Revised Paragraphs C and D

C) Online chat rooms have become a great source of communication. By utilizing a chat room you can talk with lots of different people all at once. These people can be from all over the world, or your next-door neighbor. A lot of classes around campus have the chat rooms set up privately for only the students registered in that class. Chat rooms are very effective resources because they have even allowed me to converse with other members of my Biology class to discuss the lectures and labs. The chat room is a good resource to use inside and outside of the classroom.

D) In Los Angeles (L.A.) the use of dogs in the police force has been rejected, and the use of weapons is preferred. During the Watts riots, which took place in L.A., officers employed guns as means of protection; some looters and perpetrators were killed (Knutson and Revering 64). Clearly dogs are a more suitable and effective alternative to weapons. The purpose of canines in the police force is to provide an alternative to excessive and deadly force. Although suspects have claimed to be badly bitten, these cases are extremely rare compared to the many documented good deeds and rescues involving human lives performed by police canines. It has been concluded by the 6th Circuit Court that, "since deaths are rare in police dog cases, deploying dogs cannot be condemned as deadly force" (Savage para. 12).

Cohesion Exercise

“The use of E85 fuel and the production of its component ethanol has become an increasingly popular business in America. @[However], the production of the ethanol is not very energy-efficient. * For my next paper, I will write a proposal paper on what can be done to make the production of ethanol in America more energy efficient. @[I will accomplish this by first] explaining why the production process of E85 needs to be revised. @[Then] I will proceed to give an alternate plan and resources for making E85. @[Finally], I will use Brazil’s methods of producing ethanol to show that ethanol can be produced in an energy-efficient way. Brazil has developed a very efficient way of producing ethanol, using sugarcane and its byproducts, to make an ethanol-gasoline mixed fuel. @[Nevertheless], I need to find more sources on the actual production process of ethanol in Brazil and America in order to accurately make my proposal.”

This is my topic proposal, slightly revised. I used this in class for the cohesion exercise. It helped me add a few transitions to the paragraph and I also revised it some. The @[] is the cohesion, or transition, word used between the sentences to help it flow. The sentence after the * is the topic sentence. This exercise helped me revise this paragraph to make it better.

Canceling Tiger-Burn

I haven't really heard about the decision to cancel the traditional tiger burn before the Clemson game this year. I didn't even know what the tradition was until this year because I grew up in a predominately Clemson family, with myself being the exception. I think whoever made the decision to cancel it this year has made a mistake. It's been a tradition for a very long time, and they probably want to cancel it because they think it doesn't make the school look good. This game is between schools that have been rivals for an extremely long time. Why did they choose to cancel it this year when it has been happening every year for a long time? I think someone doesn't want to give the school a bad reputation, although by canceling it many fans are disappointed before the Clemson-Carolina game. People might also think it is disrespectful because of the Ocean Isle tragedy. I think the people who died in that fire would want the tradition carried on. I knew some of those students, and they were always huge on school spirit in high school and in college. They would have wanted the tiger to burn before the Clemson game.

Carolina Reader Ch 7 #5

In their articles located in the Carolina Reader, environmentalists Patrick Moore and Jamie Lincoln Kitman make surprising arguments not usually associated with environmentalists. Patrick Moore's argument is about the effectiveness of hybrid cars and why they may not be very effective. Kitman's argument is for nuclear energy and whether we should pursue it as a reliable energy source to replace coal.
Moore supports his argument by giving facts about different hybrids and why they are good or bad. In some cases, he says a hybrid makes sense, like driving a Toyota Prius around town where it gets great gas mileage. Yet while the Prius and other cars like it get very good gas mileage around town because they run mainly off electricity at low speeds, they use all gas at highway speeds, making it less efficient for highways. Likewise, some hybrids, such as hybrid SUVs, don't get much better gas mileage overall than their gasoline-powered counterparts yet cost a lot more. Moore also defends his argument against a failed bill that proposed a tax break for those who own hybrid cars. Moore points out this doesn't make sense when a person driving a hybrid Dodge Durango, getting 14 mpg, gets a tax break while someone driving a fuel-efficient Civic doesn't. Moore is effective in showing how hybrids may not be just that great.
Kitman makes his argument by stating that even though he is an environmentalist, there are some good things having nuclear energy could do. Replacing coal plants with nuclear plants would greatly reduce carbon emissions and emissions overall. The alternative solutions can't produce the quantity of energy that nuclear energy can produce. Recently, technology for nuclear technology has advanced and plants can be constructed that are very safe. The biographies for each author influences their persuasiveness because it shows that they have a thorough knowledge of the subject. It also shows that they have researched the opposing argument and therefore are able to counter that argument effectively.

Chapter 7 Question 4

Jeffrey Kluger and Richard Lindzen, in each of their articles, discuss global warming and the effect it has made and will make on the Earth. Kluger's argument focuses on what is causing global warming and what will happen if we don't stop it. Lindzen's argument focuses more on the alarming claims that scientists are making without having supporting evidence. The arguments are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Kluger uses carbon dioxide frequently in his article as a main reason humans have caused global warming. Lindzen doesn't focus on the causes, but on why the scientists are publishing papers complaining about global warming without any sufficient evidence. Kluger gives examples of studies that have shown an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere lately. Kluger argues because of the increase in temperature due to carbon dioxide, there are more natural disasters that are more devastating. Lindzen doesn't really talk about the cause of natural disasters being due to carbon dioxide emissions. Although I don't necessarily agree with it, Kluger's essay is more persuasive. It gives a lot of evidence and seems to try and appeal to the reader by appealing to their emotions.

topic proposal

The use and production of ethanol to make E85 fuel has become an increasing business in America. However, the production of the ethanol is not very energy-efficient. For my next paper, I will write a proposal paper on what can be done to make the production of ethanol in America more energy efficient.

I will accomplish this by using Brazil’s methods of producing ethanol to help form a way America can produce ethanol efficiently. This can be done by using a source other than corn, and by changing how the production plants are powered. Brazil has developed a very efficient way of producing ethanol to make an ethanol-gasoline mixed fuel. I need to find more sources on the actual production process of ethanol in Brazil and America in order to accurately make my proposal.

Issue from Exploratory Paper

1. The three perspectives from my exploratory paper on E85 ethanol fuel vary. The first one is that E85 is bad for the environment overall and is not energy efficient. The second argument is that E85 is not produced effectively right now in the United States, but there is hope for it. The third argument is that E85 is very good for the environment and can help reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The second argument is dominant because it has great promise. Even though production in America isn't efficient today, there are many possibilities to help improve it.

2. I believe that the second perspective should be the dominant one because it has lots of possibilities to become a very efficient and cost-effective alternative fuel.

3. The perspective cannot be enforced as a policy but more as a proposal as to what can be done to help make the process better.

Campus Issue - Parking Issues

On the campus here at USC, there are many issues that need to be resolved. One that affects many students is the parking issue. Students that live on campus and have a car usually need to purchase a garage spot in order to have a place to park their car. As of this year, the parking lots at the Coliseum are closed from 2am to 6am. This means students have to find parking elsewhere. What happens when the student doesn't need their car everyday, but have to move it each morning to find a different parking space. Because the Coliseum lot is closed, many resident students with a regular parking pass have had trouble finding a parking spot. Some students don't want to pay for a garage spot, which over the course of the year is at least 5 or 6 times more expensive, if not even more. The school needs to leave the Coliseum lot open all night and all day so that students who live on campus can have a place to park their car without constantly thinking about when and where they need to move it the next day or night.

Playing Devil's Advocate:
I believe that the Coliseum is closed so that cars aren't left down there overnight each night. The school probably wants to leave them open so that commuter students will have a place to park. Another reason I think they close them for 4 hours each night is so that the school will make more money by selling garage spots. Garage spaces also went up in price for this year. Bull Street Garage, which being the most expensive costs $320 a semester, can probably hold at least one or two thousand cars just in the first two gates, not the third visitor gate. When added up, that is a whole lot of money. That doesn't include the other 3 parking garaged available to students. I'm pretty sure this is another reason as to why they won't keep the Coliseum, and any other lots like it, open at night.

Achenbach's essay vs. Reilly's essay

These two essays have to deal with swearing in public. Achenbach's, titled "The F-bomb", is mainly arguing that "we must...protect this word, and ensure that, years from now, it remains obscene." Reilly's claim is that people just swear too much and it needs to be stopped, including himself. They are each arguing their claims from opposite perspectives; Achenbach supports it, at least one very strong word, and Reilly is arguing against it stating it has become to common. However, they do share some views. Reilly's support for his argument mainly comes from college sports examples and how the students behave. He believes they should be more civilized instead of chanting using the f-word. Achenbach has a similar view as to the swearing of kids. He believes that swearing should be just for adults, not kids. Otherwise, the articles differ in perspective. Achenbach is all for preserving the f-word for times when a strong swear word is needed. Reilly is trying to get people to stop using swear words, but they can substitute words that sound similar. I buy Reilly's perspective more. I believe there is too much swearing going on in the world around me, but I'm fine with substituting other words. As long as it is publicly acceptable, it's ok.

Freewrite

At the beginning of high school, my view of the girls that were pregnant or already had a kid was that they were different than me. Then, in my junior year, one of my friends found out she had been pregnant for two or three months but had miscarried. This definitely changed my perspective of teenage mothers. When she found out that she was pregnant, before and after she knew she had miscarried, we talked about it almost everyday in class. One thing she pointed out was very true; most of her friends would have deserted her if she had actually had the baby, especially some of the friends we had in common. I knew that I couldn't desert her in her time of need. Another incident that affected my perspective was a girl in one of my classes last year had a two year old son. The strength and determination she has shown to continue to achieve her goals is amazing. This fall she started college, and took her son with her. Teenage mothers can be very strong, sometimes more so than others girls their age. They may also need the friendship and support of others around them, even if they don't specifically ask for it.

SWA #9

6. The effect of the ethos presented by Wendy Shanker is very convincing. In the exert from her book The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life, Shanker uses her own life experiences to express her opinions on body image and the word “fat”. By doing this she comes across as being a very believable source because people tend to believe something if it can relate to a person’s life. Her target audience for her book is a woman who feels that she is fat, whether it is true or not. In her book she points out that even women that are a size 2 can feel fat. This book reaches the targeted audience because any woman that has ever felt that way can relate to the experiences that Shanker has experienced and mentioned in her book. Most women feel insecure about themselves, and this book may help them to learn how to love themselves and their bodies, regardless of how they look.

7. In Eleanor Randolph’s article titled “The Big Fat American Kid Crisis…and 10 Things We Should Do about It”, she presents her argument by stating what is causing kids to get fat and 10 things America can do to help stop and prevent it. She blames most of the cause on “Big Food”, or the food companies that target children to advertise their fattening foods. Then Randolph proceeds to give the ten ways to improve kids’ nutrition and health, and most of the reasons have to deal with how to stop “Big Food” from reaching kids. However, she isn’t very effective in making all of her proposals seem feasible. Some of her proposals, such as the subsidies and food labeling, would be very hard to accomplish if it could be done at all. Getting the government to change something is hard, especially something such as changing the values of food stamps depending on what it is used to purchase. By doing so the government would have to establish a very strict guide as to what a healthy choice is and what junk food is. There are also foods that fall in between that category. This poses a large complication to creating these subsidies, and this example is only one of Rudolph’s proposals.

Questions for the Reviewer

**Does my paper flow very well? I tend to have a problem with transitions.
**Is my claim clearly stated?
**Are there enough arguments for the supporting side of the issue? There were many more sources for arguments against it in some way or another.
**What can I add to make it a little bit longer?
**Is there anything I should change to make it more effective?

Freewriting

This last year has been a devastating one for the high school I went to. It seems as though some higher power has something out for the people that have recently graduated from there. The high school is James L. Mann High School in Greenville, SC. I went off to college thinking things were going to be good, I was going to make new friends and stay friends with those from high school. I didn't know that once I got to USC, four people I knew were going to die. My sister is still at Mann, a junior, and now I am constantly getting information from her on what is going on there and how people feel. Last year a guy that graduated two years before me was killed at a bar in Greenville in a gay hate crime. Another death last year was when a boy my brother's age died, I think he may have accidentally hung himself. His older brother was a year older than me. Now I'm off at college, ready to start a new life when one of my fellow classmates and three more that are older than me have already died.