Questions from Allyn and Bacon

4. What personal interest do you have in this issue? How does the issue affect you? Why do you care about it?
The issue I chose to write about is new technology. This topic effects me first hand because my generation has a lot to do with new advances in technology and many new gadgets that have been invented. I care about this topic because it affects not only me but many other young adults as well. New technology such as the internet can be a very useful tool but there always comes some bad with the good. While having a Facebook, email, and a blog can be helpful, it can also be risky. Almost anyone can access these certain sites that may have specific information about you. Also if you are trying to get a job, the employer may not hire you because they looked at your Facebook or typed your name in Google and saw unprofessional images.

6. Imagine all the counterarguments your audience might make. Summarize the main arguments against your position and then freewrite your response to each of the counterarguments. What are the flaws in the alternative points of view?The first argument against my position would be the fact that texting and emailing can cause miscommunication between people and make relationships less personal. This argument is true in some ways because you are not forced to talk face to face to people. If you are shy all you have to do is send a text if you want to talk someone which defeats the purpose of trying to get to know someone. This may cause social issues. A person may also misread an email or a text causing controversy in a relationship. Although these things may be true, texting and email can also be very effective. These two technology devices can be very convenient when you need to send an urgent message or get a hold of someone quickly. There are both pros and cons to this argument. The second argument against my position would be that texting causes people to lose English skills. When people text they usually use a lot of slang or abbreviations which could cause the English language in general to suffer. Also people don’t usually type out full sentences with correct punctuation which would make you lose a lot of writing skills. The flaws in this argument would be that the amount of texting and email couldn’t possibly affect writing and English skills you have acquired your entire life. You couldn’t possibly forget a significant amount of English skills just by using new technology.

8. Why is this an important issue? What are the broader implications and consequences? What other issues does it relate to?
This is an important issue because technology affects millions of people in our society today. Because information is so easy to access on the internet you have to worry about the credibility of the sources. The information may seem accurate but it in reality anyone can make a website and post information whether it is true or false. This is a major issue in college. Students have to make sure their resources are credible by using internet tools and programs set up to find reliable sources. Students are not able to just use Google and other similar search engines as resources. I think that this is very important because you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet and by using these resource tools it helps you to filter out the false information.

Analyzing bullshit

After watching this video about recycling it made me wonder whether or not I was wasting my time. Penn and Teller were both hilarious. They went to a few peoples houses to test their "loyalty" to recycling. The two men took out around ten different colored trashcans for all different kinds of waste. The people listened to Penn and Teller even though using the various cans would take a lot longer. I thought there argument on how recycling was useless and its just for people in the industry to make more money was semi convincing. The fact that they were very humorous made me question there credibility. Penn and Teller used Pathos when they showed the mom with kids who is very loyal to recycling. When they ask her if she found out nothing was benefiting from it she said that she would be very disappointed. This made you feel kind of bad for this lady who was dedicated to helping the environment and recycling. The two men also used logos when they interviewed various workers in the industry to get their input. Interviewing could be a very effective strategy in my next paper as well.

Essay #2 Topic Proposal

1. Are there alternative methods that could be used rather than animal testing?

2. I am personally interested in this particular topic because I have always loved animals, and have thought that it was wrong to test on them using cruel and harsh experiments especially for trivial human things.

3. This topic is important because many times than not these animals are being tortured in order for an experiment to be preformed.

4. I don't know a lot. Just that this is a major issue to many people. PEDA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is a huge animal activist group across America.

5. I’m researching this topic to find out the alternative methods to animal testing.