My Mouse Made Me Do It

In a persuasive article written by Brent Staples called “Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name),” Staples argues that the increased use of plagiarism in schools can be at a detriment to a student’s academic success.  He starts off by talking about one of his teacher friends having to punish students when he finds evidence of plagiarism and develops his positions through the views of other college professors and their thoughts on plagiarism.  Staples sheds light on the increasing use of plagiarism in order to spread awareness and I am guessing that he wants to see its use decrease.  Staples article is an easy read intended for a general audience.

 I thought the title of the article was clever, however, I think the body of the article is lacking substance.  Although this may just be an excerpt from the full article, Staples does not really state how big of a problem plagiarism plays in schools and offers no statistics on how many students are actually involved in plagiarizing their papers.  I do agree that students would learn more effectively by doing their own work and that plagiarism can create a problem in schools, but this article offers little in the form of solutions aside from students taking online tutorials explaining plagiarism and telling a student that if they plagiarize then they may be kicked out of school.  I find it interesting that schools are all to forward in discussing how plagiarism may get you kicked out of school on the very first day of class and yet some students have to wait until half of the semester is over with in order to learn how to correctly cite the works of others.

  Staples’ friend talks about students plagiarizing and says, “I have to assume that in every class, someone will do it” (147).  Not even many people in every class or some people in every class will do it, but someone.  Unless Staples’ friend only teaches classes of two, this is hardly an epidemic of plagiarism.  Staples suggests that “Not everyone who gets caught knows enough about what they did to be remorseful” (147).  Again, I think that if schools are insistent on punishing people who plagiarize then they should be putting more of an emphasis on teaching students how to correctly cite the works of others before throwing the book at them. 

Why Me???

In Annie Dillard’s personal narrative, A Deer at Providencia (1982), she defines the true meaning of pain and suffering. The author develops the work by first telling the story of a deer tied to a tree in the South American village that is preparing to be slaughter for a meal; she then compares it to a man who has been burnt twice. The author is writing this piece in order to give deeper look at how one could suffer and be at the point of giving up on life. To me, I believe the intended author is those that take life for granted or those who are cruel to animals/humans.

In the story, I noticed what the gentlemen from the big city were saying about how the author was nonchalant about the deer dying in front of them. I’m very squeamish when it comes to animals being mistreated to the point that I have to turn the channel when the abused animal commercial comes on. One could tell by her writing that she didn’t show any emotion for the animal. I keep thinking throughout the whole story that she was going to free the animal but she didn’t. I understand that in other cultures that that is their custom but when that not your everyday life you should have some emotion and she did not.

In the story, she compared the burn victim to the deer. She also compared the burn victim to suicidal people (145). To me, she was trying to insinuate that the deer wanted to kill itself as the burn did too. She compared the deer to the man by describing how it had to be in extreme pain with the gashed on it neck to the bruises on it muscles (142). We all could imagine how much pain the man had to be in being burned that badly. Dillard spoke about how they were in so much pain and couldn’t do anything about. The deer couldn’t get lose from the rope (142) and the man couldn’t get relief from medicine (143). It sad an ending to what one thought was going to a happy story about the jungle.

How to save a life.

Martin Gangsberg wrote a newspaper article entitled Thirty-Eighty Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police (Mar 27, 1964), explores the reasoning behind the “The Genovese Syndrome”. The author started with the background information about the neighborhood and the victim; that lead to the attack and why it was unusual for the area and the aftermath of the attack. Gangsberg wrote this article in order to bring light to neighborhoods that don’t look after each other. The intended audience for this piece is those that think that people who think things that happens outside their house is there problem.

The article was disturbing to me because that could be anyone of us. I remember being a little girl and a lady beating on my grandmother’s door. She was screaming that she had been raped and needed to come in. My grandmother never left the lady in the house but she did call the police. The girl was gone by the time the police arrived but my grandmother still did the right thing by calling the police because that was the right thing to do. It’s scary knowing that people won’t look after you when you’re at your lowest. It wouldn’t have affected anyone by calling the police and staying where you were and the attacker wouldn’t have known who called.

In the article, people couldn’t explain why they didn’t call the police for the young lady and if they did have a reason it was selfish and inhumanly. For instance, one interviewer even said “I was tired. I went back to bed.” (140). Was sleep really that much more important than someone being murdered? That was what many residents in this neighborhood thought. The author also included background on the neighbors leading to that the neighborhood shouldn’t have been use to the chaos and the screaming. One example of saying that she was living in a Tudor Building (137) and that the families living in the area made about $35,000 to $60,000 (139). With saying that, it was unusual that be calm in that situation. I believe that the author was trying to say that this behavior was usually more common in less fortune neighborhoods. No matter the reason or the circumstances, out of 38 people no one picked up the phone to say someone is getting hurt on the street. When at any instance that you can help someone without harming you should. There was no excuse that no one could help her.

I Can Do All Things. . .

Dianne Trice’s blog post, How can we get willpower back once it has been depleted (15 July 2011), explores the reason why we lose willpower throughout the day in order to make it stronger and thrive longer. Trice’s thesis states how there are many examples and with each example she gives the reasoning and causes of that example. The author’s apparent reason for this was to help people find and strengthen their willpower in order to be more productive in their life. The intended audience was those struggling strong willpower and trying to improve theirs.

 I related a great deal with this piece because many times you have so many things going on your life you don’t want to do all the things you need to do. Lately, with so many classes, the willpower to study in classes that aren’t always as exciting as the other isn’t high on my priority list. Usually, I wait to the last minute to do my assignments and study for a test. I believe that other people have different willpower peeks. Such as, I work late shifts at my job and I find my willpower peek is after my shift.

The author states four examples of reversing depleted willpower: being well rested, eating regularly, caffeine, and good moods. Along with all of the examples the author also includes strengthening your willpower. She proclaims that if you add simple tasks to things that you are already accustomed to, it will make it easier to add unlikely tasks to your day (133). With the strengthen willpower, it will be easier for you to perform task that you would usually put off, for example exercising (132). The blog would truly be the root to be a success college student.

At what cost???

Brent Staples explores in the article “Black Characters in Search of Reality” (12 Feb 2012) how black people have to work harder in the successes that they have and aren’t always proud of the way they can get to what they deserve. The author uses a number of examples to make his point. Staples write this article in order to bring light to the way certain African Americans gain reward and achievement in television. The article was intended to speak to people that doesn’t think anything is wrong with actors that play parts that are thought of belittling blacks.

I really enjoyed the article because I see where people come from. I remember when people were talking about the movie “The Help” being in the Oscars, but I do relate this to conversations to ones that people have about Tyler Perry’s Madea movies. People think that all black people act like her, carrying guns and smoking weed. People who don’t always watch the whole movie and don’t always get the moral message out of the movie prejudge it and think that it brings us as a people down.

The article was looking at how it seemed that African Americans can’t appear to get any appraised acting work unless it arguably racial based or one that makes blacks look bad to whites. It explains how upper class African Americans get upset because whites relate them to being poor or “hood”(150). But the best quote to me in the article was what Ms. McDaniel said was “she would rather pay a maid in the movies than be one”(150).

Science of Cheating

In Wendy Shalit’s editorial, Is infidelity natural? Ask the Apes (Sept 2, 2010), explores how even though there is no scientific evidence many still believe that there is. The author uses other researchers and animal science to prove her theory on infidelity. Even though she reconnoiters reasons why people and animals cheat, Shalit does so in order to say that one will never get the needed intimacy that one gets in a committed relationship. This article was intended to the general audience but also to men who think that it’s acceptable to cheat.

In some ways this article irritates me because there shouldn’t be an excuse for cheating. People in the past have been in monogamous relationships and so have people in the present. In anyway, cheating is wrong. When you commit yourself to someone that should be the someone you give yourself to. Comparing yourself to animals to support the reason why you can’t commit yourself to one person be barbaric. At the end of the day cheating is still done behind the other person back and still hurts the other person hurt and deceived.

 In this article, Shalit uses two contrasting sides to fight her belief that men shouldn’t cheat and reasons that men cheat can be opposed. On way side she quotes Christopher Ryan from CNN.com who tries to argue that “it’s utterly natural from men to cheat” (117). For every part of a woman or man that he used to fight that women entice men or that men were stronger at, she pointed out how the stronger parts of men that would help him stay faithful. She wraps up article reinforcing that people who believe that the unfaithful relationships are for those with “low standards” and “provides a convenient out to deny personal responsibility” (118). She proves no matter what science that one can come up with to prove that infidelity is natural, they are wrong.

     Report of Happiness

         In John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs informative "The World of Happiness Report"(2012), they express many methods that will help the human society. They discuss how happiness should play a big factor in the of process of policy-making. They touch on different topics of what effects a person well-being in order to establish what make a person happy. I say this report was intended to a vast audience.

I can relate to this report due to the recession we encounter these past years. They states "Unemployment reduces the happiness of those unemployed and also infects those who do have jobs with the fear of losing them"(104). The topics work, values, religion, education, mental and physical contributes a lot to one's happiness.  The four pillar seems to be a point where it can improve our nation. 

To be or not to be, Happy?

In John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs' informative research paper, The World Of Happiness Report, they suggest that the creation of a global consortium to document what makes people happy could lead to a state of happiness for all.  The authors give evidence that a country’s Gross Domestic Product is not the sole indicator of determining peoples happiness as a country and that the “four pillars” of “ending extreme poverty, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and good governance (99)” should be the cornerstones to achieving a society of happiness.  The authors would like to use this research in order to scientifically identify the reasons for a nation’s happiness to hopefully increase the attainability of happiness for all nations.  The authors’ topic and assertions suggest this paper was intended for an academic audience.

 I agree with most of what the authors are saying in this paper.  The “four pillars” should be what every country as whole should strive for.  I also agree with their evaluation of the United States.   We as a nation may be an economic super power but as far as “ending poverty, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and good governance” goes, we are failing to make the grade.  I think the U.S. and other countries in the same predicament should seek to realign our priorities and balance our want of a high GDP with the happiness of humanity and the sustainability of the Earth.   The “four pillars” seem to be a good place to start.

Don't Worry- Be Happy

Sara Rimer's expository essay The Biology of Emotion-And What it May Teach Us about Helping People to Live Longer (2011) that happier people will be healthier than people who aren't happy both in childhood and in adulthood. In this piece, the writer support her hypothesis by giving the research from multiple doctors. She also starts with children and works her way to adulthood. Rimer's purpose is to show that their emotions has an enormous consequence for their health in adulthood in order to present that they could live longer and healthier. The author's audience seems to center on other doctors but also to unhappy people who may be going through severe health issues.

I related to the essay in the sense that I believe that if you are depressed and down all the time then you're not going to feel one hundred percent while going through. I go through many issues myself and I notice when I'm the saddest about my situation that when the pain is the most unbearable. When it seems that things are going downhill constantly, your health is the next thing to go. I also believe that people go through emotional roller coasters and then they turn to something to supplement that emotion. After relying on that supplement for an extended amount of time (for example alcohol) then you're will try and over compensate for that supplement or no longer try to match it and start to fail you. Another example is when I had a horrible break up, I gained almost 20 pounds. Being down for so long and having that extra weight on me, I began having major health problems. I was at the doctor almost every week. As time went along and I began to get over my depression the weight started to come off and my doctor visit became fewer. In the end, I believe highly that one emotoins and out look for tied in with their health. When one starts to look at life more brightly, I beleive that gives your body the energy it needs to fight against those illnesses.

Through Rose Colored Glasses

Edwidgen Danticat's personal narrative, Between the Pool and the Gardenias (1996), explores a young women's hardship infertility, a cheating husband, and falling in love with a baby that she found on the street. The author develops the story by telling her life story and events to the baby that she found. The author was trying to convince some people cope with the negatives in their life and how some can't always handle what happens to them. The intended audience would be people have ever lost a baby or a cheating husband. It's also intended for people who has ever had anything bad repeatedly happen to them.

Though entertaining and attention keeping, the passage was sad. It leaves you with many unanswered question. What happened to the baby? Why did the gardener think she kill the baby? Did she go to jail for something she didn't do? In the beginning, the story did confuse me. For example, why didn't anyone else notice the baby or why didn't the baby cry like other babies? She explains in the stories to the baby recent events of her life though not in any order. She explains that she got married at an early age and she was a virgin when married. She explains that she tried to get pregnant many times but all ended in a miscarriage. She then explains that her husband had many affairs with many different women and  had 10 other children outside their marriage. She left the village that they lived in and became a maid. She had made love with a man that she didn't know. I feel that we all go through things horrible and all don't handle it as people expect us to. When so many things bad things happen to you at once people sometimes make an alternative look on life. To her, this was normal  but by the end of the story, I thought she was crazy.

The author, even though being of a different culture, wasn't in her right mind. She did many things that in any culture wouldn't be acceptable. An example, at the end of the story as she was awaiting to be arrested for killing the baby by the man that she had the affair with, she says "we made a pretty picture standing there. Rose, me and him. Between the pool and the Gardenias. Waiting on the law". The way the author writes is that everything in her eyes are perfect. With all the darkness and bad around her she still sees the light and beauty around her.

Sterotyped

The title of the story is Black Men and Public spaces(1986), written by Brent Staples. In the story Mr. Staples describes a young man who is treated unjustly as he walks the streets late at night in downtown Chicago. The character of the Story is a graduate from University of Chicago. He talks about the first time he encountered an innocent white woman who was terrified of being in his presence alone. "As I swung on to the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance."

He feels that the young woman may mistake him for being dangerous because of what he was wearing and his race. "It was clear she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse." As he got older and relocated to Brooklyn, he realized that the women there was no different from the women who he encountered in Chicago. "After dark, on the warrenlike streets of Brooklyn where I live, I often see women who fear the worst of me.

I don't think Mr. Staples was directing his story to be about race. I think he was only stating facts on how the character was treated as he encountered other people during his late nights walk. I myself have felt terrified at some point where I have came across a man walking near me as I have walked alone.

Salvation, by Langston Hughes

In Langston Hughes' "Salvation" (1940), Hughes' talks about the revival that was happening in his Auntie Reed's Church during that time.  He talks about the sights and sounds of the church as it was looking to "bring the young lambs to the fold."  After a song the preacher said, "Won't you come? Won't you come to Jesus?"

Hughes kept waiting on the “mourner’s bench”.  Soon everyone on the "mourner's bench" had went to the platform to receive Jesus.  Hughes’ didn’t want to wait any longer and lies about receiving Jesus just to get the ceremony over with.  Later, Hughes starts crying because he felt he deceived his Aunt about being saved. 

          The personal narrative of Langston Hughes’ Salvation was well written and gave a glimpse into what happens during the revivals of the 1940’s.  The preacher wanted Hughes’ to come to Jesus by asking, “Won’t you come to Jesus (Page 69)?”  But, Hughes interprets it as Jesus coming to him by saying, “And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting – but he didn’t come (Page 70).”  Hughes later states he didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, but I guess he never really wanted to come to Jesus. 

Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" Reading Response

In Amy Tan’s personal narrative, Mother Tongue (1990), Tan describes the language barriers that she faced while growing up and that her mother still faces.  Amy Tan talks about the differences in the way she speaks to a predominantly English speaking audience and how she changes her English voice to accommodate the “broken” English of her Chinese immigrant mother.  Tan also reveals stories from her childhood in order to relay to the audience how her mother was treated due to her “limited” English vocabulary and to inform her audience that although her mother’s English is limited, that her thoughts are rhythmic, intelligent, and filled with imagery.  Amy Tan’s personal story of her mother’s tongue speaks to a wide range of audiences.

          I found Amy Tan’s story to be well written and interesting.  Although, when she started going in to the thick of how her mother talks, she lost me.  Something about a gangster and a wedding is the only thing I gathered.  Other than that, she explains her childhood stories well like how her mother used to have Amy talk to her stockbroker for her.  I think I enjoyed this story the most.  Amy Tan is talking to her mother’s stock broker all the while her mother is standing right her behind speaking loudly,  “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late.  So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” 

          In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan went through her childhood memories to convey how language barriers, stereotypes, and seeing her mother’s struggle with the English language pushed her to become the prolific writer that she is today.  She says “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her (page 65, Paragraph 2).”  She goes on to describe the stereotype saying, “Asian students” …”whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited,” …”always do significantly better on math and achievement tests than in English”…”And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me (Page 67, Paragraph 3).”  She then goes on to describe that because her teachers were steering her towards a career in math, this act actually had the opposite effect.  Tan writes, “Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disapproving assumptions made about me.  I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med (Page 68, Paragraph 1).”