Friday, August 28, 2009

8/28/09 pg. 38 number dos

In David Zinczenko's article "Don't Blame the Eater" he adresses the limited alternatives available to cheap and convienant fast food resturaunts. Zinczenko claims, "Drive down any thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you'll see one of our country's more than 13,000 McDonald's restaurants. Now, Drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit." He goes on to insist that fast food restaurants are the only available options for teens to get an affordable meal. There is a statistic that contradicts his statements, in 2004 there were 85,000 grocery stores in the United States. Are you not able to buy a grapefruit at a grocery store?


In David Zinczenko's article "Don't Blame the Eater" he provides evidence that type two diabetes, the type caused from being overweight, in children has risen 20 percent since 1994. Zinczenko makes a point that when you go to one of America's 13,000 plus McDonalds there is no nutritional information being displayed or health risk warnings anywhere to be seen. Some fast food resturaunts supply nutritional information if asked but do teens and children, really understand how to interpret that? It doesn't help that commercials and advertising are becoming more and more directed towards children and teens. This brings up the issue of lawsuits against the fast food industry addressed in the article. Children suing McDonalds for making them obese is like suing alcohol industrys for making you an alcoholic. Zinczenko agrees in his writings something else must be done.

The two summaries from the same article provide different information. Summary one is about dissagreeing with the authors view of not having alternatives to fast food. If you dissagreed on the authors view on the alternatives and wanted to write an essay addressing that issue then you obviously wouldnt write the beginning summary, the "they say", about other things in the article that wasnt pertaining to the alternatives to fast food situation. You wouldn't write about the law suits, diabetes rates rising, or the lack of nutritional information displayed because that is off topic and doesn't help support your argument. Summary two was written from a stand point in which you believe the fast food industry is at fault for Americas obese children and teens. In this summary you would include facts from David's article which supported that America is overweight in fault of the fast food resteraunts.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

8/25/09 pg.14 #2

The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to help organize your writing, making it more sophisticated. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer help create structured writing. As the authors themselves put it, "a learning tool." Although some people believe it limits creativity in their writings, Graff and Birkenstein insist that it stimulates creativity and improves it. In sum, then, their view is that writing templates is a temporary learning tool to provide room for creativity and professional structure in your writing.
I agree with Graff and Birkenstein. In my View, the types of templates that the authors recommend are extremely helpful to amatuer writers and helps jumpstart the thinking process. For instance, i used a template to complete this essay and it helped wonderfully. In addition, you can add your own creative flare as you go. The templates are not there to tell you that it is a must that you write this and that, or that you have to follow it exactally. You can modify them and stretch them as you write and come up with more ideas on your own. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that it is not your own original writing and ideas. Yet at first, I was one of the believers that this makes everyone's writing "sound the same", but as i learned more about the templates and tried it out I understand that that is not true. I would argue that it simply helps creates and jumpstarts your ideas. Overall, then, I believe the templates are a positive learning tool- an important point to make given that they are not made to be used your whole writing career, only to teach you the writing structures you'll need in every writing piece.