For my first post, I couldn’t get my mind to focus on what to make this blog about. I thought of the many different things Dr. Martin discussed in class and none of it seemed to interest me enough to write about. As I started to read the first four chapters of Amanda Knox’s “Waiting To Be Heard”, I couldn’t get myself to put the book back down. I wanted to keep reading. I finally found something that I was able to somewhat relate to and give my opinion on.
I like to think Amanda Knox and myself have a little in common. As far as as I read, Amanda Knox seems like a well grounded girl, but also a bit outgoing and courageous at times. I, myself, am also a girl who doesn’t like to be spontaneous and I always think too deep into things. “Does this person like me? Will he still like me tomorrow?” Amanda asked herself. (Waiting To Be Heard, Pg. 14) I ask myself questions similar to this. Instead of going with the flow, I worry to much about the future and what is going to happen later on if I make a certain decision.
Like Amanda Knox, moving away from home was something I had my mind set on. My mom always told me I was the most independent person she has ever known. I like to live up to the type of person my mother thinks of me as. As I was reading the first four chapters of this story, I read something that stuck out to me. Amanda Knox’s father said “What if something happens? I can’t just make a phone call or come over” (Waiting to Be Heard, Pg. 9). My mom said the very same thing to me a week before my experience at Bloomsburg started. My mom was worried that she was no longer a phone call away, and that she could no longer comfort me if I were to become sick.
When I arrived at Bloomsburg University, it only took a short few days to become a close family with the friends that I have made. Like Amanda and Meredith, I have friends with the same type of relations that both of those girls had. My friends and I are close, we do mostly everything together, and we can hold conversations with each other without feeling a tad bit of awkwardness.
I relate to Amanda Knox if various ways, going off to college, living my life how i choose to, making the right and even the wrong decisions and managing to have a fun time. While only reading the first four chapters of this story, I came to think “How could anyone even think this girl was guilty?”. If I would have known her, I don’t think I would have went against her. I guess it’ll take a few more chapters for me to really think into what has happened with Amanda Knox.
Rikki Merwine
rnm82952 
Rikki,
Thank you for your posting about the reading and Ms. Knox’s memoir. Indeed, I agree she seems like a pretty ordinary person, neither someone who would stick out, but also not someone that people would ignore or dislike. She does say that she had a propensity for being the person who would help the outcasts of sorts.
So, if I were to ask what you think about the rhetorical strategy she employs in the book, what might you say? How does she go about making her case that she is innocent and what has happened is really a very large miscalculation on her part and that those who know her and really look at the situation cannot even begin to come to the conclusion that she might be capable of committing such a dastardly crime. Is it the fact that she seems so ordinary as you noted? Is it that she seems to be so willing to share some very intimate things about herself that makes her more believable?
As you wrote, I think you have a honest and readable tone. There are some significant issues with editing and proofreading that you need to work on. You have used the wrong “too” (the one you should have written, rather than “to”. There are some subject/verb issues also. These are small, but important considerations.
Thanks for your posting and for putting your name at the bottom of your post.
Dr. Martin