Lesson 1 FWA David Fan
How much do you know about your family tree? How important is it to you to know where your family came from, what it has done, and how its heritage might affect your own personality and abilities? Explain your response. I do not know very much about my family tree. I know that I have many ancestors, for I wouldn’t exist if I didn’t have ancestors. I only know some info about my grandparents, which isn’t a whole lot. As for my family’s origins, I only find it significant that my family is Chinese, because China is a great nation. But, I do not feel that my family’s origins affect me and my future. Only my ancestor’s success and heritage do. It can be presumed that every one of my ancestors until before 70,000 years ago lived in China, because Chinese people for a large part of history liked to live in their respective hometowns, never moving. With the exception of the Great Human Migration, Chinese people have stayed put for almost the duration of their existence. This had mostly to do with geographic limitations, like mountains, ocean, but also a feeling of superiority. Because of this fact, it can be assumed that a large majority of my ancestors were peasants living in the countryside. Recently, my ancestors have worked in modern occupations. One of my grandparents was a journalist, and another was a mechanical engineer. The rest were probably either farmers or craftsmen. I’m proud of the fact that I’m Chinese, because China has such a long and rich heritage. China has gone a long way since prehistoric times, and has many achievements. China was the birthplace of many great poets, writers, philosophers, scientists, war generals, rulers, and inventions. Needless to say, world history would be very different without the Chinese. The same is with every other race. History is a sum of all the
components of the World. While I don’t feel that any race is any more superior to another, I’m proud of China’s contributions. I don’t feel that my family’s origins have affected my life very much. My dad and mom have lived in farming villages for duration of their childhood, but they managed to get a scholarship to China’s #1 university, and eventually come to the USA on a full scholarship. This goes to show that other things impact a person’s life more than origins. I think the single most important factor in anyone’s successes is the amount of effort and desire. While the amount required to attain a certain level of success is different for every person, the important fact remains that a given person needs to go beyond their prerequisite for success. Some of this has to do with heritage. China has always been a very large country with limited resources. In order to succeed, one must be the top of the batch. Otherwise, he/she’ll be just like the person next to him, which would guarantee failure. That’s why just about all Chinese parents encourage competition and hard work. If this isn’t part of a child’s mentality, they can’t succeed. The child has no where to go, except for up. That’s why Chinese people have been successful on the international stage, along with many other people. Analysis I didn’t find any subject verb agreement errors, although there were many noun phrases. This is probably because I tend to write non-passively. Example: my family tree. “Because of this fact, it can be assumed that a large majority of my ancestors were peasants living in the countryside.” ” In order to succeed, one must be the top of the batch.” These are some sentences with adverbial clauses in the beginning. Changes in sentence structure improve my prose because it changes the tone and direction of my writing. In my two example sentences, I improved prose because it links ideas better. When I added adverbial phrases to ordinary noun phrases, I felt like I was talking in “old English”. However, sometimes my essay sounded a whole lot better. I think this had to do with where exactly I put the adverbial phrases.