Trick or Treat

Since I became a college student, many people around me have given didactic messages to me such as: “do not be too playful”, “first do what you should do,” and “do not stay up late or go to the party”. Unfortunately, living as a college freshman for three months, I felt these “charges” against the college freshman are mostly right. Although it would be a use of generalization that all of the college freshman would go to party all night long and pass out on the main streets, but the college freshmen of these days, would make a huge difference. As he has written in his essay, Jin has said that the media has depicted the images of college freshmen as trouble makers, having bad drinking habits, being arrested for noise etc., Jin has argued that the media has shown only a small part of the whole, and that the small parts of the college freshmen blow off the images of the rest of the college freshmen who studies hard and tries hard. However, the opposite is the fact, most of the college freshmen go to party almost every weekend, causes troubles, get arrested by noise or other immature or immoral behaviors, and only small parts of the college freshmen would study hard and don’t give up. As Jin has said in his essay, since our generations of college freshmen are widely and deeply exposed to social media such as Facebook, tweeter, instagram, snapchat, and yik-yak etc., students have now more access to the information on where the party is at, who is coming tonight, and what time would be a peak time etc. Since now they have an information, they have no reason not to go the party especially to college freshmen who would live on the school campus. It is a shame to be listed, compared, and be evaluated by a professor with the seven sins of the Christians, sloth, greed, anger, lust, gluttony, envy, and pride; however we have to recognized the fact that all college students commits these sins at least once, before they graduate. So then why not enjoy? As Jin has said in his conclusion, experiencing the immaturity is not bad. It is, in fact, the privilege that only college freshman can have. If one represses his stresses and desires to rest too much and when these overloaded stresses explodes, it would be too late to use this advantage of college freshman, the youth. Although not every experience is good, beneficial, and recommendable, we can learn lessons from every single experience we will have. I am not trying to say to give up on the academic work and just let go of everything. But rather, give oneself a weekly reward or a treat to release the stress and pressure for doing the home works, doing the group projects, and writing the essays etc. so start making choices for yourselves: A trick or a treat? Then I will see you guys at the Halloween party tomorrow. Remember life is short and YOLO!

Rebuttal to "Dirty Jersey"

Anthony Smith’s “Dirty Jersey” is an argumentative essay about how the state New Jersey, the greatest of fifty, has been misunderstood and underrated by many people, and Smith describes some of the interesting and enjoyable facts about New Jersey that could change people’s prejudice about the “Dirty Jersey”. In spite of Smith’s effort to persuade the readers to break their prejudices down and alternate their thoughts about the “Dirty Jersey”, his weak evidences and overwhelming generalizations to prove his thesis in his essay have eventually made the readers to feel discomfort and to firm their prejudices of the “Dirty Jersey” as the facts.

According to Smith, the people of New Jersey are not guidos who go to club all day long and swear all day long; however, they like to drive dangerously in the risky roads, think they are the best in foods such as Italian cuisines and the Taylor ham, which is considered as the native breakfast dish in New Jersey, and these boastful New Jersey people think they are the only ones who have the “best” gas pumping laws.

The “best” New Jersey gas pumping law makes consumers not to get out of their cars and offers the full services for the consumers. But, as an international student from Korea, I have not been surprised since these kinds of situation were common and natural. Back in my country, Korea, it is expected for workers or employees to do the gas pumping for the consumers without receiving the tips. The other generalization that Smith made in his argument was New Jersey’s enormous strength in Italian cuisines and its native New Jersey Soul Food. Although the Taylor Ham is a unique breakfast dish in New Jersey, this doesn’t make New Jersey livable or enjoyable place. Every country, every state, every place has its own special or main foods. For instance, California, where I lived for 3 years to attend high school, was famous for its fusion food, California roll, a combination of sushi and roll of rice; this unique food of one’s state might draw people’s attention, but it doesn’t change the pre-set image or the prejudice on the state. Lastly, Smith has written about the how the cracks and other dangerous roadways of New Jersey has affected people to have a positive mindset of driving attitude. Smith’s last point even do not really relate to how having this difficult roadways would impact on people to change their prejudices and negative evaluations of the New Jersey State. Overall, Smith’s argument has an interesting topic; however it has quite weak points to build firm arguments and persuasion. In his conclusion or the last paragraph, Smith, himself, admits that there is a fact in the rumors or the prejudices of New Jersey State. Using generalization once again, Smith writes that since there are “guidos” in every place, there must be some of the “guidos” in New Jersey. Furthermore, Smith blames the violence or slum-ness of New Jersey to the neighboring city, Camden, which is the murder capital of U.S. Before reading the “Dirty Jersey”, I was excited to read the essay about the new state that I have never been to. However after reading the essay, I had a feeling of insecure and discomfort with New Jersey. New Jersey State might be an enjoyable place for some of people who might feel comfort or fun with speed driving and dangerous roadways, but it would not change the people’s unfavorable perceptions toward the New Jersey State.

Ye Park

Prof. Conaway

ENGL 1105

26 October 2015

Outline

 Is English Class Necessary for Engineering Students?

Thesis: Many engineering major students regard their first college English classes as trivial and worthless and classes, which are insufficient and irrelevant to their major; however, in fact, these college English classes are considered as a significant element in an education in the field of engineering, providing engineering students with fundamental communication skill, technical writing ability, and a primitive groundwork as global engineers

I.                  Introduction: My friends and I thought English classes were unnecessary to the science or engineering major students.

A.    Common stereotype that people have in their minds: Engineering students do not have to learn English or do English well.

B.    Realization of an importance of learning English: Anecdote of what I faced and struggled in Engineering class and how it had made me re-think about the value of learning English as a future engineer.

II.                  Main Points 

A.    English classes help engineering students build strong communication skills.

                                      i.     Communication skills are built by group activities which require teamwork and cooperation.

                                    ii.     Strong communication skills make engineering students more prepared engineers.

B.    Technical writing technique plays an essential role in engineering studies.

                                      i.     Every problem solving formats, every report of product designs, and every project that are given in the Engineering class, should be written based on technical writing.

C.    Accepted as most widespread language in the world, learning English is very significant to the engineering students, who are looking forward to become global engineers.

                                      i.     The use of English became so common that the education of English provides basic foundations to engineering students who want to be global engineers.

III.                  Counter Arguments.

A.    Most of the engineering curriculum contain problem development and calculation both which are not related to English.

B.    Writing skills that are required for the engineering curriculum are already taught in the high school English classes.

IV.            Conclusion: Conclude overall contents stated above.

A.    Restate the thesis.

B.    Emphasize the main points.

Boo! Legalization of Marijuana

Nowadays, marijuana is utilized so deeply in the American society. From teenagers to adults, they all use marijuana with various reasons; teens use marijuana to get “high” and elders, the adults, use marijuana to cure their sickness.  Over 30 states out of all 50 states in America, which is the 60 percent of the United States, have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.  However, some states such as Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Washington D.C. etc., have legalized the use of marijuana not only for the medicinal use, but also for the recreational use.  Yes, there are no doubts that marijuana, for reasons such as getting one who is ill to eat and helping relieve the pain in cancer patients, is helpful.  But, does that mean that it isn’t harming one’s body as well?  The main problem argued in this essay is that marijuana, whether it is practiced as a medicinal purpose or for recreational purpose, causes problems both physically and mentally such as, memory disorder in brain and strong mental reliance.  Of course, the severity of these problems differentiates with the users’ body health conditions, the quantity of marijuana used, and the amount of time they used marijuana.  However, that does not mean the usage of marijuana is healthier to human body or the legalization of public use of marijuana is beneficial to the whole society definitely clear that there is going to be a problem of usage of marijuana, which makes the legalization of the usage of marijuana seem so skeptical. 

Marijuanaless Society

         It has been approximately two years ago since I went to the community service for the drug addiction rehab clinic; however, I still remember it so clearly and vividly as if I went there just last night. To earn my community service hours, I have helped these people out controlling themselves from relying on the marijuana by searching for their hobbies, doing other productive activities like playing basketball or other sports, and giving adequate knowledge and information about the general effects of marijuana on human body.

As I entered into the addiction clinic, I could smell the poignant scent of the medicine that is spread all over the place, and I saw the addicted people struggling themselves with their reliance and dependence toward the marijuana. There were various people in the clinic; some of them seemed younger than me, some were teenagers around my age, and the others were fully grown adults. However, they all shared a common problem, the addiction of marijuana.

Although these people in the clinic regret their choice and try hard to recover from the problems caused by the addiction of marijuana, still some people raises their voices to legalize the public use of marijuana, not thinking about the outcomes of what would this legalization of marijuana would bring: increase in teenager addiction of marijuana, greater abuse of marijuana, and the financial cost to provide the legalized marijuana. The legalization of marijuana should be prohibited and should be banned due to its great negative impacts that would leave on the communities, on the society, and on the nation.

Against Work

In Christopher Clausen’s “Against Work”, Clausen argues about the unhealthy relationship of Americans and their work in comparison to the healthy relationship of the European countries and their work. He also addresses the questions that make the readers think about the essence of the work and the purpose of the work –why is the people over working so hard for? Clausen begins his essay with his dream jobs when he was a kid –at six, a cowboy and at twelve, a professional football player, and in high school, a writer. When he was young like 6 and 12, he wanted to have those professions because he wanted to be, and because he had passion toward those professions. But when he entered in high school, he wanted to be a writer not because he was interested in writing, but because the writing seemed to have no work involved in it. Then in a second paragraph, Clausen takes further step to support this “against work” idea by taking out a rhetorical quote from the George Bernard Shaw’s play, “Man and Superman”: “What is the use of having money if you have to work for it?” Nowadays, the word, work, is described as a mandatory thing that we should do for living for surviving the life, like breathing the air; it is not a thing that one do because of one’s interest, curiosity, or passion. In today’s busy world, the work is the duty that one should do to get paid. People only do work when they are getting paid. As Clausen says, “Today those of us with full-time employment typically put in several hundred more hours per year than western Europe. Our disposable income is correspondingly higher, though when asked whether we would prefer more leisure to greater wealth, most of us opt for leisure.” Although people prefer to have free time and relax in their home, they know that long American tradition has lead them define themselves not only by their work but also by the amount of time they put in to their labor or work, which makes them to become forced workaholic, an addiction, the compulsion. However, in today’s American society, the term workaholic is a compliment and considered as the expected attitude of the workers. 

Seven Deadly Sins

In Thomas H. Benton’s “The Seven Deadly Sins,” Benton analyzes the common, but troubling attitude and behavior of the college undergraduate students in classes and compares these seven calamitous and devastating attitudes to the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins in Christian tradition which is used to aware and educate young Christians that man has sinful nature and has been always fallen into these sins. These “Seven Deadly Sins” are: sloth, greed, anger, lust, gluttony, envy, and pride. In his essay, Benton relates these “sins” to the problematic attitudes of college students. However, Benton makes his argument based solely on the generalization, which makes the reader to have an indication of that every college students would be slothful and indolent in one’s duties and tasks, would pursue their college degree only to get higher payments, would have anger problem, would always wear “inappropriate” clothes, would always eat during one’s every single class, would envy one’s friends and classmates, and would have awful pride that doesn’t reflect the merciless realities. However, does these “Seven Deadly Sins” only applicable to college undergraduate students? How about the college associates or professors? Do they not “commit” these “sins”? To compare some of these sins between students and professors, according to Benton, college students are so slothful and lazy to do the assigned preparations and home works in time and postpone them to the last minute, which makes them feel the class more unenthusiastic and insufficient for them to attend and listen to the lectures, and makes them eventually to skip the classes; however, not only college students are “slothful”, as Benton describes, but also some college professors are also slothful, perhaps more slothful than their students. Some college professors dismiss classes and skip classes early for their private schedules and appointments, which is considered very good for slothful students; however, this attitudes of professors should also be considered problematic and considered as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” of the college professor. Benton also had said that the students have greed in their heart that they pursue a college degree to get higher pays than to learn higher level of education. However, don’t college professors have earned their degree to get a higher payment? Not to offense any liberal arts college professors, how could a student who has studied a major in music history could get paid enough without being a college professor? There are so many job limitations to those whose major are in liberal arts major, which makes them no choice but to become teachers and professors. These are some of the “sins” that college professors also “commit”. I could have write some more about these “Seven Deadly Sins” of college professors, but since, I am an idle and indolent college student, I would go back to my bed and take a nap.

The True Multinational Society

In Ishmael Reed’s “America: The Multinational Society”, Reed argues about that American society fails to embrace its multinational cultures, despite the fact that America and its “system of government” was founded on the propositions and regulations adopted by other countries. Although Reed had set his argument well and provided a good examples or evidences to support his argument, Reed’s argument which is based on the failure of American society does not still hold up as true to the present, since Reed had wrought this piece of writing approximately 30 years ago.

          Reed begins his argument with a quote from the “New York Times”, which was: “At the annual Lower East Side Jewish Festival yesterday, a Chinese woman ate a pizza slice in front of Ty Thuan Duc’s Vietnamese grocery store. Beside her a Spanish-speaking family patronized a cart with two signs: “Italian Ices” and “Kosher by Rabbi Alper”. And after the pastrami ran out, everybody ate knishes.” To the American with a single cultural perspective would describe this quote as completely ironic illustrations of scenes; however, realizing that America is a melting pot composed of people, foods, cultures, and lifestyles from multiple nations. Then Reed writes few experiences that were deeply related to the monocultural Americans’ mistreatment of people that were from multiple backgrounds and cultures. The first mistreatment that Reed wrote was the Yale professor’s experience of being ostracized from some monocultural intellectual circles in the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee for working on the influence of African cultures upon those of the Americas. Another critical mistreatment that Reed had written was his personal encounter with an Afro-American artist whose paintings included African and Afro-American mythological symbols and imagery. The painting of the Afro-American artist, which Reed has described as so majestic and beautiful to ”grace the walls of any of the country’s leading museums”, was instead hanging in the wall of local McDonald’s restaurant. This encounter illustrates the major flaw of the American society to fully embrace the diverse, multiple people and cultures from different countries. The Afro-American artist and his painting were much underestimated and belittled only because the artist has come from different countries and has different values and does not fit into the ideal image of artist that the American society wants, which makes him not to have the same opportunities that “white” American artists are granted.

           However, as time passes, the Reed’s argument has lost its power. In today’s world, American society is now very widely open and acknowledge and accept the difference that comes from the various, diverse people, countries, and their unique cultures and lifestyles through making protectable laws for the multinational people and giving them more than the same opportunities compared to the original “white” Americans, making America a true multinational society.

GO HERBIES!!!

In Taylor Clark’s essay, “Meatless Like Me”, Clark writes about the “omnivores”’ typical misconceptions toward vegetarians through reflecting to his experiences and thoughts about being a vegetarian and about enduring the “look of confused horror” that “normal” omnivores give. Clark begins his essay with his funny episode of how he was first acknowledged as a vegetarian publicly to all other people around him in the scholarship luncheon when he was just 18. Ever since then, Clark became used to the “look” that most “omnivore” people give to him. However, Clark strongly asserts that vegetarians are also “normal” people who desire and yearn for delicious foods and “normal” foods by comparing to the common misunderstanding that most people have toward vegetarians: “loopy, self-satisfied health fanatic, hellbent on draining all the joy out of life.” Vegetarians refuse to eat a meat for various reasons, such as religious reasons, ethical reasons, environmental reasons, and health reasons etc. In case of Clark, he became a vegetarian for ethical reasons of treating the animals. Clark feels pity of the animals that were put to death because of human’s need. However, these diverse reasons of rejections of ingesting meat don’t make the vegetarians abnormal or strange. It is the appetite; it is the matter of preference, not a matter of right or wrong. In the middle of the essay, Clark clearly states that his purpose of the essay is not persuading the “omnivores”, but rather it is to debunk the misconceptions and misunderstandings toward vegetarians, to draw out a peace and understanding toward vegetarians from “normal omnivores”, and to build friendly relations between omnivores and herbivores. Throughout the essay, Clark uses a light and humorous tone to develop his thesis and provides adequate examples and experiences to support his thesis. Clark’s essay might not look formal and neat, but it has strong message that is expressed and conveyed overall the paper by using humors and somewhat sarcasm. Clark has reached his aim of his essay, the co-existence of omnivores and herbivores in perfect harmony without any conflicts, through whimsical and playful structures, illustrations, and descriptions of his experiences. 

Nature - a magic bullet to the stresses of everyday life

In Deb Aronson’s essay, “The Nurture of Nature”, Aronson writes about the stresses of everyday life in the modern world and the magic bullet solution that relieves all stresses –nature. Aronson begins her essay with a rhetorical question, “Can contact with nature relieve anxiety and stress, aid healing, and increase concentration?” This wordy question in the introduction implies her thesis or the main point of her essay, which is that nature can relieve anxiety and stress, aid healing, and also increase concentration. To build her claim or thesis firm and persuasive, Aronson appeals to ethos by citing various studies of authorities. For instance, Aronson uses the ethos of Andrea Faber Taylor, who is an environmental psychologist and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois, to explain the two types of attentions: directed attention and involuntary attention, which were compared in the text. Then, Aronson refers to the research of Roger Ulrich and his colleagues at Texas A&M University to support her claim that nature is actually “nurturing” and curing people: according to the studies of Ulrich and his colleagues, people who are exposed more to nature are showed much calmer response to the stress or stressful situation than those who are less exposed to nature by what they call, inoculation effect. In keeping with the results of the researches, Aronson asserts her point by writing that what we need to relieve and resolve stress are not exercise or artificial stuffs, such as yoga, aerobics, coffee, and anti-anxiety pills etc., but rather it is just a little piece of green environment, the nature. She strengthens her points by using the quotes of Kathleen Wolf of the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington: “But now we are seeing that our daily lives have constant small stressors….Consequently, even small, incremental contacts with nature in our daily lives are beneficial.” Finally, Aronson concludes her argument with Andrea Faber Taylor’s study of the great effect of small green environment shown in Robert Taylor Homes housing project. Strongly appealing to ethos, Aronson has well established her argument with strong thesis supported by credulous researches and studies of authorities; however, Aronson’s essay lacks her own thoughts and lacks details about the studies and researches that were used in her essay. 

Advertisement Analysis Peer Review

     The first analysis that I read was Brandon Proffitt’s analysis on the “Silva Thins” cigarette of the American Tobacco Company. Brandon started his analysis providing the background information of the magazine where he found his advertisement. The background information that is explained in the introduction of Brandon’s analysis adequately informs the reader about what kind of the product that the advertisement is trying to promote and whom does the advertisement aimed toward to. The thesis or the main analysis point of this paper is the following lines: “Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich,” Silva Thins Cigarettes promotes a very materialistic and stereotypical view towards women that diminishes their importance and devalues them as people in a variety of ways. Throughout his paper, Brandon addresses some of the major points that should be discussed in analysis, such as who is the intended audience of the advertisement, what is the specific images that are depicted in the advertisement, and what are the messages, both explicit and implicit, which the advertisement is trying to convey to its audience etc. Overall, Brandon’s paper is well-organized and well-focused analysis paper that sufficiently describes the advertisement and discusses the purpose of the advertisement.

     The second analysis that I read was Rory Slevin’s analysis on the campaign advertisement that confers on the jeopardy of the childhood obese. Unlike other advertisements, Rory’s advertisement aims not on selling a specific product, but on “selling” the idea of awareness of danger in the childhood obese and its consequences. In his analysis, Rory gives a description of images in his advertisement, such as the children with a sad and gloomy face. Also, the advertisement is appealing to pathos to the parents by demonstrating its image with children who has shadows in their face, implying that the obese children are not happy, and that the parents should be aware of this danger. Rory had displayed few major points that should be mentioned in the analysis. He has explained the message that the advertisement delivers to “consumers”, has figured out the intended audience, and has indicated the purpose of the advertisement. However, Rory’s explanation and analysis was insufficient to inform the readers.

     For Tina, since I haven’t read her rough draft, I couldn’t review Tina’s draft.

Did Girls Really Gone Wild? or Is It The World?

In her book, “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”, Ariel Levy strongly stresses how the contemporary American culture has been jammed with the excessively sexual representations of women. For instance, when you walk down the street, you may see quite a lot of girls or “women” dressed up overly sexual and perversely. Also, when you turn on televisions or read magazines, you may see women celebrities dancing or posing perversely wearing only few clothes. In this excerpt, the author greatly remarks that people especially women should notice and recognize this rise of the “new” phenomenon of the culture in America.

According to Levy, this “Raunch Culture” came slowly and naturally without any disharmony or friction, and people became so familiar with this “modern” culture and view toward women by the media. Through films, TV shows, and magazines like “Charlie’s Angels”, “Girl Gone Wild”, and “Maxim”, people started to perceive the ideal image of good women as glamorous, sensual, and sexy, rather than smart, wise, and intelligent. The author puts this blame on the “Female Chauvinist Pigs”, which is the term that the author uses to describe the women who regard themselves and other women as sex objects just to appeal to males. Levy argues that this sudden change of representation of femininity or beauty of women brought by the “Female Chauvinist Pigs” makes young teen girls and other women feel pressured to fit into this “Raunch Culture” and look like the “Female Chauvinist Pigs”. Throughout this book, Levy firmly asserts that this “Raunch Culture” made America to adopt wrong ideal of sexuality from the “Female Chauvinist Pigs”.

Since this new “Raunch Culture” has incredibly changed the trend of sexual representations of women in America, it has also affected the images of women depicted in advertisements. Even the body wash advertisement that I chose for the analysis paper had shown some aspects of this whole new “Raunch Culture”. For instance, my body wash advertisement had three women standing in front of some panel boards; however, these three women, who should supposedly to show the benefits of the product after using it, are just wearing bath towels around them. The company, Dove, who made this advertisement, must have intended the effect of the new sexual representations of women, which is the rise of the product sales.