Blog 5: My Field o' Study

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kleenex-small-box.jpg

Week 2 of our English 109 Honors journey starts with Dr. Bell's section 29 class applying the rhetorical situation of audience, purpose, and context to each individual student's unique major. Today, some students seemed to have contracted the cold like I have. I could smell that cough drop smell temporarily lingering in the air. As the lecture continued, my throat was rather parched, my nose was drippy, and my head was gently pounding. With that aside, I decided to major in pre-physiology not only because illnesses could e such an inconvenience, but for other reasons also.

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Physiology generally is the study of the human body in addition to the diseases and external stresses that may result. Students in the program learn how to work in the healthcare sector. After they graduate, they usually try to attend medical school or pharmacy school eventually becoming doctors, physicians, surgeons. or pharmacists. Other pathways include dentistry, therapy, of healthcare assistants.

As a youth, I was not always healthy. My parents tried to take care of me, but had no time so they eventually enlisted the help of my somewhat pushy aunt who opened a doorway to a healthier lifestyle. She believed that food was medicine introducing me to exotic herbs and pointing out the health benefits of the foods she fed my sister and me. Lotus root prevented or reduced the chance of bloody noses, white fungus "cleaned" the lungs, prunella (or as my aunt referred to them xia ku cao) for dissipating heat, and the list continues. Also, Chinese children are expected to take care of their parents when the parents are older which makes a doctor a suitable occupation. These factors combined inspired me to seek a job in the medical field whether it be a doctor, surgeon, or pharmacist.

A few people and companies in the medical disciplines have made the headlines recently. Some are famous while others became infamous, but I will focus on the famous ones for now. One of them is Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon who is running for the presidency. Not only do his credentials look appealing, but his "straightforward and logical" thinking has garnered him some supporters, but whether he will win remains debatable. Another influential entity is the Centers for Disease Control or CDC which is well known for its work inside and outside the country such as during the Ebola outbreak in Africa. The news plays a vital role in making these two figures well known to society although there may be more leaders.

For those wanting to know what is new in the field of medicine, the top journals are The New England Journal of Medicine published in Massachusetts, The Journal of American Medical Association published in Illinois, and The Lancet published in the United Kingdom. As I finish this post, I feel my cold has receded.

Reflection: After reading both Kian Blackey's and Dee Schwartz's blogs, I realized that life is full of niches, but that education plays in vital role in making people see the possibilities life has to offer. In both their blogs, they mentioned that some inspiration came from their teachers. As a pre-physiology major, I have many options in front of me yet soon I'll need to pinpoint a body part as a specialty. I might consider trying to be well-rounded in my knowledge and open minded maybe even hoping to become a modern Renaissance man.

Blog 4: How Emotional is Too Emotional

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I can not believe that the first week of college passed by so quickly. In English class today, we started off with an adorable cat meme then explored the National Institute of Civil Discourse. The class then started a conversation about the role of pathos.The first image to pop into my head was the ASPCA commercials. Ideally, pathos should be used sparingly to act as channel through which ideas flow from the author to the audience.

This channel serves as a link allowing the audience to better understand the topic at hand and the people involved in the discussion which fosters an understanding environment among the people involved. Unfortunately, this is often used to deceive people due to its effectiveness. Depending on how pathos is utilized, it can add or detract from other components of an argument.

From the Atlantic article, many commenters showed hostility toward others whose views differed from theirs. There were even hints of scathing sarcasm in some comments. Not many people are likely to immediately agree with such comments unless they fall in line with their beliefs. As a result,their attempts to elicit negative emotions have proven to detract from yet also add to their comments.

In terms of logos, pathos tends to add to the comments by making them appear more surely. Any powerful emotion for that matter does this too. Sometimes hate could bring out points of views that one has never considered before. As long as the comment has substantial, reasonable evidence, a pinch of anger or frustration could garner support for that comment from disillusionment. Like any of the other emotions, anger clouds people sense of logic which might make the comment even more appealing. If the underlying intention is this, one may question the motives of the commenter.

If not used correctly, pathos could undermine the commenter's ethos. Too much ethos and the person might appear to be viewed as unusual and this disregarded and too little ethos, and the person will seem cold and distant which also is not wanted. Pathos is the link between the author and his/her speakers, fostering understanding through shared feelings.Unfortunately, in the Atlantic article, too much ethos has led to name calling. Some commenters tried to make poignant statements, but ended up offending others thus making themselves appear rude and immature,

Pathos can also be used as a weapon. This is usually when commenters fling insults at each other creating a hostile territory. If true or reasonable, that insult could undermine the values of another commenter. One example is the discourse between commenters ktom and Jiffy pop. In presumable anger, ktom started using situations to prove his point, but in the process, came off as rascist. Jiffy pop made the smart choice of deescalating his anger making him seem more reasonable near the end.

Without pathos, ideas would be void of personal meaning to other people. In order to make sense of the world, ideas have to be relatable. Pathos does its job well, but as an old axiom goes, "must be taken in moderation." I just wonder is emotion a barrier to pure knowledge? Can humans better perceive this world if there were no emotional distractions?

Blog 3: The Key to a Healthy Kid Is...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-can-tweak-dna-but-should-they/2015/08/03/23589654-0481-11e5-8bda-c7b4e9a8f7ac_story.html

Source: Controversial gene therapy might help women have healthy children

In an article from the Washington Post, the United Kingdom recently allowed gene therapy for women which involving "snipping" out bad pieces of DNA and replacing it with DNA from potentially another mother in order for her offspring to be born most likely without a defect which is useful, but poses some ethical issues.

The inspiration for choosing this article came from one of my parent's friend's granddaughter who has a genetic defect which prevents her from living a long life, causes frequent seizures, and deformed her mouth in such a way that she always seems to smile.

The cause is most likely genetic which made me wondering if one could manipulate genes in such a way as to prevent this not only in her, but in children with other deformities before conception.

Blog 2: A Comment About Comments From The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/supreme-court-and-isis/402155/

Source: Can the Supreme Court Force Congress to Own War on ISIS?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/supreme-court-and-isis/402155/

One time, I opened a fortune cookie and the fortune said, "The human language exists only so that humans can complain." I could not help, but wonder if this fortune was slightly true. Perhaps complain is such a negative term for what human speech does. Maybe the better fit is comment.

Second class of English 109 Honors began with the idea of controversies. The class divided into groups once more and each group chose a single article from The Atlantic to analyze the comments. My group's article happened to be about the Supreme Court and ISIS.

The author of the article, Bruce Ackerman, proves to be a rather credible person upon his credentials since he is a Yale Law School professor. He describes how Obama is waging an unnecessary war on ISIS that could be stopped if the Supreme Court intervened since the Republican majority Congress is sitting on the sidelines hoping that this war will be a black spot on Obama's record. So far, my views are in the middle since I can see both sides of the argument.

As for the comment section, many of the commentators seemed like critical people based on their pessimistic comments which delve into U.S. history and politics. Because they are not face to face in real life, they have more freedom to act rude or sarcastic in their comments. Their audience is either the author of the publication or readers of the publication. Their main purpose would be to critique certain statements made in the article and accentuate the pitfalls of our government.

Fear is often times the spark for a controversy. The people who post the comments may appear unfazed, but do show some concern over the balance of power and the lack of action or even adept members from Congress. Others said that the court should not involve itself in this issue some even offering alternatives to how Congress can stop the war.

Although fear may be evident in some posts, each post is based off of certain values. The comments were split between supporting the government and those looking to change it. They seem to want a more active Congress that has more intelligent members.

Some comments seemed credible while others did not. The most reasonable comment would be impartial, but politics is not to be handled in such a matter. Mr. Fusion, brings up several compelling points and in one comment, dissects one of the article's paragraphs to analyze the credibility of the sentences. He also adds his two cents to other comments also which further adds to his credibility. As a result, he seems rather reasonable.

Some commenters also seemed not as credible as the others. One commenter refers to a Wikipedia website for justification which undermined his/her own argument. Another factor undermined some credibility is insults. Some of the commentators engaged in comment debates even resorting to name calling which further limited their credibility. Despite all this, most of the commenters seemed well versed in their historical and political knowledge.

All in all, some of the comments did make me think about the contents of the article, but due to the commentators often times extreme use of unnecessary insults, I am a bit hesitant. The comments are a bit of an "eye opener" and slightly decreased my confidence in the article's accuracy. Everything a person sees, reads, or hears usually if not always has a effect on his/her perspective.

Blog 1:Employer, Date, or Roommate?

From: http://englishharmony.com/headphones/

During the first day of college, in Dr. Bell's English 109 Honors course, the class explored specific usage of words. Each person tore a single sheet of lined paper into 3 sheets of approximately equal size and were told to write five descriptors on each sheet. One sheet had five words that the individual student would use to describe him/her to a potential employer, the next sheet had five descriptors of that same individual, but geared toward a date, and the final or third strip also had five words that described him/her to a possible roommate.

The students were then told to orient their desks as to form groups of four students. Each students' three slips are then shuffled into a pile and they had the task of sorting them back into three appropriate piles. In my group, we used the connotations and the choice of words to organize the slips:
If the slip had more serious or business/job oriented words, then it would go into the "employer" pile.
If it had personal, kind, or some type of word that appealed to the senses, both physiologically or psychologically, then the slip goes into the "date" pile.
If it had words that friends would say to each other or that relate to spacial interaction such as neat or quiet, then the slip would be placed into the "roommate" pile.