Author: picklerick13

Bibliography – picklerick

  1. Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten. (2012, December 13). Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core’s Emphasis on Informational Text. Retrieved March 02, 2018.

Background: This article debates whether or not the new version of the Common Core Standards is beneficial in its emphasis on informational text. It relays the opinions of teachers and journalists about what students should be reading.

How I used it: This article helped me realize that both fiction and nonfiction literature are important in the classroom. It also taught me how the Common Core Standards are always changing.

  1. Bartlett, B. (2014, June 20). 4 Bad Side Effects of Reading Fiction According to the 19th Century. Retrieved March 02, 2018.

Background: This article discusses how reading for fun isn’t quite as beneficial as reading to gain knowledge. It goes over four “bad side effects” of reading fiction.

How I used it: Although I do not agree that these side effects will happen to anyone who reads fiction, the article did give me some good points toward what happens when you skim text and don’t get the full benefits out of it. It helped me in my paragraph where I compare books to film.

  1. Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.

Background: This dissertation discusses, in depth, the effect close reading has on students’ levels of comprehension. It provides studies and interviews that compare how teaching close reading differs from general reading education.

How I used it: This paper helped me realize how important close reading is in the classroom. I used the quote from Caitlin Dakin, “It is essential in today’s educational world that teachers begin to transform their classroom instruction of fiction literature into short informational complex texts to give the students the opportunity to meet the demands of the common core learning standards.”

  1. Goodwin, B., & Miller, K. (n.d.). Research Says / Nonfiction Reading Promotes Student Success. Retrieved April 17, 2018.

Background: This article gives statistics that show how children, on average, spend less that four minutes a day reading nonfiction. It discusses the new emphasis on nonfiction in the Common Core Standards. It also gives advice on how teaching should change to meet these standards.

How I used it: This article gave me solid examples to how the change in the  Common Core Standards will affect teaching in the future. It also helped show me that informational texts are as important for student success as narrative texts.

  1. Is fiction good for you? How researchers are trying to find out. (2016, July 19). Retrieved April 17, 2018.

Background: This article challenges the idea that reading fiction encourages empathy. It ultimately proves that fiction does, indeed, improve empathy.

How I used it: I used this article to help strengthen my argument that books are just another form of media. It says books are merely “a piece of consciousness being passed from mind to mind” which made sense to me.

  1. Matthews, C. E., Chen, K. Y., Freedson, P. S., Buchowski, M. S., Beech, B. M., Pate, R. R., & Troiano, R. P. (2008). Amount of Time Spent in Sedentary Behaviors in the United States, 2003-2004. American Journal of Epidemiology, 167(7), 875-881.

Background: This study reveals how much time people really spend doing sedentary behaviors on a day to day basis. It gives statistics from the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which show that people spend an average of 7.7 hours each day doing sedentary behaviors.

How I used it: I used statistics from this article to prove my argument that there is a growing problem of adults staying sedentary for too long.

  1. Owen, N., Healy, G. N., Matthews, C. E., & Dunstan, D. W. (2010). Too Much Sitting. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews,38(3), 105-113.

Background: This article discusses how being sedentary for to long is bad for metabolic heath. It points out the difference between too much sitting and too little exercise.How I used it: I used this information to explain why activities like watching TV or readig books should be done in moderation in order to maximize metabolic health.

  1. Pennington Publishing Blog. (n.d.). Why Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) Doesn’t Work. Retrieved March 17, 2018.

Background: This article points to why SSR is not a good use of class time and how there are better, and more effective ways to get kids to benefit from reading.

How I used it: I used the quote from Mark Pennington, “Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth.” to prove that when you give kids SSR they won’t make the most out of their class time.

  1. Shanahan. (2012, June 18). What is Close

Background: This blog explains what close reading is and what it is meant to help with. It points out how to close read in three main steps. It also discusses why the Common Core Standards have such an emphasis on close reading.

How I used it: I used this post to gain a wider knowledge on the subject of close reading. It informed me on how to practice close reading, as well as how teachers should teach it. This mainly improved my paragraph where I offer advice on how teachers should teach close reading to their students.

  1. Strauss, V. (2014, September 08). Why kids should choose their own books to read in school. Retrieved March 17, 2018.

Background: This article gives reasons why letting students choose their own books helps them start reading more often. It also gives reasons why SSR is not an effective method for getting students to read. SThese reasons include how SSR takes up too much time and how there’s a lack of appealing books available in the classroom.

How I used it: The information in this article showed me that Students should read what they want, but not in a SSR setting. The arguments against SSR were very useful to me as well as they increased my knowledge on the subject.

 

Research – picklerick

Reading more nonfiction literature is a fantastic way to sharpen your brain. This sounds obvious, but so many people have the wrong idea when it comes to fiction vs. nonfiction. When one reads informational text, it requires careful attention and effort to be fully comprehended. Whereas when fiction or science fiction is being read, it’s likely being read purely for pleasure.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Plenty of people may read fiction with excellent focus and attention to detail. The thing is, these people are missing out on the immense amount of knowledge and understanding of the world that nonfiction junkies get to experience. Those who just read books for fun can stick to whatever they want to read, but those who are trying to get real, practical benefits from their reading should always lean toward nonfiction.

Public schooling often fails to teach the proper way to close read text. According to Ness (2011), students are struggling with close reading at an increasing rate. A few factors play into this. Kids in elementary school through high school are often given assignments where they’re asked to independently read and log a brief description of what they read in a reading journal. This sounds like a simple and reliable way to get kids into reading. In reality, though, this form of reading assignment gives adolescents major apprehension towards reading and is often the reason why they are so turned off to reading by the time they get to highschool. When kids feel forced to read, they won’t want to. This is why many schools need to rethink the way they’re teaching kids to read by focusing heavily the basics of close reading.

Caitlin Dakin states, in her thesis paper, “It is essential in today’s educational world that teachers begin to transform their classroom instruction of fiction literature into short informational complex texts to give the students the opportunity to meet the demands of the common core learning standards.” Read what you will, but be aware of how much benefit you are really getting from your reading.

Books are really just another form of media. There may be obvious physical differences between these medias, but at their baselines they are both delivery methods for a story. People often feel as if a hobby of reading is something that has higher acclaim than a hobby of watching TV or movies. Film has its perks though. For example, a screen can deliver language as well as picture, whereas a book will only give you the language. This may make it more difficult to get an idea of the mood of a piece of writing. Whereas, in a movie, you can see the the emotion on the face of each actor and often hear it in the music.

This is not to say reading is worse than film, as there are many benefits to reading as well. Books will often present an internal dialogue of its characters. Whereas, in television, only the exterior motives are shown. Also, reading will improve one’s vocabulary. Anyone who reads often will probably come across words that they do not know very well. This causes them to make inferences about the meanings, thus improving their ability to interpret words.

Both reading and film have wonderful benefits, including improvement of knowledge, empathy, and vocabulary. But too much of anything is bad. There is a growing problem of adults staying sedentary for too long. A study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) concluded that an average of 60% of adults’ waking hours are spent sedentary (Matthews). This is detrimental to our health because without an active lifestyle, your whole body slows down. In his manuscript, “Too Much sitting: The Population-Health Science of Sedentary Behavior,” Neville Owens suggests, “Canadians who reported spending the majority of their day sitting had significantly poorer long-term mortality outcomes than did those who reported that they spent less time sitting.” It may sound appealing to sit down these medias all day. But it’s always important to watch how much time is spend on these activities.

The well-intentioned strategy of allowing students to choose their own reading material most often fails. To pad their grades, unambitious students choose easy-readers below their achieved comprehension level, while go-getters overreach, sacrificing the comprehension they need. As Mark Pennington puts the case in his article on the Pennington Publishing Blog, “Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth.” One approach to this issue is for teachers who want students to enjoy reading to let them select their own material from a list of grade-appropriate choices. This gives the students moderate choice without risk of jeopardizing learning. To encourage them to read what they enjoy, teachers can permit students to nominate new material for the list.

A better way to help these kids develop their reading skills is to assign them books that the teachers have already read. This ensures the teacher’s ability to guide their students down the right path. Another way to aid students is to teach them how to close read. Close reading is a form of reading in which the reader carefully analyzes a text in order to gain maximum comprehension from it. It shows kids how to truly read a text, rather than just skimming through it. It is an essential skill for all people, and should be juiced in classrooms of all levels for its benefits.

The best way to teach these students how to properly close read is to assign them short, nonfiction texts that challenge their ability to analyze, comprehend, and make inferences. Both the teacher and the student should analyze a reading passage and examine it for details, some of which include understanding how the text works, the author’s message, providing text evidence to support thoughts and predictions the reader is developing, and making connections between the reader and the text itself (Shanahan, 2012). As long as these methods are carried out properly, students will have the reading skills necessary to make them more successful and intelligent.

References

Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten. (2012, December 13). Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core’s Emphasis on Informational Text. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/fiction-or-nonfiction-considering-the-common-cores-emphasis-on-informational-text/

Bartlett, B. (2014, June 20). 4 Bad Side Effects of Reading Fiction According to the 19th Century. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-bartlett/4-bad-side-effects-of-rea_b_5513451.html

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Goodwin, B., & Miller, K. (n.d.). Research Says / Nonfiction Reading Promotes Student Success. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Nonfiction-Reading-Promotes-Student-Success.aspx

Is fiction good for you? How researchers are trying to find out. (2016, July 19). Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160719131334.htm

Matthews, C. E., Chen, K. Y., Freedson, P. S., Buchowski, M. S., Beech, B. M., Pate, R. R., & Troiano, R. P. (2008). Amount of Time Spent in Sedentary Behaviors in the United States, 2003-2004. American Journal of Epidemiology, 167(7), 875-881. doi:10.1093/aje/kwm390

 

 

Owen, N., Healy, G. N., Matthews, C. E., & Dunstan, D. W. (2010). Too Much Sitting. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews,38(3), 105-113. doi:10.1097/jes.0b013e3181e373a2
Pennington Publishing Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/why-sustained-silent-reading-ssr-doesnt-work/
Shanahan, T. (2012). What is close reading? Retrieved from
http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/06/what-is-close-reading.html

Strauss, V. (2014, September 08). Why kids should choose their own books to read in school. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/08/why-kids-should-choose-their-own-books-to-read-in-school/?utm_term=.a1d60b23343c

Definition Rewrite – picklerick

Books are really just another form of media. There may be obvious physical differences between these medias, but at their baselines they are both delivery methods for a story. People often feel as if a hobby of reading is something that has higher acclaim than a hobby of watching TV or movies. Film has its perks though. For example, a screen can deliver language as well as picture, whereas a book will only give you the language. This may make it more difficult to get an idea of the mood of a piece of writing. Whereas, in a movie, you can see the the emotion on the face of each actor and often hear it in the music.

This is not to say reading is worse than film, as there are many benefits to reading as well. Books will often present an internal dialogue of its characters. Whereas, in television, only the exterior motives are shown. Also, reading will improve one’s vocabulary. Anyone who reads often will probably come across words that they do not know very well. This causes them to make inferences about the meanings, thus improving their ability to interpret words.

Both reading and film have wonderful benefits, including improvement of knowledge, empathy, and vocabulary. But too much of anything is bad. There is a growing problem of adults staying sedentary for too long. A study by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) concluded that an average of 60% of adults’ waking hours are spent sedentary (Matthews). This is detrimental to our health because without an active lifestyle, your whole body slows down. In his manuscript, “Too Much sitting: The Population-Health Science of Sedentary Behavior,” Neville Owens suggests, “Canadians who reported spending the majority of their day sitting had significantly poorer long-term mortality outcomes than did those who reported that they spent less time sitting.” It may sound appealing to sit down these medias all day. But it’s always important to watch how much time is spend on these activities.

 

References

Owen, N., Healy, G. N., Matthews, C. E., & Dunstan, D. W. (2010). Too Much Sitting. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 38(3), 105-113. doi:10.1097/jes.0b013e3181e373a2
Matthews, C. E., Chen, K. Y., Freedson, P. S., Buchowski, M. S., Beech, B. M., Pate, R. R., & Troiano, R. P. (2008). Amount of Time Spent in Sedentary Behaviors in the United States, 2003-2004. American Journal of Epidemiology, 167(7), 875-881. doi:10.1093/aje/kwm390

Reflective – picklerick

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

I feel that my work throughout this Comp. II course has definitely been an interactive and social process. With each piece of feedback and each revision, I have acquired an increased sense of improvement for my work. My professor, Dr. Hodges, provided me with thorough feedback on my Causal Argument essay. His feedback included critique on my reference section, which I was then able to fix. It also included advice on how to change my approach to the topic. My approach started out very linear, and with this advice, I realized I needed to take a different path. I feel like my work made some great improvements by the second draft (the Causal Argument Rewrite). I basically changed my approach from “reading fiction is bad for you” to “reading more nonfiction is a great way to sharpen your brain.”  After then showing my revision to a friend, I was able to fix some wording and grammatical issues.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

I have experience with reading text critically to analyze it. This is apparent in my Safer Saws assignment, where I analyzed the claims made by five separate people about a table saw called the SawStop. The saw is special because the blade stops before your hand can touch it.  Each claim I analyzed had a different view of the saw. For example, an article written about a competitor saw (the Whirlwind) saw the SawStop as an inferior product. I was able to analyze the type of claim made by this article and whether or not it is reasonable, logical, and persuasive. I also feel like I learned a lot about close reading through my Research Paper. This is because I happened to write a lot about close reading in my paper, thus informing me more on the topic.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I feel that when I first wrote my Rebuttal Argument essay, I didn’t fully take into account the audience and context. I aimed to make the essay about how I think teachers should rethink the way they teach reading to kids in elementary through high school. With the help of prof. Hodges, though, I was able to state my claims much more effectively in my Rebuttal Rewrite essay. I acknowledged that my target audience was grade school teachers and restated my claims in a manner that would be more well-received by them. My tone in the original essay was more harsh toward this audience, using phrases such as, “teachers have the wrong idea.” After revisions, my tone was lighter and more logical, using phrases like, “Grade school teachers often have a difficult time expressing the joy of reading to their students.”

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

The Visual Rhetoric assignment was great practice for using illustrations in writing. I gave a thorough analysis of a thirty-six second Ad Council video. I did this by pausing the video every few seconds, taking in what I just saw, and putting it into words. This improved my ability to describe a scene in such a way that if someone hadn’t seen the video they could still visualize it with ease. Throughout this semester, I have discovered many sources that I have incorporated in my writing. In my Whitepaper, I provide a master list that contains all the sources I used in my Research Paper. For each source, I give a brief explanation of the content of the article and describe what the article proves. This was a great way to organize my sources and keep my research feeling more clean.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

I always make sure to cite my sources properly when using a quote or paraphrase from them. This can be shown in my Rebuttal Argument essay. I found an article from the Pennington Publishing Blog that describes why students don’t get much out out reading assignments when they chose their own books. I used the quote in my essay and made sure to attribute Mark Pennington in the essay. I also used proper italicization for the title of the blog. It is unfair when people take information from others without proper attribution, and downright wrong to steal someone’s exact wording. This highlights how important it is to credit sources properly. All the sources I used can also be found in my Whitepaper, along with a description of what each source contains and what they prove.

Rebuttal Rewrite – picklerick

The well-intentioned strategy of allowing students to choose their own reading material most often fails. To pad their grades, unambitious students choose easy-readers below their achieved comprehension level, while go-getters overreach, sacrificing the comprehension they need. As Mark Pennington puts the case in his article on the Pennington Publishing Blog, “Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth.” One approach to this issue is for teachers who want students to enjoy reading to let them select their own material from a list of grade-appropriate choices. This gives the students moderate choice without risk of jeopardizing learning. To encourage them to read what they enjoy, teachers can permit students to nominate new material for the list.

A better way to help these kids develop their reading skills is to assign them books that the teachers have already read. This ensures the teacher’s ability to guide their students down the right path. Another way to aid students is to teach them how to close read. Close reading is a form of reading in which the reader carefully analyzes a text in order to gain maximum comprehension from it. It shows kids how to truly read a text, rather than just skimming through it. It is an essential skill for all people, and should be juiced in classrooms of all levels for its benefits.

The best way to teach these students how to properly close read is to assign them short, nonfiction texts that challenge their ability to analyze, comprehend, and make inferences. Both the teacher and the student should analyze a reading passage and examine it for details, some of which include understanding how the text works, the author’s message, providing text evidence to support thoughts and predictions the reader is developing, and making connections between the reader and the text itself (Shanahan, 2012). As long as these methods are carried out properly, students will have the reading skills necessary to make them more successful and intelligent.

 

References

Strauss, V. (2014, September 08). Why kids should choose their own books to read in school. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/08/why-kids-should-choose-their-own-books-to-read-in-school/?utm_term=.a1d60b23343c

Pennington Publishing Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/why-sustained-silent-reading-ssr-doesnt-work/

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Shanahan, T. (2012). What is close reading? Retrieved from
http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/06/what-is-close-reading.html

Causal Rewrite – picklerick

Reading more nonfiction literature is a fantastic way to sharpen your brain. This sounds obvious, but so many people have the wrong idea when it comes to fiction vs. nonfiction. When one reads informational text, it requires careful attention and effort to be fully comprehended. Whereas when fiction or science fiction is being read, it’s likely being read purely for pleasure.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Plenty of people may read fiction with excellent focus and attention to detail. The thing is, these people are missing out on the immense amount of knowledge and understanding of the world that nonfiction junkies get to experience. Those who just read books for fun can stick to whatever they want to read, but those who are trying to get real, practical benefits from their reading should always lean toward nonfiction.

Public schooling often fails to teach the proper way to close read text. According to Ness (2011), students are struggling with close reading at an increasing rate. A few factors play into this. Kids in elementary school through high school are often given assignments where they’re asked to independently read and log a brief description of what they read in a reading journal. This sounds like a simple and reliable way to get kids into reading. In reality, though, this form of reading assignment gives adolescents major apprehension towards reading and is often the reason why they are so turned off to reading by the time they get to highschool. When kids feel forced to read, they won’t want to. This is why many schools need to rethink the way they’re teaching kids to read by focusing heavily the basics of close reading.

Caitlin Dakin states, in her thesis paper, “It is essential in today’s educational world that teachers begin to transform their classroom instruction of fiction literature into short informational complex texts to give the students the opportunity to meet the demands of the common core learning standards.” Read what you will, but be aware of how much benefit you are really getting from your reading.

 

References

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten. (2012, December 13). Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core’s Emphasis on Informational Text. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/fiction-or-nonfiction-considering-the-common-cores-emphasis-on-informational-text/

Bartlett, B. (2014, June 20). 4 Bad Side Effects of Reading Fiction According to the 19th Century. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-bartlett/4-bad-side-effects-of-rea_b_5513451.html

Enough About You – picklerick

Original Paragraph
Money seems to have a big role in our society; you can’t do much or get far if you don’t have any. Money is valuable in different ways, even when you don’t see it physically. In today’s society you must have faith in the government and in the banking system that your money is being handled in the proper manner; if not, then you would have to hide all of your money under your mattress or around your house. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of your money. I always thought money was simple; you either have some or you don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. You don’t actually see your money being transferred. When you get paid, you aren’t handed cash, you don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to your bank account, and you just have to trust that you got more money.

Edited Paragraph
Money drives our society; without it our accomplishments are minimal. Its value is grand, yet invisible to the naked eye. In today’s society, governmental faith is necessary to assure our money is handled properly and carefully. Without this faith, we would be hiding our money under mattresses. Banks keep their methods of handling money to themselves. Money isn’t as simple as, “rich and poor.” However, the assignment, the Yap Fei, there is a clear similarity between US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts. We can’t physically see the money being transferred. There are few physical checks or cash involved in payments anymore; money is merely transferred into our accounts while we have to trust it’s actually there.

Robust Verbs – picklerick

There is a huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. There are no limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. This will in turn fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

 

 

There is a huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits.

Problem: Weak “there is” clause. Stating that this is a problem is unnecessary and steals from the more powerful point of the sentence.

Fix: Remove the “there is” clause and focus on the main point of the sentence.

Heroin addicts in Vancouver are committing crimes to support their habits.

 

The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts.

Problem: The word “addicts” was used in the last sentence

Fix: Use “them instead to make it less repetitive.

The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything in their power to stop them.

 

The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts.

Problem: Weak “there is” clause. Can combine with prev. sentence

Fix: Remove the clause, reword the sentence.

because they’re causing crime rates to skyrocket.

 

It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using.

Problem: Weak “it is” clause. No need for two sentences for one claim.

Fix: Combine these sentences with the necessary information.

This addiction affects an excess of daily activities in an addict’s life; jobs, interactions, and relationships are all prone to suffer.

 

By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing.

Problem: The wording is hard to follow. These two sentences can be combined.

Fix: Reword and combine the two sentences.

Users will do whatever they can to get their hands on more heroin, even breaking and entering, and stealing.

 

There are no limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction.

Problem: Weak “there are” clause

Fix: Remove the clause

They will go anywhere at all to retrieve this drug.

 

The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to.

Problem: Weak “is” clause. Two sentences for one claim.

Fix: Reword and combine sentences.

Instead of helping wean the addicts off heroin, this program is only focused on saving the city’s crime rates.

 

By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital.

Problem: Weak phrase, “which in turn will”. Unspecified “them” pronoun. Sentences can be combined. “The hospital” doesn’t really make sense.

Fix: Remove the phrase. Specify “them”. Combine sentences. Change “the hospital” to “hospitals”

By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, preventing the addicts from committing minor street crimes and keeping them out of hospitals.

 

It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug.

Problem: Weak “it is” clause. “unsanitary needles” and “hard to cope without the drug” is unnecessary information.

Fix: Remove “it is” clause and remove unnecessary information.

These hospitals shouldn’t have to deal with addicts who are unable to afford hospital bills.

 

This will in turn fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

Problem: phrase, “in turn” unnecessary

Fix: Remove the phrase.

This will fix the city but not the addiction that these people face.

 

Heroin addicts in Vancouver are committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything in their power to stop them because they’re causing crime rates to skyrocket. This addiction affects an excess of daily activities in an addict’s life; jobs, interactions, and relationships are all prone to suffer. Users will do whatever they can to get their hands on more heroin, even breaking and entering, and stealing. They will go anywhere at all to retrieve this drug. Instead of helping wean the addicts off heroin, this program is only focused on saving the city’s crime rates. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, preventing the addicts from committing minor street crimes and keeping them out of hospitals. These hospitals shouldn’t have to deal with addicts who are unable to afford hospital bills. This will fix the city but not the addiction that these people face.

Rebuttal – picklerick

Teaching Students to Really Read

When it comes to teaching students to read, many teachers have the wrong idea. It’s a popular belief that in order to show kids the joy of reading, they should be assigned to read whatever they want. Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post claims, “the easiest path is to make independent reading at least half of every day’s homework by putting strict limits on subject matter assignments.” This seems logical; giving students freedom to read what they want will make them more attached to the story, right? As it turns out, there are actually significant downsides to letting students read what they want. As Mark Pennington explains in his article from the Pennington Publishing Blog, “Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth.” If you give a student the assignment to read freely, of course they’re going to choose a book that’s simple to read. Also, as a teacher, you have no way of knowing whether or not the student comprehended the text. This is why it the best method to teach kids how to read properly is to insure that they have the close reading skills necessary to read books that are on their reading level. The best way to do this is to assign them short, nonfiction texts which challenge their ability to analyze, comprehend, and make inferences.

 

References

Strauss, V. (2014, September 08). Why kids should choose their own books to read in school. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/08/why-kids-should-choose-their-own-books-to-read-in-school/?utm_term=.a1d60b23343c

Pennington Publishing Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/why-sustained-silent-reading-ssr-doesnt-work/

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Safer Saws – picklerick

A. Stephen Gass once stated, in an interview with Asa Christiana, “Obviously not everyone is going to spend $1000 or more on a table saw. But the question becomes can you put SawStop-like technology on smaller saws as well and what is the cost.”

B. Gass is making a claim which expresses that he is aware people have a tough time affording the SawStop, and because of this, he is working of finding a way to make it more affordable to lower the cost.

C. I feel like Gass’s claim could be considered an evaluative claim because he is evaluating the public’s inability to easily afford his SawStop invention and offering a solution to the issue.

D. I feel like his claim is very reasonable. The price of his SawStop seems to be one of its biggest problems, so it’s good he’s addressing it. This claim will probably persuade the public to keep tabs on Gass and on his improvements to the SawStop.

 

A. A user on LumberJocks forum named Bill Davis made a post about SawStop which stated, “I think it sends the wrong message about safety and at a pretty high cost to the user. That message is ‘you dont have to be so careful we’ll protect you’.”

B. He is making a claim that says, instead of relying on an expensive machine to keep you safe, you should just learn how to use normal saws responsibly.

C. This is an opinion claim. Bill Davis has the opinion that people should be able to care for their own safety enough not to rely on SawStop.

D. This claim is very persuasive in that it provides a counterargument to SawStop’s main goal. It will probably make people think twice before buying this machine purely for safety reasons.

E. I partly disagree with this claim because I feel like there situations where having every bit of safety possible is beneficial. Like if a company is relying on their employees to use saws responsibly, it would be in their best interest to use a SawStop. They don’t want to have to pay worker’s compensation. I do understand where Bill Davis is coming from though; it is a lot of money for a small safety precaution.

 

A. Myron Levin stated in an article about SawStop, “Each year, more than 67,000 U.S. workers and do-it-yourselfers suffer blade contact injuries, according to government estimates, including more than 33,000 injuries treated in emergency rooms and 4,000 amputations.”

B. “Each year, more than 67,000 U.S. workers and do-it-yourselfers suffer blade contact injuries, according to government estimates, including more than 33,000 injuries treated in emergency rooms and 4,000 amputations.”

C. This is a factual claim because Levin is just giving statistics.

D. I’m not sure how accurate this claim is, considering its statistics were taken from “government estimates.” These estimates could easily be wrong, disproving the claim. It is a logical claim, though, because it lets people know that lots of people suffer injuries from blades year round.

 

A. Carlos Osorio, a man who suffered from a terrible table saw injury, stated, “There was blood on my face, my body. It was everywhere. I was able to see my tendons.”

B. His injuries were very serious and gruesome.

C. This is a descriptive claim because Osorio is describing the scene after his injury from a table saw.

D. His claim is persuasive because it gives a detailed scene depicting what could happen if your hand slips when using a regular table saw. This could persuade people into buying the SawStop so that they can avoid this scenario.

 

A. There’s an article on thewoodwhisperer.com that reviews an alternative to SawStop. The alternative is called Whirlwind. The article says, about the Whirlwind, “The brake is triggered BEFORE you touch the blade, which means no stitches and no bandaids.”

B. This claim implies that the Whirlwind is superior to the SawStop because the blade retracts faster, making it safer.

C. This is a factual claim because it states a feature of the Whirlwind.

D. This claim is reasonable and logical, but I don’t think it’s very persuasive. People who are in the market for a safer saw will likely not care about such a minor aspect.