Biotech Food

From it’s emergence, biotech foods have been debated constantly with proponents saying that the biotech product is no different than the natural, and the opponents saying that we don’t know the dangers of these biotech products.
So far, the companies and the FDA have both determined the biotech foods on the market to be harmless to people and to have several advantages. This clearly shows the advantages that the biotech food would bring to the table (no pun intended), yet the opponents continue to say that there should be labeling for what are biotech foods and what aren’t. Not only would these labels scare the public, for the public often thinks of such labels as warnings, but it would be very costly to the company and this cost would then be passed onto the consumer with increased prices. Though labeling all biotech foods would be a bad and costly idea, it would still be advantageous to have certain foods labeled, but only if they had different nutritional facts than the natural product. This does not mean that it has to be labeled for being the smallest amount off, but rather, if it is a significant amount off, or an amount that could affect someone’s health, then the product should be labeled. If it would have no real effect then the biotech food should not have to be labeled.

Genre of an Argument

The genre of certain arguments can greatly influence the message that the argument portrays. From the image on page 24 the reader gets the general idea that genetically modified foods are very possibly bad for you and can have harmful effects, which serves as a good warning to most readers. The cartoon, however, has a much more penetrating message because it shows what genetically modified food could do for us (help solve world hunger) and contrasts this even more with the idea of the starving little child who would give anything for food but is having the food withheld by a self righteous “reason resistant” person. This kind of contrasting makes the comic much more effective than the image on page 24 because people are constantly bombarded with advertisements like the one on 24 that tell them why something could be wrong or bad for them but that is all it does, is tell them in a boring way that many people become immune to. The comic, on the other hand, attracts the attention of the general viewer because many people enjoy comics and the image of the starving child draws their attention and makes them feel more sympathy, while the mockery of the “reason resistant” person helps to fuel the dislike the reader feels for that same group. These two images clearly show how the genre of an argument can determine how effective the argument is.

Implicit vs. Explicit Argument

As defined by the book, “Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings,” an explicit argument “states directly a controversial claim and supports it with reasons and evidence,” while an implicit argument “doesn’t look like an argument. It may be a poem or short story, a photograph or cartoon, a personal essay or an autobiographical narrative. But like an explicit argument, it persuades its audience towards a certain point of view.” These definitions help the reader to understand the context of the Veterans day picture and the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, neither of which are explicit arguments. Though they both seem to be relatively innocuous entries into the textbook, they really say a great deal. With regards to implicit arguments, both have a great deal to say. The poem, for example, is a stinging and bitter rant against war and the horrors men face while fighting a war. The point is further driven home when it is revealed that the author, Wilfred Owen, himself died in the midst of World War I. The picture, on the other hand, offers a far different picture. It shows a young strong looking marine embracing and older veteran of another war, showing the comradeship of the two different generations of soldiers. Though the artificial hand of the younger soldier does come as a shock, it serves to remind the viewer that war itself is a very shocking thing and never to be taken lightly. Though neither item actually state an explicit argument, the amount they have to say is no less than if they were explicit.

Memory

A week after this school year started I was at DePauw helping my brother move into his new dorm with some friends of ours. This mainly consisted of the parents moving things in and setting up beds and dressers while we screwed around doing nothing, sometimes going out onto the campus. In the beginning, when I walked around by myself a little, so many people started asking if I had found my dorm yet I got tired of giving the long winded response which consisted “I’m not going to DePauw, I’m still in high school, but my brother is going here,” and instead took to just saying “yes.” Eventually, while unpacking some of Phil’s things, we found a nerf side by side break action shotgun he had shown us that he had gotten from Walgreens for five dollars. This served to bring us back down to the maturity of eight year olds as we ran through the dorm grabbing the gun from each other and shooting each other, to the ire of our parents, who eventually told us to put it down. This led to us walking around the dorm pointing out all the dirty spots and speculating to why they were there or who would have to clean them (such as the “AIDs spot”- a black splotch in the bath tub that Phil was assigned to clean). Eventually our parents kicked us out and sent us over to the Union to pick up books and computer information for Ian and our friends, which managed to entertain us for awhile as we poked fun at the selection of books they had or various other entertaining things. Though it was a simple day, it was one of the most fun i’d had in awhile.

Random Blog

After each reading within this class, we always have a class discussion, just to make sure everyone understood the reading as they were supposed to. This is a very helpful idea because, without it, I wouldn’t have understood nearly as much about these readings as I do. For instance, I would not have been able to draw the connection between “The Great Gatsby” and “The Great Death,” because, although I could have recognized the meaning of Gat, I would not have been able to see that was the aim of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Another benefit is some of the ideas we are told, such as the idea that the chair is only the chair, in so much as we ascribe the word chair to mean the four legged object which we usually sit on.
These in class discussions prove very helpful to the classes understanding of the literature that we read, which is why I enjoy this class, and the books we read, a lot more than the books I read in seventh grade.

Changing Language

Often time language constantly evolves whether it’s an individual’s dialect or a community’s vernacular. It is constantly changing due to the introduction of new ideas which lead to new words or the introduction of a new group of people, such as when the people who spoke Spanish mixed with those speaking English to form the Chicanos.
On a personal level, I have seen my language continually change, as I grow older. This was mainly due to the way that slang constantly changes. When I was in second grade, the word tight seemed foreign to me, but by the beginning of third grade I was constantly using it to describe things that I liked. Throughout my life these kinds of slang words have been coming at me and have slowly been becoming part of my vocabulary. This is even more evident in society when these kinds of slang words become prevalent among many different people. These changes can be seen in current music where many of the words are pure slang.
Language continually changes over time, and has been changing ever since the first language came about. It is still and will continue to change as long as humans have an actual language to communicate with.

Red Sky in the Morning Blog

The author of “Red Sky in the Morning,” witnessed a relatively innocent event, which led to a profound realization on her part. There are many people who have had such moments within their lives, though they may not realize it. Though my realization was a fairly basic one, it still changed my life permanently.
My realization began in first grade, when I came home one day from school and found my first dog, Lucy, lying on her doggie bed. At first my brother and I went to pet her but soon realized she was unnaturally cold, which is when my mother came down and led us away until my dad came home. It was then that we realized Lucy had left us. Though this has happened to many people, it was this moment when I finally realized what death truly meant. Because I was only in first grade I had not yet watched much of the news, or read the newspaper or even had a relative die so I did not know what it truly meant. It took Lucy’s death to show to me what death truly was.
Though many people have shared my moment, and there are undoubtedly some people who came to the same realization under the same conditions, it still changed my life profoundly. Since then, several dogs and several family members have passed on too, one of which affected me more deeply than Lucy’s death, but it is her death that I will always remember because of the great truth it revealed to my young mind.