39. AP English Test After Thought

We’re finally done with the AP English test today! I thought the multiple choice was easier than what we did for the Barrons practice test. The passage was easier to understand than I expected and there weren’t many question that tested on rhetorical strategies (which I was worried about). However, I still almost ran out of time and didn’t get time to check. I hope I did well on the multiple choice because I’m not so sure about my essays. All of my essays were shorter than what I usually write in practice tests. For the first one, I managed to use all of the sources so I think that was okay. However I spent a bit too much time of it and I worried that I would run out of time. Its good that I didn’t spend as much time on the other two. On my second essay, I just followed what I planned to do: ethos, pathos, and logos, it went pretty well. It’s the last essay I’m not so sure about. I wrote less than two pages because I didn’t know how else to continue it. I felt like I expressed my point though and gave examples in my two body paragraphs. I hope I did well!

38. Journal Writing: Marriage

I think marriage is a promise: a promise to your other half that you would be there for him/her. Although it may seem like just another legal document (as so many people divorce nowadays), to me, it had a much deeper meaning in it. Like the vow people take in marriage, people promise to be part of each other’s life. A marriage means a creation of a family. A couple is a couple, even if they act as though they are married; they have made no promise to each other. Their relationship may end any time and there will be no consequences or responsibility.

When people marry, people are seeking for a belongingness and trust. When two people bond together as husband and wife, they legally and mentally belong to one another. I think the phrase “settling down with someone” describe the feeling very well, because you are no longer trying to find your other half. You move on to a new stage of life, which may involve a change in lifestyle. When people get married, they loose part of their independence. In a sense, they are no longer just themselves, because they have “another half”. They give up a part of them for another person. In exchange, they get parts of the other person to keep. 

37. Journal Writing: Too Much Pressure - Wenke

Do you agree with Wenke that most students think cheating is acceptable? In your journal, write down your views of how common cheating is in your school.

I think most people know that cheating is unacceptable. We have all been all been told over and over again, since elementary, that cheating is bad. Why else would teachers separate out chairs during tests? Why else would we even do a test on our own? Yet, people still do it. As Wenke said, there has been a strong emphasis on grades and pressure on students to get good grades. Maybe that is the reason why students cheat nowadays. But I doubt that students in the past don't cheat. There will always be people that seek the easy way out. Those are the people that constantly cheat, only because they don't want to study. I'm not going to lie, I have witnessed cheating in our school... especially during wordly wise classes. Most people there don't want to take wordly wise. They were put there because they have no other classes to take, so they have to memorize vocabulary. Another reason for the excessive cheating in that class is that is it so easy to cheat. The teachers or staffs that supervise the class usually don't do much supervising. They just let you do your own thing. You put reluctant students with lazy teachers in a wordly wise class, this is what you get.

36. Redefine Integrity

Since we are redefining a word, we might as well start with the dictionary meaning. According to the Marriam-Webster dictionary, integrity means "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values; incorruptibility".
To tell the truth, I had a vague definition of the word until the PAS community started to over use it. It began with some incident over cheating among the eighth graders, which lead to a school-wide lecture over integrity. The school middle and high school department had to watch a movie and write a report about it. After that, the word became sort of a mocking slogan among the students. I guess most students see the word as honesty and no cheating. 
In our class discussion, Christine mentioned that she thinks that having integrity is being true to yourself. It hit me then that that is exactly how I feel towards the words too, I just never had the words to grasp the idea. I think a person's integrity is largely defined by their own values. Just like any other values, it can be influenced by others, but it is usually not easily changed and people hold on to them. I think having integrity is doing things that will not leave a shadow in your heart and you can do them without regret.

35. Being a Chink Journal Writing

So far in life, I have never felt particularly defensive for my parents. The only time I felt the need to help, or protect you might say, about anything was about the english language. My parents have spent huge sums to send my to this American school. They are giving me a chance to learn a language that they are not particularly familiar with. They gave me the chance to exceed them in this language. So, when it comes time that they have to communicate in English (mainly in the written form) I am of some help. When there were translations needed to be done, I am usually the use to be asked. 

Once, my mom asked me to check her e-mail to her friend in the States before she sent it. The e-mail was generally fine, with just a few awkward phrases and grammar. I explained my changes while I did them. After the edit, my mom patted my back and said, "Thank you. That was a great help for me. The money I spent was worth it." Even though she said it half-jokingly, I felt a tiny pang in my heart. They gave so much to me. My 3-minute edit can never compare to the sum and the time they spent for my education. Yet, my mom was still so appreciative over something so small. 

34. How much influence should the school have on our personal lives?

I feel that the school shouldn't try to control on our personal lives as long as we do things that do not infringe on others or the school. However, the school should take into concern things that might effect us as people, so i would say the school may give suggestions or help, but cannot force people to do things in terms of personal matters. That is why personal lives are called personal; they should be kept to ourselves. Parents are the ones that have the rights to have a say in our personal lives because they are the people that raise you up are part of your family (isn't that part of personal lives already?) Schools should not be able to decide whether or not we date people, because that is our personal choice. However, the school should be allowed to make sure that children under 18 are not drinking or smoking. Even though some may say that is part of personal life, it is going against the law. If that is involved, then the school should be allowed to prohibit students from doing so. I think the best way the school should or try to influence us is by educating and influencing our values. Sex education in health class would be a very good example of how the school can provide teenagers with the correct information about sexual intercourse so that students can make the right decisions.

33. The Earth is Full Speech Analysis

Paul Gilding's speech, "The Earth is Full", is effective because he had good contents and he uses rhetorical devices that further encourages the reader to take in his information. He starts off the speech by painting a negative picture of what the world would be like if we continued to use resource the way we do now. He uses repetitions and parallel structure like "full of... full of... full of..." to emphasize his points. He also makes his audience feel engaged because he uses words like "we" and "us" (for example, "we have to end our denial".) He acknowledges questions or doubts the audience might have by saying "you think..." and then provides a comprehensive counter attack. He continuously asks the audience to "imagine" what things would be like in the future. He repeats and rephrases his points to make things clear for the audience. He provides some statistics (we are using about 1.5 Earths), but does not overload them and overwhelm the audience. He tries to raise awareness, especially on the fact that if the Earth is to be sustainable, we will not experience the economic growth we are so used to. Finally, he ends his speech with a very positive scenario of the future, but we will have to take actions now.

32. Super Tuesday!

March 6, 2012. It was a big day for US republican candidates because it was the day when 10 states cast their votes. Currently, the four republican candidates left are Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul, with Mitt Romney in the lead followed by Rick Santorum. According to "ABC New's COmprehensive Guide to Super Tuesday", Ohio is considered the "real gem in the Super Tuesday crown" as no previous Republicans have ever won the presidential election without winning the state. Mitt Romney had spent huge sums in the state, hoping to win the election (which he did with 38% and Santorum with 37%, a very close call). Mitt Romney used many super pacs against Santorum in the state. According to Santorum, the fact that he is still standing in the state means a lot because he spent in Ohio was 1 to 12 compared to Romney. Santorum works to get to blue belts and the pious Christians in America. By definition, his background is much closer to a typical Rapublican candidate than Romney, who is a Mormon.

31. Chinks?

In the article, "ABC's Politically Incorrect Tackles Comedian's 'Chink' Joke", comedian Sarah Silverman and Guy Aoki, President of MANAA, disagrees on wether it is appropriate to make chink jokes as a comedian. When though the article seems to be talking about racist comments, the larger issue centers around freedom of speech, more specifically, freedom of speech for comedians. In Aoki's point of view, comedians should not make racist comments because it would be heard by the popular crowd, which would make them think making racist comments is alright. He thinks that in order to stop racism, people have to step up against racist comments. He believes that racism comments in some way permits racism and that is not right. He also emphasize on the responsibility that come with freedom of speech. According to him, even though people have the freedom of speech, they cannot exercise "ignorant speech". Silverman and Maher (who supports her) believes that making jokes (including racist ones) is a part of a comedian's job. Attacking her on making the comment would mean "attacking her livelihood". They say that people do not get offended because it is only a joke.

30. Real Man/ Real Woman?

I really do not believe there can be a definition of qualities of what a real man or woman is. There are so many types of male/females that you can't classify them. The only legitimate classification would be biological. However, there are some people that are emotionally and mentally like the opposite sex. When this is the case, it comes down to self-idenetity. If the person truly identifies themselves with the opposite sex, then they could be the opposite sex. There are, however, certain qualities that men or women tend to have. These can only be called general qualities because it doesn't have to apply to everyone. Most of these are caused by biology too. For example, men tend to be stronger and have a deeper voice than women. Women tend to express their emotions more than men do. However, we have to use these generalizations very carefully because this is not the case for all men or all women. There are certain qualities that people consider more feminine or masculine, but we should not use these qualities to classify the people. A feminine man is still a man and a masculine woman is still a woman. 

29. Politically Correct Story - Snow Grey

Once upon a time, a girl was born into a loving royal family that is very environmentally aware. The parents decided to name their baby girl Snow Grey to remind the people of the kingdom that if they continue to pollute the cities, the snow would one day turn grey. Contrary to popular belief, they did not name their child after her skin color, because that would be racially discriminating. (The race of Snow Grey will be left for the reader to decide because the storytellers, too, do not wish to be racially discriminating.)

Unfortunately, Snow Grey’s mother passed away when Snow was two and her father married another woman. The woman hated Snow Grey because her name reminded her of her growing age and increase in grey hair. The stepmother felt insecure and based her worth on her looks. Everyday, after showering, she would look towards her magic mirror on the wall and ask, “ Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Usually, the mirror would answer, “My dear queen, you are the fairest of them all.”

One day, however, the queen did not dye her grey hair black (for environmental reasons requested by the king.) Again, she asked, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” The mirror, detecting the emerging grey hair, said, “My dear queen, even though you are fair, Snow Grey is the fairest of them all.” The grey-haired queen immediately ordered the woodchopper to kill Snow.

The woodchopper, a very kind man, wanted to save Snow, so he let her go. Snow Grey ran miles through the forest and arrived at the land of the vertically challenged. They people that live in the village decided to let Snow stay, however, Snow had to work along the vertically challenged people. The villagers were not sexually biased, so the women and the men did the same work together. Snow was very grateful for their kindness and decided to stay.

Back at the palace, the new Queen again asked, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Again the mirror answered, “My dear queen, even though you are fair, Snow Grey is the fairest of them all.”  The Queen was furious and set out to the land of the vertically challenged to the kill Snow herself. She brought with her poisonous apples, hoping to kill Snow.

When the Queen got to the village, she offered her poisonous apple to Snow Grey. Surprisingly, however, Snow bit into the apple and nothing happened to her. She just smiled an thanked the chronically gifted woman for the sweet apple. The Queen was bewildered of the weakness of the poison, so she decided to try the apple herself. Within a few chews, the evil queen died.

The apple was indeed poisonous, but why did Snow not die? The reason for this was that she had been ‘vaccinated’ for the poison during her stay at the village. The vertically challenged village vaccinate their villagers of poison every month, so that they would not get poisoned (as it would spread fast in their tiny body)

28. Not All Men Are Sly Foxes

Journal Prompt: Yes, I do agree that young children are strongly influenced by books parents and teachers read to them. At the early stages of childhood, they are just learning about the world. They would take in all the information they get to try and better understand the world. Teachers and parents often reach children books to them so they will learn to classify and understand the world through what they perceive from the books.

S: Armin A. Brott, a father who is unhappy about the stereotypical view of fathers as less important caregivers

O: When reading fairy tales and children books to his children, he noticed a trend of very little fathers involved with care giving

A: Published in the Newsweek magazine, for the general audience

P: Make people aware the children books are diminishing the father’s role in care giving

S: making people aware that children’s book contains stereotypes against fathers as caregivers

T: concerned, factual (his research on children’s book)

Questions on Meaning:

1. Thesis: There is, however, one very large group whose portrayal continues to follow the same stereotypical lines as always: fathers.

2. Brott assumes that his audience is unaware or never took time to think of the impacts of this negative stereotype of fathers. I actually fitted into his assumptions. Although it was always there, I never noticed this stereotype.

4. It encourages or even pushed people to make changes about the stereotype.

Questions on Writing Strategy

2. It shows that this stereotype is not only present in children’s writing. In order to root out this stereotype we have the change the parents too.

Questions on Language:

1. “Caregivers” are people who take care of the children. “Nurturers” have more of an emotional attachment connotation to it.

27. Obligations of a Husband and Father

This entry requires you to answer the journal prompt on page 342. Then you need to answer question #2 on the same page. Finally you will do a SOAPSTONE analysis of the essay "I Want a Wife.

One traditional role of husbands and fathers is to provide the family economically. Husbands are the ones that are supposed to go out and work and come back home late (if necessary). They are also in charge of fixing things when things break or don’t work, for example, changing the light bulb. Traditionally, they are also the ones that make the decisions for the family.

In “I Want a Wife” Brady points out that the wife is the one responsible for taking care of the family. When the husband is studying, they will provide the money. When the couple has kids, the mother would be responsible for taking care of the children and the husband. Even if she goes out to work, she is responsible for the housework and cooking the food. She would also take care the details of [the husband’s] social life” and be “sensitive to [his] sexual needs”.

Basically, the wife has to be completely selfless and serve for the family. Brady even goes to the point in saying that when the husband finds a better person to be the wife, the original wife could be replaced. Brady points out the inequality in status and importance and the large responsibilities of a wife.

S: Judy Brady who is a wife and a mother

O: written after a recently divorced friend who is looking for a new wife

A: mainly women (it was published in the Ms. Magazine)

P: to point out the inequalities of the accepted roles of wives

S: the role of wives

T: ironic

26. Schools Going Digital?

After reading New York Time's article on school going digital, I was impressed by the impacts that the increased use of technology could bring. Here I will list two reasons why I think this implementation is beneficial and one reason why it is not:
Pros:
1) Student get to learn on their own pace. From the very first example of two fifth-grade students doing math at different levels, what struck me was the greater possibility for children to learn at their own pace. Because they working on individual computers, each person gets the unique instructions they need for their level. This is good because fast-learners would not have to slow down their learning process and slower-learners wouldn't feel pressured by their classmates.
2) Faster access to information though the internet. Because of the cheaper internet availability, even the poorer students get internet access. This allows the to get almost the same amount of resources as the more well-off children. With faster information access, they can learn independently on subjects they are interested in.
Cons:
1) Bigger class size and less teacher-children interaction. From what I've seen from the article, the computers seem to have taken over the job as instructors in classrooms. The teachers only walk by students to check on and assist them. There seem to be less of a classroom discussion because it is more of a one-on-one instruction from computers to students. Also, the larger class sizes will take away the focus of the teacher on each student.

25. Online Piracry

Unfortunately, I wasn't in class on Monday, so I missed the discussion on fair use and online piracy. However, I will just talk about my point of view on the following blog:


First of all, I am pretty sure that online piracy is the most commonly committed theft there is. It is just too easy to get illegal things off the internet for free. Pretty much everyone I know that uses a computer has downloaded some sort of music or video from the internet. I think the main reason for this is the easy accessibility and the fact that there really doesn't seem to be an effective way to prohibit such actions. Yes, we have occasionally encountered websites being shut down because if these infringements, but there are just so many more other websites out there that provides the same thing. In fact, we do it so often that half the time we forget we are breaking the law and hurting entertainment industries. Another reason for online piracy is so common is that is saves huge amounts of money and time - for those that illegally provides and downloads the information. However, in terms of the people who own these information, it is extremely unfair.

24. Nonsense in American Politics

Find a commercial for any American political campaign and describe the rhetorical strategies they use that are described in our Nonsense book. Name the strategies and provide a brief description of how the commercial's creators used them.

Stephen Colbert's super PAC against Mitt Romney:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aix7tQMdJ3s

The Red Herring: Literal interpretation of figurative remark

00:10 “Corporation are people, my friend.”

The video took Romney’s figurative interpretation of corporations being people literally and then goes on to say how he kills people/corporation.

Non-sequiter

00:26~00:35 “If Mitt Romney really believed that ‘Corporations are people, my friend’, then Mitt Romney is a serial killer.”

This cause and effect relationship does not follow. It would make more sense if it said “If Mitt Romney really believed that ‘Corporations are people, my friend’, and he kills corporations, he is a serial killer.” Even then, the video does not provide evidence to support the conclusion.

Name-calling/Humor

00:34 “He’s Mitt the Ripper”

The ad gives Romney a humorous yet negative label. People are more likely to accept it because it is funny and the label might stick.

Tone/Sound Effects/Repetition

00:13 "...are people, my friend."

The video changed Romney's voice to make it sound evil. It used repetition to make an impression on the video-viewers.

23. Nonsense verses Argument: Textbook Evaluation

Although I do prefer the Nonsense book, I think both of the books we are using in AP English to teach rhetorics contains really useful information. The main difference in those books lie mainly in its organization. Thank You for Arguing has a more conversational and casual style. Though the tips at the side can be really helpful, I think it makes it harder to take notes on. It takes away from the organization and logical flow of the book. I like the summary at the end of each chapter. It allows me to review the important parts again. I also do admit that the example in that book has more connection to everyday life and makes it easier o connect with. However, some of the examples seem to be a bit of a stretch (not very logical and sometimes confuses me). I really like how the Nonsense book organizes its information. It is much more like an actual textbook. There is also a lot more information from that book. The list of rhetorical techniques on the back of the book also help me take good notes and make sure I didn't miss anything. The use of the two books together is really nice because they are books of opposite styles writing on the same topic. It offers us different perspectives in rhetorics.

22. Journal: Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out - Barry

Are you ever baffled by the behavior of members of the opposite sex - or members of your own sex, if you often find yourself behaving differently from most of them?


I find it truly curious how there can be so many typical differences between male and female.  Like what Barry have written (and this is just people in general), women tend to care more about cleanliness and men more about sports. I wonder why there seem to be this trend between people of the opposite sex. Male and female seems to be the two groups that is divided most commonly. In the ancient times, it is even (faultily) believed that only men can hold rational thoughts. Even though there are faulty cases of differences, many of these differences actually have scientific proof. Women tend to be more sentimental and more perceiving in the sense of smell and taste. Men are better at three-denmentional thinking. There are just so many differences that I am beginning to think that men and women have different thinking patterns. Maybe that will explain why men would sigh and say they don't understand women (and vice versa).

21. Journal: Neat People vs. Sloppy People - Suzanne Britt

Write about the opposition you use to evaluate people.


I am going to write about an opposition that is close to my heart. Tall people vs. short people. My family tend to be on the short side and have always wished to grow taller. Here are a few advantages of tall people. They get more fresh air. Because they are above most people, they get the air on the top. Tall people can reach things easier. Also, popular culture portrays tall people in a more positive light. Most models are tall and skinny. For men (luckily this does not apply to me), it looks better if their girlfriends are shorter or around the same hight as they are. It maybe be true that love is blind and hight may not stop people from falling in love, but it just isn't as pleasing to the eyes for the other people. This gives taller men more women to match with. 
However, because I am short, I must also show the advantages of being short. Even though we don't get the fresh air, there is a joke/saying that says short people don't fall as much because we are closer to the center of the Earth. Short people also tend to be more flexible. Lastly, short people have a higher chance to win in hide-and-seek because it is easier for us to fit into smaller spaces.