April 2019

Justification: I decided to cover this assignment from the class of Practical Language into my portfolio because I find it quite useful to write such papers - it makes me learn new vocabulary, because not all the words I want to use are known for me (or in my active vocabulary). Also, the fact that a teacher corrects the essay for me and shows me the mistakes I have done is very valuable.

Reflection: As I mentioned in the artifact from the last semester, I do not have much difficulties when writing an essay, I actually enjoy it and this one was no exception. I think I did quite well, although I needed to look up some expressions in a dictionary (such as to be yet to come, assume and discourage), because I did not know how to use them properly. However, I loved the concept of this essay, I like to write in semi-formal and formal style.

A complaint

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing in order to make a complaint about your restaurant The Blue Horn, particularly about a gift voucher for dinner called “Italian evening for two”, as it did not live up to our expectations at all.

First of all, I did not manage to make a table reservation on your website – the page was very confusing, and the reservation system simply did not respond. Therefore, I decided to make a reservation by phone, but unfortunately, the employee who answered the call was very rude. I was told that I should have made the reservation online and not to annoy the waiters with such absurdities. Despite being treated like this, my husband and I were still not discouraged from coming to your restaurant; however, what followed left us completely speechless.

When we arrived at the restaurant, no one seemed to have noticed us, so we had to find our table on our own. After we seated ourselves, we were literally ignored by the service for about half an hour. When we finally talked to a waitress, she told us (in a very unpleasant tone) that the voucher was not valid any more. We asked for an explanation, because the expiry date had not been exceeded, but she told us she was busy. Fortunately, she called a manager who managed to solve this situation. We thought that we would eventually be able to enjoy our evening, but the trouble continued.

Even though there was supposed to be Prosecco covered in the voucher, we received just an ordinary champagne. Furthermore, the soup – Minestrone - was served cold and in dirty bowls. When we asked for a new portion, warm and in clean dishes, we were (yet again!) told that nobody had time to deal with it. We were getting more and more disappointed, but the worst was yet to come. The main dish, lasagne, was uncooked and although it was said to be from beef meat, it was obviously pork. At that moment, it was obvious that all the waiters and waitresses were avoiding our table, so we could not make a complaint to anyone about the meal.

Both my husband and I were very disappointed about this experience and felt the urge to inform you about these circumstances. Firstly, because we assume that you should teach your employees some manners, since their attitude will only scare off your customers, and secondly because we require a refund for the voucher.

I look forward to hearing your views on this matter soon.

Yours faithfully,

Veronika Balážová

Response paper - Critical reading

March 2019

Justification: I decided to cover this assignment from the class of the Critical reading, because I have never written such a paper and I found it quite challenging, because it was supposed to be focused on male dominance and the role of women in the story of Eliyabeth Gaskell - The Old Nurse's story.

Reflection: I must admit that I did not feel very confident when writing this task, mainly because I did not know whether I had been doing it right. However, when the teacher evaluated it, it turned out fine. Nevertheless, I am glad that I was a little bit forced to write such a paper, because it made me step out of my comfort zone and start thinking outside the box.

The Old Nurse's Story

This paper discusses the status of men and women in the short story The Old Nurse's story by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I think that even though there are more women than men in this story, it is obvious that they (men) are considered more sophisticated and powerful than women. It even seems that women in this story almost fears men, for example when Mr.Henry told Hester to awake the sleeping child, Hester did not find it reasonable but she still, as she was told, did so because she was too scared to disobey him.

It also seems to me that women are not described in a very nice way in this story For example, the two old ladies, Mrs.Furnivall and Mrs.Stark seem cold and sometimes a even bit dull and unemotional, whereas Hester sounds to be obsessed with taking care of the little Rosamond, who is obviously old enough to be more independent. Also the relationship between the Furnivall sisters looks very unhealthy, describing the vengefulness, envy and spite between each other, even though they were relatives.

To sum it up, I think that there is a strong inconsistency between male and female characters, which was unfortunately quite usual at that times. While women are viewed as they were only good enough to take care of houses and children, and appear to be very easily lead on to bad decisions, men are the powerful and strong creatures, who only seem to reveal the weaknesses of their personalities because of women.

Practical Language 2A essay

December 2018

Justification: In the class of Practical language, our task for essay this semester was to write Editor’s letter. I decided to include this work into my portfolio because I have never written in such style before, and, to be honest, I liked it because it is quite an unusual assignment.

Reflection: Frankly speaking, I do not struggle much with with writing essays, and this one was a piece of cake for me as well. I think it’s because of the fact that I found this task so engaging. When it comes to feedback from my teacher on this assignment, it seems that grammar causes me the most troubles, especially word order. I think I should not use such complex sentences in the future in order to avoid these mistakes. However, I suppose that according to the feedback, I did not struggle much with the style and content of this assignment.

Dear readers,

Thank you for having time to read this letter. I am honoured to introduce you the very first issue of Blur, the magazine about modern literature. I would like to apprise you of the concept of this publication – in each issue we will publish short stories or extracts of various authors that we find talented and worth being introduced to our readers, nevertheless whether they are famous or not. Starting out now, ladies and gentlemen, let me present you first 3 stories of our choice. The whole editorial office hopes that you will enjoy reading them.

The story we decided to place first is, in my opinion, the best choice mainly thanks to its absolute political and gender correctness. This story called Little Red Riding Hood from a book Politically Correct – The Ultimate Storybook by James Finn Garner will be enjoyable for anyone, regardless age, gender or cultural background because it is simply impossible for it to offend anyone. And it is indeed very humorous.

The second story in this issue seems a bit boring at first but the plot escalates quickly. I know that this description is very general and does not tell you much, however, it would not be fair to spoil you anything from this short story called Genesis and Catastrophe: A True Story by Roald Dahl. A simple revelation of the characters‘ names would destroy the overall impression.

Do you like dentists? I highly doubt that your answer is positive, but can you imagine that famous painters (impressionists, to be accurate) were checking people’s teeth, and the famous letters from Vincent van Gogh, addressed to his brother Theo, were transformed into the dentistry environment? If this sounds somehow appealing to you, it is a must for you to read the third story in this magazine called If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists by Woody Allen.

I hope that the selection of articles will be pleasurable and attractive enough for you to follow the journey of this magazine. Our biggest challenge this year is to become reputable and accredited journal about literature, and hopefully arrange a workshop of creative writing next summer, which could possibly draw us a lot of new authors contributing to our magazine. You are more than welcome to join us, either as a team member, a contributor or a fan, and I am glad that you found time to read this letter.

Thank you from our entire editorial office of Blur for being with us from the very beginning, we all are very grateful for your support and trust.

Yours sincerely,

Veronika Balážová

Editor-in-Chief

Movie review

October 2018

Justification: To every class of American and British Film Production, we always have to write a review of movie we watch. I decided to use on of my reviews as an artifact for the writing section.

Reflection: I personally think that this writing of mine is not very reputable for two reasons. Firstly, I must admit that it was written in a hurry, literally minutes before the deadline. Secondly, I didn’t fancy the movie very much and therefore I didn’t feel like writing anything marvellous. I think that next time I should start writing earlier to produce more exquisite work.

Honestly, I don’t like movies in black and white very much but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I like movies about politics, as they are usually very thrilling and this one lived up to my expactations.

Although I found it a bit confusing at the beginning, I managed to get the whole idea of it. I think this movie is still up-to-date when it comes to politics, especially with all that corruption and bribery.

Whenever I watch a movie, I appreciate it when characters grow with the story, either in a good or in a bad way, however, I actually liked how Jeff simply didn’t abandon his almost childish ideals and principles, apart from other characters.

What I liked the most (and what I actually need in every good movie) was the love story. Mr. Smith and Clarissa were so credible, so honest and kind, that I simply fell for it.