Coursera Unit 3 Assignment

It's the second week of my Coursera writing course and I just submitted the assignment for Unit 3. I had to write a descriptive paragraph containing 8 or more sentences composed while observing people in a public setting. I went to the UTC mall and came up with 12 sentences, but by the time I was done combining them, they numbered only 9. I think it's the first time I ever composed anything without using any form of the verb "to be". So here is my paragraph.

I enter the local shopping mall on a beautiful, sunny, Southern California day and find a seat outdoors near the food court where I can sit and watch the people around me.  A fountain bubbles cheerfully nearby, a light breeze blowing a fine mist on those sitting closest to it and a small child looks at it with interest before his mother guides him away. So many people walk by with their attention captivated by whatever appears on the screens of their cell phones and I feel sad that they take no time to relax and enjoy their surroundings. Soon, a young woman climbs onto the stage, sets up a keyboard and begins to sing to the crowd accompanied by pre-recorded vocal and instrumental tracks. I enjoy her performance even as she needs to increase her volume to compete with the noise of a Marine Corps FA-18 flying overhead. My husband approaches, carrying two dishes of Mexican chocolate gelato from one of our favorite shops and as I sit, enjoying this glorious day, eating a delicious gelato, I reflect on how much I love living here. Finishing our indulgent treat, we begin walking to our car, but before exiting the mall, we stop at a gourmet tea shop where Adam, the sales associate, provides samples for us to taste. As usual, since I love everything he presents to me, I buy several varieties. Afterwards, my husband and I continue our stroll to the parking lot, looking into store windows and talking about all we see and our enjoyment with each other and the beautiful day. 

Nice Time in the Mountains

On Thursday, my daughter and I drove up to our cottage in Big Bear Lake. The original idea was for just the two of us to spend a few days here relaxing, but as soon as we arrived, she realized that she had forgotten to pack the power cord for recharging her electric vehicle. She spent some time exploring possibilities for getting the job done, but in the end, we called my husband, Dave, and had him bring it to us. So our all-girl weekend became something else. Since with Dave's arrival, I had my own transportation, today our daughter left to go back home and Dave and I will head back tomorrow morning. 

Even with all the little changes to the schedule, I have managed to attack my to-do list. First of all, we harvested all the apples and pears. The trees didn't have as much fruit on them as last year, but we got enough to keep us in fruit for a while. They also weren't completely ripe, but temperatures are beginning to drop into the 30s at night and I didn't want to risk them all freezing. They won't be as tasty as tree-ripened fruit, but they'll ripen enough after sitting a week or so. 

My two other big tasks were focused on the house. After the July 4th earthquake, we had some cracks appear in the walls so I filled them. I also finally worked on some spot refinishing on the dining and side tables. Everything is looking much better now. In addition to all this, I finally managed to assemble the wire storage cubes that have been sitting in the spare closet for several years. We now have a better place for storing books and shoes. 

Unit 2 Submissions

I gathered my courage and sent in my two sample sentences for the writing assignment. Fortunately, in case I change my mind about them, there's a handy re-submit button and I have until the Monday morning deadline to use it if I want. I'm pretty satisfied with my submission so I'll likely leave things as they are.

The Writing Assignment

I am nearly finished with the first two units in the writing course. All that remains is submitting the sentences for the peer review requirement. This course uses a sentence-building technique, beginning with a subject and verb and then adding other parts of speech. The idea is to put together dynamic, descriptive sentences using all parts of speech. I've never approached it this way before and I'm enjoying the process.

Two sentences must be submitted by Monday. In the first, the prompt I chose was "the woman walks". I came up with the following sentence:

Quickly, yet quietly, the woman walks down the dark, gloomy alley, sensing the approaching danger and nervously expecting it to strike violently at any moment.

The second prompt was "the wind blows". In this case, the sentence I'm working on is this:

The chilly, autumn wind blows forcefully through the trees, bending their delicate branches and dislodging their leaves as it travels down a barren valley ahead of the worsening storm. 

The idea is to keep expanding on the original phrase with adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and prepositional phrases. The program allows for saving the drafts and submitting them when ready. Since the deadline isn't until next Monday, I'm going to ponder them for a bit to see if I can make improvements.

Attempting an Online Class

This week is the beginning of my first attempt at taking an online college course. I picked something that should be easy enough, but also should result in an improvement in skills. It is a course on writing. So far, all appears to be moving along nicely. I completed the first unit projects and have taken all but the final quiz. I will do that on Monday. The second unit is also scheduled to be completed during this first week and since I'm leaving for Big Bear on Thursday, I will need to complete it by Wednesday evening.