Robusts Verbs -breakingbad45

Posted on May 1, 2024 by BreakingBad45

Original :

There is a huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. There are no limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. This will in turn fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

Edited

Vancouver is having an epidemic with heroin addicts committing crimes for their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” is made to prevent addicts and better the lives of them. The issue is the large crime rate due to the rise in addiction. Addicts tend to struggle more dealing with day to day life. Any sort of social interaction that is small or little can be hard to keep when dealing with addiction. Heroin addicts will take serious measures in order to maintain that drug for themselves. The most common crimes dealing with staling as well as breaking and entering. There is nothing holding them back from reserving the drug again to use once more. The issue with the program is how won’t make addicts stop using heroin, instead they are preventing the city from a further crime rate. By assisting in giving the drug, they are able to make sure that there will be a prevention in crime rate. This will as well make sure users are out of hospitals as well. It is unfair that hospitals have to deal with users that don’t care about their bodies and prefer to use dirty needles on themselves, to never end up affording their tremendous hospital bill. This is so that heroin addicts can get their fix in the safest way possible. This will cure the city but not further assist the constant problems that heroin causes.

Posted in BreakingBad, Regrade Please, Robust Verbs | 2 Comments

Proposal+5—SleepyCat

Posted on April 29, 2024 by SleepyCat

Proposal

For my research essay, I will be detailing free-roaming cats’ effects on shearwater birds located on islands. Many people who are bird lovers often comment on the overhunting of birds done by cats. I will be only focusing on the predation of the shearwater variety of seabirds done by free-roaming cats. 

Cats and Predation

  • Cats are considered both predators and scavengers
  • In the U.S. birds make up around 12.5%-25.2% of the content in a cat’s stomach 
  • Cats are the biggest killers on islands whereas on the mainland, cats are most likely scavengers
  • They hunt using mainly stationary predation tactics 

Predation of birds by domestic cats on a neotropical island

Background: This case report details the near extinction of Yelkouan shearwater seabirds on a neotropical island in South America. Domestic cats are a non-native species in the area and depend largely on predation for survival. On some islands, predatory domestic cats have decreased the population of seabirds due to hunting. These cats have been shown to display opportunistic behavior when stalking their prey which can be attributed to the availability of resources in the area. When there is a decrease in the fauna populations, cats turn to hunting live prey such as birds to meet their daily nutritional needs. Statistics have shown a direct correlation between the predatory behavior of domestic cats and the endangerment of Barau’s petrel seabirds and the near extinction of Yelkouan Shearwater seabirds. 

Intention: 

Predation by feral cats threatens great albatrosses

  • Invasive non-native mammals most threaten seabirds as they did not evolve alongside one another 
  • Seabirds have not evolved to a point where they possess defenses against predation; they didn’t evolve alongside the presence of land predators (albatrosses) 

Biology and Impacts of Pacific Island Invasive Species. 7. The Domestic Cat

Click to access Medina_et_al_2011-Global_review_of_invasive_cat_impacts_on_endangered_vertebrates.pdf

https://www.alleycat.org/resources/the-natural-history-of-the-cat/#:~:text=Especially%20prized%20as%20mousers%20on,the%20island%20intentionally%20by%20humans.

https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/lyalls-wren

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna54068846

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227665659_A_global_review_of_the_impacts_of_invasive_cats_on_island_endangered_vertebrates#:~:text=Cats%20are%20generalist%20predators%20that,population%20declines%20and%20even%20extinction.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2119000119

06/21/16 – Feral Cats Continue to Kill Endangered Seabirds on Kauai

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4545751

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/12/cats-diet-2000-species-conservation-study-aoe

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/why-cats-play-with-prey

https://doi.org/10.25959/23236526.v1

https://doi.org/10.2984/64.3.381

http://www.birdsontheedge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Options-for-the-recovery-of-nesting-seabirds-on-Jersey-Channel-Islands.-Final.-7-2018.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24874886

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/9/7/445

Posted in Bibliography (Proposal+5), SleepyCat | 5 Comments

Causal—SleepyCat

Posted on April 29, 2024 by SleepyCat

Needs a Title

Cats have been introduced to approximately 170,000 of the world’s islands. Cats on islands have the ability to completely wipe out entire species due to those species not having natural carnivore predators and thus not being acquainted to life as prey. According to research done by Charles Darwin, island animals tend to be tamer than that of their mainland counterparts due to a lack of mammal predators. Tameness is defined as the animal’s acceptance of homosapien life around them, and thus the animals do not fear human predators in addition to the commonly assumed mammalian carnivores. For instance, New Zealand’s flightless bird, Lyall’s wren, or the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli), has gone extinct due to feral cats. When it first became observed by scientists in 1894, it was only found on Stephen’s Island. In February of 1894, cats were introduced to the island, and by the winter of 1895, a second generation of feral cats sought out the bird as prey. By 1925, the last of the birds had been killed off. There is no proof that habit destruction had much effect on the population of the bird.As of 2023, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared twenty-one species in Hawaii, coined the “extinction capital of the world,” to be officially extinct. Of the twenty-one species, eight were birds. The Hawaiian Petrel is an endangered bird under legal protection by the seabird management project. They have found success in reducing predator cat numbers; however, Dr. Raine of the seabird management project says that it takes only one feral cat to kill a colony of birds. Land development has also caused the loss of habitat for many of the colonies, making them vulnerable to being hunted by cats. According to a published research article by the University of California, “[Cats] are considered responsible for at least 14% of global bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions and are the principal threat to almost 8% of critically endangered birds, mammals, and reptiles.” This is considered to be the minimum value due to the study being conducted specifically in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. 

Through unrelated conditions, island fauna and flora populations have also dwindled. Invasive plant species taking over the islands, habitat loss, land exploitation, and climate change have played major roles in the increase of cat populations and ease of hunting, thus an increase in seabird endangerment. It may seem counterintuitive for cats or any predator to have better killing success in open habitats; however, when it comes to seabirds and islands, cats are better killers in open areas. They benefit from the decrease in native plant populations that coexist with native animals and simply from a decrease in plants generally. They are successful 70% of the time in an open “kill” area, as opposed to sheltered areas in which the success rate was under 20%. 

In the same study regarding open area hunting, published by the National Library of Medicine, the cats did not consume their prey in 28% of the kills. Not only do these cats pose a large threat to island bird populations and ecological damage, but they often kill and force species into endangerment for sport. A cat’s palette includes 90% of all species consumed. Cats are particularly damaging on islands, where they eat three times the number of species of conservation concern compared to what they eat on continents,” claims Phoebe Westen of The Guardian. They find the act of hunting mentally and physically stimulating. Although not human, cats contribute to ecological terrorist acts through killing birds that are not apparently necessary for their survival. 

References

Posted in Causal Argument, Feedback Please, SleepyCat | 1 Comment

Definition—SleepyCat

Posted on April 29, 2024 by SleepyCat

Needs a Title

Humans introducing cat species to islands in which they are invasive have caused an extremely dire ripple effect. An increase in the population of free-roaming cats on islands where they are not native, with the addition of a decrease in fauna populations, has caused free-roaming cats to prey upon seabirds, therefore causing some species to come close to endangerment. Cats are often regarded as domesticated pets from a western American perspective, but for many countries, especially impoverished islands, they pose a great threat due to a lack of housing. One must be able to perceive cats beyond their furry companions to understand the psychology and instincts that cause ecological terror. Ecological terrorism is perceived to only be applicable to humans who possess the capability to comprehend and commit unlawful acts of environmental harm. Through a strictly legal definition, cats are unable to commit such crimes; however, when speaking of the environment conceptually, any living organism holds the ability to destroy ecosystems when in cooperation with other sources. 

 To fully understand the dangers of free-roaming cat populations and the loss of vital structures to the ecosystem, one must first understand the basic definitions of the argument. The categorization of free roaming cats is not limited to what we typically understand as “stray” and instead may include domestic house cats (Felis silvestris catus) that have access to the outdoors unattended. Cats previously considered to be wild cats were tamed to be kept as pets or companions nearly 9,000 years ago. Islands particularly affected by European expansion in the 14th–15th centuries saw an increase and introduction of non-native species, such as predatory cats. According to the Oregon Secretary of State, predatory animals are defined as species that may be destructive to their environment through “loss of or harm inflicted on land, livestock, or agricultural or forest crops.” It is pertinent to note that there is a difference between “non-native” and “invasive,” as conflating the two could lead to dangerous consequences. “Non-native” species tend to be human-introduced and do not originate from particular biomes and ecosystems. “Invasive” species are non-native species that are particularly harmful to the local ecosystem and environment.

In fact, house cats as we commonly perceive are not considered to be native to any place on Earth. They are the domesticated species originating from one of two strains as the North African or the Southwest Asian wildcat. Thus they were not born or originated from anywhere. Domestic cats are considered “cousins” of the “big cat” such as the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. We tend to understand domestication as the taming of a species as a whole, but through meticulous genetic breeding, “house” cats became an entirely new species of their own. Cats are a naturalized species in almost all parts of the world. Naturalized meaning they are able to spread and grow despite not originating from that area. In many regions of the world they have been invasive for so long they have become naturalized and effectively can be considered native. Non-native does not necessarily mean invasive and vice versa, however, the domesticated cat exhibits behaviors and impacts onto their environment that constitutes them as invasive.

It is significant to note and dissect what we understand as a part of nature and the environment, seeing as the entire notion that cats are a danger to the environment relies on the established comprehension of what the environment is. Evidently, “nature” tends to include fauna and flora populations, insects, birds, biomes, etc. Humans tend to not be included in what the general idea of “nature” is and thus implies that human behaviors are not a part of nature and the environment.

References

Posted in Definition/Categorical, Feedback Please, SleepyCat | Leave a comment

Rebuttal- Breakingbad45

Posted on April 24, 2024 by BreakingBad45

The type of education you receive will depend on your environment 

As we live day to day in our society, at one point in time you gain the ability to learn and comprehend things. Many people have an idea of what education is, and have gotten it at one point in their life. However, many people have differing ideas when they think of education because everyone has had different lessons and different ideas of teaching. And this can become rather complicated when you ask different people. Some environments, make it very hard to succeed if you are not taught at the correct time or in the right form. My idea is that you cannot succeed in a school setting if you are faced with certain obstacles, these obstacles including living areas and financial situations. Because those things will hold you back.

Many urban areas are very unfortunate with their school systems and struggle every day to create ways to get students to enroll because of the many struggles the go through. The struggles they face include gang life, single homes, and children that are stricken with starvation. This is seen in cities like Harlem, the Bronx and other parts of the city as well as other parts of the world. 

The debates that the opposing side of people try to make is that idea that people are able to make it in life, attend a good college, and work a good job as long as they work hard they are able to achieve those things. I believe that is simply untrue because there are people in certain unfortunate situations that are unable to make it into a good school because of where they come from. People’s environments naturally change and form the person you are if you live there long enough as it is only natural. I think many people carry disadvantages while navigating their education because of this. Because of the good education and upbringing I was fortunate to have, it was easier for me to be successful and be able to attend a university unlike other students. This article by the Georgia Library claims that, “the findings that overcrowded areas contain many chances and have an easier access to depression but it doesn’t affect their education or the level they can contain,” (Lanus). He says that everyone is capable of succeeding because everyone is physically able to do so in this country. The issue I have is people thinking everyone has an equal chance in that success, and the truth is that cannot possibly happen for the unprivileged. They are unable to have the same chances as a student who is financially set.

I found an article on the subject about a Rowan student who I know personally visited a middle school and high school principal located in one of the bad parts of the Bronx where there is a lot of crime and poverty. He found that the principal (who did not want to be named) believed that, “Students in this area may gain no hope in the future because of how our system has been running,” (Marone). In the article, he mentions how many children under the age of 14 are afraid to go into school. The reason behind this deals with the amount of gang life in the area. Students tend to see people before walking to class being harassed, beaten, robbed or even worse to be forced into a gang because they think they will have a better chance at life. So in their ideal mind they think they will truly succeed out of this if they spend there lives in crime which is the true tragic part of all of this.

Another thing taken into account is that many of these students in areas like New York will not have the ability to eat everyday; the starvation causing them to be unmotivated and simply unable to learn anything. The principal from the Bronx believed that students would have a better chance of coming into school at all if there were more free lunches for the unfortunate children. The kids would then want to go to school to eat, and in return, learn some valuable information that could potentially help and benefit a child’s life drastically. Many of the kids that go to these schools are often complaining about being hungry. 

The National Library of Medicine had their own experiment to see if poverty changes the education of students. They believed that, “The results indicate that enduring exposure to neighborhood poverty relates to educational attainment, while timing does not,” (Lanus). They go on to say that it could affect your ability to learn, but it would affect many more children than adults trying to learn at a university. This is relevant because in the experiment they state that children would have a much harder time gaining an education because of the stress and other factors that they have to deal with in their daily lives. This shows that it will affect the kids life a lot more than an adult’s life. Children are easily impressionable and when they pick up on social and societal cues you tend to mold into that version from wherever you are and that is the same with learning.

Many children are receiving education around the world; however, that type of learning can be dramatically different from others depending on the enviornment. Just like New York, there are people that attend public schools in dangerous areas who may not learn anything in class. At the same time, a few blocks away at the private schools nearby, there are students learning and receiving help that will benefit their futures. The idea is that regardless of where you’re from, you’ll learn things differently from other people. There are people that can receive more help and guidance with the reason being they were born into the right family at the right time of life. The idea of chance is a big actor because no one can choose what they are born into that just find their way out of it.

There are many ways of finding solutions in urban areas like this to get children to attend schools and gain a sufficient education, but it would need to be a whole debacle that would entail many different sides of people joining together to help our future youth. The ideas that I feel make the most sense are to have safer routes to school so kids feel comfortable, free lunches for the children so students would have the motivation to go to school, and to find and hire a team of nurturing teachers that give good quality learning in these dangerous areas; many teachers in that area do not care for their students. More solutions that would aid in attacking the root of the problem would be to be vigilant of children who may be victims of malicious parenting, and help to get these children away from their home abuse. Also, having the cities be more aware of their gang violence and rising up to combat it could make a drastic change not just for the young students, but for everyone. The whole idea in itself can not be possible because of how many of these cities have been living with these problems for years. The idea can be tragic, but many people are able to succeed in this world. I truly believe everyone can and is capable of doing so. The thing that becomes conflicting is: if everyone could achieve these goals, even if they had obstacles like these, why can’t everyone succeed? I believe many people would not gain the same knowledge, therefore everyone would not gain the same standard of education making it much harder to succeed. The task of success is not impossible however everyone faces there own tasks and difficulties that are separate from others making it impossible from everyone to have the same chance.

Marrone, C., & Bullimore, M. A. (n.d.). A Case Study of Secondary School Leaders’ Perceptions of Attendance Policies and Procedures Used to Increase Attendance. https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/66143 

Do poor housing conditions affect educational attainment? : An analysis of the impact of poor housing conditions on educational achievement, a study based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (n.d.). https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/553803 

Nieuwenhuis, J., Kleinepier, T., & van Ham, M. (2021, May). The role of exposure to neighborhood and school poverty in understanding educational attainment. Journal of youth and adolescence. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8043918/#:~:text=The%20results%20indicate%20that%20enduring,stronger%20impact%20than%20later%20exposure 

Posted in Portfolio—BreakingBad | Leave a comment

Reflective-The Gamer2.0

Posted on April 24, 2024 by The Gamer 2.0

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

How I was able to demonstrate my work through a variety of practices was with the class discussions; they were very helpful when understanding how to come up with an argument between two people or more. I implemented that into my causal argument essay when arguing about the topic of New Balance. My work was never the best. I would constantly drift off my writing and go off subject, but the discussions that we had in class helped me stay on track. I had the opinions of my roommate and friends to help me stay on track with my essays and put things together well on the plate.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically and that I place texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

I was able to accomplish this core value with evidence that I found in the articles. In my causal argument, this was something that I used very often to try to get a point across. I wasn’t the best at picking the right parts to get the point, and even now, I’m still not the best at it. This definitely helps me improve my skills as a reader and writer, as well as my ability to extract evidence from an article and incorporate it into my work.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

This was demonstrated in the task of our visual rewrite assignment when I took every detail and explained it the best that I could bit by bit. This core value was demonstrated the most in this assignment because it covered everything that was meant for us to fully understand how to really explain what we see by writing it down. I did very well in my opinion because I felt like this part was just easy to understand and be able to write on as well. It also helps with knowing what to do with the other essays.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

To really sum things up, I believe that my work hasn’t yet fulfilled my expectations or where I want to be right now. The more practice, the better, but I feel like it mostly depends on how you start things off. A work that demonstrated this was definitely my annotated bibliography, where I was able to really see what it was most useful for. This value taught me how to put other people’s ideas into creating an opinion.

Core Value 5: My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to cite sources of my information appropriately.

In this value, I was able to demonstrate this in my rebuttal argument. I was able to use a large selection of different articles to really help piece everything together. Citation sources were very important in that scenario. With the articles that were read, I was able to properly cite them and give credit so that there would not be This value was very intriguing because the importance of giving credit when it’s due is really important in college and in any working community.

Posted in Portfolio—TheGamer, Reflective, TheGamer2.0 | Leave a comment

Elevator Instructions – breakingbad45

Posted on April 23, 2024 by BreakingBad45
  1. Start at the main lobby of the building and wait for a guest from the floors above or below to move up or down. Once this is done you will move to that floor depending on the sensors and how popular the floor is at the time.
  2. If it is from above you will brighten up the arrow outside of the elevator to show the rest of the people off the elevator there that you are going up to visit that floor.
  3. If you are in a floor that is not the lobby or main floor and a floor below presses your button, you must go elevate down into the selected floor that chose you.
  4. If a guest is inside of the elevator and the button is pressed, you must go up towards that assigned room.
  5. If a guest were to have their hands, feet or any part of their body hit the sensor, the doors will be open for an additional 3 seconds to try and close the right way. The second sensor may sense that you are on the floor and more depending on the passenger’s .
  6. Once you get to that floor that you are assigned to you must open the doors for 10 seconds in order to allow more passengers on board
  7. After no passengers head into the door you may close it and move down towards the lobby floor.
Posted in BreakingBad, Elevator Instructions | 5 Comments

reflective-thatpersonoverthere

Posted on April 22, 2024 by thatpersonoverthere

Reflective statement-thatpersonoverthere

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

My work combs over several sources including a phone interview with a former art therapist. The work has evolved since this call and before as concepts that were loose in my works have become more concrete. My thesis statement has grown and flourished to fully explain the question initially presented. The thesis statement itself has also morphed as it changed from tactile art therapy is more calming than traditional, to art therapy is better than digital art therapy. The work that exemplifies this growth the most is my causal argument as I feel that it was the stepping stone to further my other works as it has elements of both my rebuttal argument and by definition argument. 

rebuttal rewrite- thatpersonoverthere

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

Critically reading and interpreting text is a very important skill. It can be the difference between including a text that completely disagrees with your core message by mistake and deconstructing why the argument the text is making is flawed. Including tests without checking to see if it agrees with your work or even relates to the central themes of a paper is important. To also take into account the different life circumstances those writing these pieces may have or perhaps the people participating in the study is important to look at as well. My topic in general leads to a looking into a diverse community as mental health is something everyone struggles with. I went over those who may have anxiety, learning disability, and even developmental challenges. 

causal rewrite- Thatpersonoverthere

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

The work that best exemplifies this would be my visual rhetoric assignment. Analyzing the purpose was the core part of this assignment, and though I got the purpose a bit confused I was also to rewrite my opinions with the help of my professor. I used my own interpretation of the context of the scene to give my own account and to give my account to a reader who has never seen the ad before requirings a significant amount of detail, which was done throwing descriptions of each scene change that occurred followed by what the scene may have ment. 

Visual Rewrite- Thatpersonoverthere

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

Looking through a lot of text can somewhat make one forget about their own ideas. This was not lost when I completed my task as I backed up every source I had with my own claims and reasoning. Arguing that AI shouldn’t be included in digital art on the basis of it negating the very idea of art therapy speaks to this. Or that tactile sensations are important to art therapy and having a discussion with an art therapist to get her opinions about the subject to further the claims previously mentioned. Reading the article and seeing what the core beliefs are is important to establish the foundation of one’s own claims, if the paper completely negates the argument in the your writing, speak to how flawed the idea in the paper is. 

Research paper -Thatpersonoverthere

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

Ethical responsibility includes finding sources that are experts in the topic to ensure that a core message of a paper or argument isn’t misleading. Looking through several scientific journals, definitions and the account of a former therapist and current director of the organization Say It With Clay I feel that this was accomplished in my work. Also including works that were opposed to my central idea is proof that I attempted to show fairness in my argument and attempted to see the ideas presented in their works. I included citations to all sources mentioned in my paper and included how they were used in my annotated biography. Which I feel best exemplifies the above core value for providing information about my sources and how I used them to better my understanding of the topic and to use the presented information ethically and fairly in my paper.

Bibliography – Thatpersonoverthere 
Posted in Portfolio—ThatPersonOverThere, Reflective, ThatPersonOverThere | Leave a comment

Reflective- Hockeyfan

Posted on April 21, 2024 by hockeyfan

Core Value 1:  Writing is a practice that involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process.

I demonstrated core value 1 by doing my research paper. Over the course of doing my research paper I would consider it a multi stage process. I was instructed to write 3 different short papers over the course of the semester. I then put all of them together to create one large paper. I would also say it was recursive because I was able to produce rewrites of the assignment to improve it over the course of the semester. This I feel like made me become a stronger writer, because after I received feedback from my professor I was able to take a deeper look at my paper from someone else’s perspective. I feel like overall the process of the research paper and everything that went into it gave me a better idea of how to write a strong paper and how much work it really takes to make a great paper.

Core value 2: My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

I demonstrated core value 2 in my causal argument. During the process of writing my causal argument I thoroughly analyzed articles. I was able to find information on why National League Hockey needs more regulation to make it a safer game. This gave me a deeper understanding of the information I needed to prove my point, and when to use it. By using a scholarly article it gave me the opportunity to take a deep dive into well educated arguments that I could use to make my argument stronger and more detailed to keep my audience more engaged. This also allowed me to gather sources that my audience could trust. Making sure the information I was using from these articles flowed well with one another and helped back up one another was also important to me when choosing the articles I uses.

Core value 3: My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I demonstrated core value 3 in my visual rhetoric assignment. During my visual rhetoric I analyzed a 30 second video second by second. This helped me to understand that context makes a huge difference when it comes to writing a good paper and understanding something. When you analyze something second b y second you see things that most people don’t when they don’t stop the video to analyze. It could be something small in the background or in the sky, but it makes a huge difference when you look at the bigger picture and the meaning behind the whole video. Details are what keep your audience engaged, if you are vague about a topic your audience will become uninterested, so incorporating the details that someone else wouldn’t think to add is very important.

CORE VALUE 4:My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

I demonstrated core value 4 in my definition essay. A big part of my definition essay was making sure my readers understood the point I was trying to get across. In this case it was that the NHL needs more regulation because it is extremely unsafe. For me a high point in my essay for my readers was including verbal illustrations such as describing horrific injuries that they could picture while reading my essay. This allows my readers to see how unsafe the NHL really is and why they need more regulation. I’ve also learned that it is important where you place illustrations in your essay. For instance it is better to place them in the beginning of your essay as an attention grabber to keep your readers interested.

CORE VALUE 5:  My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

I demonstrated core value 5 in my rebuttal rewrite. This part of my research paper was important to me because for the rebuttal it is best to include facts and statistics. It was also important to make sure that I was giving the correct people credit for finding these statistics. Using statistics in your essay gives your reader a better view of what is really going on. It also helps them see drastic changes that show in numbers if there are any drastic changes. Even when I paraphrase information about something I reminded myself that it was important to still give those people credit for the information I was paraphrasing because it was their information I was using.  At first it was confusing to learn which format of citing and paraphrasing in the essay was correct,  but I soon got the hang of it and was able to give credit when credit was due.

Posted in HockeyFan, Portfolio—HockeyFan, Reflective | Leave a comment

Reflective Toetio

Posted on April 21, 2024 by toetio

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Research is something that I initially had trouble with this semester.  The topic I was writing about, hand gestures, was very broad and I had trouble identifying which sources would be useful because there were so many of them.  This problem was lessened to some degree when I narrowed my topic down to a more specific claim, that trade over a language barrier increases the use of hand gestures.  The main issue after that was finding articles that I actually had access to.  I was able to solve this problem after a discussion with my professor who told me that if I didn’t have access to an article on google scholar, I could go to the site for the Rowan Library and search for the same article there.  In most cases I found that the Rowan Library had access to the article and I was able to read it. 

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

My reading of sources this semester was not nearly as critical as I would have liked it to be.  I often found myself skimming through articles looking for information I believed to be relevant.  I would have read more critically if I had better managed my time by setting aside large portions of it to read through large amounts of information, then critically analyzing what it is saying.  Despite my failure to critically read sources, I do have confidence in my ability to do so, as I was more than capable of critically analyzing the professor’s lectures, which I found to be something of a fun game, I am particularly proud of when I voiced disagreement with one of the professor’s conclusions on the nature of thinking while reading.  I also critically analyzed how the professor set us up to disagree with a video he presented to us at the beginning of class.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I did not do particularly well with this value.  When I was writing I was mostly concerned with getting the paper completed than actually analyzing my rhetoric.  In other words, my purpose was completion or having something to turn in rather than a well thought out argument.  As stated in my thoughts on core value two, I did much better with my notes than my primary writing assignments.  This is because the professor set up the expectations of the notes very early on in the semester and I was able to write my notes to that expectation using what he had provided us with as well as reading the notes of students who were frequently receiving good grades on their notes.  I found that the professor liked notes that attempted to identify a core theme of the lecture, and If I was unable to come up with a core theme then all I would have to do was identify what part I didn’t understand and ask a question about it.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

I was good at locating evidence for my claim.  For my main topic I needed to find examples of trade between people over a language barrier, and I needed to see if the people involved used hand gestures to cross that barrier.  There were of course historical accounts of people communicating across such barriers but they were rarely focused specifically on the use of hand gestures.  So I had to turn to more modern examples.  I found that there were some studies in the medical field that focused on doctor patient communication, these studies mentioned the use of hand gestures and I was even able to find one that focused on their use.  Where I struggled was with the evaluation and incorporation of these texts.  I believe this mostly comes down to time management and a failure to follow a process.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

During my writing I never tried to pass off any idea or information from a source as my own.  In my bibliography I even included sources that I never found a use for on the off chance that they may have in some way influenced me.  That being said, my citations were poor. In my first draft of my research paper my reference section was more of a clumsy bibliography rather than a proper reference section.  When writing my research paper, I found a lot of information on the use of hand gestures in hospitals, however I also found that in a medical environment where clear communication between doctor and patient could mean the difference between life and death, that hand gestures alone were not sufficient and that interpreters were necessary.  I made sure to clarify that I was not advocating for the use of hand gestures as a primary means of communication in hospitals, I was simply citing them as examples of one of the ways people attempt to use hand gestures to combat a language barrier.

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