SWA 15

Teens and the internet

This topic is very interesting since it concerns all teens today, the internet has become a huge part of our lives. It is how we communicate, receive information, stay in touch with friends etc. But is it taking over our lives in the wrong way? I am planning on researching the pros and cons of the internet, also how they are affected young teens who are using the internet.

http://www.mendeley.com/research/teens-and-technology-youth-are-leading-the-transition-to-a-fully-wired-and-mobile-nation-1/?mrr_wp=0

http://www.kfvs12.com/story/17019016/teaching-teens-safety-on-the-internet

http://www.lsureveille.com/news/university-wireless-internet-usage-spikes-substantially-1.2705255#.T0voA5hc_ww

Clean energy and the environment

This topic concerns not only our nation, but the world. It is very important that we keep our planet healthy. Even though it may not affect our everyday lives today, in the long run how we treat our environment can have some very negative effects. By exploring how people view the environment and what we must do to improve it, i think will be a very interesting research topic.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120227005299/en/Consumer-Support-Clean-Energy-Declined-Significantly-2009

http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/33072/environment-protection-a-sustainable-development-impasse/

Thousands of dollars missing from SC group

This is the most difficult of my topics to research, since it is local and very recent finding articles on it will be difficult. I find it very interesting to learn about what is happening and how it is affecting the residents of Columbia.

http://www.wistv.com/story/17028095/feds-thousands-of-dollars-missing-from-sc-group

SWA 14

SWA 13

1. Gender non-conformity
2. Kids being unsure of their gender or wanting to be apart of another gender, and the suffering and abuse they put up with.
3. I support all the children who want to change their gender for it is an expression of their personality. Kids should not be abused by other student just because of their outlook on gender because it can lead to very serious health issues and depression.
4. I would like to research the occurance of these issues in schools, and what people are doing to help or stop it.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/20/health/child-gender-nonconformity/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

1. obesity in children
2. Kids becoming obese at very young ages are finding it impossible to lose weight. Their unhealthy eating habits will end up giving them health problems later in life
3. I was never obese as a child but it is very easy to see how children can become obese in america today if their parents do not look out after their eating habits. But i support the change of this in our society, making children eat healthier will improve their everyday lifestyle.
4. I would like to research the meals that are being served in the schools that have a high percentage of obese children. Also research what is being done to change it in these communities

1. paying teens to go to school
2. Kids in bad areas being payed a certain amount each week, which is saved into a bank account that will be payed to them when they graduate. This causes kids to work harder for the money will be very beneficial to them.
3. It is a very interesting topic because there are a lot of kids in America that cannot afford an education and this way they are determined to go to school and work for money to continue educating themselves after high school
4. I want to research how this is working for this school. If students are taking advantage of it and how it will benefit them for the future

SWA 12

“A Healthy Constitution” by Anna Walters stresses the importance of serving healthy meals in schools. She begins by pointing out how overweight the students are at a school where they are served processed food. However at a school in Wisconsin where the foods are fresh, locally grown foods, the students are healthier and perform better in school. Serving healthy meals is such a quick and easy fix to the problems of health and educational problems. Keeping kids at this school healthy is making them sick less often, while still enjoying and looking forward to their school meals. She brings up the topic of edible education which is bringing the topics of healthy meals, food, gardening etc. into the class room to teach kids where the food comes from and how it is produced. By getting students involved in the preparation of these meals helps them learn responsibility and can feel a sense of achievement when they create delicious meals on their own. Through doing this students can learn values of citizenship, become involved in their communities and with their peers in positive ways. She interviewed kids who spoke of their experiences saying how much they enjoyed being apart of something that they could call their own. Kids are seeing how we depend on farmers for our food, and farmers depend on us to consume, aspects that are necessary for the survival of our nation. She points out how schools should be a place where kids are educated on this process and should become involved. These aspects of our culture, gardens to the kitchens are apart of the values at make up our democracy and Walters believes we need to bring our children to the table and teach them the importance of edible education.

According to Walters food can be used “to teach values that are central to democracy” by connecting kids to our land in ways they never have been before. Land and farming are a huge part of our society that children today know very little about. By learning about where our food comes from and how it is produced we can participate in our communities in more meaningful ways. Walters links healthy meals and learning by relating the obligations that come along with creating your own meals from preparation to cleaning it creates a sense of responsibility. And learning how to cook and follow instructions is a tactic that takes practice and can end up being very beneficial.

SWA 11

SWA 10

Title: Bad food? Tax it

Thesis: With the number of obese people in America increasing rapidly, something must be done to change our eating habits. With the cheapest food being the unhealthiest during hard financial times Americans must figure out a way to create a healthy affordable diet, to save lives.

Which foods to tax and by how much, explain why

1. Which unhealthy foods are being consumed the most
2. Soft drinks with loads of sugar that are purchased in great amounts by unhealthy americans
3. Fast food restaurants making the purchase of unhealthy meals easy
4. Statistics as to how americans have become over weight

How to fix this, and predictions on how easy it will be

1. 1998 Tobacco settlement and how increasing prices on tobacco slowed down the sales
2. If get people on board for purchasing healthy foods they will... more people purchasing and producing could lower prices
3. The benefits that will come from having healthier citizens eating better foods have a very wide range of benefits from helping pollution from food factories, to lowering health insurance costs for people in the future

How to convince americans to get on board with the change- benefits

1. List of benefits for healthy americans
2. All statistics listed in the article

Conclusion: By implementing taxes on unhealthy foods, it will take away the ease of purchase for Americans hopefully leading them to go for the healthy choices when spending money on food. Improving eating habits will lead to overall healthier Americans.

SWA #9

I read the article “Factory food artificially cheap, bad for your health” by Ethan Huff. The central claim of this article is that the foods that are being produced today are unhealthy and bad the environment. The prices of the foods we purchase in our grocery stores are deceiving since they may be cheap now, but may put a huge burden on our medical bills in the future. Reasons being that farms today are producing foods the cheap and speedy way, rather than the natural safe way. Animals in these farm factories are crammed into small areas causing them to become infested with diseases and feces. Due to these diseases they are injected with hormones and antibiotics that these farmers just assume are the cure all remedy. The author then states, “Compare this to the animals of old that were free to roam the pastures and eat grass and bugs on small-scale, independent farms. Their feces were safely spread on the fields as natural fertilizer in a complementary relationship between animals and land -- as opposed to feces from factory farms that, because it comes from millions of confined animals, has to be disposed of in other ways due to its unsustainable volume” (Huff). Not only are these farms affecting our health, but the land that they reside upon. Our waterways and lands are being contaminated by the fumes and chemicals of these factories and tax paying Americans are beginning see the effects on their bank accounts. Factory farming is an issue that is very much ignored in society today, these issues should be focused on because they reflect the health of the people in our nation, and should not be ignored.

SWA #8

In Matthew Scully’s “Fear Factories” he discusses the issue of factory farming and the cruel ways animals are treated in America today. The first question on page 364 asks how Scully builds and supports his argument that cruelty to animals should be a conservative cause. On page 360 he mentions a website called factoryfarming.com where you can view pictures of these farming factories and the treatment these animals are receiving. The pictures are vile, the animals are injured, bleeding and obviously suffering all for human satisfaction. They are in small confined areas, blocked from sunlight and fresh air and laying in the sweat and urine of the animals surrounding them. The sight is revolting. Scully states, “You wouldn’t think that mean who are unwilling to grant even a few extra inches in cage space, so that a pig can turn around, would be in any position to fault others for pettiness. Why are small acts of kindness beneath us, but not small acts of cruelty?” (360). He proves his argument with the pictures from the website, then leads into why it should be a conservative cause by stating, “Conservatives are supposed to revere tradition. Factory farming has no traditions, no rules, no codes of honor, no little decencies to spare for a fellow creature” (360). I agree with this statement completely, in no way is factory farming fair towards animals, and based from the traditions that conservatives base their beliefs on they should do something to stop it. Scully also mentions how treatment of animals is portrayed in the Bible, which states that there should be mutual relationships between humans and animals. However, Scully mentions in regard to this, “Those religious conservatives who, in every debate over animal welfare, rush to remind us that animals themselves are secondary and man must come first are exactly right- only they don’t follow their own thought to its moral conclusion” (362). Using examples Scully leads the reader into seeing how conservatives have gone against their own morals to support something cruel and unjust.

Question number three asks where Scully stands on the “rights” of animals. Throughout the reading it is very evident that Scully believes that animals should be treated kindly, for they are living creatures just as us humans are and should be respected. He states, “we are told ‘they’re just pigs’ or cows or chickens or whatever and that only urbanites worry about such things, estranged as they are from the realities of rural life. Actually, all of factory farming proceeds by a massive denial of reality- the reality that pigs and other animals are not just production unites to be endlessly exploited but living creatures with nature and needs. The very modesty of those needs- their humble desires for straw, soil, sunshine- is the gravest indictment of the men who deny them” (360). He is stating here his basic beliefs that these animals are basically deprived of all of their everyday needs, simply to feed the desires of humans.

Lastly, we are asked if Scully addresses rebuttals to his claims and if he defends them. He mentions, “factory farmers also assure us that all of this is an inevitable stage of industrial efficiency” (361). This is saying that farmers are claiming that this treatment of animals is only so that they can get the meats produced at a fast pace in order to keep up with our fast paced economy. The crammed farming is only so that the factories can produce the most in the shortest amount of time, totally disregarding the needs of the animals. Scully responds to this by stating, “Leave aside the obvious reply that we could all do a lot of things in life more efficiently if we didn't have to trouble ourselves with ethical restraints. Leave aside, too, the tens of billions of dollars in annual federal subsidies that have helped megafarms undermine small family farms and the decent communities that once surrounded them and to give us the illusion of cheap products. And never mind the collateral damage to land, water, and air that factory farms cause and the more billions of dollars it costs taxpayers to clean up after them” (361). In my mind his statements there completely shut down any sort of rebuttal that tries to make factory farming seem just in any way. Scully’s argument in “Fear Factories” brings up a very important topic that should not be ignored. His writing presents all different sides to the argument while still sticking to his side that it is a very wrong enterprise that simply cares for itself and not the rights of animals.

Essay Concerns

my concerns:
Length
arguments and if they make sense
relating the ads and arguments to my thesis

Lily Ronon

English 102-111

February 1st, 2012

Paper 1 Draft 1

Flipping through any magazine we all know the array of ads that can come on every other page trying to suck us into buying a product. What we don’t think about when we pass over the advertisement is the amount of thought that goes into creating these, in hopes of encouraging us readers to invest in their product. Starting with what advertisements go where, we find that the ads placed in a women’s magazine are going to be different than any ad placed in a mens magazine. This holds true when looking at the two Campbell’s Soup ads I found in InStyle Magazine. One of the ads shows Campbell’s Select Harvest soup which is only 130 calories, while the other shows an ad for Campbell’s Tomato Soup, with a beef taco skillet recipe included. Comparing these two ads we see the same company appealing to different audiences, while promoting the same product.

SW #5

The two ads I chose were both featured in the January 2012 issue of InStyle Magazine. The topics typically covered in this magazine are mostly fashion and beauty advice. They cover the hottest trends, beauty products, home and entertaining ideas. The prospective audience is middle to upper class women who are either working or stay at home moms, looking for ideas for everyday outfits and beauty products to look the best they can be. The magazine can appeal to as young as 18 all the way up to age 50, the products and clothing all appeal to a variety of ages, however the prices are very high. They advertise very high end clothing brands like Louis Vuitton and Chanel, but will also advertise a discount retailer like target. Beauty products that are advertised range can be Olay, Clarins or even Covergirl. They also advertise perfumes, alcohols, food, drinks etc. Based on the advertisements found and the range of products presented in this magazine it is evident the publisher knows its reader to be a trendy spender. They include all sorts of expensive clothing and products, while also tending to advertisements for weight loss. They have the occasional bargain page giving clothes under $100 or $50, however this magazine focuses mainly on big name brands.