Big Words are Being Abolished

Abolishing Large Words

Ramin, Martin.“Big Words Are Fading, But Many People Still Love Them.” The Wall Street Journal. n.p, 24 March 2014. Web. 17 April 2014. <http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304179704579459232432887244?mod=djem10point>

           This article is about people beginning to use words that are a lot shorter than they should be using. They are spending so much time on the internet and its just easier to shorten the word, use smaller synonyms, or an acronym. These make these people has a vocabulary of that of an elementary student. People are also being judge upon their use of a large vocabulary.

           I think that this is just wrong. I know I may just use a slang for some long word or trending topic, but it's in the ironic way. Im not trying to make myself seem like a complete and utter simpleton when I write or speak. That's a little of what's wrong now, people think that's it's easier to just type things like, "It was really big!" rather then things that give more of a definition like "It was absolutely enormous in size." or something of the likes. They both mean the same thing, but people would rather use small words that are easy to say or type.    

           I believe that this topic is relevant in my English class because it's one of the bases of the entire subject. We do vocabulary every week and it is getting a little more challenging as the time goes by, Im sure we can all tell that. It's important though to learn things like this because it helps us better understand the past and the future of wringing and speaking. 

McLeod ,Norman. "Good Words Volume 1."  Graphic. Wikipedia. Wikipedia 10/27/11.. Web. 4/22/14. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Good_Words_Volume_1.jpg>

"Why Michael Sam's Coming Out is Not an Unnecessary 'Distraction'"

"Why Michael Sam's Coming Out is Not an Unnecessary 'Distraction." Kellygallagher. n.p. n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. <http://kellygallagher.org/resources/AoW%201314_24%20Michael%20Sam.pdf>.

Qwertyus, Marcus. "Michael Sam final Mizzou home game." Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Sam_final_Mizzou_home_game.jpg>.

Michael Sam has recently “come out of the closet” and announced to the world that he is gay. This is very bad to some people. Some of the players on his team are a sum of the people that think that this shouldn’t be okay. Because Sam will be in the same locker room as them they feel uncomfortable and wish to have him not be allowed in it, but does the fact that he’s gay mean that he has to like or feel attracted to anyone in the locker room? Perhaps none of the men in that room have anything to do with his sexual orientation.

How do I see all this? Well, why does it even matter? If he wants to be gay, let him. Hes been working with these men for years and has never once been called on for his “attraction to the players.” If it didn’t happen before, why would it happen now? And why does this matter to anyone in any situation that involves someone being gay? How they see the world and who they want to be with does not in any way affect you so why should you have a say in if they get to do it or not? I dont think that its fair for them to call him out for this.

The author’s point of view is that it doesn’t matter if he is gay or not. It doesn’t affect his playing ability and that should mean he should be able to continue thinking that way. The author supports Sam and is happy with his ability to come out in this field, knowing good and well what it could get him.

The Higher Purpose of Doodling

"The Higher Purpose of Doodling." CBSNews. CBS News. Jan. 19, 2014. Web. Feb. 10, 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-higher-purpose-of-doodling/>

Forsythe, Giulia. "Why Doodling Matters (draft 1)." flickr. Flickr, 4 Aug. 2011. Media. 6 Feb. 2014. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/6009763204/>.

     People think that doodling is just a thing that people do while they begin to get bored, like in class or while sitting at home doing some random task. The Oxford English Dictionary even states that doodling is a "drawing made absentmindedly" which a lot of people find to be untrue. People use doodling to help themselves remember important things by attaching a small picture to help symbolize what they need to remember for another time. 

     Mapping things out is doodling, many people use that all over the world, planning out what you need and how to get it. Graphing what you need to know. Twenty-nine percent of the people that doodle while trying to remember something remember it more than the people that sat and listened to the whole message.

     My stand point of this topic? To be honest I could care less about whether or not doodling helps to pay attention, it all depends on you and how you learn when you get down to the bone doesn't it? So why not let people do what they like and learn how they want; if it helps people learn by doodling while they listen, let them. If they need to pay full attention one-hundred percent of the time, let them.

     I believe that the author thinks that doodling should be more widely accepted as a way to learn. Once they say "The doodle seems to be the artistic equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield -- it just gets no respect."  The author seems to believe that people discredit doodling as a way remember things and to help and the work place and they are not going to "take that sitting down." They are trying to show the audience how doodling can be good for you while trying to prove their point.  

College Students not Reading at Level

College Students not Reading at Level

Ganim, Sara. "Some college athletes play like adults, read like fifth graders" CNN. CNN. 8 Jan, 2014. Web. 27 Jan, 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html?hpt=hp_t1>

This post was about a large group of people in college not really being ready for the work of a college class. The students partaking in this were part of the sports teams and were allowed to be given tutoring and have to sometimes at most turn in one paper for classes at most. 60% of these students between the years of 2004 and 2012 were reading on an eighth to fourth grade reading level. About 8-10% were reading on a level third grade or below.

What is truly shocking about this post by Sara Ganim is that some of the classes were said to be fake classes. Classes just to make the students look as if they were doing well. They were even given fake Grade Point Averages, this is really sad. I think that this should end very soon because if they aren’t learning what they should now in college they won't have anything to show for what they had as child while they could still play sports, but now that they are old and cannot play they can only say that they can read as well as an eighth grader and write a paper half as good as one. I wouldn’t want that to be the only thing I could say I had to show for myself after I went to college for four years at the very least.

The impact the quotes and the percentages had on the article were that it showed how large of a problem the reading and writing was. It really catches the eye when you and symbols like the percent sign and the numbers.

Affluenza Defense

Grey, Madison. "Affluenza Defense: Judge Rules Rick Kid's Rich Kid-ness Makes Him Not Liable for Deadly Drunk Driving Accident". NewsFeed.Time. Time News 12 Dec 2013. Web. 6 Jan 2013. <http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/12/the-affluenza-defense-judge-rules-rich-kids-rich-kid-ness-makes-him-not-liable-for-deadly-drunk-driving-accident/>

genericitis. "affluenza." Photograph."  Flicker.  Yahoo, 3-28-10. Media. 1-12-14.  <http://www.flickr.com/photos/genericitis/4469485260/>

Ethan Couch was convicted of vehicular manslaughter due to drunk driving in Keller, Texas. This wealthy child is thought to have a rare condition that is believe to have him have a poor understanding of what consequences he could face after committing a terrible act. This illness he suffers from is know as “affluenza” according to Couch’s lawyers. This term means that because of their wealthy status, his family could afford to keep him out of trouble and he would have suffer for nothing and do as he pleased. This is the defense that kept Ethan out of a twenty year sentence. He was given probation instead.

This relates to us and what we are thought because we learn from a very young age that if you do something wrong you get punished. What happened to this sixteen year old boy was the opposite. Just because this boy’s family is rich and mine’s not means he can kill four people? It goes against what we learn everyday.

This event struck me as odd, I dont think that he should not have to suffer the pain that everyone that lose their loved ones does. He should have to serve the jail time just as I would have, his money should not make him invulnerable because of his “affluenza”.  I think this affects me because its changing everything that I was thought when I was little.

What was the author's point of view and how does it impact the overall effect of the text?

The author had the same opinion as me, the child should have been forced to pay the time. She shows this by showing a quote from after the sentencing. Saying his money is what helped him out of ht bind he was in, "if [he] had been any other youth, I fell like the circumstances would have been different (Grey Madison).