"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.