"Doesn't Anybody Get a C Anymore?"

The article "Doesn't Anybody Get a C Anymore?" is very similar to the last article in the sense that the author, Phil Primack, argues that grade inflation is at an all time high creating a huge issue for students today. He starts off by arguing that grade inflation has gotten so bad by using supporting evidence that he received an email from a student who was disappointed by receiving a B in the course. He was appalled that this student considered a B a low grade and said that this is one of the issues of grade inflation. I once again disagree with Primack when he makes this argument. First of all, different people have different perspectives on what a good grade is. Simply because this student strives for A's and is upset with getting a B, does not mean that inflation is the issue. In my opinion, the real issue is the stress that society pushes on us to receive good grades. Now a days our entire future strictly depends on our GPA's and getting into college and graduate school has gotten much more competitive. Because of this, students are scared to receive anything less than an A as it could make a huge impact on one's future. This, I believe, is the real issue.

"Grade Inflation Gone Wild"

In the article "Grade Inflation Gone Wild" author Stuart Rojstaczer claims that in today's generation students have been studying less and less and dedicating more of their time to drinking. The author argues that grade inflation has become a huge issue and students tend to walk into class knowing they can receive a B+ with minimal effort so therefore they stop trying. I disagree with Rojstaczer and do not find his argument to be very convincing. As a first-hand example, I spend hours in our school library every single night and put much hard work and effort into my grades. I do not find that my classes are easy to obtain good grades, but instead, many of them require sufficient studying just to get a decent grade in the course. I do not believe that Rojstaczer uses good statistics to back up his argument and he flat out claims that students are not trying in school anymore, which is not something that he can fully assume. Furthermore, he states that grade inflation is something that can be fixed, and has been fixed at a few universities, yet he does not mention how it can be fixed. Overall, in opposition to the author's claim, I think it is a good thing that students are receiving higher grades and it cannot be assumed that those grades were not worked for.

"Worse Than Wal-Mart"

Similar to the previous reading, the article "Worse Than Wal-Mart," points out the negative aspects of large corporations. The author, Simon Head, argues that Amazon is one of the most abusive businesses around, an issue that many individuals are unaware of. Despite all of their false advertisement about trust and care for both their customers and employees, there is actually a harmful reality behind closed doors. Head writes, "Amazon's customers are principally valued by the corporation as mainstays of the bottom line, and not as vehicles for the fulfillment of personals relationships ... Amazon treats a second significant grouping of men and women with whom it has dealings-its employees- with the very opposite of care and trust." Amazon completely mistreats their employees in various ways that are unacceptable for a professional corporation. Overall, Amazon- like Wal-Mart- is very unprofessional when dealing with other individuals and they do not handle their interactions in a businesslike fashion whatsoever.

"My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor"

Joseph Williams, a once very successful veteran reporter, writes about the daily struggles that he was encountered with at his job in a sporting-goods retail store in the article, "My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor." After being fired from his job and undergoing a series of unfortunate events, Williams finally found employment in a retail store called Sporting Goods Inc. At the time, Williams was basically homeless and living off food stamps, so any sort of paying job was much needed. To his surprise, Williams discovered that working in retail was far worse than he originally expected. For a mere $10 an hour, Williams had to do many unpleasant tasks that were unforeseen when he first got the job, all while losing whatever bit of dignity and freedom he had left. In his article Williams writes, "Of course, I had no idea what a modern retail job demanded. I didn't realize the stamina that would be necessary, the extra, unpaid duties that would be tacked on, or the required disregard for one's own self esteem." He goes on to mention that while working at the store he received little to no respect and he could not even stand up for himself because of fear for losing his job which was barely supporting him. Finally, after spending much time and dedication to a job that was hardly worth it, Williams quit and found a job much more suited for him. Overall, life in the retail world is far worse than one would imagine and yet there is little we can do about it due to today's dire need of employment,

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

With the creation of the internet, life has become far more simple by having the answer to all of our questions right at our fingertips. However, even with easy access to every bit of knowledge we need right before us, has the internet influenced our thoughts and mindset in a more negative way than we think? This is a question that author Nicholas Carr addresses in his article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In the article, Carr discusses how the internet has distracted individuals from deep reading and intellectual thought as we are more tempted to jump from link to link simply scanning through the pages. On the other hand, in a book there are no ads or other interruptions and we are able to become fully invested in what we are reading. Carr writes, "And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles." This form of education that we receive from the internet can be troubling because it ultimately shapes our process of thought. It tempts us to simply "power browse" and avoid the traditional sense of reading. For example, Google, the ultimate source of the internet for many individuals, is trying to "systemize" everything it does. It strives to control how users find information through search engines and influence the way in which we take meaning from it. By aiming to become the world's "perfect" search engine, Google and the rest of the internet are tremendously impacting the way in which we receive and process information and are ultimately guiding us to distraction.

"Baby Talk Bonanza"

In the article "Baby Talk Bonanza" the author, Sara Neufeld, claims that intelligence stems from the amount of communication that a child is exposed to from birth on. She supports her argument by referencing pediatric surgeon Dana Suskind and her work with hearing-impaired children. After performing a cochlear implant in a young child, Suskind does follow up work regarding the child learning to talk. From her work, Suskind noticed a disturbing trend that children from low-income families were lagging far behind after surgery and saw that their success of speaking was not nearly as high. Neufeld writes, "Their landmark study in the 1990s found that a child born into poverty hears 30 million fewer words by age 3 than a child born to well-off parents, creating a gap n literacy preparation that has implications for a lifetime". These startling statistics were extremely concerning to Suskind and lead to her creation of The Thirty Million Words Project. This social movement deals with the issue that children are not simply born smart, but they are instead made smart by their parents talking with them, and The Thirty Million Words Project strives to promote communication. Although the parents may not have the best education or job, they can still tremendously influence the future of their children by simply having more conversation and asking questions. Even Aneish Newell, a participant of The Thirty Million Words Project, said that by increasing communication with her young children she saw dramatic results. Her four year old daughter was capable of spelling her full name, remembering her address and phone number, identifying and spelling colors, and even counting to high numbers which are many things that other four years olds cannot yet do. Even Newell herself, has found the encouragement to work on her education though this project. Overall, regardless of ones race, gender, economic condition, etc., we all have the power to influence the future of today's youth by simply promoting communication.

Ethan Frome

Author Elizabeth Ammons argues that the story Ethan Frome is actually written as a hidden fairytale. She mainly argues that the story is a reversed fairytale that is twisted to become scary, or in other words, a psychological horror story. She backs up her argument using many supportive pieces of evidence. First of all, she relates characters from the story to commonly known fairytale roles, such as Zeena being compared to a witch. She writes, "Zeena's face alone would type her as a witch. Sallow-complexioned and old at thirty-five, her bloodless countenance is composed of high protruding cheekbones, lashless lids over piercing eyes, thin colorless hair, and a mesh of minute vertical lines between her gaunt nose and granite chin" (147). Second, Ammons associates Mattie Silver as being a princess, which is a character that is essential in almost every fairytale. She argues that the use of language to describe Mattie in Ethan's eyes is extremely similar to characteristics of a fairytale princess. Lastly, Ammons asserts that the colors used in this story create fairytale-like imagery among the reader. Each character has their own distinct colors, which is a tactic often used in fairytales to draw children's attention. These methods of support that Ammons writes about, along with many others, help her in her claim of Ethan Frome as a reversed fairytale.

After reading her argument, I would have to say that Ammons makes many valid points. Similar to a real fairytale, Ethan Frome consists of many similar elements. It tells an interesting story, has a message, and even focuses around a villain and other fairytale characters. 

In my opinion, the meaning behind Ethan Frome is that what goes around comes around. Clearly Mattie knew that Ethan was a married man and yet she still decided to pursue a relationship with him. Not only was he married, but his wife was her own family member who took her in while she was in need. On a similar note, Ethan himself was guilty for committing adultery. Although they both deserve the right to happiness, there are several measures that they could have taken previous to forming a relationship, which would have made the situation a little more permissible. Because of their wrongdoing, fate took its course and punished the both of them for going behind Zeena's back and they both became physically injured. Another significant aspect of the story that I would write about is the weather. The weather itself has a huge effect on the story, and without it, the story would be much different and have alternate outcomes. The weather plays a big role in the story, and can be considered it's own character. Overall, the relationships and weather are two extremely significant parts of this story.  

"Trading Stories"

Throughout her life, Jhumpa Lahiri, dedicated her life to reading and writing, which is where she found her true passion. In the article "Trading Stories," Lahiri tells about growing up in a household where reading material was limited and how she overcame this issue by finding ways to get her hands on books that she was interested in and writing with friends at school. Her fathers books were not appealing to her as they mostly dealt with his studies and her mothers were often in a different language or off limits. Despite this, Lahiri was still able to find ways to obtain English books about American lives. Problem was, these books separated Lahiri from her parents and give her insight into a different kind of world that they were unaware of. This created a feeling of trespassing for Lahiri, however, she was learning and becoming fully invested with these texts. In this way, Lahiri was able to know and understand American lives better and she began making friends at school through common interests with writing. Everyday, whether at recess or at home, Lahiri was devoting every spare moment she had to reading and writing and it was the one place she felt truly comfortable. Literature broke the barrier between herself and the outside world, and with it, she found her real self.

"Twilight of the Books"

In the article, "Twilight of the Books," Caleb Crain points out the startling decline in reading habits in todays generation. Throughout the past couple decades, the amount of time that individuals have spent reading has continuously gone down. Along with the dwindling timespan spent reading, the ability to read has decreased as well. In his article, Crain writes, "Between 1955 and 1975, the decades when television was being introduced into the Netherlands, reading on weekday evenings and weekends fell from five hours a week to 3.6, while television watching rose from about ten minutes a week to more than ten hours." This is extremely alarming because reading is essential to ones education and knowledge, however, it seems that nowadays many individuals are placing entertainment above their own learning. If this pattern continues, and reading falls while television rises, then our younger generations could be at a serious loss. 

"Whales R Us"

WS 2, 3, 4 and EI 1

In the article, "Whales R Us," author Jayme Stayer calls Sea World out and reveals that it is extremely fake and certainly not a place of education, contrary to what they promote. He points out different elements about the part, like the teenage employees and scripted lines for example, and uses this to argue the fact that it is not a place of education but rather a place to receive false information and amusement. Stayer uses counterargument in his paper to further support his claims. For example, in paragraph 25, Stayer points out that Sea World was actually incorrect in their premise of Jaws. He argues that events in Florida have shown that sharks actually will attack idle swimmers, unlike what Sea World teaches. He further goes on to say that if they can't get their basic facts straight then how do we know what to believe. Furthermore, Stayer also uses Sea World to make broader points about American Culture. He writes, "Sea World is a reflection of American culture: a consequence, not a cause; a mirror of consumerist desires, not a promoter of political change via education." In addition he adds that Sea World reflects American traits such as gullibility and irrationality. Overall, Stayer uses Sea World to promote the idea that American culture tends to ignore the true beauty of nature by covering it up with false amusement.

"Reality Check"

WS 2,3,5 and EI 1

In the article "Reality Check," author Alison Hester responds to Jayme Stayers argument about the ugly truth and falsehoods of Sea World. Hester states that Sea World is certainly not a place of education as it is portrayed to be, but it is rather solely for human entertainment and is a corruption of todays society. In no way does Sea World represent the true quality of nature, but instead it is "a bombardment of noise and underdeveloped factoid presentations" according to both Hester and Stayer. The education that many individuals believe they are receiving is actually a form of "mind control" which is manipulated in order for the audience to enjoy their visit rather than actually learn about the animals. The strategies that Hester uses to support her arguments mainly come from Stayers previous essay and she uses a more aggressive approach to truly catch the readers attention. She is extremely passionate about this argument and backs up each of her comments with more facts about Sea World.

Throughout the article Hester also effectively connects one idea to the next. She often ends each paragraph with a transitional sentence leading into the next. This makes the article much smoother for the reader to follow and it gives her argument flow. For example, Hester ends paragraph 5 by writing, "What does this say about Americans and entertainment?" Instead of jumping right to her next claim, Hester prepares the reader for what is coming up next. By doing so, Hester is able to switch the topic from the use of the animals at Sea World for entertainment to how this relates to American culture and reality. The tactic that she uses in this situation works well as she makes her claim then transitions to the underlying problem.

One of Hester's best skills in her writing is her strong use of voice. She is extremely convincing in her writing because she makes it clear that she knows what she is talking about. Furthermore, she is very heartfelt about this issue, which is evident in her writing and is important for the reader to know. Hester writes, "Acknowledging the truth of these creatures' existence at Sea World makes one realize that there can be no true education or productivity at the expense of captive creatures." She also states, "Eventually the water will spill over the sides and create an unnecessary mess" after relating America ignoring reality to a pot of full boiling water. Hester truly uses her voice in these examples and is by no means hesitant about the issue at hand and how out of control it is getting.

Hester also addresses the fact that what most deem as normal and satisfactory about Sea World is, in all actuality, not normal nor satisfactory whatsoever. Individuals who attend Sea World do not realize that what they are witnessing is not actually reality. Reality is not animals being kept captive or being forced into doing flips and tricks for an audience. By visiting Sea World, individuals place themselves in an environment where they see and hear false misconceptions and avoid harsh reality. Stayer compels the readers to come to terms with reality by instilling the fact that this is a huge problem in society and it will just keep growing if we tend to ignore it.

"The Educational Benefits of Ugly Fonts" and "The Evolution of Fonts"

Many individuals believe that having an easy time with learning new material ultimately means that it was a successful learning experience. However, in his article Jonah Lehrer argues this concept by suggesting that material that is harder to learn is actually far more beneficial by improving long term learning and retention. After conducting a study with the effects of different fonts on the same classroom material, researches found that those who were taught with the disfluent fonts actually had a far better retention of the material. A scientist wrote after gathering the results, "This study demonstrated that student retention of material across a wide range of subjects (science and humanities classes) and difficulty levels (regular, Honors and Advanced Placement) can be significantly improved in naturalistic settings by presenting reading material in a format that is slightly harder to read". With this new discovery, we now know that we possess the ability to improve both the performance and educations of students. 

In the video, "The Evolution of Fonts," Ben Barrett-Forrest tells the audience about the history of typography using an clip that showed what each individual font looked like. He spoke of how each type of font came about and what they are mainly used for, like posters or titles for example. The world of communication was revolutionize first when blackletter was created, the first ever typeface. From there on out new styles and sizes of fonts sprouted and continued to become more and more diverse. Letters became more manageable to read and there were fonts that appealed to everyone. Finally, when the computer was created, thousands of typefaces surfaced and technology changed typography as we knew it. Overall, Barrett-Forrest emphasizes the idea that fonts are timeless and always changing. 

Word Report

Dainty>dignity 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the words dainty and dignity have the following definitions:

Dainty- 

(n.)

1. Estimation, honour, favor (in which anything is held); esteem, regard; affection, love
2. Liking or fondness to do or see anything; delight, pleasure, joy
3. Delightful or choice quality; sumptuousness
4. Daintiness; fastidiousness
5. Anything estimable, choice, fine, pleasing or delightful; hence occas., a luxury, rarity
6. Anything pleasing or delicious to the palate; a choice viand, a delicacy
7. Phrase. To set great store by; hense, to be sparing or chary of, to be chary or loth, to scruple
8. As an asseveration: By God's dignity, or honour

(adj.) 

1. Valuable, fine, handsome; choice, excellent; pleasant, delightful
2. Precious; hence, rare, scarce
3. Pleasing to the palate, choice, delicate
4. Of delicate or tender beauty or grace; delicately pretty; made with delicate taste
5. Of persons, etc.: Possessing or displaying delicate taste, perception or sensibility; nice, fastidious, particular; sometimes, over-nice
6. Nice or particular as to the quality of food, comforts, etc.; luxurious 
7. Delicate (in health or constitution)
8. Daintily
9. (as a verb) To pamper or indulge with dainties

Dignity-

1. The quality of being worthy or honourable; worthiness, worth, nobleness, excellence
2. Honourable or high estate, position, or estimation; honour; degree of estimation, rand
3. An honourable office, rank, or title; a high official or titular position
4. Nobility of befitting elevation of aspect, manner, or style; becoming or fit stateliness, gravity
5. A situation of a planet in which its influence is heightened, either by its position in the zodiac, or by its aspects with other planets
6. The term for a 'company' of canons
7. Power
8. A self-evident theorem, an axiom 

The word "dainty" first derived in c. 1225 and continued to develop until 1816. It has origins from Old French "deintie" and Latin "dignitatem". Dainty as an adjective sprouted from the noun and the meaning evolved in Middle English to "choice, excellent" to "delicately pretty". On the other hand, "dignity" also arose in 1225 and expanded until 1891. This word came from Old French "dignite" as well as Latin "dignitatem". These two words relate to one another by the similarities of their definitions. They both have meaning that deals with words such as "honour" and they both seem to be favorable words. In both cases, the words are used with positive meaning and deal with luxury- whether it is something luxurious or a luxurious position. 

"The N-word on the 4th of July"

Through her article, "The N-word on the 4th of July," Brittney Cooper explains to her readers the pain, humiliation, embarrassment, and anger that she endured through her experiences with racial slurs. She speaks of two particular instances in which she was put down and called the N-word by those of opposite races. The first time she was ever called this hateful word was when she was just a little girl, then again while she was onboard a plane heading home on the 4th of July. After overseeing a text message being sent by her neighbor on the plane regarding her as a "fat nigger," Cooper was distraught. The woman sending the text message was a middle-aged white woman with a family, whom Cooper had never met nor spoke with. After seeing the message, Cooper's past emotions emerged and in her article she writes about feelings that she was once again experiencing, "...the foreboding sense that something was wrong not with anything I had said or done, but simply with me. Immediately I was hyper-aware – looking around, feeling marked, wondering if others find my large, dark-skinned body as distasteful as my seatmate did". 

The main purpose of this article was to address the issue of racism and how hurtful such words can be to those of any age or size. Cooper knew she had to speak out, not only for her own sake, but in order for others (the woman's children included) to recognize how ignorant it is to use racial slurs. She then took action into her own hands and confronted the woman by telling her how cruel her words were. We can only hope, after reading this article, that individuals will be given insight into the lives of others and become more respectful and courteous of those around them. 

"The Million Word March"

"...The gap between the words people use and the words that appear in dictionaries might be on the rise." This is the main claim that author Anika Gupta makes in her article, "The Million Word March." She speaks of how the English language consists of over a million different words and is still continuing to grow, however, most standard dictionaries contain a mere 200,000 words. This is because, as Gupta explains, the dictionaries of our generation disregard words for being either too technical, too young, or even popular brand names as well as foreign words and phrases. In her article, Gupta quotes Paul JJ Payack when he says that a word is defined as, "a thought spoken," and therefore, if an individual speaks a word out loud, then it is technically considered to be a real word. Using the Monitor, Payack decided to track all kinds of words over the internet, even those that the dictionary rejects, in order to see the momentum or popularity of such words. What they ultimately found was that not only did the internet quickly add a wide range of new words to the English language, but it has also "taken existing words to new ears." Overall, the English language is endlessly growing and will never be entirely known or used by any individual.

"Scholarship Boy"

Shame, guilt, change, anxiety, separation. This are just a few of the feelings that Richard Rodriguez spoke of experiencing throughout his life in his article, "Scholarship Boy." Rodriguez grew up in a Spanish household with uneducated parents and a yearn for knowledge. Although he knew this knowledge would make him different from his family, he craved to resemble his intelligent teachers who had both authority and confidence. As he got older, Rodriguez spoke of the hardships he encountered between his two lives at home and at school. He struggled daily when he tried to focus on his reading and papers while living in a noisy household with people who simply did not understand him. He was both embarrassed and ashamed of his parent's lack of education and he felt that he could not be proud of his accomplishments at home. Rodriguez knew deep down that his education was becoming a fundamental change in both his life and that of his family. The separation between them was constantly growing and this gap was a perpetual reminder of what his old life used to be. His devotion to his studies would bring him far in life, but there was a certain price he had to pay. Ultimately, he was thankful for everything his parents had done for him, yet their lives were slowly and surely drifting apart.

"Disliking Books at an Early Age"

In the article, "Disliking Books at an Early Age," the author Gerald Graff addresses the issue of how students in recent generations have been taught by their teachers to read and interpret books. Graff claims, in contrast with other teachers and philosophers, that becoming a critical reader who is fully consumed by their reading must not simply read the text as we assume the author wants it to be read, but instead we must also make our own arguments and have social debate and conversation. Effective arguments, Graff states, allows a reader to gain a sense of what other people are saying and in turn provides reading with stimulus and direction. Ultimately, Graff declares that we must disregard the commonly practiced primary and secondary reading processes, but rather relate ourselves to a community in which will make our literary experience both personal and intimate. Doing so will allow individuals to actually enjoy literature and formulate critical questions which will give reading a sense of purpose.

Graff certainly knows what he is talking about considering he graduated with both a B.A in English and a Ph. D. He was an english professor for 25 years and a fully invested author. He directs this article towards an audience in which he hopes will reconsider a way of teaching. He makes his main claims by addressing an issue which he supports with personal experience and quotes from other philosophers and then he provides an answer of how to solve these problems in today's world.