Causal Argument Rewrite – comatosefox

Posted on December 2, 2021 by comatosefox

Sports nowadays are played with one of four reasons in mind; for fun, for scholarships, for careers and for an outlet. Fun is how most people start out playing, hopping from one sport to the next to find the ones that are most enjoyable and stress relieving. Scholarships are either sought after or a bonus, some people may need to receive a scholarship in order to go to college and others may receive without trying to achieve them. Career paths allow for people to either make money from something they love or something they’re good at. Then there are those who need support, who have no way of getting their emotions out or have a hard time expressing themselves. Bottled up anger and stress are given an activity that gives them some form of release. Numerous players use their sport to vent their negative emotions. Some sports give players a more physical way to channel their feelings, while others give a less physically damaging sense of competitiveness. Regardless of the reason for playing, all sports are equally difficult and competitive in their respective fields. There are sports who get outshined by the more physically involved sports that captivate their viewers. 

Lacrosse, one of the top ten sports to give out scholarships to players, is a moderately competitive sport. Due to its increase in popularity and high chance in scholarships, it has seen an increase of new players throughout the years. Lacrosse has one major difference in gameplay when it comes to which gender is playing, the amount of physical contact players are allowed to have with another. Women’s lacrosse, although just as competitive as men’s, has seen ridicule about how the game works and the constant halts in gameplay due to the increase of technicalities experienced throughout the game. Despite these obstacles, women’s lacrosse has fought to no longer be outshined by men in order to be considered equal or even superior to men’s lacrosse.

Unfortunately this will not be done in a day, women in sports have to fight the past gender norms that have hindered their participation and treatment in sports. They have experienced the influence of society dictating how much force women are allowed to use while playing sports. Regardless of the capability of women, men in particular have dictated not only the amount of bodily contact but how much they are allowed to participate in sports or activities. Richard Bell stated in A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX, in the eighteen hundreds, men  believed that everyone had a set amount of energy they could use and if “physical and intellectual tasks” were done at the same time hazardous mainly toward women, especially if they were menstruating. Not only did men believe that there were physical hindrances if a woman were to participate in something that was both physical and needed some form of intelligence.They believed that women had no place to be except the home, caring for the children, the estate and the husband. 

Women back in the nineteenth and early twentieth century had to follow not only social norms but also the legal side of getting married and surrendering legal power over to their husbands. As John Green describes it in Women in the 19th Century: Crash Course US History #16, “husbands held authority over the person, property and choices of their wives. Also since women weren’t permitted to own property and property ownership was a precondition for voting, [women] were totally shut out of the political process.” Women have fought for centuries to have rights in every aspect of their lives, from simply owning property to being able to run a company and vote in elections. Up until the early twentieth century men were the reason why so many people, not just women, are still suffering from one or more forms of discrimination in todays world. 

As a result of this discrimination, women worked to reform and fight for their rights back through reform movements in the nineteenth century. These movements allowed women to become active in building asylums or leading the charge in “sobering up the men of America,” as Green states. Women became sick of seeing men chain them down while they got to go gallivanting around drinking to the hearst content rather than seek out the wife’s comfort and embrace. This temperance movement made a huge impact in American life back in the day as men who supported the sober movement realized that if women had the right to vote it would benefit them greatly. Women back in the day fought for simple rights such as land and financial stability against the husband’s drunken abuse both physically and financially. 

As the years progressed into the early twentieth century, women finally achieved the ability to vote when the nineteenth amendment was approved by the senate on june fourth, 1919 and ratified in august, 1920. Still the fight for equality was far from over, even in the twentieth century women still had to fight the societal expectations they were forced to fulfill.

Men dictating and tying women down to simple standards and horrible living and working conditions, gave women the courage to fight for a better life not only for themselves, but their children. They had given women more freedom to choose their lifestyles and career paths in the twenty-first century. This also gave way for equality in sports, women slowly were allowed to participate in activities that did not require much effort. Such as swimming, horseback riding, tennis and croquet, due to the idea that women should not exert themselves. However, with the rise in women’s independence, they slowly got involved in more physically demanding sports over the years. Now, women play in field hockey, basketball, soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse, which are more contact heavy than the elegant sports women played back in the day.

References

Roberts, R. (1992). Women’s Sports [Review of Women’s Sports: A History, by A. Guttmann]. Reviews in American History, 20(2), 242–246. https://doi.org/10.2307/2703108

Bell, R. C. (1998). A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX. The Sport Journal. https://thesportjournal.org/article/a-history-of-women-in-sport-prior-to-title-ix/ 

CrashCourse, & Green, J. (2005, December 15). Women in the 19th Century: Crash Course US History #16 [Video]. Youtube. https://tinyurl.com/nahhcvjn  

The United States Senate. (n.d.). Woman Suffrage Centennial [Lecture notes]. United States Senate. https://tinyurl.com/yckvt26v

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Rebuttal Rewrite

Posted on December 2, 2021 by ziggy026

It is wrongly argued that new 21-year old’s’ are not a major cause of drunk driving fatalities. This argument has been proven wrong time and time again with each news article that surfaces about another teenager killed by a drunk driver, or killed themselves driving drunk.  In some cases, some might argue that at the age of 21 young adults have the common sense to control their drinking and opt for a ride from someone else (not under the influence) in an instance in which they had too much to drink. While this argument might be valid in select circumstances, it’s very apparent that a good majority of young adults do not share the same intelligence. 

Statistics show that drunk driving fatalities in many cases are directly caused by young adults near the age of 21. This is linked to the fact that these adults do not have the experience and intelligence with alcohol that many other older adults do in fact have. Most adults over this age have experience and know how their bodies react with alcohol. In cases where people actually adhere to the rule of no alcohol before the age of 21, they don’t know how to handle themselves with it or how much is too much for them personally. This leads to them believing they are sober enough to get behind a wheel and drive themselves and their friends back home at the end of the night. This is what causes so many people annually to be killed or cause someone else to be killed in motor vehicle accidents. With this in mind, it is very easy to see that the drinking age that so many people support truly does nothing but delay the motor vehicle accidents that are bound to happen due to irresponsible drivers let out into the world for the first time with a bottle of scotch in their hand. We can ask ourselves how we avoid this, but the truth is many believe that we already have found the answer. The answer they have provided, ironically, is the root cause of this. When we look at the facts and understand that the main point portrayed to society about the minimum drinking age is that we don’t want to damage our country’s children’s young, developing brains, we forget about the fact that we are letting freshly developed brains go out and have free reign over alcohol. This does nothing to achieve the main goal that can be easily distinguished when we look beyond what is told to us. How can we possibly believe that allowing these young adults whose brains are thought to just now have a fully developed brain with absolutely no flaws in their logic whatsoever of course, are able to make their own responsible decisions that’s consequences have the ability to end their own lives or the lives of unsuspecting others. 

After we learn the facts and true numbers about drunk driving fatalities it’s downright irresponsible to say that nothing more needs to be done to ensure that we aren’t having irresponsible adolescents a free ride to their own funeral. A minimum age to purchase alcohol isn’t the same thing as a minimum age to drink alcohol. The minimum drinking age simply means teenagers cannot legally purchase alcohol, they will still find a way to consume it if that’s what they desire which is a clear message that more needs to be done to prohibit drinking and driving. If more of the facts were exposed to the public and they were aware of how unsuccessful this law is at keeping people safe and cutting down on the number of drunk drivers let loose on the road there would without a doubt be more of a push to do more to educate the public or perhaps even raise the drinking age. Would raising the drinking age do anything to our benefit though? People have been arguing for decades that the drinking age should be raised, no matter what it is at the time, but what good can it do? If we are constantly raising the age, we are decreasing the amount of experience people have and simply prolonging the inevitable. If this age is constantly being pushed back all it does is push back the time in which they are more likely to find themselves in the situation the restriction is meant to avoid. What isn’t seen, unfortunately, is that education on this subject and different restrictions and laws being put into place would do more to benefit the country and its citizens wellbeing than what is in place. 

There aren’t many things we can do about this sad truth. Every decision made in today’s social climate is politically charged, monetarily motivated, or backed by greed. Unless there was going to be an outcome to those high up in the government that would financially benefit them, raise their status, or get them an extra vote, it will not be done which is a sad but true fact. The laws and restrictions that are currently put into place are done so with a specific motive and benefit the ones that made it directly. This is made even more clear when we truly think about the situation and realize that so much more can be done about this, but it will come at a cost. What is put in place now has no negative monetary consequence which makes it easy and convenient. The CDC states that “There is also evidence that the age 21 MLDA protects drinkers from alcohol and other drug dependence, adverse birth outcomes, and suicide and homicide.” This statement is almost insulting to anyone whose life has been negatively impacted by a drunk driving accident and anyone who has done their research knows how incorrect this is.

In conclusion, the system is completely demolished. We don’t have a handle on anything when it comes to drunk driving restrictions no matter what anyone argues. Saying that when we let these young adults out onto the road at the age of 21 it’s good for them and they will definitely stay safe is a slap in the face to anyone with a working brain. When we really think about what we’re doing we see just how stupid it is. More needs to be done to protect American people from ruining their lives because more hasn’t been done to educate them about how they need to handle themselves on the road when they’re able.

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Causal-Ziggy026

Posted on December 2, 2021 by ziggy026

Causal Argument

            Alcohol causes people to drink. The mere existence of it is what encourages people to consume it and sometimes over consume it. There is absolutely no argument that if alcohol did not existence, people wouldn’t drink it and would not be impacted by it. Alcohol exists, people drink it. There is a cause and an effect. Alcohol existing is the cause, people dying is the effect. That seems very brutal to say. One simple thing can cause someone to die. That seems like a harsh reality and almost does not seem true, but it is. If alcohol did not exist in our world, millions of people would not be dead as a result of it. Alcohol causes people to drink it, drinking it causes people to get drunk, getting drunk causes people to act irresponsibly, people acting irresponsibly causes drunk driving, drunk driving causes accidents, and accidents cause death. 

            Alcohol causes people to drink, but what causes people to drink alcohol? The answer is many things. Peer pressure, past trauma, stress, anything you could think of could cause a person to drink alcohol. Many people waste time trying to find deep answers to this question but fail to see that the answer is unanswerable. People drink to drink. They don’t drink to answer the question of why their parents got a divorce or why their spouse left them. They drink because they can. Sure, some people can say that they drink to forget things or to distract themselves from their world falling around them. No one in their right mind would say that they drink to get themselves in an accident and kill someone, but this is usually the case. When people abuse alcohol, something is bound to go wrong, there is almost no way that everyone involved can make it out of a situation such as that unscathed, which can answer why so many teens find themselves in motor vehicle accidents or fatalities caused by drinking and driving. 

            Adolescent years are a hard time for many. They can cause depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, and a number of different things, but for now the one that should be focused on is substance abuse. As a result of immense stress people look for ways to relieve that stress and for many college aged students this comes in the form of drinking. Since it can be a lot harder to achieve this while under the age of 21 (but certainly not impossible) many college students abuse alcohol. It is a simple statement because it is a simple fact. Many college students consume more alcohol than they should as a result of stress or different anxieties. When faced with so much trouble that these students are turned to drink, they cannot be expected to make good decisions, especially when under the influence of alcohol. This is the cause of so many young adults making the terrible decisions to drink and drive. When all of these factors are mixed together it produces a recipe for immediate disaster and destruction. As people age and mature they are able to make better decisions when it comes to drinking alcohol and in turn driving under the influence, rather making the decision to not drive even remotely under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 

            The stress that students face causes them to be targeted. Anyone in charge of selling or manufacturing alcohol and related products uses the fact that college aged students are more susceptible to alcoholism and substance abuse against them. If the demographic for their restaurant or their company is new 21-year-olds in need of a way to relieve themselves of the stress of their hectic weeks, they are going to be sure to reach that demographic in any way they are able to. If this means exploiting them and putting them in danger of over consumption, that does not matter. The fact that these students are overworked and overwhelmed causes companies to target their demographic. This in turn causes young adults to allow themselves to be targeted by buying into their scheme to sell their product. This causes them to drink, sometimes more than they should, which as said before starts the snowball effect of them consuming too much alcohol and ending up in an accident directly causes by their decision to drink and drive. This just continues to show us that the age of 21 is a terrible age to have adults start drinking. It is, as said before, a recipe for disaster that cannot be avoided. While it can be argued that everyone has stress not just college students, that is easily refuted. At such a young age many do not know how to handle this stress. As people age, they are faced with more turmoil and tragedy that they are taught how to deal with and overcome. At the age of 21 this stress cannot be avoided easily. Raising this age would cause problems without a doubt as it would simply prolong these fatalities but doing more to eradicate the root of the problem which is America’s mental health crisis, more specifically regarding teenagers and young adults can be an immediate solution. 

            Alcohol causes people to drink, and people drinking causes drunk driving fatalities. This is an inarguable fact. There is not one intelligent person who can confidently say that alcohol does not cause drunk driving. There are many other things that need to be taken into consideration, though. What causes people to drink, what causes people to drink too much, and what causes people to be so irresponsible when it comes to drinking and driving. These questions can be answered by the restrictions put into place by a corrupt system. In this country young adults are prohibited from drinking alcohol until they reach the age that “their brains are fully developed”. Their brains that carry the burdens of constant stress at a time where mental illness is as common as a cold. Is that really the best time to release kids into the world of drinking?

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Visual Rewrite – Ziggy026

Posted on December 2, 2021 by ziggy026

Upon seeing the opening clip of this advertisement viewers are met with an unidentified man putting on a pair of gloves. We are not sure what kind of room he is in, but it looks well managed and is well lit by sunlight. The man looks athletic and seems to be getting ready for exercise. Once viewers see this, they get insight into who he is as a person, as much as possible of course. When we see that he is athletic we can infer that he takes care of himself, values his health, and is determined. Next, we see him putting athletic shoes on. He has the correct materials for the job he is about to complete which shows that he is thorough and does not cut corners. We can see that he is left-handed because he has a relatively nice watch on his right hand, and we also see various bracelets on his opposite hand. The following clip shows him riding a stationary bike in the same well-lit room that the advertisement opened to. This clip does a good job at confirming the audience’s suspicions that this man is athletic. The camera quickly cuts to a clip of the man sitting on a couch facing the camera and speaking to it. He is sitting on a light-colored couch and there is an American flag hanging on a barrier behind him. The clip is very light and does not give the audience and dark feelings. It is a well-lit clip which invokes positive feelings. The man’s home looks clean and organized as does he. This clip is replaced by a static picture of the man outside of an aircraft in a military uniform showing the audience that he has served in some way. In the next clip he is once again speaking directly to the camera. The angle has changed, however, as he is in the middle of the shot and the flag is blurred behind him. The camera stays for a longer amount of time on the subject rather than the quick clip it was before. The camera pans across a picture of three people with another picture blurred in the background. We are not shown the full picture, but only the top of it. The camera angle then changes to a box with the words “In Loving Memory, Adam John Jachimiec”. There is a flag behind the box, and it can be assumed that this family member served as well and passed away. We are not sure if his passing is related to his service at this time. The angle quickly changes to the man, but his emotions have changed to melancholy rather than determined and eager. We can then see the man putting bullets into some sort of case with padding and protection. His hands are wrinkled, and he is placing the bullets very carefully into their respective compartments. His actions are deliberate, and his movements are very smooth and precise. The next clip shows him locking the case, which we can now see is a safe. The man is once again talking to the camera with the flag blurred in the background. The clip is cut off by the end text showing the words “Service Never Stops”. We can infer from this that the ad is about gun safety. 

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Visual Rhetoric—ziggy

Posted on December 2, 2021 by ziggy026

The ad opens to a man putting on gloves. He’s in a well-lit room and we can assume is midday. The audience cannot tell who he is or what he is doing, but from what can be seen he looks strong, athletic, and the looks of the clip show a sense of determination. After he puts his glove on, the next clip cuts to him sitting down on what is presumably a couch or a chair. There is a piece of furniture to the side of him, possibly a shelf, and he is putting athletic shoes on. He has gloves on both hands, a nice watch on his right hand so he is most likely left-handed, and he has various bracelets on the other hand. The next clip shows him in the same well-lit room exercising on a stationary bike. There is not much more to this clip, but it confirms the suspicions that he is athletic in some way. There is a short cut to the man sitting on a couch speaking to the camera. There is an American flag hanging over some sort of fence or barrier in his home and he is wearing a clean shirt. He looks clean and well-kept, and his house is well organized and tidy. This very short segment cuts to a steady picture of him in front of some sort of aircraft outside in a military uniform. He is looking at the camera and the text on screen reads “Chris Jachimiec, USAF First Sergeant” In the next clip we see him speaking to the audience once again. The camera is at a new angle this time with him directly in front of the camera and the flag blurred in the background. The camera stays on him speaking for a bit and then changes to a pan of a picture frame. There are three people in the picture, but the whole frame is not shown. The camera then cuts to him holding a box. On the box are the words “In Loving Memory, Adam John Jachimiec”. Behind the box is a flag so the audience can assume that this is in memory of a family member in the military that has passed. The next clip is the man starting longingly at the box with nothing else in frame. The angle then changes to him once again on the stationary bike, this time however, he looks more melancholy than determined and eager. The angle changes to focus on his feet moving while exercising. In the background we can see a dresser and a wall. The wall is out of focus, but a few pictures can be seen, although they are blurry. The next clip is a closeup of the man putting bullets into a secured box with padding. His hands are wrinkled, and he is placing them carefully into the case. The next clip shows him placing the case onto a shelf, again, very carefully. All his actions are smooth and precise. Nothing is accidental or chaotic about his movement. The next clip shows him locking a safe. We can infer that the case he was putting the bullets into was this safe, and he is taking the proper steps to lock it safely. After this clip, the man is once again shown on screen with the blurred flag in the background. The clip is cut off by the end text showing the words “Service Never Stops”. We can infer from this that the ad is about gun safety. 

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Definition Rewrite – ziggy026

Posted on December 2, 2021 by ziggy026

The Legal Drinking Age Kills

Drinking restrictions create more drunk drivers. This seems incredibly counterintuitive; however, it is wildly accurate. The first time someone hears this it may come as a shock. These restrictions are meant to keep us safe. They are meant to keep our children safe, and they are meant to inhibit what they directly cause. It’s difficult for us to think logically about something that has been shoved down our throats for our entire lives. When you are old enough to think critically and be aware of your own thoughts and feelings you have an understanding that you cannot drink alcohol (legally) until you turn 21. No one argues with this and more importantly no one questions it. When this is done, however, we can see the flaws with this logic and the reasons why it does just the opposite of what it is intended to. 

            To begin, when it is said that drinking restrictions in America inversely cause more drunk driving accidents, you need to dig a little deeper into this. They do not directly cause these accidents in the way one might think. When looking at the surface we see this meaning that the restrictions that keep alcohol away from teenagers is putting it in their hands and then putting them immediately behind the wheel; that is not the case. What it does mean, however, is that we are taking experience away from them. We are taking away the knowledge and ability to discover how their bodies interact with alcohol, how it impacts them, how much is too much, and many other factors that come into play when drinking and knowing when to stop and when not to drive you and your friends home after a night out. When kids do not have these experiences, they turn 21 and go out into the world not knowing what to do, what not to do, or when to do (or not do) it. This can be difficult to have an understanding of for most people as it’s not an easy topic to discuss. We don’t want to think that the restrictions put in place to keep us safe are actually causing more harm than we realize but accepting this is the first step in changing it. With this in mind we can then talk about the next point, that the age being as high as it is encouraging kids to drink in different conditions. 

            It is no secret that teenagers will do what they can to get their hands on alcohol if that is what they want to do. The legal drinking age will not stop them and whether it’s a fake ID, raiding their parents alcohol cabinet, or having an older friend help them out, they will find a way to achieve their goal. When this is done, there is the risk of keeping it a secret. This means that after a night of drinking at a friend’s house they are going to have to get home. They have an 11:00 curfew which is inching closer and closer and they’re still seven shots in. The drive home is as long as it was before and that is not changing. If they tell their parents they need to stay a little longer or spend the night because they have been drinking, then they face the disastrous repercussions when they return home. If they give their parents a call asking for them to come pick them up, again, because they have been drinking heavily, then they will still have consequences to face. With this in mind, it should be no surprise that many kids take the risk of driving themselves home after these types of nights to avoid the wrath of their parents finding out how they had been spending their seemingly harmless time with friends. This is just one of the ways that the legal drinking age does just as much harm as it does good. 

            One final point that should be made is that when these teenagers drinking their dad’s scotch in the basement on a Saturday night when everyone else has conveniently gone away, turn 21 and are legally allowed to purchase alcohol and go out to bars or restaurants it is a recipe for disaster. We are letting them out into the world without a single restraint on them. Without a doubt the first stop for them is their local bar for a drinking binge with their best friends. There are a number of these kids who are going to make the conscious (or perhaps unconscious) decision to drive themselves home. This is simply a horrifying, but inevitable fact, nonetheless. When we enact these restrictions, we are enabling the behavior and we are enabling the behavior to be postponed. Keeping children from drinking is postponing the drunk fatalities they will cause. That does not mean that you should let your 7-year-old enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, but it does mean that something should be done to educate people about drunk driving, not about drinking. We leave our focus on the drinking aspect rather than the driving which is our main problem. How this can be avoided is unknown, but identifying the issue is the very first step.

            In conclusion, the statement that the legal drinking age and the various restrictions that go along with it cause motor vehicle fatalities caused by drunk driving can be easily misinterpreted and misunderstood. When we take this statement at face value there is undoubtedly going to be some confusion. When we take a deeper look at it and understand the dangers of letting 21-year-olds with no experience with alcohol have access to not only a valid ID and a driver’s license, but the ability to make decisions that could cost them their own lives and others, we can see how accurate this statement is. Not many people are prepared to hear the message behind this since it is undoubtedly harsh, but it is true and needs to be changed.

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Fair Warning II

Posted on December 2, 2021 by davidbdale

Several of you have not been posting Portfolio Assignments to the blog anywhere near timely. Some of you, one class meeting from the end of the semester, have not posted a single Portfolio argument.

There is no way for you to pass this course
if you haven’t posted your short arguments yet.

This is not the first time you are hearing this news. Since the first day of class, when we reviewed the essentials of the Syllabus, you have been told in several ways that the primary methodology of the course is to post short arguments, RECEIVE AND RESPOND TO FEEDBACK, revise the first drafts in Rewrite posts, and repeat the process until the resulting improved arguments are ready to export to the Portfolio. Here is some of that language:

COURSEWORK

The First-Year Writing Program values writing as process as much as product, and strongly emphasizes revision and self-reflection as part of this process.

To emphasize the recursive and social nature of academic writing,
you will be required to submit your work when due
to critique and review by your professor and your classmates.
Showing improvement from your early drafts to your finished portfolio
is a critical component of your coursework
and the basis on which your grades will be evaluated.
No portfolio that does not demonstrate a systematic appraisal
and revision process can earn a passing grade. 

Your Final Portfolio will be a collection of your formal work that demonstrates
your engagement in the writing process. 
It will be a digital document collected on the blog. It will include:

Two short formal polished Arguments (one each Categorical, Causal, or Refutation)
along with Drafts and Revisions of those two short Arguments

Keep in mind that I pay close attention
to the quality of revision in the Final Portfolio.

Portfolio Assignments:
The Short Arguments and other Portfolio items will undergo revisions
during the semester, so grade penalties and deadlines are somewhat flexible.

One thing is certain:
Portfolio materials MUST be available for professor feedback
and student revision WELL BEFORE the end of the semester.
No student can pass the course whose work has not been reviewed
early in the semester and thoroughly revised in response to feedback.
The penalty, therefore, for repeated failure to post drafts and revisions timely
will be a grade of F.

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Rebuttal-ILoveDunkinOverStarbucks

Posted on December 2, 2021 by ilovedunkinoverstarbucks

Ethanol as we see today is starting to weasel its way into replacing the fossil fuels that we use for gasoline. Ethanol has many benefits to our day to day life and the environment and the health of the planet. Ethanol being a biodegradable and renewable resource it has many benefits to not only the average day to day person but truly benefits corn and soybean farmers. Not only does ethanol benefit the planet and farmers but it also opens up jobs inside the United States instead of having to go out and find a job internationally or on a rig in the middle of the ocean. Domestic jobs allow people to stay home with their families and go home to a house everyday. Ethanol is not just used for gas but that is where the average person will see it as well as in hand sanitizers. 

Carbon dioxide emissions are produced highly from vehicles and machines, they are also highly controlled by deforestation. When you turn your car on and you stand by the trunk and you feel a warm air coming from a pipe that is carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere through the exhaust. While your little Toyota Camry may not seem like it gives off much, it is the other million camrys being turned on everyday that add to those emissions. Now how does deforestation factor into carbon dioxide emissions considering they are just trees falling down. Deforestation is the process of clearing out forests and knocking down trees to create a field for agriculture use, or a place to put up a warehouse or factory and then those trees are sold for fuel, construction, and manufacturing. Trees have connections to carbon dioxide because they take in that carbon dioxide in the air and absorb it for the use in photosynthesis. So when those trees are taken down there is more carbon dioxide in the air because there is nothing around to absorb it so that carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere to add to the greenhouse gases. The vehicles used to clear out the areas also release a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide. So how can ethanol factor into this? Ethanol comes from corn and soybeans in America and sugar cane in South America. When these plants are planted into the ground and begin to grow they also go through the process of photosynthesis so they absorb carbon dioxide to start that process. 

Ethanol being farmed domestically also allows up to keep jobs local and not drill into the Earth in isolated parts of the world such as the North Slope of Alaska, the Arctic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. In the areas there are oil rigs located in isolated parts of the ocean so these workers must leave their families to go work on these rigs for months at a time. Life on an oil rig can be lonely yet so busy as they are described as floating cities. When you first arrive at the rig you are issued hard hats, safety glasses, steel toe boots, and coveralls then you land your first shift which could last anywhere between eight to twelve hours a day for 2 weeks then it’s possible to earn that three weeks of time off to go see family again on land. While it may seem simple work for two weeks then three weeks off you are living where you work and are living in bunk beds and living with who you work with although your food is available in the cafeteria and there are other amenities on the rig to make life seem normal when you are not on shift. While this may seem great it is hard work and with the production of ethanol the rigs could start disappearing but another problem with the rigs is what happens when they are no longer needed? They either get left there in the middle of the ocean which ocean life could benefit to start a reef but there are most likely too many hazardous materials around to even have marine life. So for the most part they are broken down and scraped which adds to our landfill which then adds to our pollution. With the production of ethanol being produced on land and being farmed it allows for less pollution and more absorption of carbon dioxide. 

Lastly, Ethanol is the most cost effective biofuel that is produced. It is so cost effective because there is not a business or team that needs to be started as we simply started paying farmers for their crops to be sent to a co-op to be made into ethanol. Farmers’ lives did not change; they simply may have decided to start growing more corn or more soybean depending on what is more needed and how much they can get for each bushel from the co-op. When you go to get gas depending on your car you could get the cheapest gas. The reason gas prices vary all comes down to the blend of ethanol and gasoline. The cheapest option will have a higher ethanol to gas ratio and the more expensive option will have more gas than ethanol. Some cars are able to handle that higher concentration of ethanol and some cars can not that higher concentration of gas is called premium and more “high end” cars will use that gas. 

In conclusion, ethanol has many advantages ranging from planting, to price, and efficiency and it is much better for the environment than gasoline or oil. By finding ways to integrate ethanol into the environment more for replacement of things we may see the use of fossil fuels lessen and the carbon dioxide in the air disappear. Ethanol has shown us many benefits by using it in gas, and in hand sanitizer as well as giving people jobs closer to home and allowing farmers to stay in business by using their crop of corn, soybean, and sugar cane. We are also able to support those small business farmers instead of using big oil companies that may not treat their employees well. 

About RinkeshA true environmentalist by heart ❤️. Founded Conserve Energy Future with the sole motto of providing helpful information related to our rapidly depleting environment. Unless you strongly believe in Elon Musk‘s idea of making Mars as another h, Rinkesh, A., & A true environmentalist by heart ❤️. Founded Conserve Energy Future with the sole motto of providing helpful information related to our rapidly depleting environment. Unless you strongly believe in Elon Musk‘s idea of making Mars as another habitable plan. (2020, August 25). What is ethanol fuel and advantages and disadvantages of ethanol. Conserve Energy Future. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/ethanol-fuel.php. 

Is ethanol cheaper than gasoline? American Energy Alliance. (2015, February 23). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.americanenergyalliance.org/2012/08/is-ethanol-cheaper-than-gasoline/. 

Mehnazd, says, L. for G., Girls, L. for, says, S. D. Y., Young, S. D., says, S. H., Horn, S., says, M., Marie, says, P., Paula, says, K., Kathy, says, L. W., Williamson, L., says, L. B., LindaBrown, says, A. N. S. worher, worher, A. N. S., … Christina. (2021, September 1). Life on an oil rig – do you know what it takes? Marine Insight. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.marineinsight.com/life-at-sea/life-on-an-oil-rig/. 

National Geographic Society. (2019, July 15). Deforestation. National Geographic Society. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/deforestation/. 

West, L. (2021, April 27). What are the pros, cons, and cost of using ethanol? Treehugger. Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.treehugger.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-ethanol-fuel-1203777. 

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Course Evaluations

Posted on December 2, 2021 by davidbdale

Please help the Writing Arts Department determine my fitness for instruction by completing a brief evaluation of your experiences in this course.

Check Banner for a reminder that you have a survey to answer, or check your student emails for a reminder to complete your Course Evaluation.

The administration will tell me periodically how many students have and have not completed their evaluations. To avoid reminder notices, take a moment to complete an evaluation in class today. If you do receive a reminder, it will look something like this:

Go to Banner looking for something like this:

Subject: Reminder for COMP 01.112.7 course evaluation

Dear Student,

This is an automated message sent by David Hodges, your instructor for COMP 02.xxx.xx, as a reminder to complete your course evaluation using Self-Service Banner prior to DEC XX, 2021.  After this date, the evaluation will no longer be available.

1.   Go to http://www.rowan.edu/selfservice.
2.   Click “Access Banner Services – Secure Area – login Required”
3.   Enter User ID and PIN.
4.   Click “Personal Information.”
5.   Click “Answer a Survey.”
6.   Click on the student evaluation for your class.
8.   Complete the student evaluation.
9.   Click “Survey Complete” to submit your completed student evaluation.

Your instructor has not been informed of the recipients of this message; only that it has been sent to the students who have yet to complete the course evaluation.

Thank you.

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Stephen Hawking Was Wrong

Posted on December 2, 2021 by davidbdale

I shared this post with you today in class before I found this perfect expression of why we can always say with confidence that “the scientist was wrong.”

The opening joke (attributed to Albert Einstein) tells the whole story.

How to Demand Your Readers’ Attention.

This is a post in progress. It began from an interaction with a student named 3G last semester, whose research topic was black holes. Our exchange included the following: 

I love your topic, 3G, and I’m always intrigued to read your newest draft. But despite my interest, you nearly talk me out of continuing by starting out so slowly.

That’s an exaggeration, but it got your interest, didn’t it?

Case in point. Start out by grabbing my attention.

Nothing could be LESS surprising than that Stephen Hawking is a smart guy. Nothing could be MORE arresting than to claim that he was wrong. So say he was wrong.

Stephen Hawking was wrong about black holes. Long and rightly praised as one of the most intelligent minds of our time and the most innovative influencer in astrophysics, Hawking’s theories on the properties of black holes are considered gospel truth. Sadly, they’re most likely incorrect.

No matter how much “qualifying” you have to do to rebuild the man’s contributions after that opening, the tactic will be worth it if you have the evidence to demonstrate his mistakes.

Plus, it’s fun. And it makes me want to read on.

Are you up for that?

Followed by this followup:

Having read to the end of the essay now, 3G, I want to revise my opening gambit. Not only was Stephen Hawking most likely WRONG, but also his theories ARE PREVENTING right answers from emerging to take their place!

Jerk.

Followed by this: 

Finally, when I read these short arguments outside the context of the overall research project, I feel things missing that might exist in the other arguments.

For example, I’m sure you don’t mean to suggest that anybody’s scientific theories are ever considered TRUE FOREVER. Every proved hypothesis is immediately tested by new theories that attempt to build on the proved ones or overturn them if they can’t stand up for themselves. So, it’s good-natured teasing to call Hawking wrong. You don’t acknowledge that here.

And really, this is my last comment for now: If wormholes are just silly nonsense, any criticism of Hawking’s repudiation-in-advance of their existence will turn out to be pretty silly too. It’s just as likely that the radiation theory IS and SHOULD BE a warning to astrophysicists everywhere that the search for proof of wormholes—cool as they sound—will be a dead end.

Causal rewrite-3g

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