p. 419 blog, inquiry or not?

p. 419 blog

Personally, I couldn’t really tell if this is an inquiry essay because of many reasons. For starters, it seems like a lot of personal anecdotes and stories. Saying this, I enjoyed reading the article because it was like a fictional story that you would read for a book report in high school. The beginning of the story provided no facts or quotes from other articles to back up her assertions up. She says, “We can’t go places because of gangs…We can’t go to the mall…I just hate it.” This may be true, but there is no factual evidence that backs up her story. As the story continues however, she adds quotes from the “New Yorker” to support her thoughts on racism. One of her sources though, was the black entertainment television channel, which is a very liberal channel so it is a biased source. The second half of the article seems much more like an inquiry because it adds conversations and facts from the other side of the political spectrum. You can tell this when she says, “I don’t want to sound racist but it is the black kids a lot of the times that have the attitudes and are always talking back to teachers.” So, in my opinion, if the article was split into two halves, the first half would be just a fictional story or personal tale. The second half adds some reputable sources along with personal anecdotes to provide for a fairly decent inquiry essay. 

Brooklyn Gang

Brooklyn Gang

Since the assignment was to read this article and make the blog post good, I am slightly confused on what to do. But, I am going to write on how this article, The Brooklyn Gang, is a pretty good inquiry essay despite its extreme bias. One of the reasons I think this article provides a great example of an inquiry essay is because while it is an informative article, it seems more like a story you would read in a book. The beginning of the article helps to set the scene, grab the attention of the reader, but not reveal too much about the article. As the article continues, the story begins to unfold and instead of the author just writing descriptively about the event, he acts more like a narrator. He does this by writing in first person, and allowing the reader to keep up with what is happening by giving a play by play description of what he sees. The author pays attention to each little detail, like the weather or street names, which allows the reader to put themselves in the author’s shoes. These methods the author uses make the story very easy to read, similar to a novel maybe, but it’s actually a very accurate representation to what the Occupy Portland movement was really going through. The only real problem I have with this article is that it is extremely one-sided. The author speaks of his hatred towards republicans, which is totally fine, but when he tells the reader about the interaction between the policeman and frail boy, the author is seemingly sympathetic towards the boy, but says nothing about what the policeman may be going through. If he had done that, the inquiry article, in my eyes, would’ve been an even more accurate representation of what was really happening in that time rather than just what one side of the battle. 

black holes

Black holes

For me personally, anytime someone speaks about space, all my mind can do is race at 1000 miles per hour. The thought that there is an infinite amount of space outside of our world is just mind-boggling. Having said this, the author already had an advantage when writing this article: the idea of the unknown. I don’t know much about space or black holes or math or physics, but reading this article still kept me interested until the very last word. The author did a tremendous job of intertwining scientific terms with common words that the average reader could understand. Using similes and metaphors like “The vast majority of physicists say, yes, black holes exist, but they are the ultimate Fort Knox,” allows the reader to compare an unfathomable concept. Making the story interesting was only half of the battle though. In order for this article to seem credible, the author had to provide facts that were true, which this author does well. Statements like, “The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, 26,000 light-years away, is named Sagittarius A*. Sgr A*—that’s the standard abbreviation; its surname is pronounced A-star—is currently a tranquil black hole, a picky eater. Other galaxies contain star-shredding, planet-devouring Godzillas called quasars,” is a perfect example of the combination of scientific syntax and common vocabulary. Personally, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the article as I was glued to the screen from beginning to end.

fake news

Fake news

This article uses ethos, pathos, and logos to its full potential. Starting with ethos, the author raises the credibility of the men in the article throughout the whole thing. The author actually makes the characters in the article seem incredible by letting the reader know how unexperienced they all are. He does this for example by saying “Boris is 18 years old, a lean, slouching youth with gray eyes, hair mowed close to his skull, and the rudiments of a beard. When he isn’t smoking a cigarette, he’s lighting one.” This shows he is just some normal kid, making the most of his situation. The author does this with the rest of the characters mentioned to make them seem somewhat less intelligent. To use pathos, the author does the same thing as he did for ethos. He makes each character seem more like a human. An example of this is later in the story while describing Boris, when he says “He listens to a lot of gangsta rap: the Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Wu-Tang Clan; after watching Notorious, the 2009 biopic of B.I.G., he decided he would like to visit Brooklyn, a New York City borough he imagines overrun more by gangsters than hipsters.” This tactic appeals to the human element because mostly everyone that reads this article has listened to or heard of those rappers and know about the hipsters in New York. He appeals to logos by adding the part at the end about how the “clans” of fake news creators were caught and shut down. This appeals to logos because as intellectuals read this, they wonder how people like this are allowed to continue to profit off of lies. The “so what” of this is a common thought of many people reading this article: where does fake news come from? I often wonder how it is allowed to get all the way to mainstream media like Facebook and twitter but this article answered that for me. 

What are you presenting on?

What am I presenting and why?

I chose to present on my researched article. I did this for a few reasons. First and foremost, it was a better paper in my opinion so I knew there would be more information to pull from to talk about. Since I am trying to become an agricultural engineer, it made sense to present on the agricultural paper. I also felt/feel much more comfortable talking about things I am knowledgeable about so I figured it’d be easier to talk about agriculture than I do about a study done about sleep deprivation of college students. The changes I made from the text to the presentation was basically dumbing down complex information and making the information presented a little more entertaining way. I tried to add pictures to nearly every slide because to someone that isn’t well versed in agriculture my presentation could be a little boring. I tried to include pictures that related to the topic of the slide so the others watching can have a better understanding of what I was talking about it. Some of the challenges I would face will be keeping the interest of my listeners because while I love agriculture, the common student may not be interested. Overall, I’m happy with how it went.

What helped my writing

What helped the most with my writing this year?

Personally, I have never really had any confidence in my writing. This year that problem has been somewhat resolved. The multiple writing assignments per week (blogs) made me more comfortable writing casually and the 3 papers helped with the more professional writing. I really liked the process of which we wrote the final paper where you as the teacher set due dates for each section of the assignment because it helped me stay on top of it and not fall behind. The writing days you provided were also very helpful because I could get help or just have a nice place to write. Probably the most helpful thing that I did this year was the ability to choose my own topic on major papers. This allowed me to become comfortable with my topic and truly write to the best of my ability. It also helped me in my knowledge of the topic because I could research something I enjoy so I had fun doing it. Overall, I would say that everything we did in the class really benefitted me as a writer. 

hook 2

The main focus of this researched article is related to the innovation of technology in the agriculture corridor. In order to properly understand the topic, research was gathered across many regions, including peer reviewed articles and conversations with farmers to get their opinions on technology. One of the largest innovations in agriculture, while widely unknown, is the forthcoming of no-till farming. For thousands of years the traditional practice of farming included plowing the land, planning the seed, then harvesting the crop. With “no-till” farming, however, the plowing is eliminated. Even though this method is different than what farmers have always done, some farmers in Southeastern Virginia discovered this process actually benefits the soil, and the environment. One may ask the question: “How does not tilling your land help the crops?” Well, author Jonathan Rauch of The Atlantic observed this in those Southeastern Virginia fields mentioned above: “Insects and roots and microorganisms had given the soil an elaborate architecture, which held the earth in place and made it a sponge for water. That was why erosion and runoff had been reduced to practically nil. Crops thrived because worms were doing the ploughing. Crop residue that was left on the ground, rather than ploughed under as usual, provided nourishment for the soil's biota and, as it decayed, enriched the soil. The farmer saved the fuel he would have used driving back and forth with a heavy plough. That saved money, and of course it also saved energy and reduced pollution. On top of all that, crop yields were better than with conventional methods. (Rauch, 2003).” The mitigation of storm water runoff (water filled with sediments and pesticides/insecticides that gets into the local waterways) plays a major role in keeping the drinking water clean, which is as important as producing food for the world to eat. The fuel saved by the farmer benefits the environment because that makes less carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Lastly, the crop yield is higher with no-till farming, which serves as a self-explanatory benefit to society. Overall, to better the agriculture corridor and help battle the changing climate, no-till farming needs to become more of a widespread practice rather than just a local method.  

hook 1

Growing up in a middle-income family where both of my parents had steady jobs, I never had to worry about where my next meal came from. Unfortunately for a good portion of the world, that question has no answer. At the current state of the world’s population, agriculture is not equipped to feed everyone. While this is a tough reality to comprehend, it is an issue that needs to be addressed. The population of Earth is rapidly and constantly growing, but agriculture is thought of as “background noise” because most people don’t care where their food comes from, as long as they can obtain it. Another problem facing agriculture is the variant climate of the world. With temperature increasing, farming will become more difficult, thus producing food for the population to grow will also increase in difficulty. In order to combat these troubles, the future of agriculture is going to need to change. To accomplish this daunting feat, I have researched what adaptations have been made recently, and where experts and farmers expect it to go in the future. Another equally important task will be to educate the youth of America to prepare them for the tasks that lie ahead of them. If these demands of the world are met, then the future of the Earth will still exist. However, if no adaptations to the rising population and changing weather are made, people across the globe will starve and we will be in trouble.