Monday, December 10, 2007

Whales R Us

WRITING IDEAS
What suggestions would you make, and why?
I would suggest that Stayer did not make so many references to Disneyland, and instead talk more about what is going on with Sea-World, and Stayer needs to state her opinion more. Talking about Disneyland so much drowns out what Stayer is trying to say about Sea World.

EXPLORING IDEAS
How is the way that Stayer sees entertainment parks similar or different from the way you see them?
Our views of entertainment parks are similar. I also notice that entertainment parks claim to be educational, yet when you leave the park you seem to have learned nothing, or at least very little.

Monday, November 26, 2007

300 Word Response to "Is Hunting Ethical"

In “Is Hunting Ethical?” Causey supports and explains both sides of the matter. Causey and her husband, a wildlife biologist, had been nursing and treating white-tailed deer fawns for an entire summer. They had gotten a little fawn named Sandy. Sandy was an ill baby who needed care. At one point and time the little fawn, Sandy, quit breathing as she lay in the arms of Causey. Her husband gave the little fawn mouth to mouth while Causey did C.P.R.. Sandy finally lost her battle and passed away. Causey and her husband mourn each death, but the day Sandy died was not convenient. They were attending a dinner where they had to prepare the dish. Her husband had gone out and shot a deer for the dinner, which they had to roast that day.
In the rest of Causey’s essay she shows that the question, “Is hunting ethical?”, can be answered both ways.
I can relate to this essay because I have gone hunting with my father before, but never for the enjoyment in the kill. We went out and shot some birds to have for dinner the next night. Yet I still wondered was going hunting, and successfully killing an innocent creature ethical?! If a person who is going to go hunting can honestly say they are not in it for the kill, and they are hunting for a purpose, then there should be no problem. Also, I have only gone hunting two times in my entire life.

300 Word Response to "Beware of Drug Sales"

In the essay Beware of Drug Sales, Therese Cherry described how drug sales are being so aggressively advertised now days. People cannot turn on a TV without seeing a commercial about prescription drugs. Also, people cannot flip through a magazine without finding out if Claritin is “right for you”. Cherry states that consumers around the globe are taking prescription medication for the disease called life! Stress and anxiety and fat are not necessarily medical problems that require prescription drugs. Yet the advertisements make people believe that they need them. Doctors are not helping this situation either though. They are prescribing the drugs that are more aggressively advertised. The pharmaceutical companies have to know the side effects of these drugs, yet no one who is on them seem to know the side effects. And on some of the newer drugs all of the possible outcomes cannot be known yet. Cherry also states “A business has every right to turn a profit, but should it really be at the risk of good health?” “Without your health, money means nothing.”
I think most people can relate to this essay. I have a television, and almost every other commercial is about a drug. I also have magazine subscriptions, and in those magazines are drug ads. The way these drugs are being advertised can be confusing to me. It makes me wonder what a real medical problem is and what a non-medical problem is.

Is Hunting Ethical?

Writing Strategies

1. Do you consider Causey's opening narrative to be effective? Explain how her opening is or is not a strength of her essay.

I consider Causey's opening narrative to be a little contradictory. But, it still is effective to showing what is coming in her essay about ethical hunting. She showed that she, and her husband, cared for the lives of animals, and they also still went hunting for those same animals. they went though for a purpose of feeding themselves and others.

Exploring Ideas

4. What issues, in addition to hunting, can Causey's ethical approach be applied to? That is, what issue do others discuss in terms of data or legality when you feel the issue should be ethics?

Presidential elections are another issue that an ethical approach could be used for.

Beware of Drug Sales

Writing Strategies

1. What strategy. or strategies, does Cherry use to draw the reader's attention to the point of her essay?

She first starts by putting you in a real life moment of watching television. "You can't turn on the TV or open a magazine these days without finding out if Claritin is "right for you" or being told to ask your doctor about Viagra." She also uses real statistics and sources without drowning her own voice.

Exploring Ideas

2. Is it all right for Americans to take prescription drugs to ease non-medical problems like fat and stress? What problems should prescription drugs be used for?

When non-medical problems like fat and stress become too overwhelming for people to handle, then people should be prescribed to drugs. But, until those problems become overwhelming, then people should not be prescribed to drugs. The problems that could be life threatening are the problems that need prescription drugs. The problems that regular aspirin cannot help, need prescription drugs.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

300 Word Response to "In Search of...Something"

In the essay “In Search of… Something” the writer, Skye Bass, explained her view of college and she explained how college is viewed by others. People want to be insanely rich and want mansions and servant; they think they will achieve all this by going to college. College is going to be the solution to all the financial problems people are having, and college is going to give me a dream lifestyle.
In fourth grade, Skye Bass, the writer, had to write down all the things she wanted in life. She wrote down that she wanted a mansion with servant, she wanted to be rich, and she wanted to write magnificent books. When her teacher gave her back the paper it said, “GO TO COLLEGE” on the top. She then began to think that college was going to be the way to become wealthy and happy. Until, one day in her sociology class, she learned about the poverty and in inequalities of the Third World countries. This changed her outlook on college completely. Bass then felt selfish about wanting to be insanely rich and instead wanted to gain an education once out of college.
I can relate to this story because, I too, like Bass, wanted to become rich, and have huge houses with servants to do my chores, and I wanted nice cars. But then I started watching programs on Third World countries, and I realized that those people had nothing. And in their life it would be almost impossible for those Third World people to have all of what I already have-a nice house, enough money for shoes and food, and an education. Thinking about that, I felt selfish for wanting more than what I really need, instead of wanting a better education; and even a way to help the Third World Countries. I now donate every month, I am now looking forward to the academic challenges I will face in college.

In Search Of.......Something

Writing Strategies

1.) What points does Bass make through personal anecdote? How else might she have made these same points?

One personal anecdote was telling how she had to write down all of the things that she wanted in her life. She filled the paper with things like mansions, servants, and money! Then her teacher wrote on the paper " GO TO COLLEGE " as the response. So by using this anecdote students will think that college is the answer to how to get everything you want in life.
Bass could have made the same point by using something that is not a personal anecdote. Or by using statistics to show if students think of college as the way to get the riches in life.



Exploring Ideas

1.) How did Bass's sociology class help her to think differently about the concept of education?

Bass's sociology class helped her to change the way she looked at college, and changed what she was going to college for. In the class she was shown of Third World poverty, and that how we live and what we have, would be almost impossible for people in the Third World country to ever achieve. Now knowing that she has more than most people will ever have, she began to change what she wanted out of college. Bass felt selfish when she thought of just wanting to be rich when she got out of college. She did not just want to be insanely rich when graduating from college, but she wanted to gain a higher education.