Journal 1
Wallace mentions is it ethical to boil a lobster alive just so it will taste better when eaten. My question for Wallace would be is it any different to killing a cow to eat than killing a lobster. The end result is the same so why is there a big concern over how the killing is done?
A written discussion is a good way to articulate your ideas and put together a thoughtful argument. Instead of having a discussion live in person ideas are off the top of your head unlike when written you have time to reflect on what you sad and make the best argument possible. However, there are limits to a written discussion. For most, they are biased to one side and the reader has no way to interact with the writer and challenge their ideas. The reader will most likely unless stated will never know the opposing viewpoint in a written discussion. Just the side the author agrees with and is trying to prove. This leads the reader unprepared to form an opinion on the matter they are only given one-sided information and evidence.
Journal 2
Throughout High School, my drafting and revision process was practically non-existent. Many of my English Teacher throughout my high school career made us fill out outlines prior to writing. These outlines were pretty cut and dry and were pretty much plug in chug. The teacher would give us the sentence structure all we had to do was find evidence and then input them into the sentence structure provide for us. Another English Teacher of mine in high school would have us submit drafts of each essay. This process works by far the best for me because it forced me to go back and look at my essay because each draft was a grade. If I didn’t receive a grade for each draft I would never go back and revise my essays. As far as my own personal revision process it consisted of me copying and pasting my essay into Microsoft word to catch any grammatical errors and that was it. Once I finished me I would never take another look at it. I had the mindset of letting me just free myself of this burden or just get it out of the way once I was finished I wanted nothing more to do with the essay. I liked to write my essays in one sitting usually the night before the essay was due and a lot of the time the day of in classes before. One unusual thing that I liked to do when writing essays were to turn off the computer screen and just type not worrying about grammar or anything it helped me get substance on the page to work with. This process worked as good as it possibly could I never really expected amazing grades from my papers writing this way, but I was always able to get around a B.
Journal 3
While this information is mostly redundant for me (thanks to my sophomore English teacher) I did find this information helpful. I found it interesting that this section is pretty much exactly what my English teacher taught me in high school. How to properly introduce and explain a quote was drilled into our brain. Whenever we were writing essays, my teacher would give us templates to input our quotes into. These templates were like the section’s templates just much more basic. This is why I found this section useful because it had multiple different ways to introduce and explain the quote. I also enjoyed how the author showed you the incorrect ways to explain and introduce a quote. It is good to see bad examples as well as good ones so the reader can get a better understanding of the big picture. However, the most helpful part of this section was that students example quote about Deborah Tannen. The author used this example quote to walk you through the whole entire thought process behind using a quote and all the do’s and don’ts. After walking you through the thought process behind how to properly use a quote the author then gives you their own rendition of how the quote should have been introduced and explained. This was helpful because it gives the reader visual evidence on which things need to be changed in order for the quote to be properly explained and introduced. One point that the author makes that I never thought about before was the idea that perfect quote you found might not be so perfect once you finish writing. The writing process is messy, and ideas and messages change as you go. A quote that perfectly conveyed your point at the beginning of your essay may not hold up by the end. This idea is something I never thought about before and I will start to look back at my quotes when revising. To make sure they are still helpful in getting my point across to the reader.
Journal 4
1.“ Especially phytochemicals, which come from plants. Such compounds are not known to be essential for survival, but, in epidemiological studies, they appear to provide important health benefits. Lycopene, which makes tomatoes red, has been linked to lower rates of prostate cancer, flavonoid compounds, which make blueberries blue…Have been associated with lower rates of diabetes.” (Widdicombe 9)
This is one of the biggest concerns that came to my mind when it comes to Soylent. There are still a lot of unknown in the food industry and if you cut out food completely you could be missing essential nutrients like these. Soylent is a relatively new product, no one knows the long-term effects of living purely of Soylent. There could be a wide array of deficiencies that only present themselves as a problem in the long term. So, it is it worth it to go all in on Soylent for the sake of saving you an hour or so a day? Does that saved time and productivity really outweigh the benefits of sitting down and having real meals? I argue no.
2.“Living on Soylent has its benefits…If you’re in a groove at your computer and feel a hunger pang, you don’t have to stop for lunch. Your energy levels stay consistent: “There’s no afternoon crash, no post-burrito coma.” Afternoons can be just as productive as mornings.” (Widdicombe 14)
What’s fascinating to me is that some people are wired like that and need to be as productive as possible. I find taking a break from what I’m doing and having a meal is one of the most beneficial things for my own productivity. It gives your mind a break from what you’re doing and gives you a chance to unwind. Not only that it gives you something to look forward to in your day it breaks up the monotony of the day. Realistically you are only gaining an extra hour or so in your day. That one hour does not warrant going all in on Soylent for me.
3.“Most of peoples meals are forgotten… “we’ll see a separation between our meals for utility and function, and our meals for experience and socialization.” Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. It’s coming for our frozen quesadillas.” (Widdicombe 3)
I enjoyed how the passage makes you realize how much your day is orientated around food. Eating food gives you something to do. Whenever my friends and I can’t figure out something to do the answer is always let’s go get something to eat. If you were to go all in on Soylent, you would miss out on so many social gatherings and memories. Unlike Rhinehart suggest most meals aren’t forgotten. Meals for me are highlights of my day even ones that aren’t the big social gatherings.
Journal 5
This chapter was full of useful tips and information. I was especially intrigued by the first passage of the chapter. I thought it was an interesting take when the author talks about when you master something you no longer put any thought to the actions you are doing the same thing can be applied to writing. According to Graff “accomplished writers routinely rely on a stock of established moves that are crucial for communicating sophisticated ideas… less experienced writers, by contrast, are often unfamiliar with these basic moves and unsure how to make them in their own writing.” (Graff 1) This was an interesting take which never really crossed my mind. This first passage was an effective way of introducing the chapter and the main point the author is trying to convey the importance of templates and “they say, I say”. I found it helpful the templates this chapter provided to introduce what “they say” and how it’s important to what “you say”. I liked how when the author provided the template for you, he addressed the counter-argument to templates and how it limits your creativity, but he argues otherwise. Graff perfectly intertwines his main point of “they say, I say” in his presentation of the template. I also really enjoyed how Graff included work of established writers like Martin Luther King and Katha Pollitt to see how masters of the craft introduce the counter-argument to further their own argument.
Journal 6
Journal 7
https://lilgunt.podbean.com/
Honestly this was one of the most fun Ive ever had with an assignment. I didnt mind the podcast part and just talking about the peer review process, what I really enjoyed was the editing. This was my first time editing something and it was so satisfying putting together a bunch of parts into a finished product. I enjoyed it so much that over the summer I plan on exploring this more in my freetime maybe this will become one of my new favorite hobbies.
Journal 8
I found this chapter extremely helpful especially the first two. The authors were talking about a real-life experience they had where the speaker they were listening to failed to address why he was doing this research and what others were saying. I liked how the authors gave a real-life reference to emphasize their point of clearly stating what your thesis is and what is the larger conversation you are responding. Another tip I found helpful is to summarize what others say as soon as possible. This way you can refer to it at strategic points when you need to reinforce your own views. Another added benefit of summarizing what others say is they can do some of the work of framing and clarifying the issue you are writing about. Another thing I found helpful was throughout the rest of the chapter many different templates were provided for when you are introducing other views into your own work. I find the templates really helpful because I always struggled with just starting what I’m trying to say.
Journal 9
Overall the drafting process of this first project was much different than anything I had experienced through high school. For me in high school I would bang out a essay in one sitting copy and paste it into microsoft word to check for spelling errors then turn it in. I would usually never even read it over a second time. I enjoyed how each draft had a due date so you forced to work on the essay over a longer period of time rather than one sitting. As far as my revising process went I spent the bulk of my time in making sure my sentance structure was correct and my grammar. These are areas that I struggle the most in rather than getting acorss my ideas and my point of view. I another thing that came up in my revision process was fleshing out my introduction. I got a lot of comments during peer review about adding more background information in my introduction. I also had similiar comments when introducing a quote.
Journal 10
The first passage that strikes me as important was on page 4 in the 3rd paragraph when Pollan asked his mother what made Julia child so endearing she states, “for many of us she took the fear out of cooking” (4) She then goes on to reference the famous potato show where she drops the potato. This passage is important because it enlightens what we are missing in food television shows today. That sense of being human and making mistakes. In todays shows its edited its fast-paced under a time crunch and it seems impossible what these chefs are doing to recreate their meals. Julia Child was live it was slow and methodical you could follow what she was doing. She showed people everywhere that you too can cook fancy meals. Most importantly it was ok to make mistakes. A mistake like dropping the pancake would have never made it on the final cut in today’s television but back then it showed the viewer it was ok to make mistakes. Julia gave people the will to try even if they don’t succeed.
Another passage that I found important to Pollan big point was on page 17 in the 2nd and 3rd paragraph Pollan sates “sitting down to common meals, making eye contact, sharing food, all served to civilize us; around that fire we became tamer… cooking is as central to the human identity and culture” (17) This passage builds off of the main point of the past article of Widdicombe’s. Meals are central to the human identity it is what makes humans unique. Pollan like Widdicombe explores the tensions of what would happen if there were no longer getting together and cooking a meal. Rather instant frozen food, fast food or in Widdicombe’s case Soylent. This fast and convenient food that is taking over the food industry is also linked to the increasing obesity epidemic. David Culer in a 2003 study found that rise in food being prepared outside the home was the explains most of the increase in obesity. This is why Pollan tries to reinforce this point many times throughout the article cooking your own meals at home is one of the best ways to combat obesity.
Another passage that I found very interesting was on page 18 in paragraph 4 Pollan states “has transformed all these hard to make at home foods into the sort of everyday are you can pick up at the gas station on a whim and for less than a dollar.” (19) This was a very interesting perspective that I never thought of before. These foods have been all tailored toward being convenient, but I never realized or thought about that these could be homemade just big corporations made these hard to make foods accessible. This also goes into Widdicombe article on Soylent just in a different manner. Instead of getting all your necessary nutrients fast and convenient rather getting your tasty food fast and convenient.
Journal 11
I found Chapter 14 a very interesting and I was especially intrigued by the first two pages. The author talks about how for many years the question of “What is the author’s argument” produced little to no conversation and the discussion always seem forced. What I found helpful was the author came up with a new question to ask yourself or the class when diving into a book. Things like “What other argument(s) is the writer responding to?” “What is motivating the writer?” Is the writer disagreeing or agreeing with something if so, so what?” These new approaches to the book I never really thought of. They found that using these questions provoked much more conversation and changed the way people thought about the book. I found this helpful because approaching a reading in this way you can dive much deeper into the text and relate it to the outside world much easier rather than just the book as an isolated entity. One of the tricks I found helpful when approaching one of these questions was to think about the author sitting in a crowded room talking to people making claims instead of sitting alone in an empty room writing. This way you are automatically forced to be thinking of the bigger picture and connecting the text to other big-picture ideas.
Journal 12
For my own personal peer review comments, I felt that I had a good mix of global and local comments. I definitely need to work on my comments and diving deeper into my peer’s essay. I found that many of my comments are the same from paper to paper. I focus on introducing and explaining quotes better but I don’t add any context with it. Only sometimes do I give specific examples on what to do most the time I just state you should elaborate more. I know that I would like to have my peers do this with my paper giving me specific examples on how to better my paper not just broad blanket statements saying this needs to be changed. I also need to work on moving away from these types of comments all the time and really focus on diving deep into my peer papers and giving them advice on the direction of there paper. Focusing on big ideas and what they are really trying to convey. I felt my peers did this to some extent but it’s very far and few. I felt the quality of peer review comments definitely improved from paper 1 to 2. In Paper I had a couple of comments just saying things like “good job” or “I like this” in Paper 2 I didn’t get any comments like that. Hopefully, this trend of improvement continues into paper 3. Personally, I know I’m going to focus on diving deeper into the paper trying to help my peers with the direction of there paper and help them clarify the main points of their paper they are trying to convey. I’m also gonna make sure whenever I give a suggestion to change something I add specific examples of what they could do instead.
Journal 12b
I found this podcast interesting the job of a mortician is an interesting one. Doughty sees dead bodies everyday and she has practically become desensitized to death and goes on with her everyday life not letting the heavy subject of death weigh her down. I found the topic of home funerals to quite grotesque. What was even more surprising was that Doughty was all for in-home funerals even though that would be drawing business away from her. This got me thinking if I would be okay with an in the home funeral of a loved one. For me personally, I would rather not have to go into the living room seeing a loved one dead body I would rather have a professional deal with it. However, this is a type of situation where you really have no idea how you feel about it until you are put into this situation.
Journal 13
For paper 2 my writing process different quite a bit from paper 1. For paper 1 I stayed up to date on all the deadlines hitting all the word counts for all the dates. However, I was not able to shake my high school habits when it came to peer made the changes that were suggested to a point but no real major reflection about my piece as a whole. While that may have been to the newness of the class to peer review so the comments really didn’t envoke any deep thought yet about one’s piece. For paper 2 however, because we did the peer review process much earlier into the project I was able to make the big global changes in my work. However, unlike paper 1, I was not up to date for all the deadlines so I did more writing in bigger chunks so my time with my writing was overall shorter.
Journal 14
I found this reading to be very interesting. The question of consciousness in other beings has always been a question I have pondered. Before reading this article I always thought that it was just mammals that were conscious which I feel most people felt the same way. However, after reading this article It seems as though many more organisms may have consciousness than I previously thought. It will be interesting to see if consciousness will ever be able to be proven in these organisms. However, I don’t really see the point in trying to see if other organisms have consciousness. Would we use it as a way to justify harming other animals as long as they don’t have consciousness it’s fine? This is where I think the ethics of the experiments being run to the consciousness need to be looked at. I found the experiment where researchers poison fish with chemicals to observe their behavior to be cruel and unsettling. I just don’t see the point of such an experiment all to prove whether fish have consciousness or not shouldn’t really matter because you shouldn’t be harming these animals in the first place.
Journal 15
I found this reading fascinating people will go through any lengths to convince themselves what they are doing is morally defensible. The first paragraph on the first page I found was significant to Herzog’s argument. It demonstrated frankly, the pathetic lengths people will go to just so they can feel better about themselves. This is a common theme that runs throughout all the stories in this article. People somehow convince themselves what they are doing is morally defensible. This what I don’t understand no one cares if you aren’t a vegetarian. Yet, Judith Black really called herself a vegetarian because she only ate fish. Another Passage I found interesting was page 4 paragraph 4. This paragraph once again demonstrates the lengths people will go to just to justify what they are doing. Herzog Is accused of feeding her pet snake kittens which forces her to wrestle with the responsibilities of having a pet snake. Logically she is able to convince herself that owning a pet snake is better than a cat due to how much less meat it consumes than a cat however the emotional part of her can not. This example shows how everything comes down to perception since a cat is eating food out of can people think that is more morally defensible even though they eat more meat. Another passage that was significant to Herzog’s point was on page 5 when Herzog talks about her friend Ron who was doing research on cats. She talks about how the demeanor of Ron changed when he was forced to peruse all the cats he was researching. While being strictly being for research purposes Ron had developed a bond with all his test subjects and the toll it took on Ron was obvious. This example demonstrates the moral complexities that humans wrestle with every day when it comes to animals.
Journal 16
My ideas toward the subject of animals have stayed the same if not more solidified. After the readings, we have gone over in class my stance on that issue remains more solid than ever. David Foster Wallace brings up the ethics of boiling a lobster alive and my stance on that issue remains the same. It doesn’t matter which way you kill the animal if they are going to die they are going to die there isn’t much difference the end result is the same. One idea that stuck out to me on my second read through was if Lobsters actually felt the pain because they lack a prefrontal cortex. Stated before that the article talks about how a lobsters brain is similar to that of a grasshopper meaning it is decentralized and has no brain. Research, however, draws this claim into question. The research, however, found that pain reception thought to be part of a much older primitive part of the brain. however, the prefrontal cortex is involved in suffering or distress. The facts around this subject are very fuzzy and thus the ethics of boiling lobsters alive.
Journal 17
The topic of introducing the counterargument has been one that has been stressed to me in high school and has become something I do every time I write an argumentative paper. It is crucial to do this so it not only enhances your paper it also makes you seem not so close-minded. One point that this chapter made that I found interesting is to anticipate what critics will say. this is something I never thought about before but is a good way to make sure you have a fully developed argument. That way if you think of all the possible objections to your paper and they are addressed the critics will have nothing to go off of. Since you addressed everything in your paper and answered it in a convincing way it enhances your argument. I found the templates in this chapter to be very helpful because for me personally, I have trouble starting my ideas. I also found the end of the chapter to be helpful when we were asked to implant naysayers into Eric Schlosser’s passage. By actively becoming a naysayer it helped me understand from their prespective what an essay is missing and I will be better able to adress critiques of my own paper and anticipate them better.
Journal 18
