Daily Writings

John O’Brien
URWT 1104-002
Daily Writing 1
• Parents- started me off my teaching me out to read at home
• Mrs. Richardson- taught me the alphabet in kindergarten which built the foundation for
learning
• Mrs. Brown- taught me how to write a research paper
• Mrs. White- taught me how to annotate a paper
• Sister- better at writing
Daily Writing 2
A place that was very significant in shaping my literacy narrative was my house. This is
since my parents had a huge impact on shaping my literacy narrative. My parents would read to
me before I went to bed and would sit me down at the dining room table and make me learn to
write.
Daily Writing 3
In elementary and middle school, my school had book fairs which I was required to go to.
It was very pleasing to attend these book fairs because it gave me insight to the types of books
that were out there for me to read. Often the books that the teachers made us read for class were
not my type of book so attending the book fair gave me a little bit of hope that reading was still
enjoyable.
Daily Writing 4
I remember always having a computer in my household, it was in the front room and it
was a shared by my whole family. I remember using a computer for PC games before I ever
thought of using the computer for school work. I don’t recall using PowerPoint until I was in
middle school and was required to present a project. I think this benefitted me when presenting
because it gave me a visual aid to help me through the presentation. Computers have affected my
literacy narrative by helping with me with spelling because they correct your spelling.
Daily Writing 5
I’ve always had positive experiences with peer review in high school or UNC Charlotte.
A very positive experience I had was last semester when writing a paper for my ENGR 1201
class. My roommate, Nathan, was taking the same class with a different instructor at the time. He
peer reviewed one of my papers and informed me that I did not fully answer the prompt that was
given. Had it not been for him, I would have gotten a bad grade on the assignment but because of
the peer review, I was able to fix the issue and get a good grade on the assignment.
Daily Writing 6
One thing that I enjoy to write about is fictional sports stories. I am a huge fan of sports
and love when given the chance to talk about sports. I love the idea of being able to make up
your ending of the Super Bowl because it ends the way that you want it to end.
Daily Writing 7
“Don’t ask who your audience is…you are the audience”. This speaks to me because I
feel like we are always taught to write to our audience and never taught to write for our personal
pleasure. Writing is always done for a teacher, parent, friend, neighbor, sister, etc. and we never
write for our self which takes some of the enjoyment out of writing. If you write for the pleasure
of yourself, those who are worth reading your content will also be entertained by your writing.
Daily Writing 8
My favorite dish is my mothers’ chicken parmesan dish. There is something about the
dish that is so much better than any other food that I have ever had. The recipe was given to my
mom when my grandmother passed away when I was a little kid. Ever since then that is the dish
that I always want my mom to make on special occasions. Its so good that I don’t eat other
people chicken parm.
1. Did you try the “chicken parm” that crown had Sunday night before the Superbowl?
2. Does your mom use any special ingredient to your knowledge that makes her chicken
parm better in your mind than everyone else’s?
Daily Writing 9
What he says is very significant because it shows how important family history is to him
and how one event in his life made him realize just how important his family history is to him.
Our family heritage is what makes us into the people that we are today and family is one thing
that nobody can take away from you. This is still relevant in 2019 because family history is still
important to people in this day and age.
Daily Writing 10
Doing my research, I found that guns were banned in schools by the “Gun-Free School
Zones Act of 1990”. While I understand that it was meant for the safety of the children, I think it
put the children in more danger. Kids nowadays have no way of protecting themselves from
someone who may come into the school and try to harm the students. I feel like it is also
necessary for kids to learn gun safety because a gun is a very dangerous weapon and can be very
deadly if not used correctly so it would be very beneficial to teach kids how to correctly use the
guns.
Daily Writing 11
My house is not one that is really filled with lots of pictures, but there is one picture of
me with my whole side of my dad’s family. It includes all my aunts and uncles and cousins and
grandparents. This always makes me curious because it is the only picture in the house that has
my grandpa in it and he died when I was a young age, so I never got a chance to understand the
type of person he was. Family members always tell me that I am just like my grandpa and I am
always curious if that is true. I also wonder where the picture was taken because I do not recall
the place where the picture was taken.
Daily Writing 12
A story that happened in my family is a “ritual” that occurs when we go down to my
Uncle’s beach house. My family is Irish, so we like to drink a lot. My family goes out and buys
nice beer and wine and the adults do taste testing one night of the weekend. The taste testing has
a very specific process, but I do not know what this process entails. While the adults are going
taste testing, the kids go night swimming.
Daily Writing 13
- I remember my father always being my sports coach and being harder on me than the other kids
because he had such high expectations for me.
- I remember my mother never wanting to go out and do anything on the weekends because she
wanted to relax because she worked so hard during the week.
-I remember my sister always getting mad at me on the way to school because we would be late
because I wanted to stop and get food at the gas station.
- I remember my grandma never wanting to go out to eat with me because she insisted on
cooking for me, even though she was an awful cook.
-I remember my dad’s side of the family coming down to Myrtle Beach twice a year for a family
reunion type of event.
Starting the second semester of my sophomore year of high school, I started driving my sister
and I to school. I’m not a morning person and tend to be running late in the morning because I
oversleep. This drives my sister crazy because she loves waking up in the morning and hates
whenever she is late somewhere. I would forget to grab food from the house before we left which
meant I had to stop somewhere along the way. There was a gas station that was on the way to
school that I would stop at to get food. Every time I pulled into the gas station parking lot, my
sister would start yelling at me that she was going to be late but I didn’t care if I was late so I
ignored her. I would go into the gas station, grab my food, and then get back into the car to drive
the rest of the way to school.
Your Story Title: Food Trips
Who is in the story and how are you related to them: My sister named Megan
Where did the story or memory take place: Took place in the car in Brunswick County
When did the story or memory take place: Took place in my high school years
Who wrote this story or memory: John O’Brien
When was it written: 2/25/2019

What is the age difference between you and your sister?

What food would you get at the gas station?
Why didn’t you care about being late?
Daily Writing 14
I have never given a presentation of significant length to a large audience before.
However, I have given a presentation to a classroom full of about 30 of my peers that lasted
about 15 minutes. From this experience, I know some ways that will help me to present the topic
better. Practice is the most important thing to do before the presentation to prepare yourself.
Also, it is very important to be very confident in what you are presenting.
Daily Writing 15
Some good news that as occurred in the past week or so is that I finally propelled myself
to do some research for the genealogy project. This is good news for me because it took me a
while to get motivated to do this project and stop procrastinating. This is good for me because
the draft was due today and I was able to finish it on time.
Daily Writing 16
My best source of information so far has been Ancestry.com because I was able to start
my family tree within the website and anytime, I entered information it would give me hints
about my family. This was very helpful because I didn’t have an idea of where I was going to
find all my information from, but this website really helped me with my research. Something that
I am still curious about is I want to see more information about my great-grandfather.
Daily Writing 17
I think a good idea to accomplish that task would be to take a group of students to a
nursing home or a place of lots of residing elder people. This would cause interaction that would
cause research into our past which could relate to the genealogy project. This service-learning is
what we need in our schools.
Daily Writing 18
A topic that I learned more about recently was about my dad’s childhood. I went home
this past weekend and in talking with my parents, found out that my dad was a good swimmer
and he went to a private catholic high school. This was interesting because I also was a good
swimmer when I was little but also because my dad is not religious and that is ironic because he
went to a religious high school.
Daily Writing 19
The UNC Charlotte campus and the City of Charlotte have shown me just how much I
miss my small town in Brunswick County. While the city life is for some people, it is not for me
because I enjoy my space and do not enjoy people breathing down my neck 24/7. I miss the
small creeks where it is only you and nature, and I miss the early morning sun rising without
hearing traffic out my window. People are very judgmental, and I do not enjoy the constant
judgement, so I miss my little town.
Daily Writing 20
On Friday afternoon I went to the Apple store to get my iPhone screen replaced because it was
cracked. I dropped it off and they told me it would be an hour, so I walked through the mall and
went back in an hour to pick it back up. Everything seemed to be perfectly fine at the moment, so
I paid the $150 for the repair. Later that night, I tried to make a phone call and the only way that
I could hear the other person was if they were on speaker. I took the phone back to the store on
Saturday and fought with the employees for two hours until they finally gave me a new phone.