Monday, March 5, 2012

The fights of one country: The past fights of Northern and Southern Ireland

Author's note: In this piece I would like to have a good thesis statement because I have been having trouble with making a noticeable thesis statement so in this piece I would like to have a good one. I would also like to have good external transitions because I want to improve my skill with them. Finally I would also like to have good idea development and content because I have been having trouble with having my writing pieces that are assigned to me creative.

Boom! Bang! That's the sound of gunshots going off everywhere. People dropping dead everywhere. That's all I can see and hear when I think about the terrible thing called war. If you've ever thought about it there's even war in your own country!

While it's interesting to think about that happening in the U.S. it's been going on somewhere else in the world for a long time. This place is Ireland. It all started back in the 19th and 20th centuries when many Irish groups had begun to start fighting for their independence. But many people that lived in Northern Ireland called Protestants had wanted to stay under the ruling of Great Britain.

Finally in 1922, Ireland had finally divided. The southern part of Ireland contained mostly Catholics. It had also become an Irish free state and an independent republic in 1949. Then after the split Northern Ireland was made up of six mostly protestant counties that were run by Great Britain, and had stayed part of the UK. Then up to 1972 this half of Ireland had been allowed to rule itself. During this ruling the Catholics that still lived in Northern Ireland had struggled in life. This was because they didn't have the same rights or even same opportunities as the Protestants had had. The protestants had discriminated them in all aspects of their Catholic lives. They barely ever found jobs, the government didn't pay them as much money as they paid the Protestants, and the police would sometimes be the ones that had harassed them.

After a few years of war the two halves had finally realized that fighting wouldn't be able to solve their conflict. The Irish and British governments had finally agreed on a peace treaty that lets the future of Northern Ireland be decided by the people, and every political group must be equal in Northern Ireland. Also The Republic of Ireland will not seek reunification with Northern Ireland. Finally they both decided to have all the prisoners be released ad sent home. Although things didn't go like they planned right away after a few years of bickering they finally did everything on the peace treaty.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Bullying

Author's note: In this piece I am looking for a proficient thesis statement, an advanced in organization by having A-B transitions and good paragraph lengths and specific word choices to try and earn at least a proficient in this category.

Did you know that 90% of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying? When people first heard this they usually don't do anything about it. Then it came to me, why should I just sit around and feel sorry for everyone? I should be making a difference.

When you see or hear someone getting picked on stand up to the bully instead of laughing along with the bully, when you laugh along that pretty much means the bully wins. If the bully starts picking on you don't start teasing them back. You should go tell a parent, a teacher, or even the school counselor. If you tell the teacher and the bully keeps picking on people tell the teachers and they will give them a bigger punishment.

Sometimes though there might be a reason that the bully is mean. That kid might be having problems at home, so before you go and tell the teachers try to be friends with the kid. Most of the time they will let you be their friend but they will try to make you a bully. Tell them that you don't want to make kids feel bad because you know how it feels, and they might respect you for that and they will hopefully stop their bullying for good. But in some cases they will keep teasing you and might be even meaner than before. That's when you go get a teacher. Hopefully you have learned from this, and will try to stop a bully in your neighborhood today!