Colorado...

So I'm hanging out in Colorado for my cousin's missionary homecoming. And it's 70 degrees... That's crazy.

This is a picture of me and my brother. He is still at the age that it's still cool to miss me. Too bad my other siblings aren't. 

Writing and Research Lab

So going into the lab was kind of helpful. I found another article to use that works really well. If I had more questions then I think that it would have been more helpful. They mostly went over what we did in the library on Friday and Monday but in a little more detail. Anyway I'm off to go take a test...

Happy Friday everyone :)

I might just use these...

What's Math got to do with it?- Book

The Teaching Gap- Book

Classroom Environment- Psychology of Classroom Learning: An Encyclopedia

Majoring in Math not always a Classroom Plus- Magazine

Thesis- Need for change

Although some people have gone through the same math programs throughout school and have done well, mathematics education in the US needs to change because the US is becoming further and further behind other countries in math.

My roommate and I like math... Just a little bit 

The goal was to write 0-20 using only 4 4's. Here is 1-10 and we ran out of room.

Trying to Find a Topic...

1. Changing how math is taught in school (Why do most math classes work in silence? What are some other ways that math is taught in school besides just copying off the board? Should people really be separated in math levels?)

2. Christopher Columbus (Why do so many people think that he is bad? What is the Church's view on him?)

3. Why lemon aid stands shouldn't be illegal. (okay so probably not this one... (Why is it important for children to work and to earn their own money?)

So I'm not sure about these... So it might be totally random. I guess we will see.

More than your weight... "Food for Thought"

Each year people decide to lose weight for their New Year’s resolution. Many sites have had pictures like this floating around, trying to “motivate” people. These pictures show how much society is focused on the size of someone rather than what the person is actually like. Amy Reeves’ blog post focuses on how this needs to be changed, how pictures like this are not the way to motivate people, and that our bodies are miracles.

“Food For Thought” is an effective argument to persuade women to see their bodies as beautiful and not try to make their bodies something that they can’t be. It uses pictures to draw emotions, personal stories, and strong words to create a feeling that what we see in the mirror is not what matters most. The author asks a couple of questions in her post to make the audience think. “Who has the right to tell a little girl that she is not the right shape?” “What right does my weight have to control my happiness?” These two questions are two of the main points of her paper.

The first thing seen on Amy’s blog are the pictures that prompted her blog post. These pictures show images of skinny girls and what the “ideal” weight and body type is, along with words and phrases like “So are those fries really worth it?” The author argues that this is not okay and she feels very strongly about it. She goes on to say that it is important to eat healthy but some junk food is okay. Her argument is food is not a sin and that we need to enjoy our life and not focus on the “perfect body.” The images fill the audience with negative emotions because most people cant be that skinny, even if they tried really hard. They would feel disappointment in themselves and shame when looking at these tiny girls. Because they are pictures they can be photo shopped, so it is possible that no one could be really that skinny. They feel guilt when they eat whatever they want to eat. They know they can’t be that skinny so it makes them not even want to try. These pictures are pushing people away from trying to live a healthy life style. These pictures don’t give an option of being normal for the person’s body type. When the audience sees the pictures, they hope that these aren’t really pictures going around the Internet. They also hope that people aren’t that shallow and that weight isn’t that important. She wants the audience to dislike the pictures and their purpose.

Her use of personal stories helps her connect with the audience, letting them know that she has been in that situation so she knows what she is talking about. She knows that when she is trying to keep in shape, she feels better and when she is being lazy and eating unhealthy she feels sick. It makes her seem on the audience’s level and leads to them trusting her more. Everyone who has been on a diet knows how much better they feel after they start eating right. So the audience knows that she actually tries to make a difference with her diet but doesn’t go extreme like the pictures in her blog suggest people do. Amy talks about when she was younger she felt very self-conscious about her weight and how she looked. It makes the audience feel sorry for her as a little girl and many people will connect to that. The feelings and emotions she describes many people, especially women, have all felt. She says in her post, “I remember… turning bright red when I had to order a bigger sized school t-shirt than the rest of my friends.” Many people can identify with feeling different than everyone else, so it connects her to the audience. It doesn’t matter if they have had the exact experience because it shows that the person writing is normal. She is not someone preaching to her audience; she knows what being a heavier girl is like. When she connects with the audience then they are more willing to think about what she is saying about her paper. People are more willing to listen to a friend in situations like this, rather than someone that they barely know. Through her style of writing she becomes relatable and more like a friend.

Amy uses strong words to say that the American culture is teaching children that the outside is more important than the inside. She shares her feelings of when she held her niece for the first time. She says, “I can't stand the thought of this new and perfect baby being thrown into a world that will tell her all of the reasons why she shouldn't think she is perfect.” She has so much feeling in these paragraphs, that even if you don’t think that this is important, you can tell that she feels strongly about it.  She uses strong words, like “I can’t stand”, to show her emotion rather than just saying something like, “it is sad that...” This effectively shows the audience that she cares about what she is talking about. When someone realizes that the author cares, they are more likely to listen and actually change. If she didn’t care about what she was writing about, she wouldn’t be able to write anything important about her topic.

The author also compares the idea of being super skinny to the women who put rings around their neck to make them longer. Many people don’t see that as beauty and she wants her readers to realize that anything that harms them should not be considered beautiful. Amy points out that when people are anorexic, they are not healthy. They have many problems with their bodies, all for the sake of an idea of beauty. She shows a connection between the bizarre type of beauty of the longer neck and the skinny bodies of models and it makes the audience realize that if it is unhealthy, it shouldn’t be considered pretty. This pushes people away from wanting to be that skinny, which is one of the points of her writing this post.

Amy puts many words in quotes or bold them to put emphasis on something and to use a sarcastic tone. This shows what she thinks is most important and this carries on to the readers. Some examples are “motivational” and “We will never be skinny enough.” When it is placed in bold or underlined is almost like shouting something to the audience. The quotes also put a sarcastic edge to the sentence. Putting it in quotes shows that it is not what she thinks, but instead it is what others think. So these “motivational” pictures in her mind are anything but and people can tell by her writing. Also the phrase “food is not a sin” is one of her major points and is bolded so it is easily seen. This lets her audience know that this is what she thinks is the most important thing in her paper. If the audience doesn’t get anything else, the author wants them to know that she disagrees with what the pictures at the top stand for.

At the end of her paper Amy challenges her audience to start a change about how the world feels about bodies. She uses a quote from Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." She says that she believes that most people truly do believe that what is on the outside is not as important that is on the inside, and that people just need to let others know. It calls the audience to help change how the world feels about the issue. It is not a flaw in a person to be heavier, and the American society need to help one another realize that. Her article points this out, through her words and her pictures, to shock people and make them realize that their bodies are indeed wonderful.

Reflections...

So I like the Rhetorical Analysis better than the Opinion Editorial paper... I'm okay with not being as creative. I really liked looking at others blogs and seeing what they do. I really liked the blog I chose to analyze. The writing center wasn't as helpful this time but it was still good. The peer review was also really helpful.

My roommate took this in Salt Lake.