Notes on "Why are students turned off" by Casey Banas, "Here is to your Health" by Joan Dunayer and "Is Sex all that Matters?" By Joyce Garity.

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Notes on "Propaganda Techniques in Today's advertising" by Ann McClintock.

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As the author said Propaganda influence people´s opinion and often makes as buy things that are not necessary. I think that the techniques that advertisers use to persuade people to buy things can be affective when they enter in people´s feeling. We live in a sensual world where everyone is looking to feel different emotions that is why, when propagandas use the technique “transfer” improving the product with any symbol, creates on people trust and sensitivity toward the products or the politician that is trying to win votes. We live surround of propaganda of any kind, for me a young female feels like propaganda manipulates me all the time and make me feel vulnerable. One way to attract more buyers is putting skinny models for the clothes or shoes and our innocents minds think that those shoes or clothes will make as look the same. Propaganda often makes people have low self-esteem and buy things that are not necessary.

Notes on "Wasteland" by Marya Mannes.

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Notes on "How to make it in College now that you are here" by Brian O'Keeney.

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As the author says, going to college could become a very serious problem if we don't know how to manage it. It's very important to be organized and to take some time for studying and doing college activities. However, it's also important to keep seeing our family and the people we love, so that college experience won't become traumatic. If personal problems come to our lives, we have to try to focus on what is important and what isn't; quitting school is not the solution. Finally, and to end this comment, I'm sure that being responsible and going to class makes a difference between those who succeed and the ones who fail.

Rene Idrovo


Attitude is the best remedy for everything in life. As Brian O’ Keeney says, going through college is just a matter of organization and attitude. If you want to succeed, you just have to be really organized and plan every single move you are about to make. Do some scheduling about what you have to study, what classes you are attending, where you are planning to study, and things like that. It’s like learning to drive when your instructor tells you the 10 seconds rule: adjust all your mirrors and check the oil and gas levels in order to save your life. In college it is exactly the same thing, just plan your times, tasks, be responsible and you will succeed. Don’t let any problem overwhelm you or your study, be prepared for anything destiny throws on you and try to get over all the difficulties you face.
Ignacio Merino

Notes on "The Processing Process" by Russell Baker

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McCullers' life.

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McCuller's Home for Christmas

I chose the short piece of non-fiction “Home for Christmas” by Carson McCullers as a very good example of narrative-descriptive prose. Even though Home for Christmas is an excerpt from her autobiography, the piece itself has a life of its own.
Structurally and literarily speaking, I would dare say that the piece can be considered as a tour de force by the author. In these few paragraphs she manages to convey her deepest feelings and recollections of what Christmas meant to her and her family, as well as her own private, idiosyncratic rationalization of the meaning of that elusive and fleeting thing that we call Time (with capital letter). All these coupled with beautifully crafted images about all their month by month preparations of their Christmas festivities. Her recollections start in a sort of agony in the month of August, when she depicts her end-of-the-summer boredom, contrasted with the glory of the festivity to come. Her private journey begins right there and it ends just with the festivity itself. We can say that she draws a full circle when she sits in her front porch, tired, exhausted the day after the festivity. Just knowing that she would have to wait for another year. In that precise moment, we can say that her agony starts all over.
Although the timeline that Mrs. McCullers describes is very well cut and linear, the months that she describes are not the regular months of the calendar, but they become just mere stepping stones on her way to the big day. So we could say that the story was organized by seasons, but most of all, by family customs and events, spinning around one particular season: Christmas.
This monthly, detailed account becomes the perfect setting for carefully wrought images that come to life in the mind of the reader. Images that evoke the festivities in our minds, we all have deeply rooted images instilled in our brains, that get triggered by just mere associations to specific smells like that of the pine tree, or homemade roasted turkey and apple pie; or roasted pork and guava pie in my case (I am Cuban). Her eye is that of a sensitive girl looking for self-expression. Knowing that it is the voice of a girl makes a huge difference.
This short piece is a master class of what description is all about. If you still have problems with descriptive sentences go back to this piece of writing and look for detail; if you don’t have problem but still want to wallow in good reading, just go back and read slowly … simply enjoying. Just pronouncing the words in your mind. Mrs. McCuller was a sad, lonely but highly prolific and creative woman who found joy in simple things in life. This excerpt is just a taste of what she could do with her pen. If you want to read good literature I recommend other works by the same author Reflections in a Golden Eye , and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Works.