SWA #4 Essay 1 Worksheet 1/30/12

1. I am analyzing two ads for Target. Both are advertising brands available at target for a lower price. The first advertises an affordable Paul Frank line at Target. And the second advertises an affordable Cynthia Vincent line for target. The Paul Frank ad was published in US Weekly and the Cynthia Vincent ad was published in Lucky Magazine.

2. The first ad was published in US Weekly, a magazine commonly read by a broad audience. Most of the time this audience consists of working adults, however. Lucky Magazine published ad two. It is a magazine that targets female college students and young professional women.

3. Description of ad 1:

• kids


• happy, smiling


• monkey logo


• music


• bright colors


• fun

Description of ad 2:

• vacant scenery


• neutral colors


• "ideal" leg for women


• wedge sandals

4. I chose these two ads because I think the audience they are created for is clearly depicted by the image they display. The two ads are very different because they represent two very different stages in life. One is of a little girl and one is of a young woman's leg. One is advertising cute, while the other is advertising something more sophisticated and has sex appeal. It is typical for a little girl to want to dress cute and fun, while it is typical for a young woman to want to look mature and sexy.

SWA#3

Amanda Youngblood
English 102-111
SWA#3
23 January 2012

One of the issues mentioned in today’s reading from The Carolina Reader is the issue of letting the elderly become isolated until they die in nursing homes or similar facilities. Often times the facilities they are in are unpleasant places where the residents are frequently neglected and abused. This issue brings up a question for discussion. Is it morally right to let old people move into nursing homes without the care or company of their family? Shouldn’t we care for the people who raised us instead of casting them aside? This issue is important because one day everyone will be old. And once we are old, we would like our families to take care of us. If facilities like nursing homes keep continuing and growing, we will end up just like the isolated elderly people in them today. If we want to change that fate, we are going to have to change our morals and ways of dealing with the elderly. Sacrifices by our future children and family will have to be made to ensure our best treatment. This will change the idea of how to deal with old people completely and that change of ideals is what will stop the isolated, cruel treatment of the elderly.

In Chapter 2 of Writing Arguments, there is a protest photo of a man holding an American flag and a poster that says, “It’s illegal to hire illegals.” This man is speaking out against illegal immigrants getting hired in America. Often, when illegal immigrants come to the US, employers will give them jobs even if they do not have citizenship. Most of the time it is because the immigrants, being desperate for a job, will do work for little pay. However, despite the fact that illegal immigrants are looking for work, hiring them over American citizens looking for work upsets many individuals. It is believed that US citizens should get work before illegals because the illegals aren’t supposed to be working anyway. Many workers go on strike to protest this act of hiring immigrants that are illegally in the country.

"Get Smarter"

p. 186 question #3
I see and understand the point that Cascio makes by saying that the use of drugs can be seen as a way to enhance productiveness, however I do not agree with this completely. Drugs are seen as cheating in the athletic world, and they can also be seen as cheating when it comes to the use of them as "brain enhancers". I don't feel like cheating would be the main issue in taking drugs to focus more clearly and be more productive. In the essay, Cascio mentions the drug modafinil that can keep a person alert. He says that the drug has been observed to make its users "smarter" by making them think with more clarity. However, if people start taking this drug on a large scale, people are going to become dependent on this drug. They aren't going to be using their natural abilities to problem solve or even to do everyday tasks. And if everyone starts taking drugs to enhance their thinking, our minds are not improving. They are just being aided. Cascio says in his third paragraph that humans have coped with the events that have happened over time by getting smarter. A drug will only temporarily make someone smarter, but will have no effect on actual intelligence in the long run. We should let our brains get smarter on their own by taking in new information and getting access to more information, not access to more drugs.

SWA#1

Amanda Youngblood
English 102 Section 111
10 January 2012
SWA#1

Previous Writing Experiences

My English 101 class was a specialized class reserved for Capstone scholars. The title of the course was “Mark Twain to Modern Twitterature”. We read and discussed various examples of writings by various authors. We also discussed how culture and dialect affected an author’s writing style.

For the first two papers we wrote, we had to choose and analyze two separate essays by different authors. When writing the first paper I focused on the aspects and style of the essays and used that information to argue which essay reinforced the main point in a more effective manner. On the second paper, we had to choose two essays that focused on the same topic and compare which one better outlined the central topic. I chose to analyze two essays that discussed the issue of profanity. After the first two papers, we shifted our attention from comparative essays to focusing more on the analytical aspect of writing.

The third paper I wrote was to analyze a song. I chose a hit country ballad from the 1970’s. In that paper I explained the elements of the song that made it a ballad and also the elements of the song that made it incredibly popular with its audience. The fourth and final paper we looked up controversial issues that related to language usage and an article about that issue. I chose to look up an article about language and education. I proved how appropriate communication and language use with students and parents is key to providing students with a good education by reading this article and researching the topic. I was very happy with how my final draft of this paper turned out.

The best writing experience I’ve had would probably be putting together the final drafts for four papers for my portfolio for English 101. This gave me the opportunity to prove what I had learned throughout the course and use it to correct papers I had written before my writing skills had improved. It was also a way to demonstrate my improvement. The worst writing experience would be the majority of my high school assignments. Teachers I had did not focus on writing enough and because of that, my writing suffered. I believe the chance to improve that writing in my portfolio affected me the most because it was a chance to redeem myself from years of bad writing in high school.