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Ashley DunfordENG 1020Winter 2013Reflective Argument & PortfolioTable of ContentsReflective Letter (pages 3-9)Appendix A-The Proactiv Difference (pages 10-16)Appendix B-Road to a Healthier You (pages 16-24)Appendix C- Childhood Obesity: A Problem in Public Education (pages 24-33)Appendix D- Reflection One (pages 33-34)Appendix E- Reflection Two (pages 34-36)Appendix F- Reflection Four (pages 36-37)Ashley DunfordReflective Argument Throughout my high school career my English professors would have us focus on very selective readings and compare one reading to another, or even just have us compare the reading to our life experiences. When I came to Wayne State University, I started in English 1010 to try and improve my basic rhetorical reading strategies. Then, in English 1010 I was so conditioned to reading to get it over with opposed to reading for the context of the material. In the English 1020 course I learned and improved a great deal through out the three major projects, reflections, and responses in the learning objectives of reading, writing, researching, and reflecting.Objective 1- ReadingThe first learning objective I’ve learned from English 1020 is the ability to read a variety of complex text and rhetorically evaluate them. I believe I met this objective by analyzing a variety of content for persuasive purposes, rhetorically, and claims made by the authors. In assignment 1, the objective was to find an advertisement and rhetorically respond to the advertisement in terms of persuasion. After the project was assigned I realized how many advertisements would be quick to say almost anything if it will make you think their product is perfect for you; I learned that advertisers would use rhetoric to persuade you into buying the product they are trying to sell. For my assignment I chose to breakdown the rhetorical persuasion techniques used by Proactiv including how they use ethos, pathos, and logos. For example, I pointed out how the advertisement companies used celebrities, and doctors to build the products ethos. In Assignment 1 I stated,‘Celebrities often say, in the commercial, how they used to have breakouts, and acne problems and they were embarrassed while on stage, or in front of so many people. That gives us a reason to be embarrassed about out breakouts and blemishes. Then the celebrities proceed to say how then they found Proactiv, and ever sense then they have been blemish free. What an amazing impact the product had in their life to help them become more attractive and confidant than they already are.’After learning about ethos and seeing the commercials I realized that they were using the celebrities to bring ethos towards the product. Also in the commercials I observed that they use doctors and I specified, “According to , they are “board-certified and still-practicing dermatologist”. Having these two ladies as the brains behind Proactiv definitely helps. The average American looks up to doctors and we trust them with our lives.” I recognized that Proactiv most likely knows the trust that the average American has for doctors so they knew putting in the commercials that two doctors created the product most people would trust it, therefore buy it. By the end of assignment 1 I felt I fully understood ethos, pathos, and logos but I was still uncertain of exigence and exactly what it meant, and how I was supposed to show it in my writing. Things got a bit tougher when we moved onto assignment 2. In assignment 2 we had to pick from a list of selected readings and analyze the authors argument and add an argument of your own. I had to take my rhetorical reading skills up a notch and make sure I read with a purpose. I believe I improved on my reading skills as the assignments moved on, because I clearly stated all of the arguments Pollan was evaluating. I stated, “Pollan argues that one should ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.’” He states this before evaluating the problem of food in several ways, defining what ‘food’ actually is, defining ‘nutritionism’, and making a proposal with several component parts. This argument is backed up with research from several different studies, and by charting a brief history of our past.” I didn’t only talk about Pollan’s claims but I also read and understood the claims well enough to build to Pollan’s argument.Objective 2- WritingThe second learning objective for this course requires that you build on your ability to write effectively, in different processes and different rhetorical situations. While writing, in order to prove that you have a clear understanding of your topic and make your paper fit your chosen audience; you need to know how to form a clear and understanding structure for your piece. As my work goes, in assignment one I used the classic essay outline when each one paragraph holds one subject and after that paragraph the subject doesn’t get mentioned until the conclusion. The first few paragraphs I talked about how Proactiv uses everyday people to get your attention and make you feel like other people experience are the same as your’s are. Then I moved on to talk about how they use celebrities and doctors to increase to products exigence, and finally I talk about the success rate of the product and end my paper. In assignment three I learned to change the outline for my paper, to fit the requirements for the assignment. Assignment three was a research paper, and I learned that if you are going to write an effective research paper you couldn’t follow that classic outline. I learned to effectively write a research paper and make it flow. In assignment three I found myself using a source and then later in the paper bringing up that source again to prove another point that would need back up, and relate to the previous points. Also, before English 1020 I never tried to find an audience for the papers I would write. All of my writing was geared towards my professor or teacher because I knew that they would be the ones reading my essay. It wasn’t until my English 1020 course that any of my teachers really pushed for the students to find and aim their paper towards a selected audience. When I had to write assignment one I just tried to focus on the other objectives and wrote to Professor Grogan like in my past, always writing towards my professor. By the time I got to the third assignment I feel that I fully understood how to identify, select and write to an audience. As a part of our research packet for assignment three I stated, “My audience will be school dietetics, the head of school districts, and parents of overweight children”. When I stated this, before beginning the actual writing of my paper, I proved to myself that my ability to identify and write for an audience has improved. In order to write for an audience you need to expect that they have at least a little prior knowledge, if any, so you know how deep you need to dig into the topic. I also stated, “My audience should already know about my topic, but my paper will deepen their knowledge and give them ideas on how to reduce the problem.” This proves that I understood where to begin with the topic and how much background information I need to provide them with. Also when writing for an audience I feel that you need to know what you want your audience to get out of your paper. I stated, “After reading the paper my audience should understand what effects the school system has on a child’s health and lifestyle. Also it will answer the questions readers might have on how to fix the existing glitches in the system, also it will help the readers understand what to do at home to help with this topic”. I think by stating this I truly learned how to effectively write for an audience, because before writing my paper I knew whom my audience for the piece was going to be and what I wanted them to get from my paper. Objective 3- ResearchIn this course I took my research paper as the biggest challenge of the semester. In high school and my previous English classes I was never asked to write a research paper. I have always heard how challenging they can be and how hard it is to find good, quality information from the Internet. When the research assignment was first assigned I was nervous and was unsure that I could finish a quality research paper in just a few weeks. Before when I had to find information for papers I would always just use Google and think that was quality information. I feel I learned how to properly research on the Internet and how to filter out all of the bad, unreliable sources. In part three of the research packet we had to come up with different ways we planned on getting reliable sources. I stated, To find good sources I plan on using the Wayne State library website. I will use this because it will lead me to good databases that will find good information based on my topic. I know that databases will lead you to newspapers, articles, journals and other forms of information. This will help my information have a good variety and get different points of views.By saying this, and simply knowing where to find the sources, I knew that just Professor Grogan’s lectures and class time has helped me fulfill the learning outcome of becoming a better researcher. I also learned about Google Scholars. I have never heard of the search engine Google Scholars until it was mentioned during a workshop day during the project. In the research packet I said, “Google scholar will also pull up articles, newspapers and other forms of information that match my topic. Google scholar filters out most of the junk that normal Google doesn’t. I know that by using this search engine I will find many useful websites that will give me great information for my topic”. Learning about Google Scholars has made me a better researcher because of the different forms of information the search engine provides. It has showed me where to find good books, journals, newspapers, and online articles. Objective 4- ReflectingIn all of the English classes I have taken, I have never had to do so many responses and reflections. I may have done one or two in high school but not as many as Professor Grogan asked us to complete. In the beginning I didn’t understand the point of doing all of these reflections and I thought they were just work to keep us busy; as the course went on I learned that doing the reflections helped me keep track of where I was in the course with my progress of becoming a writer, and my thoughts on the current project. Reflection assignment one was supposed to make you think about the writer you were at that point in the semester, and what a college writer should be. I knew coming into the English 1020 course I was going to have to work very hard because English isn’t my strong suit. But when I had to think about what a good college writer should be, I found myself guessing and I wasn’t quite sure what traits a college writer should have, while writing their papers. Looking back on reflection one my writing was not at the level it is now; I had a very basic thesis statement saying, “The key characteristics I think writers have are grammar, organization, and the ability to research”. This is the very basic thesis statement, no extra explanations of the paper just strictly what I planed on talking about. As soon as the reflection two assignment, I could already see improvements in my writing, especially the thesis statements. In reflection two my thesis was, “As we were writing I started to not only understand that editing was more along the lines of things like commas, and periods, and more of the skeletal part of my essays but I saw myself doing the different steps. I then saw that revision is more about expanding your ideas on your paper, and using different words”. This thesis is still not at the solid college writing level, but you can see improvements through the statement including some extra information that was missing from the previous statement.Reflection four was the reflection that I feel showed one of the biggest changes I have made in my writing during this class. The forth reflection was used to show how we connected our writing process to the research we did for assignment three. I went from reflection one, where I couldn’t write a good thesis statement, to making connections with my writing and research process in a positive way. Reflection four also showed how I made changes in the process or researching by stating, Then when I figured that out, I thought a good counter argument would be that schools are not to blame, parents are. Then I researched more and more on how schools and parenting affect obesity in children and found that they are equally to blame and I wanted to blame both groups for the problem. Researching changed the structure of my argument because it made me add more to my argument, plus made me change my counter argument from parenting, to pleting reflection assignments through the course really helped me keep track of the changes and decisions I have made to my writing through the course. While I continue to move forward to harder and higher-level English classes, I will go into the class with an open mind and more confidence than I came into English 1020 with. English 1020, with Professor Grogan, showed me that when I do some things to my work that I am not used to could really help improve my writing abilities. Although, I understand I still have a lot of work to do with my overall writing skills to become a great college writer, I know walking out of this course my reading, writing, researching, and reflection skills have improved a great deal.Appendix A: THE PROACTIV DIFFERENCE “The Proactiv Difference”Don’t you wish your skin could be as flawless as the celebrities you see on TV? Proactiv has found a way to make you believe that by using their product your skin will be perfect and acne free. Eleven, the advertising company that created the campaign, endorses popular celebrities to show their “breakouts” and how Proactiv “helps” clear their face. The commercials also show normal everyday people stating how Proactiv helped change their lives and made them as beautiful as they have always wanted to be. With the very large, cultural impact celebrities have on the average American, the use of doctors, everyday people, and free products for the purchase as logos, Proactiv has been a successful and very persuasive company. One-way the Proactiv commercials persuade people to use their product is by using everyday people. This helps the viewers see that they are not the only people experiencing blackheads, and blemishes. This tactic really plays with people’s emotions, making them feel like they are part of a large group of people and not outside the social norm. When the commercial shows normal people who have used Proactiv they show a before photo, where the person looks miserable: they have their hair thrown up or messy, their face is red, and they have ache everywhere. Showing shortly after is the picture of the same person after they used Proactiv. The person usually has: a huge smile, nice outfits on, perfect hair, and flawless skin. These commercials are known to change everyday lives, but not only normal lives. Celebrities are also known to be self-conscious about their acne, and are also “changed” by the Proactiv products. Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Julianne Hough are some of the famous faces you will see staring in the often-aired commercials. According to , Proactiv has more than 15 endorsed celebrities including singers, actors, dancers and athletes. Using all kinds of different celebrities opens your target audience range. Singers and performers help draw attention to the target audience by connecting with those who love their music, think they are the definition of beauty, and who want to be just like them. On the other hand, athletes open the door to individuals who know the athlete well, play sports, or sweat a great deal when working out. However, after the commercial, I am always caught thinking if I can really trust these messages, or are they paid to say all of these wonderful things about the Proactiv product. One of the biggest questions, that run’s through almost everyone’s mind after any commercial is, would that product really work? Is it worth my money? According to , about 50% of the Proactiv users actually find that it helps their skin, and works for them. In Proactiv commercials, they say, “Proactiv helps with all ages, and all skin types”. Therefore, some people might say that Proactiv commercials are lying in order to sell the product, in order to get all the money back that they have spent on advertising and spokespeople. People have left complaints about Proactiv. According to , “There are lots of complaints from people who claim that their acne got better, but then shortly after got much worse”. So Proactiv might work in the beginning, but after the first two months, the period never talked about in commercials, the effects it had for you could ware off”. Also according to , many people posted a common complaint that the product was to harsh for their skin, made their skin red, just irritated their zits; and in some cases made them more noticeable than before. On , they observed about 10 complaints for every 2 positive comments. They believe that Proactiv seems like it is working, only because of the large amount of people who have tried. Just the fact that this product works may not be enough to sell the large quantities that they need to. Rendering to , Proactiv pays their top celebrities between $2 and $3 million dollars for their commercial time, Proactiv, for the most part, has about 5-8 celebrities signed at one time. Doing the math, that is about $15 million per year only on the spokespeople. The $15 million is just the beginning; we haven’t included the production cost, the cost of labor, and material combined. Also according to , the production cost came up to a whopping $200 million annual fee. Now, I start to wonder if all of this money is actually paying off for Proactiv. What exactly is making all of these people buy Proactiv if it doesn’t do what the commercials say it does? Lets not forget about all of the creditability Proactiv gets because of the celebrities they have endorsed. Because of the celebrities people remember the commercials, the celebrities get the Proactiv name out so people can see the name and remember the product. According to , the celebrities brought Proactiv “1.5 million YouTube views, 43,000 Facebook fans and 11,200 Twitter followers to say nothing of a projected $800 million in revenue for its flagship acne products in 2010”. So just off of the celebrities’ faces, voice, and credit people are following the Proactiv celebs on the Internet and racking in a bunch of revenue for the company. Maybe that’s why the company always has a bunch of endorsed figures. Celebrity obsession has been on the rise. The producers of the Proactive commercials were very smart about endorsing a large number of celebrities for this reason. The American population loves celebrities; what they do on a daily basis, what they say, and even whom they are with. According to researchers found, “obituaries of entertainers and athletes marched steadily to the top in rank — from seventh in 1900, to fifth in 1925, to third in 1950 and first in 1975 and 2000; in 2000”. This proves that the obsession, and their ethos are on the rise as well. One main source that provides people with information about celebrities is media. Media has a huge impact on society, and a lot of media, including TV, includes famous celebrities. They are normally promoting some sort of product, or singing, playing a sport, even in the stands of a sporting event. No matter what they are doing, majority of American’s are obsessed with knowing. Also, according to , “We're social creatures, who evolved in an environment where it was beneficial to pay attention to the top dogs. As such, celebrity obsession may be an outgrowth of that ancestral tendency, something no doubt nourished by the media and technology”. As the quote states, we grew up in a place where we learned it was important and good for us to try and follow the “top dog”. Because we grew up thinking it was so important to be like these people, in form, we stalk them to know what they are doing. When the viewers of the commercials see that the new “top dog” is using Proactiv we want to get it, to be like them. A large reason all of the stars had a positive impact on the population is because they said it helped them in their lives. When celebrities say that something helped them it makes average people want it even more, maybe we can get to be like them! According to , “Endorsements also may increase the consumer's desire for a product. This is often achieved by implying that the particular celebrity is successful, talented or attractive at least partly because of the product”. Celebrities often say, in the commercial, how they used to have breakouts, and acne problems and they were embarrassed while on stage, or in front of so many people. That gives us a reason to be embarrassed about out breakouts and blemishes. Then the celebrities proceed to say how then they found Proactiv, and ever sense then they have been blemish free. What an amazing impact the product had in their life to help them become more attractive and confidant than they already are. When average people see that the product made celebrities imperfections go away, we suddenly think that the product will do the same for us and maybe we have a shot at looking like they do.If you think those are the only ways Proactiv gets a large amount of ethos, think again. Katie Rodan, M.D., and Kathy Fields M.D. are the two Stanford graduates who created the product. According to , they are “board-certified and still-practicing dermatologist”. Having these two ladies as the brains behind Proactiv definitely helps. The average American looks up to doctors and we trust them with our lives. Almost everyone has always fully trusted any kind of doctor, whatever they say; we believe what they say is correct just because of their label of a doctor. The average person labels a doctor with high credibility. Even if we see someone dressed as a doctor, like in other commercials, with a long white lab coat, we instantly categorize them as a doctor, someone with high credibility. When we see, or hear, that two dermatologist who both have their M.D. we believe that their product is the real deal; I mean, they are doctors right?To close out the commercial, they show the “special offers” you can receive when, and if, you purchase Proactiv. A lot of the times they will give you a discounted price if you order at the time of the commercial. And if you order soon, they say they will throw in a free facemask, or a free brush, or something free from the Proactiv collection! Proactiv also offers a free trial, where if you are not happy with your results then you can receive your money back. This helps plant the idea that this company is so confident in their product working they are willing to give money back. Sometimes the popular celebrity who spoke in the beginning will show back up on screen and say a few last words, so we remember that we to can have a perfect face like the celebrities we see on TV.With the cultural impact celebrities have on people, using everyday people, the use of doctors, and free products for the purchase as logos; Proactiv has been a successful and very persuasive company. Proactiv has all of us average people figured out; using celebrities to gain ethos, and the name of doctors to receive even more credibility, everyday people to obtain our trust, and make us feel more welcome to the product makes us think that this is the start of something life changing. Proactiv made a very successful business move to create the commercials, and draw every blemish filled face’s attention to the screen. However, now that you know the real facts, do you want to be Proactiv? Work CitedAdmin. "Celebrities Who Endorse Proactiv Solution." Wwwhowtogetridofacnehelpcom. N.p., 27 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.Casserly, Meghan. "Proactiv's Active Ingredient: Celebrity." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2013Elliott, Stuart. "Trying to Move Up From a Fast-Talking, Buy-Now Approach." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 May 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.Gannon, Megan. "Obit Archives Reveal Rise of Celebrity Culture." . N.p., 14 Aug. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.Paul, Alex, and Angela B. "What Is the Effect of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2013."Proactiv." Skin and Beauty Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.Appendix B: Road to a Healthier YouRoad to a Healthier YouIn the New York Times Magazine article, “Unhappy Meals”, Michael Pollan, talks about the way the majority of current Americans choose to eat, and he says it is because they think it is the right way to eat. There are so many different approaches to the way people have believed to be the “healthy” way of eating. In “Unhappy Meals”, Pollan argues that one should “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” He states this before evaluating the problem of food in several ways, defining what “food” actually is, defining ‘nutritionism’, and making a proposal with several component parts. This argument is backed up with research from several different studies, and by charting a brief history of our past.Pollan’s argument is first and foremost an evaluation argument that breaks down the complex problems associated with food systems. In todays every day routines, the average American probably eats more fake food than they do actual food. Pollan breaks down this problem very early in his article by breaking it into two main groups, food and “food”. He explains to people the difference between food, and “food”. Right out of the gate this most likely confused a good amount of readers. Pollan compares the two groups by saying, “Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible food like substances in the supermarket.” I think by putting this main argument in the very beginning of the article was a smart move. By putting this argument in the beginning, it made the readers start to think right away; it can make you think a variety of things, like do I eat food, am I guilty of this, can I stop eating “food”? And a lot of other thoughts that come to mind like where can I even find food? In todays society it could be hard to find whole foods, or foods that are unprocessed, if you don’t know where to look; whole foods are generally more expensive than the processed foods. Parents and families try to save money and find “food” that they think would be the least bit healthy for them and their family. Food used to be all you could find in stores, back when everyone was so much healthier and in much better shape. In the article, Pollan states, “It was in the 1980s that food began disappearing from the American supermarket, gradually to be replaced by “nutrients,” which are not the same thing.” The processed “food” is what fills the shelves in the supermarkets. In order to find healthy, whole food you need to go to a farmers market, or an organic whole foods grocery store. Pollan says, “Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” By that statement, he means that today’s new “food” isn’t really food. Your great-great-grandmother probably wouldn’t recognize almost anything in the frozen food isle, or majority of the things in the cereal isle, or any fruit snacks, fruit roll ups, granola bars or anything along those lines. All of the frozen foods, and snacks I named above are items that great-great-grandmother would never identify. In other words, the new “food” that we are used to seeing on the shelves isn’t real food, it is processed fake food so it taste good, with fake health claims on the boxes to make us think they are somewhat good for us. Pollan’s second argument is that you should seriously stay away from foods that contain an overbearing health claim, because they are unreliable. Pollan breaks down this problem by simply reminding us of what we read on our food boxes every time we pick one up. This argument, in my opinion, is one of the better arguments he has in the article. It reflects his main claim to a great extent, has great facts, and evidence to back it all up. The argument starts by saying that almost all of the foods you see in supermarkets have some sort of health claim written in huge writing, for all to see, right on the front of the box. Lets use cereal as an example, you see boxes of cereal say “2x the fiber”, “3x the protein”. Well that may be true, however have you ever thought about how much fiber, or protein it had in the box before? It could have started with only 1 gram of fiber and now it has 2 grams, but the big exciting health claim on the front bought you in, and many people fall for this trick. Pollan uses Kellogg’s Healthy Heart Strawberry Vanilla cereal bars as an example. Even with all of the health claims the product had on the box, the product was found to give some people heart attacks. That doesn’t sound too healthy to me. Pollan shared, in his article, “a rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims”. Not only does Pollan share his thoughts and ideas, but scientific findings as well.The Institute of Medicine said that it wasn’t clear on how omega-3’s help with health. Many products that have omega-3 in them are products that have the health claims on them, like cheese and bread. Just by companies making a simple claim of things that they put in our food, doesn’t mean that it will actually help us become a healthier human. Pollan also brought up the end of the 19th century and stated, “British doctors were puzzled by the fact that Chinese laborers in the Malay states were dying of a disease called beriberi, which didn’t seem to afflict Tamils or native Malays. The mystery was solved when someone pointed out that the Chinese ate ‘polished’, or white, rice, while the others ate rice that hadn’t been mechanically milled.” What I believe Pollan is trying to say is, health claims are like big signs to stay away from that product. If one small health claim is on one product, and many health claimed product fill the shelves of a supermarket, maybe the supermarket should be considered one big health claim. When you buy your foods, you should try to stay away from the health claimed supermarket and go elsewhere. Another argument Pollan proposes is when you shop for food, stay out of the supermarket; its filled with health claims and fake food. Pollan brakes down this problem simply by proving that a farmers market, and a whole foods store would be much healthier than the supermarket just because of all the processed “food” supermarkets carry. You can’t buy processed “food” if its not available, so you should say away from places that have them. The biggest claim he makes in this main claim is simply when you grocery shop try to stay out of the supermarket. In the supermarket, you will find a whole bunch of “food”; not food, but “food”. They will have health claims, and food that has been through being processed and have un-natural preservatives in them to keep them from going bad. None of that stuff is good for you, that’s why you need to stay out of the supermarket. What you need to find, is a local farmers market, or even a whole foods store. In the article Pollan states, “Of course it’s also a lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a potato or carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over, the Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms are screaming about their newfound whole-grain goodness.” This statement has a very strong meaning. The statement shows you how the supermarket can suck you into buying “food” and not food. The fruits and veggies don’t come in boxes that make them look awesome, and appealing to the eye. When about 100 feet over all of the bright colors and characters can catch anybody’s eye. In supermarkets the fruits and veggies only have the chance of being bought by the people who are fully aware of the fake health claims, and everything else frozen and boxed foods have in them.At the farmers market you wont find frozen foods like pizza rolls, and chicken nuggets. You also wont find all the great snacks like fruit roll ups that taste so great, but have a health claim written all over it. At the farmers market you will find fruits, vegetables, and a lot of edible plants. That’s what you should be eating, things that are fresh and whole. That is the main reason people who want to be healthy should be shopping at farmers markets, because you are forced to buy things that will help make you a healthier person. Also at farmers markets your eyes wont have the chance to be distracted by crazy bright boxes, and health claims are screaming ‘I’m no good for you!’ Pollan stated, in the very beginning of his article, “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants”. He said this for a reason, and that’s because that’s what is best for most human bodies. Farmer markets, and whole food stores sell things that are grown from the ground up. They are from the dirt, and soil we walk on, yet that’s the kind of food great-great-grandma would recognize. The food that came from something with roots, and has not been through a factory is the best food majority of people can feed to themselves. When you cook things that are good for you, from the farmers market or whole foods store, you should add spices. Spices help to add flavor, and if you get to add spices that means you are actually cooking it and not warming it up in the microwave out of a box. Pollan stated in the article, “The astounding variety of foods on offer in the modern supermarket obscures the fact that the actual number of species in the modern diet is shrinking.” This statement shows that the modern diet isn’t as good for the human body than diets in the past. With a smaller number of spices it proves that people are cooking less at home, or cooking less healthy meals at home. If you get your food from a farmers market you will use spices to make your meals taste great. The whole, fresh, foods found at a farmer’s market or whole foods store are the best food you can find. Pollan also stated that, “what you will find are fresh whole foods picked at the peak of nutritional quality”. And that’s what we have all been looking for isn’t it.Packaged foods, majority of what people eat, are filled with preservatives. A preservative, in this case, is a substance that is used to keep food from going bad or decaying. In the article, Pollan makes the argument that packaged foods have negative effects on people health. I am going to expand this argument by evaluating the deeper and evolving effects these foods have on the human brain, the body, and people’s lifestyles.Majority of Americans have once heard the old phrase, “you are what you eat”, at least once in their life. Some people let it go right over their head, and ignore the advice they were given, while others choose to listen. Next time you hear the phrase think about it, because it holds truth. What you eat has a huge impact on your body, and most importantly your brain, and your brain makes you who you are. When you eat packaged foods you are also eating all of the preservatives that the food contains. According to healthy-holistic-, “there are many reported cases of fetus mal development, learning disabilities and even brain damage due to these chemicals in our foods.” Thus just because you don’t feel like cooking dinner at home, out of healthy whole foods, and you eat packaged food all the time, these consequences can happen to you; you could be in risk of having a child with fetus mal development. If you eat packaged foods enough at a young enough age you could develop a learning disability because the human brain cannot handle all of the harsh chemicals in the food. You could even get brain damage from consuming a large amount of the chemicals in preservatives in packaged food. Now think about what all of these chemicals, and preservatives are doing to the human body before they affect the brain to this extent.Preservatives have many more side effects than what was stated above. Before you buy food, you should read what the food contains and be aware to the best of your ability what each ingredient is or what it can do to you. Preservatives can have a very large impact on the human body, and in many ways. In the food that we buy today, there are 14,000 chemicals, that are man-made, that could be added to our food in the United States alone. If you ever look on the back of a bag for the ingredients, the chances that you see a color with a number by it are pretty high. The color is the artificial flavoring, what helps give the food its color. According to healthy-holistic-, “They have been suspected of having carcinogenic for decades.” Being carcinogenic means to have the potential to cause cancer. Another fact about the coloring according to , “Many coloring agents are derived from coal tar, and nearly all coloring is synthetic.” Do we really want to be eating food that is derived from coal tar, and could possibly give us cancer? Is eating the food worth all of that pain for your body? Another popular additive that companies love to put in our food to make it so tasty is all of the sweeteners. According to , sweeteners are “artificial sugar substitutes containing no natural sugars.” Consequently we know when things aren’t natural and that is a red flag, they’re potentially dangerous. Also according to , “Artificial sweeteners are linked to behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and allergies.” Eating foods that contain sweeteners, majority of packaged foods, can give people those things. And exposing your children to this is worse for them; they are younger and more likely for the affects to become part of their lives. The effects that the additives and preservatives put in packaged foods have on people lifestyle is also very large. The more preservatives and additives you eat, the unhealthier you become. When you become unhealthy it affects the way you live every single day. If you are unhealthy as a kid you won’t play outside as much, and it will lead you to be less active. When you don’t play outside as a kid you are not getting a good amount of exercise that children need to stay a healthy weight. They will gain weight and begin to experience the side effects like behavior problems, asthma, and many others. Adults are not as affected by additives and preservatives as children but they will experience weight gain, which could lead to obesity and sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself every day. If you are an over weight adult and have a young child at home, it will be harder for you to get on and off the floor from playing with your young child, or even from holding him/her for a while because you could become exhausted from not being in good shape. As an adult you can still be at risk of cancer and the other serious things that these chemicals could cause. In conclusion, Pollan argued about the right way to eat and how you should stay away from supermarkets, defines ‘nutritionism’, and states that you should stay away from packaged foods. Added to the packaged food argument I added the effects that the additives and preservatives, put in packaged foods, have a huge impact on not only our brains, or our bodies, but also our lifestyle. If you want to become a healthier person you need to learn the rules of how to eat, and how to shop for food, but also what is in your food. Once you have mastered all of that your life should be on the fast track to a new, healthier you!Works CitedDanna, Jim, and Jo Jordan. "Glazed and Confused...It's Time To Wake Up And Smell The Coffee." Understanding the Negative Effect of Processed Foods. Puristat Digestive Wellness, July 2005. Web. 03 Mar. 2013."The Effects Processed Foods and Additives Have on Our Brain: Toxic Brain." Toxic Brain, How Chemicals Effect Your Brain. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013Appendix C: Childhood Obesity: A Problem in Public Education A majority of children in public schools are obese; some of these children are new to this growing problem, and some don’t have the proper “push” away from the problem, at home or school. Children learn eating and living habits growing up and need to learn the right ones in school and at home. An important question today is what programs are being implemented to deal with obesity in public schools, are they working, and can they be improved? Childhood obesity can be changed through a three-pronged proposal: policy, programs, and parenting. Obesity is a growing problem in today’s society, and not just in Michigan, but nation wide. I have gained younger cousins and my family grew throughout my lifetime, my drive to try and minimize obesity increases. My drive isn’t only directed towards my family, but for other families as well. American’s are known for eating ourselves to death. In the article “STATE OF OBESITY MICHIGAN IN FAT CRISIS; SCHOOLS CAN HELP WITH CURE”, published in the Detroit Free Press, it states, “Almost 22 percent of the people in Michigan are obese, that is, 20 percent or more beyond their ideal weight. A quarter of Michigan children -- almost twice the national average -- are over their ideal body weight. And 11 percent of them are obese, which contributes to high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other ailments”. According to , in order to be obese, a person has to traditionally be more than 20% over their ideal weight. 300,000 people pass away due to a surplus of fat in their body yearly in our nation. In the article published in the Detroit Free Press, it is stated that “obesity costs the nation $117 billion a year in medical care and indirect costs such as lost productivity.” Also according to the article published in the Detroit Free Press, “The state Department of Education recommends more physical education and health instruction in schools. But it is not required, although research links fitness with improved concentration and academic performance”. Along with the slacking in schools, today parents will drive their kids anywhere they need to go, kids never have to ride their bike anywhere, or walk to a friends house; they just have their parents drop them off. Policy is the first proposal in the three-pronged solution to the problem. In many schools there is a way that things are run to keep them organized. Each school has different policies for gym/P.E classes, lunch and vending machine options. In order for obesity to be reduced, schools need to find a way to increase time in the gym to inure that children obtain more physical activity. According to “Childhood obesity prevention and physical activity in schools”, Fiona Davidson states, “The [95] World Health Organisation (2000) identifies PE as the main vehicle for delivery of physical activity in school”. In school you spend most of your time sitting behind a desk, listening to a teacher and trying to learn something. Clearly, P.E class is some of the only physical activity you get in school, which lasts all day. Some children don’t have much time for exercise after school so it is important that the gym classes utilize the time appropriately to provide a good amount of physical activity during the day. Gym classes should have a longer block of time in the schedule for the reason that physical activity isn’t conducted the entire duration of the class. Davidson also states, “a study that determined that a 40-minute PE lesson resulted in, on average, only eight minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity”. Time is taken up with time for the children to change into their gym clothes, attendance, and directions on what the class will be doing that day. In “Fighting Obesity in the Public Schools “ Ron Haskins, Christina Paxson, and Elisabeth Donahue state, “Even without new funding, local systems can move resources from other activities to ensure physical activity by all their students at every grade level”. Schools can argue and say they don’t have enough funding to do certain activities but maybe in stead of buying flat screens and large computers to play on, schools should buy new exercise equipment, I mean do we really need computers to learn if we have books?Another reason that schools can take blame for the number of obese children is due to the menu most schools provide for lunch, and the choices in the vending machines. Haskins, Paxson, and Donahue state, “ Foods available in schools fall into three categories: the federal school lunch and breakfast programs, à la carte food items available in the school cafeteria, and foods available in vending machines”. The kids in schools depend on these food choices for their lunch, snacks, and even breakfast five days a week. If the school isn’t feeding the children healthy food choices, the bad foods they are serving will become part of the child’s everyday diet. According to Haskins, Paxson, and Donahue, “Some schools even allow fast-food vendors such as Taco Bell, Subway, Domino’s, and Pizza Hut to market their products in the school cafeteria”. When kids get these fast foods for lunch in school every day they are going to want to have it during the weekends and even more through the summer because majority will love the way these foods taste. In the article Haskins, Paxson, and Donahue states “Consider vending machines. Until recently, the content of vending machines, which are found in most school buildings, was mostly junk—candy, gum, and sodas”. It is very rare to find any vending machine with healthy food choices; you always go to vending machines and find candy bars, chips, cookies, soda, and juices. Having vending machines in schools is largely affecting children’s weight in schools in a negative way. Haskins, Paxson, and Donahue said it best by simply stating, “Reducing school vending would lead directly to improved child nutrition and health.” If kids don’t like the food choices they see in the cafeteria for lunch they know that there are vending machines, and they can get a soda with some chips, their favorite candy bar and call that their lunch. According to the article “New Guidelines Planned on School Vending Machines” Ron Nixon states, “Nutritionists say that school vending machines stocked with potato chips, cookies and sugary soft drinks contribute to childhood obesity, which has more than tripled in the past 30 years”. If vending machines are going to remain in schools, they really need to consider changing the food choices in the machines. The second proposal in the three-pronged solution is the programs schools offer. Schools could also help reduce obesity and promote a healthier life style by better promoting after school fitness programs and also by attempting to increase enrollment in these programs. In the article Haskins, Paxson, and Donahue state, “A full menu of extracurricular sports and physical activity clubs should be high on the agenda for all local school systems”. Not only should schools provide the classic sports and after school programs that all the other schools do, but they should try to have different programs as well. Most schools have basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, track and field, and other well-known sports. But schools should have other active programs for the kids who don’t play those sports like a running club, lacrosse teams, cricket team, kickball league, and many more possibilities. All the clubs don’t have to do with sports; schools could come up with other programs for the kids who don’t enjoy sports. These programs could include a nature club where the kids walk through and observe and keep clean the environment around them. If schools were having trouble with coming up with after school programs they could always survey the kids and ask them what kinds of programs they would like to join. Even in the classroom schools could find ways to make the students get up from behind the desk. They could set up learning activities thorough the classroom and have the kids walk around to each activity. They could also, if the weather permits, set up a scavenger hunt outside and have the clues to the prize be questions about what they are learning in class. Schools can find many ways to continue to promote outdoor, healthy exercises and lifestyles. The last proposal of my three-pronged solution is parenting. The schools can only be held responsible for this partially because the kids don’t live at school, nor are they there all summer. The children will have to learn to live a healthy lifestyle and eating habits from their parents and family. Parents are very often role models and many kids would do anything to be like their parent, including eat what they eat, take walks with them and almost anything that parent does. The study “Influence of the Home Environment on the Development of Obesity in Children” written by Richard Strass, MD and Judith Knight, MD was published in the Pediatrics journal states, “In summary, our results indicated that children raised in environments with high levels of cognitive stimulation have the lowest rates of developing obesity”. In other words, children who had more parental support were less likely to be obese, as they got older. These kids will learn how to cook from their parents, and if the parents can’t cook healthy foods then that’s all the child will learn to cook and that’s all he/she will be used to eating. The parents need to find a way to help influence their children in the right way. The parents could take their kids on bike rides, or take the family pet for a walk, play catch in the front yard, almost anything to get them moving and active. Parents could also limit the amount their kids watch TV, or play video games per day. According to , “Ninety-seven percent of young respondents play video games”. Almost every young person in today’s age plays video games, that means sitting in front of a TV for hours on end pushing buttons on a remote. According to , “kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer”. The time spent playing video games are outside of school. If the average child age 8-18 is spending over 6 hours a day on video games, computer games, and watching TV they don’t have much time for anything else if you add spending all day in school to the agenda. The parents need to step in and limit the amount of hours their child spends daily on the video game counsel, sitting on the couch watching TV, and in front of the computer. A proposal for parents could be that their child could play video games and watch TV after they have finished their homework, ate a healthy meal, and went for a walk, bike ride, or even shooting hoops outside with a friend. A very common argument heard about obesity is that obesity is not caused or affected by the school environment, or the personal home life, but it is caused by the person’s genetic make-up. A lot of people will argue, and believe, that obesity is caused by genetics. In the article, “Diet and Weight-Loss Lore, Myths, and Controversies”, it states:“Researchers believe that environmental and behavioral factors make equally strong, if not stronger, contributions to the development of obesity. As a result, people from overweight or obese families may have to make concerted efforts to maintain healthy body weight and prevent weight gain, but they are not destined to become obese simply by virtue of the genes they inherited”. If you come from an obese or overweight family it will be harder growing up to stay fit, but not because of genetics. This process would be harder for a person who comes from an over weight family because they grow up around the obese lifestyle. The child will be eating foods that the parents eat, foods that aren’t good for you, they will grow up will limited work-out time and likely that they wont be very active because they didn’t grow up with anyone active. However, it is very possible for a person to be fit coming from an overweight or obese family. If the child learns to work out, eat healthy foods, and be more active. This life style will be harder for a person to hold on to because they would have to break most of their old habits and learn to live, and love the healthier life style. In conclusion, childhood obesity has many causes. The main causes are from the meal plans at school and from their home life and parenting. All the blame is not placed on these two things, but studies show school life and parenting are highly correlated factors. These two environments help shape and form the way a child looks at life and the way they choose to live their life. Schools need to work on changing the school menu to healthier choices so the kids will be used to making the right food choices outside of school. The schools should also increase the number of afterschool activities that the children can participate in so they can learn new, helpful and healthy hobbies. Also parents need to step their health game up and understand that their children look up to them as role models and will pick up on their habits. Some people will look to blame the growing problem on genetics and say that there is no way to bring about change, but to prohibit obesity the answer lies in a change in lifestyle, which has less to do genetic make-up. The most efficient way to create a decline in childhood obesity is the three-pronged solution: policy, programs, and parenting. Works CitedDavidson, Fiona. "Childhood Obesity Prevention and Physical Activity in Schools." . N.p., 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.Haskins, Ron, Christina Paxson, and Elisabeth Donahue. "Fighting Obesity in the Public Schools." . N.p., 2006. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.Struss, Richard S., and Judith Knight. "Influence of the Home Environment on the Development of Obesity in Children." Pediatrics (1999): 1-8. Influence of the Home Environment on the Development of Obesity in Children. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.Haskins, Ron, Elisabeth Donahue, and Christina Paxson. "Schools Should Implement Policies to Help Combat Obesity." School Policies. Ed. Jamuna Carroll. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Fighting Obesity in the Public Schools." The Future of Children. 2006. 1-7. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 29 Mar. 2013.Nixon, Ron. "New Guidelines Planned on School Vending Machines." New York Times 21 Feb. 2012: A11(L). Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 30 Mar. 2013."Diet and Weight-Loss Lore, Myths, and Controversies." Weight in America: Obesity, Eating Disorders, and Other Health Risks. Barbara Wexler. 2008 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Information Plus Reference Series. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Apr. 2013."KidsHealth." How TV Affects Your Child. The Nemours Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.Graham, Nick. "Survey: 97 Percent Of Children Play Video Games." The Huffington Post. , 16 Sept. 2008. Web. 08 Apr. 2013."Obese Definition - Medical Dictionary Definitions of Popular Medical Terms Easily Defined on MedTerms." Medterms. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.Appendix D: Reflection OneIn my mind I believe that successful college writers have to be good at many things. The key characteristics I think writers have are grammar, organization, and the ability to research.Grammar is a large skill to have as a writer because, without grammar papers would be unorganized and very confusing. To me grammar is the largest make-up of a sentence. Without it sentences would not exist; papers would just be a bunch of words bobbled together. Grammar also helps organize a paper, and without organization a reader would be lost in any form of writing. Organization is also a big part of becoming a successful writer. If what you are writing, a journal, paper, essay, doesn’t have organization nothing would make since. If you don’t have organization skills your reader will be very confused and won’t understand what you are writing. If your reader doesn’t understand what you are writing, then what’s the point in writing in the first place. We write to express what we believe, and feel to other people, and if we don’t have our thoughts organized the readers would be confused and not understand what we are trying to say. I also believe that having the ability to properly research helps become a successful writer. When you research the proper way you can put others ideas in your paper and help support your idea, or even show the other side of thoughts. It would also help you find information for things to add into your paper. My goals for this class are to improve my English skills in many ways. I need to highly improve with my grammar work; I have never been strong with grammar. My English teachers in high school helped me a little but I think I could be a lot better. Also I would like to become better at using all of my recourses in a better way than I do now; I don’t think I use all of them to full potential. These goals are important to me because I know when I achieve them they will help me in my future to a great extent. I need to know how to do these things for my everyday life. It would mean a lot to me if I could understand grammar more than I do now; with grammar I would be much more confident in my writing. I would love to finish this class with a final grade of a B+. Appendix E- Reflection TwoSo far this term my understanding of the revision process has changed greatly. In the beginning I didn’t really understand what the difference between editing and revising was. I also just thought they were the same thing, but different teachers had different words for it. When Professor Grogan explained that they were different I still wasn’t 100% sure what it was until it came time for the first assignment. As we were writing I started to not only understand that editing was more along the lines of things like commas, and periods, and more of the skeletal part of my essays but I saw myself doing the different steps. I then saw that revision is more about expanding your ideas on your paper, and using different words. I found that revision is more about the words in the essay and not too much about the grammar. Sommer states how with experienced writers they like to establish a “framework” for their argument. This helps them be sure that their argument is the main focus of the paper. For many experienced writers it’s not till the second draft that they have established what they want to say, and the counter-arguments begin to appear. Experienced writers say how rewriting is a never ending process, it could just keep going. Sommer also says how experienced writers will often ask themselves what the essay as a whole needs, and make sure they add in those details.The kind of revision I would like to make sure I get done with my assignment is to make sure my sentence structure is good, and also to make sure my analysis is on the right track with wording, and writing things the way I was trying to say them. I think that I summarized the article and analyzed Pollans arguments to my best ability. I know that I clearly stated my claims, and built an argument for them. Although I didn’t state the stasis I did respond with the kind of stasis in mind. I think the thesis I wrote for this paper is one of the strongest that I have ever wrote. When I edited my paper I tried to the best of my ability to make sure my sentence structure was strong, and that everything flowed together and made sense for any reader. Revising requires a process to make sure the paper is exactly what you want out of it. First I start with a “shitty first draft” where you get down your basic ideas and just look for somewhere to start out of this. Then with the second draft I expand on the ideas, you should know where you want your paper/ argument to go with this draft, and get all of your ideas down. Then I edit, and revise even maybe peer edit the paper so I know if someone were to read it your ideas would make sense to him or her as well. Appendix F- Reflection FourWhile I was doing assignment 3 my research and writing made some connections that I never realized would happen before. I learned that while doing research papers, what you find in articles can really change your argument and that you don’t completely know your research question until after you have done some research. I knew when I started to research I wanted to do something with childhood obesity, but I didn’t know exactly how, or where, to narrow it down. As I research and read, I got mostly interested in how schools can affect childhood obesity. Then when I figured that out, I thought a good counter argument would be that schools are not to blame, parents are. Then I researched more and more on how schools and parenting affect obesity in children and found that they are equally to blame and I wanted to blame both groups for the problem. Researching changed the structure of my argument because it made me add more to my argument, plus made me change my counter argument from parenting, to genetics. My thinking on this topic has changed a great amount based off my research. I never had any idea that there were so many different ways schools, and parenting in today’s time was negatively affecting obesity. In the process of this paper, I found that it was easier for me to do all of my research first, and then come up with the main points of my paper based off of my research outcomes. I never realized how important research was to a paper until I actually had to use a significant amount of research just for one paper. The biggest connection I found between my research and writing, is that without good quality research you wont have a good quality paper. ................
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