Jahommie's Haven>Comments
In her essay, "A Night to Remember," Virginia Junkersveld describes the tragic event of when she got into a serious car accident. The story is written in such detail that it sent a chill through my whole body. In my mind, I could imagine the metal guard rail and leather seating. The vivid detail sets up the atmosphere very well.
I particularly like the three different viewpoints from which she told her story. The opening scene gives the reader a clear understanding of Virginia's thoughts and feelings directly following the accident. The dialogue between her mother and father, before being notified of Virginia's accident, gives a better understanding of the different mindset between her mother and father. Virginia's mother is quite worried by the poor driving conditions. Her father, on the other hand displays confidence in Virginia's driving abilities. These two separate mindsets remind me a lot of my parents. My mother has always been the very cautious one. My father, on the other hand, has displayed confidence in my ability to handle mature tasks like driving in poor weather, shooting a gun, or building a fire. I'm not saying that one way of thinking is better than the other. Obviously in this case, her mother had reason to be worried about Virginia's well-being.
A couple of ideas that might help this collaborative exercise to be even better would be to add a couple of hyperlinks to outside information resources relating to car accidents, and add blurbs to the index page.
Overall, this is an excellent example of showing the reader a personal account. The dialogue and vivid description add emotion, making the reader feel as if they are there.