Week 6 Reading Response 1

In the cartoon by Dean Camp called “Pricey” it shows a running track leading the finish line called “College”, with clouds and hills, there is a boy running in the distance that looks exhausted, and a boy flying over the finish line with a jet pack that states “Weekly Tutor: $1,000”, shoes with wings that state “SAT Classes: $550” and “Summer Program: $3,000”. The whole point of the cartoon is the bubble that says “Getting Accepted Into College of Choice: Pricey.” In the cartoon Camp shows that many students who want to go to college struggle, unless they have money. Most times a student does not have access to use such programs such as “SAT Class”, “Summer Programs”, and weekly “Tutors” this makes the point that going to college of choice “Pricey”. All of the things that were mentioned make the cartoon “Pricey” a debate about affirmative action, meaning that their should be more of an effort to promote the rights, or progress of disadvantaged people. Even with scholarships out there, it is still difficult for a disadvantaged student to receive any help. With all the jobs that need proper education, college should not be so expensive. When I got accepted to The Art Institute of Seattle during my senior year of high school, I did not think that it was going to be so difficult to pay for. I would be the first person in my family to go to college for a degree, but my family was not able to help with much expenses. The Art Institute of Seattle was very expensive and I was not able to attend as of the time being. I believe that schooling should be less difficult to afford or schools should think about more approaches for the costs.

Week 6 Response: Paraphrasing and Plagiarism

Paraphrasing is very important to pay attention to in your writing. No one should ever copy as sentence directly from the source. When a sentence is directly from the source, it limit’s the knowledge from that is learned for the person uses it on the topic. Plagiarism is a very serious issue to pay attention to in your writing. To avoid plagiarism one must always give credit to the source that it was found from. Even when one puts quotations around the used information, they must still credit the source. I understand plagiarism and paraphrasing very well.

Week 6 Reading Response 2

In “Who’s a Looter? In Storms Aftermath, Pictures Kick Up a Different Kind of Tempest” Tania Ralli writes about the issue of discriminating photographs taken during Hurricane Katrina. The pictures were highly debatable. The first photography was of a black man wading through chest deep water, carrying a Pepsi box and a full garbage bag, he was considered to be ‘looting’. The second photograph was a white couple carrying food in the same water but were considered to be ‘finding’ food.

The first photo that was of the black man was taken by Dave Martin a photographer from the Associated Press stated that he saw the man taking food out of a grocery store. The second photo was by Chris Graythen from Getty Images stated that he saw the white couple found the food in the vicinity of a grocery store. The photos created a huge controversy that boiled down to racism. Before going on assignment to the photographers for the Associated Press gave guidelines to distinguish the difference in ‘looting’ and of ‘finding’, they were told that if a person comes out of a store with goods with them that it would be considered ‘looting’. Because the man in the first photography was black and considered to be looting made that a big issue; whereas the white couple was said to have walked out of a grocery store and was labeled as finding food. Both of the situations where the same except for the color of their skin. Mr. Graythen who took the second photo stated that he did not see the couple emerge from the store, even though the door was left open and food was floating around. Mr. Graythen saw the act of finding food as a means of survival.

During Katrina I clearly remember the media being discriminating towards African Americans, they would always point out blacks that were looting, but never said anything about the white people. Their were helicopters flying in food for the survivors, but that could take hours to get to the people. Since that process of receiving food could take so long the people who survived were on their own to survive, so it makes logical sense to take food from a store. The stores were flooded to begin with, and by the time the water was gone most of the left over food would not be consumable. I believe that the Associated Press was at fault and was racist. I do not think that the people should have been considered looting, unless it was jewelry or any other outrageous item. Katrina was a huge disaster and the media discriminated all African Americans that were affected by Hurricane Katrina

Week 5 Reading Response 3

In “Public Service Campaigns Use Language to Send a Message” The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign uses teenagers in their advertisements to get across to their audience. The audience for this campaign are many teenagers of every race, couples, sports players, and anyone who can relate to the advertisement. The advertisements are directly addressing teenagers. In the first add which the use "courage" as the anti-drug a couple is used, they use the girl as being concerned about him using illegal drugs and her telling him how she feels about his use of drug because she cares. In the second add the use a little girls bike tire that have been hit by a car; the anti-drug they used was regret, they show that by smoking weed and then driving that you do stupid things, like hit a six-year-old on her bicycle. The third add is “I am my anti-drug”, they use a guy explaining that he is labeled as a “drugged out loser”, but in reality he is an uncle, a thinker, and a rugby player. In the fourth add which is another “I am my anti-drug” they use a girl who people could possibly scan as another pot smoking teenager, but in reality she is an artist, a therapist, and a kick boxer. The fifth add is another “I am my anti-drug” , they use a guy who states that he is filed under a pothead, but in reality he is a writer, and a halfback. Each of these adds use a different race (excluding the second add) so that there is no stereotyping, and each of them have different interests. I find that add two would be the most effective, I believe that by using a little girls bicycle tire that they get more of a point across about the affects of doing illegal drugs. Over all I believe that this sort of argument could be effective to its audience, especially since they do not stereotype one person. But at the same time in school their were a lot of kids that played sports and were on the honor roll who did drugs.

Week 5 Reading Response 2

In “Skin-Deep: What Polls of Minorities Miss” David Bositis examines minority group poll results. Bositis states that opinion polls fail to adequately sample minority population. When a minority is inadequately polled they encourage stereotypes about the minority at a large.

In Bositis’s argument he proposes the group whether it’s a news group or organization do not accurately poll the minority. Bositis finds that when minorities are polled that they are not a reliable source of opinion, because the group that does the poll does not poll a large amount of the minority. The minority polls are most often extremely risky and misleading, when the poll is reporting on crime, police misconduct, and elections. In the argument Bositis concludes that the polls that there are large margins of error in conducting minority polling, which shows that polling does not meet correct criteria; thus, making his argument a evaluative argument. Bositis finds that to achieve a valid minority poll is to poll more of the minorities population and to take the polling effort to the local level where people understand the views that they do or do not share. This finding also make Bositis argument a proposal argument.

Bositis makes a valid argument and covered his research polling very well. With his finding Bositis proves that the media does not take into consideration minority opinions as whole, which can discriminate the minorities. Minorities are often misunderstood by the media, this is why there is so many stereotypes and the racism is a never ending problem. If opinion polls correctly poll the minorities their would not be so many problems in the media with minorities and minorities would have equal treatment in the polling.

Week 5 Reading Response 1

In “Can We Talk?” Deborah Tannen describes and analyzes mother and daughter interactions. Tanner goes into talking about the mixed emotions that take place when a mother and a daughter communicate. Tanner describes why a mother and a daughter would have troubled moments.

A mother and daughter relationship can have a great bond that can not be found in any other relationship. But a relationship that involves such a close bond has many mixed emotions. Tannen talks about times that their can be a great level of comfort in the mother/daughter relationship; although, there are also times that there are hurt feelings that are caused from disappointing remarks or even a meaningless argument. Tannen states that when a relationship is so close that the mother or daughter tend to have the feeling that they no longer have control in their own life; this takes place when one person is trying to take an action intended in the spirit of connection. Tannen brings up meta-messages which is usually meant to be taken sarcastically. Meta-messages can often be seen in mother/daughter relationships.

I believe that Tannen is correct in her writing. In my experience with my mom who I am very close with, we often have those hurt feelings that Tannen was explaining. I think that in many mother/daughter relationships they have the same problem. I have noticed these experiences when I think about my high school days when she felt that I was doing something that I should have not been doing. I do believe that a mother/son relationship is sometimes the same way, especially if their father figure in not around. Every daughter and mother should think about why the other said what they said.

Week 5: Lead Sentence

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879241,00.html

The lead that I picked is a delayed lead. I really enjoyed this lead and it made me laugh because I have walked through a swarm of gnats a countless number of times and I absolutely hate it. The lead that the author chose was great idea to grab the readers attention.