They Say I Say

Surprisingly, for a small book it was very useful. This book taught me how to write a good formal paper. What I found useful was the templates that came with every chapter. Those templates helped gave me good ideas on how to enter quotes into my papers, put in a naysayers, and many more. For a book as small as it is I really did not expect it to contain so much helpful information. Each chapter was filled with ways to help people write an academic paper. It included a lot of helpful tips. I thought it was a good idea to have the class split up into little groups and pick a chapter to summarize. This way everyone can get the gist of the book and know which templates are the best to use. The only thing that I did not like about this book was the fact that the templates used first person and in an academic paper we are not encouraged to use first person. I was confused at first as to why first person was used, but there are ways to reword the templates to make it third person. Overall this book was helpful to me in writing my papers.

The Toulim Model

I find that the Toulmin Model is a great way to help organize a paper. It helps to break down the topic of a paper from the claims to the supports as well as the warrants, backings, rebuttals, and qualifiers. With the model, it's easier to know what needs to be included in an academic paper. It's helpful to include all of this because it can help make your paper stronger and as to why people should care about what you are writing about. It organizes a paper and helps gives it a so what. With the model it is a lot easier to go back and edit my papers so I can put in what I'm missing. The model is really beneficial. I tend to have a lot of ideas but have no idea how to write them down or even where to start, but with the model it gives me an idea of how the paper should be like. While following the model my papers became more organized.

A Parent On Drugs and the Effect and A Family

I decided to change the topic of my paper and make it about a parent being on drugs and the effect that it will have on the family. Such as the effect in the relationship between husband and wife as well as the kids, along with financial problems. I felt that this topic would have made a better argument than smoking. It's kind of hard to get my point across without being too repetitive. I just can't say parents should never do drugs because of problems like these, over and over again. I find that I can be really redundant and that is what I need to work on.

This week in class we had to do peer reviews, but the peer review sheets were different than what they usually were. I felt that the new peer review sheet is a lot better. It helps to pinpoint what is good about a paper and what is needs work. Although it took a long time it is very beneficial. As I was editing my partner's paper, the review sheet really helped me analyze his paper. There were questions as to how to look at the paper and what to critique. I know that this information will be useful for him and it will also be useful for me so that I can go back and revise mine.

Smoking

I have been assigned to write an essay on a subject that effects a community. I have chosen to do the issue of smoking and it's effect on a family. What I find challenging about this topic is that is that everybody already knows the danger of smoking, so my paper might be boring. Smoking has become such an epidemic that the dangers of smoking is now general knowledge. I feel it is important to include the effects of smoking and the dangers about it, but I won't go into too much detail. I will focus more on the effects that it can have on a family such as money issues and relationship issues. Although smoking is no as serious as doing other drugs like meth or marijuana, it is still bad for a person. They are still taking toxins into their bodies that will hurt them. For me smoking is a nasty habit and I can not stand the smell. Every time I walk by someone who is smoking I will always hold in my breath. I have seen the effects of smoking and I don't think I will ever be able to pick up a habit for smoking.

Working in a group to write an essay

For our assignment this week, we were put into groups of three or more to write an essay. I usually find group work kind of hard because everyone has their own ways of doing things and everybody thinks differently. Luckily my partners were easy to get along with and got their work done. We all did our part for the essay and it turned out well. The most challenging part was writing my part of the paper, because I had no idea what they were going to say and I how I was going to incorporate my part in with theirs. After meeting up together for a couple of times, we were able to put it all together to finish our assignment. Although we managed to pull through and got the work done and my partners were very helpful, writing an essay as a group is not an easy thing to do. We only had a week to pull this off too. With more time I felt the paper would have been better. But overall this experience was helpful and in life we are always going to have to do group work, so this was a good start.

Corn vs. Grass

I was given an assignment for class, and my assignment was to pick an issue that arises in the readings that we have been doing, and choose a side to argue. After reading Pollans book I was amazed at how beef was being produced in the states. Most industrialized meat companies will feed corn to their cows because it’s cheaper and saves them money; but cows were not made to eat corn and their bodies cannot break it down. Their stomachs are not acidic enough which causes bloating in the cows, and if nothing is done to relief that pressure their rumen will inflate and press against their lungs, eventually killing them. Not just that, but cows that are corn fed had more saturated fat and calories. If these companies could just start grass feeding things could get so much better. The beef would be leaner and healthier for the consumers. Grass fed cows contains more omega 3, that is good for the heart. Grass fed beef is a lot more beneficial to a body. Cows are meant to eat grass; they both are helpful to each other. The grass will provide the cow with food and the cow in turn will fertilize the ground with its manure. If these companies change towards grass fed beef then they will create beef that is good and good for its consumers.

Corn

After reading An Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollen, I was astonished by the amount of corn that one person consumes. It’s amazing to see just how corn affects our lives. This one vegetable that no one really pays attention to actually has a big impact on our diets. From soda to meat, corn plays a process in it. There was a part in the book in which Pollen talks about how corn was being fed to cows; however a cow’s stomach is not acidic enough to break down the corn which causes health problems for the cows, even lung cancer. However because of the cheap prices of corn it makes it more affordable to feed the cows. A way to help this situation is to inject these drugs into the cows, but what is that doing to the quality of meat? Is that really healthy for the consumers, such as us? After reading about this I wanted to stay away from red meat. It would be nice if our foods could be safer, however it would be more expensive, and people always want more for their money. They would always go for the less expensive, less quality items that can help save them money. Not only that but for a nation has big as ours there has to be industrialized food companies, so that people can get fed. Although things are changing a little bit with farmers markets, those markets only last for the summer; so there has to be food coming in from somewhere else to feed the nation. The topic of where our food is coming from and how it’s being made is a really sensitive subject and it’s also amazing to know that corn plays such a big role in it.

The World of Advertisements.

Ads make us think that we really need the product that they are endorsing. They manipulate us into buying things that most of the time we do not need. They attract us either by using celebrities, catchy phrases, or by making the product look like its better than it really is. People fall into them all the time. Ads just go to show how materialistic this world can be. People are always looking for the next big thing, the next big product and ads live off of that. They use people’s materialistic needs to sell their products.
Covergirl always uses young beautiful models/actresses to advertise their make-up. Though their models do look beautiful they have a lot of make-up on and it takes make-up artist hours to make them look like that. The model’s lips are always the perfect shape, their eyelashes are always long and full, and their eyes are always a clear crisp color. However that image is not realistic; a lot of people want to look like that, but it’s unrealistic. It’s just an image to attract people to buy their product. Advertising companies know what the people want and they always use as an advantage to make a profit.