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The Story behind the Story: Linguistic Manipulations and Narratives in Harry Potter

             Nearly from the moment the first book was published in June 1997, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series seemed to sweep the globe with popularity. Twenty-five years later, the series remains an international phenomenon, with fans everywhere still anxiously awaiting their Hogwarts acceptance letters (even long past the age of eleven) and traveling long distances just to spend a few precious moments at one of Universal Studios’ Harry Potter World theme parks. But not only did Rowling succeed in creating a wildly successful magical world with witches and wizards and flying broomsticks, she also created a world in which characters could learn new life lessons from the challenges they faced—including the lesson that the government may not always be right.             The Ministry of Magic is portrayed as one of the most controversial organizations in the wizarding world. They are shown to ac...
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Connecting to a Global Community

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 My sister was with me the first time I walked into Chinatown. We stuck together, she and I, lagging behind our parents a few paces and practically cowering from the unfamiliarity around us. The air smelled strange; it was hot and rough and not at all like the air we had at home. I couldn’t read the signs on the street or understand the words being called out from vendor booths. It was uncomfortable and foreign, and I felt lost.   But something happened there on those narrow, cobblestoned streets that I will never forget. In Chinatown, I watched my dad come alive. True, Dad had always been entranced by travel, but even I could recognize that something here was different. This was new. After family, Dad’s second great love was food, and this was a parade of spices like we’d never seen. It was colors and fruits and little merchant booths. And it was food like we’d never known. Stopping in a restaurant for lunch, I made myself small behind Mom’s protective form. The woman w...
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Editing Sample 3

ELANG 350 take home test Editing Sample 3 (Link to the google doc, or view as a pdf below) 
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Editing Sample 2

 ELANG 350 take home test Editing Sample 2 (Link to the google doc, or view as a pdf below)
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Editing Sample 1

ELANG 350 Empirical Paper Editing Sample 1  (Link to the google doc, or view as a pdf below)
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Writing Sample 4: Teaser

  A Friend’s Influence Have you ever felt a longing to fit in or to belong? Or that something wonderful is missing from your life, but you just don’t know what it is or where to find it? That’s how Jolie Hatch felt when she moved 4,000 miles away from her hometown, away from her friends and family and everything she’d ever known. To learn more about how one person made all the difference in helping Jolie not only learn about friendship, but also about a deeper, spiritual belonging with Heavenly Father and in the Church, see https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ftsoy/2022/01/03_a-friends-influence?lang=eng
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Writing Sample 3

Christ's Victory over Death It was early in the morning on October 1 st , 2018, when I got the news. It was P-day, the only day of the week when I was allowed to read through emails from family and friends, and almost as soon as I opened my eyes, the messages began pouring in. “I’m so sorry,” they said. “I don’t know how to tell you, but Grandma’s had a heart attack, and we don’t expect her to make it through the night.” Normally, having a large family was a blessing. Today it only meant eight menacing blows of terrible news. When I collected myself an hour later, lying on the bathroom floor and streaked with tear stains, I asked myself why. Why her? Why did she have to go? And why on earth would I leave my family, travel 8,000 miles away only to live on my own and be surrounded by a people and language I could barely understand when I could have stayed home and had so many more days with her? Questions and doubts rolled around in my head for days on end. Sitting in the back ...
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