Reflection on past writings

                During this semester, we had many writing assignments. All of them were different in what type of writing we needed to do for them. Learning all these different types of ways to write will be very helpful to me during the rest of my college years and my eventual career.

            One of the most helpful ways of writing we learned was writing an application essay. This assignment helped teach us what we needed to include and how to write it. The biggest lesson we learned for this was to “show, not tell.” To do this, you need to show your qualifications instead of just saying what they are. An example of this is instead of saying you get good grades; you say your grade point average or say the grades you get. This assignment was one of the easier ones we had to do. “Show, not tell” was not very hard to learn and was easy to incorporate into my writing.

            Another assignment that will be helpful in the future is the one on how to write an argument. The section taught us that in order to be affective in an argument we need to be able to see both sides. By being able to see both sides you can pick out the other sides points and disprove them. This makes your argument more believable because it shows that you know what you are talking about. Knowing how to properly write an argument will be very helpful for college because there are many assignments where you have to make an argument. Picking an argument to write about for my blog was difficult knowing I’d have to acknowledge the other side and not be biased about my point of view on the subject. Once I found a good topic, writing about it was easier than I thought it would be.

            Looking back at all my writing assignments, I can see how my writing has improved. Knowing all these different writing styles will surely help me in the future. Being able to write in different ways for different situations will help in whatever job I get in the future because I will be a versatile writer.

Should the driving age be raised to 18

            The question of raising the driving age has been around for a few years now. Some people think the age of sixteen is not the best age for teenagers to start learning to drive simply because they are not mature enough for the responsibility. They think the age of eighteen, when people are considered to be an adult, is a better age. At eighteen people are more mature and are more capable of making better decisions, whereas sixteen year olds are not.

            Raising the driving age needs to be done so that the roads will be safe and filled with responsible drivers. Sixteen is not a good age to have teenagers learn to drive. People argue that all ages have car accidents but “16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age” ("RMIIA"). This shows that they are not ready to be driving yet. A sixteen year-olds brain is not mature enough and “a crucial part of the teen's brain — the area that peers ahead and considers consequences — remains undeveloped” (DeBarros, Hansen, and O’Donnell). Teenager’s brains are just not developed enough for them to understand the consequences on their actions. When they drive recklessly they don’t realize and are incapable of thinking enough ahead to see that what they are doing will have dire consequences on themselves and the others in the car or on the road.

            Other arguments against raising the age are that teens have jobs and need to get to work. There are plenty of other ways they can get to their jobs that doesn’t involve them driving themselves. They can get rides from their parents, take a bus or train, and they could walk if the job is no too far. This argument also goes toward teen driving themselves to school.

            Raising the driving age will make the roads safer. Getting rid of the younger, immature sixteen year-old drivers will only help save the lives of those teenagers and the others on the road. If the states agree to raise the age, they will be lowering the amount of deaths and car accidents that are caused young drivers.

 

. "Teen Driving Statistics." RMIIA. Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, n.d. Web. 9 Dec 2012. <http://www.rmiia.org/auto/teens/Teen_Driving_Statistics.asp>.

DeBarros, Anthony, Barbara Hansen, and Jayne O'Donnell . "Is 16 too young to drive a car?." usatoday. USA TODAY, 02 2005. Web. 9 Dec 2012. <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-02-teens-cars-main-usat_x.htm>.

Trends

                Online shopping is more popular now than it has ever been. People love being able to just go online, click and buy. It just makes shopping so much easier. This trend has been rising since its beginning in the 1990’s. Every day, more and more people are choosing to do their shopping over the internet instead of actually going to a store.

            Almost every store nowadays has a website online from which you can shop. Even grocery stores have this option. Statistics show that online sales have grown "from 72 billion U.S. dollars in 2002 to 256 billion U.S. dollars in 2011" ("statista").

This shows that in the United States, Americans spent 184 billion more dollars in the course of 9 years and these numbers are only going to rise in the future. It is “predicted that online retail revenues alone would reach 269 billion U.S. dollars by 2015” ("statista").

            During the holidays is when online shopping is at its best. A lot of people like to avoid the large crowds of gift buyers. Online shopping is a simple way to get your Christmas shopping, or birthday shopping, done and over with without having to go out. Stores also encourage this by having many online deals that makes online shopping even better.

            There are both good and bad parts about the rise of the online shopping trend.

The good being that it is more convenient for shoppers. It is much more convenient for a shopper to just log on to his or her computer and shop that way. Also, it is very easy to compare prices from different stores online to get a better deal. A bad side to this is the shipping costs you have to pay for the items to be taken to your house. Depending on what website you are shopping from, the shipping can be very expensive and sometimes make what you are purchasing not worth it. Another thing to be wary about with online shopping is the item you ordering being broken or not exactly what you thought it would be. People also leave their houses less often due to their being online shopping. Since they can just get whatever they want delivered to their house, there isn't as many reasons to leave. As this trend rises, the more these pros and cons will be looked at and noticed by those participating in it.

            The trend online shopping is a big one. One which many people do every day. It is a trend that will be around for a long time and will just keep getting more popular.

While there are some negatives in this trend, most people will just focus on the postitives.