Make up Blog

My experiences with revision have changed the way I view my own writing and my style of writing a lot. I realized that I was writing using a ton of contractions, so now I go back and double check my writing to make sure I have spelled out each word. Also, I have noticed that I repeat myself a lot in my papers, I will write the same sentence but just word it differently. I never realized that I did that until I was getting my papers back from our writer’s workshops. Another thing I have been working on changing in my papers are my transitions between paragraphs. Before I did not even have much of a transition between my paragraphs, they would just jump around and each paragraph would be a whole new random topic. My papers did not flow very well at all but I have been getting a lot better at it now. My vocabulary is not all that advanced so I have been using the thesaurus to substitute words I use often for new words that sound much better in my papers. Overall, I think my experience with revision has improved my writing a lot and I will continue to use what I’ve learned in future papers.

Assisted Suicide

Our topic for our group paper is assisted suicide. Like many, I have a really hard time choosing a side on this issue. My view is that I could never personally help someone kill themselves nor could I stand letting one of my family members die that way. However, if someone is terminally ill and are suffering, I can see how they would want to die a less painful, drawn out, death.
The first article I found is about assisted suicide for terminally ill elders. Apparently, a majority of elders die extremely painful deaths and are under medicated during the slow process. This sever pain has increased the request for assisted suicide. Maybe, if they elders are more strongly medicated for their pain the request will decrease again. It is not right that these elders would rather die sooner than live a full life because of how much pain they are in. If they are on medication and they are still hurting you would think the doctors could do something to help lessen the pain even more.
The second article I found was about the view of assisted suicide from an old man who wanted to pursue the drug himself. Mr. J was in end-stage gastrointestinal malignancy, he was only experiencing minor pains and his symptoms weren’t too bad but he wished to die. The doctors questioned if he were suicidal but from evaluations he seemed just fine. So when Mr. J was asked why he wanted to die if he was not in great pain he answered that his life no longer held purpose, meaning, or hope. He was too weak to do anything and if he already knew he was dying, what was the point in him just waiting it out. Slowly he would grow weaker and experience more and more pain. He would rather die, happily, as he is now. Overall, the reason he is so unhappy and down about his life is because he is sad, and has no support. A study showed that hopelessness is one of the biggest factors in wanted assisted suicide. A supporting community could change all of Mr. J’s views on his life.

Work Cited:

Schroepfer, A. Tracy. “Mind Frames Toward Dying and Factors Motivating Their Adoption by Terminally Ill Elders”, The Journals of Gerontology, Series B July 13, 2004. Pg 129-139.

Chochinov, M. Harvey. “Dignity and the Eye of the Beholder”, Journal of Clinical Oncology. Volume 22, No 7. April 1st, 2004, Pages 1336-1340.

Tim Wise

In America today, many people still believe that racism goes both ways, meaning both whites and people of color are subjected to discrimination. Author Tim Wise begs to differ. He believes that only people of color are discriminated against and whites are granted with far more privileges. Even though America had made extreme progress towards becoming a more equal nation, there is still proof that racism exists. Although racism is less open than in the past, it still affects the lives of many people today.
Racism is still seen around the world today. It affects all types of people regardless of their color. Although toned down, racism is now against the law and not looked upon as the common belief of non colored people. Wise believes , “Racism is an ideology that says certain people, by virtue of their race, are either inferior or superior to others of a different, with race usually being defined by skin color…It’s a way or organizing society” (5). What Wise means is society stereotypes certain types of people by the color of their skin. It’s convenient to judge a person because of how they look. Americans find it easier to stay within their race and make assumptions, rather than to venture out and actually get to know people of a different color. Even Wise makes assumptions, “Once I got on an airplane with two black pilots, and my immediate reaction was, “Can they fly the plane?” I caught myself and realized that of course they could. But the thought was there, and I had to acknowledge it” (12). Racism might just be ingrained in us. We are raised today to know different stereotypes and how certain races are supposed to act or supposed to be better at certain things. Regardless of age, color, or social class, racism is apparent in society and affects anybody anywhere.
Along with racism, privilege is also apparent in society. White people are privileged in that they are given rights or benefits beyond the advantages of most other people. Wise describes a few of the privileges of being white, “we whites are able to be as incompetent or mediocre as we want and never have our mediocrity ascribed to our race” (5). What Wise means is that white people don’t have to live their lives under the microscope. White people are able to make as many mistakes as they want, and their race is not held accountable.
Even though we might not see ourselves as being racist or discriminatory, we still categorize and stereotype people without even realizing were doing it. “We don’t consciously believe in racial superiority or inferiority, but we’ve become so used to the existing policies, practices, and procedures that we don’t question them. To the extent that we don’t challenge this system of racism, we are collaborating with it,” (5) says Wise. By growing up in a privileged white society, we have been shielded from and made unaware of the way minorities live. It is impossible to truly understand how people of color are forced to live in society. By being white, our opinion or definition of privilege and racism are biased. This can also lead to the issue of privileged access, which is a main component of paper three.
When arguing a food community is better than another like in paper three, one must remember that there is always the issue of access. Because of racism and white privilege, minorities have less access to certain food groups. The majority of minorities live in the inner city or ghettos, where their access to fresh fruit, vegetables, and organic food is very limited. They can’t simply drive down the street to a farmers market or walk to a fresh produce stand to get those healthy foods, because they don’t have them.
In conclusion, racism is very prominent in all areas of the world even today. The way it affects people’s lives varies depending on the degree of the racism taken. The white race as a whole is much more privileged than other colored races, and does not have to deal with all the bad treatment that others do. Without even acknowledging it, whites have more opportunities and a better chance at life and success from the day they are born. The environment and surroundings definitely influences how prevalent racism and privileges are. Hopefully one day people will begin to look past the color of one’s skin and realize that everyone is not so different.

Sources

When I am looking for a source to use for English 101, I either go to the library’s home page and use their search engine through the Jstor or I go to Google and type in the article topic I’m looking for. Google also has a way to search specifically for scholarly articles. You go to the top of the home page, click more, and then click scholar. I’ve found a lot of good sources there. Some of them are even the same articles that I found in the library search engine so I know that it is just as good of a way to find sources. Google also has books online for free that you can read, I always find these to be great sources for my papers.
Choosing which sources to use is not very hard for me. I usually write my paper first and then go back and add my sources in. this makes it easy for me to know what sources to specifically look for because I already know what I talked about in my paper and I know what will compliment it well. I’ll read through the sources and find quotes that are interesting to me, then read through my paper and see if there is a good place to quote it. If it doesn’t go well with my paper I will not use it and keep reading the article to find a different quote.
To improve my method for finding sources would probably to spend more time looking through the sources so I can find the best source for my paper. Also, to look through more sources instead of just the first couple of articles that the search engines come up with, and to type in different words to try in the search box to get different sources than the search came up with the first time. Other than that, I like the method I use to find sources for my papers.

Norman & other resource

I thought this article was extremely boring, I could hardly get through it all. I’m not really interested in biotechnology, so I don’t really care to read about it. Norman’s ideas were different and I think they’re on the right track. Genetically modified food is a scary thought, but the way he talks about it is pretty convincing. It also seems like an effective way to help stop world hunger and to feel poor people who can’t provide for themselves or their families.
The resource I chose for my paper is Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation”. I’ve already read part of his book and I think there is a lot of information in it that I can use for my paper. His book is (obviously) all about fast food, which is a food community of its own. He goes into lots of detail of ethics and how it is affected by class, race, and access. Fast food is cheap and accessible, therefore, lower class buys it more often than other classes. He also talks about how fast food as become the norm of our nation, everybody eats it. It is even a normal occurrence for some people to eat fast food on a daily bases.

3/2/10

I can relate to the omnivores dilemma because I deal with it every single day, especially in the school cafeteria… I’m never quite sure where the meat they’re serving is coming from and if it is safe. The only meat I eat from the school cafeteria is turkey, and I still am not very trusting. I’ve had one burger but felt sick afterward. I usually only eat meat at my grandma’s house, where I feel like its safe to eat.
The chapter on hunting I had a hard time reading some parts, when he talked about gutting and cleaning the pig. I thought it was really funny how Pollan compared hunting to smoking weed. He used good comparisons and detail, I actually liked reading about it. I also thought it was interesting that he didn’t feel any remorse after killing his pig, I would expect that to be the first feeling he’d feel, but instead he felt happy.
I found the chapter on gathering to be extremely boring. I don’t have much to say about it except I do agree that mushrooms are “mysterious”. I think it’s so weird that people can hallucinate off of a type of food we eat on a regular basis. Finally, reading about the rules Pollan made for his meal seemed extremely hard. I never have and don’t think I will be able to make “the perfect meal”, especially all by myself.

Chapters 16 & 17

Chapter 16 and 17 were about the omnivore’s dilemma and animal rights. First Pollan talks about rats and how they taste new foods. We’re like them in the way that we are cautious about tasting new foods, we don’t wait 30 minutes after our first bite but we take small bites and wait for the taste of the new food to reach our taste buds. I thought it was interesting that the reason pregnant women are so sensitive to bitter foods is to protect the baby inside her from even the mildest of plant toxins. I’ve never thought about the fact that if we were to run out of one type of food we like, that we could easily survive on many other types of foods anywhere. Animals like the koalas can’t do that, they can only survive on one type of food.
In the debate of if eating animals is ethical. I think comparing animals and humans, to black people and white people, is a horrible comparison. I feel like those are two different problems. Black and white people… are people. I think that a human life is much more valuable than an animal life. I do feel that animals should be treated fair, however, I would never be a vegetarian and there really isn’t a humane way to kill an animal. Any way you look at it, you’re still killing it.

Chapter 8&10 2/16/10

Chapters 8 and 10 were about grass and an in-depth look at it. I never would have spent that much time thinking about grass all on my own, so reading about it was kind of weird and rather boring. Pollan said that since we can’t eat and digest grass so we eat animals, since they can eat and digest the grass, I did find this interesting. I also really liked the way Pollan described the farm with so much detail, he made it sound like it was really relaxing there.
I thought it was interesting that the farmer told Pollan to make and unannounced visit to a farm, look at the books that a farmer reads and that will really tell you what his farm is like. He said “Because when you’re feeding your emotions and thoughts is what this is really all about. The way I produced a chicken is an extension of my worldview.” I liked this because I feel that it’s true for not just farming but for people in general. Looking at a person’s book collection can tell you a lot about them. I feel like someone could tell a lot about me if they looked at all the books I’ve read.

"Slaughter" & "The Market"

I had a really hard time getting though the “Slaughter” chapter. It says that most of us do our very best to avoid thinking about it, which is the way I am. I don’t like to think about how the chicken I’m eating made it to my plate. The way it’s done seems harsh, but I guess that’s the only way it can be done. I don’t think any way to kill an animal will ever seem humane, but it has to be done. In “The Market” chapter, I agree that the meat and eggs from the farm will be much better than meat and eggs from the grocery store. If I buy food from McDonalds, it’s cheap so I know the quality of food isn’t going to be as good as an actual sit down restaurant like Red Robin, which is more expensive.

In “They Say I Say”, I would use any of the templates for agreeing or disagreeing. I also like how it gave templates for disagreeing and agreeing at the same time. I already use the templates the book gave for determining who is saying what in my writing. I thought the examples were helpful, and I’m sure I’ll look back in the book later on this year when I need help with writing a paper.

Corn is King

Pollan compares alcohol to corn, which seems to be a very accurate comparison. Back in the day, alcohol was very cheap, people could afford to drink large amounts of it, and that’s what they did. Just like us today with fast food, it’s cheap so we eat a lot of it. I feel a lot more cautious about checking the nutrition labels for High Fructose Corn Syrup now and doing my best to stay away from it. Like the rats tested, we too will eat ourselves sick if it’s a treat we don’t get often. This makes me think of how I feel when I eat McDonalds and when Pollan said “And so it goes, bite after bite, until you feel not satisfied exactly, but simply, regrettable, full.” I’m never satisfied from eating so much of the rare treat, I always regret eating too much of it and I always feel sick.

A templates from “They Say I Say “ that I think I would use in my writing was the templates for introducing summaries and quotations, I always find it hard to come up with different ways to start the summaries and quotations, so I also like that it gave a bunch of example verbs you can use in a paper as well. A template that I wouldn’t use is the “on the one hand… on the other hand…” I think it sounds kind of awkward in my writing.