JH English Monthly Writing Competitions – Helen Lin

JH English Monthly Writing Competitions – Helen Lin

This month we have a special JH Writing Competition hosted by both the English Department and Science Department! This competition aligned with our Annual Science Week. Pupils were tasked with writing, ‘The Journey of a Red Blood Cell’, which asked pupils to write a narrative from the point of view of a red blood cell as it travels through the circulatory system. We’re pleased to share a narrative from our winning writer in March’s competition: Andy Jin (1^st place) in Grade 9 and Helen Lin (runner up) in Grade 7. Both writers are returning writing champions – well done! We welcome you to listen to Helen as she shares her experience writing this genre-bending narrative with her English teacher, Mr Carson, and her Science teacher, Ms Yu.

 

Runner Up Article Below;

The story begins deep, deep in your body. I’m travelling all around in your body and I’m very important to you… Oh no, I’ve gone too mysterious. Let me introduce myself. I’m Ronny, a red blood cell. Yes, I’m only a very little one in your body. But without my family, your body can’t work well, because then your body can’t have oxygen except for your lung, and if you do exhalation carbon dioxide can’t leave your body because there’s nothing to transport it to your alveoli! Now see how important I am, right?

Now I will let you know what I’m mainly made up of. I’m certain that some of you know the answer. Yes, I’m mainly made up of protein. Which type of protein? It’s haemoglobin.

So now, I will share my journey in your body with you. It takes about 120 days in total. One journey doesn’t need that much time, but we need to cycle. We need to take the journey several times. Anyway, I will introduce the places and the things we will do in one journey. Are you ready? Let’s go!

A long time ago, I was produced in your bone marrow. I was born! The environment looks unfamiliar, but all the reds really attract me. “Hooray!” I shouted with excitement. Then I went down with other red blood cells in the blood stream. But our adventure hasn’t started yet, it’s only the prelude.

With all my friends, we are about to arrive at the left ventricle. On our way, I hear heart thumping-peng peng…peng peng…but that even makes me more curious. From my friend’s wors, I find out that our destination is the right atrium. Sounds interesting!

I now announce that our journey officially starts. With the force from the blood stream, we start travel to our next station: aorta. That’s a “road”, we need to travel through it. Same, we can still feel the heart’s thumping voice. When near the alveoli, we receive another important task: carrying oxygen to other places in your body. Meanwhile, when red blood cell was transmitted, we will carry the waste from your body-carbon dioxide. Then we continue to travel in different levels of arteries. It’s just like roller coasters, it’s so exciting! I have a wonderful time here. Next, we’ve arrived at histiocyte capillaries. And that’s where we change sides, from left to the right. It’s like a maze here! We all travel through different pass way. When we’ve come to the other side, it’s quite the same as in the other side, we travel through the arteries, after that we travel from superior vena cava, and some from inferior vena cava. Then all of a sudden, we hear the broadcast: “Next station, which is also the destination of the journey, right atrium” …

 

You too could be featured on Duke Box in the future if you participate in our writing competitions!

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