Writing Skills

    Since we just finished the on demand essay today in class, it really made me realize how much my writing has improved.  Not only did I feel the entire essay flowed better than usual, I was also using much better grammar than in my previous writing.  It was much easier for me to get all of my thoughts down while getting to the point.   I definitely believe that my writing has improved from being in ERW for a few months.  From doing on demand essays, grammar lessons, and blogging I've gotten the chance to improve my writing day by day.
    One of the very effective tools we are  using to improve our writing is the Rhetorical Précis.  I feel that this helps me specifically because I'm the type of person to go on and on but with the Rhetorical Précis you have to learn to cut it down.  The Rhetorical Précis is basically like a brief summary of a passage and summarizing can be difficult for me at times because I have so much I want to say. You have to break down a whole passage in about 4 sentences so you have to be able to pick out the main idea of the article. Practicing this through the Rhetorical Précis was helpful for my on demand essay because I was able to make it less wordy and repetitive.
    Another reason I feel my writing has gotten better is from annotating articles.  Being able to read an article and break it down to get the true meaning out of it makes it way easier to write.  Annotating also helps to understand the main focus of the article.  All in all, my writing skills are starting to get better just from these activities and techniques we have been learning and executing in ERW.

A "Little" Role Reversal

   What if and human's and animals roles were switched?  Animals would buy human meat at supermarkets so they could feed their families, celebrate a special occasion, or just plain out binge and slowly become fat.  Imagine humans being inhumanely killed at slaughter houses so they could provide sustenance for an entire world.  What if YOU were being abused by your animal owner because you simply made a mistake.   What if YOU were being trained to fight another human to the death simply for cheap entertainment.
   Silly examples like these are just a few prime examples of how humans treat animals all over the world.  I'm not trying to persuade you to go strictly vegetarian or give up on meat, I only wanted to inform you about how our animal buddies are suffering this very moment.
   Victoria Braithwaite's article "Hooked on a Myth" just makes me feel odd, she goes on saying how she had to dissect a fish in order to tell if they could feel pain.   I feel common sense comes into play right now, why would a living and breathing organism not feel pain?!?
   While reading Victoria's article I stumbled upon paragraph 16. "One could possibly adopt a utilitarian cost-benefit approach and argue that the benefits of sportsfishing, both financial and recreational, may outweigh the ethical costs of the likely suffering of fish."  Imagine YOU were the fish in this situation, what would your opinion be?

"Hooked on a Myth" Perspective

In Victorias Braithwaite "Hooked on a Myth", she opens up a new view of equality. I may be speaking totally off or really on point but she opens a view Upon the organisms below us. She compares the Nervous system of a fish to a human being. Saying that they feel the same thing but the fish doesn't show the affection. The affection in which let us know that they suffer. She backs her information with scientific facts so she makes valid point. In my own opinion  I agree with she says but in reality finically and recreationally sport fishing and fishing in general brings benfits. So even though her points are valid and I agree the fact of the matter is people aren't going to change there ways. It's ether you agree with her and go about day or disagree and about your day. It's just something to question because no one ever thought of it.Another article that has a a similar idea is Jermey Rifikins "A change of Heart about Animals " has the same guideline of Braithwaite but has more testing and scientific statistics. Which did the same as Braithwaite article which as interest me but didn't have me take action towards anything.

Grammar

In the past, I’m sure most of us never really took grammar lessons seriously. But being a senior in high school and not knowing basic sentence structures is kind of disappointing. Although it is kind of boring going over grammar rules, it is very helpful. When it comes to writing, I constantly struggle with getting my thoughts down on paper, so sometimes my sentences sound choppy, too long, or just plain stupid. Fortunately, with the grammar packets, I can always look back and find different ways to improve my writing skills. Not only does writing a sentence correctly help it sound better, it also gets your point across much easier.  Instead of confusing the reader with your nonstop blabbing, make it easier for them to follow along. Also, another mini lesson I found very useful was activity 3—Subject-verb agreement errors.  I for one am completely guilty of not knowing which verb to use in certain situations. Going through and doing practice sentences helped me understand the concept. So instead of letting the grammar activities we do in class go in one ear and out the other, I think we need to work harder on transfering the skillls we learn in class into our writing.  Before we enter college and the real world, it is important we know how to write for others to understand our point. Let’s face it, from here on out most of us will still be writing papers or just simple presentations for professors, colleagues, or bosses. 

A Solution

I have read that some people do not fully understand what the lesson is in our packets. The students think that they are learning about fish emotions or animal rights. At first, I thought this too. That was always what we were talking about. May it be the break or the reading material itself, I didn't get that it was completely about ethos. logos, and pathos until I read Rachel's post. It just didn't cross my mind.

Is there a solution? I think so.

Some may agree with me and some may not, but I think we should take a break from the numerous article packets. I understand that this is a English class and reading is half of what we do, but when its getting to the point where the students aren't understanding what the main lesson is, try something new; switch it up. Lets try an actual interactive lesson? If it doesn't work, then go back to the way it was. I believe that if  rather than reading it out loud, where they can mess around or having them read it themselves, which lets face it, they won't, we try to get the class to actually participate. I would rather do a worksheet and understand whats going on rather than reading a related article and being confused.


Note to Fletcher:
In no way am I criticizing your teaching. And I am sorry if I or anyone has said something about the packets that might have offended you. I  am just simply suggesting a way to get more seniors who don't want to do anything (senioritis) more intellectually involved.

My Op-Ed

My Op-Ed piece is titled, “Some perspective on what we have to be thankful for,” by Marian L. Tupy.  This article really fascinates me because it compares the life between King Louis XIV, who ruled France and is the grandest figure of the 17^th century and an average American of today.  Obviously, he is royalty since he is the king.  The article basically states that the living conditions in the 17^th century weren’t very sanitary and clean.  This piece says that it was very common for people to die very young of sickness because medicine wasn’t available back in those days.  Many of the sickness and the diseases that cause many people’s death were like colds and flus, now today that can be treated easily with medicine, but back then they didn’t have medicine so they simply died.  In addition, people in the 17^th century had a suspicious of bathing, the believed that “once heat and water created openings (pores) through the skin, the plague could easily invade the entire body.” (Marian L. Tupy)  To us, this is crazy to believe that people thought bathing would increase their chances of getting a disease.  It is said, that Queen Elizabeth I bathed once a month.  Queen Elizabeth I ruled England and Ireland, which means that she was a very wealthy person in that time.  Now think of the middle class and the poor.  If the Queen only bathed once a month, how many times did the middle and poor class bath?  People didn’t have medicine to go to when in need, it wasn’t sanitary, and it was very nasty.  People back then didn’t have knowledge of sickness and diseases very much.  This op-ed piece states that we should be thankful for what we have and as well appreciate what we have.  Plus, it states that us Americans tend to overlook the simple things in life that we sometimes take for granted.  I like the way this piece compared the life of a royal person from the 17^th century and average American life.  I could easily see the differences and the author does a good job on distinguishing the differences.  The average American life clearly has a better life over the rich in the 17^th century by a huge margin; in fact, the margin is much greater over middle and poor class lives.  In the end, we should be thankful and appreciate what we have in life.   

Empathy: A Universal Thing

The whole concept of empathy and how we do not necessarily feel it toward animals has really been circulating in the back of my mind for a while. Let’s define empathy, empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. To understand…. how can people expect us to understand other species when we can’t even seem to understand others, let alone ourselves? I think that before humans start to expand empathy towards other animals, they should learn to expand it toward other humans. So many times people get caught up on having self-empathy that they forget that other people have and share similar feelings. What I think is the problem, is not the lack of empathy but the fact that people lack caring.

Sure we have “mirror neurons” that makes humans responsive to the emotions of others like the video explained, but empathy should come from the heart. As humans we should want to feel empathy towards others, and feel the need to understand each other. People get so caught up in greed and hate that it makes it hard for them to empathize. It brings negativity to everything they do and just makes everything wrong. The video we watched in class today made a very good point. “Empathy is the invisible hand”, it is crazy to think or even imagine that the world and its diverse species might not make it through. Sure eventually the sun will reach its inevitable limit and just obliterate everything in its way (little John Green reference), but the fact that our lack of empathy toward other species and the environment can be our doom is pretty sad to fathom about.

I am terrified to see what the future holds for the environment. The lack of empathy we have had toward earth is actually tragic, and we should all be ashamed. We might not feel the pain of the deforestation of a grass land, or the pain of the damaged ozone layer due to harmful chemicals produced by humans but we should really start too.  I want to be able to live to grow old without fear of developing cancer or the earth just total falling apart. I want to be able to have kids and let them grow up in a good safe environment.

Going back to animals, I don’t know how people can’t help but feel at least some little empathy toward them. I’m not going to lie I am partially vegetarian because I feel empathy towards animals, but I am also not a crazy animal activist. I don’t think it is wrong in any way that people eat animals, but they should be slaughtered with dignity. Well to not keep rambling on, I just think that empathy should be a universal thing.