Mary Austin’s “Mesa Trail” is a very descriptive selection. The author uses great imagery to really give you a sense for the place. It describes the plants, current of the wind, and wildlife in the trail in full detail. This piece is very well written and extremely thorough.

 In the reading “Polk Street”, the work begins with a man looking through his window. He gives his perspective of this street as it changes throughout the day. He starts in the morning and describes the workers and businesses on the street. When he describes the various workers he portrays them as simple people. He refers to multiple things on the street as “cheap”, such as the “ cheap restaurants” and the shop girls dressed with a “cheap smartness”. He moves into a new perspective when the day gets started and people begin to visit the street. He says that there is an array of people. He gives particular interest to the “handsome women” who shop there. He describes them with certain awe. He comments on the kids that swarm the street as they go to school and leave school. He describes the street as it dwindles out and becomes empty only to fill up again with people out for amusement. He then describes how the people dwindle out again until the street is empty.

In Frank Vanclay’s “Place Matters”, he says that a place is a space that is invested with meaning to someone. Three necessary features of a place include geographic location, material form and investment with meaning and value. There are many pluralities of a place as different people can attach different meanings to the same space. Place making can happen various ways including story telling and community involvement. Vanclay also explains sense of space, which is based on the individual and how the place makes them feel. The most important part of sense of space is place attachment. One way to measure place attachment is through space familiarity and space commitment. Place in fundamental to humanity.

In chapter 14 of “Joining the Conversation”, the text explains plagiarizing. Plagiarism is intellectual dishonesty, and in most cases, is unintentional. It is important when researching to always acknowledge the sources, accurately and fairly represent the information, and provide citation information for your sources. In short, you must always be careful because unintentional or intentionally plagiarizing can put you into serious trouble.

All four of these readings are very helpful for Writing Project One. Frank Vanclay’s space matters, really helps to explain how a lens comes about, and it will help me when I try to see it from a different perspective. Both “Polk Street and “Mesa Trail” are great readings to start creating a lens because they both are so in depth. Thinking like the characters in these readings will help me get a different view of my place. I feel more prepared to write my first draft after reading all four selections.