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.

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!

DNA replication

Author's note: I had done a project on DNA replication and I had decided to do a writing piece on it. My goal in this writing piece is to have good organization, and a very good thesis statement.

Just imagine, while you are doing just about anything little objects called DNA are splitting apart to make more and more of it. While you probably think that's scary just think about how much good it's doing for your body. You might be thinking how would that do anything good for your body by just ripping apart multiple times until it dies, but there are many more steps on how they separate.

In the Beginning, of this process something called a Helicase comes along. What a helicase does is it splits the DNA apart. When it finishes little objects called SSBS attach onto the seperated DNA strands so they won't mold back together. After the SSB gathers onto the DNA piece called the Polymerase. Since there's an opposite coordination of 5' and 3' the Polymerase one layering on part of the DNA. Then an object called nucleotide starts its layering at the 3' end and removes the Polymerase and finishes it layering in the 5' to 3' direction. The nucleotide is pushed by something called the sliding clamp. Once that is finished each of the two new strands get layered with the nucleotide in the 5' to 3' direction, and one new strand is layered continuously. The other strand isn't layered continuously. Which are the Okazaki fragments. They are eventually joined together to make a completely new strand. Once all that's done comes the final steps. Then the DNA polymerase fills in gaps left by RNase H on the lagging strand. Finally the Ligase joins the layered tops together.

Now imagine what the DNA would do to you. Since everyone acquires some changes to their DNA during the course of their lives. This is called DNA mutations(DNA changes). These changes occur in many ways. Sometimes there are simple copying errors that are introduced when DNA replicates itself.

Other changes are introduced as a result of DNA damage through environmental agents including sunlight, cigarette smoke, and radiation. Our cells have built in structues that catch and repair most of the changes that occur during DNA replication. As we age, however, our DNA repair does not work as effectively and we store changes in our DNA.

While it seems that the mutations are all good there are some effects to them to. Such as, the cells in our body contain DNA, there are lots of places for mutations to occur. While some mutations cannot be passed on to the offspring and do not matter for evolution. Somatic mutations occur in the non-reproductive cells and they won't be passed onto the offspring. Some example are like how you get freckles, or how you develope cancer


That's the process of the DNA, the mutations and effects of the mutations. While it might be fun to stay and study about how DNA splits apart I'm going to split my cells out of here! Hopefully my DNA doesn't split too fast and something goes wrong with my mutations.

Risks of the Declaration

Author's note: My goal in this piece is to have good organization, good sentence fluency and good voice.

Can you imagine going to jail for signing a piece of paper? The people who signed the Declaration of Independence sure did. While they thought they were trying to be brave and noble, they were also aware of the many risks that may follow.

To begin with, the men signing the Declaration of Independence were clearly aware of the risk they had of committing treason against the British King. To whom, but a short time before, they were bound as subjects. They mentioned in the Declaration a “long train of abuses and arrest”.

While they were mad about that they were also aware about the other risks. Like how the delegates knew that if they had signed the Declaration it would be punishable by hanging. That's why it was very important that they all agree on the contents of the document to show a united front. It was also very important that the Declaration be a very advanced document to make those great risks worth taking.

Even though they had put up a united front to beat England, they were all worried about change. They were worried that if they signed it that things would become to unlawful to take care of. Plus who isn't afraid of change? That's what holds us all back at times. But luckily, they were strong enough to conquer their fear and sign the declaration.

Now since you know all the risks of signing the Declaration of Independence go follow what they did and conquer your main fear... Change. Go do something different, like wear a shoe on your hand. Or even wear one tall sock and one short sock, but go do something different.

Bieber Fever

Author's note: My goal in this writing piece is to have a good description of one of my favorite movies... Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.


Once I hear the songs Never Say Never or Somebody to Love or any other songs by Justin bieber my heart just melts. That’s because I have a disease called Bieber fever! I’ve had this disease ever since I had seen Justin Bieber’s documentary.

This documentary is all about Justin’s adventure through becoming a worldwide sensation he is today. It also shows all of his struggles his family and him went through while he was growing up. Like how his father and mother had gotten divorced when he was 2 or 3 months old. So he grew up without a father most of the time. Even though alot of good things came out of that. Like he always got to play at his grandma and grandpa’s house, or him gowing up around the church. The church was also where he began his music.

When he was 12 years old he entered Stratford Idol, which was the local singing contest in his hometown Stratford, Canada. While all the other contestants have been singing for years and had vocal coaches he came in 2nd place! After that contest he had started putting his videos on youtube. His videos had soon gone viral by having 10,000,000 views a week. Then one week someone that had watched some of his videos was a music manager named Scooter Braun. Scooter works for Raymond Braun Media group. Scooter had arranged Justin to meet Usher. Right away they had hit it off. Usher had taken Justin under his wing and had decided to mentor him.

In 2009 Justin’s first album came out called My World; it was a big hit right away. Many people around the world really liked it, ecspecially the girls. After My World came out he had a concert at Madison Sqaure Garden. The tickets sold out within 28 minutes of them being sold to the public. That’s the fastest Madison Sqaure Garden had ever sold out before.

After that concert he went straight to work on a new album which later was called My World 2.0. That album had had some of his hits like Baby, Somebody to love, Eenie meenie, runaway love, Stuck in the moment and many more! It was loved by critics everywhere right away. This album was released in 2010.

After his ablum; My World 2.0 was released he had begun his next alum right away. Once this album was done he began something huge. He began his documentary called; Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.This movie was bigger than all his abums combined and on opening day, if you had seen the movie in 3-D you get purple glasses. A few weeks after the documentary came out they put out another version of this movie that has 42 more minutes than the normal documentary. Even though this movie was out for half the time I’m pretty sure it almost caught up to how many people saw it compared to the normal documentary. This movie told you about his life story even more than I just did. This movie was so touching that if you saw it you’d be as big of a fan as I am.

The Lying Game

Author's note: My goal in this writing piece is to have a good description of this T.V series and to have a good beginner sentence/paragraph.

Once I hear The song Rumor has it by Adele I rush to sit down as my favorite show starts; The Lying Game. This show has alot of things you don't expect that will happenin this show, for example long lost twins, a really big house in Arizona, a really annoying foster brother and much, much more.

This story starts out with the main character 17 year old Emma living with her evil foster mom Clarice and her super evil and annoying foster brother Travis. She lives with them in Vegas. One day when Emma was skyping her long lost twin sister Sutton, Travis barged in and started teasing Emma, so she slammed her laptop down so Travis wouldn't know about Sutton. Travis kept teasing her and she got really irritated and threatened that if he kept annoying her she would hit him with her tennis racket. She was kidding of course, but Travis didn't know that so he got really mad at her. He took some money from his mom's purse and put it into Emma's bag. When Clarice was asking them where it was Travis had said, "Why don't you look in Emma's bag I saw her in your room earlier today."

Then Clarice looked in Emma's bag and sure enough, Travis had put the money in there to frame Emma and get her kicked out. When Emma was packing Travis had exclaimed, "I guess you shouldn't have threatened to hit me with the tennis racket huh?"

Then it all came to Emma, 'Of course he tricked Clarice into thinking I stole the money because he thought I would actually hit him with my tennis racket,' Then she got an idea. Later when Travis had left she had skyped Sutton and asked if she could stay with her. She had said yes! When Travis walked in later that day and Emma had made her grand escape by hitting him with her tennis racket and jumping out the window. She ran as fast and as far as she could until she reached the train station and bought a ticket and headed to Phoenix, Arizona. That's where Sutton lives.

Once she got there Sutton found her and pulled her into the bathroom. Sutton immediatly started explaining how she was going to Las Angelos to look for their long lost mom, and how she needed Emma to stay and take her place. Emma had happily agreed because she never knew what it was like to have a nige family that she could call her own... Even if it was for only a few months.

Once Sutton and Emma's birhtday came around Sutton had returned. Emma hadn't found out Sutton was back until she had come home from tennis practice to find Sutton waiting for her on her bed. Sutton had filled Emma in on everything she had learned, liked how their mother's name was Annie Hobbs, or how their mother was in an insane asylum.When Sutton had finally told Emma how she wanted her life back Emma had said no not until the end of the party.

Sutton had gotten so mad that she had stolen her families old car and drove off. When Sutton had started driving it had started down pouring. Sutton couldn't see the road very well, so all of a sudden she sees headlights. And they are headed straght toward her! She swerved off the road, and accidently drove into the lake! Then my T.V. blacks out and the credits start to roll on.

The Tortuous Basketball

Author's note: My goal in this writing piece is to describe what it was like to have basketball practice during christmas break at nine in the morning.



BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. I turned my alarm clock off and lazily walk to the dresser. On my way over I think quietly to myself, 'Why did coach fetherston have to have an early practice?' I kept thinking this over and over while I was getting ready for basketball.

When I finally finished getting ready I headed down stairs for breakfast. I put my hair up in a pony and put my head band in. Then I had put my shoes in my basketball bag, and started eating breakfast. Then out of no where I hear my mom yell,"Zoe the Clarks are here hurry up!"

I run out the door as fast as my leg will move when they are still half-asleep. When I hop into my friends car i feel the warmth of the heater rush through me and i feel like crawling into my bed and fall asleep agian. When I buckle my seatbelt it feels as if I am wrapping a blanket around me and i start to drift off.

When i feel the car stop I slowly unbuckle and grab my bag and then I step out of the warm comforting car into the cold, crisp air. My friend and I run into the gym as fast as we can so we don't freeze out here. Once we reach the inside of the school we sit down and start putting on our basketball shoes. We finally finish tying the laces and walk into the gym.

We each grab a ball and start shooting around. Our coach blows hardly into his whistle and we run to him like a pack of wolves do to a piece of meat. We form a huddle and he starts giving us a lecture about how we have to practice hard today.

Finally practice is over and my friend and I head to her car and she drives me home. Once I got home I ate like a pig, then took a nap.

Ugly Sweaters

Author's note: I want this to be a good poem about how ugly sweaters are funny but really wierd.

Even though you wear them,
they are as apealling as rotten phlegm.
You only wear them during christmas,
But they bring no one bliss.
You wear them for contests,
If you get the best,
You will always be teased,
until they are pleased.
You will feel bad,
But then you will be glad.
To know that you won,
And that it was alot of fun.
Plus that you beat the other competitors,
To win the contest of Ugly sweaters.

My Secret

Author's note: My goal in the piece is to have good content and have good paragraph sizes.

It was a snowy afternoon when I was walking home with Brad, the winter snow was swirling around our feet, and the wind was whipping through the air like a dog chasing a cat. I looked at Brad and he looked down at me and smiled with those bright white teeth he has. Then I started to think. ‘Aren’t I lucky to have such a great boyfriend?’ Suddenly I thought I saw Brad looking at something, or should I say someone. ‘Did I just see Brad looking at Brittany?’ No that’s not possible Brittany is nowhere in sight. Oh, well I guess those rumors about Brittany and Brad liking each other are getting to my head. I mean I know Brittany likes Brad, because I mean look at him! That amazing red curly hair and those perfectly straight white teeth, and that devilish smile. Not to mention he has a perfect tan, and has like a 16 pack. Okay, maybe just a 6 pack, but you know what I mean. Plus an amazing sense of style. Also he’s the best player for the skyline youth football league. Suddenly he speaks up, “Are you ok Hillary,” he says with complete concern. I want to speak up and tell what I’ve been worrying about for all week. A huge secret that could ruin everything.

Ok my secret is this… I like someone else. The only problem is that’s it’s not just a random guy that I met in one of my classes. Oh no, that would’ve made it so much easier. It’s my boyfriend’s best friend, Cody. The only problem is that Cody likes Brittany. It’s like a love rectangle. With edges that can just stab your very soul. But I say in a way that you would be able to tell that I’m lying, “No.”

Brad looked at my suspiciously and the replied, “You know that I love you right? And no matter what Brittany will never take me away from you. Nobody in the world can take me away from you.”

‘Of course,’ I think to myself, ‘You just have to say words like that. Don’t you? You just have to make this so much harder on me now do you?

The truth is I was going to break up with Brad tonight during our 1 year anniversary date. I know, I know that’s probably going to be the worst time to do it, but Cody has a soccer game tonight, and I wanted to tell him how I felt. But now, I don’t know… I just don’t know. Cody is just so nice and sweet. Plus he’s a total babe. He has shaggy blond hair, has an 8 pack, is totally buff, is super sweet, he has piercing blue eyes, is really funny, and has a great sense of style. The only problem is that he always shows his boxers. When I didn’t like him my friends and I called him boxer boy. Anyways I just feel this rush when I’m around him.

All of a sudden Brad pulls me out of my day dream by saying “Hillary I'm are at you house.”

I say a quiet goodbye and rush in. While I’m going into my house brad calls, “See you tonight!”

I slam the door and run as fast as I can into my room and slam the door, then bolt the lock. I fall into my bed and land on all my soft pillows. I can’t stop thinking about Cody. Slowly I drift off into a deep sleep.

Suddenly a hour and a half later I wake up to my phone vibrating from a text message. It’s from Cody! It says, Can’t wait to see you tonight at my concert Brittany! Love you. Hmm this is weird why does it say- OH MY GOD! He likes Brittany. Well I’ll make sure that that relationship never happens. Just have to find my good skinny jeans, red cowgirl boots, and my cutest top.

At 8 o’clock Brad’s pull’s up in his car. I run and hop in the front seat. He looks and my outfit and replies, “Great outfit, looks nice,” with a devilish smirk on his face. He pulls out of my drive way and we head out. We finally get there walk inside and order the tickets when I finally speak up, “Brad I have to tell you something.”

He looks at me puzzled and replies, “Sure tell me whatever you want. But first I have to give you something,” and all of a sudden he pulls out this HUGE bouquet of flowers, and says, “Hillary I have never stopped loving you through our relationship. Though we’ve had our ups and downs, we have stayed together through all of it. And I just have to say, I love you.”

Now I’m thinking, ‘Why do you have to do this to me? I mean that was beautiful and all but this isn’t working out. What am I saying we have the perfect relationship, but I think I love-I think I love- Oh no! I think I’m in love with Cody and Brad!’ So Brad won’t get suspicious on why I’m not answering back I say, “I love you too. But I love you as much as a rabbit loves carrots, or as a reader loves books. Or even as much as I love Cody,” then suddenly Brad’s face becomes ashen. Suddenly, out of nowhere all the lights went out. Then a worker shouted out “Don’t worry the lights just went out because of the blizzard outside.”

‘I think I heard someone walk away,’ I thought to myself. I take out my phone and turn it on so the light of the phone is like a flashlight. I move my phone around and notice that Brad has walked away. I feel so bad, and then I think to myself, ‘Now I can find Cory!’

Then as quick as a flash I text Cory, Aren’t you at the movie theatre? Then right after I sent it my phone went off. I checked my phone and Cory had said, Yeah. It’s crazy the power went off! As fast as I could I texted back, ‘Yeah I know I’m here right now. Where are you?’ As quick as a flash my phone vibrated and I looked and it said, ‘By the concession area. Come by me!’

As fast as I could I ran to the concession area, while bumping into a lot of people may I add. Once I finally got to the concession area I whipped out my phone and used it as a flashlight until I found Cory and went by him. When I finally
reached him I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Hey.”

He turned around, smiled and said, “Hey I’ve been looking for you.”

“And I’ve been looking for you, and I have to tell you something to.”

“Okay, but me first. I’ve had a crush on you for a while so…will you go out with me? I know it’s kind of weird, but I really like you.”

“Yes! I’ve felt the same way for a while and I would love to go out with you!” He kissed me for about 1 second.

“Really, are you sure? I thought you liked Brad, because that’s what all the rumors going around school say.”

“Well, I kind of just broke up with him.”

“Wait, I thought he was dating Hilary. When did they break up? I thought it was their one year anniversary.”

‘He thinks I’m Brittany! What should I do,’ Then the idea came to me, ‘I will pretend to be Brittany then when the lights go back on I’ll show him who I really am.’ Then I said, “Oh I meant that Hillary just broke up with Brad and that I don’t like him anymore… Sorry.”

He said with a bit of confusion, “Oh that’s too bad, they looked good together,” then with a flicker the lights came back on and Cory looked at me with utter confusion and remarked, “Hillary what are you doing her? Where’s Brittany? By the way sorry you and Brad didn’t work out.”

I explained the thing, then trying to act as sad as I could I exclaimed, “That’s fine... But someone you know was the reason why me and Brad broke up,” while Cory was trying to figure out who I blurted out, “You Cory!”

I’ve never seen anyone more shocked in my life. Then slowly but surely his expression got soft and he said, “I think I like you too,” Once he said that all this worry had lifted of my shoulders and then he added, “Will you go out for me?”

“Yes,” I said so happy it probably looked like I would explode. Then he grabbed my hand then went and saw the movie. Once the movie was over Cory drove me home and said, “See you on Monday,” then I gave him a hug and went to my room and fell asleep.

Fractured fairy tale (Red riding hood)

Ok so my mom was like 'Oh honeyy go visit your frail grandmother she misses you so much.' I didn't want to be like 'no that sucks for her,' so I packed a basket a food and headed out. On my over the bridge and through the woods I met someone. He is tall and hunky. he's also hairy. You're probably thinking ew gross but he's a wolf and I thought he really cared about me. But guess what he tried to eat my food. When I went to the bathroom I thought wait he's a wolf he's gonna eat me. When I came back I found him trying to open my basket. I haven't kicked anyone harder.

Then I ran and ran. I ran all the way to my grandmother's house. I explained to her everything about the wolf the food everything. Then guess what happened my grandmother wasn't my grandmother wasn't my grandmother. It was the wolf in a costume. I tried to get away through the front door. But he locked them. As I turned around to go out the back door he jumped at me. Then everything got cold and black. Don't worry though. Everything in heaven is really nice and I'm with my grandma!