Jennifer's Writing Portfolio

To Whom It May Concern,

First of all, I want to thank you for taking your precious time to read my writing portfolio.  I’m a student of Fudan University, major in social work..  This portfolio is an assignment of the course Academic English Writing, which is my English selective course.

The following five essays are my main work in the course, the order of which is under Mr. Corio’s instruction.  I was an average English writer before taking the course.  During this semester, Ron Corio, my teacher, gave me a lot of advice and writing strategies on essay writing, especially on critical writing.  Those advices are about how to form your own thesis, how to start an essay, how to find evidence to suprport it and how to quote properly, which is of great importance to make my essay perfect.  Thanks to Mr.Corio’s help, I will not be at a loss when writing an arguementative essay next time and I’m pretty sure that I can write better than before.  Meanwhile, I learned the eleven critical element of a story, how to find the ideas the author wants to convey by analyzing these elements and how to read efficiently.

The first three essays, as you can see from the title, are the three-draft-writing, which is the largest project of this semester.  These three essays are those which I put the most efforts into.  It is a critical essay for the story “The Grass-Eaters”.  In the essay, I blamed the Indian government for its incapablity.  After I finished draft one, we had a peer-reviewing.  My peer group pointed out some grammar mistakes and I rewrote the essay according to their suggestions.  You can figure this out by comparing my first two drafts.  Then I turned in my draft two.  When I get my essay back, I was very much surprised, for Mr. Corio’s pointing out that there were more than a dozen mistakes in my draft.  The biggest problem, as Mr. Corio pointed out, was that my idea was not well-supported.  To solve the problem, I did a lot of research on the internet to find evidence, for little evidence exists in the story.  If you compare my draft three with draft two, you can find that I used a lot of examples and statistics in my third draft.  This is the result of doing online research..

The final-timed-writing is a writing test that we had in our computer lab.  We had two more timed-writing before this one.  The biggest challenge of timed-writing is to use the limited time properly.  Fortunately,  Mr. Corio gave us some strategies in the first two timed-writing.  That is  to write out the main idea of each paragraph first and to set aside about five to ten minutes to edit what I have written, which turned out to be very helpful.  If I had not written out the main idea first, I might not be able to finish the writing in time.

The reading log is chosen from my four reading logs which I wrote in the beginning of this semester.  The one that is presented to you is the one I consider the best.  I didn’t change the writing much when posted it except for some grammar mistakes.  The reading log is for the story  “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen”, which tells us how a Jew named Shadrach Cohen became Americanized without abandoning his original religious believes.  The reading log mainly focus on how I feel after reading the story, not the story itself.  I like the way I convey my idea, I hope you like it too.

Finally, I want to thank you again for reading my writing portfolio.  I hope you can enjoy it.

Yours faithfully,
Jennifer Cheng

Jennifer Cheng
May 26, 2007
Draft 3

Who to Blame?

Walking into a park, sitting on grass, enjoying the sunshine around you in a warm spring afternoon is so enjoyable that everyone will love.  However, when you realize that someone is fed on the grass you are sitting on, will you be as happy as others?  “The Grass-Eaters” by Krishnan Varma is an example of the miserable life of the poor in India.  The main character, Ajit Babu, doesn’t have a stable shelter and lives in a pipe, a wagon and even on a roof.  Babu and his family don’t have enough food and clothes and only one of his sons survives.  Although the miserable life might be caused by many reasons, the Indian Government should be blamed at least partly, if not totally, for the suffering of the poor.

What should a government provide for his people and what should a government do?  In my point of view, safety, basic medical care, promoting the economy of the country and stabilizing the price.  Nevertheless, the Indian Government failed in all the above aspects.

It is common that various religions exist in one country.  And it also goes without saying that the government should enable the different religions to stay in harmony.  That is why China has departments like Religious Affair Committee in Chinese government to stabilize the different religions in China.  However, as the story tells us, it is not the case in India.  The fact that the “Hindus and Muslims were killing each other”(56) in East Bengal has revealed the bedlam of the Indian society. The Government failed to alleviate the religious conflicts between the Hindu and Islam and they ended up with violence, which caused suffering to the innocent citizens: they had to drift from place to place.  As a matter of fact, the behaviour of the Indian government at that time was quite disappointing.  The government did not remain neutural when dealing with the religion conflict and the worse thing was that the government would arise the religious contradictory on purpose as long as it would bring benefit to it (Website of Encyclopedia of China Public House). 

As the story tells us, Ajit Swapna, Ajit Babu’s wife, gives birth to four children.  But only the fourth child, Prodeep, survives.  Diphtheria and fatigue makes the other three children die young (57).  It is quite unbelievable that a child died of diphtheria, especially in such a large city like Calcutta.  As we all know, vaccine for diphtheria has already been invented since 1940 and many countries, including China, which is a developing country as well, consider providing free vaccine for diphtheria as one of the government’s duties.  Thus, it seemed that the Indian Government was responsible for one of Babu’s sons’ death.  If the government had done good enough to provide free vaccine, the child would have survived and the Ajits would not have to endure the pain of losing their loving kid.

Economy is one of, if not the only one, the ways to show the power of a certain country.  Also, one of the most important duties of a country’s government is to promote its economy to ensure its people live a satisfactory life.  Education is financially supported by government and the money the government invests in education comes from taxes.  Babu teaches in a “municipal primary school” (57), but he gets little payment.  It is assumed that people whose income comes from taxes do not have worries about money if working in a country with good econmy.  But it is not the case for Babu.  As a civil-servant, his income is given by the government.  His not getting enough money implies that the government did not get enough taxes, which could be supported by some data.  From 1950 to 1985, the Indian Government had gathered about 1453 billion rupees (about 55.9 billion US dollars) as taxes, which is far from sufficient(Website eshui).  That was why India had owed about 60 billion US dollars’ foreign loans from 1949 to 1988.  And why didn’t the government get enough taxes?  The answer was simple: the bad economy at that time in India. The financial situtation was very tight during the whole 1980’s (Website eshui), which was the main cause of inflation and financial deficits in the early 1990’s.  If the India government had been able to promote the economy and get more taxes, the Ajits would not have lived so miserably.

Stabilizing the price of the market should also be considered one of the government’s duties.  As we can see, the Ajits’ eating grass “when the price of rice started soaring”(58) shows the government’s incapacity to stabilize the price of daily necessities.  The government could have used some administrative method to control the price so that the Ajits would not have to suffer eating grass instead of rice as their staple food.  How sad it is for human beings to live on grass!  If the government had been more effective, there might be no “grass-eaters”.  If the government had governed the country well, the Ajits could have lived on some ordinary food.

Babu experiences so much suffering which is beyond our imagination.  However, at the end of the story, the narrator tells us that Babu loses one leg from a fall from the roof of a tram.  The tram accidents seem to be very common, as the story tells us:
   
If he tries to, the passengers beat him up, set fire to the tram and any other vehicles parked in the vicinity, loot nearby shops, break street lamps, take out a procession, hold a protest meeting, denounce British imperialism, American neo-colonialism, the central government, capitalism and socialism, and set off crackers (58-59).

How could a government let such things happen!  The police are supposed to maintain the public security and to protect the safety of the citizen’s life and possession.  However,they did not function.  The society had totally been turned into a mess.  There was no possibility for its citizen to stay free from damage.  That was why Babu loses his leg.  If the government had had effective police, Babu might not lose his leg and not have to endure the physical and mental pain of losing a leg.

Looking back to the article, every one would be sympathetic for Babu.  He has too many sufferings: money shortage, the pain of losing loving children, living on grass, being forced to shift from place to place and the physical disability.  Sadder, none of the above was his fault.  It was the incapable government that made all the suffering possible.  Krishnan helps us to discover the truth and the government should learn a lesson after reading it.

Work Cited

Krishnan, Varma. “The Grass-Eaters.” 1985. Rpt in the International Story: Anthology of Short Stories.  Ruth Spack. New York: St. Martin’s, 1994. 56-59
Fu Yongsheng, “Encyclopedia of China Public House Homepage”,  15 March, 2002,  <http://www.ecph.com.cn> (26 May, 2007)

Beijing Ruize Tax Firm, “Homepage”, 26 August, 1999,   <http://www.eshui.net>  (26 May, 2007)

Jennifer Cheng
May 4, 2007
Draft 1

Title

Walking into a park, sitting on grass, enjoying the sunshine around you in a warm spring afternoon is so enjoyable that every one will love.  However, when you realize that someone is fed on the grass you are sitting on, will you be as enjoyable as others?  “The Grass-Eaters” by Krishnan Varma is an example of the miserable life of the poor whose main food is grass in India.  The main character, Ajit Babu, didn’t have a stable shelter, lived in a pipe, a wagon and even on a roof.  Babu and his family didn’t have enough food and clothes and only one of his sons survived.  Although the miserable life might be caused by many reasons, the Indian Government should be blamed at least partly, if not totally, for the suffering the poor had.

What should a government provide for his people and what should a government do?  In my point of view, safety, basic medical help, promoting the economy of the country and stabilizing the price.  Nevertheless, the Indian Government failed in all the above aspects.

It is common that various religions exist in one country.  And it also goes without saying that the government should enable the different religions to stay in harmony.  That’s why we have departments like Religious Affair Committee in our government.  However, as we can see from the article, it wasn’t the case in India.  “We had just arrived in Calcutta from East Bengal where Hindus and Muslims were killing one another.” has revealed the bedlam of the Indian society.  The Government failed to alleviate the religious conflicts between the Hinduism and Muslimism and they ended up with violence, which caused suffering to the innocent citizens: they had to drift from place to place.  The government could have done better to avoid this.

As the story tells us, Swapna Babu, Ajit Babu’s wife, gave birth to four children.  But only the fourth child, Prodeep, survived.  Diphtheria and fatigue made the other three children die young.  It is quite unbelievable that a child died of diphtheria, especially in such a large city like Calcutta.  Most of the countries provide vaccine for diphtheria.  Even in China, which is a developing country as well, vaccine for diphtheria is free and it is an obligation for the parents to give their children the vaccine.  Thus, it is not proper to say that the Indian Government was not responsible for one of Babu’s sons’ death.  If the government was able to provide better but still essential medical help, that child may survive and the Babus may not have to endure the pain of losing their loving kid.

Economy is one of, if not the only one, the ways to show the power of a certain country.  Also, one of the most important duties of a country’s government is to promote its economy to ensure its people live a satisfactory life.  Babu taught in a “municipal primary school”, but he got little payment.  The little payment is the most direct cause of the miserable life the Babus lived.  Education is financially supported by government and the money the government invests in education comes from taxes.  Thus, we can infer that the reason why Babu got little payment is that the government failed to get enough taxes, which implies the terrible economy condition of India at that time.  Education is the area that every government would support as much as it can.  If the government cannot even ensure the sufficient income of a public school, how bad the economy at that time was!  In a word, if the Indian Government had been able to promote the economy, the Babus wouldn’t live in such a miserable life just because Ajit could not make enough money by being a public school teacher.

Stabilizing the price of the market should also be considered one of the government’s duties.  As we can see, “We took to eating it (grass) when the price of rice started soaring.” shows the government’s incapacity to stabilize the price of daily necessities.  The government could have used some administrative method to control the price so that the Babus wouldn’t have to suffer eating grass instead of rice as their staple food.  How sad it is for human beings to live on grass!  If the government had been more effective, there might be no “grass-eaters”.  If the government had governed the country well, the Babus could have lived on some ordinary food.

Babu experienced so much suffering which is beyond our imagination.  However, at the end of the story, the narrator tells us that Babu lost one leg from a fall from the roof of a tram.  The tram accidents seemed to be very common, as the story tells us:
 
    If he tries to, the passengers beat him up, set fire to the tram and any other vehicles parked in the vicinity, loot nearby shops, break street lamps, take out a procession, hold a protest meeting, denounce British imperialism, American neo-colonialism, the central government, capitalism and socialism, and set off crackers.

How could a government let such things happen!  The police are supposed to maintain the public security and to protect the safety of the citizen’s life and possession.  But, it didn’t function.  The society had totally turned into a mess.  There is no possibility for its citizen to stay free from damage.  That’s why Babu lost his leg.  If the government had had effective police, Babu might not lose his leg and not have to endure the physical and mental pain of losing a leg.

Looking back to the article, every one would be sympathetic for Babu.  He had too many sufferings: money shortage, the pain of losing loving child, living on grass, being forced to shift from place to place and the physical disability.  Sadder, none of the above is his fault.  It is the incapable government that made all the suffering possible.  Varman helped us to discover the truth and the government should learn a lesson after reading it.

06300730075
Jennifer Cheng
June 21, 2007
Timed-Writing Three

Directions:  If you were to create a filmed advertisement (a “trailer&rdquo for a movie based on The Grass-Eaters, which scene would you select?  Why?  Discuss ways in which you might film the scene. (100%)

If I were to create a filmed advertisement for the movie based on The Grass-Easters, I would choose two scenes.  One is the Ajits staying in an empty wagon, finding out that the train was running away from where it had been.  The other is the Ajits eating grass as their meal on the roof.

The reason why I choose the first scene is that the scene can represent the drifting life of the Ajits. The author put a lot of emphasis on the Ajits’ miserable life, drifting from place to place.    There must be a reason that the author wrote a lot about this, which is that it vividly represents the hardship of their life.  Therefore, I think it is essential for the audience to have a general idea about how drifting their life is through this scene.

The reason I choose the other scene is that it explains the reason why the story is titled The Grass-Easters.  If I put this scene in, the audience will realize that the grass-eaters are literally the grass-eaters.  It is not a parable.  It is not an exaggeration.  It is real and it happens just around us.  Through this scene, the audience can have a visual and spiritual strike, which can attract them to see this particular movie.

I would film the trailer in the following ways.

Firstly, I will film a running train at the daybreak, with smoke from the chimney of it, in an establishing shot.  Then I will move the camera lens nearer and nearer to the train.  At the meantime, the hoot of train becomes louder and louder.  Finally the camera would reach one wagon, and audience can find two people lying in the wagon.  They are just about to wake up.  When they open their eyes, they will look out of the window in surprise and shout out,” Damn it!  I didn’t realize it would run away when we creep into the wagon last night.  We are now hundreds of miles away from where we were last night!”  Meanwhile, a feature will be used to their face to illustrate how frightened and surprised they are.

Then I will change the scene to the roof of a building where the Ajits live.  The camera will firstly circle the roof and find out that there is no furniture.  Then in one corner of the roof, there is lots of grass.  The Ajits are sitting not far from the grass, facing a boiling pot.  Features will be used to their body and they are nearly naked.  Then I will move the camera to what is in the pot.  A feature will be used to show what is in it –Grass.  Then the camera will be moved to Ajit Babu’s face, which is quite satisfied, saying, “We are lucky to have grass to eat.  The rice is too expensive to afford.”  After that, there comes out another scene, with “Why They Are Suffering This?  Come to the Cinema and Find More.” on it.

This is my plan of the filmed advertisement for the movie based on The Grass-Easters.  I hope you can enjoy it.

Reading Log for The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen