A day at the beach

     I lived in San Diego for four years. At first I loved it because the weather was always  so nice, not hot and not cold. There really weren't distinct seasons. After a couple of years I started to miss the four seasons that I had grown up with in northern New Mexico. I didn't want to go to the beach on Christmas Day. I wanted to play in the snow. Having no change of seasons got boring for me after a while.  I guess it's possible to have too much of a good thing. What do you think about the weather? Do you ever miss the weather back home where you grew up?

The weather and seasons as a process

     You could say that the weather is a process. Seasons are pretty predictable and follow each other in a familiar way. I like to live in a place with four seasons because of the variety. You look forward to the first snow of winter, but about the time you are tired of cold and snow in March, the spring arrives with green and many colorful plants and flowers. Then the summer follows with warm days and fun. August and the end of the summer can be so hot and humid that the cool fall air feels good and the trees change colors. Then it's winter again and time for holidays and playing in the snow. Each season comes with its own kind of weather; snow in the winter, rain and tornadoes in the spring, warm rain, thunder showers and hot sun in the summer, and cool nights and wind in the fall.

     Then there's Indiana, where the weather and seasons don't seem so predictable. In the spring, it can be warm and sunny one day, and cold and snowy the next. As we say in Indiana, if you  don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes! But the weather all over the world seems to be getting less predictable. It must be global climate change.

A five-paragraph process essay

     You might be asking yourself how you are going to write a five-paragraph essay about a process that includes, say, 12 steps. Remember that you have the three  body paragraphs to write about the steps of the process. But first, in the introduction paragraph you are going to begin by grabbing the reader's attention with a good hook in the first sentence, give some general background information about the process, and end with a thesis statement. In the conclusion paragraph,  you will summarize the process and end your essay in some interesting way.

     So how do you write about 12 steps in the three body paragraphs? Before you begin writing,  arrange the 12 steps in chronological order, from beginning to end. Then look at the steps and see how you could divide them into three groups that would make sense. Those three groups will be your three body paragraphs. For example, let's say that you have decided that  there are 12 steps to wash a car. The first four steps might be about preparing the things that you need to wash the car, the second four steps about getting the car wet with the hose and washing the car, and the final four steps about rinsing off the car and drying it. Those are your three body paragraphs, with four steps in each paragraph.

Process essays

     Writing about a process is easy. Just think about something  you know how to do and write down the steps in order, using transition  words like first, second, then, and finally to help the reader follow the steps. There are two kinds of processes, directional and informational.

     A directional process essay gives directions on how to do or make something. For example, how to ride a bicycle or how to make a cake. Think of giving someone directions on how to do or make something, step by step, from beginning to end. Usually, the first step of a directional process essay is to write about the ingredients, tools, or materials you will need. An informational process is about something that occurs in the natural world and follows certain steps, such as how a tornado forms , or how a drug works in the body.

     Writing about processes is a common form of academic, business, and scientific writing.  It will be helpful for you to know how to write about processes in your college studies and career.

Sports in the springtime

     I love to watch sports on TV and live.   I was just thinking today that sports used to all have their separate seasons during the year, but it seems like the seasons have gotten longer now and you can see different sports all year long. Spring is an especially good time for sports.  Right now the baseball season is starting, the basketball season is ending, we're in the middle of the hokey season, the winter Olympics just ended, and you can even follow the off-season activities, draft, and trades in football. You can watch college and professional teams. You can watch soccer pretty much all year round.  I'm a big fan of the Indianapolis teams, the Pacers and the Colts. There is even a minor-league professional baseball team in Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Indians. Their season just started last week. My wife and I like to go to a few games each year. They play at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis. It's a beautiful stadium and the tickets are inexpensive. Even if you don't understand baseball, you would enjoy going out to watch a game. Someone said that you can't really understand Americans unless you understand baseball. You can even get a discount on Indians tickets as an Ivy Tech student. If you're a sports fan like me, you can enjoy watching lots of sports right now, and maybe even play some sports yourself.

What are your favorite sports? Do you like to play, watch, or both?

Rabbit Hunting Essay

Today I am writing a six-paragraph narrative essay that is based on the paragraph that I wrote in my post yesterday. It is about hunting rabbits with my Dad and brother. Notice that the essay has a lot more detail than the paragraph.

                                            Family Rabbit Hunting

     Have you ever eaten rabbit meat?  Have you ever hunted the rabbit that you ate?  I have done both. When I was a kid we used to live on a farm in southern Colorado, near Durango. We had quite a few acres of farm land behind the house and then more land with cedar trees and a little lake. (1) I  loved to hunt rabbits with my Dad and brother, Harold, when I was a kid,  because we hunted together as a team and each of us had a special role on the team.

     (2) So here is how it always began, with my Dad, my brother and I going hunting in the woods behind our house. We would start out walking next to each other with my Dad in the middle with his rifle. My Dad had a small .22 caliber rifle, which was good for shooting rabbits, squirrels and other small animals. We enjoyed being out there together and talked, but only in whispers so we wouldn't scare the rabbits until we got close to them.

     (3) Harold had the first job, which was to spot a rabbit and point at it so my Dad could see where it was. We called Harold "Eagle Eye" because he was so good at this. Usually, not long after we started walking, a cottontail rabbit would jump out of a bush in front of us,  about 50 yards way,  and start running like crazy, jumping high in the air with each bound.

     (4) Then, my Dad would shoot the rabbit with his rifle. My Dad was a good shot and would usually hit the rabbit on the first shot, sometimes in midair. It's not easy to hit a running rabbit over 50 yards away. The rabbit would fall to the ground, twitch and wiggle around for a little and then lie still. My Dad had finished his part of the job, and he would look over at me. That was my signal to take action.

     (5) Finally, it was my turn to run out and grab the dead rabbit and then we would all head home, where my Mom would clean and roast the rabbit for dinner. My Mom would usually complain when she saw us coming with the bloody rabbit and tell us not to come in the house with it.  As she complained she would smile a little; she knew we were just being boys and having fun. She also knew that we liked to eat roasted rabbit, and so did she. So she would grab the rabbit, cut off its head, skin it, and clean out the insides in less than a minute. Then she washed it off good with the hose and took it into the house and roasted it in the oven, and we'd have roasted rabbit for dinner. It was one of our favorite dinners.

     (6) In conclusion, family rabbit hunting was fun and a good way for me to learn the importance of teamwork at a young age. I learned that with a lot of things in life a team can get a job done easier than a single person. We had a spotter, a shooter, and a retriever, and somehow it seemed like none of us could have done it alone. I got my own rifle when I was a little older and would go rabbit hunting by myself, but it was never as fun as going with my Dad and brother, bringing the rabbit home for dinner.

Family rabbit hunting

I am going to write a short story today about a nice memory of my childhood hunting rabbits with my father and brother and what I learned from the experience.  Today I will write the story as a six-sentence paragraph and in my post tomorrow I will expand the paragraph into a six-paragraph narrative essay.


                            Family Rabbit Hunting

     (1) I loved to hunt rabbits with my Dad and brother, Harold, when I was a kid,  because we hunted together as a team and each of us had a special role on the team.  (2) So here is how it always began, with my Dad, my brother and I going hunting in the woods behind our house on the farm where we lived.  (3) Harold had the first job, which was to spot a rabbit and point to it.   (4) Then, my Dad would shoot the rabbit with his rifle.  (5) Finally, it was my turn to run out and grab the dead rabbit and then we would go home,  where my Mom would clean and roast the rabbit for dinner. (6) In conclusion, family rabbit hunting was fun and a good way for me to learn the importance of teamwork at a young age.