One of the essays I found interesting was William Zinnser’s “simplicity.” I found this interesting because I know a lot of people who try to use more complicated words to either sound smarter or more mature. In his essay he says, “ Our national tendency is to inflate and therefore sound more important.” This means that a lot of people talk in a way that is more complicated and harder for people to understand.

When it comes to writing Zinnser says, “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” Zinnser believes that when people speak more complicated then they have to, their writing will be more complicated and harder to understand. Another thing that Zinnser says is, “the secret to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.” He is saying that by having a huge story with complicated words, will get your message cross just as easy if you used simple words.

Simplicity means a lot of different things to other people. Zinnser’s version of simplicity can be a good thing to think about when you’re writing. Zinnser’s version of simplicity is a lot like my own. I think of simplicity is not making things harder for you. By using simple words you can make your life simpler.

This I believe

By Isabel Oppenheimer

When I started second grade, my mother already had ALS for a long time. I knew why she was sick and that she couldn’t do stuff that other moms could do. In the Middle of second grade my mom started to get sicker and she had to go to the hospital in Doylestown. In a couple of months she had to move to a new hospital in Philadelphia. When my mother got there she told me and my father that she didn’t really like the nurses all that much and that they weren’t very kind. My mother stayed there for a bit and I would visit her every couple of days. My mother still didn’t like the hospital very much but she got by.

One night after one of the nurses left from checking on my mother, the nurse forgot to give my mother the call bell. During this time my father was home and was tired. He was trying to decide whether or not to call the hospital and check on my mom. Back at the hospital my mother started to have trouble breathing in a few short seconds she couldn’t breathe at all. My mom was kicking her legs, trying to do anything to get the nurses attention. Back at home my father decides to call the hospital. When the nurse answers she tells him she will go and see if my mom wants to talk to my father. When she goes in she realizes that my mom can’t breathe and calls a code blue.

I wasn’t told that story right away but I knew that my mom could have died while she was in the hospital. When I was told that story a couple of years later I knew that miracles could not only happen to other people but that they could happen to me. I guess my belief is more then just miracles. I believe to have faith