This is a really smart idea that I am going to adapt into my routine from now on.

I stress about this often in my own writing, especially in personal essays.

Having a fresh prospective seems like it would make revision a lot easier considering you are no longer stuck in a loop of your own writing.

This is a valid point, I often find myself doing this.

Now that I know what order to go in, and since I just learned the proper definition of revision, it makes sense to revise and then proofread.

I've always confused revision with proofreading. It's good to know that revision includes changing my argument or editing my evidence, just in general reviving my paper and making sure it is captivating and accurate.

"her eyes shone with disappointment." I like the visual these sensory details provide and will probably try to recreate it for my own essay.

"Since the first days of the calculator's appearance, the worry lines in my mother's face have only grown deeper." This is a very specific image, allowing the reader to visualize the effects of stress over time.

"To ensure the best selection possible, my mother and I pile into our 20-year-old car and pull up to the food mart at 5 p.m. on the dot, ready to get our share of slightly overripe fruits." The author creates a very vivid and specific image without being too specific, leaving the reader to fill in some blanks while still understanding it as a whole.

The structure for this essay starts in the present, then reverts to the past for context, then comes back to the present for the ending.

"from knowing that there are unshakeable things in my life that have made me ready to face all the Big Bads in the world." I also like how the author used this opportunity to not use a cliché and again make common statements relate to her own personal experiences.

"Feeling safe isn't about setting limits on the outside." She could have used a cliché but she continued with her own way of expressing this statement and how it related to her.

The author seems to be structuring her essay around a chronological order with breaks to the past during appropriate points to keep the interest of the reader as complete chronological order can be monotonous.

"security within unlimited freedom" This is an unusual phrase that I am surprised makes sense to me, and gives me more to think about regarding the way I phrase experiences within my own writing.

"The kind that lets you have a few wacky purple-headed weeks in the depressing months of winter term, but leaves you plain and brunette again in time for graduation pictures." This quote brings out a very specific and detailed image in my mind and I like how the author used words like "depressing winter term" and "plain in time for graduation pictures" to give off a very specific school vibe that most people are familiar with.

"It was a life changing experience, but I can't really say that I developed any defining beliefs from it." This sentence really resonates with me as I too have had fairly life changing events happen in my life that people are surprised did not affect me too much.

"I believe that inner strength emerges when times are desperate." This seems like the claim in the story, or at least a very heavy sentence.

I cannot find a specific claim statement, the story just seems to come together piece by piece until the end.

"I've been asked to solve the cube on the New York City subway, at a track meet in Westchester and at a café in Paris." Instead of just saying that the author has solved the cube in many places, he elaborates and highlights the very different environments in which he has.

I would be interested to know more about what the process for their plan was and which organization helped them create it.

This is an interesting point, and it makes sense as they have clearly described why they chose their target audience, but I am curious as to why the metropolitan areas need the most support.

This is an important claim for their point and it sounds reasonable but I would like to know where they got their statistics from, as it is not explained in the paragraph.

While not a factual statement, it does give the reader a visual of what the campaign is like without describing it monotonously. This possibly allows the reader to connect with the article more.

Here they provide evidence and a reason for their actions, expressing why they are changing the caloric intake from beverages.

The claim is supported by reasonable evidence and is straight to the point, which is good for a factual essay.

This is a very emotional and somber last line that resonates with the reader. The author wished to have been able to share that moment with his mentally ill mother, and wishes for more experiences he will never get.

the details, all though not literal, are creating an incredibly vivid scene.

connotative meaning, there were so many birds swirling above him that he could not see parts of the sky.

The woman seems to be suffering from some sort of mental disease.

"an absence, a thwarted shadow." These loaded words give off the feeling of an absence only there by an evil force that ripped it away.

"I too often think of him in terms of what he never had a chance to be." These to me are loaded words with a very negative impact, as if the reader feels heavy after reading them.

"another big-hearted man for them to admire" Obviously he doesn't mean this literally, but is expressing how kind and caring and good of a human being Hugh was.

The box his father made for him holds great significance because his father meant a great deal to him, and staring at the box his father made leads him to old memories and unanswered questions and the semblance of what was once here, but is now lost.

It seems like his father was a great hardworking man who was strong in his senses but also feared that if he couldn't be who he always was, then he would become nothing at all.

Keeping the buckeyes that his father carried in a box on his desk is a sort of symbolic way to keep alive the memory of his father and be comforted by their presence.

His father was a great source of comfort to him as a child and he wishes to be comforted by his father's presence once again.

It seems as though the author admired his father's hands even from a young age, and aspired to be like his father. Remembering every intricate detail of his father and the work that he did.

This sets a good image for the reader and can also let the reader infer that the father meant a great deal to this now aging man.

With all the build up for how great this Mint Snowball was, you can really feel how big of a loss it was to the next generation in the family that they could never recreate it.

This gives great context as to the origin of the Mint Snowball and also leads me to believe that my earlier assumption of the mother being a child in this story is correct.

This is a great line because it lets the reader infer just how delicious the Mint Snowball actually was, and it sets the scene to assume that this shop was somewhere in Georgia or in the south.

From the view of who I am assuming is a child, the mother was goofing around and having fun rather than working, this brings me to the assumption that the mother in this part of the story is still a child.

This information is relevant to what was stated in the very beginning of this podcast.

They don't state where they got this information from, which makes me wonder if this would fall under the category of common knowledge or if they should have stated where they got it.

This is a very important point that I believe they brought up well, it was relevant to what they were saying, they state exactly where they got it from, and they say why it happened.

This is a very relevant statement and is well supported by factual information.

That is an interesting fact that I was unaware of, but so far they don't do much to state where they obtained their information from.

"and change is hard" is not a very strong argument.

I believe that this is a very important statement and one I don't often think about.

I feel as though certain restrictions in politics made because of religious morals is the main problem with religiously involved government. I don't think religion effects some of the major scale laws, such concerning our country, as much as they effect smaller scale laws, such concerning the people of our country, like gay marriage and contraception, but in those cases the decisions made impact those people severely.

I agree with this statement, but I feel that it will be an incredibly hard position to enforce, because religious upbringings of people will often mold their views in a very extreme way, so it will be difficult to be completely unbiased in making decisions for the public without that interfering.

I cannot believe that this is something that would actually happen. I can see how people would want to have similar religious views as their candidate but signing a pledge crosses a line in my personal opinion.

I never knew about this term, but now that I do I see how it makes a lot of sense in the political world.

This goes along with my last statement, where the church might not realize what it really means to emphasize a particular political group or action. I also wanted to state that I was unaware there were left and right sides of the church, which could make resolving political conflict even more difficult than I thought

I think that this is definitely an issue, because say half of Americans don't support an issue and the church does, they could lose a lot of support, or make people less supportive or ashamed to be part of the religion, which is unfortunate. Dividing church and government is a very difficult line that we have yet to figure out, nor do I think we will be able to figure out any time soon.

I never knew this. I always thought that the church politicizing itself was helping people join them, but it does make sense that it would cause a decline as they have made some ridiculous accusations and demands over the years.

I wonder what the church's idea of "repairing" their political image is.

The title caught my attention because it is a different view from my last article and I wanted to make sure I heard different sides of the story.

The fact that the school superintendent was either unaware, or ignoring, the fact that it is illegal to teach creationism as fact is astounding. I would hate to see what else has been corrupted in that school.

The way this is phrased is very corrupt, in the sense that a teacher following the rules and guidelines for what they can and cannot teach is a scandal. It is also baffling to me that an entire faculty of educators could be so disturbed by the fact that a teacher was teaching evolution to students.

The ability of someone being capable to govern has absolutely nothing to do with what personal beliefs that person holds, because, as stated multiple times, we have a law separating church and state, therefore wether someone is highly religious or anti-religious should not matter because it should not effect their decisions in a political sense.

That seems a bit extreme. Mr. Williams was just following a basic law.

I feel that this is a completely reasonable answer because, as stated, we have separation of church and state, therefore it shouldn't even have to be stated that you cannot hold private religious ceremonies on government money and property.

I really like how he added "if it has a future at all." The statement made me more invested in what he was going to say next.

He makes a very good point here.

Evidence of a supernatural power defeats the purpose of it as it is supposed to be indescribable.

This is a bold and dangerous statement that could easily irritate many people and it makes me wonder if that was his intension or if he accidentally wrote it in that manner.