Category: English 122

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

November 28, 2018 

English 122 

Coming from high school I believed every paper needed to have an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. I also thought it needed a formal introduction that would lead its way into the main thesis which would be stated at the end of the introduction. These were the things my teachers in high school had taught me, so it was what I began to start my first paper with. Entering my first class of English I was a little nervous. I thought that I would have to increase the vocabulary in my papers and write a lot more than I did in high school. I eventually learned when reading Habits of the Creative Mind that I would have to “unlearn old habits” and instead just write. The reason why I had to unlearn these habits was because they hindered my ability to get my opinions across as well as begin to learn more when reading and writing. By cutting these habits out I began to feel freer when writing. I also learned that summary of an article or story is a good thing to integrate into papers. It provides the reader with more background and helps with allowing them to form their own opinion.  

Habits of the Creative Mind also taught me about note taking. Habits states “you will begin to write about stuff you don’t know about” (23) when note taking while reading. At first, I didn’t understand how this would help me, but I did it anyway. I eventually realized that because I was taking notes, I was processing the information I was reading and translating it onto paper. Because of this I didn’t have to go back and dig through an article for quotes and it was much more efficient when writing my paper.  

In Habits of the Creative Mind it mentioned working on 7 habits. “The best writing develops from the exercise of habits of the mind that include curiosity, creativity, attentiveness, openness to new ideas, persistence, flexibility and reflectiveness” (1). I found myself using all of these throughout the semester within the different projects and essays I’ve written. My curiosity has grown when exploring new topics. I’ve learned that there are no boundaries to where I can go in order to get my questions answered or formulate a new question. My creativity when writing has always been pretty good, but I’ve recently been adding a lot of personal experience into my paper which was something I wasn’t allowed to do in high school, and this has allowed me to be more creative with my papers. Being attentive is another skill I found I needed to be successful. When writing papers is when I found this skill most useful. I wrote in one of my let’s write entries “I found working on the paper easier when I would turn off my phone and just work for 20 minutes.” When doing this I felt like I was being very productive and the material I was producing was better. Due to this I was able to edit my papers better during the drafting process because I was focused on issues that I wanted to change and comments left by my classmates. In this class we have read many articles, and this has allowed me to improve my openness to new ideas. I was introduced to so many different points of view that if I didn’t expand my openness my paper would suffer. Though I have gotten a little lazy at times over the term I have also learned to be persistent with my work. I know that if I push myself and stay motivated while trying the best I can then my product will result in something good. My flexibility was also improved in this course. I’ve always had to write about books I’ve read in class when I was in high school. In this course I was able to explore other topics that I liked and some I’ve never read about. This made the class a lot more fun and helped with my learning experience. Lastly, I have truly learned to reflect on my own work and find ways to improve so I am never content with where my work is currently at. There is always room to improve and things to work on.  

When going through a couple of my journal entries from throughout the term I can see how I have progressed over the semester. I can see how in the beginning of school year I looked at things one way. When working on prompts I had a lot of similar responses to things. I also learned to give my opinion on some of the prompts. I found myself saying things like “I hated working on formulating a question.” I also said “the first essay was more enjoyable” when talking about expanding on a question.  I can see how my work and ideas have progressed over the term and didn’t realize this until now. While I have come this far there is still more room to grow. 

PART 2 

When writing the Pollan and Singer essay the biggest thing I struggled with was establishing points of view. When Pollan would introduce a new opinion like Descartes I would think that he was the one arguing that point. Through writing lab and working with Meghan I was able to establish who was saying what and clean it up to the best of my ability. I really enjoyed writing this paper because it allowed me to read someone else’s body of work, watch them formulate their own opinion on the subject and then find my own opinion as well. Another thing that was challenging about writing this paper was not closing off an argument even if it sounded ridiculous. Peter Singer argued “eating animals was immoral.” Though I found this argument was laughable I knew I had to read it and try to understand it in order to produce the best essay and formulate a proper final opinion on the topic.  

When writing to a question I struggled specifically finding what question I wanted to write to at first. I originally had put one question and then when writing began to answer another. In a way this was good because the original question I wrote sparked my idea to see if there was a way to convince people to change their eating habits since the fast food restaurants won’t change what they put in the food. I formulated a strong opinion against fast food restaurants by trying to see if there was any way they would change their menus. Upon realizing that they wouldn’t I knew that we must boycott these restaurants for the safety of our health. I learned that I need to use they say/I say in order to get a variety of vocabulary. They say/I say emphasizes this when talking about signal verbs. “Try to avoid bland formulas like she says or they believe.”(39). They say/ I say contained a lot of templates with information like this that I wish I used more. One of these templates are titled “Templates for introducing quotes” (47) which is a template I used a few times and wish to use more in the future. If I used these more often, I knew my writing would have been increased.  

My least favorite essay to write was the creative reading. Even though I found the research part very interesting once I started writing I found it difficult to stay focused on one topic. I was writing about the Unabomber and eventually worked my way to robots that can run and jump just like humans. Eventually, I was able to connect everything and say that if robots were to take control of themselves the Unabomber’s efforts would be justified by the robot’s actions if they were to create chaos. Another thing I struggled to integrate into my essay was quotes from the different articles I went through.  

My largest areas of growth in this course was being more comfortable with writing. I was so used to structured writing that I wasn’t able to use the skills I acquired during the course. One of the skills that I got really good at was annotating. I used to just underline things that I thought was important and that was it. This semester I learned that I needed to write my opinions on things I used that I read in the margins because every time I would go back to the article then I could incorporate my thoughts into the essay. This allowed me to improve my writing because when I used my own feelings, I felt more interested into the writing I was doing. 

My smallest area of growth was probably trying to write a good question or thesis statement. Even though I was able to produce a decent essay most of the time I still think that I trouble to find exactly what I want to write about. I saw it specifically when I was writing the essay about fast food when I was trying to choose a question to write to. One point I will be answering to the fast food chain owners and then at another point I would be talking to the costumers eating there. I realize that maybe I should plan out my essay and pull evidence from what I’m going to use in order to have everything organized. 

The new ideas I was introduced to was critiquing own and others work. In the rubric it says that a good critic “suggests different evidence for use” and “assessing the accuracy of a writer’s statement.” These were things that I was never to exposed to in high school when peer editing. Usually I would just check for grammar and formatting errors for the most part. Now
I know how I can help my peers to the fullest and give the good feedback as well. 

 

PART 3 

I learned a lot more about writing in general this semester. I used to hate writing because I felt like my work wasn’t up to par with the teacher’s standards. I also wasn’t receiving the right feedback in high school that I was given in this course. Not only did I get feedback from my classmates, but I also received daily comments from the teacher and writing lab instructor. These comments guided me in the right direction whenever I had to write a paper and allowed me to produce some of my best work. What I learned about myself this term is that when I am focused on my work, I produce work that’s just as good as anyone’s. But when I’m not focused my work is bad and it seems rushed when being read. I also learned that in order to be successful in the future I must take all the keys I acquired this semester with me into my next class. I remember when I was writing a paper and I started the introduction off with a topic sentence instead of just flowing into what I was reading and formulating a question. I read the comment Eric left on my first draft and worked through this problem with Meghan in writing lab so my paper would sound more natural. Some more things I personally feel I could work on is my work ethic, integrating more quotes and always relating back to the original text. My work ethic has always been just trying to get by and get decent grades. I noticed that when I really lock in and try my best then my work begins to stand out. I’m hoping that next semester in my new English class I will be able to not get lazy and give my full effort. I also want to work on integrating more quotes when writing my papers. This is because when I write my paper, I tend to recall examples or things people said in an article or a book, but I won’t quote it. I feel like I were to look back at the annotations I took on these articles I could not only include more quotes but place them in the right spaces so that they fit in the essay better. The last thing I really hope to get better at is relating back to the text. When writing a paper, I find myself going on a journey from point A to point B. There isn’t a problem with this I just feel like it would be better if I was relating back to the text continuously so the reader would know why I was there. I think two of the things I do best that the Engaged Learner Rubric mentions are “preparing for class consistently” and “seeking and accepting constructive feedback and criticism.” I’ve had my work ready for pretty much every class except for the week my laptop had broken. I think it’s important to be prepared for class so that way you can ask the questions you want and get the help you need. This leads into seeking and accepting constructive feedback. When you are prepared you will get feedback on your work and in order to improve you have to be willing to accept it and learn from it.

I learned a lot more about writing in general this semester. I used to hate writing because I felt like my work wasn’t up to par with the teacher’s standards. I also wasn’t receiving the right feedback in high school that I was given in this course. Not only did I get feedback from my classmates, but I also received daily comments from the teacher and writing lab instructor. These comments guided me in the right direction whenever I had to write a paper and allowed me to produce some of my best work. What I learned about myself this term is that when I am focused on my work, I produce work that’s just as good as anyone’s. But when I’m not focused my work is bad and it seems rushed when being read. I also learned that in order to be successful in the future I must take all the keys I acquired this semester with me into my next class. I remember when I was writing a paper and I started the introduction off with a topic sentence instead of just flowing into what I was reading and formulating a question. I read the comment Eric left on my first draft and worked through this problem with Meghan in writing lab so my paper would sound more natural. Some more things I personally feel I could work on is my work ethic, integrating more quotes and always relating back to the original text. My work ethic has always been just trying to get by and get decent grades. I noticed that when I really lock in and try my best then my work begins to stand out. I’m hoping that next semester in my new English class I will be able to not get lazy and give my full effort. I also want to work on integrating more quotes when writing my papers. This is because when I write my paper, I tend to recall examples or things people said in an article or a book, but I won’t quote it. I feel like I were to look back at the annotations I took on these articles I could not only include more quotes but place them in the right spaces so that they fit in the essay better. The last thing I really hope to get better at is relating back to the text. When writing a paper, I find myself going on a journey from point A to point B. There isn’t a problem with this I just feel like it would be better if I was relating back to the text continuously so the reader would know why I was there. I think two of the things I do best that the Engaged Learner Rubric mentions are “preparing for class consistently” and “seeking and accepting constructive feedback and criticism.” I’ve had my work ready for pretty much every class except for the week my laptop had broken. I think it’s important to be prepared for class so that way you can ask the questions you want and get the help you need. This leads into seeking and accepting constructive feedback. When you are prepared you will get feedback on your work and in order to improve you have to be willing to accept it and learn from it.

When writing the Pollan and Singer essay the biggest thing I struggled with was establishing points of view. When Pollan would introduce a new opinion like Descartes I would think that he was the one arguing that point. Through writing lab and working with Meghan I was able to establish who was saying what and clean it up to the best of my ability. I really enjoyed writing this paper because it allowed me to read someone else’s body of work, watch them formulate their own opinion on the subject and then find my own opinion as well. Another thing that was challenging about writing this paper was not closing off an argument even if it sounded ridiculous. Peter Singer argued “eating animals was immoral.” Though I found this argument was laughable I knew I had to read it and try to understand it in order to produce the best essay and formulate a proper final opinion on the topic.  

When writing to a question I struggled specifically finding what question I wanted to write to at first. I originally had put one question and then when writing began to answer another. In a way this was good because the original question I wrote sparked my idea to see if there was a way to convince people to change their eating habits since the fast food restaurants won’t change what they put in the food. I formulated a strong opinion against fast food restaurants by trying to see if there was any way they would change their menus. Upon realizing that they wouldn’t I knew that we must boycott these restaurants for the safety of our health. I learned that I need to use they say/I say in order to get a variety of vocabulary.  

My least favorite essay to write was the creative reading. Even though I found the research part very interesting once I started writing I found it difficult to stay focused on one topic. I was writing about the Unabomber and eventually worked my way to robots that can run and jump just like humans. Eventually, I was able to connect everything and say that if robots were to take control of themselves the Unabomber’s efforts would be justified by the robot’s actions if they were to create chaos. Another thing I struggled to integrate into my essay was quotes from the different articles I went through.  

My largest areas of growth in this course was being more comfortable with writing. I was so used to structured writing that I wasn’t able to use the skills I acquired during the course. One of the skills that I got really good at was annotating. I used to just underline things that I thought was important and that was it. This semester I learned that I needed to write my opinions on things I used that I read in the margins because every time I would go back to the article then I could incorporate my thoughts into the essay. This allowed me to improve my writing because when I used my own feelings, I felt more interested into the writing I was doing. 

My smallest area of growth was probably trying to write a good question or thesis statement. Even though I was able to produce a decent essay most of the time I still think that I trouble to find exactly what I want to write about. I saw it specifically when I was writing the essay about fast food when I was trying to choose a question to write to. One point I will be answering to the fast food chain owners and then at another point I would be talking to the costumers eating there. I realize that maybe I should plan out my essay and pull evidence from what I’m going to use in order to have everything organized. 

The new ideas I was introduced to was critiquing own and others work. In the rubric it says that a good critic “suggests different evidence for use” and “assessing the accuracy of a writer’s statement.” These were things that I was never to exposed to in high school when peer editing. Usually I would just check for grammar and formatting errors for the most part. Now
I know how I can help my peers to the fullest and give the good feedback as well.

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

November 28, 2018 

English 122 

Coming from high school I believed every paper needed to have an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. I also thought it needed a formal introduction that would lead its way into the main thesis which would be stated at the end of the introduction. These were the things my teachers in high school had taught me, so it was what I began to start my first paper with. Entering my first class of English I was a little nervous. I thought that I would have to increase the vocabulary in my papers and write a lot more than I did in high school. I eventually learned when reading Habits of the Creative Mind that I would have to “unlearn old habits” and instead just write. The reason why I had to unlearn these habits was because they hindered my ability to get my opinions across as well as begin to learn more when reading and writing. By cutting these habits out I began to feel freer when writing. I also learned that summary of an article or story is a good thing to integrate into papers. It provides the reader with more background and helps with allowing them to form their own opinion.  

Habits of the Creative Mind also taught me about note taking. Habits states “you will begin to write about stuff you don’t know about” (23) when note taking while reading. At first, I didn’t understand how this would help me, but I did it anyway. I eventually realized that because I was taking notes, I was processing the information I was reading and translating it onto paper. Because of this I didn’t have to go back and dig through an article for quotes and it was much more efficient when writing my paper.  

In Habits of the Creative Mind it mentioned working on 7 habits. “The best writing develops from the exercise of habits of the mind that include curiosity, creativity, attractiveness, openness to new ideas, persistence, flexibility and reflectiveness” (1). I found myself using all of these throughout the semester within the different projects and essays I’ve written. My curiosity has grown when exploring new topics. I’ve learned that there are no boundaries to where I can go in order to get my questions answered or formulate a new question. My creativity when writing has always been pretty good, but I’ve recently been adding a lot of personal experience into my paper which was something I wasn’t allowed to do in high school, and this has allowed me to be more creative with my papers. I’ve learned that a paper can contain all the components necessary and still be incomplete because topics are messy and all over the place. By keeping everything in the right order the paper is more attractive when reading. In this class we have read many articles, and this has allowed me to improve my openness to new ideas. I was introduced to so many different points of view that if I didn’t expand my openness my paper would suffer. Though I have gotten a little lazy at times over the term I have also learned to be persistent with my work. I know that if I push myself and stay motivated while trying the best I can then my product will result in something good. My flexibility was also improved in this course. I’ve always had to write about books I’ve read in class when I was in high school. In this course I was able to explore other topics that I liked and some I’ve never read about. This made the class a lot more fun and helped with my learning experience. Lastly, I have truly learned to reflect on my own work and find ways to improve so I am never content with where my work is currently at. There is always room to improve and things to work on.  

When going through a couple of my journal entries from throughout the term I can see how I have progressed over the semester. I can see how in the beginning of school year I looked at things one way. When working on prompts I had a lot of similar responses to things. I also learned to give my opinion on some of the prompts. I found myself saying things like “I hated working on formulating a question.” I also said “the first essay was more enjoyable” when talking about expanding on a question.  I can see how my work and ideas have progressed over the term and didn’t realize this until now. While I have come this far there is still more room to grow.

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

Eric Drown 

Unabomber Essay 

The article “The Unabomber Was Right” is an article I began reading in class. This article goes in depth on the occurrence of bombings committed by Ted Kaczynski and the purpose for his bombings. What I came across when reading this article was that Ted, who is currently in jail, believes technology is hurting society and that we must destroy it for the betterment of humanity. He specifically argues when technology is on the decline “we must pounce on it and kill it before it rises again.” Ted never liked technology and because of this he decided to move into a cabin in the woods away from all technology where he could embrace nature. Eventually, industrial society was moving close to his cabin and he decided he would change where he was living to a river that he enjoyed visiting. It was a two-day hike and when he arrived instead of seeing the body of water, he adored so much he was confronted with a huge road in its place. This made Ted fed up and he made it his mission to get his beliefs out into the world. This is when he began his bombings which ended in the deaths of three individuals and the injuries of many others during their occurrence. He only would agree to stop if someone were to publish a 35,000-word manifesto he had written and get his view points out there so he could possibly convince the world of his views. Unfortunately for Ted, this would be his downfall because his brother recognized his handwriting and gave him into authorities, but he was still able to get his message out there. After reading I began to wonder what his manifesto contained.  

I soon learned that Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto argued against the use of technology in modern civilization and because of that he indeed wanted to rid the world of technology. Ted also mentioned that there was no way to reform these societies so instead we must destroy them completely and start new. When hearing these claims that Kaczynski was making my mind wondered to another place. I tried to envision a society in the future without technology. I asked the question is it even possible to have a society without any technology? At this point I thought the answer was no but upon further research I came to the conclusion that if one were able to come up with a strong argument to convince people the technology was bad or harmful to us then they would be able to gain a following to start moving towards their goal. But what exactly could somebody do in order to reach this point? Well the answer was Robots. People fear that one day artificial intelligence may take over our country and there is nothing that we will be able to do about it at that point. 

So, if robots do take over the world then technically Ted would have been right in his argument and therefore, he could justify his actions. But how close are we really to a society where robots will take over our nation and imprison us or make us work for them. I did some research on some new robots being developed by the Boston Dynamics company and the robots they have so far are incredible. Some of the robots can jump and run while others are water proof and can run on any type of terrain. If anything were to take over, these robots seem like they would fit the job if they keep developing the way they are. There is also a robot in Russia by the name of FEDOR that can shoot guns. Aside from shooting guns it can endure some rigorous workouts like doing a lot of pushups to other physical challenges. One of the craziest abilities this robot has is the fact that it can drive a car. This robot has so many progressions already and more are to come. 

What I take from this research is a lot of optimism for the robots being developed with a little skepticism. Though I want to see how much these robots can accomplish at the same time I fear that if they learn too much, they may begin to build more of themselves and start up their own army. I know this may sound silly now, but this is also what Ted feared in a way. He feared technology would take over and it already has. Children everywhere are playing with phones and tablets before they even sit down in a classroom. If this isn’t a sign for a little change then I don’t know what will be. 

But now were back to the question at hand. Can we really rid the world of technology at all? I believe not. I feel that we are too dependent on all the innovations and advances society has made over the years and if we were to regress backwards all people would do is complain about how they want to be watching tv or on a phone. Also, taking away technology would also mean taking away heat to keep our houses warm. This is because before factories people didn’t have a heater in their house to keep them warm that the gas company would come fill every time it was empty. Imagine having to get firewood to keep warm after not doing it your whole life. People wouldn’t want to do that regardless of what they’d have to sacrifice. People are lazy and in fact if they could get a robot to do the work for them, they’d take it in a heartbeat. So maybe Ted’s manifesto will be the warning that nobody listened to and should’ve because it was a warning of what was to come. Or maybe Ted is just some crazy old guy who just over thought technology and what I had to offer to us. Either way we won’t know until the future. 

So now I conclude that it really isn’t possible to rid the world of technology. For those asking why it’s simple. The world is one big computer with a bunch of smaller systems running inside of it. We have turned our planet into a place where new technology is developed every day and people want to keep pushing the limits more and more. We have an iPhone that unlocks every time you look at the screen because it can recognize your face. At the end of the day people are to intrigued and comfortable with technology to just let it go. Sadly, for Ted he won’t ever see his dream accomplished. The new question is will it be for the better or for the worse? 

I started out my journey by reading an article titled “The Unabomber Was Right.” The Unabomber is a man who believed that technological civilizations were bad and wanted to tear them down. He was pushed to this opinion when he was living in a cabin in the woods with no power and electricity. The Unabomber had a favorite place he visited within the woods. This place was a little body of water that calmed him and one day when he went to visit there was a big road there instead. He started bombing to gain notoriety for his manifesto on technological civilizations. I asked what details specifically did this manifesto contain and I began to realize the general ideas which all resulted in evidently slowing down technological civilizations till they were weak and then getting rid of them before the grew back up again. I then began to think if this was even possible. So much of the world is ran on technology and it makes things simpler and less time consuming. When searching I realized that in order for the Unabomber to reach his dream he would need a strong argument to convince the majority to follow his manifesto. This is when I stumble on an article that stated 70% of Americans fear Robots taking over in the future. If these people fear that this may happen then the Unabomber could use this as leverage to convince people that one day technology may hurt us even more than it is now. While reading this article I thought about the movie iRobot. This movie stars Will Smith as a detective who is trying to solve a murder that may have been committed by a robot. If the world ever gets to how that movie is then it would be quite the scary site.

Jeremy Diaz

November 4, 2018

 

Conference Two Report & Reflection

Feedback Report

Report the goals for improvement you had set for yourself after Conference Two.

Summarize the feedback you received during your conference, paying attention both to feedback about new learning and improvement (or lack thereof) on habits, skills and techniques you needed to work on after Conference One.

You received feedback on your writing process, your reading process, your current abilities to integrate your own ideas with those of others, and your engagement as a learner in the course so far. This section should report the most important pieces of feedback you received in all of these areas. Review your notes from the conference, the rubrics you received, any notes or comments on your paper and the conference recording you made to refresh your memory.

Be sure to include both positive feedback about what you’re doing well and constructive critical feedback indicating process or skills you’ll need to work on.

Feel free to use subheadings to organize this section of your reflection, but don’t feel obligated to. Please don’t write in bullet points.

One of the biggest things I was asked to work on was my intro. In this paper I struggled with creating an introduction that lead readers to the question. I should have used more of Kolberts work to lead the readers to the question I eventually formulated. Another thing I must do is use more of a variety of signal verbs throughout my paper. I used some of the same words like states and says. I should use other words like argues. I must try not to assume the readers knows everything and provide more of a background when writing my paper. I should also try new things like using block quotes and brackets.  I also need to work on my work cited page because I always forget to put that in.

Analyze/Reflect

For the things you’re doing well, explain what you’re doing well and why it’s working. For things you need to work on, try to figure out and explain the obstacles to your growth and what you need to overcome them.

To help you figure out why things are going well or what’s limiting your growth, consider this: Learning to write well takes special knowledge about writing (for example, about process, techniques, goals) and about the topics you’re writing about, engaged persistent effort, frequent and varied practice, mentoring and feedback from someone who knows how to do it, learning from failure, and a commitment to learn anchored in an understanding of the value of writing in your own life.

To help you assess the value of what you’re learning in this class for your own life as a student, aspiring professional, citizen, and real human being, explain where else in your life you might be able to apply what you’re learning about reading, writing, and integrating your ideas with others, even if you have to adapt those skills to the different circumstances.

One thing that I believe I am doing well are getting the work done in general. I get the all my work in on time, but I also feel like I can give more. I also feel like I read comments and respond to them very well. If someone gives me a suggestion I try my best to take that advice into account and use it to my advantage so can improve my paper. I do a pretty good job of using quotes from the text in my paper but I can add a little more from the text in my intro and quote more instead of explaining things.

Action Plan/Adjustments

Feedback and reflection are only useful if you take actions based on them. What is your plan to act on the feedback you received in your conference? How can you build on your successes, learn from your failures, and make adjustments for the next arc of the course?

You’re free to explain your plan in any way you see fit. But your plan should be a SMART one and action-based. Proposed actions should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable in a reasonable amount of Time, and Relevant to the feedback you received.

This is not a SMART goal: I plan to do more margin notes when reading.

This is: I intend to make at least two annotations on every page of my reading starting with this week’s readings, with the further goals of making text-to-text connections and challenging the claims of other writers.

To get started thinking about your plan, you might consider asking yourself the following three questions:

1. What should you continue to do?

I think I should continue to focus and receive feedback positively. I take all comments and what Meaghan says into account when writing and I think because of that it helps my papers improve from start to finish.

2. What should you stop doing?

I should stop being lazy and also start formatting better. I also think I should work in using different signal verbs instead of using the same words over and over again.

3. What should you start doing?

I should start working a little more on my papers instead of waiting till the last minute because I think if I start at an earlier time then I my paper can improve.

I found the thinking in dark times video very hard to listen to. Dr. Roger Berkowitz was a very boring person to listen to and his concepts were very hard for me to understand. One thing that I did hear him talk about a lot and I liked was this common theme of hope. It seemed like no matter what happened or will happen we must keep hope in mind. He explained that this was an idea from Hannah Arendt and after anything she would explain she would end it with some type of hope. There is also a point where they talk about survival. Hannah Arendt argues that what is at stake is survival and human existence. I don’t think this is true because I feel as though at some point in time this earth will no longer host us. We have less than 100 year of gasoline left which means we have a limited time to find an alternative energy source. On top of that our population on this planet continues to keep growing nonstop and that means resources that are irreplaceable will run out much quicker. Therefore, I believe that regardless of what we do to survive some day we will reach “the end of the world.” It’s inevitable. One thing that really interested me was when Dr. Roger Berkowitz read a quote. This quote stated, “factual truth is greeted with greater hostility than ever before.” This quote honestly got me to think about how people never want to listen to any advice anymore. The world is at a point where people just have to live and learn on their own because everyone is so hard headed these days. Overall Dr. Berkowitz had some interesting things to say but I believe his presentation of it wasn’t up to par. He had a very mellow voice that put listeners to sleep and was just reading quotes a lot of the time. I struggled paying attention at times because of this and I wish he could’ve presented better.

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

October 21, 2018 

When reading the “XXXL: Why are we fat” article a big question appeared to me. Initially, I wondered how we can get big corporations such as Mc Donalds or Burger King to change their ways. Would we need to cut them out of our diet a little or should we boycott them completely? I eventually decided to move on from that question because I noticed that there hasn’t been any significant positive change in fast food ever. If they have not changed yet, why would they change for people’s health now. Many other questions came to mind and I continued to read Kolbert’s article. I read interesting facts about rapid weight gain and Kolbert pointed out some possible reasons for this weight gain. I eventually came to the point where I was wondering why these people who run the fast food industry aren’t doing anything to help people with weight when it is primarily their fault. I realized that fast food won’t change so it is us that must change, but how? Should we stop eating fast food altogether?  

What I have come to realize from Kolbert’s work is that people are gaining weight at an unhealthy amount and nobody can find out why. They went back and checked genetics to see if there had ever been a time before when people gained weight at such an unhealthy amount as we’ve seen in recent years and there is no correlation. The only major change we can see in both now and back then is that we now have fast food. Therefore, this could be the cause for major weight gain. Back then people actually had to do hard labor to have good food. If you wanted chicken, you had to raise it and then kill it yourself. On top of that you would have to take all the feathers off and cook it yourself. Now people just go to the super market pick up a pack of ribs and throw it on the grill. In other words, it takes little to no work to get the food you so desperately want. So, I encourage people to at least find the healthiest way to prepare food and cook it ourselves. Yes, it is more time consuming and a little more expensive, but I think having a better body and feeling healthy is worth the investment.  

Obviously fast food restaurants wouldn’t agree with my claim because it would take away from their income and business. These restaurants wouldn’t be willing to switch up their menu because if people want a healthy meal like a salad then they already know where they want to go for that. The same goes for if someone wants a quick order of a burger and fries. They know that they want to go to Wendy’s or McDonalds and so on. So clearly even if fast food restaurants wanted to change it would affect their business and therefore gives them no reason to change unless they start losing money selling what they are now. This is one reason why we must give up fast food. They won’t change unless they are forced to, and the power is in our hands. 

Now that I had a general idea that fast food was one of if not the main contributor to rapid weight gain over the past couple years I wanted to know why people wouldn’t just stop eating it. In Kolbert’s article she introduces a new argument when Kessler begins to say some people have an addiction to eating food. Kessler argues “Foods like Cinnabon and Starbucks strawberries and cream Frappuccino are like drugs.” He also compares this to the addiction of gambling. It is similar to high risk high reward. People know that there is a high risk to gambling but they do it anyway because if they are successful there is a high reward. For food there is always the reward of enjoying the taste of what you are eating but at the same time you are always putting your health at a high risk. The people Kessler is trying to reach here is fast food eaters as well as nutritionist. If fast food eaters hear this maybe they will be more cautious with the amount of fast food, they eat weekly. Nutritionist can use this as leverage when advising people what to eat and what is bad to eat. Hopefully by hearing about this some people who can’t stop eating these unhealthy foods everyday will try to reach out for help and be more cautious with what they are eating.  

Kessler’s argument that food is like a drug is true. Maybe some people will say that they could stop eating junk food every day and stick to a healthy meal plan, but you don’t realize how much unhealthy things you eat until you actually have to give it up. These are the things that make food “taste good” to us and add flavoring. There also certain ingredients added that will make you want to have more. I was doing some personal research online and stumbled upon an interesting fact. When reading on eatthis.com they introduced this to me; “refined carbs, fat, salt and sugar—the four primary ingredients in fast food—are downright addicting.” These restaurants literally put ingredients in the food so that your body wants to have more and more of it. In a way that’s kind of sick. Eatthis.com also had some information on a study done on mice. The study website reports, “Studies show that mice who have been fed diets with high levels of those very nutrients display withdrawal symptoms and are more sensitive to stressful situations after they were put on a more healthful diet.” It’s clear that what happened to these mice is the same thing happening to us and these restaurants don’t even want us to notice. Why should we continue to support them if they don’t care about our wellbeing? The answer is we shouldn’t at all. 

At first, I thought to myself in order to get people to boycott these fast food places, I would have to find a way to convince them that the food isn’t good for them. But some people don’t care about how healthy the food is so then I realized I would have to prove to them that these fast food industries didn’t care about their health in multiple ways. There are multiple examples of this within Kolbert’s article, one of the main one’s being that the calories in the food has increased over time. Kolbert provides evidence of this with research that states “Before McDonalds discovered the power of re-portioning, it offered just a small bag of french-fries which contained two hundred calories. Today a small order of fries contains two hundred and thirty calories.” This is a clear sign that they don’t care about people’s health and wellbeing. It also correlates with what I read on eatthis.com about the four main ingredients being addictive. The food shows no sign of changing anytime soon either. This goes back to why we must change our eating habits and our diets. There is clear evidence that the food itself has addictive products within it and it’s not like these products are good for our bodies. We need to fuel our bodies with the right things and get a good balance which we don’t receive when eating fast food. 

I know that fast food places won’t change for the better because if they were going to they would have done it a long time ago. Kolbert introduces some facts that show people have been getting weight at an unhealthy amount over the past couple years based on research. She states, “in the early nineteen sixties, 24.3 per cent of American adults were overweight.” Kolbert eventually explains “During the nineteen-eighties, the American gut, instead of expanding very gradually, had balloon; 33.3 per cent of adults now qualified as overweight.” McDonalds, among other fast foods, should have taken these facts into account back then and changed what goes into their foods so it could be a little healthier.  But they didn’t change back then and won’t change their methods anytime soon. Instead, they feel as if they put more into the food that people will instead feel like they are getting a bargain and continue to eat at their restaurant and making them money. If people realize this is who they are buying from and supporting then they will feel a sense of urgency to discontinue their support of these food chains. 

Overall I believe people need to wake up and see that they need to cut back on all the fast food they are eating if not cut it out of their diet completely. Everyone deserves to be healthy, but you can’t accomplish that if you are not eating properly. The fast food chain will never change what it is serving to us because that bad food is the product they’re sell as well as what they make their money off of. If someone wants a healthy meal they know where they want to go for that. Same thing goes for if someone wants something quick and greasy they will go to a fast food restaurant. They know people will keep coming and eating their food because of their ingredients that cause cravings. We need to fight this crave for that food and pick something to eat that will be good for our bodies in the long run. Since they will never change we must change our lifestyle and eating habits or else the numbers of obese people will just continue to increase. If we fight off the urge to eat these bad foods people will be in a much better place physically and mentally. It will also set up better eating habits for the future generations but it starts with us now. 

Jeremy Diaz

Eric Drown

English 122

October 21, 2018

When reading the “XXXL: Why are we fat” article a big question appeared to me. Initially , I I eventually eventually decided to move on from that question because I noticed that there hasn’t been any significant positive change in fast food ever. If they have not changed yet, why would they change for people’s health now. Many other questions came to mind and I continued to read Kolbert’s article. I read interesting facts about rapid weight gain and Kolbert pointed out some possible reasons for this weight gain. I eventually came to the point where I was wondering why these people who run the fast food industry aren’t doing anything to help people with weight when it is primarily their fault. I

What I have come to realize from Kolbert’s work is that people are gaining weight at an unhealthy amount and nobody can find out why. They went back and checked genetics to see if there had ever been a time before when people gained weight at such an unhealthy  amount as we’ve seen in recent years and there is no correlation. The only major change we can see in both now and back then is that we now have fast food. Therefore, this could be the cause for major weight gain. Back then people actually had to do hard labor to have good food. If you wanted chicken, you had to raise it and then kill it yourself. On top of that you would have to take all the feathers off and cook it yourself. Now people just go to the super market pick up a pack of ribs and throw it on the grill. In other words, it takes little to no work to get the food you so desperately want. So, I encourage people to at least find the healthiest way to prepare food and cook it ourselves. Yes, it is more time consuming and a little more expensive, but I think having a better body and feeling healthy is worth the investment.

In Kolbert’s article she introduces a new argument when Kessler begins to say some people have an addiction to eating food.. Kessler argues “Foods like Cinnabon and Starbucks strawberries and cream Frappuccino are like drugs.” He also  compares this to the addiction of gambling. It is similar to high risk high reward. People know that there is a high risk to gambling but they do it anyway because if they are successful there is a high reward. For food there is always the reward of enjoying the taste of what you are eating but at the same time you are putting your health at a high risk. The people Kessler is trying to reach here is fast food eaters as well as nutritionist. If fast food eaters hear this maybe they will be more cautious with the amount of fast food, they eat weekly. Nutritionist can use this as leverage when advising people what to eat and what is bad to eat. Hopefully by hearing about this some people who can’t stop eating these unhealthy foods everyday will try to reach out for help and be more cautious with what they are eating.

I thought to myself in order to get people to boycott these fast food places, I would have to find a way to convince them that the food isn’t good for them. But some people don’t care about how healthy the food is so then I realized I would have to prove to them that these fast food industries didn’t care about their health. There are multiple examples of this within Kolbert’s article, one of the main one’s being that the calories in the food has increased over time. Kolbert provides evidence of this with research that states  “Before McDonalds discovered the power of re-portioning, it offered just a small bag of french-fries which contained two hundred calories. Today a small order of fries contains two hundred and thirty calories.” This is a clear sign that they don’t care about people’s health and wellbeing.  Kolbert introduces some facts that show people have been getting weight at an unhealthy amount based on research. She states, “in the early nineteen sixties, 24.3 per cent of American adults were overweight.” Kolbert eventually explains “During the nineteen-eighties, the American gut, instead of expanding very gradually, had balloon; 33.3 per cent of adults now qualified as overweight.” McDonalds, among other fast foods, should have taken these facts into account back then and changed what goes into their foods so it could be a little healthier.  But they didn’t change back then and won’t change their methods anytime soon. Instead, they feel as if they put more into the food that people will instead feel like they are getting a bargain and continue to eat at their restaurant and making them money. I feel like if people realize this is who they are buying from and supporting then they will feel a sense of urgency to discontinue their support of this food chain.

In conclusion I think people will see that they need to cut back on all the fast food they are eating if not cut it out of their diet completely. Everyone deserves to be healthy, but you can’t accomplish that if you are not eating properly. The fast food chain will never change what it is serving to us because that is what they make their money off of. If someone wants a healthy meal they know where they want to go for that. Same thing goes for if someone wants something quick and greasy they will go to a fast food restaurant. Since they will never change we must change our lifestyle and eating habits or else the numbers of obese people will just continue to increase. One day I hope we can reach a moment where getting a meal isn’t about money or time but about others health and well being.