Essays and Papers

This is a tread for anyone to post their essays, papers, poems, anything that they have written. I will post some of my stuff soon as well.

Okay, so for my Integrated Research class I had to write a short paper on someone that I think has influenced America. I chose Christopher Paolini! (WHAT DO YOU MEAN IM OBSESSED WITH INHERITANCE!!?!?!?!??)
You guys will probably know basically everything that I stated in the essay, but here it is anyways (oh and ignore the names in parenthasis. Those were for my 'works cited' page):



On November 17, 1983, Christopher Paolini was born in Southern California. When he was young, he and his family moved to Paradise Valley, Montana, where they have lived ever since. As a child, Christopher loved reading and writing. Some of his favorite authors were Jane Yolen, Brian Jacques, E. R. Eddison, and David Eddings (Paolini). Christopher was home schooled by his parents his whole life, so he had lots of time to pursue his passions of reading and writing. At the age of fifteen, Christopher finished high school, and began writing his first book, Eragon. Christopher’s biography on his website says: “The idea of Eragon began as the daydreams of a teen. Christopher’s love for the magic of stories led him to craft a novel that he would enjoy reading.” (Paolini). The scenic backdrop of the Beartooth Mountains of Montana inspired many of the locations in this young author's book. Just three years later, Christopher's family self-published the book. Eragon quickly became a huge success and propelled Christopher into the national spotlight.

Christopher Paolini is currently only 24 years old, so he clearly has not been an adult very long. The two sequels to Eragon that Christopher wrote were Eldest and Brisingr, published in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He plans to complete the series with a currently unnamed book that will most likely be released in 2010. Christopher has gone on many book tours all around the world after writing each book. Some of the places he has visited include “…Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy” (Paolini).

Christopher’s books have been widely acclaimed ever since they were published. His first book, Eragon, has received praise from several publications, including The New York Times, The Observer, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and People. His latest book, Brisingr, was released on September 20, 2008. It sold over five hundred fifty thousand copies in the first twenty-four hours. This amazing book broke many sales records; including breaking all sales records at Random House Children’s United Kingdom Publishers (Macauley). Obviously, Christopher’s amazing books have been hugely successful.

Christopher Paolini is now a globally recognized author, but getting to where he is now was not easy. Christopher wrote Eragon when he was fifteen. After he finished writing it, Christopher spent a year revising the book, then gave it to his parents to read. They recognized the potential and, along with Christopher, decided that they would self-publish it. The Paolini family spent another year preparing the manuscript for publication: proofreading, copyediting, designing a cover, typesetting the manuscript, and creating marketing materials. The manuscript was sent to press and the first batch of books arrived in November 2001. Since the Paolini family was self-publishing, they needed to get the word out about the book. They spent over a year promoting it in bookstores, libraries, and schools. The stepson of Carl Hiaasen, an author working with Random House, read the book while on vacation to Montana. He told his stepfather about it, so Hiaasen contacted his publishers at Random House. They asked Christopher if he would like them to publish Eragon. After another round of editing, Eragon was republished and quickly became a worldwide bestseller.

One of the greatest things about Christopher Paolini is how he has inspired so many children and teenagers to read and write. As put on his website: “He is especially heartened to hear that his books have inspired young people to read and to write stories of their own.” (Paolini). Many American children today fail to appreciate literature near as much as they should. With children spending so much time with video games and the internet, they often times neglect books. Christopher’s spellbinding stories have furthered the appreciation of books with children, teenagers, and even adults all over the world. In addition, his inspiring true story of how he wrote an international best seller at the age of only 15 is amazing as well. Christopher has not only created an amazing book series, but has truly impacted America.

nice! I just quickly scanned it, I need to read the whole thing when im in the mood.

Yeah, it's pretty boring.

meh, it's ok, I mean, it's not porly made, it's just stuff I already know.

I think it's nicely written, Zeb. Usually when I write things like that I can't shorten it well and I end up with at least two pages. I thought it was great.

Okay, so I had to write a paper on an anti-hero. An anti-hero is someone who plays a significant role in a movie, a book, anything like that, but they are not the protagonist because they have more than a single hamartia. If you don’t know what a hamartia is look here. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/drama/g/Hamartia.htm

Han Solo

Han Solo is the rogue of the galactic world. He helps Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leah and, by a turn of events, gets pulled into helping the Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the evil Galactic Empire. Han Solo’s main objective for helping Luke rescue the princess is because he thought there would be something in it for him. Han is a hero in his actions, but not always in his intentions. Han Solo is very cocky and seldom humble, the people around him either get annoyed or laugh at the way he thinks of himself. This is a hamartia that prevents him from being the “good guy”. Han is a very likeable character, especially when you consider his relationship with Chewbacca. The relationship he has with Chewie shows that Han Solo does have a heart.

I know it's really short, but I was only allowed to write one paragraph. I would have written a lot more, but my mom knew if I did it would take a lot longer.

Thanks Zeb i needed all that info for my 8th grade project THANK YOU!

lol

EmilyNowell wrote:

I think it's nicely written, Zeb. Usually when I write things like that I can't shorten it well and I end up with at least two pages. I thought it was great.

Okay, so I had to write a paper on an anti-hero. An anti-hero is someone who plays a significant role in a movie, a book, anything like that, but they are not the protagonist because they have more than a single hamartia. If you don’t know what a hamartia is look here. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/drama/g/Hamartia.htm

Han Solo

Han Solo is the rogue of the galactic world. He helps Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leah and, by a turn of events, gets pulled into helping the Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the evil Galactic Empire. Han Solo’s main objective for helping Luke rescue the princess is because he thought there would be something in it for him. Han is a hero in his actions, but not always in his intentions. Han Solo is very cocky and seldom humble, the people around him either get annoyed or laugh at the way he thinks of himself. This is a hamartia that prevents him from being the “good guy”. Han is a very likeable character, especially when you consider his relationship with Chewbacca. The relationship he has with Chewie shows that Han Solo does have a heart.

I know it's really short, but I was only allowed to write one paragraph. I would have written a lot more, but my mom knew if I did it would take a lot longer.

Thanks for the complament, Emily.
I really like your paper as well. I agree that it could/should have been expanded to at least three paragraphs, but that wasn't the assignment, so that's fine. I really liked how you made it so consise. It'd be tough for me to consolodate that info into a single paragraph.
Oh, and here's a bit of constructive critisism, if that's okay: Try to work on your sentence beginings a little bit. You started your sentences with "Han" or "He [Han]" six times out of the eight sentences. It would be better if you restructured some of your sentences so that they didn't start with "Han". For example, you could rewrite a few of your sentences as "Though Han is a hero in his actions, he is not always a hero his intentions", "When you consider his relationship with Chewbacca, Han is an even more likeable character", or "By helping Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leah, Han gets pulled into helping the Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the evil Galactic Empire [in a turn of events] (you could cut that last part if you wanted)".
Sorry for being so nit-picky, but I just thought I'd offer a bit of advice...
Other than that little thing, it was really good!

Em <3's Case!! wrote:

Thanks Zeb i needed all that info for my 8th grade project THANK YOU!

And Em, you better have been kidding. I am not going to let you plagerize my hard work.

(though if you ask nicely I may send you some of the websites that I used to gather info)

I think she's probaobly kidding, though maybe not.

She better be.

yeah, em if your not kidding, be kidding now.

couldn't she just rephrase it?

Jumpmann wrote:

couldn't she just rephrase it?

lol adam, what a nice example! NO, probably not, I mean, then it's taking ALL of the info and junk.

I have to write a research paper for English... something about dragons... Yeah, the relevance of prehistoric creatures similar to dragons! I have this animal planet dvd all about dragons! I could get info from that... I already have alot.
Dibs on the info!
Of course no ones in my english class so you cant steal...
Dragons can fly because bacteria in their digestive system creates helieum, which is, uh, i think fourteen times lighter than air, so, add that to wings, and you have enough lift, if they have honeycombed bird like bones.
That same gas, mixed with any flammible catalist, in this case platinum, will create a burst of flames. From the mouth. Aka breathing fire.

what the heck is he saying?

Zeb wrote:

Em <3's Case!! wrote:

Thanks Zeb i needed all that info for my 8th grade project THANK YOU!

And Em, you better have been kidding. I am not going to let you plagerize my hard work.

(though if you ask nicely I may send you some of the websites that I used to gather info)

no thank your for some of the facts that u have given me from your paper i would not plagerize your work

Em <3's Case!! wrote:

Zeb wrote:

Em <3's Case!! wrote:

Thanks Zeb i needed all that info for my 8th grade project THANK YOU!

And Em, you better have been kidding. I am not going to let you plagerize my hard work.

(though if you ask nicely I may send you some of the websites that I used to gather info)

no thank your for some of the facts that u have given me from your paper i would not plagerize your work

i can't speak for zeb, but that's probably ok.

Zeb wrote:

EmilyNowell wrote:

I think it's nicely written, Zeb. Usually when I write things like that I can't shorten it well and I end up with at least two pages. I thought it was great.

Okay, so I had to write a paper on an anti-hero. An anti-hero is someone who plays a significant role in a movie, a book, anything like that, but they are not the protagonist because they have more than a single hamartia. If you don’t know what a hamartia is look here. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/drama/g/Hamartia.htm

Han Solo

Han Solo is the rogue of the galactic world. He helps Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leah and, by a turn of events, gets pulled into helping the Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the evil Galactic Empire. Han Solo’s main objective for helping Luke rescue the princess is because he thought there would be something in it for him. Han is a hero in his actions, but not always in his intentions. Han Solo is very cocky and seldom humble, the people around him either get annoyed or laugh at the way he thinks of himself. This is a hamartia that prevents him from being the “good guy”. Han is a very likeable character, especially when you consider his relationship with Chewbacca. The relationship he has with Chewie shows that Han Solo does have a heart.

I know it's really short, but I was only allowed to write one paragraph. I would have written a lot more, but my mom knew if I did it would take a lot longer.

Thanks for the complament, Emily.
I really like your paper as well. I agree that it could/should have been expanded to at least three paragraphs, but that wasn't the assignment, so that's fine. I really liked how you made it so consise. It'd be tough for me to consolodate that info into a single paragraph.
Oh, and here's a bit of constructive critisism, if that's okay: Try to work on your sentence beginings a little bit. You started your sentences with "Han" or "He [Han]" six times out of the eight sentences. It would be better if you restructured some of your sentences so that they didn't start with "Han". For example, you could rewrite a few of your sentences as "Though Han is a hero in his actions, he is not always a hero his intentions", "When you consider his relationship with Chewbacca, Han is an even more likeable character", or "By helping Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leah, Han gets pulled into helping the Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the evil Galactic Empire [in a turn of events] (you could cut that last part if you wanted)".
Sorry for being so nit-picky, but I just thought I'd offer a bit of advice...
Other than that little thing, it was really good!

Thanks, Zeb. I know that if I put my work out there people may comment on it and I appreciate. I actually hadn't noticed that myself, but now I will know to look for that in the future. Thank you.

look for what?

Here is a paper I wrote a couple months ago on honor.





Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd U.S. President and author of the Declaration of Independence once said, “Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.” There are also many other quotes that speak of honor. Consider William Shakespeare’s words, “Mine honor is my life; both grow in one; Take honor from me, and my life is done.” A German philosopher by the name of Arthur Schopenhauer wrote this, “Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.” Honor is an important topic that people have written songs and poems about; pharaohs and kings and presidents have spoken of it.
According to The American Heritage Student Dictionary, honor is a special respect for someone, a source of credit or mark of distinction, an act that shows respect or high regard. The Student Dictionary also notes that a person of honor has a sense of what is right, he has high principles and he possesses integrity. Honor isn’t something you have when you are born. You have to show you possess it by your actions, words and life. Honor means sacrificing your comfort and not worrying what people will think of you when you do the right thing. Sometimes living honorably will be hard to do, but no one said it was going to be easy.
Why would anyone not want to be honorable? I don’t get people don’t strive to have honor as a character trait. There are many young actresses that do not show any signs of honor in their lives. They are the people that usually end up getting in trouble. Since they are at such a high position in other people’s lives they do not get away with things. People see what these actresses are doing and see that these ladies don’t live in an honorable way. I would rather be honorable and not be famous than be famous and be a bad example to people and be dishonorable. I do not understand why many people choose not to live their life in an honorable way. It gets hard at times, but it is worth while.
I learned more than I thought I would about honor. I never knew the denotation of honor was someone with high principles or someone having a sense of what is right. I never knew there was so much more to the word than honor just being bestowed on someone when the do something worth noting. I also learned that many people think of honor as something you do when you respect and obey the people you love.
Honor is something everyone should strive to earn and receive. It isn’t just a little ribbon you receive after serving in the war; it’s not just something you get when you excel in all of your classes, and it isn’t something you have when you’re born. Honor is a way of life and something you have to make into part of who you are and what you live for. Honor is a wonderful thing and we can only get it by doing what we are called to do; live for our Savior, Jesus, make wise decisions, and do the right thing. When you do those things, you’ll naturally become like Jesus, the most honorable man ever to walk our earth.

Wow, very nice, Emily! I liked the hook, the anaphora, the hyperboles, and basically the whole thing! There were a few small mistakes, but they were more stylistic than anything major, so they weren't very distracting. The quotes were really good too. And the mesage as well. *applause*