Summary

On one hand, in the article Destruction of the Indies, by Bartolome de Las Casas, the author emphasized how the Spaniards were barbarians who tortured and killed the innocent, no matter what their age, sex, and status had been. With examples given as an eye-witness, he claimed that, "Men are by the Creation of God innocently simple, altogether void of and averse to all manner of Craft, Subtlety and Malice, and most Obedient and Loyal Subjects to their Native Sovereigns; and behave themselves very patiently, submissively and quietly towards the Spaniards, to whom they are subservient and subject; so that finally they live without the least thirst after revenge, laying aside all litigiousness [quarrelsomeness], Commotion and hatred." Therefore, if this is the definition of God's creation, why is it that the Spaniards had ripped up the bellies of the cities and towns, as well as snatching young babies from their moms, crushing their brains against rocks? Those who were spared, still had their hands half cut, hanging by the skin. On the other hand, in the history article Why Did Cortes Win?, the Indians were known as allies of the Spaniards. The contribution of the Indian allies to the Spaniards and not the Mexica's, helped the Spaniards defeat the Mexicans. As opposed to the other article, this article supports that the Spaniards and Indians were allies and not enemies. Although, the other history article Horses: A New Native American Technology, agrees that the Spaniards and Indians were not allies. For example, the Indians had stolen horses from the Spaniards. If indeed the Spaniards and Indians were allies, why would the Indians go through the trouble of stealing horses from them?

The article by Bartolome argues that Spaniards were tormentors who slaughtered the innocent, even though the Indians hadn't ever injured the Spaniards. If the Indians and Spaniards were allies, as stated by the Why Did Cortes Win? article, then the Spaniards were not such stupendous allies. The Indians however did not injure the Spaniards, but did steal horses from them, so they were not that great either. Although, it seems Bartolome complains that the Spaniards were these wicked creatures that had no respect for mankind. I do encourage other readers to take a look into what Bartolome says, but I cannot agree, nor disagree, with the statements he argued. As true as they may be, given that he was an eye-witness, the article Why Did Cortes Win? also states that, "Mexica often paused to sacrifice Spanish soldiers they had captured, taking time to skin their faces which they afterward prepared like leather gloves, with their beards on." In my opinion, both are at fault here. Also, in this article, the Spaniards were strong Christians that received strength from God which is how the Spaniards claimed victory. But, Bartolome's article contradicts this fact because at the beginning of his article, he states that "Men are by the Creation of God". As I have asked before, if this is true, then why are the Spaniards such horrid barbarians who had "first assaulted the innocent Sheep"?

Beginning of Writing Philosophy

A) Types of writing that you do
B) How you approach/start that writing

How do templates affect/impact that process?

Over the past years of my educational career, I have learned and developed writing skills for different types of writing styles. The types of writings that I have done in the past were persuasive writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, expository writing, and argumentative writing. For every assignment that had been given to me, I always started out brainstorming and planning out how I should approach the assignment. First, I start with making a thesis because the thesis is an important part of any type of writing. Then, I would ask myself if I should start with an emphasis on voice, or perhaps a question, and maybe even a definition. Once I decided how I should start out, then I would plan out my body paragraphs, organizing my information into three major sections provided with examples to support the info. Then, onto the concluding paragraph, where I sum up the key points in my piece of writing and also referring back to my thesis. Templates impact this process because the templates allow the writer to organize the writing piece into a manner where it is not redundant, childish sounding, and so on. If I were to start writing with templates, it would help me to get my point across clearly, so that the reader may understand. It affects my writing by making it seem more professional as well as organized. Schools grade the students' writing pieces by word choice, sentence completion, organization, contents, grammar, etc. These templates allows the sentences in the writing more complete/accurate and "new". If a writer were to start every other sentence with "The", "Then" or other words, the writing piece would sound very redundant and in a way annoy the reader as well as bore the reader.

Writing Thoughts

1) What does the writer say writing is?

The writer says that writing is something that must be practiced in order to be perfected. Cathy Birkenstein, author of "They Say I Say", compares writing with different activities such as sports, playing musical instruments, and driving a car. The writer basically states that in order to master a sport/instrument/driving, you must practice. She gives different types of templates that would be helpful when creating a writing piece. There are also steps given on how to develop writing techniques that will help another writer to fully write well developed essay. A key ingredient on how to write well is to listen attentively to what others, such as your friends, family, groups, etc, has to say. Everyone has their own individual opinions, which usually are disagreements. These disagreements give us a start on what we should write about.

2) What do YOU say writing is?

I believe that writing is an expression of our own thoughts and feelings, bottled up inside, on paper in words. Most people are not able to be completely open about their true thoughts and feelings, but writing allows each and every individual person to freely write about how they feel, what they are thinking about, and just whatever they feel like writing.
I also believe that in order to write well, you must practice. I would hear my friends always saying, "Man I suck at writing." But then they have never really tried to actually write on their own just because. It was always when an essay or school assignment was due that they would say that.