Entry # 11 - METACOGNITIVE ANALYSIS

How do I feel about my writing performance?

Going through a metacognitive analysis proves to be a very juicy exercise at the end of a course. Every time we reflect on our developement we are revising what we have actually learnt. Sincerity and objectivity are vital concepts at this point and when we find that the weak points have been lowered, we obtain certainty and self-confidence. After being requested to undergo such an analysis, it is of great importance to revise both improvements and weak points as well, as one's  actual perfomance will be defined after the analysis of both aspects.

           As far as my personal development in writing is concerned, I feel that a significant improvement has been evidenced in both the outcomes and my self-assessment. Firstly, having worked with the specific vocabulary has helped me to approximate to the requested genre. Secondly, I was able to recognize my mistakes more easily and consequently, I could take advantage of the editing step and make this process more efficient. Finally, I recovered the pleasure for writing, which had been lost a couple of years ago. All these events made me feel more confident with the subject itself and my subsequent written productions.

When considering the weak points, there are still some obstacles I would like to surpass with ease in the future. My weakest point this term has been confusing terms of British origin with others from American origin. This produced my not maintaining both local and global coherence of the text. Furthermore, another less serious difficulty was the permanent necessity to return to the theory whenever citing was requested. Finally, I had to make an enormous effort to maintain the unity of the texts as once I started writing about a topic, a lot of ideas started to flow from my mind and I found such a flow of ideas extremely difficult to control. Although weak points were present, the fact that I was able to recognize them on time help me to avoid further mistakes when writing.

All in all, I feel that the theory we were given to read has been very important for my personal development in the subject. Having known about the writing steps and having clarified the concepts of unity, coherence and cohesion made me fell more confident during the assignments. Although there is still a long way to go, significant improvements have been evidenced so far, and my being able to detect my weak points has also been really important. 

Working with synomym pairs:

Juicy: Syns. interesting, colourful, sensational, vivid, provocative, spicy.
Interesting:  that takes and keeps one's interest; giving entertainment.
Juicy=interesting.

Lower: Syns. to submerge, lessen, cut, reduce, moderte, diminish, decrease, slash, prune, minimize.
Lower: to make or become smaller in aount, degree, strength.
Reduce: to make less in size, amount, price, degree, etc
lower=reduce

Clarify: Syns.  explain, resolve, interpret, illuminate, explicate, clear the air about, shed light on.
Clarify: to make clearer and easier to understand, esp. by explaining and giving more details.
Interpret: to understand the likely meaning of a statement, action, etc.
clarify=interpret

Long: Syn.extended, elongated, extensive, lengthy./ Prolonged, slow, dragging, interminable
Long: measuring a large amount from one end to the other.
Extensive: large in amount, area or range; having an effect on or including many parts.
long/extensive

Note on the Graphic Organizer:
Based on the theory from the book "From Paragraph to Essay" I arranged the organizer so that the structural similarities between the paragraph and the essay can be easily recognized. It is important to make clear that my metacognitive analysis is not a essay but it was intended to maintain coherence throughout the four paragraphs (as essays do).

"...The paragraph is introduced by either a topic sentence or a topic introducer followed by a topic sentence. In the essay, the first paragraph provides introductory material and established the topic focus. Next, the sentences in the body of a paragraph develop the topic sentence. Similarly, the body of an essay consists ofa number of paragraphs that expand and support  the ideas presented in the introductory paragraph. Finally, a terminator ands a paragraph. The essay, too, has a device which brings its ideas to a logically and psychologically satisfying completion: the concluding paragraph."
                                                                                               (From Paragraph to Essay. CH 4. P 17)

Works cited:

          Imhoom, M and Judson, H. (1991) 7th Edition. From Paragraph to Essay. Developing Composition Writing. UK

Class # 9 Argumentative Paper - The Conflict in Syria

SFD 41
LANGUAGE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION 4
Paper's Topic: Conflict in Syria
Paper's Heading:
Syria
A Prescription to Control the World
 Students:                      
Alonso, Analia; Fares, Andrea; Torrecillas Xoana
Teacher: Saubidet, Stella
                            

Syria             

The Prescription to Control the World

     Syria has been involved in a bloody war for too many years, and although international investigators have made interesting discoveries about the real cause of this war, it is known that  USA, England and Saudi Arabia as well, stopped these researches with the unique intention of maintaining the truth hidden  The question should be who are the real actors that are today in the scenery of this conflict. It is obvious that there are not two groups fighting against each other, but there exists a third force that is not only provoking it to maintain its real intentions in secret (the intention of oil acquisition), but also inducing the use of chemical weapons to produce a worldwide aversion. The desire is undoubtedly  war as  the only way by which the actual international empire can preserve its power notwithstanding the terrible damages it causes due to its interests in worldwide and to its permanent political custom to induce and control other nation’s wills in foreign and international matters.

     The so called Syrian uprising began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime  in March 2011. However, it crossed an important point a year and a half later, when the international Red Cross formally declared it a civil war. Since then, the United Nations estimates more than 100,000 people have died in the disputes between President Bashar al-Assad's government and rebel forces who want to oust him. The amount of innocent victims is still climbing higher as fighting rages across the country are increasing significantly. Tens of thousand people are escaping from Syria, searching refugee camps in neighbouring countries such as Turkey and Greece. Initially,  the protesters just wanted democracy and more considerable freedom. Once the security forces opened fire on peaceful demonstrations, people demanded that the President, Bashar al-Assad, resignation. However, President Assad strongly refused to resign.

     No one can ignore that the profound of this conflict seem to be the struggle between the supporters of a leader who ruled the country in a dictatorial way, and other groups that pretend to obtain recognition of their rights as well as the end of racial discrimination in a  more unprejudiced and equitable society.  A profound analysis of the conflict will manifest the secret real cause and will also evidence USA’s  interests in oil as the only genesis. As a matter of fact,  this country does not want Syria to sell oil to other countries in anything but US dollars, and by contrast,  Syria wants to sell oil to Russia in rubles and to China in Chinese currency and to other countries in whatever they want to exchange for it. Doubtless, as US made many times before, it uses all the techniques, known and unknown, to maintain the war, as a manner to appear itself as the sole salvation in the moment of its intervention, as well as making a secret work to assure the continuation of the conflict. In the same way, there is enough evidence to assert that UK has been exchanging weapons for oil with Saudi Arabia a pronounced enemy to Syria since 1985.

    It is known that the possession of oil is nowadays the best way to maintain the primacy over the world, and USA is using all the possibilities to obtain it.  The use of chemical weapons to solve war conflicts exists from the very beginning of human history and there is enough evidence to assert that people have been utilizing and refining them to cause terrible damage. Although the Geneva Protocol prohibited the use of these mortal elements in warfare in 1924, the latest news made us know the use of this frightening poison in the Syrian conflict. This horrendous behavior has originated an intricate of accusations between USA, UK, France and Saudi Arabia against Syria´s governor Bashar al-Assad and Russia. USA promoted the investigation, making a public campaign against Assad as well as being the most resolute supporter of intervention as the only way to preserve civilian lives. By contrast,  recent researches have demonstrated that it is not clear not only who used the chemical weapons, but also who was inducing this action in secret.

      Syrian Foreign  Ministry Makdissi said that Syria would use chemical weapons only in case of foreign aggression but never against civilians and asked the United Nations to launch an investigation. Russia’s foreign minister supported this position assuring that revels do not have the possibility to use these weapons without the complicity of a power government interested in the end of  Assad´s regime. In the same way, UN's investigation team said that it is unclear what strategic benefit can be obtained by the regime by using these weapons, in the light of the risk it represents as an aversion to the entire world.  It is expected that the results and statements by the Swedish scientist and weapons expert Ake Sellstrom will be objective and balanced, which would then be a difference to the usual double-standards by the officials of the United Nations (UN) in terms of Syria. On the other hand, although Obama is the most powerful promoter of intervention ( as he had made before in Irak), US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel believes that the poison gas was used on a small scale and as if it was not enough, according to Moscow´s ambassador to the United Nations, chemical weapons were clearly used  most likely by Syrian rebels with the support of a segment interested in the intervention.

    In spite of the fact that the conclusions of the investigations are still not clear, Obama arranged and sent three American ships in the Mediterranean Ocean, expecting the order to bomb Syria for three days under the mask of an advertence, without taking into account the fact that it can provoke a terrible damage in the civilians that they are supposed to be defending. “What is the plan? Where are we going in Syria? And what do you want to accomplish?” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers asked Sunday.The constant propaganda against Syria´s government made by USA, convinced other countries to follow its ambitious plans of domination, such as Arabia (a Syrian´s enemy) which has been exchanging oil by weapons from France.

     In conclusion, the conflict in Syria seems to be provoked by hidden and secret interests by the part of the USA among other powerful countries. At present, such tendency is being evidenced by the ready-to- bomb forces placed in the Mediterranean Ocean. What is the plan? Not only seems the plan to be ignoring Syrians’ freedom but also seems to be causing a division among the deeply affected Syrians who escape in order to feel themselves safe. Whether Syria used chemical weapons or not may be a worldwide question whose answer people may desire to know, but the obvious interest by the part of the powerful nations in undoubtedly telling us the whatever the conflict may be, there exists a clear interest to restrict Syria’ s business and economy thus creating an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty which makes this war even more hostile and cruel.

Works Cited:

           Rogers, M. (2012) Lawmakers urge caution on US intervention in Syria. Fox. com[ONLINE]Available at:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/17/lawmakers-say-getting-involved-in-syria-shouldnt-be-us-option/#ixzz2dysZRSMf  [Last Accessed 30 August 2013].

          Telenoche ( September, 2nd) [tv programm], chanel 13

          WiseGEEK, clear answers for common questions. "What are Chemical Weapons?"[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-chemical-weapons.htm [Last Accessed 30 August 2013].

         Znews, "Chemical weapons in Syria". [ONLINE] Available at:zeenews.india.com/tags/chemical_weapons_in_Syria.html[Last Accessed 30 August 2013].

       Znews, "Hagelspeaks with Israeli Defence Minister on Iran, Syria and Egypt". [ONLINE] Available at:zeenews.india.com/news/world/hagel-speaks-with-israeli-defence-minister-on.iran-syria-amd-egypt 870772.html[Last Accessed 30 August 2013].

        Znews, "Hundreds gassed to death in Syria, world paralysed". [ONLINE] Available at:zeenews.india.com/news/world/hundreds-gassed-to-death-in-syria-world-paralysed-870850.html[Last Accessed 26August 2013].

Lets RECAP: ESSAY WRITING