Liz

=Liz's Portfolio = toc

Preposition Poem
Near the Ocean Along the shore With the feel of sand Between my toes After dawn Down goes the sun I watch it as it sits on the edge of the mountains

Pieces of a Poem
Before the sun comes out Down goes the moon and When my Papa was alive He sent it to me I watched and waited <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Wondering if it was true <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I replayed his stories in my mind <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The ones of far away <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Never once did I doubt him <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I saw the truth in his eyes

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Pieces of a Poem Analysis
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Before__ the comes out- sbordinating conjuction <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Down__ goes the moon __and__- line that begins with a preposition and ends with a coordinating conjuction <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__**//When//** my Papa was alive__- starts with 'when' so that makes it a noun clause, type of dependent clause (1/2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__He sent it to me__- independent clause (1/2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__I watched and waited-__ the other independent clause (2/2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Wondering if it was true-__ other dependent clause (2/2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__I replayed his stories in my mind__- ic(part of compound/complex sentence) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__The ones of far away__-dc(part of the compound/complex sentence) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__Never once did I doubt him__- ic(part of compound/complex sentence) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__I saw the truth in his eyes__- ic(part of compound/complex sentence)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Hint Fiction
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A simple turn of the wheel and she's in there, the place of death, she will never come out, so innocent, so gone. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">_ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A simple turn of the wheel and she's in there, IC <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">the place of death-DC <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">she will never come outIC <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">so innocent---DC <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">so gone.---DC

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Blitcsussion Post
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I chose this book because it was recommended to me by a very close friend and I trust her opinion very much. The setting in the book takes place in a very different world than our own; there is the city of Panem which consists of the 12 districts. The characters are from district 12, the poorest district, so when they are selected at the reaping they go to the Capitol where there are endless amounts of food and nice rooms and life seems to be much more enhanced than district 12's living conditions. The main character is Katniss Everdeen. She is so used to taking care of herself and her family keeping them alive, that when she gets to the Games she knows she has some advantages compared to the other tributes. She is extremely independent, and can defend herself very well. The other main character is Peeta. To Katniss, he is the "Bread Boy," she named him that after a previous experience. In the beginning, he is the kind of boy who you need to be wary of but also hid a hint of trust for. The basic storyline of this story is about how two kids from each district are chosen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, where you fight to the death for wealth, fame and fortune. A lot happens if you are chosen in the reaping for the Games. You go to a place completely unknown to you, you learn how to fight and essentially save your life, and you also die if you're not careful. The key is out-smarting the other tributes. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"It would be hard to miss the wall of fire descending around me." This exert spoke to me because it not only tells you what is happening in a totally different way, it gives the start of Katniss' battles in the Hunger Games. The theme is quite hard to identify. There are many themes and I think one of them would be...maybe lying? I would say this because there is quite a bit of lying and two-facing going on in the story. Peeta is saying he loves Katniss and then talks about killing her, and Katniss plays a little game for the sponsors. Another theme would maybe be how maybe you may think something is better, when it’s really not. Like when Katniss realizes that if she wins, she won’t be able to hunt for food or tend to the house anymore. Not only that, but they dress Katniss up as somebody who is not Katniss. She heard great things about the Capitol but it turns out that they just turned her into someone she is not. Thankfully, she is strong enough to go back and still be herself as far as looks go. I would recommend this book to pretty much all audiences, maybe more so the girls only because there is a little bit of romance in it, but I think it is also a good guys book because it has a lot of gruesome scenes and guys would like that. Then again it was a twist of everything so I think pretty much anyone would enjoy this superb novel. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__ <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I choose chose this book because it was recommended to me by a very close friend who and I trust her opinion very much. The setting in the book takes place in a very different world than our own ; there is the city of Panem which consists of the 12 districts. The lower districts, and the better. The characters are from district 12, the poorest district, so when they are selected at the reaping they go to the Capitol where there is endless are endless amounts of food and nice rooms and life seems to be 10 times much better much more inhanced than district 12's living conditions. The main character is Katniss Everdeen. She is so used to taking care of herself and her family keeping them alive, so that when she gets to the Games she knows she has some advantages compared to the other tributes. She is extremely independent, and can defend herself very well. The other main character is Peeta. To Katniss, he is the "Bread Boy", she named him that after a previous experience. In the beginning, he is the kind of boy who she makes herself wary for her own sake but also hides a hint of trust for him ﻿ you need to be wary of but also hid a hint of trust for. The basic storyline of this story is about how 2 two kids from each district are chosen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, where you go to a arena and fight to the death for wealth, fame and fortune. A lot happens if you are chosen in the reaping for the Games. You go to a place completely unknown to you, you learn how to fight and essentially save your life, and you also die if you’re not careful. The key to winning is out-smarting the other tributes. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"It would be hard to miss the wall of fire descending around me." This exert spoke to me because it not only tells you what is happening in a totally different way, it gives the start of Katniss' battles in the Hunger Games. The theme is quite hard to identify. There are many themes and I think one of them would be...maybe lying? I would say this because there is quite a bit of lying and two-facing going on in the story. Peeta is saying he loves Katniss and then talks about killing her, and Katniss plays a little game for the sponsors. Another theme would maybe be how maybe you may think something is better, when it’s really not. Like when Katniss realizes that if she wins, she won’t be able to hunt for food or tend to the house anymore. Not only that, but they dress Katniss up as somebody who is not Katniss. She heard great things about the Capitol but it turns out that they just turned her into someone she is not. Thankfully, she is strong enough to go back and still be herself as far as looks go. I would recommend this book to pretty much all audiences, maybe more so the girls only because there is a little bit of romance in it, but I think it is also a good guys book because it has a lot of gruesome scenes and guys would like that. Then again it was a twist of everything so I think pretty much anyone would enjoy this superb novel. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">KEY: red text are things that I had and then changed, blue are things I added and green are things I took out

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tone Analysis
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|D.J. Tice: The trouble with taxing the rich] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-indent: 0.5in;">I think that the authors tone is negative towards the subject because his title is “The trouble with taxing the rich" "The trouble" indicates that there is conflict with the new Dayton Plan about raising the taxes of the rich. He finds the flaws of this plan such as, the state will lose the people that they decide to tax because they will move out of state to look for a new states with lower taxes. Tice states "John wouldn't really pay. Someone else would" he indicates that he believes the less fortunate will pay because they will become unemployed when businesses move out of the state. Tice says that the two options business owners have are raising the prices of the product or laying off employees. He also puts "like me" in the sentence structure of parenthesis, which indicates a hint of sarcasm. Another hint of sarcasm would be... "Boston Bob and Seattle Sally probably have friends, too, who probably give them self-serving advice about what really counts in life." He is saying that John is Boston Bob and he is the friend who is giving him self-serving advice. One last thing about the authors tone is he says... This is the trouble with all this "targeted" tax hikes, especially be states, which are easy to move or stay away from. He gives me the sense by the "quotes" that he is really fed-up with all this taxing stuff. He also doesn't want to lose a friend due to higher taxes and loose a job due to it too.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Extended Metaphor
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The water is a pool of freedom <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">It traps you, then releases <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Erases your mind of all worries <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Just you and the water <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Just you and freedom <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Drenching your soul <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Its a pool of liberty <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A vacation from the city noise-makers <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The crowded streets of others talking <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Here... it's just you and the waves <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The sounds of your air grasping for the surface <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Your body inclosed by the free liquid <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Silent sounds bombing in your ears...Free

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Digital Vocabulary
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Anguish: excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I picked the word "Anguish" because I first of all, wasn't completely sure what the word meant. I had heard gross, awful pain, and grief. So decided to pick it to actually learn what the true meaning of Anguish is. It means...//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain: the anguish of grief. //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My picture represents the word because it is basiclly telling a every sad story that causes anguish to a little girl. One of her parents are in a car crash and he/her died. This causes anguish to the little girl because she loved her parent dearly and she now is dealing with the anguish; the grief.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Blackout Poetry
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All in All __ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Inspiring Dreams <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Heartbreaking Challenges <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Twists <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Showing Themselves <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To the World <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pure, Charged Decision[s] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Struggling <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To the Future <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Turn a Tale to a Realistic Twist <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;">s <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;">s <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> a real dream s   <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">

Short Story
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Liz Cottingham <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Mr. Mason <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Short Story 4/27/11 <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">__ A River of Red Gone Dry __ <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">// November 19, 1996 // <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">// There is no way out of the way I feel. No way to recover. No exit. I can’t help my motions. Picking up the sharp death, aiming, and slitting. It hurts my physical emotions but quenches my mental ones. It curves my appetite, makes me smile, like nothing in the world was wrong, yet it was. It was seriously wrong. I was seriously wrong. I want to leave this place called earth, retreat to somewhere where there are no debauched feelings of desolation. I know I have a problem; I am the only soul who knows. Yet, the problem is not one I want to stop, it’s a problem that is unstoppable, one that comforts. //  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">The crisp white teardrops fell from the melancholy sky. The wind brawled with the trees, hitting against the house. I just watched I could feel the hope drain from my eyes, another day of dreadful school. I’m that kind of girl who let’s just say…has no friends, has never been teacher’s pet and no guy really knows she exists, so pretty much a loser. I get dressed, nothing special, a dark purple long sleeve with stitching on the bottom coming loose from about two years ago when I fell on my scooter and ripped a hole in it. My mom sewed it the best she could and kissed it like she would when I scratched myself or was sick. That was before I got my habit; the unbreakable one. I never wore short sleeves anymore; I always wore ones that would cover up my unbearable secret. I slide on some pants, my favorite ones. They had white stitching down the sides and the held me tight, fit me just right. They actually made me feel a little confident or…the closest you will come to “a somewhat good but not really” feeling. My hair was a dark shade of brown. It was long, and pretty, at least I thought. I didn’t do it any special way. If I did it would probably boast my look a little but I got up 20 minutes before school so that wasn’t going to happen. I grabbed my bag and hopped in my shoes. My parents were still asleep so I left a note saying “bye… Love, Violet.” I thought that I still needed to be nice and do something a good kid would do just in case I went to jail and they needed to bail me out. I had to be honest with myself though, I… cut myself, but I don’t think I could go beyond that. I opened the door and quietly shut it behind me. The breeze felt good; a little pinch, or a whisper on my skin. It was still dark outside, and the silence was almost loud. I rode the bus most days unless my mom got up early for some strange reason. The bus stop was approximately 110 steps from my house. That’s how lame I am…I count my steps on the way to the bus stop. There are only two others kids who are at my stop. This one guy, Lane, who if you asked him how many are at his stop, he would say one. Then there is Brach. He is like me. I mean, I don’t know if he…cuts himself, but he is his own friend and he’s not going to be the one to raise his hand in class. I sit on the curb and wait for the bus. A shiver runs down my body, and I hear the roar of the bus as it turns the corner. It stopped and whipped out the stop sign for other cars. I walked on in and I had to turn sideways because the bus was like a snake, slithering through the grass but never touching a blade of green. I sat down in my seat and tried to enjoy the long 15 minute ride to school. I touch my feet on the ground walking the halls of Westward High. The halls were crowded and the only way you were going to survive was if you were a little bit vicious by pushing your way through the squads of people. At this school, and probably like any other, there were your corn pops; the ones who “own” the school, the corn flakes who thought they did. Then you had the “bads.” They were simply....bad. And of course there was me. Which I wasn’t in any of the three groups, I was just an apple in a school of oranges. Not popular, not funny, possibly pretty but nothing special. The only thing I had in common with everyone else is that I had a secret. I sat down in my math class and my hatred really started to kick in. There wasn’t anything I hated more than learning algebra and quadratic equations in a classroom where there are just a bunch of kids gossiping and texting on the world’s latest phones. Mrs. Vidmar was crunching numbers about the world’s economy. The only good thing was that I sat in the back of the class where she couldn’t see anything I was doing. Halfway into class, Mrs. Vidmar was assigning homework when this girl walked in. I had never seen her before, she was carrying all her books with her and her face was a pale white color, like the life had been drained from her, the look was familiar to me. “Oh hi, you must be Mandy!” Mrs. Vidmar suggested. “Yes,” Mandy answered. “Um… Why don’t you have a seat right back there, beside Violet?” I decided this would help win some brownie points for me if I raised my hand and gave a short princess wave. “Ok…” Mandy said, and started to head back to the empty seat beside me. I moved my books over and she sat down. She, in a way, forced her eyes not to look at me. Yet she did and I smiled, and she smiled back. “So what’s the next class that you have?” I asked her about before class ended. “Um…English with Mr. Tago.” “Me too! I’ll walk you there.” She nodded and the bell rang. I walked her to class and there happened to be an empty seat next to me again…what a surprise… We sat down and I started asking her about where she went before this. We got into a very in-depth conversation and I was really close to pinching myself to make sure I was not dreaming. I was actually talking to a decent person; I might have actually made a friend. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">// November 20, 1996 // // Something deep inside me began to flicker, like a glimmer of hope maybe. This girl, Mandy, seemed familiar to me; the long sleeves, non-descript yet there was something deep within her. A connection, or memory, yet I had never seen this girl in my life. And I swear I noticed a scar, like mine on her left wrist. Maybe she was like me; maybe she could understand the horror of this addiction. //  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I couldn’t sleep last night, the questions fluttering about my mind where gnawing at my insides. I needed to find answers; I needed to talk to Mandy. And so I did. I confronted her about how I had seen a scar on her wrist and when she walked into the room I felt a dark connection. I talked openly with her about my…cutting and I told her it was too much, but I wasn’t willing to say anything. She let me talk for a while, spilling my guts I guess, and then she released her words. She told me that she was like me. Like a twin. She had the addiction had taken over her. Haunted her. She said that one day her mom saw her scars up and down her forearms. Her mom just looked at her like she didn’t know who she was and that was it. Mandy said that from then on out she knew she had to change, and she did. She doesn’t cut herself anymore and she only wears long sleeves because she has to cover up the dire memories. She told me that there was hope. This wasn’t going to happen overnight because an addiction is an addiction, but she said that she would help me, so that I wasn’t the girl I am now, but someone better. I believed her. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">// November 21, 1996 // // Mandy had come into my life for a reason. Maybe because there is something or someone waiting out there in the world for me and I can’t get to it because of this. She was strong enough so I am too. She was wise, maybe not before, but she is now. She was here to make my life better. Life as it was supposed to be – not full of hidden secrets. // // I think there just might be hope, hope to stop and make something of my life, to where I can smile everyday because of all I have overcome. That hope- was Mandy. //