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Alexis Greene
ENG 1020
Winter 2013
Reflective Argument & Portfolio
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Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Reflective Letter (pages 3-9)
Appendix A-Assignment One (pages 10-14)
Appendix B- Assignment Two (pages 15-21)
Appendix C- Assignment Three (pages 22-27)
Appendix D- Reflection 1 (Pages 28-29)
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Reflective Argument
Assignment 4
I.
Reading
Reading was not my strong suite when I was young. I had issues understanding
the material and finding information needed to answer questions. I worked hard for
several years in a specialized program for children with problems like me. I learned how
to read information and apply it to certain questions, but still it was hard even in high
school. In high school, I had to read all sorts of stories that were interesting but it was
hard to grasp the concept of it and explain in my own words when a question appeared.
When I arrived to Wayne State University I was not confident in reading skills. Even
though I was not confident I still worked hard and progressed myself to be the best writer
I can be. In English 1020, it helped me to advance my reading skills through basics of
rhetoric, persuasion, and research. Taking this class helped me improve on how to find
certain aspects in reading and what they meant, different genres and how they are used,
and etc.
Professor Grogan taught us a lot about in depth reading and finding certain things
to include in our papers. First starting out was a hassle because I did not know what some
of the terms meant or what exactly to do. Even though it was hard, Professor Grogan
provided activities for us to help us learn about those different aspects in texts. Those
activities helped me understand the differences as to what is important and what is not.
From assignment two which was creating a persuasive agreement about a certain topic;
picking Theodore’s Schick’s article, “The End of Science” was a challenge due to the
amount of philosophy and physiology they had in the article. For my paper I needed to
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include just enough detail as to which the audience could understand and not become
confused by it. So, by stating Schick’s position in the article, “Schick and many other
philosophers and physicists believe that science today is a joke” (Greene 1); I was able to
let my audience know what they are reading about and how the author feels about it. I
also provided a summary of the article, to enlighten my audience about the situation
more,
“As Schick attends the twenty-fifth annual Nobel conference; he was surprised
the subject of how science was ending. Schick has already heard about the end of science
through a book which proceeds to his thoughts in his article. Schick uses philosophers
Paul Feyerabend, Sir Karl Popper, and Thomas Kuhn to support his argument of how
science is dying. These philosophers use a series of facts and experiments to provide
proof to their views as Fereyabend’s is used constantly by Schick. In the end Schick
makes a proposal about the subject and how science and the way we learn it needs to
change”
Throughout the whole paper I have described how Schick thinks about the
problem supporting it from the ideas of the other philosophers in his article. In the end, I
discussed his proposal and created an argument based off my feelings about what his
article was saying, “Shick’s article expresses greatly how science is seen upon others as a
religion, puzzle-solving exercise, ideology, and more. As with an argumentative
statement, I disagree with Shick’s article, but agree with his proposal” (Greene 4).
Assignment two was tough, but it provided a challenging to see where I did improve in
reading skills by finding what information was important to include in my paper and
helps support the author’s ideas through these supporters and which ideas would provide
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it in a way the readers could understand. These skills provided me the chance to finally
provide good examples and discuss how they connect as a whole.
In assignment one, my reading skills also improved by analyzing a persuasive test
or trend. As I worked through this project, analyzing Dove’s commercial about the
beauty industry and the affect they have one young girl, was quite difficult. Since we had
just learned about pathos, logos, and ethos those were the main aspects I wanted to talk
upon so I made them into my body paragraphs. I really got into the descriptive about
pathos since it involved children and I was breaking down the whole video piece by
piece. I provided a lot of detail about the how the child in the video acted and how the
audience could feel, “The smile responds to the audience as more innocence making this
scene more comfortable for them; also others from the audience probably saw a different
smile from the girl as though she was smiling as something mature for her age. This
could make the audience confused or worried” (Greene 2). Being able to observe the
video and follow through with a descriptive analyzes of it was a big step in my
improvement. As I examined the video I was able to understand the important of some
material that needed to be said in the paper and also certain aspects of it like trends. As I
analyzed the video I knew there were two trends that were being expressed and described
them as, “…ethical advertising and shockveritsing…ethical advertising is using an ethical
approach….to support advertisements. Shockveriting uses “gruesome, bizarre, highly
sexualized, etc.” images to make a point” (Greene 1). Having help from Professor
Grogan, I was able to advance my reading skills to the point where I can detect certain
aspects of reading and use them in my papers to support my point.
II.
Writing
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As I was in that specialized program learning to read information and apply it to
different questions, I was also there for my writing skills. I barely knew how to write a
paragraph and my grammar was horrible. It took me a long time and a lot of extra help to
get where I am now. Getting into Wayne State was a dream for me and doing my
absolute best was the number one goal. When I followed into English 1020 after 1010 I
still was not confident in my writing skills, but I worked hard and achieved my goal of
finally writing a well thought out paper by myself and getting a good grade on it too.
Proceeding through the class I have improved on my organization of my papers, the way
I explain the subject and the amount of detail I put into my insight, while leaving with
good examples to follow.
In Assignment one, I knew I wanted to talk about pathos, ethos, and logos. So I
made them my whole body and cut them into sections and discussed each in detail. In my
second paragraph I described how ethos was being used in the commercial, “As Dove
represent the campaign by putting their name with everything, Dove is now selling more
than ever whole helping women in the process of getting their self-esteem back” (Greene
3). I also put a grand about of detail as to how Dove is getting their credibility through
creating programs for young women and websites and where the audience can find them,
what they look like and what to do. This provided a great sense to the paper and great
advice for the audience so they can help themselves. Being able to discuss the issue at
hand, while also providing my own insight was a big improvement for me. I was able to
discuss how the audience be affected by this in my own words and how might Dove be
able to help. Also I provided a lot of back ground about the issue already through logos
by giving basic facts about how the beauty industry was affecting young women
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beforehand. Professor Grogan helped me edit the paper to making it clearer, but
everything else I did with the skills that he taught me and that am using now.
For assignment two it was challenging, but I got through it figuring out what
types of information I wanted to discuss and the information I needed to help support my
claim, but also Shick’s. Explaining to the audience Shcick’s position first was a good set
up into what the article is about and notify what I am against or for. As for the rest, I
needed to help support Shick’s claim with the support characters he had in his article.
Using Feyerabend’s ideas of, “Fereyabend has realized that people have accepted science
as it is without any knowledge or awareness to it, but still using its information to guide
us through the world”( Greene 2). This helps support Shick and also giving my input into
as a summary or more of an explanation made it easier for the readers to understand.
Discussing this article was a lot of work and a lot of explaining about the material, but
that just provided me the chance to challenge my skills and work harder.
III.
Research
I was pretty good in researching different things and learning about them, but
from Assignment three I learned that it took more time to research and allow you to know
the information before writing it. In English 1020 I was taught how to look for
information especially for research. We used the school’s database to help find articles
and journals to find the information to help us with supporting our topic. After figuring
out my research question, I needed to create a strategy as to finding the information to
discuss my topic and doing it efficiently. Since I picked a medical topic I know I would
need some background, due to the amount of medical terminology, so everyone could
understand the issue and connect to it. So while looking in the databases I needed to find
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articles that had enough background that it wasn’t too much and also discuss the issue
that was my topic. There were two main things that were causing this issue, so made
those my body paragraphs discuss two ways of how each are causing the problem for my
topic. I provided a lot of information, but also my own input into it and how they need to
stop doing what they are doing, for example, “Before the superbugs, scientists had
stopped developing more antibiotics due to the fact that not many people were getting
sick and they has a cure for most diseases. As this went on, “the lack of drug
development has left critical pharmaceutical gap just as the new superbugs are
emerging… Scientists wasted their time and now everything to develop more things with
little causing this increase in money to evolve” (Greene 4). Throughout the paper, I
discussed the issues happening to people and how these two main things are causing
problems that are making it hard for the issue to be solved. Lastly, I discussed ways to
solve this issue by going through my articles and looking at old ideas and how to improve
on them. This project was difficult, but in the end I was able to provide the information
needed in this paper so everyone could understand that issue. Now, I understand how
much work a research paper needs to be good, but also where to find information for my
next one thanks to professor Grogan.
IV.
Reflection
At the beginning of the semester we have been reflecting our work and how we
are improving on out skills on writing and reading. The first reflection I did, I spoke on
the topic of good writers and how I started out as a writer saying, “since I was little I have
always been a horrible writer. My grammar was horrible; I could never explain my points
clearly and concise and I was never able to organize my thoughts” (Greene 1). After I
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wrote that paper my confidence about my writing skills were still low. Even though I was
not confident, I still worked hard to give my best work and the best effort into each paper
I wrote. Through English 1020 I was finally able to test my writing and reading skills
while also improving them through these four assignments. From writing these I learned
the importance of each skill and how it I could incorporate into my writing, as I finished
English 1020 and plenty of help from Professor Gorgan I can finally write a paper and
not feel nervous about it. It took a lot of time and work, but I finally did it.
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Appendix A: Assignment One
7 million females in the U.S alone have an eating disorder. Eating disorders like, anorexia
and bulimia can be caused by multiple things. The main reasons for these eating disorders are
subliminal messages presenting commercialized beautiful women using products through the
beauty industry. As of today, beauty industries have gotten worse with their advertising and
products; except for a few like Dove. Dove expresses the view of young girls are becoming
influenced by the beauty industry through an onslaught video. Dove takes a stand supporting the
major issue by saying, talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does”. The onslaught ad
provides persuasive techniques such as pathos to help persuade the audience of the importance of
this issue by using imagery, logos with visual evidence that the beauty industries are influencing
young girls and ethos by making Dove an ethical campaign.
Dove’s commercial brings to attention two interesting trends in advertising, ethical
advertising and shockvertising, into the beauty industry. The trend ethical advertising is using an
ethical approach by using the creditability of a big name companies to support advertisements.
Shockvertising uses “gruesome, bizarre, highly sexualized, etc.” imagery to make a point. These
two trends are used effectively throughout the whole ad as a contradiction of each other. Ethical
advertising is helpful to the ad presenting ways to support young women through the major issue
by movements and campaigns. Shockvertising uses harmful, inappropriate images to provide
evidence for the onslaught ad.
Dove’s onslaught commercial zooms in on the intense images that the beauty industry
typically uses to influence young women to make them feel they are not the proper women or
indeed “beautiful”. As the commercial starts it shows a bright, young, vibrant red-haired girl
close up on the screen so that her whole head can be seen. This is the first moment where we see
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pathos appeal come into play. The child’s face looks innocent and cute giving the impression that
this commercial is about children while also creating empathy. Seeing the child gives audience
thoughts of happiness and innocence whereas the scene gives comfort to the audience. Further
into the commercial, the little girl is still staring into the screen and as the song in the
background climaxes it shows the little girl smiling. The smile responds to the audience as more
innocence making this scene more comfortable for them; also others from the audience probably
saw a different smile from the girl as though she was smiling at something mature for her age.
This could make the audience confused or worried.
The audience feels great empathy for the little girl in the commercial presenting the
innocent factor, but as the ad furthers a “flash mob” of inappropriate images displays on the
screen. Shockvertising presents its self as half-naked women, commercialized ladies talking
about products, surgical procedures being done on young women, etc. These intense images
bring disgust and disturbed thoughts bring more empathy for the girl and the young girls that
look at them commercials every day. The use of sockvertising supports the ethical goal of
creating empathy for young women through intense imaging; while also teaching parents about
the beauty industry affecting their children. In the end it shows a few young girls carrying
backpacks walking to school and the last little girl looking similar to the previous one at the
beginning glancing at the screen while continuing onward to school. Following the trend
shockvertising helps persuade parents to talk to their kids about the issues of the beauty
industries. The imaging was so intense that it presents a strong persuasion to the views about
how women can become so easily influenced by things also at such as young age.
Dove is clearly leveraging these appeals to pathos to motivate their audience to actually
do something to help young women, which is where the ad’s logos kicks in. In 2006, Dove
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creates a movement called, “Movement for self-esteem” to help young women believe that they
are beautiful just the way they are. Dove provides on their website a “toolkit reminder” that gives
young women activates to do, articles to read, and stories that will inspire them. If you go to the
website and there will be a page with the title and shows you a middle aged person that looks
healthy and happy in the skin she is in; it also has her story for you to read and be inspired by
what she did. At the bottom it had choices for you like, “the age of the girl, the role you want to
choose, the number of girls and what kind of self-esteem topic to talk about”. After that is done,
different kinds of activates and stories come up for that certain criteria. Also, Dove has interacted
with Facebook now giving young women messages daily saying, “everybody is beautiful, be
your beautiful self, etc. “they call this program “the ad makeover”. These programs and
workshops help women understand that they are better than models on a screen holding a cup of
water or tub of butter. Even though, millions of women are now getting the recognition they
deserve, what does Dove get back in return? As Dove represent the campaign by putting their
name with everything, Dove is now selling more than ever whole helping women in the process
of getting their self-esteem back. In the end, having Dove sponsor the campaign to help women
in need helps persuade them to buy Dove products which helps Dove in the end to gain
creditability.
Overall, the ad is designed in light of recreating Dove’s corporate image, to make it the
leader of ethnical advertising in relation to the beauty industry explaining beautiful women and
making others have a low self-esteem. Most corporations have something called “corporate
responsibility’ which is a process that aims at a corporate responsibility to their “actions and
encourages a positive impact though its activities on the environment, consumers employees,
communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere” (Wikipedia). Dove’s
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main goal or “corporate and doing this helps women feel good about themselves. Having this
helps Dove achieve its goal and create a bigger name for themselves which helps sell Dive
products in an ethical way.
Since the 1950’s women have been commercialized as the sexual appeal of all products, ;
for example cleaning supplies, food, clothes and especially beauty. As the products began to
change so did the women along with it. The women became taller, skinner, and more gorgeous
by the moment or commercial ad. Every day, young women, girls and teenagers watch these
commercials of beautiful, young women. These young women, girls and teenagers then start to
judge themselves up against these commercialized women making them feel like they need to
buy their products. Every year, seven billion dollars are spent on cosmetics by women who have
been influenced by these ads. These ads affect them in the workplace by seeming that they are
not living up the “standards” of what women should look like in the workplace; which makes
women become obsessed with plastic surgery. 11.7 million Surgical and non-surgical procedures
were performed in the U.S in 2007.
As the numbers rise with every sale of the products and procedures the economy is
making more and more commercials to lower the self- esteem of billions young women every
day just to get that one thing they like, MONEY! As for the consumers, seven million women
have eating disorders and 95% of them are between the ages 12-25. These ads affect young
women at such young ages that parents never get the chance to talk to their daughter about these
certain issues in life. Day after day the commercials become more intense and the young women
become more self-absorbed with these models and dreams of being like them. 30% of women
smoke to lose weight, many of them have the disorder of anorexia and bulimia; what more can
the economy do to make this worse or maybe not? Today, many other beauty industries like
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Dove have become involved into helping parents becoming aware of what might be happening to
your child today. As Dove uses these trends and persuasive techniques to help persuade the
audience about the beauty industry it does provide a great campaign that helps millions of young
women out there today with so many problems on their self-body images. Dove might seem like
a “game changer” because the shockvertising intense images of those inappropriate, but it did
provide great evidence and persuasion to become aware that your child might be affected about
how the beauty industry is commercializing their products today. Dove provides great evidence
from the two trends is portrays through the video and the persuasive techniques that help with the
persuasion. Dove does use an unethical trend of shockversiting, but in the end this unethical
trend can be used in the commercial and not every unethical trend can be used in an ethical
commercial.
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Appendix B: Assignment Two
“Why do many now view science as a failed ideology rather that as an epistemological
ideal? Should science be viewed that way?” Questions Theodore Schick Jr. with his article “The
end of science” Schick and many other philosophers and physicists believe that science today is
a joke. It provides nothing to the support of knowledge and the world. Also scientist have abused
their knowledge and power of science by not being able to prove their world and only
researching what they think is worthy to them. Schick’s article claims, “The subject of both of
these inquires is not impending solution of certain scientific problems, but the impending
dissolution of science itself. What prompted these projects is the growing belief that science is
not the royal road to the truth. There is a view aboard in the land that science is more of an
ideology than methology, and thus I that is cannot legitimately claim to have a corner of reality”
(Shick 1) . Shick uses the techniques of evaluation and proposal from the much proof provided
by the other philosophers while using a few anecdotes to define some of the proof.
As Schick attends the twenty-fifth annual Nobel conference; he was surprised the subject
of how science was ending. Schick has already heard about the end of science through a book
which proceeds to his thoughts in his article. Schick uses philosophers Paul Feyerabend, Sir Karl
Popper, and Thomas Kuhn to support his argument of how science is dying. These philosophers
use a series of facts and experiments to provide proof to their views as Fereyabend’s is used
constantly by Schick. In the end Schick makes a proposal about the subject and how science and
the way we learn it needs to change.
In the beginning Schick state Feyerabend’s view of science is becomes abused and a
joke. Fereyabend describes science as more for a myth than a “scientific philosophy” as it was
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created by man. He also thinks that science is “conspicuous, noisy, and impudent…”(Schick 1).
Mostly Fereyabend downgrades science to a concept rather than its original purpose of
knowledge of the world and human beings. Feyerabend declares his view as, “...as the accepting
and rejecting of ideologies should be left to the individual it follows that the separation of state
and science, that most recent, most aggressive and most dogmatic religious institution”(Schick
1). Fereyabend has realized that people have accepted science as it is without any knowledge or
awareness to it, but still using its information to guide us through the world. Which comes to
Schick’s conclusion of Feryerabend’s views of science being a religion since “it rest on certain
dogma that cannot be rationally justified”(Schick 1). In total it takes faith to accept science.
During the Nobel conference physicist Sheldon Glashow disapproved of the subject explaining
that science is the knowledge who governs matter and the world while exclaims, “This statement
I cannot prove, this statement I cannot justify. This is my faith”(Schick 1). Even though Glashow
wanted to object to the issue; in the ends all he did was provide more proof that Feyerabend was
right. He’s view is effective in Schick’s argument providing him proof to support his argument.
In addition to Feryerabend’s views, Schick spends a considerable relating Fereyaband’s
views to a larger problem. Scientist have become a “philosophically naïve lot” says Schick.
Scientists today apparently cannot justify their own work becoming “solemn and shifty-eyed:
solemn because he is wondering how to declare an opinion; shifty-eyed because he is wondering
how to cancel the fact that he has no opinion to declare”(Schick 2). Through that fact,
Feryerabend’s view have become popular in the academics and the public; advancing the
thoughts of pseudoscience and “religious fundamentalism”. This lack of proof and work has
created jobless scientist and their “privileged status” in society. Feyerabend believes that
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scientist “have more money, more authority, more sex appeal that they deserve”(Schick 2).
Leaving to judge, what have scientist been doing all this time?
As proof for Feryerabend’s view, Sir Karl Popper has conducted experiments and argues
over the account that scientific method is wrong and the first of the scientific method,
observation, is ludicrous. As an experiment, Popper asked a class to take out a pencil and paper
and observe. As followed the students asked observe what, while declared, “Observe”. From this
experiment he concluded that “observation is always selective. It needs a chosen object, a
definite task, and interest, a point view, a problem” (Schick 3). Popper believes that scientists
have no way of distinguishing “relevant from irrelevant data” Leaving scientist as a loss of
actually theories such as Atomic theory, Genetic theory, and more. This lost occurs since we did
not examine all the relative data. As Popper’s reasoning and experiments apply to Fereyabend’s
views as proof makes Feyerabend and effective tool for Schick’s argument as an evaluation.
While Popper’s reasoning and experiments Thomas Kuhn provides insight to
Feryerabend’s views. Kuhn views science as a “puzzle-solving exercise”; he uses an anecdotes
of “paradigm” to define as how there are certain puzzles, and scientist sort through them to find
what worthy to them to “solve”, but as certain puzzles arise some just cannot be solved causing
feelings of awareness will respond to a “paradigm shift”. This paradigm shift causes scientist to
think and see new things and creating what we call “reality”; supported through Kuhn’s words,
“Nevertheless, paradigm changes do cause scientist to see the world of their research
engagement differently. In so far as their own resource to that world is through what they see and
do…(Schick 4).
In the end Schick devises a proposal making it popular to the public by bringing to light
that “the real issue is not whether a belief is scientific or pseudoscientific but whether it is
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justified or unjustified”(Schick 5). He believes that we are able to justify something we believe is
true when it has the right proof, but as everyone doesn’t want unjustified not everyone learns the
difference between a “good explanation and a bad one”. Schick proposes that science does not
have to dies, but change into more “philosophically” and educational systems teach students how
to think not what to think. As this will help distinguish between a justified and unjustified belief
and also in the words of Schick, “truly appreciates the value of scientific inquiry”(Schick 6).
Shick’s article expresses greatly how science is seen upon others as a religion, puzzlesolving exercise, ideology, and more. As with an argumentative statement, I disagree with
Shick’s article, but agree with his proposal. Science is the knowledge of nature and human
beings that provides a foundation for most things. Without science we would never come this far
without the words the end in –ology. Science is not died and it will not die, but can be
misinterpreted as the wrong things like technology. In Schick’s proposal about educational
systems need to teach students on “how to think and not what to think” and scientist needing to
become more “philosophically sophisticated” are true. Most students do not even know what
science is and are just taking science courses because someone told them to or it is mandatory for
their program. That’s why some people confuse science and technology together thinking they
are the same because they do not know what it really means. As for scientists, they need to grow
as a group. New theories have come out like the string theory on particle physics; as new theories
come arise they must provide proof and not just say “its science”. In Chris Mooney’s article,
“The Science of Why We don’t Believe in Science” does a better insight to Shick’s article.
In Shick’s article, Feryerabend describes science as a religion because of the certain
dogma that comes with it. In religion these dogmas are considered what are appropriate and true
to the world, but science’s dogmas are facts. To figure out things in the world one must think
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“outside of the box”. One must explore and experiment without theses factual thoughts as to be
able to see new concepts and theories. Religion stays to one thing and is changed or questioned
will be punished. As for science, things are changed and questioned to grab a better
understanding of the world. Without that there would never be any advancement to the world.
So, in Feyerabend’s case he is wrong. People do not need faith to accept science, but a creative
mind that knows how to think “outside the box” and explore the world open mind.
Also in his article, Shick states that Kuhn describes, “scientists don’t discover the nature
of reality; they create it. There is no way the world is, for each paradigm makes its own world.
It’s easy to see why suck views raise questions about the end of science. If there is not truth with
a capital “T” then, of course, it makes no sense so that scientists have a monopoly on it” (Shick
4). Scientist have for centuries have explored and learned the world inside and out, but still wait
upon new things to come from it. Reality has been set to the day that earth was born; it was never
created by scientist. They have only discovered what is true in the world and set the motions of
development and enlightenment through reality itself. As scientist discover new concepts and
things to the world, it allows them to create theories upon those discovers and teach the world
about them. In Kuhn’s case, scientist did not create anything except theories and products to
advance what we know as reality today, but as these advancements arises will scientists arise
with them?
In shick’s proposal, scientist need to become more “philosophically sophisticated”. As a
scientist, one must study the natures of the world for that work. In his article, physicists T.
Theocharis and M. Psumopoulos exclaimed,
“Having lost their monopoly in the production of knowledge, scientists have also lost
their privileged status in society. Thus the rewards to the creators of science’s new ephemeral
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and disposable theories are currently being reduced to accord with downgraded and devalued
work, and with science’s diminished ambitions”(Shick 2).
Physictist T. Theocharis and M. Psimopoulos are trying to say that since scientists have
lost their control of knowledge allowing for mistakes to happen has caused them to loss their
status and science itself. Scientist seem to know everything and have great power because they
are the ones that creating these theories and ones researching them. So why are mistakes
happening causes these losses? In Mooney’s article he says something that causes a question to
come, “We push threatening information away; we pull friendly information close. We apply
fight or flight reflexes not only for predators, but to data” (Mooney 1). The question that came
was, are scientist afraid of something” Are they afraid that their data will be wrong and fail?
Scientists should not feel this way; they should work harder if that is the case. Scientists develop
what we learn today in books and if they are scared about their data and not willing to provide
proof for it, then what will become of them and us? This leads to Schick’s proposal of scientists
needing to advance. Scientist need to advance as a group and take what is need in the world with
no fear. They need to explore the world not from their desk, but form outside and all the
creativity to come.
Shick also explains in his proposal that students need to be taught how to think and what
to think which is true. Students need to learn how to see a situation and build from it. By
building if we keep teaching students on what to think it would end up as following a set of rules
and nothing more, for example Sir Karl Popper preformed an experiment in a college class. He
asked the class to get out a pencil and some paper and observe. As being told that students came
up with the question of what to observe. Sir Karl Popper proved that observation needed a focus
point, but also that students cannot think for themselves. Teachers have been spewing out
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information and only telling students to look at certain situations or a problem which does not
help develop the brain. Most students memorize information to perform well on test and quizzes
to get into good schools. Later in life it will become harder for them because they cannot
remember information and also they think newly of information. Employers are looking for
people that can create new products and new concepts to grow their company, not someone that
can just do the minimum. It’s important for students to learn how to see new concepts and
produce new products allowing for the world to advance; also providing a future for these
students.
Shick’s proposal leads to great things in the world. As scientists advance and students
learn how to think and produce new concepts from the knowledge of science.
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Appendix C: Assignment Three
As the world advances medically from its prehistoric times to a more modern setting;
there still issues that happen to come along with them. In recent years, a pandemic has been
affecting many patients in hospitals. Many people have become resistant to antibiotics causing
issues for doctors to treat or cure their patients. The only thing doctors can do is give more
antibiotics ad stronger ones, but the more they give the more patients become resistant to them.
Bacteria, in the body, is what causes the resistance and by adding more antibiotics to its
surroundings only creates mutation to the bacteria. As the mutation occurs it causes the bacteria
to the a “superbug”. Superbugs are a very complex bacteria that have stumped scientists and
doctors; only leaving them to question.
The question is, can scientists control the superbugs and do still do it in an ethical, yet
low expense way? Scientist can control superbugs, as they have been trying for many years.
Scientists and hospitals have created new ways to take of the issues, but neither ethically and
low-expense. The two main problems that have caused this issues are medically facilities and the
economy financially.
Superbugs are complex drug-resistant bacteria that are caused by an overuse of
antibiotics. As patients intake many antibiotics, especially the same one it creates a surrounding
allowing the bacteria to become use to the drug or mutate in three ways. From Adriel Bettelheim
article, “Drug-Resistant Bacteria” explains the three ways as that first, “ a bacterial DNA can
spontaneously mutate, creating a gene that fights off the effects of a drug. The gene may produce
an enzyme that degrades of chemically alters an antibiotic”. The second way is by, “ two bacteria
swapping DNA through a form of a microbial sex called transformation. Resistance genes are
frequently carried on tiny loops of DNA called plasmids”, Lastly, the third way is through, “ a
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virus picking up on a plasmid containing resistance genes and inject it into a different bacterial
cell. Bacteria can also pick up stray DNA from dead cells in their vicinity. The genes will be
expressed if the bacteria incorporates the foreign DNA into its own genetic material”. As nearly
90,000 death per year are contributed by superbugs medical facilities still cause isseues with
drug resistant bacteria.
Drug resistant bacteria arises mostly in hospitals due to the fact that it is where most
diseases are. Hospitals must deal with these patients that have this resistance, but also the other
patients who demand antibiotics for their illnesses. As patients demand, the hospital must
provide as they are still a business. A business need customers to keep their business running,
and is in this sense hospitals need patients to come back while also helping them in the end. If
hospitals make the public think they need antibiotics for everything in their life it provides the
hospital with plenty of business, as “ the institute of Medicine last year estimated 20 to 50
percent of the 145 million antibiotics given each year to out-patients are unnecessary, as are 25
to 45 percent of the 190 million annual doses of antibiotics administrated in hospitals”. Even
though the hospitals are making business, they are making the issue of the superbugs worse than
it already is. They are causing people to understand the use of antibiotics increases the
surroundings and provide a chance to mutate. If this continues, the drug-resistant bacteria
pandemic will stay and become harder for scientist to keep up with it, but medical facilities do
not stop there.
Medical facilities have rules and regulations that must be followed. As the drug-resistant
bacteria pandemic worsen, hospitals have created certain guidelines to control it. These
guidelines are to help promote the stop of the resistance; as Marcia Clemitt’s article, “Fighting
superbugs” states that “United States promote resistance by creating “an artificial division”
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between individual care ad care given by public-health agencies”. This provides balance in
hospitals to not use antibiotics for the wrong reasons and only use them for extreme cases. Even
though some hospitals want to stay to the guidelines, others just not on broad, “ fewer than 60
percent of U.S hospitals follow recommended guidelines for antimicrobial use…27 percent hand
out guidelines for treatment of infectious diseases” (Clemitt 2) This issue is serious ad by not
following the plan to help only allows more trouble. These hospitals that are not following the
guidelines leaves them with trouble as bacteria have the ability to “spawn a new generation
every 15-20 minutes….”says Mark Nichols’ article “Outbreak: Doctors are struggling to control
drug-resistant bacteria. Allowing even the slightest thing in the guidelines will encourage the
resistant of the bacteria and allow growth. This problem will only make is harder for scientists to
kill. The medical facilities presents some serious problems, but not as worse as how the economy
is trying to solve drug-resistant bacteria.
In Ramona, California 12 year-old Carlos Don returned from a school-sponsored trip
several days later with flu-like symptoms. No one knew what was happening so him and his
family went to an urgent care center to be reassured that he would be fine with antibiotics. Soon
after, Carlos was hospitalized and breathing with a ventilator. On Feb 4, his organs started to
shut down and died that same day due to a fatal bacteria called MRSA (Methicillin-ResistantStaphylococcus aureus). Through Carlos’ tragic story the way doctors are performing at work
are shown. They are acting like business men than actually helping the public with this issue.
More people are becoming resistant and the reason is that they are prescribed these drugs that are
not even needed instead of actually being taken care of by the professionals who dedicated their
lives to health. Medical facilities and doctors need to stop acting like selfish business men and
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starting acting like what they are supposed to be and help out the public while also stopping this
drug resistant war.
Through the years, the drug resistant pandemic has cost the nation an abundance of
money, almost at “ $4 billion to $5 billion annually”(Bettelheim1), Ways that the nation gets this
money is by”…longer hospitalizations, more diagnostic, more diagnostic tests and increased
drug cost” (Bettelhiem 1). More patients come in the more money the nation gets, but money is
not what we only need; scientists also need time. Since these resistant bacteria grow at a rapid
rate is causes scientist to have a time limit before the bacteria develops into something worse.
Before the superbugs, scientists had stopped developing more antibiotics due to the fact that not
many people were getting sick and they has a cure for most diseases. As this went on, “ the lack
of drug development has left critical pharmaceutical gap just as the new superbugs are
emerging”(Bettelheim 2). Having this gap left scientist ungraded and allowed for bacteria to
mutant and develop into resistant bacteria; as “drug companies now are rushing to produce new
antibiotics, it will take several years for the first to be approved for human use” (Bettilheim 2).
Scientists wasted their time and now everything to develop more things with little causing this
increase in money to evolve. The economy can only do so much before the public gets angry.
Today, is had become worse and only causing people to go to hospitals more often since their
antibiotics cost too much to buy. This increase in cost has created trouble for the public as they
cannot pay for their medication. Also, wasting their money on more diagnostic test to be
performed when it is not even needed or recommended; if the nation keeps increasing cost and
wasting time with diagnostic testing, it will cause the nation to fall into even more debt and
people to die.
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The drug resistant bacteria pandemic has not been resolved due to the issues that medical
facilities and the economy are causing. It’s time to fight back and create a plan to cure the
resistant bacteria. Medical facilities have failed to keep up with their quota of being helpful and
informative of types of drugs. To change this, hospitals need to stop handing out drugs to
patients that do not need. The demand for drugs needs to be slowed as to prevent more people
from becoming resistant to anymore antibiotics. If hospitals had stayed with the idea of the
artificial division said in one of the pervious paragraphs, we could of controlled the superbugs by
providing only what was needed and to help the demand of antibiotics stop. Even though, we
also need to tell the patients to finish whatever antibiotics they have as that if not all antibiotics
are taken within that time, causes the bacteria to grow again instead of being killed off by the
drugs. As we stop the demand and help our patients with controlling antibiotics will prevent
overdose on these drugs and help patients.
Also, by informing the public and patients about the types of drugs they are using and
what they can do for your body will help patients realize that drugs are not for everything, as
Thomas Moore a senior fellow in health policy at George Washington University Medical
Center, wrote in his 1998 book “Prescription for Disaster”, “ If patients were properly informed,
they would learn that antibiotics are inappropriate for viral diseases, and that therefore taking
them in this setting has some risks, substantial cost, no benefits” (Bettheleim 1). For this to
happen hospitals would have to provide more information and actually talk the patients about
how certain things work.
Lastly, solving the economy’s problem is by lowering the cost of antibiotics and by
solving the medical facilities problems actually will help the economy by not having many
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patients in the hospitals, but also allowing for people to pay for the drugs if the cost is lowered.
Having that will increase the money needed for research and experiments.
In the end this problem can be solved by a few things and simple things at that.
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Appendix D: Reflection One
In my eyes writers are supposedly good at grammar. They are flawless at explaining their
thoughts and inspire people to do things just by their words. Being able to write like that has
always been a dream of mine. Since I was little I have always been a horrible writer. My
grammar was horrible; I could never explain my points clearly and concise and I never was able
to organize my thoughts correctly. During my senior year in high school I was determined to
achieve my goal of becoming a good writer. At the end, I felt more comfortable about my
writing; but I did not get the chance to prove my abilities until English 1010. I was surprised by
my abilities, getting A’s on my papers and barley having a mistake on my papers. After English
1010 I gained more confidence in my writing skills. Now it’s time to step up my game and really
show what I have through English 1020. With a little help, my goal is to improve my writing
more through correcting my grammar; organizing my thoughts more and explaining my ideas
more clearly. Through these aspects I will become an even better writer and more confident in
my writing skills.
Grammar is a challenging subject. There are rules that are needed to be followed; but
how can a writer express themselves freely if they have these rules to follow? How they do it
surprises me. I plan to achieve this aspect my practicing grammar. Practicing grammar will give
me the chance to improve my skills and help not make many mistakes in my papers. Another
way to achieve this aspect is to edit my writing. Editing my paper offers a second chance to
check for mistakes and see if one sentence works with another. I want to achieve this aspect
because grammar is what makes a paper read correctly and flow. Both of these pieces will help
me achieve my goal of becoming a better writer.
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Organizing one’s thoughts helps write a paper more quickly, making it sound respectable.
I need to organize my thoughts in a way the readers can understand them. One way can be
making an outline of the main points that I want to describe to my readers. Main points will help
me see what I really want to talk about and include examples I might need. Outlining my
thoughts help achieve my goal by keeping my papers organized and let the readers know what is
explained and what the author is thinking. Organization is the foundation of a paper, helps
clearly states what author wants to say. Improving the foundation of my papers will help me
become a better writer.
Explaining someone’s ideas to another may be difficult, but possible. I have a hard time
explaining my thoughts to people, especially in writing. The technique to achieving this piece is
to talk to someone about the subject. Being able to express my thoughts on the subject or matter
verbally helps gain ideas and different views of the subject. Also, gives ideas on how to approach
the subject and how to explain it your own words. Explaining the ideas in a paper is what makes
a paper. A writer must explain their views on the subject at hand or their readers will become
confused and angry. I want to improve explaining my ideas so my readers understand what I am
saying and let them know what I think on the matter at hand.
My goal is to improve my writing and become a better writer. By editing and practicing
grammar my papers will read correctly and flow. Organizing my thoughts will help me clearly
state what I want to say and talking out loud to someone helps explain my ideas to the readers.
Also, helping the readers understand my thoughts on the subject. All of these aspects need
improving, but by working hard and asking for a little help my goal will be achieved.