Dear Prospective Reader

My last English class was in 8th grade, which was the last year of school I had. This was a point in my life when I enjoyed writing. I was in a creative writing class and was selected to make a graduation speech. I had multiple pen pals and a column in a statewide newsletter called Dear Josh, where children would send me questions about Tourette syndrome. People accused my parents of writing the posts from me. That was over 10 years ago, since that time I have learned to hate writing. I got out of the habit of writing and my writing skills declined to the point where putting words to paper was a struggle.

I am presently enrolled in Everett Community College for a Computer Science Transfer. I plan to transfer to the UW. I am presently in English 97 to strengthen my English skills. I started this class hating to write and only took it to prepare me for English 101, which is needed for me to transfer. Throughout the quarter I have began to appreciate writing again. I no longer look at it with dread, and I find myself beginning to brainstorm ideas for short stories and poems. My thoughts and ideas that used to be a struggle to put to paper, but they now flow freely. I credit this to an understanding instructor and being forced to write a lot.

My desire with this e-portfolio is to show you my progression as a writer. I will start with the very first thing I have written and end with my most accomplished work so far. I find humor in everything and most of my writing reflects that. I hope you enjoy my writings and feel free to leave feedback and/or suggestions. Writing is a process and any ideas to help me down that path will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Joshua

Introduction to The Trip to Disneyland

This first piece is a writing sample that we had to complete the first day of class. We were required to write for ten minutes in any topic we chose. I titled this piece “The Trip to Disneyland.” I chose this paper because I wanted to show what my writing ability was at when I first started this class. I had a lot of facts about the trip, but there were not many details showing what I experienced. For example, “We spent three days at Disneyland riding the rides and seeing all the shows,” tells you what we did but does not show you. A better was to write it would be “We spend three days walking all over Disneyland in the blistering California sun. The first attraction that we went to was the Tiki Hut. The kids loved watching all the birds singing and the drums booming. They almost jumped out of there skin when the rain god’s thundering voice shook the room.” This example lets you experience the event rather then tell you about it. After much deliberation I decided to leave the story as it was originally written, so that you see how my writing has progressed.

The Trip to Disneyland

A year ago last summer my brother and I took our kids on a trip to California. Over the summer had got laid off and decided to use the free time to take everyone to Disneyland. We loaded up his kids, our mom and my daughter in his van and drove to CA. We spent three days at Disneyland riding the rides and seeing all the shows. Our mother is disabled so we had much shorter lines to wait in. this really made the trip more enjoyable. Instead of waiting over an hour we would only have to wait less then 20 minutes. On the forth day we went to the San Diego Zoo. It’s amazing how much you have to walk there, especially when you have to push a wheelchair. The last day we were there we spend the afternoon at Knott’s Barry Farms and then drove back home.

Introduction to The Last Farewell

This piece is a “skeleton” that was written in the sixth week of class. A “skeleton” is when you take a few sentences, or in our case dialogues, and write a story around them. My dialogue is called, “The Last Farewell.” This is a story of two childhood sweethearts who meet years later and find that their relationship has changes drastically. I picked this piece because I feel it shows my capability of as a writer. An illustration of this is when it says “An anguished look contorts Ernest’s face as he drops her hand to the table. The chair skids across the café in his hurry to stand up.” It is full of emotion and really shows you what is happening.

The Last Farewell

It was a pleasant spring day in London. It had rained early that morning but cleared by midmorning and there was a cool breeze. After spending the morning shopping for flowers Petunia decides to have lunch at her favorite café that is next to the rose gardens. After ordering her meal, she is taken aback to see her childhood sweetheart Ernest walking up the lane.

“Hello, Petunia,” Ernest says while flourishing a bow, “lovely day for a stroll, is it not?” While gazing into her deep brown eyes, he asked, “That is a nice hat, is it new?”

“Hi Ernest,” Petunia whispers while she tries to repress emotions she thought long dead. “It is a pleasant morning,” she replies while offerings Ernest her hand. “I just bought it this morning. Thank you for noticing.” While kissing her hand, he slowly sits down next to her. “What are you doing back in London?” Petunia inquires while vainly trying to untangle her hand from his.

“All the beauty of Paris is meaningless when my heart is here in London,” Ernest says looking deeply in to Petunia’s eye. Shaken by this sudden confession of love, Petunia turns away, unable to witness the passion in Ernest’s eyes.

“You have been away for such a long time and I thought you were never coming back again,” Petunia says, while plucking the petals from a nearby rose.

“Those words were spoken in anger. I never meant to hurt you,” cries Ernest

“I guess you haven’t heard,” confesses Petunia as she crumples the petals and scatters them across the ground, “I married your brother.” A look of great anguish contorts Ernest’s face as he drops her had to the table. In his hurry to stand up, Ernest sends the chair skidding across the café and crashing into another table, spilling the drinks.

“How could you,” he shouts over his shoulder as he storms off with tears falling down his cheek. “I loved you!”

“I’m so sorry, but I thought you were never coming back,” Petunia sobs. Unfortunately it was of no avail for he had already turned the corner. Deep in her heart, she knew that was the last she would ever see of Ernest.

Introduction to The Car Was a Mess

“The Car Was a Mess”is a descriptive paragraph where we had to “show not tell.” “Show not tell” is where I describe something so well that you do not need me to actually say it. I feel that this story is so describes the car so well that it will make your skin crawl. A good example of this is, “As I shoved the papers out of the way to sit down I saw numerous stains and an assortment of candy bars melted on the seat. Using one of the stores adds as a seat cover I carefully sat down and realized that my feet are stuck to the floor board.” This gives you an idea of just how messy the car was without saying the car was a mess.

The Car Was a Mess

My friend and I carpool to college everyday, and one day I made the mistake of letting him drive. When I walked up to the car, the first thing I noticed was the large mound, of what appeared to be clothes, pizza boxes and the occasional fast food drink cup, that covered the entire back seat.

I opened the passenger door and out toppled a pile of old junk mail, various grocery stores adds, and other objects that I did not want to look at close enough to identify. As I shoved the papers out of the way to sit down I uncovered numerous stains and an assortment of candy bars melted into the seat. I grabbed one of the outdated adds to use as a seat cover, before sitting down.

Once seated, I realized that my feet are stuck to the floor board. I close the door while squeezing myself between the door and the mound of old, moldy clothing next to me, but as I closed the door, the handle came off in my hand. Spending ten minutes working the handle back on the door, I begin to noticed the stench of rotten fish coming from somewhere under the driver’s seat.

My friend jumped in the driver’s seat completely ignoring the half eaten hamburger that he just sat on. It took him three tries to get the car started, and the car gave off a horrendous screeching noise that came from somewhere under the hood. We started down the highway to the college when I began to realize that the windows were not fogged up but were coated with dirt and grim.

This trip was the longest twenty minutes of my life. The car shook the whole way, and I think we lost some parts along the way. We managed to make it to college and back home with out dying from his driving or from whatever was crawling around in the back seat. I then decided the from now on I would do all the driving.