I hope, but can I?

When I came back to Cheshire Academy, I set several goals to challenge myself. They are improve my English skill, having more friends, and improve my writing skill. These all seem like very easy goals for most of the people, but I think these are something that can challenge myself a lot.

First goal is to improve my English skill; I hope by the end of year my ability of speaking, listening, and writing. For the speaking part, I need to speak more English than Chinese during my free time. People might think why is it hard to speak less Chinese and more English? It is because our school have lots of Chinese student, almost ⅕ of the whole school students. You can see Chinese students everywhere in the campus. This is why I need to work more hard on, I need to control myself to stop speaking that much Chinese but more English.

I’m not only need to work more on the speaking part, but also the listening part. Just like what I said, there are lots of Chinese students in our school, so I will have less chances to stay with the American students. Not I don’t want to stay with them, but people like to be in a group that every speak the same language. If I always hang out with those same people, I won’t able to improve my English skill. This is why I need to force myself to speak with American students or someone who don’t speak Chinese.

The writing skill part I want to keep it to the last because it is the most important one. Let me talk about the friends one. People might think how difficult to make new friends, if you think of that then you are wrong. People always think I’m a extrovert person, but the truth is opposite. I’m actually very introvert but people don’t know that. I always will feel nervous when I talk to someone I don’t know that much. I’m afraid that I will say something wrong or not appropriate to he/she. This is why make friends is one of my goals for this year, I hope I can be more brave and won’t be nervous when I talk to new people. Now, I already know lots of new friends, include Chinese and not Chinese. However, I hope I can make more friends before this year end.

Last but not least, the writing part, this might be the biggest problem I have since I learned English. My speaking and listening part are all right, but my writing part didn’t go so well. I always have problem when I wrote anything, such as grammar mistake, spelling mistake, or even the idea is not clear. This is why I put this one at the last, because it is just too important for me right now, especially next year I will required to write a college essay and SAT. I love English and I always think it is very easy but the truth tell me it is not. This is why this year I want to put more effort on it than before. Now I’m already a junior, I can’t be the old me when I was in 9/10 grade. I need to work more harder to improve my grade. This is why I’m so glad I take Writing 3 because it did really help me a lot with my writing. Now I won’t make silly grammar mistake that often and I start to use some figurative language in my writing. This is a good start but I can’t stop, because only keep practice then you will get better on it!

Transition Words and Phrases

Words that ADD information
also	and
in addition	furthermore

-The little girl put on her yellow shirt and brown jacket.

-Chris is on the basketball team this semester at Cheshire Academy. In addition, he is on the soccer team.

- I admire him because he is a great long distance runner. Furthermore, he is a perfect student in the class.

-Crystal likes camping in the mountains. Also, she is an experienced hiker.

Words that show CONCLUSION
finally	in conclusion

-After so much time waiting in the long line, the boys finally got their hamburgers.

-There was a malfunction in the smoke machines and lights, the curtains would not open and close properly, and one of the actors was sick with no stand-in. In conclusion, the play was a disaster.

Words that REPEAT information
in fact	in other words

-Lisa decided not to go to King Islands. In fact she told me, "No, way."

-I feel that our last Student Council meeting did not go well. In other words, it was a mess.

Words that show CONTRASTS or DIFFERENCES
although	but
however	yet

-We wanted to leave at 8:00. However, Mike arrived too late.

-Although Steven was extremely tired, he washed the dishes.

-Bill earned an A on his essay, but Susan got a B.

-He knows that he should do his homework, yet he never does it.

Words that show a TIME relationship
Before	until	then
meanwhile	after that

-Stephen went to pick up Irene before he stopped by McDonald's for lunch.

-We need to wash our clothes, after that we can go to the Taste of D.C. festival.

-Wait until tonight, then you will be able to see the full moon over Gallaudet's Chapel Hall.

-The show is not over until the actors take their final bows at the end.

-That house felt very creepy inside; meanwhile, it was sunny outside.

Words that LIMIT or PREPARE for an example
for example	for instance
such as

-Not all birds eat berries. For example, vultures eat dead animals.

-There are things that need to be done to improve the company. For instance, we can begin by organizing the files.

-I have a few things to take care of such as paying bills, cleaning the house, and going to the post office.

Words that show CAUSE
because

-Because it is raining today, the homecoming game and the food booths will be cancelled.

Words that show EFFECT/RESULTS
as a result	therefore

-The weather is supposed to be drizzly and chilly today; as a result, the Deaf Festival will be cancelled.

-I was too tired; therefore I decided not to go to the party last night.

Words that ASSERT OBVIOUS TRUTH or GRANT OPPOSITION

certainly

-Certainly, you may borrow my book. But, be sure to return it to me next week.

Enjoy and not think about it! (The real Final?)

Have you ever felt nervous about anything? Nervous was a feeling when people felt suffering about something, usually was about performance, speech, show...etc. The reason why people will nervous was because they always think they are not prepared or they have never perform in front of that much people. I used to be nervous when I was going to perform, but because of my piano teacher I got over the problem. Until now I still remember what she told me before I went on the stage “ Don’t worry about how well you do, but think about how you enjoy in it.” This means when you do something what you love, it will automatically lead you to success.

When I was 8 years old, I had my first piano performance. I spent almost two months to practice the song that I was going to performed. Everyday when I went back home, the first thing I did was to practice piano. Sometimes I practiced at school and I will asked my parents and my friends what they thought about it. At the end, I can even blind played the song just because I was too familiar with the song.  

Unconsciously, it was the day before the concert. Before I went to bed, I told my mom that I was so afraid  that I will made mistakes during the performance, but my mom told me I will be fine and asked me to go to bed. I wasn't able to sleep well whole night, because I keep thinking about what happen if I made mistakes on the stage in front of that much people. However, the day I’m prepared had came. I woke up earlier than before, and I dressed myself well and went down stairs to eat breakfast. After breakfast, my dad drove us to the place where the concert was. When I got there, I saw lots of my piano classmates were already at there. I asked them whether they were prepared or not? Some of them said they were well prepared, but some of them were just like me, who were still nervous about the concert.

Soon, the concert had begun. I was the fifth person to play so I need to go to the backstage prepared before the concert even started. Then, it was my turn; I was still thinking about what if I made mistakes during performed. Suddenly, my piano teacher came to me and she found out that I was worry about the performed; She thought for a while and told me  " Don't worry! You will be fine, because you already practice for that long.”

“But what happen if I make mistake?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about how well you do, but think about how you enjoy in it. This is what I can tell you!” “But…..”

“Gordon Kuo?” The staff said. “It is your turn, come on.”

I went up the stage, but I still felt very confus about what my teacher told me. Then I started to play, I made some mistakes at the beginning part. I thought it was very embarrassing, but then I think of what my piano teacher had told me - Enjoy the show. Suddenly, I felt that all my worry had gone, and I was felt very comfortable with the stage. The feeling was just like performed in my house, no matter and no pressure. For the rest of the part I perfectly performed. After got out the stage, I told my piano teacher " Thank you! I finally found out how to keep myself calm when I perform, and I think I am in love with the feeling of perform!"

From this experience, I learned that don't worry about whether you did well or not on the stage. Even though you think you made some mistakes during the performance, but if you were doing what you love and do it with your enthusiasm. The audience will never know that you made mistakes, because in their eyes you were just looked so professional when you performed.

I think this wasn't only worked when you had a performance, it can also worked in any kind of circumstances. Such as a competition; The player will worry about what happen if they think that they didn’t do their best and make the audiences disappointed about him/her. Same reason, If they enjoy in the competition and do their best they can do, I believe they could be successful and get a perfect score.

After you read my article, you might still think a lot before you get on the stage, and you will think that you are not ready for it. Do not think that much about it, just take a big deep breath, remember to enjoy it when you do it,. Then it will help you to get rid of the feeling of nervous and lead you to the success!

OMG! It is so hard!

This is my first time to wrote an article that I learn from my past. I think it is very interesting because this paper not only tell people what I had learn from the past, but also help me to think of all the events that happen around me. However, there are some place that bother me when I wrote this paper.

The biggest one is the grammar problem. I know how to make my paper become no grammar mistake, but I always forget to do that. I will just keep writing and writing and didn’t notice that I already did many grammar mistake. This paper is very different than other paper that we had done before, this one we get like almost two weeks to work on it. This help me a lot because I can let my teacher or peers to look on my paper and told me did I did any grammar mistake on it. This did really improve my gramma problem a lot.

Grammar mistake is just one of the problem that I have when I wrote my paper. Thinking of what am I going to write is also one of the problem. I am 17 years old right now, not too big but also not too small. There did a lot of different things happen around me, but I don’t know how to relate those things to what I have learn from that. Like I know I be in trouble or I got punish by my parents, but all of those things are just not important or something that people should not do. Such as lie or skip the class...etc. I really can not think of any big event that make the gordon today. After one minutes thinking, I finally have some idea about what can I wrote about. I found out that I can wrote about first time performance, first time aboard study, and first time fail my test. These three are the most important events that affect me recently, each of them did teach some kind of idea that I can learn from.

Now I have done what am I going to write and the grammar mistake that I made so far, but new problems always came: Revision. Like what I said, this paper is different than the other we have done before. We have more time to revise on this one, which mean we will edit it more time. Everytime when we revise it, we will correct the old mistake that I have made. However, the new mistake came out, it might grammar mistakes or it chould be the structure of the essay wrong. This cause me can not correct every single mistake that I made in my paper, which did bother me a lot. After few times, I found out that I should revise my paper while someone else is around me. Then when I make any mistake on my paper, they can just point it out and tell me to fix it. Surprisingly, the number of mistakes that I made on my paper did decrease, and make my paper become more perfect.

Enjoy and not think about it! (final)

Have you ever feel nervous about anything? Nervous is a feeling that when people suffering about something, usually is about performance, speech, show...etc. The reason why people will be nervous is because they always think they are not prepared or they never stand and perform in front of that much people. I used to be nervous about performed, but because of my piano teacher I get over the problem. Until now I still remember what she said to me; She said “ Don’t worry about how well you do, but think about how you enjoy in it.” Which mean only when you do what you love, it will lead you to success.

When I was 8 years old, I had my first piano performance. I spend about two months to practice the song that I'm going to performed. Everyday when I went back home, the first thing I do was to practiced piano. Sometimes I will practiced at school also, and I will asked my parents and my friends what they think about it? At the end I can even blind played the song just because I'm too familiar to the song.

Finally, it was the day before the concert. Before I went to bed, I told my mom that I was so scared that I will made mistake during the performance, but my mom told me I will be fine and asked me to go to bed. I wasn't able to sleep well just because I keep thinking about what happen if I made mistake on the concert. However, the day I’m prepared had come. I woke up earlier than before, and I dress myself well and went down stairs to ate breakfast. After breakfast, my dad drove us to the place that I’m going to performed. When I got there, I saw lots of my piano classmate already at there; I asked them whether they are prepared or not? Some of them said they were well prepared, but some of them were like me, who was still nervous about the concert.

Soon, the concert had began. I was the fifth person to play, so I need to go to the backstage prepared before the concert start. Then, it was my turn, I'm still think about what happen if I made mistake during performed. Suddenly, my piano teacher came to me and she found out that I’m still worry about the performed; She think for a while and told me  " Don't worry! You will be fine, because you already practice for that long.”

“But what happen if I make mistake?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about how well you do, but think about how you enjoy in it. This is what I can tell you!” “But…..”

“Gordon Kuo?” The staff said. “It is your turn, come on.”

Then I went up the stage, but I still felt very confus about what my teacher told me. I started to play it, but I still made some mistake at the beginning part. Then I think of what my piano teacher told me, enjoy the show. Suddenly, I felt that all of my worry was gone, and I was very comfortable with the stage. It was just like I performed in my house, and the rest of part was perfectly performed. After got out the stage, I told my piano teacher " Thank you! I finally found out to keep myself calm, and I think I am in love with the feeling of the performe!"

From this experience, I learned that don't worry about whether you did well or not on the stage. Even though you think you made some mistake during the performance, but if you were doing what you love in the performance and do it with your enthusiasm. The audience will never know that you made mistakes, because in their eyes you were just looked so professional when you performed.


After you read my article, you might still worry a lot before you get on the stage, and you will think that you were not ready for it. No matter what, remember to enjoy it when you do it, and this will help you to get rid of the feeling of nervous.

Enjoy and not think about it! (first final draft)

Have you ever feel nervous about anything? Nervous is a feeling that when people suffering about something, usually is about performance, speech, show...etc. The reason why people will be nervous is because they always think they are not prepared or they never stand and perform in front of that much people. I used to be nervous about performed, but because of my piano teacher I get over the problem. Until now I still remember what she said to me; She said “ Don’t worry about how well you do, but think about how you enjoy in it.”

When I was 8 years old, I had my first piano performance. I spend about two months to practice the song that I'm going to performed. Everyday when I went back home, the first thing I do was to practiced piano. Sometimes I will practiced at school also, and I will asked my parents and my friends what they think about it? At the end I can even blind played the song just because I'm too familiar to the song. 

Finally, it was the day before the concert. Before I went to bed, I told my mom that I’m was so scared that I will made mistake on the concert tomorrow, but my mom told me I will did fine and asked me to go to bed for tomorrow. I wasn't able to sleep well because I'm too nervous about tomorrow. However, the day I’m prepared for had come. I woke up earlier than before, and I dress myself well and went down stairs to ate breakfast. After breakfast, my dad drove us to the place that I’m going to performed. 

When I got there, I saw lots of my piano classmate; I asked them whether they are prepared or not? Some of them said they will be fine, but some of them were like me, which was very nervous about the concert. Soon, the concert had began. I was the fifth person to play, so I need to go to the backstage prepared before the concert start. Then, it was my turn, I'm still worry about making mistake during performed. Suddenly. I saw my piano teacher came to me and she realize that I’m nervous about the performed; She told me  " Don't worry! You know what you should do so you will be all right. Just remember one thing, enjoy it!" After she said that, I went up the stage. At first I was still very nervous and even made some mistake at the beginning, but I think of what my piano teacher told me, enjoy the show. Then I suddenly felt that all of my worry was gone, and I was very comfortable with the stage. After I got out the stage, I told my piano teacher " Thank you for help me relax, and I think I in love with the feeling of the performed."

From this experience, I learned that don't worry about whether you did well or not on the stage. Even though you think you made some mistake during the performance, but if you enjoy it and performed with your enthusiasm. The audience will never know you made a mistake because you just looked so professional when you do it. In a conclusion, you probably will be nervous before you go on the stage, and you will think that you are not ready for it. No matter what, remember to enjoy it when you do it, and this  will definitely help you to get over the feeling of nervous.

This is my first performance

When I was 8 years old, I had my first piano performance. I spend about two months to practice the song that I'm going to performed. Everyday I went back home is to practiced the song, I even can blind played the song just because I'm to familiar to the song. After day by day, it was the day before performance, I wasn't able to sleep well because I'm too nervous about tomorrow. Finally, it was the day for the performance. When I got to the place that I'm going to performed, I found out that I'm the last person to performed. That mean I need to woke up very early on my beautiful Saturday, and I couldn't went back home until the show was over. However, it was my turn, I'm still very worry about I will made mistake during perform. My piano teacher came to the backstage and told me that " Don't worry! You know what you should do so you will be all right. Just remember one thing, enjoy it!" After that, I went up the stage. At first I was still very nervous and even made some mistake, but I think of what my piano teacher told me, enjoy the show. Then I suddenly felt that all of my worry was gone, I was very comfortable with the stage. After I got out the stage, I told my piano teacher that " I love the feeling of enjoy the performed."

From this time experience, I learned that don't worry about you wether   did well or not. Even though you didn't did well, if you enjoy it and performed with your enthusiasm. The audience will never know you made a mistake because you look so professional. This is what I learn from my first time performance.

Grammar mistake

When people are writing, they make some mistake and they won’t notice that. I am a really good example of that type of person. I always make grammar mistake and think it is right. There are several types of grammar mistake that I will usually make. They are tense, article, and comma splice. These three are the most common mistakes that I made.
Tense for me is always a big problem. When I need to use past tense I will use present tense, and will use past tense and present tense together. Such as I introduce a artwork with present tense first, than I describe it in past tense. This definitely is a grammar mistake, and can’t be acceptable. To fix this mistake, I found out I should always use only one tense in one writing. If I use past tense and I should use past tense, I should not use two tenses in one article. This is one way I found out is useful to fix this mistake.
Second big problem is about the article, I use wrong article with wrong subject. Such as the lunch or lunch, I can’t verify which article should I use. For this kind of grammar mistake it didn’t have a short cut to fix it. I think follow the old way, which is memorize how each article use is the best way to improve the article using.
Last but not least, the comma splice problem. This is not a very big problem for me but still affect my writing a lot. Sometimes when I write, I will keep writing and writing and forget to stop, to put a period. This make my writing become a comma splice, and this mistake will affect reader when they reading. They will feel tired to read it and just decide to not read it, which will make your article become nothing. To fix this problem is stop a sentence before you write the next one, then think about should I start a new one or I can keep going on. If you think it might be to long then just put a period on it. Rather have a period than a comma, this is the say that you should remember when you write.
These are the common mistakes I will make while I am writing. No matter what, pratice and find a teacher to help you is the best way to improve your writing. Only enough practice, you will more familiar with the feeling of writing, and also find a teacher to help you is also very important. If you keep practice and keep doing the same mistake, that is not going to help your writing. In a conclusion, improve your writing is not only memorize the grammar. It is to practice again and again, also need a teacher to help you correct the mistake you make. This is how you can improve your writing.

Letter to Joanna (final)

Dear Joanna 

You probably don't know who I am, but I do know you from the story. 

I'm a little boy who was raised by my mother, just like you. I'm not a good kid at all. I don't like to study, skip school all days, and go back home late without telling my mom. My mom always blame me and asked me "Why can't I be a good kid like other people and didn't need to make her worry about me?" During that time I'm only 14, which was a teenager only. I didn't care a lot and I was feeling moody so I told her  "Could you stop disturbing my life?"

Then I ran out of the house. When I was walking around outside, I'm still thinking about why my mom just can't understand me. Then I saw a man who was reading a book, which is your book. I asked him "What are you reading?" He told me it's about a man miss a woman who raised up her daughter by herself, and how hardworking is that woman. After I heard that, I started to cry. I didn't know that raising a kid by oneself is such a not easy work. I decided to run back home immediately. I apologized to my mom, promised her that I will be a good son and told her don't worried about me. After she heard those words, she told me "I just want you to grow up happily and be healthy. These things are all I want!"

In this world, most hardworking people are not people who worked, or people who earn money, they are mothers. They don't have time to rest, the need to take care of their children for 365 days. They worked for no money, and they didn't ask for anything back. You are like one of them but much greater. After you divorced, you didn't become depress about him. You decide to raise your daughter by yourself, although you want to give up serval time , however, you think that is not fear to your daughter.  Thanks you for what you had done to your daughter and telling people the mother love.