Essay #1 – Commas
Brave Orchid
One of the most important characters in The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston’s
autobiographical work is Brave Orchid, Kingston’s mother. Brave Orchid was a strong woman but not a
happy one. Through Kingston’s stories about her mother, readers learn a lot about Kingston herself.
Readers are introduced to Brave Orchid, a complex character as an imaginative storyteller, who
tells vivid tales of China. A quiet young woman she nevertheless impresses her classmates with her
intelligence. She is also a traditional woman. However she is determined to make her life exactly what
she wants it to be. Brave Orchid strongly believes in herself; still she considers herself a failure.
In her native China Brave Orchid trains to be a midwife. The other women in her class envy her
independence brilliance and courage. One day Brave Orchid bravely confronts Fox Spirit, and tells him
he will not win. First of all she tells him she can endure any pain that he inflicts on her. Next she gather
together the women in the dormitory to burn the ghosts away. After this even the other women admire
her even more.
Working hard Brave Orchid becomes a midwife in China. After coming to America however she
cannot work as a midwife. Instead she works in a Chinese laundry, and picks tomatoes. None of her
classmates in China would have imagined this outcome. During her later years in America Brave Orchid
becomes a woman, who is overbearing and domineering. She bosses her children around, she tries to
ruin her sister’s life and she criticizes everyone and everything around her. Her daughter, a straight-A
student is the object of her worst criticism.
Brave Orchid’s intentions are good. Nevertheless she devotes her energy to the wrong things.
She expects the people around her to be as strong as she is. Because she bullies them however she
eventually loses them. In addition she is too busy criticizing her daughter’s faults to see all her
accomplishments. Brave Orchid an independent woman and a brilliant student never achieves her goals.
She is hard on the people around her, because she is disappointed her herself.
Essay #2 – Run-On Sentences
Dollars and Cents
Most of us handle money every day, we rarely look closely at it or think much about what foes
into producing it. However, the U.S. Treasury Department thinks a lot about money. The Treasury
Department is always looking for ways to make money more interesting to consumers and collectors, it
is also trying to make money harder for counterfeiters to copy.
In the past few years, some major changes have been made to our money. Between 1999 and
2008, the U.S. Mint will be issuing new quarters for every state the quarters are being issued in the
order which the states ratified the Constitution. The design of each quarter is different, each image
represents a unique characteristic of the state or its history. The coins are very popular, in fact, many
people are collecting sets for their children and grandchildren.
The Mint has also begun producing new nickels. The front of one nickel still shows the head of
Thomas Jefferson, our third president, it is a new image. The back of the nickel features an American
bison, the bison is shown from the side. The new image of Jefferson also appears on another nickel, on
the other side, this one shows the western waters as first seen by the explorers Lewis and Clark. A third
nickel pictures a keelboat like the one that carried Lewis and Clark on their exposition. The image on the
other side of the nickel is not new it is still the head of President Jefferson from the older coins.
The U.S. Treasury is always trying to stay ahead of the counterfeiters. In the spring of 2003, it
printed the first colorful twenty-dollar bill these bills are printed in shades of blue, yellow, and peach
rather than the standard green and black. The picture of Andrew Jackson is also larger and slightly off
center. The type is bolder, there is a blue eagle in the background. The Treasury plants to change these
bills every seven to ten years to make them harder to copy, eventually, the fifty- and one hundred-dollar
bills will also be printed in color.
Changers in our money may be hard to get used to, they serve two important purposes. They
help to prevent counterfeiting and provide us with attractive currency to collect – or to spend.
Essay #3 – Fragments
A Narrow Escape
Sometimes a dangerous experience can change the way people look at life. This is certainly true
for me. One experience I had made me a different person. Because it make me realize how quickly my
life could end.
IT was the summer before my senior year of high school. I thought I was just going to spend a
day at the beach. With two of my friends. We live near the beach in Florida, so we decided to drive over
to Daytona Beach in the morning. To go swimming. Unfortunately, what happened that day landed me
in the hospital. And really scared me.
My friends and I were swimming in about four feet of what. When I felt something grabbing my
ankle. Trying to pull me straight down. I thought I was tangled up in something. Such as some seaweed.
Then one of my friends yelled, “Shark!” I kicked as hard as I could, and the shark let go. Although I was
able to get out the water on my own. I had been badly bitten. On the back of my left foot.
My friends took me to Ocean County Hospital. Where I got eighty-two stitches. The doctors told
me that I was lucky. Because my tendons hadn’t been cut in two by the bite. I would probably make a
full recovery. I never saw the shark, but my friends told me that it was about eight feet long. And looked
like a bull shark.
This experience changed my life. Because it make me afraid. I still go to the beach. But I don’t go
swimming very often. I know that shark attacks are rare, but I am still a little scared. To go back in the
water.