2/26 In-Class Blog

What are the advantages to each mode of research?

The advantages of secondary research is that since secondary research itself is analyzed and presented by another party, I will not have to go through the hassle of getting information and getting it to make sense. Since it's all done for me, all I have to do is find the correct information that applies to my topic. An advantage of primary research is that this is information gathered by me through surveys, interviews ect. which help me work with information that is unbiased for me and is exactly what the information I want to use.

How can testimony help you appeal to logos, pathos and ethos?

Testimony can definitely be a great way to appeal to the audience emotions, logic, and trust. Providing someone who is able to discuss the topic and perhaps agree with you gives you more trust in your proposal (ethos). This shows other people that you are not the only person who is having a problem with this, and you should be heard. This approach can also appeal to pathos; the audiences feelings about the issue. If the person giving testimony has a compelling story, people are most likely to feel compassionate about them and listen to call to action. Providing testimony can also have a strong effect in logos, since the interviewee is definitely a great primary source. The person providing testimony is telling an opinion or story which can certainly be a good logical approach.

Why are comparisons and analogies helpful type of reasoning to include in a proposal paper?

Comparisons and analogies are very helpful since they provide reasons to why things should be changed. If the researcher provides information on a similar institution that already approved a similar approach, then the proposal seems more legit. The audience is more likely to agree with the other institution that did something similar, since they of course had to think about it and to approve the proposal it must have some good reasoning to it.

Why should you use anecdotal evidence in conjunction with other types of evidence?

Anecdotal evidence in conjunction is important with other types of evidence to support your claim. If the researcher can relate to its community and provide a similar opinion the proposal is more effective. People will be more likely to believe it since they know that the person creating the proposal knows and has experienced the issue.

Test Drive: Larger class sizes decrease student engagement and satisfaction.

It has been proven with statistical evidence that larger class sized decrease student engagement and satisfaction by the United States Education Board. A study performed at ASU, showed this evidence by comparing student grades in larger classes compared to student grades in smaller classrooms. As an ASU student, I have seen my grades significantly decrease in lecture classrooms that are usually more than 200 people. In my smaller classes where I have more interaction with the classroom and the students, I tend to perform a lot better. My friend also provided me with information about this topic, and assured me that she had to drop some of her larger classes because of it.

How does the problem affect your audience?

The problem of teenage pregnancy affects my high school districts student enrollment and high school drop-out rates. It also can be a "bad" example for other students in the school.

Why is the problem significant?

The problem with not proving students with contraception methods, is that students are not aware and are becoming pregnant at a very young age. STD's are also very common in the United States, and if our youth is unaware of these problems our country will face a  disease-spreading battle.

Blog Assignment Due 2/26

Mayra Sanchez

Professor Christina Santana

Writing Project #2

English 102

26 February 2013

Part 1

Proposal: Teenage Pregnancy and Prevention

In this paper I will explore the issue concerning teenage pregnancy and its effects often seen in my community.  I will also provide possible solutions for teenage pregnancy prevention which continues to be an on-going issue among adolescents in the United States. Although teen pregnancy has generally decreased since 1991, the United States still has a teenage birth rate that is nine times larger than other developed countries. Some of the factors found to lead to teen pregnancy are one or a mix of these: young age/unaware, prior school performance, economic disadvantage, having older partners in a relationship, and/or as a result of a single parent household. Although these factors cannot determine why teen girls are getting pregnant, they are significant explanations for this behavior.

Youth and lack of education about sex consequences are the main reason why teenage pregnancy occurs so frequently. Young girls and boys are not informed of the possible consequences pregnancy and child-birth can bring to their health. Teenage pregnancy often is unsupported by the family, and therefore adolescents do no obtain the proper prenatal support and medical supervision. During the first months of pregnancy, the most monitoring must be done with the development of the fetus. Keeping pregnancy monitored especially the first and last months of pregnancy can help prevent some birth defects. Young mothers are also more at risk of having high blood pressure during pregnancy than older women and are more likely to develop preeclampsia.

The Federal Policy and Legislation has increased advocating abstinence-only-till-marriage in schools rather than provide forms of contraception for adolescents and teenagers. Abstinence only education has proven to be ineffective for students to prevent pregnancy. Studies have shown a positive correlation between teen pregnancy and birthrates. Teaching student’s abstinence is not an effective technique to stop pregnancy since it does not provide help for students who chose not to be abstinent. Teenagers are not only at risk of becoming pregnant, but can also be prone to sexually transmitted diseases or infections (STI’s/STD’s). The United States not only ranks first in teenage pregnancy but, unfortunately we also rank highest in spreading of STD’s.

Teen pregnancy in the United States is most common within minority populations, such as Hispanics and African Americans. According to statistics, the 15-17 age group birthrates among African Americans are three times higher than Hispanics as Hispanic’s birthrates are four times higher than White adolescents. Parents also play a very important role in teenage pregnancy since parents in some cultures avoid talking about sex to their kids and ways to protect themselves from infections. Lack of communication is often seen in Hispanic families, where sex until marriage is the expected standard for all. Having parent pressure as well as religious and an abstinence-only education in school, creates a lot of uninformed minority population.

Teen pregnancy effects academic performance and high school completion. Based on the statistic, teenage mothers have a 10-12% less likelihood to graduate from high school compared to girls who do not have babies. Teenage moms also have 14-29% less probability of attending a higher education institution.        

Schools now are currently supporting students with School Based Health Centers (SBHC) which are supportive friendly community resources helping the prevention of teenage pregnancy. However as good as this resource is in terms of helping teenagers, only 40% of these sites are allowed to prescribe and dispense contraception methods for teenagers.

One of the things schools can do to decrease teenage pregnancy is to provide more interaction with programs like “Baby Think it Over”. This program allows students to care for a new-born like toy baby that is monitored for good care. Many schools provide this type of exposure to students to get students thinking of how their lives would be if that baby were theirs. However, in some low income schools students have to share a baby and are not allowed to take home for the weekend for practice. By having schools provide these babies only in classroom use and with a partner defeats the purpose this program tries to make. This approach however can have a biased effect since some don’t take the baby as serious as it should since it’s a toy.

To decrease teen pregnancy and transmission of STD’s in the United States, all schools should provide programs that help explain the issues and concerns associated with teenage pregnancy/prevention and provide information on how to practice safe sexual intercourse for those teenagers who do not want to practice abstinence. Schools should also provide places to go to obtain various types of contraception and make them accessible to students and perhaps free. By schools providing this type of help for its students, teenage pregnancy will eventually decrease and the spread of infections and diseases will control itself a little more. It is impossible to control the entire United States, but if each school provides this type of support a difference will definitely be seen.

Part 2

            This problem concerning teenage pregnancy pertains to the high school district I attended. Phoenix High School District is one of the largest high school districts in the country consisting of more than 26,000 students. Of these students, about 85-90% for which are Hispanic. In my Metro Tech High School graduating class this past spring, out of my ten closest friends in high school six or seven of them were pregnant or had been pregnant in our high school careers.

            One of my closest friends from high school is currently 19 and is a mother of two boys one of which is 3 and another which will soon be 1 year old. Although she was an example of achieving success, not all my friends had the same experience.

            Phoenix Union High School District has the power to enact my solution for providing pregnancy prevention classes and access to methods of contraception early into every student’s high school educational experience to avoid pregnancy or the spread of infections and diseases.

 Part 3

Dear Phoenix Union High School District Governing Board,

            As a Metro Tech High School recent graduate, I was able to notice some areas of improvement at Metro Tech High School as well as in the district. By observations, I was able to easily notice the amount of high school friends who were pregnant or had been pregnant by graduation. I was really surprised when I realized that half of my close friends have 1-2 babies or are currently pregnant.

            During my four years at Metro Tech, I never had been exposed to any type of sexual education class. The closest I ever got to that topic was in health class which we only covered information about STD’s but did not learn about contraception methods. During my freshman year in high school I remember having one class session that explained abstinence to students encouraging them to remain abstinent until marriage.

            However since it was only offered on a scheduled one time a year event, the students who did not attend school that day missed everything. Fortunately, students who were present were provided perhaps helpful information. My suggestion is for the district should take into consideration the high amount of pregnancies in the district and propose sex education in schools rather than sex prevention.

            Students should be required to take this course to graduate just as a regular high school graduation requirement which will be very beneficial for students. Since we cannot control student level of sexual activity or age of intercourse, what we can provide is beneficial education on pregnancy prevention and practicing safe intercourse.

Mayra Sanchez

Class of 2012

Metro Tech High School

References:

1. Maynard, W. Barksdale. "Thoreau's House at Walden." Art Bulletin 81.2 (1999):

                       303.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Nov. 2002.

2. Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F., and David W. Hall. "Abstinence-Only Education And Teen

                       Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education In The U.S." Plos

                       ONE 6.10 (2011): 1-11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

3. Daley, Alison Moriarty. "Contraceptive Services In Sbhcs: A Community Experience In

                       Creating Change." Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice12.4 (2011): 208

                       214. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

4. Gawlinski, Judy R. "A Teacher's Point Of View On Family Life (Sex) Education." American

                       Journal Of Sexuality Education 2.2 (2007): 73-78. Academic Search Premier.

                       Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

5. Tingle, Lynne R. "Evaluation Of The North Carolina "Baby Think It Over" Project." Journal    Of School Health 72.5 (2002): 178. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

2/20 In-Class Blog

My proposal topic for writing project two will be about ASU failing to inform their students about hidden fees in tuition. Since it's difficult to approach the topic of completely eliminating the fees to those students for whom it does not apply, a more effective approach to this situation will be to advertise the benefits students get along with tuition. To find information, I will use the ASU website and google scholar.

2/20 In-Class Work

Appealing to Audience

The situation: you, a 20-year-old sophomore, have recently discovered that you’re pregnant. The father of your child (a guy you dated for a year) dumped you for a Hooters waitress a week ago. After much soul-searching, you decide to keep the baby and pursue your BS degree in nursing. But you know that you’ll need help; you’ll need to write a letter to your audience (listed below) to inform them of your pregnancy and ask for assistance.

 

Your audience: Your Mama

 

Pathos:

Why would your mother be resistant to assist you or welcome this news?

 She probably would be dissapointed to know that I am still in school and would probably fear me not completing my education. She worked very hard for me to get to college for me to do this to her. 

What emotions might you evoke in your letter?

 I will evoke feelings of disappointment, but also feelings of courage and determination. Although I made a bad choice and perhaps too soon, I will be comforting when assuring her that I will still complete my education regardless.

Is there anything your mother values that might incline her to help you?

 My mother highly values unity, foundation of family, and love. I know that she will be supportive even if she does not necessarily agree at that moment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Post Due 2/19

The features of this Proposal Assignment are to identify an issue or something that needs to be changed by identifying/calling a particular audience to action with solutions. Some of the easy aspects of this assignment are to identify the audience being directly affected by a certain issue and identifying the problem itself. However, finding possible solutions that will actually fix the issue is difficult to come up with sometimes. Many times this happens when people are afraid of failing at their attempt or cannot come up with a solution everyone is able to work with. I think some good topics for this assignment can be relating school issues such as making ASU smoke-free, lowering tuition on campus or reducing littering in my neighborhood.

In the Sesame Street video Kermit the frog tries to convince Cookie Monster to guess what is is he has in the mystery box. He tries to persuade Cookie Monster to guess what is in his box by telling him he will keep whatever he has inside as a prize. However, Cookie Monster has another proposal for Kermit the frog. Since Cookie Monster wasn't able to guess, he argues that Kermit should still give him a cookie using pathos. Cookie Monster uses pathos in his argument by mentioning their friendship reminding him how caring one should be to friends. Although it isn't very convincing in my point of view, it convinces Kermit to still give him a cookie since they are friends and what Cookie Monster said was right about their friendship. Cookie Monster also tells Kermit that he is handsome. These are all forms of appeals to emotion that strongly convinced Kermit to give the cookie anyway. Using the formula on the PowerPoint for making a proposal about the Sesame Street video, I would say: Kermit should always give Cookie Monster cookies because they are good friends and good friends care and are nice to each other.

The latest proposal I have heard about regards recalling Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office here on campus. This petition for recall is specifically for people who are registered to vote in Arizona. They mentioned their purpose and reasons for thinking he should be recalled and what voters can do to solve the issue, which in this case is sign a petition.

Outline: Based from page 398 in Everything is An Argument.
a) Claim: ASU should give freshman students better and more housing options with lower prices.
b) Solves significant problem: Keeps students involved and happy with their transition from high school to college.
c) Present good reasons for proposal: If done, more freshman students will select campus housing and continue to do so in future years increasing housing profit for the school.
d) Show proposal is workable: Both the school and student will benefit. Students will be happy by selecting a room of their preference regarding style, price and location. The school will benefit by having more people interested in housing, and earning more money.

Audience in a proposal is very important because, you can't find a possible solution to an issue if you cannot find the audience that needs to be called to action. If the claim is not addressed to the correct audience, then no action will be done toward it and will not help decrease the problem.

Looking from Multiple Perspectives

STEP ONE: IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS: In order to write a successful proposal, you need to you need to examine multiple perspectives: you’ll want to represent as many people’s interests as possible as you describe your problem and solution, and you’ll want to understand your resisting audience’s inclinations as you pitch your solution.

For the following arguments, identify different people who are involved in the issue,  people who are directly impacted by the problem posed, people who officiate the policies involved, people who have legitimate concerns or investments in the conversation, or other kinds of stakeholders. 

·      McKemy Junior High must reconsider its decision to cut music programs.

a. Students attending McKemy Junior High, since they might become discouraged about attending school if it's their favorite class.

b. Employees/teachers of the school who teach these music programs, since they will loose their jobs.

c. The school may be affected by seeing grade drops in students, since it is highly more likely that students do better in academics when participating in performing arts classes. 

* ASU’s dry campus policy is injurious to the students and should be amended.

a. ASU students might be highly more influenced to consume alcoholic beverages by this.

b. President of ASU Micheal Crow can make the school look "bad" by encouraging students to drink on campus.

c. School and class enrollment may decrease by making ASU seem less educational.

* I propose that the ASU adopts a stricter campus security in order to keep vagrants and other potentially dangerous individuals off the school grounds.

a. ASU's administration, since they have to provide funds.

b. Students will be benefited with campus security.

c. Employees/security's/ASU police  will possibly be needed more to carry out this proposal.

STEP TWO: Develop Context: how do these stakeholders interact with one another? Do they have the same interests, attitudes, or ideas? What do they agree on and what do they disagree on? Pick one of the debates from the first page and develop a profile for each stakeholder: what are their commonly held values, objectives, or beliefs? What kinds of information or experiences get factored into their decisions?

McKemy Junior High must reconsider its decision to cut music programs.

#1: Students-

•  Commonly held values/objectives/beliefs: most enjoy performing arts classes to relieve and balance out stress, might feel like they have one less class to go to.
• Information/ Experiences factored into their decisions: Whether they like the class or not, their past experiences with professors, which programs will replace music?

#2: Employees-

•  Commonly held values:/objectives/beliefs: Less job opportunities
• Information/ Experiences factored into their decisions: They might want to know by how much it will be cut down, and their alternatives.

#3: School-

•  Commonly held values/objectives/beliefs: Might feel like students need the class to succeed academically, might view it as a money cut which can be an advantage too.
• Information/ Experiences factored into their decisions: How the students were performing in music classes in the past, how much money is being invested to fund these programs/classes, what is the alternative?

STEP THREE: Research: What would be the best method to represent or address these perspectives in a proposal essay?

#1 Students-

• Attend other classes to balance out heavy load of homework.
• Provide positive alternative for cutting back the program with something they will also enjoy. (karate, yoga, gym)

#2 Employees-

•  Provide employees/teachers of these programs ways in which they have the chance to still have a job opportunity.

#3 School-

• Help music teachers from the program obtain new jobs, if they are not available in that specific school.
• Come up with classes/programs that can replace the music program which can help students academically as well as balancing stress out. (Like adding yoga classes)

"In-Class Response to Buffington's 'When Teachers Aren't Nice: bell hooks and Feminist Pedagogy'"

The article written by Nancy Buffington discusses an issue in a theory of feminist pedagogy which is now seen in classrooms. It states that teachers in classrooms used to be seen as "authoritative fathers" but they have come to be viewed as to be "nurturing mothers" towards students. She talks about Bell Hooks opinion about classrooms being nurturing, which to her seems like it is not preparing students for the real-world which is much tougher. Hooks encourages feminist teachers to use that power, but to build a stronger foundation to education to better prepare students for the future by providing risky environments since day one. "Classrooms are a place of conflict and struggle and the real world is even more so," is stated by Buffington so she questions what good nurture will be doing for students when solving real-world problems.

 

Question 1: Is it really that beneficial to provide preparation for the real-world by using an authoritative father-like instruction in schools?

Question 2: How helpful would authoritative instruction be for interfered students?

Question 3: Which other ways could instructors still provide the same nourishing classroom environment and behavior while still preparing students for the real-world problems?

Question 4: Should high school teachers adapt to this type of instruction too?

Question 5: What is the best grade level you could suggest to stop providing nurishing environments?

Quote 1:"The classroom, under this feminist model, becomes a safe environment where everyone feels nurtured and able to speak and write, where conflicts are resolved and everyone remains connected." (Page 2)

Quote 2:"Maternal thinking" can't alter the facts: we are still teachers, and our students are still students. (Page 2-3)

"Quote 3: The teacher may start out as a nurturer, but at some point stands back and gives grades (22).This contradiction can "cause more distress than empowerment" (15);it's neither honest nor fair to pretend that we've given up allour authority. (Page 3)

I have noticed the difference between my high school teachers and my university professors. The difference is very large in the amount of nurture they provide. I remember in high school teachers would be very easy and understanding to students, unlike here at a university where teachers have less tolerance for misbehavior and missing assignments. I think this all has to do with instructors trying to prepare students for their careers and life's since it is a lot closer to students. I think it also has to do with some students because a lot of students go out of state to become more independent and they do not want to be treated like kids anymore. However, I still think it's difficult for a lot of students particularly college freshman's because the transition to this type of learning is very drastically changed from one year to another. I am a freshman myself, and I remember the first semester was really hard for me to adapt to a new environment and a new teaching style.
 

Blog Entry #1

After reading the proposal for President Michael Crow at Arizona State University written by a student Jo Donald, I agree with his overall idea about having E-books available for all classes. I think he makes a good point that we are moving into a more technological generation that relies very heavily on technology for work, school and social purposes. Being a "green university", ASU needs to find ways to innovate classes with technology in order to have graduates prepared for the real world and job opportunities. Arizona State University and the instructors here should encourage the use of technology as most as they can in order for students to keep themselves up to date with technology and the new generation yet to come.

Although I agree with his argument, there are some things I would change to his proposal in order to make his claim stronger and more convincing. Something that I would suggest that may strengthen Jo Donald's argument about online textbooks could be providing more evidence to support his claim that online books are a lot cheaper than textbooks. He did provide an example about his Computer Information Systems book that was about a hundred dollars cheaper than the hard copy, but did not include information on average how much a student will save my making a switch. Possibly if he provides more statistics and percentage of savings, people would be more encouraged to buy E-books rather than hard copies of books.

An example of a resistant audience in this proposal could be the students who do not agree with changing into E-books. These particular students have become very comfortable with working with physical copies of books since they have been working with them for years so making the change will not be easy at all for most of them. The author does mention them in his proposal, suggesting that these students change to E-books as well to keep up. He appealed to the opposition with the use of pathos when making it an option of obtaining hard-copies of books or electronic. However I disagree with one of the points he makes about what will happen next if his first proposal is successful. He suggests ASU should provide an electronic device for all students on campus who agree to use electronic books by raising tuition. I do not think this needs to be made at all; students who select the option of using E-books could provide their own from of electronic device that suites their needs instead of having the school provide one for an extra fee. I feel like it was not very relevant with the proposal to have higher E-book availability. It does not strengthen the argument, instead I think it takes the argument in another direction.

I think the writer's ethos in this proposal were well made, because he is a current student at Arizona State University which provides credibility for his suggestions based on what his observations are currently as a student. He could have backed some things up better to make the proposal a bit more credible. Overall I do think this was a good model for our proposal assignment. I was able to really understand what I am expected to do for our next writing project. I think it was also beneficial for us to be able to point some things out that didn't work very well as the things that did work out to apply in our assignment. The research should include more about how students feel about this issue to make this proposal stronger and more likely to convince Mr. Crow to show that more students feel this way.