Written Communication Skills

Written Communication skills are those that have to do with my writing and reading abilities. It is about me being able to clearly demonstrate my writing skills, whether it be on an essay or a presentation or any other project. This shows how I organize and write out what I have in mind.

Whenever we read a book for class, we have to do many journal entries about the book. We do so the teacher can see how well we are grasping and putting across the ideas of the book. Here is an example of a journal entry I have done where I recieved a 100% on the written communications part of it.

Journal 1: Johnny Got his Gun

The theme of loneliness is a strong and reoccurring theme throughout of book 1. Loneliness is referred to in just about all of his memories. Many of us could not have lived in a situation like Joe's but he had to, he had live in eternal darkness and loneliness.
The theme of loneliness is apparent physically. Joe is virtually alone all the time because of his condition. He can't talk to any body because he has no mouth, and even if he could talk, he couldn't hear them because he's deaf. He can't see if anyone is near because he's blind. He had all of his limbs amputated so he cannot feel anything on his own will, so he is alone in his own little world of his mind, unable to communicate with anyone else but himself. When he awoke from a dream about him and his father on a fishing trip, he "[awakened] lonelier than he had been since he could remember" (108). In his realization of his loneliness, he longed for his family to be beside him, and he longed "for one look for one smell for one taste" (108), all things that he had lost as a result of his injuries. Joe realized even if his family was right by his side, he would still be lonely, because there was no way he could see them, hear them, hug them, or anything.
Along with being extremely lonely in his current state, Joe also has flashbacks and dreams of times when he has been lonely; actually, most of his dreams deal with loneliness. Joe has a dream about a rat eating away at a wound he has on his side. He can't do a thing, because he has no arms to shoo it away, or he can't scare it, because he can't yell. So he just sits there in the "loneliness and the blackness and the terrible silence" (93), wondering where the nurse is, all the while the rat eating away at him. This event was only a dream, but Joe was lonely and he knew it.
There was also that flashback Joe had where he was thinking about his friend Bill Harper and Diane. Joe was thinking about that time frame, when he was working with the Mexicans. He was remembering how Bill had said that Diane had been seeing someone else, Glen Hogan, but Joe found out that in reality, it was really Bill himself that stole Diane away from Joe. Joe says that he is lonely because he has lost his best friend: "He had lost the only friend he might have told it to" (53). The "it" Joe refers to is the fact that he saw who Diane was currently seeing. He was very emotionally alone at this point because he was betrayed. He also felt lonely in a way because he started thinking about it and he was the one of the only ones of everyone he knew that didn't have a girlfriend. Mostly all of the guys had girlfriends, "even Howie [,] Even those Mexicans singing on their way out of the desert have girls. But I haven't" (54).
So overall, the theme of loneliness is one that has been in Joe's story too often. It not only occurred in his current reality, but in his thoughts, his memories, and his dreams. To be with someone is Joe's wish, but it is something that unfortunately will never again happen.