Estuaries  By  Brycen  Lee  

Estuaries  By  Brycen  Lee  

 Table  of  Contents  

 

Author’s Note ————————————————————————#1

Three Versions of Me by Brycen Lee ——————————————#2

Championship Game by Brycen Lee ——————————————#3

Raising the Question by Brycen Lee ——————————————#4

The Tree by Brycen Lee ———————————————————#5

Why D3 Doesn’t Give Athletic Scholarships by Ken Colombe ———#6

Encyclopedia of Me: Reflective Paragraph by Matthew Trapasso ——#7

Portrait of a Serial Winner by Wright Thompson —————————#8

The Inside Story of How Alexis Sanchez Went From Small Town Hero to Arsenal’s £35 million man by Jeremy Wilson ———————————#9

 

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Author's Note The theme of my Zine is Estuaries. An estuary is a partially enclosed body of water along a coast where rivers and streams come together and mix with the ocean. The pieces of writing that I chose to include are different estuaries and the ocean is my Zine. Like estuaries leading into one big ocean, the pieces of writing I chose come together into my Zine. The criteria that I used to choose pieces of writing for my Zine were fairly lenient. I chose pieces of writing that I felt was an example of good writing, was written about topics that are important to me, and that fit well together with the other pieces of writing. Throughout this semester I have learned a lot about what good writing truly is. Good pieces of writing are well organized, have good flow and transitions, have good content, exhibit a strong voice, have good diction and sentence fluency, and a good thesis. I learned a lot about the writing process as well. In order to write a good piece of writing it is necessary to identify your topic organize your thoughts. Once you do these two steps, writing a good piece becomes fairly easy. I learned about editing, spotting mistakes, and giving good feedback. I feel that from taking this class, I have become a better writer. I have noticed an improvement in my sentence fluency, my diction, my organization, and my transitions and flow. Taking this class has made writing a whole lot easier for me. This Zine combines everything that I've learned from this class. I hope that you enjoy my Zine.  

2  

Three Versions of Me by Brycen Lee My name is Brycen Lee and I like art, music, and soccer. Art, music, and soccer bring out three very different "sides" out of me. I have a creative side, a playful side, and a serious and goal-driven side. Having all these different "sides" may seem like a bad thing but it I feel that it is actually beneficial for me because these three activities work in tandem to balance my personalities out. By balancing out my characteristics it helps me to apply the different characteristics to everything I do. I believe that it is important to have balance in your life physically and emotionally in order to live a better life. Music brings out the playful side of me. The musical instrument that I play is the guitar. I have been playing the guitar since I was 10 years old. When I play guitar I just play around by strumming different chords and melodic lines. By just playing random chords on my guitar I can teach myself how to play different songs and even create my own songs. I believe that in order to play well, it is necessary to "feel" what you are playing rather than being so serious. This also applies to art and soccer as well. Playing around on my guitar teaches me how to express myself and helps me to be more creative. Creativity is absolutely critical in art and soccer. Art brings out the creative side of me. My first experience of a real art class was when I took 2-D art in the first semester of my freshman year. Since then I've taken 2-D art every semester of my freshman and sophomore years. When I first took 2-D art I was really shy and afraid to express myself since that class was filled with seniors. However as the semester went on I became more playful which led to more creativity. I started to draw almost anything; sketches of shoes, self-portraits, landscapes, and even dreams that I've had. I became interested in experimenting with different drawing and painting techniques. As I got more creative I had more fun and became more serious in art class at the same time. I believe that the being more creative with my artwork led to me having more fun and led to me producing better art pieces. This applies to music and soccer as well. Soccer brings out my serious and goal-driven side. Everyone that knows me will tell you that I am extremely serious about soccer. Sometimes I get too serious and let my emotions get the best of me. When this happens, my anger management problems get the best of me, I play bad, and I do something stupid that costs my team and me. When I get angry I feel like I'm a volcano that's going to erupt and I become fixated on just taking my anger out on others. Being too serious becomes somewhat of a roadblock. It stops my creativity, I lose the "feel" of what I'm doing, and I do not have fun. In soccer I am learning to control my anger management problems by not being too serious and allowing myself to have fun and be creative. I believe that this applies to not only just soccer, but it applies to everything in life. Art, music, and soccer are three activities that I do that bring out three different "sides" of me. Art brings out my fun and playful side, music brings out my creative side, and soccer brings out my serious and goal-driven side. I believe that all these "sides" of me work in tandem to create balance in my life emotionally and physically. By finding equilibrium in our lives we are able to live a more joyful and carefree life. This is an example of a good piece of writing because it is well organized, has good transitions, and good flow. In my opinion, this is one of my best pieces of writing I have ever produced because I feel that it has a good flow and good transitions. In the introductory paragraph I stated the three versions of me and had a strong thesis on how these three versions of me impact the person I am. In each of the three body paragraphs I focused on each version of me and described each one of them. The last sentence of my essay sums up my paper and my thesis. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, good sentence fluency, good content, good flow, and good word choice.

3  

Championship Game by Brycen Lee It was the state championship soccer game for Division II. I was nervous and excited at the same time, and I knew my teammates felt the same way. Although we've played in the championship game previous year, we were on the losing side so this year we wanted to win more than ever. This was what my team and I prepared for the whole season. We trained hard, competed hard in each game, and overcame obstacles to get to this point. When it came to game time, we played hard and we won! The thrill of winning was exhilarating! After everything my team and I have gone through, we accomplished our main goal. Winning the championship game is something that I'm sure I'll never forget. This piece of work is a reflective paragraph that I wrote for the Encyclopedia of Me assignment. In my opinion this is a good piece of writing because it has a strong voice and good content. I like this paragraph a lot because I reflected on and described the challenges that my team and I faced on the way to winning the championship, and described the feeling of winning the championship. When I reread this paragraph it made me visualize and feel the emotions that my team and I went through on that journey. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has a strong voice and good content.

4  

Raising the Question by Brycen Lee Homework. The word that almost all students hate to hear. I hear a lot of students say, "Homework doesn't even help us understand this subject better" and "Well there goes my sleep tonight." Many studies have shown that homework isn't very beneficial at all. A study by Stanford has shown that students who spend too much time on homework "experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance, and even alienation from society." I feel that having too much homework is bad because it has negative effects on the physical and emotional wellbeing of students. This paragraph is my introductory paragraph for my Raising the Question paper. The things that I like about this paragraph are the "steal" sentences that I was able to incorporate into my paragraph to help me support my thesis, and the way I tried to capture the reader's attention. I used the word "homework" to start of my introductory paragraph because I know that as a high school student, a lot of us do not like to do and even bring up the dreaded subject which is homework so by starting off with that word could make the readers want to find out about how I feel about homework. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, good sentence fluency, and good content.

5  

The Tree by Brycen Lee It was Christmas morning and I was the first one up in my house. I ran to my brother and parents' room as fast as I could to wake them up. After about 10 minutes they finally got out of bed. Then we made our way to the living room where all the presents were. Our living room was filled with lots of presents around the tree. This tree was not a Christmas tree. It was an actual tree! My dad brought home this tree because all the stores ran out of Christmas trees. At first I was against it because I felt that it ruined the Christmas spirit, but after opening all the gifts and having a great time, I realized that it's not the tree that gives a place Christmas spirit. It is the people that are in that place that give it a Christmas spirit. This paragraph is a narrative paragraph that I wrote for the Encyclopedia of Me assignment. I feel that this paragraph is an example of good writing because it tells a story and it does not get off topic. I gave details on what I did that Christmas morning and gave details on the tree. It has a little bit of personal reflection, which helps to tie two different topics (Christmas morning and a regular tree) together. The personal reflection made this piece less boring than just reading a plain narrative paragraph. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, a strong voice, and good sentence fluency.

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Why Doesn't D3 Give Athletic Scholarships by Ken Colombe There has long been looming questions towards the National College Athletic Association, better known as the NCAA, about the division of levels and the money allowed to be given to student athletes. The NCAA has split the schools that are apart of it into three creatively named divisions. One, Two, and Three. Division One is where you’re going to find the regularly televised games on ESPN and talk about going pro. In contrast Division Three is a smaller market where money isn't supposed to squander the quality of true and pure competition. Not to be left out, Division Two is the in between. The big difference between Division One (and Two) and Division Three is the availability of athletic scholarships. Athletic scholarships are money given to a student in order to entice them to play a sport at your school. According to the NCAA the reason to not give scholarships is "to put the student first and to encourage a pure competitive atmosphere." At the division three level practice times are cut down per week to emphasize education. This is basically a ploy to counter scrutiny regarding education gaps for athletes at the division one level. One thing that the NCAA says that can be taken at face value is the idea of true competition. This means that student athletes aren't in the sport for money or fame, they truly love the sport and want to succeed. Another misconception is that the Division three level does not give scholarships because anyone that plays basketball could make a division three roster. This is entirely untrue! Honestly at the beginning of summer I believed that statement, but after several college visits I realized these kids are actually pretty good. No matter what level you still have to make shots, play defense, work hard and the kids that don't do that won't find a place anywhere. Also there are a lot of division one or two players that transfer to division three for all sorts of reasons. This shows the caliber of play these "non competitive" schools can play at. Ultimately division three schools should be allowed to give athletic scholarships. The NCAA should limit the max amount of money that can be given, but scholarships should be allocated to student athletes. It would division three more of a desirable place to play in minds of athletes that think, "D 3 is trash." This piece by Ken Colombe is about why division three schools do not give athletic scholarships. This is a piece that really caught my attention because like Ken, I want to play collegiate sports. I feel that this is and example of good writing because it has good content, good "steal" sentences, and good organization. The theme of this piece is something that is very important for a lot of students simply because many of them want to play collegiate sports. Ken uses good "steal" sentences to support his stance on the topic. The entire piece is well organized so that each paragraph comes together to support the thesis of the piece. I feel that this piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, good content, and good "steal" sentences.

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Encyclopedia of Me: Reflective Paragraph by Matthew Trapasso As a freshman, high school seemed to be overwhelming. The classes were longer than they had ever been, the classes were more difficult, and the amount of work seemed to be never ending. I struggled with paying attention for the entire class period, I had trouble with the material I had to learn, and it took hours to complete the homework each night. Yet, these problems have helped me grow as a person and as a student. Due to the challenges I had to face my freshman year, high school is much easier now that I am a junior. The length of the classes no longer bothers me, and it allows me to finish as much work as possible. The material is much easier now that I learned how to take notes and how to study for my classes. The homework does not take nearly as long as it once did, because I learned how to manage my time and to have a homework routine. The struggles of freshman year have made it so much easier as a junior. This paragraph is an introductory paragraph that Matthew Trapasso wrote for an assignment. I liked this piece a lot. The sentence he started this paragraph off with caught my attention because it was very relatable. Following this first sentence, he gave a brief overview on why high school was overwhelming. Matt built on that strong first sentence with a good thesis that tied everything together. This is a good piece of writing because gets to the point and supports its thesis very well. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, good sentence fluency, and good content.

8  

ESPN Magazine, Wright Thompson, Portrait of a Serial Winner, 5/27/14 Before getting to the alleged mob hit or the mystery of the missing referee, there should be an explanation about how this quest began. An assigned profile of Luis Suarez led to a stack of things to read about his past. Whether it was a tabloid calling him Cannibal! or The New York Times calling him Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz, the portrait is of a cheat and a lunatic. If someone breathes on him near the goal, he falls down like he's been knifed. He has bitten an opponent. Twice. And, back in his childhood in Uruguay, there's an oft-reported incident that serves as explanation, or maybe proof, that he is, in fact, batshit crazy. When Suarez was 15, overcome with anger, he headbutted a referee and received a red card in a youth match, making the man's nose bleed "like a cow," as a witness said. No soccer player in the world provokes such a strong emotional response as Liverpool's striker, with less of an understanding of what lurks beneath the surface. His recent injury, which puts his World Cup fitness into doubt, makes him more intriguing. Yet knowing Suarez is difficult, since he seems to not know himself, and, regardless, he wouldn't talk to me. The best path to that knowledge would have to be a journey through his past, looking for clues. That was the plan: talk to people who knew him and let their memories paint a picture. Those who met him during his early years, especially the first person he ever assaulted, might offer slivers of insight. So in addition to visiting Suarez's mother, friends and neighbors, I wanted to sit down with the referee. Only I couldn't find him. These are the first three paragraphs of an article written by Wright Thompson for ESPN about star soccer player Luis Suarez and was written right before the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It is personally one of my favorite pieces of writing I have read in a long time. In my opinion this is a good piece of writing because it has good content, good flow, good transitions, and a strong voice. The first paragraph serves as an introduction to Luis Suarez and how a lot of the media see him. The second and third paragraphs start to indicate how the things that happened to him while growing up made him who he is today: a brilliant yet extremely crazy. These first three paragraphs made me want to read more to find out why he acts how he acts because that is how I am when I play soccer sometimes. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, a strong voice, good flow, and good transitions.

 

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   The Telegraph, Jeremy Wilson, The inside story of how Alexis Sanchez went from small town hero to Arsenal's £35 million man, 08 August 2014 Arsenal were without their three World Cup winners at the annual members' day on Thursday but, even if Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski had suddenly arrived wearing their new medals, the star attraction would have been the same. All eyes from the stands were on the squat 5ft 7ins figure of Alexis Sanchez and inside the Armoury – the club shop – most wallets were being emptied in appreciation of Arsenal's most expensive ever striker. The ‘17 – Alexis' shirts have been the top seller of the summer but some novelty masks of the club's first player from Chile have also been moving with considerable speed. Sanchez obliged for pictures with fans and a few words in broken English but was at his most eloquent once the practice match began. A blur of passing followed. Sanchez to Mathieu Debuchy. Back to Sanchez again. A one-two with Yaya Sanogo and then a goal that drew audible gasps from the 5,000 or so fans at the Emirates. It was not quite as good as Jack Wilshere's ‘goal of the season' against Norwich last year but something comparable. By last night, the YouTube count had already risen beyond 100,000 and, even in that 15 seconds or so of grainy footage, there was a glimpse of why Sanchez is generating more excitement that any other Premier League newcomer this summer. These three paragraphs are part of an article written by Jeremy Wilson for The Telegraph about soccer star and new Arsenal signing Alexis Sanchez. I feel that this is a good piece of writing because it has good organization, good transitions, and good content. It shows how he is a special soccer player and how much excitement he brought to the Arsenal fans when he arrived to the first training of the season. The author uses these three paragraphs to contrast the body of the article, which was about how he came from a very poor family to having all the fame and adoration he receives today. This piece deserves to be in my Zine because it has good organization, good content, and good transitions.