Post Secret Extra Credit

I chose the picture that says "I cried for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode III...but not for the tsunami victims."  The implicit statement is that we have lost the ability to empathize with people who we don't know personally or who we've seen their life story.  I think the author is probably a person who lives from away from the tsunami victims and isn't directly involved with any tsunami victims.  There isn't very much textual support because it is literally just a fact.  However this statement leads to assumptions.

Response to Hungry Planet photos

I think the photographer does a good job of showing how in different parts of the world the accessibility of food for people.  The availability of food is very prevalent in first world countries especially because the quantity is so large compared to the family size, while in the third world countries the amount of food for a larger family is substantially smaller.  Even just the place the food is displayed is significantly different.  More first world families are in homes with a kitchen that has a sitting area with some sort of a table.  The food presented is more processed, cooked or baked and there is more packaged.  The lower class or impoverished families are seen outside with maybe only a mat or a pot just sitting on the ground containing the food.  The food that they have is mostly raw grains.  Also it just shows the different tastes in each parts of the world.

Extra Credit CR pg. 81 #3

This is the source I used from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/books/27garn.html?pagewanted=all
Garner states that Wrangham's view on mankind and the use of fire is a new and interesting idea.  He says that many people, including himself are very surprised by this idea.  He also brings up the idea that with the development of cooking, women were forced into a male dominated culture due to the need of the male's protection from other males.

CR pg. 87 #3

You could easily grow some very simple herbs in your room such as chives or parsley.  However you could join a gardening club at school or a local gardening club where they may have a garden and allow you to grow some vegetables or something else to eat.  Instead of eating packaged and processed foods you could just choose the simple options such as the salad bar or fruits.  Many college campuses, USC included, have a farmers market where you can buy locally grown foods.

CR pg. 81 #1

Wrangham links the use of mastering fire for cooking around 1.9 million years ago because humans have not had a substantial development in the way our bodies digest food since then.  By cooking food, it becomes softer thus letting humans develop smaller jaws and less teeth.  Also the male and female relationship, where the male protects the female's food in return for a portion is explained by the relationship of cooking and using fire.  Women could also quit nursing children at a younger age thus giving the woman more energy and allowing her to have more children at a sooner time.  He also suspects that because humans receive so much more energy because cooking our foods increases the ability to receive more calories from a smaller amount of food we are able to divert some of that extra energy to our immune systems thus increasing our life span.  Also more energy allowed us to develop more expensive organs such as our brains but it also made our intestinal system for efficient by making our stomachs smaller and increasing our small intestine to absorb more nutrients.

Questions/Concerns about Draft 1

Some questions about my draft are:

1. Is there any place that needs to be elaborated more?
2. Is my conclusion a strong one?
3. Does it flow?

Some concerns I have are:

• the length

SWA # 7 Formal Outline

Title:  Rhetorical Analysis of "The Story of a Snitch"
Thesis:  Jeremy Kahn uses many appeals to his audience's pathos by detailing struggles of witnesses thus strengthening his argument on how many crimes go unsolved due to increasing violence against witnesses.
I. Kahn uses a specific story to bring his audience closer to someone who has experienced the legal system multiple times.
      A. John Dowery's struggles with the life of a person awaiting trial and a witness.
II. The ethos is strengthened by facts and statistics.
      A. Placement of statistics in placement with in people's personal experiences.

Working Thesis In Class Writing

Jeremy Kahn uses many appeals to his audience's pathos by detailing struggles of witnesses thus strengthening his argument on how many crimes go unsolved due to increasing violence against witnesses.

Reading Response

     The first piece of text I selected was "The Wreck of Time: Taking Our Century's Measure" by Annie Dillard.  Her text is about how one person matters.  She appeals to her ethos by stating many facts and supporting most of them through scientific references or citations.  She appeals to her pathos by adding in stories and quotes about single individuals such as the woman who serves 115 people at a soup kitchen each night.
     The second piece I selected was "The Story of a Snitch" by Jeremy Kahn which details the struggle one man, John Dowery Jr., had as a criminal turned witness.  The ethos of this argument is supported by the author's use of dates, times and facts from the actual case.  The pathos of this argument is much more supported by the author's description of Dowery's struggles and other witnesses' struggles to live a normal and safe life while and after testifying in a criminal case.

Reading Response to "Womb for Rent - For a Price"

1.  Her main claim is that renting some underprivileged woman's womb is crossing ethical boundaries and turning surrogate pregnancy into a marketplace.  Goodman's reasons are that women who usually would work in extremely poor conditions for very small sums of money could now possibly make over three or four times their yearly salary in a time period of 9 months.  People are also willing to pay more for Ivy League eggs or eggs with highly valued qualities.
2.  She presents pregnancy as a business concept and talks about how wealthy couples exploit poor women who have to sign a contract with a fingerprint because they are illiterate.  These make the argument seem valid however she barely touches on the other side of the argument relating to the couples who are infertile and need surrogates.
3.  I believe that her intended audience is more towards conservative people who tend to have traditional family values.
4.  The most problematic part of this argument is that it does not touch on the other side's views.  Couples who are in need of surrogates or IVF to have children aren't even discussed in a personal way.

Catharine Beecher Response

     After learning that she took over her entire family's household at the young age of 16, I now see why she emphasizes the importance of patience and cheerfulness.  Most grown women struggle to constantly keep their households and families working smoothly today even with modern conveniences; I cannot imagine how difficult it would be 200 years ago as just a teenager with over eight siblings to take care of.  She was forced to take on the role of a housekeeper and mother at such a young age and had to learn quickly how to handle herself and deal with problems efficiently.

Reading Response # 4

1.  I think Beecher would like her audience to understand the term "housekeeper" to mean a woman who is in charge of her family and household but does so with an "equable and cheerful temper".  Having an "equable and cheerful temper" means that the woman treats everyone with equal respect and a pleasant attitude to get the best results from people.  Beecher says that if you treat people with a hostile or have a mean temper that the results you want won't be nearly as good as if you were to speak to someone with a calm and collected attitude.
2.  A woman should regard her duties as important, dignified and difficult so that she may feel useful and have a sense of far reaching influence.  She should always be prepared for temptations and obstacles because underestimating difficulties usually leads to problems.  A woman should also deliberately plan for her best calculated plans to be interfered with due to the diverse habits of family members and she should meet each complication with a "cheerful and quiet spirit".  Also she should make plans that fit within her means so that she won't have to cancel and face embarrassment.  Lastly, a woman must face life with neatness and order and meet complications with patience and cheerfulness to get the best results.
3.  When Beecher begins to talk about an American mother and housekeeper and how influential she can be you can notice her assumptions about American women and how they are collected and even tempered.  Also the part about how a woman should make plans within her means so that she isn't embarrassed. 

SWA # 3

                Weisel acknowledges that technology and the media allows us to be more informed than ever about events happening in the world and the sufferings of our “brothers and sisters”.  However the amount of information we view and receive on a daily basis has numbed our ability to process and feel sympathy towards one another.  We begin to feel as if this is no longer our problem because there are so many problems going on.  We begin to believe that one person cannot make an impact so why even try?  Weisel says to deal with this we need to become better listeners.  We need to accept communication not just communicate what we want or need.  Weisel says that if he can just save one child from starvation or free one innocent person then all the work he has been doing and will do is worth it in his eyes.  Weisel says “indifference is now equal to evil” and I agree but to a certain extent.  As one person you can only do so much but just small acts of compassion and grace can greatly impact people’s lives in unimaginable ways.  Compassion and acting upon our words would show that we can, as a society, overcome our numbness.