https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QaHC80K6StPQD0PKjsGztuRZ38iFPZJ-7z9mSz8droI/edit

The article “Why They Strike” by Madalina Preda is about children protesting to raise awareness on climate change. It explains how children are skipping school to protest because adults are not doing enough about climate change issues, so kids have to. These students were sacrificing their education to protest every Friday. Alexandria Villaseñor, an organizer of school strikes in New York City, reasons this by saying “School won’t matter in the future if we’re too busy running from extreme weather events”. Greta Thunberg, a popular 16-year-old climate change activist, is one of the many leaders of these protests. The article mentions a “die-in”, something I had never heard of, which is when the children at protests all lay on the ground at the same time, implying that if action is not taken, climate change will shorten their lives. Since these children are not old enough to vote to make a political difference, they turn to protesting. A lot of times, adults do not take children’s opinions or beliefs seriously, especially on important issues, such as climate change. The president of the United States, for example, has mocked Greta Thunberg on twitter. The article also goes into detail about the effects of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. This causes deadly heat waves, hurricanes, and longer fire seasons. The main point of the article is to show that we can learn from these kids who are actually bringing awareness to the seriousness of climate change and the effects it has already had, and will have, on the world.

The essay “What is Academic Writing?” by L. Lennie Irvin is focused on the meaning and expectations of academic writing in college. This essay will be extremely useful for this course because it provides helpful tips on how to improve writings and essays, such as what the professor expects, how to communicate within a piece of writing, and different researching techniques. This essay will also be helpful to look back on when we have writing assignments in our class. It also provides common myths and mistakes people use while writing. I can relate to most of the common myths of writing, especially myth number four: “some got it; I don’t-the genius fallacy”. I have never felt confident in my writings because I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words. I also find it difficult to communicate my tone, as explained on page six. Most of the myths listed are what was taught in elementary school when we first learned how to write an essay. Many people, like myself, have been using these elementary strategies for all of our writings because we had never been taught differently. I agree with the author in that one of the most important parts of an essay is the evidence you provide to support your argument. It is very important to know and understand the topic you are writing about, which can help you build strong and supportive evidence. Overall, this essay was very informative and I will use it as a reference to improve and mature my writing style and technique.

Hi! My name is Bailei Soderman. I am a first year student at CSU Chico. I am undeclared and trying to find something I see myself doing forever. I am from Rohnert Park, California. In my free time I like to hangout with friends, go to the gym, and try different restaurants around Chico. I am not the best writer because I have never been necessarily interested in it and it is very hard for me. I do enjoy English and reading so I don’t think this class will be too miserable for me.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.