ALIKE

Think of thousands of thousands of young people eager to study at a university. Think of high fees as their main obstacle and loans as their only possibility to study. Think of families and students themselves struggling everyday not to leave the university. Think of those students twenty years later paying for the only possibility they had to study, most of them without having finished their careers. Think this have been happening for more than twenty years in a country named Chile, with seventeen millions of inhabitants and a prosperous economy. Do you think we have some things in common with our Latin American neighbors?

What writing in Spanish, English and French is like.

I guess writing in Spanish is to put in a paper or on the screen the relation I have create with my surrounding through languages during my whole life. Maybe the best image I can choose is putting together a puzzle made of things you have felt, experienced, thought: It requires an effort but you feel at home with the task.

For explaining what writing in English is like for me, I would like to continue with the image of my motocycle. Since It works without clutch, writing in english is like riding a motocycle with clutch: the process doesn't change a lot, you just have to press one more button to do it... and despite the clutch, you love it.

Writing in French is like putting together your first computer and its table -Now I remember how long It took to me and my oldman finishing that task. I choose this image because these are demanding things but still you are eager to have the result and you enjoy making the effort: you keep trying one way and another and so on until you get the final product.

Writing in english is:

For me writing in english is a process as complex as in spanish. It all start by identify a topic and organize my ideas.
Writing in english is huge process that can perfectly compare with the mount Everest climb. In both actions you need to reach the goal: in the Everest, your main objective is to reach the top of the mountain, in the writing process you need to reach the end or the conclusion of your paper. Every paragraph you write is like every step your made that get you close and closer of the end.
But writing in english is not easily at all. Sometimes you will find obstacles like the mountain climber will find in his way to the top. In the writing process your way be black, in some cases, by blank ideas parallel to this, the climber route my be black by an avalanche , in both cases, the person will have to find out a route strategic to clear his way and continue with his journey. The two actions require you will have to find to best route and the best arguments (concretes) to walk find the end. Because every sleep in the writing process, every word, every idea must be as a climber step: strong, concret and firm in order to avoid falling into the deep.
All this aspect must be necessary to reach the conclusion of a quest, in our case, the english writing process.


Xavier

ME AS A WRITER

I remember some positive and negative aspects of writing. For example, at school, the teacher of first grade class, used to gave us different drawings or pictures of animals, fruits, vegetables and landscapes. In my case, I have always loved animals, so, for me was wonderful to color them and at the same time learn how to write their names. There was also a typical drawing for working with us in those grades. Our task was to draw each family member and write their respective names. These experiences were pleasant to me, because they were related with my life, my feelings and interests.

On the other hand, when I talk about boring aspects is because I’m doing reference to the famous handwriting exercises. For instance, I needed write many times some specific letters; in some cases, I was so tired and I felt very bad. I even thought that those exercises were only a mechanical process. But on the time, I understood they were in way necessaries to learn and memorize the writing of some letters or simple words.

IS "WHY I WRITE BY GEORGE ORWELL" AN ACADEMIC TEXT? (Alan)

More than to try to answer the question “is ‘why I write’ by George Orwell an academic text?” I would like to show that it may be considered as an academic text, even if it is thought that it is a literary one.

I think to define “academic texts” is not an easy task as many types of texts can be included on it, since most of the times we think that academic texts must follow a rule or a style to be written and sometimes we forget about the content or how useful it can be or even the possibility of building knowledge that a text can involve. For example, most of the times we see academic texts as a synonym of Scientific Texts when we say that they must have a specific structure, some specific steps about the way the information is presented and a specialized vocabulary, but Literary Texts are also Academic ones: most of them have a specific structure, most of the author follow some specific steps to write them and also use a specialized vocabulary, besides that I want to ask this question for you to answer: can people who study literature not be considered as Academics even if we talk about (in Spanish) the “Real Academia de la Lengua Española” and it is evident that there we are not only going to talk about grammar and formal aspects about Spanish but Literature Texts too?

Even if I already said that literary texts have their own structure I would like to clarify that each text has its own structure but this is not a rigid rule that we have to follow, it can vary and we can also make use of the structure according to what we want to write or our own style.

In our debate we talked about arguments as something that is supported by very well-known people or studies, but in “Why I Write” we find that the one who speaks is a very well-known writer, so why not to believe him? Besides that, if we take the example of a tribunal we can find that an eye-witness is a believable prove to defend or condemn someone, so in that case personal testimony can be taken as a believable prove or argument.

Finally, we talked about subjectivity but in each text where you take a position (as essays), no matter how many arguments you present or how strong they are, you are using them just to defend your own perspective that is your subjectivity, how you see a problem or what you think about any subject. So, if we take into account what I say in this text I think we can make our own conclusions about if it is or not an academic text. Beyond this, I think it is about the use and the purpose you give to a text and the knowledge you can build through it.

Writing in English is like Scuba diving in the sea

Writing in English is like Scuba diving in the sea. First, you must attend theoretical training about the scuba equipment and body behavior into different atmospheres of pressing. Next day you make some practices in a child pool and after you are ready start the experience in the sea. You are never alone, the trainer is always close to you, supporting and checking your air tank. Air is crucial to stay into the ocean.

The first diving is just 10 meters, for 30 minutes more or less. After that, on the surface you must have the registration about your scuba on your own binnacle you always have to write about the place, time spending and deep.

You have to go gradually to the deep and come back slower; resting each 10 meters due to your body needs time to eliminate the Nitrogen accumulated. You have to wait the correct time for the next diving. More deep means more time to rest and more slowly for to do it.

Writing in your binnacle, let you know your advances and next step for to do. Each scuba diving is marvelous and great chance to see the majestic coral reefs, multicolor fishes and if you are lucky one shark. Do not be afraid, you are saved keeping positive aptitude and feeling comfortable with yourself.

EDUCATIONAL STRUGGLE IN CHILE

EDUCATIONAL STRUGGLE IN CHILE

Not only students but also parents and teachers are marching against the policies that the government from Chile is applying in public education. They are claiming for quality and free education. 
The educational reforms are not accepted by chileans that have been affected in a social-economic way; People can't have access to education due to the high prices they are forced to pay to become a professional. 

by: Rosa Doris Huertas & Christian Díaz 

My first experience as a writer

I have still in my mind my first contact with writing, I was about 5 o 6 years old, my mom just took me out of primary, because my teacher used to hit me, so I stayed at home, at first I thought "well I'm so lucky" but then my nightmare started. I lived with my mom, brother (who is younger than me) and my aunt with her husband and daughter. The problem began when my mom started to work so she left me with my aunt, who took care of me, well that was the idea.
Days were gone until one day my aunt decided to teach me at home. But that was a terrible idea. she used to be an angry woman, she worse than my ex-teacher, she yelled at me, hit me and punished me just because I did not understand something or if I did it wrong. With tears I learnt to read and write. Mi first pieces of writing were those that I put into my mom's purse. in which I asked her to come back early.

RIDING MY HORSE- Rosa Doris Huertas

RIDING MY HORSE- Rosa Doris Huertas

Power is the last name of horses, is the representation of ability, is like the people who know how to write and do it well; because who got the correct words to express her or himself, is the one who got the power. The power to create, to communicate, to being listen. 
That is writing to me, is the way I saddle my horse, caressing his loin, also to keep him clean, it is like the strong connection that I establish whit him, in a few words to be her friend; exercise of the writing is what I do with my horse, it is the writing in his form, in his poetry, in his gallop, in his run, in his legs.
The free will to go anywhere, to write what I want, what I think, what I feel. To have the power and the control, but also is the emotion of feeling that your heart is going to bloom of exiting, sometimes like nervous of drop away or to let some others ride your horse, read your creation and critiqued what you do.
Even though I love to write as much as I love to ride my horse, and maybe the people could think that ride a horse is kind of painful, and there are right, it is, as it is also the exercise of write, is painful in some way when for example, when I recognize that I have a mistake, and I need go back, recheck, correct and rewrite.

FAHRENHEIT 451 (Alan)

Hello guys.

A found this web page which contains some info about "Farhrenheit 451". This is the info you can find:

1. Plot Synopsis
2. FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. About Bradbury and FAHRENHEIT 451
4. 451 Photo Gallery
5. The Book Banning Debate
6. Study Guides for Fahrenheit 451
7. Movie Info and News
8. Francois Truffaut's FAHRENHEIT 451
9. 451 Video
   

http://www.squidoo.com/451

I also find a study guide of the book, I hope it is useful:

http://www.steppenwolf.org/_pdf/studyguides/F451_studyguide.pdf

AN EXPENSIVE UTOPIA: HOW FAR ARE WE FROM CHILE? (Alan)

During the last weeks chilean students have been marching through Santiago streets as a way to protest against private policies of education, nothing far from our own situation where government tries to implement a model of a "educational credit benefit" turning education into an expensive utopia if you don't want to get an eternal debt.

FOR ME WRITING IS... (Alan)

• Writing in Spanish is like looking for some clothes to wear, some times you know exactly what you want to wear but other times you spend some time untill you finally find it.

• Writing in English is like drawing, you have a diagram of what you want to draw, but some times this diagram takes a different way from what you expected.

• Writing in French is like looking for a small thing you need among a lot of big things in a big drawer, I need to look for a lot of words in order to finish my text.

(Eduardo G.) #04 - The first experience I remember as a writer

I remember that my first contact with the writing was about twenty years ago, when I was six and I was in first grade in primary school. All those days where full of lines and suddenly we started to write short dictations that Miss Torres took from "Aesop's fables", once she had read one.
I remember that I really enjoy when she told us fables. And, finishing first grade, I thought a fable was a short story that gave you a message and it did not matter whether the main carachter was or not an animal. That is why when I had to write "My own fable", at the end of first grade, I write something like: "Once upon at time a little girl wanted to play in the park but her mom did not let her go out, then the little girl decided to go to the park on her own, and when she was swinging she fell and as result she died".
The next day Miss Torres send a note to my mom, she wanted to talk her about me, because she thought it was not normal that a little boy write negative things like that. I felt very bad, I thought I was silly or something, my mom did not tell me anything about it, but I learnt there are a lot of things you can not say because other people do not like, moreover when you are in school you have to write what your teacher expects.

My first contact with writing

It has been sometime ago when I first tried to write something, using random traces, figures and other pseudoletters in my school days.

The first thing I remember is me trying to draw some letters, imitating their shapes, repeating in a notebook the way in which those letters had to be written. Those exercises were so many, repeating once and again the shapes until they are drawn correctly. It was a very weary task.

Later the exercises become more practical; mixing syllabes and trying to make words, sometimes we compete each other reproduing the word we heard, or watching an object and writing it as closer as it is.

The final exercises has been always oral text repetition's written on the notebook as accurate as possible. It was a mechanical exercise and I felt that it was unproductive and became a rutine for everybody. Nevertheless, I can say that I have enjoyed writing from the beginning of my process.

(Eduardo G.) #03 - Is or not "why I write" an academic text?

Before the debate I thought this text was an academic one because although at the beginning the author uses ordinary words in a simple style of writing, in my view, from the middle of the text to the end he uses technical vocabulary. Besides, it has an essay structure. And although the author does not cite other authors, I have heard it is not necessary if the author is an expert in the subject.

However, after the debate and having listened the counter-arguments I admit they make me doubt and that is why I would like to know the professor's opinion.

(Eduardo G.) #02 - An expensive utopia: How far are we from Chile?

During the last weeks Chilean students have been marching thorough Santiago streets as a way to protest against private polices of education. Nothing far from our own situation where government tries to implement a model of a "educational credit benefit" turning education into an expensive utopia if you don't want to get an eternal debt.

Colombian situation is not far from Chile situation and that’s why Last September the 7th Colombian streets, once again, were the scenario where students, professors and common people manifested their unconformity about “Reforma a la ley 30” that government wants to carry out.

But, if we take a look at other countries’ situation, we can see this is not a new thing, since long time ago in United States, for example, those kinds of neoliberal policies were implemented promising benefits for everybody. But, we can see benefits for people were just promises because the rate of unemployment nowadays is very high, then if you don’t want to belong to that rate you have to choose a degree like administration or something like that that gives you more opportunities in a globalize world for competing, even if you don’t like those stuffs; besides, student loan debt swells 511 percent what makes think that those students are going to work the rest of their lives in order to pay their study debt.

(Eduardo G.) #01 - For me writing...

in English is like cooking. I find it interesting and necessary but I have to re-write over and over because I think I am bad doing it.

in French is like going to the dentist. I know it is necessary and good for me in many aspects. But everytime I have to go I get scared.

in Spanish is like dancing. Compared to English and french it is easier and sometimes it is cool, sometimes it is not; it depends on who I am going to dance with, what kind of music is and how long the song is.

Writting in english, another hung challenge. I think is not easy to write in our own mother tough either, becouse in general, the familiar atmosphere and the conventional education system not forter the writting skills during the childhood or younghood. People have to copy from the books, dictionaries, That`s means a part of the brain not is develop to conect ideas and pencil at the same time. Writting in other foreing language, Ohhhhh God is a painful becouse each lenguage is its own building of the world. I am used to take long time to write technical reports in spanish, due to I am so careful to the sintaxis and grammar. In this new proposal to me, english writting is a hung challenge

Education in Chile

The current educational system in Chile is a big business.
Students have to pay a fortune to study at universities. That's the reason they and their families are getting loans, thet they can't even pay for an education with low quality but expensive. Now lots of Chileans are protesting on the streets demanding free education as a right, despite off I think the Chilean attitude is a model to folllow because when the people rise the hands and protest show to the the government the people is fight for something important.

Money equal Study (Correction)

Chile is going through a difficult situation due to the problems caused by its current educational system, Chilean students are protesting against the policies which have privatized the education.
The least years young students and their families have had to get into a huge debt to study. This has cost them losing their houses in order to pay a debt which increases with time.
Students claim for a new and better educational system, which really worries to give them a very high educatión; instead of worries about how make students pay no matter the means.

The answer you didn't want to

Year:2.011......................................................... Place: Presbyteria hospital (N.Y.City) ............................ Room:911 .......................................................... Patient: ? ........................................................ Illness: The mad minds ............................................ Visitor time : 9:00 - 12:00 .......................................

- It's almost noon and you want me to speak about my writing experience?

- yes? well I have to start from the very beginning.

- I was a creative little child, did you know? until I had to go to school. My imaginative potential was overshadowed by the long lists of letters I was forced to repeat in my notebook of "The Power Rangers". As you can infer I didn't have a nice relationship with writing; for me it was a boring and a tedious process which did not make sense.

- Some years later, in high school, things didn't changed much. Sometimes there were classes where we had long writing exercises that I actually would not make. So do you think I used to write just for my elementary school or high school? well... If you answer yes, you are right, congratulations! I used to write just to make the HW, to satisfy my poor teachers' objectives and, the most important reason, to get the highest grade (E) instead of the lowest one (D). Except from that I didn't have more reasons to write. I think it satisfies you, right?

- The torture ended when I was 15 - I finished High school! I still remember my deep cry in my last class. This "hard worker" society made me to start working as an accountant assitant. And of course my mental produce by that time was not that different from what a calculator machine does. Are you enjoying this? I don't like your laughter so we better move to... A year later I was admitted for the Foreign Language Program at Univalle. I was not worried because of the "capuchos", "Farc", "metaleros"... or for all those things you wanted me to feel fear, it was because of writing. I thought I would have to write long boring essays that I would not do and the result would be a “bajo” instead of my degree. Three years later from that... how am I still alife at university? - Please don't take into account the two facts that almost took me to death: the first one the "excellent" service of "public" hospitals in Colombia... yeah sure... they "saved" my life yesterday from a heart-attack! and the second one the "ghost car" that crashed me without hurting my body... thanks God! so did you get the answer? It's very simple... not yet?... how many time do you need?... ok I got frustrated, I will whisper you the answer:

- In my first class at university I was asked to write whatever I wanted, surprised? It was not logical for me as it is not for you! In that moment I was wondering: how can I write something without somebodyelse's direction? I don't remember what I wrote that day... but I am sure it was not an "educative" tale for disney. The only thing I know is that from that day my mind found a way to escape from my head. Finally writing had sense.

- Today I can tell you that this bad experience just had a nice ending... writing is not as bad as you wanted me to think, it's a way to express myself, my thoughts and my feelings... Although everything it is not that sweet... I still have to write things I don't find any sense just to be graded. Fortunatelly, my own writing do not let me to be another victim of this free (writing- grade) trade, now this "mind killer" is not my first reason to write. I know you don't want me to say that but My Words born to change the world.

Please Mr. IMF do not keep frustrating the powerful thoughts of your childs around the world as you did with mine, you are wasting your time, because now we know your plans, and you are dying.

MWP #4

ME AS A WRITER

First of all I would like to say that I do not remember almost anything about my first experience as a writer. What I do remember is that I enjoyed (when I was 6-9 nine years old) a lot to read the books of the spanish courses because of the ilustrated stories. The only thing that I remember is that when I was 8 years old and I was in third grade, I had a bad time at writing because I felt a lot of anxiety when I did it. though I did not like writing, time spent and I began to do it, but not to tell stories but, say, to take what I felt out of me as a mean of healing, as I was not very expressful.

Nowadays writing is still, in most of the cases, my way out, but since I am in the university, I have to write on many subjects, so I do my best to not get bored. Actually, there is something really funny about all this matter because I find writing an interesting activity and sometimes I feel as if I did not want to stop writing, but then something I cannot tell happens and makes me feel tired, I suppose this is normal but when I stop, that is for a long period.

Julián R. Sepúlveda

Reflection on my life as a writer since childhood

Now that I have to write about myself as a writer, it is curious that I have never had a close relationship with writing although I consider myself a good reader. I just say this because people relates reading with writing. I guess it does not work with me.

So this is the most remarkable moments of my life as a write:

1. 4-6 years: I learnt to read really fast and good but when it came about writing I used to confuse some letters with numbers, like 5 for s, 3 for e and so on.

2. 7-11 Primary school: Memories completly deleted.

3. 11-16 High school: Writing was a free task; we were never taught any conventions about different kinds of texts. I wrote mostly summaries but the idea was just to do the homework, I did not anything special from it.

4. 17-22: Nothing interesting for the class.

5. 23-until now University: Things have changed a lot since I came to University because I know now a lot of things about writing that I should have learnt at school or at least now I know that there other kinds of texts besides literature. Nowadays I have two concerns: first is to manage lots of grammatical rules and writing conventions and the most important is try to use writing as a self-expression tool.

What writing is for me (correction)

Writing in english is like cooking because first I need to know what I am going to prepare and when I write I must know what the text is going to be about.

Second I see what I already have or know and see what is missing, then I need to buy or search for things for my food or text.

And finally when I have all what is necessary I begin by following some steps and at the end I get what I want, which is a good text or dinner.

Writing in spanish is like going shopping, because I have to see what suits me and in my writing I have to see what is suitable for my text; of course that I like it.

Writing in french is like having sex with a girl that you just met, because when I write the goal is to write a good an interesting and brilliant text and in the sex the goal is to please her; and sometimes no matter how much you read about it or if you already have done it before, all the texts and the girls are not the same, so I need to try many things and at the end my performance and my text are going to be evaluate.

(Marcela Hope) Every language makes me feel different when writing.............

For me writing in Spanish is like recreating something that happened or just what I imagine, leaving the reader to feel what I feel, to smell, to hear, to see, and even to taste. So writing in this language is exciting because you can play with your mother language words.

Writing in English is something much more different. It's like to yell to the world what I feel. This is like the language  that  I use to hide my feelings from my family, a way to give a vent to my sadness or in the best cases to my joy...the bad thing is that most of the people I know speak English so I would have to learn another language for hiding them...and that would be very difficult, but it could be a challenge like the one's from Tina.

Finally, writing in French is like...... to be psychorigid, you gotta be careful with the grammar, the accents..... honestly it has too many things that "no me fluye": it doesn't flow me !

Furthermore, it happens to me that I am so focused on the grammar rules that I used to lose the text's idea or the sense.

MY REFLEXION ON ACADEMIC TEXT

After having read the text "Why I write" By George Orwell, and taking into account my previous work and knowledge about general structure text, I did not recognize initially this writing as an academic text. At that moment, it was a logical decision to me, because the text does not have an obvious structure. For example, when we are tackling an academic text is normal to expect that its structure be clear. It means that we can easily identify its abstract, arguments, references, sources, logical connectors, etc., but, when we have a text that is subjective, with a personal writing style, that is not lineal, and with many other aspects that are apparently missing, so, it is possible to think hastily, that is not an academic text.

However, when we check this text carefully, we find that it has examples, arguments, a conclusion, a subject, some personal experiences as a writer, in some parts specific or technical vocabulary, a purpose, at the same time we can identify a managerial audience and a tone that is steady, among other elements that allow us to recognize that it is an academic text too.

Something that help me to do this reflections were the statements of Barbara Schneider and Jo-Anne Andre in their text “Developing Authority in student writing through written peer critique in the disciplines”, because they said that there is no one-style-fits-all discourse and that each discipline has its own set of conventions in which particular ways of constructing and communicating knowledge.

Two interesting links about Fahrenheit 451

I found these links too, the first one is about the book and the second one is about the author, check them, I think there is a good information.

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/451/

Author Biography / Context of the Work
One-Page Plot Summary
Character Descriptions
Object/Place Descriptions

Quotes

Topic Tracking
Topic Tracking: Fear
Topic Tracking: Indifference


Chapter Summaries

Part 1: The Hearth and the Salamander
Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand
Part 3: Burning Bright


http://www.neabigread.org/books/fahrenheit451/fahrenheit451_04.php

It is about the Author

Is an Educational reform in our country possible?

Recently, thousands of chilean students marching with purpose of obtaining public education system in that country in consonance with the current system that means social inequality for these citizens and their families that need to pay in many cases three times more for the studies of their children to institutions like Icetex here, so, this is the same situation for us, for example, our goverment obtains too many taxes with natural sources like coal mines. It is known that in Colombia there are many coal mines that are exploted by foreing companies that don't pay taxes for it, and obviously it means that educational, health and other systems or institutions don't receive enough to develop their programs and cover our necessities.

Why I think that the text “why I write” is an academy text.

First it has the same structure that essay does, it begins with an introduction, then text has its thesis, then the author gives arguments to support his thesis, and at the end he finishes by giving a conclusion.

Second, in some parts of the text the author uses technical vocabulary related to the writing and reading process.

Finally the author tries to convince the readers through his arguments why he writes and that is one of the goal of the academic text, to convince people of doing or thinking something with good arguments such the ones that he gives in the text.

What writing in Spanish, English and French is like...

For me writing in English is like cooking. It is a process that requires my effort and time, writing is not easy, but at the end I enjoy each ingredient. It is always a pleasure to see the results.

For me writing in French is like climbing a mountain. There are on the way some problems or aspects that demand my attention, if I don't solve them I can't continue the way to the top.

For me writing in Spanish sometimes is like talking with somebody I don't know, I don't understand. It is probably because I don't pay attention to some aspects of the language, maybe I assume Spanish is like a piece of cake to me, because it is my mother tongue, but I'm obviously wrong.

Money equal Study

Chile is actually the final interpretation of what will happen if colombian educational reforms take place. Students' protests are intended to claim to the chilean government to change the current educational system which makes students and their families get into a huge debt to study. this has cost them losing their houses in order to pay a debt which increases with time.

PEER REVIEW GROUPS

Tenshi/ Ricardo/ John Freddy

Lorena/ Andrès/ Sandra/ Laura

Alan/ Eduardo/ Marcela / Karen

Ana/ Julian/ Javier

Yasmine/ Jairo/ Rose

• For me writing in english is like travelling through the country because you see many unknown things and you just get amazed at that, however you can also find yourself in the middle of the night surrounded by the deepest darkness and full of fright, just wishing to slip away of that all.

• For me writing in spanish is a way of taking all my doubts out; it is how I build my confidence up, because in spanish what I use to write is about myself and what I feel. long story short It is like going to a psychology section.

• writing in french mmmmm...., well it is difficult to tell because I usually do not do it but It is not hard for me as it is a language that I find rather beautiful, so I would say that it is like going to a restaurant; there you can find many things that you do not know but find delicious.

Microwritting #2

What probably awaits us: the chilean educational situation.

Lately, a huge mass of students, teachers and parents have come out to streets to protest against the neo-liberal education policies that were set up by the government since 1970. These policies, very similar to what colombian government wants to impose, tranlate to privatisation, cuts in education budgets, etc.

Ana Isabel Ortíz
Maria Cristina Muñoz
Julián Ricardo Sepúlveda.

Writing in... is like...

Thinking about what is writing like for me in each language I speak I'd say...

Writing in English is like cleaning a house. It's a hard , boring and usually a long process. When doing this action you have to organize and clean the mess in the house. When I write a text in English there are mistakes, so I got to correct, and rewrite what I had written . This process becomes long and hard.

Writing in French is like attending to tedious classes at college. That's the place where you don't want to be, and you count each minute, while praying God to end that terrible situation. So when I start writing in this language, my only wish is to end the text as fast as I could.

Writing in English and French is not as pleasent as it should be for me, however, writing in Spanish is different, especially when I write what I want to express. So for me writing in Spanish is like swimming in a pool. This action makes me feel relaxing and comfortable.

Why I write: academic text?

First of all I would like to say, as this is the chance to talk for myself, that I am not totally sure about whether the text why I write is an academic text or not, but as I have to defend a position, I will defend the one that the text is closer to be, i.e., I consider the text to be an academic one.

Well, I assume that position because of the next arguments: in spite of the text in the beginning is just telling us about the life of the author, I consider the text to have a very clear structure of an essay, as it has an introduction (after the little biography given), a development where you can see the arguments that the author give and that led him to become a writer with a political bias (the political and even military events that took place in his age---context), and of course a conclusion where he joins his ideas to say what written a book is for himself.

Other reasons are that there are specific vocabulary related in some way with the process of writing for example: vers d’occasion, comic, poems, literary, prose, rhythm, typography, width of margins, descriptive books, magazine article, sentences, etc. the author also makes citations both for his writings (the little poem), as for other’s authors (paradise lost).

Julian R. Sepulveda

Chilean education: a model to be followed?

The current educational system in Chile is a big business.
Students have to pay a fortune to study at universities. That's the reason they and their families are getting loans, thet they can't even pay for an education with low quality but expensive. Now lots of Chileans are protesting on the streets demanding free education as a right.

Jhon Fredy Quintero
Andrés David Bolaños
Javier Ramos Ramirez

What writing is for me:

Writing in english is like cooking because first I need to know what I am going to prepare and when I write I must know what the text is going to be about.

I see what I already have or know and see what is missing, then I need to buy or search for things for my food or text.

When I have all what is necessary I begin by following some steps and at the end I get what I want, which is a good text or dinner.

Writing in spanish is like going the shopping, because I have to see what suits me and in my writing I have to see what is suitable for my text; of course that I like it.

Writing in french is like having sex with a girl that you don't know, because when I write the goal is to write a good, interesting and brilliant text and in the sex the goal is to please her; and sometimes no matter how much you read about it or if you already have done before, all the texts and the girls are not the same, some I need to try many things and at the end my performance and my text are going to be evaluate.

WHY I WRITE?. A DIFFERENT KIND OF ACADEMIC TEXT.

The most common knowledge people have about academic texts are the essays, and the image of essays as the most frequent and better known example of academic text, but if we can imagine how complex is the art of writing we can also imagine that maybe in that complexity the academic text are more than assays. Even if I dont have a big knowledge about academic writing, I would say that this text wrote by George Orwell can be academic but presented in a different way not well known for me.

This text makes me think about the complexity of writing academic texts, because at least for me, it broke down the walls of academic writing I had and suggested me other ways of writing for the academy.

Fighting For What Should Be A Right.

Chile is suffering the consequences of extreme and deliberated potilics of capitalism, and that's more than obvious when we see thousands of chilean students marching across the streets asking for their rights about public education, and thatś kind of illogical because education shouldn't be a privilege for those who can pay for it but a right.

Actually the current situation in chilean universities is not something that appeared over night but something that was a process of cruel and rude privatization when the only tool we will have to study is money. What for me is amazing is the fact that the
same rude and terrible situation is taking place in Colombia and had to be well analized as it had to be.

Chile and Colombia two different countries with different economical situation and different amount of budget but sadly one dirty sad and bleak reality in common.

STUDENTS WHO FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS NOW ARE THE ONES WHO WILL PROVIDE WEAPONS AGAINST INJUSTICE IN THE FUTURE.

By Laura Valencia

WHAT WRITING IS FOR ME:

• Writing in english is for me like preparing my self to make a presentation, because you have to go back once and twice to come out with a nice product.

• Writing in french is for me like fighting, because I dont really like writing in french, and I consider that people don't go into a fight because they want to.

• Writing in spanish for me is like doing exercises, because most of the time you find excuses for not to do exercises, but any way you have to, because you need it.