Think before you drink (opinion paragraph)

       There are many good reasons not to drink alcoholic beverages. Having said that, I think it is okay to drink a glass of wine, a beer, or a glass of champagne at a social event from time to time, but drinking excessively, every day is not a good thing, for the following reasons. First, alcohol is a drug, and if you drink too much of it, you will become addicted, an alcoholic. This means that you can't go without a drink for more than a day or two without feeling sick and craving a drink. I think we would all agree that it's not a good thing to be addicted to anything, whether it is alcohol, cocaine, or work. When we are addicted, the thing controls us, we don't control the thing. Second, drinking too much can cause chaos in your life. For example it can make you to miss work if you are drunk or have a hangover, and maybe even lose your job, have family problems,  get a divorce and lose your family. Is a drink worth that risk?  Finally, excessive drinking is bad for your body. For instance, every drink that you take destroys brain cells.   And alcohol causes damage to the liver over time. Many people who have been alcoholics for years die early when they get cirrhosis of the liver and their liver stops functioning. I guess that's why they call it a "liver." Excessive drinking actually causes little holes to form in your liver, making the organ look like a piece of Swiss cheese. In conclusion, it's alright to have a drink at a special occasion every once in a while, or a glass of wine with a meal occasionally, but if you drink to excess, you will become addicted.  it will cause chaos in your work and family life, and over time it will damage your brain and liver, two organs that you cannot live without. Think before you drink.    

   

Put your cell phone away!

                    Almost everyone has cell phones nowadays, and they make our lives easier, but there are some bad aspects of cell phones, too.  First, some people spend hours on their cell phones every day and waste time that they could be using to do other, more productive things. For example, some young people spend more than eight hours a day on their cell phones, texting and surfing the net, but don't have time to go to class or do homework.  Is all that time necessary? Think of all the other positive things they could do if they cut down the time they spend on their cell phones daily.  Second, cell phone can be very expensive. For example, an Iphone or  SmartPhone might cost you a few hundred dollars a month, depending on the company, your plan, and how you use it.  For people who don't earn a lot of money, that's a big part of their budget. That's a lot of money that they could use to do other things, like going out to eat or buying gas for your car.  Finally, cell phones can be bad for your health.  Many young people are developing problems with their thumbs from texting too much. And there is some medical research suggesting that cell phones may actually give off some transmissions that could be bad for your health or even cause cancer if you use cell phones over a long period of time. So you might not want to hold your cell phone in your hand all day or always put it in the same pocket.  If you text while you drive, you are more likely to have an accident, and that could definitely be bad for your health! In conclusion, there are obviously a lot of benefits to new technology and cell phones, but they can have some disadvantages, too, such as wasting time, costs, and possible health issues.

                   I only know one person who doesn't own a cell phone. He is a professor at Ivy Tech Community College, where I teach, and seems to do just fine. He borrows his wife's cell phone whenever he needs to use one. How did we all live 20 years ago without cell phones?

What do you think about cell phones?

Valentine's Day

             Most people around the world celebrate Valentine's Day on February 14th each year. In the United States, the day is about celebrating love and friendship. For some people, it is about romantic love, a time for a boyfriend to buy red roses and a box of chocolates for his girlfriend. Or a husband takes his wife to dinner and a movie.  For children, the day is about friendship. In elementary school, children give Valentine cards and little candy hearts to the other children in their class and to their teachers.

What do people do on Valentine's Day in your country?

Cell phone slaves?

          I saw the image below on the Internet the other day and starting thinking about cell phones. When I look around and observe how most people use their cell phones, it makes we wonder if we are becoming addicted to our phones, or maybe we are becoming slaves to our cell phones and technology in general. On the college campus where I teach, I see that most of the students are constantly checking their cell phones for text messages, email, surfing the net, whatever. I don't see them talking to each other that much. Each of them is checking his or her cell phone and ignoring the people nearby. Most people have Smartphones. I have a Dumbphone for phone calls and text messages. I know a professor at Ivy Tech who doesn't own a cell phone. He borrows his wife's cell phone if he needs to make a call. Of course, technology makes our lives easier, but can we also become slaves to that same technology?  Is there a dark side of technology? Twenty years ago, no one had a cell phone. Now everyone has one. Is this a good thing?  What do you think?

Describing a car

                                    My First Car

          I will never forget my first car and my first girl friend, which were both beautiful in their own ways. I was only 15 years old when I got my driver's license and I couldn't wait to have my own car. It was a 1956 Chevy. This was a car that any cool guy my age would want to have. I was very lucky, because my uncle was a car salesman at a Chevrolet dealership, and one of his best customers, an old lady, traded in the car to buy a new one. She had kept the car in her garage most of the time, and seldom drove it, so it only has 20,000 miles on it. It was beautiful, maroon and white. My uncle told me he would sell it to me for only $500 dollars, a great deal. I had saved $250 from working on the weekends and my mother gave me the other $250. I paid her back later. The body was perfect, not even a scratch, and the interior was almost like new, with black and white upholstery and nice black carpet on the floor.  It was a four-door car, with an automatic transmission, and bench seats in the front and back. These were the only things that weren't perfect about the car. A "perfect" 1956 Chevrolet for a teenager in those days would have only two doors, bucket seats in the front, and a standard transmission on the floor. But it was close enough to perfect for me. Let me tell you, it was easy to get a pretty girlfriend with a car like that. I felt like the coolest guy in high school when I was driving around with my girlfriend, Mary Ann. And I went on a date every weekend with her in my car.  The car was in such excellent condition that I drove it through four years of high school, put it in my mother's garage for four years while I was in the Navy, and drove it through college. Then it finally died when I finished college,  I felt like I had lost an old friend. Unfortunately, I don't have a single picture of that car, but I will put a link below so you can see a similar car. My next car was a 1970 orange Volkswagen bug. It was nice, but nothing would ever replace that beautiful 1956 Chevy. In conclusion, I will never forget my first car as long as I live, and sometimes I still dream about it, and Mary Ann. They were both beautiful. Do you remember your first car?

Click here to see a maroon and white 1956 Chevy. 56 Chevy

Process paragraphs

                             How to Write a Process Paragraph 

          Writing a process paragraph, which is also called a How To,  Directions, or Instructions paragraph, is easy to do if you follow certain steps.  First, the most important thing to think about as you write the paragraph is that you are describing steps in a process, explaining to the reader how to make or do something. For example, you might write a paragraph about how to ride a bicycle or how to make a decoration for a party. Second, every process involves following steps in order to correctly do or make it, so you need to use signal words to help the reader follow the process. For example, you will write about the steps using signal words like first, then, after that, next, and so on, to show the reader the order of the steps. Finally, the body of your paragraph begins with the first step of the process, which is to gather any materials and tools that you will need. For example, if you are writing about "How to Change the Oil in a Car" your first step will be to describe the things that you need to have before you change the oil, such as tools, several quarts of new oil, a new oil filter, a pan to drain the old oil into, and so on. In conclusion, writing a good process or "How To" paragraph isn't hard if you describe the steps one by one, use the correct signal words, and begin with the first step of gathering the tools and materials you will need for the process.