Write about a real or imaginary situation in which you used or could use three or more of the life skills discussed in this chapter to improve your health.
(Or)
Write about a time when your family made a group decision on something you were going to do, such as where to go for dinner or how to spend a vacation.
I cannot think about what to write for either of these. Do you have any suggestions?
Which life skills do you want to write about?
I wish to write about using refusal skills, making great decisions, and communicating effectively.
You could write about refusing to attend regular school.
How would I write it, though? I mean, in what format?
Write it in paragraph format. You could start with your struggle with regular school and what led you to your decisions about it.
A: From the time I was a young girl, I have never seemed to care to be in the company of others. To associate with them more than often always exhausts me. Therefore, there were no possible means for me to willingly attend a public school. In fact, after many of my failed attempts to convince my mother otherwise, I simply refused, speaking as effectively as I could manage, wanting desperately for her to understand. Eventually, however, she did, which ultimately led me to where I am standing today. There was no doubt that I had made a wonderful decision, once I received the support of my entire family, in which result in excellent grades, structure, and an opportunity to gain further knowledge?
May I ask for your opinion?
That's very good. However, I don't really understand this sentence. "In fact, after many of my failed attempts to convince my mother otherwise, I simply refused, speaking as effectively as I could manage, wanting desperately for her to understand. "
What did you refuse to do? Did you just stop going to school?
No, I refused to attend a public school. I was home-schooled then. Several years later, I transferred to an alternative school in which I still complete my schoolwork and assignments at my own house.
Should I alter it?
"In fact, after many of my failed attempts to convince my mother that I wished to remain home-schooled, I simply refused, speaking as effectively as I could manage, wanting desperately for her to understand. "
*Correction: "In fact, after many of my failed attempts of trying to convince my mother that I wished to remain home-schooled, I simply refused, speaking as effectively as I could manage, wanting desperately for her to understand. "
I think it's fine the way it is. Good job!
I'm signing off now. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon.
Thank you. Goodnight.
My only comment is you are becoming a commakazi. Count the sentences, and count the commas.
sentences:six
commas: thirteen
examples for you:
Effective writing usually consists of shorter sentences, with few fragements, and compound sentences. One sentence, two commas.
Short sentences are a key to effective writing. one sentence, no commas
HOWEVER, there are few rules on using punctuation that cannot be broken. But I recommend you focus on making your sentences shorter, and simpler. Commakazis are out to kill effective writing (as my college writing instructor at the Univ of Texas wrote on my first paper ).
Bob is right. Most of your commas are OK, but there are at least two too-long sentences that need to be cut into shorter ones. Here they are:
In fact, after many of my failed attempts to convince my mother otherwise, I simply refused, speaking as effectively as I could manage, wanting desperately for her to understand. Eventually, however, she did, which ultimately led me to where I am standing today.
These 2 sentences should become 3, or even better, 4.
There was no doubt that I had made a wonderful decision, once I received the support of my entire family, in which result in excellent grades, structure, and an opportunity to gain further knowledge?
This sentence should become 3 -- and you need to get rid of one of the instances of "in" in the middle, but that could be taken care of even better by dividing up this too-long sentence.