Writing Sample

Charlene Johnson

Writing Sample

Sophomore English

24 August 2007

My personal object is a picture. I treasure it the most because the picture is of my best friend and me. This is special not because of the quality of the picture but of the memory it represents.

The picture was taken on a spur of the moment grab the camera impulse. We pointed it towards us, held it out and clicked the button, not knowing how it would turn out. To me that catches part of the preciousness because it caught us in an unguarded moment. Neither of us had time to fake a smile or make a silly face, it caught the genuine happiness and smiles we felt. I love this picture because it was taken when I came out of my shell and realized it was fun.

The photograph is fuzzy but to me that makes it even more precious because even though we are not perfect this picture makes us look like it. You cannot see the make-up smudges or the overdone blush.

In the picture you cannot see the clothing scattered across the floor or smell the incense and burnt cookies but you can see how much we love each other and how much fun we are having.

Our halter tops are new and we just spent the entire day shopping and trying on random clothes and shoes. We left the cell phone at home so we would not be disturbed. We ate ice cream and chips and watched movies. We talked about everything from my sheep to how big of jerk Brandon was. We had gone to a party the night before and he had flirted with me. Brandon and my sister, Janel had been dating seriously for about four months. When Janel introduced me as her little sister, Charlene, he smiled and started flirting with me and not in a little sister kind of way. Janel and I left shortly after Janel had broken up with him. He had just shrugged and started hitting on the girl who just walked in. I was so scared that she would be mad breaking them up. To my relief it only brought us closer. When we got to her apartment, she cried and cried, saying over and over, ''I really liked him." I apologized and all she said was "if it hadn't been you it would have been some other chick." We cried together and shared our rocky road ice cream and watched Tomb Raider 1 and 2. After that we sat around talking about how we should have kicked his bottom for trying to grab mine.

This is one of the best memories I have of us. Every time I look at this I know she will always love me and have my back. Whenever I get sad or lonely I look at this picture and my day brightens. Janel and I have had our share of fights but whenever either of us sees this reminder we pick up the phone and call the other.

If I were to ever lose this picture I would not rest until I found it. I treasure the memory and the picture for what it represents our friendship.

Lottery Paragragh

Charlene Johnson

Lottery Paragraph

Sophomore English

21 September 2007

The lottery is not my favorite story because it lacked character development, setting, and there was a general absence of details. The story did not play your emotions by telling you details and letting you know about any of the characters. When Tessie died I was not affected or sad, because I knew nothing about her. All during the story I had no idea where I was. Knowing the country and town would have given you more feeling about the place and understood the story more. With the age group that this story is targeting it would have been more interesting if it had details. All we know about the town square is that it is the center of the town, not is it was dusty or crowded. The account of the lottery had no feeling, emotional involvement, or real place.