strict hierarchy system,trying every means to get rid of their humble birth. They were in pursuit of the approval by upper-class, even in some self-deceiving ways such as equiping them with luxury articles to which they may not be able to afford. Supposed you lived in the same society upholding wealth, are you dare to promise you would make a complete different choice that may be widely-acknowledged as “natural” and “reasonable”. That is to say, in fact, it is the trend of the society that eventually results in the tragedy and the trend, I think, origins from the class distinctions at that ear.
Last but by no means the least, as opposed to widely-held idea, I have positive attitude towards this lady. In my mind, I believe that hidden inside every girl is a fantasy to become a graceful, adorable lady with a wealthy background. It’s really something common that we have no reason to blame to. What in reality causes the sad ending is the class system in that cruel society instead of Mathilde herself. She is a common girl but sadly a slave of the rich flamboyant upper-class at the same time. “She would so have liked to please, to be envied,to be charming, to be sought after.”(39) She tried to make some changes confronting to the harsh reality, the humble background, the precise hierarchy at that special time. From my side, that’s nothing we should critisize and I’d rather regard her as a symbol of honest, brave, adorable people rather than a coward or a thief. She took lessons and made compensation with 10-years hard-working.How tough-minded she is! Despite the fact that she failed in the merciless society, I still cannot agree the idea that considering Loseil’s vanity as the major cause of the misery. Actually, in my heart, she deserves appreciation!
All in all, every evidence stated above points out an undeniable conclusion that it is the class distinction but not Losiel’s vanity that should shoulder the responsibility for the tragedy. On no account can we make her the scapegoat any more!
Eileen Chen
2007-5-22
Draft two
What is the major cause of Losiel’s tragedy?
Introduction:
“The Necklace”, as one of the most famous representative work of Guy de Maupassant, tells a story that happened in late nineteenth-century with a social background of strict hierarchy system... Mathilde Losiel is the main character in the story that is of relatively humble birth at that period and the story is about Losiel’s mistake of loosing a gorgeous necklace she borrowed from her friend after a party in which she “made a great success” by her perfect appearance. Although at the end of the story, that necklace turned out to be a fake one, Losiel and her husband paid heavy price---they worked day and night for 10 years to pay back all the debt. The story seemed to be like a tragedy for Losiel and people always blame her with her vanity to be a shinning star at that upper-class ball which, in their minds, does not belong to her, or to say, her class. They think what she did make the result reasonable. However, personally, I still have doubt on that. I cannot help sprouting a question: Is Losiel’s vanity really the major cause of her tragedy? As to it, basically, I will not hesitate to say “no”.
After browsing “The Necklace”, written by Guy de Maupassant, it is common that most readers will form such a view---Greed and a total lack of rational faculty should be regarded as the major cause leading to Losiel’s harsh tragedy. However, to some extend, I insist that we should go deeper into the story and actually, from my point of view, I firmly believe that class distinctions, instead of Losiel’s vanity must be the responsible reason for her misery. In order to make it clearer, I would like to list some evidence below:
First and foremost, we can begin with the background of the story. “‘The necklace’, is set in late nineteenth-century Paris, where society was organized on a class basis.” “It was extremely difficult for people to change or move from the class into which they were born.” That unique social background plays a vital role in the formation of Losiel’s character. That means although we cannot deny that Losiel’s vanity should be responsible for the tragedy, yet I think, that is only a superficial way to judge the cause. As it is described in the story, “She (Losiel) was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks”. “She suffered from the poverty……”. So if trying to think it over and over again, we can easily find out that ,in reality, it is the class distinction that forces Losiel to do so but not her own character. From other perspective, maybe we can say Losiel herself is also the victim of that curial and severe class system. Pretty is her nature gift from God, blue blooded is a dream inside every pretty girl’s and Losiel is no exception. Regarded to this, how can we blame her anymore for such a normal desire? She was not willing to bother anyone or to pursue anything evil. Instead, from my eyes, she was just a poor girl who kept trying to realize a dream of being Cinderella. What deservers to be blamed?
Secondly, from the background of the story we can also find out that the class distinctions have a great affluence on not only Losiel’s character but also the atmosphere of the whole society. That, I think, makes what Losiel did more understandable. We can see it from the invitation of the party, “it is very select, everyone wants to go”, “I had awful trouble to get it”, “they are not giving many invitations to clerks”. From that we can see that people at that time were tied closely to the strict hierarchy system, trying every means to get rid of the humble birth. They were in pursuit of the approval by upper-class, even in superficial way like equipping them with luxury articles. From what is stated above, we may change the previous view and consider that living in such a society upholding wealth, Losiel’s choice is natural and reasonable. Even we can say that it is the trend of the society that eventually result in the tragedy and the trend, I think, origins from the class distinctions at that time.
Last but by no means the least, I have positive attitude towards this lady. I think hidden inside every girl is a fantasy to become graceful, adorable lady with a wealthy background, it’s really something that we should not blame to. What causes the sad ending is, I think, the class system in that cruel society instead of Motile herself. She is, to some extend, a slave of the rich flamboyant upper-class. She is a common girl and has the same dream like other girls at her age. “She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, and to be sought after.” She tried to make some changes confronting to the harsh reality, the humble background, the precise hierarchy at that special time. From my side, that’s nothing we should criticize and I’d rather regard her as a symbol of honest, brave, adorable people rather than a coward or a thief. She took lessons and made compensation with 10-yearrs hard-working. However, she failed in that merciless society. So I cannot agree the idea that considers Losiel’s vanity as the major cause of the misery.
All in all, every evidence stated above points out an undeniable conclusion that it is the class distinction but not Losiel’s vanity that should shoulders the responsibility for the tragedy.
Eileen Chen
2007-5-9
Draft one
What’s the major cause of Losiel’s tragedy?
Introduction:
“The Necklace”, as one of the most famous representative work of Guy de Maupassant, tells a story that happened in late nineteenth-century with a social background of strict hierarchy system... Mathilde Losiel is the main character in the story that is of relatively humble birth at that time and the story is about Losiel’s mistake of loosing a gorgeous necklace she borrowed from her friend. Although at the end of the story, that necklace turned out to be a fake one, Losiel and her husband paid heavy price---they worked day and night for 10 years to pay back all the debt. The story seemed to be like a tragedy for Losiel and people always blame her with her vanity to be a shinning star at that upper-class party. They think what she did make the result reasonable. However, I still have doubt on that. I cannot help sprouting a question: is Losiel’s vanity really the major cause of
her tragedy? As to it, basically, I will not hesitate to say “no”.
After browsing “The Necklace”, written by Guy de Maupassant, it is common that most readers will form such a view---Greed and a total lack of rational faculty should be regarded as the major cause leading to Losiel’s harsh tragedy. However, to some extend, I insist that we should go deeper into the story and actually, from my point of view, I firmly believe that class instinctions must be the responsible reason for her misery. In order to make it clearer, I will list the evidence below:
First and foremost, we can begin with the background of the story. “‘The necklace’, is set in late nineteenth-century Paris, where society was organized on a class basis.” “It was extremely difficult for people to change or move from the class into which they were born.” That unique social background plays a vital role in the formation of Losiel’s character. That means although we cannot deny that Losiel’s vanity should be responsible for the tragedy, yet I think, that’s only a superficial way to judge the carouse. As it is described in the story, “She (Losiel) was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks”. “She suffered from the poverty……”. So if try to think it over and over again, we can easily find out that ,in reality, it’s the class distinction that force Losiel to do so but not her own character.
Secondly, from the background of the story we can also find out that the class distinctions have a great affluence on not only Losiel’s character but also the atmosphere of the society. We can see it from the invitation of the party, “it is very select, everyone wants to go”, “I had awful trouble to get it”, “they are not giving many invitations to clerks”. From that we can see that people at that time are tied closely to the strict hierarchy system, trying every means to get rid of the humble birth. They’re in pursuit of the approval by upper-class, even in superficial way like equipping them with luxury articles. From what is stated above, we may change the previous view and consider that living in such a society upholding wealth, Losiel’s choice is understandable and reasonable. Even we can say that Losiel is not the one to blame but the one suffered a lot from the tragedy.
Last but by no means the least, I have positive attitude towards this lady. I think hidden inside every girl is a fantasy to become graceful, adorable lady with a wealthy background, it’s really something that we should not blame to. What causes the sad ending is, I think, the class system in that cruel society instead of Mathilde herself. She is, to some extend, a slave of the rich flamboyant upper-class. She is a common girl and has the same dream like other girls at her age. “She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be charming, and to be sought after.” She tried to make some changes confronting to the harsh reality, the humble background, the precise hierarchy at that special time. From my side, that’s nothing we should criticize and I’d rather regard her as a symbol of honest, brave, adorable people rather than a coward or a thief. She took lessons and made compensation with 10-yearrs hard-working. However, she failed in that merciless society. So I cannot agree the idea that considers Losiel’s vanity as the major cause of the misery.
All in all, every evidence stated above points out an undeniable conclusion: It’s the class distinction but not Losiel’s vanity that should shoulder the responsibility for the tragedy.
The story described unexpected conflicts in an ordinary immigrant family between a persistent father and his two “Americanized” sons. S.C., a typical and traditional Russian Jew, landed in the States with his servant Marta for the first time. Before he could begin a new life with his sons, conflicts turned up accidentally. There comes the story.
The story includes sensitive topics that exist in our society----immigration, Americanization, filial piety even business management. After reading the whole article, perhaps, I think it's time for us to reexamine the old ideas we held for years and discover the new attitude towards the issue.
In recent years, especially after China's opening up to the outside world, Americanization and globalization have become the focus of the society and heated debates are right on their way. The impact of this policy is readily discernible in a number of areas: the adoption of many Western habits, both good and bad; changing social and moral values, the trend towards individualism and the introduction of state-of-the-art conception and technology. During the process of reforming, some people begin to worry about the influence on our culture, customs, and traditional habits and so on. Personally speaking, as to this, I feel that never before in history has the issue of been more urgent than now. As the result of the globalization, American or European style has permeated into our daily life in many aspects. It is necessary for people to remind themselves of respect ion their country's culture and tradition. As a newly-rising power in the world, China should learn a lot from developed countries; however, we cannot lose ourselves in learning. That is to say, the key to adopting western ways centers on accepting the good and rejecting the bad instead of copying without any changes. Additionally we people, who can receive information worldwide, should really keep the sense and never learn things blindly like that two sons in the story.
Furthermore, another problem we should pay attention to in the story is filial piety. Though this has been frequently mentioned in our everyday life, yet we cannot deny the realistic significance it has, especially during the era when more and mire people ignore it for the pursuit of wealth.
As everyone knows, historically speaking, our ancestors placed great emphasis on filial piety and nothing can cut the gracious ties between you and your family. It's really a tragedy when I realized this kind of phenomenon appears in many families. “Money becomes the only bond between parents and their kids. No conversation, no hugs and they even omit the walking time after dinner. To some extent, the changes are the result of some irresistible trends nowadays. People are under greater pressure and have to spend more time concentrating on their jobs. However, in spite of the material benefits wealth provides, no excuse can be used to stop people from giving parents respect, comfort and attention to them. Whatever happens, filial is the virtue we can never abandon.
As the things stated above, we can easily come to the conclusion, we should give respect to our nation, our parents and even ourselves. There're lots of things we can be proud of. 
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