Extra Credit Blog

Revising papers can tell the reviser a lot about the writer and their writing style. I have even noticed how revision has changed my writing. When writing a paper, I put more time and effort into all parts of the paper, even the introduction. Looking back at this semester I would have to say that I am just an average writer but I hope that my writing skills increase over time. While I’m just an average writer I have noticed that all of these revisions did help me to become better by knowing what kind of structure I should have in the paper, what kind of things I should say or shouldn’t say, and other various things of that nature. But peer revision is probably what helped me learn the most. Having someone else revise my paper gave me a chance to see how other people would have said or wrote about something that I would have never thought of. It is quite interesting to see. So to wrap all of this up, revising papers have helped me become better in various ways and I plan on furthering this in my future college career.

Paper Four Articles

For my Paper Four I decided to talk about the effects of cannabis and whether or not it should be legalized due to its effects. I chose this topic because this is something that I hear a lot of on the news and radio so I thought it would be a good argumentative paper. The first article I found was titled, "Neuroimaging in cannabis use: a systematic review of the literature". This article has a lot of useful information regarding cannabis effects on brain structure and functions. It contains information on tests and studies that were conducted using testers and the ones that were given placebos. An all around interesting and useful article.

The next article I found very interesting as well. It was called, "Long-term effects of cannabis on eye movement control in reading". This was another study that was ran. It focused on 20 healthy/frequent cannabis users and compared them to 20 non-users. They wanted to see whether or not cannabis had any effects on human cognition and visuomotor skills. Also they were wanting to see the eye movement when reading sentences. They believe that cannabis effects that over time. I found these articles to be very useful and interesting sources for my paper.

Tim Wise Paper

Before the Equal Rights movement and the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. started, racism could be seen all throughout America. And even to this day traces of racism can still be seen. Racism never ended, it only became less severe. Today there is a new form of racism called privilege. Time Wise, an antiracist writer and activist, believes that racism is still a defining problem in America today through the use of privilege and how it grants others some sort of advantage. He tries to help define the meaning of what it means to be racist and what privilege is in what he calls “white privilege”.
We have come a long way since the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and have pushed his dream on to this day. Progress has truly been made but we as a race are nowhere near a perfectly accepting society of people. Racism still exists and it now comes in many forms and degrees. Anti-racism activist, Time Wise defines racism “Racism is an ideology that says certain people, by virtue of their race, are either inferior or superior to others of a different race, with race usually being defined by skin color” (Cook, p. 5) His definition of racism can be even further taken apart by labeling racism and privilege as two separate categories. Racism is usually the focus on another’s “inferiority” to anyone else, while privilege is the idea that one is “superior” to another. These ideas have unfortunately been developed into unique ways to different cultures of the world.
Questions of color and race have been at the center of some of the most important events in American experience, and Americans. Many have come to believe that racism stopped with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act however, as Wise puts it, “just because you’ve made something illegal doesn’t mean it no longer happens” (Cook, p. 6). It’s just like the prohibition of alcohol in America in the 1920’s. It was illegal to drink alcohol but did that stop everyone? Certainly not. It is the same with racism, even though it may be illegal to discriminate people still do it just because they simply want to, whether it is because that is the way they have always lived their life or if they truly believe that it is right. Historically, an individual’s race was base upon where they came from and their ancestors. Now days, race has become more about how an individual looks, such as the color of their skin. Individuals of a particular race may be instantly judged because of the color of their skin and disguisable traits. For example, no one would ever suspect me to be a plane terrorist because I have fair skin and look American, but if I were darker skinned and had similar facial traits to a middle-eastern I would have a great chance of being looked down upon for my appearance. Racism incorporates both privileges and disadvantages. For instance, Wise reports that, “job applicants with ‘white-sounding’ names are 50 percent more likely to get called back than those with ‘black-sounding’ names, even if both have the same qualifications. That is privilege” (Cook p. 6). This directly shows how white privilege and racism is still carried out in today’s society. Race is still a powerful social idea and the American government along with the society has created advantages to being white. This frankly affects the entire nation.
As a white person I have been given many privileges when I come to my daily life. According to Tim Wise I will have a better chance of getting a job, not being pulled over by the police and I will start out with a monetary advantage (Wise 6). One may notice that Mr. Wise does not say that whites have a privilege during college admissions, which may have to do with the controversial issue of affirmative action. Affirmative action, though constitutional, is viewed by many as racism as many people; this is because it is a program that is meant to level the playing field for minorities (Brunner 1). This is racist because it is saying that minorities need help, implying they are inferior, and discriminating against whites. Reverse discrimination is not only prevalent in the universities but also in the work place. One evident case of this is when, in Connecticut, firefighters exams where thrown out because whites where the highest scoring and no African Americans passed the exam (Mears 1). Justice Anthony Kennedy found that this was unconstitutional because the department was doing this out of fear of litigation alone (Mears 1). I would have to say that privileges and racism go both ways. I am not denying that some whites are racist and receive privileges, just to look at the other side as well of the privileges given to minorities and the discrimination against whites.
In conclusion, racism is still seen today whether we want to believe it or not. Racism can be any form whether it’s having certain privileges than someone else or maybe even the simple fact that if one looked like they were or are from the Middle East, they would be looked down upon because they could be a “terrorist”. Like Wise said, “The flip side of disadvantage is advantage. You can’t have a down without an up,” (Cook). Having “white privilege” is still considered racist. It is little things like these that can make a person racist and can therefore still make it seeable in America to this day.


References
Brunner, Borgna. "Affirmative Action History." Infoplease. Pearson Education Inc. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
Cook, David. “By the Color of Their Skin: I’m Wise on the Myth of a Postracial America.” The Sun 2009. Copy of print.
Mears, Bill. "High Court Backs Firefighters in Reverse Discrimination Suit." Cnnpolitics.com. 29 June 2009. Web. 1 Apr. 2010. .

Paper Sources

How do I choose which sources I use in my papers for English 101? Well for me it depends on the paper and the kind of details it requires. For most classes I have to find scholarly articles and other sources of that nature. But if the paper does not specify what kind of source I tend to use the internet to find them. The sources consist of government websites, organizations, articles, etc. However, Wikipedia is forbidden to use by most teachers and professors. But for English 101 I use books, the internet and scholarly articles. So I guess I could say that I use a mixture of all kinds of sources. Once I have found a source I make sure that it has accurate information before I use it. I will also sometimes check the information with one source to another source to make sure they have the same information. I choose the sources in terms of how accurate the information is and how it ties in with my paper. If it has nothing to do with my prompt for the paper then I don’t use it. Where I use the sources is kind of different. I tend to use them after I have used the authors own words and I cite the source to give the author credit for his or her work. I do this to make sure I don’t get into trouble by accidentally plagiarizing. How might I improve my method for finding and using sources? I guess I could ask others for help on where I could insert sources. Or maybe even help me find better searching methods in finding my sources for the paper. Teachers would be a great starting point for finding help with it. So that is basically how I find my sources and how I use them in my papers.

Paper Three Article

Kelloggs has developed a new technology which allows them to write the companies name on their cereal flakes by using laser technology and it won’t disrupt the cereals flavor/taste. The Kelloggs company has become so concerned lately about similarly packaged cereals that look exactly like Kelloggs cereal. This would be a great source to use in paper three. Since paper three deals with using the ethics of eating and food, this is a great example of what is ethical to eat and what can be considered food in the food industry. This whole issue of being ethical can closely tie into Norman Borlaug’s article where he talked about using biotechnology to genetically modify food, give to poorer nations and possibly end world hunger. The question of his article was, was it ethical? The question in this article is, is it even ethical or necessary to inscribe the companies name onto their cereal by using laser technology? I guess the people will have to decide for themselves. Nonetheless, this article can be a great source for paper three and give me a lot of information.





Source: Mail, Daily. "Kellogg's Will Use Laser to Burn Logo on to Individual Corn Flakes to Stamp out Fakes." October 13, 2009. Website Article. March 8, 2010.

Norman Borlaug

The Norman E. Borlaug article “Ending World Hunger” was pretty interesting. The main part that it talked about was the issue of biotechnology. The idea of creating hybrid foods such as corn can be a great way to grow food. It can greatly change agriculture. One of the coolest additions to this that caught my attention was the part where it mentioned the reduction of the need for pesticides. But this wasn’t the only useful thing that I learned about biotechnology. This could very well solve the problem of world hunger. The fact that genetically modified crops could be used to help those countries struggling with starvation is just an incredible vision to think about. What if it could actually work? Isn’t that worth modifying food for? Third world countries would be very gracious to receive food even if it was modified. I think that this is ground breaking new technology that should be used to help make the world a better place.

Chapter 15, 18, 19, 20

In this reading of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan talks about creating the perfect meal and preparing an entire meal without spending a single dollar. Pollan decides to go to the roots of the food so he knows where it came from and be absolutely sure that it is 100% pure. No additives or anything. Pollan sort of takes on the hunter gatherer category like the old and ancient times. He does this by hunting for mushrooms with his community that he was in. Pollan mentions that the perfect meal exists where each member can contribute to the goal of the community itself. Pollan goes on to gather many foods for his perfect meal such as mushrooms and pigs. This can bring one to question where the foods in grocery stores really come from. What really happened before the animal was slaughtered? Where did it come from or what happened to it? All these are questions that one can ask themselves. What matters is that it is very satisfactory when you know where your food came from like Pollan did with his perfect meal.