Intro to "The Evolution of Dental Hygiene"

Did you know that if you don’t take care of your mouth, it can lead to major dental problems like gum disease or gingivitis? Since of this, you should follow your dentists’ order and clean your teeth daily. You should be aware of the benefits and draws backs of proper dental care and poor dental care because without the right direction, it may lead to serious and server mouth problems and may also be a health factor. With all the new technology out there, electrical toothbrushes being one of them, have been a success to the dental field by providing patients’ with the tools to clean their teeth’s in a more sufficient way. Electric toothbrushes changed the way society felt about how to properly clean teeth’s. It provided people with a way to clean their teeth’s by using a mechanical toothbrush that was able to reach areas of the mouth that normal toothbrushes couldn’t reach and it also helped to prevent unwanted diseases more effectively.

"Java Man" vs. "Toys"

In “Java Man” by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell writes an essay that researches caffeine. Although he does a phenomenal job, he tends to go off subject with his writing and looses me at times. Gladwell does a great job at going in dept with vivid details about his research on caffeine and how the idea of it changed over the years. He also does a good job about the history part of the essay because it tells the reader how his idea developed and how it was then and now. The last thing he does well is how he writes about the distinction of coffee and tea, but I think they’re pretty much the same thing because they are prepared alike and drank alike. They just have so many similarities to differentiate every last different ingredients from one another. Where Gladwell tends to lack in terms of his research is how he rambles throughout the essay. They’re so many things he could cut out to make his essay way better in a layout structure and let the reader be more drawn to his writing. Another aspect where it was unclear was how he talks about caffeine, but he doesn’t talk about it enough. He needs more focus when it comes to being more clearer and mapping the essay out better, but all in all, it was a really good essay and I enjoyed reading it.

Now in “Toys” by Roland Barthes, Barthes talks about French toys and how they shape young kids in today society. He does a good job when referring to the example, but even though he talks about toys, his essay isn’t balance well enough and he kind of goes off topic. Like how he first talks about how they shape us, and then he talks about the appearance of them. He needs to pick whether he wants the reader to know the appearances of the toys or how they shape us. The other thing that bothered me in his essay is how he states the differences in wood toys and mechanical toys because I though his essay was going to talk about how toys shape us. I just think he needs to pick one specific topic and stay with that like Malcolm Galdwell did in his essay titled “Java Man.” Where would I start if I was in charge of editing this essay and making have a clearer topic, Well, I first would change the title to fit the structure of the essay and then I would focus it more on one specific issue to have a clearer layout.

"Describing the Third Photograph in Ephron’s Essay"

In Ephron’s essay titled “The Boston Photographs,” describes a series of photos that are displaying a tragic incident which illustrates a young woman and a child falling off of an escape ladder of an apartment building. Although, I would like to explain each and every photo as I see them through my eyes, I will only explain the last photo which is of the young woman and child actually falling off the balcony just before hitting the pavement. I think the third photo is probably the most tragic image of all three photos because it shows the woman and child just before hitting the ground, and it displays the horrific image people do not want to see because it shows “death” in the act; they, the woman and child, should have their story broadcasted because this can happen to anyone and who knows if the family of the woman and child are letting the images being published to inform others about this tragedy. All and all, I think that the images should be broadcasted to inform the public about this tragedy because this can happen to anyone in the world and I know that these people, the woman and child, would want their horrific death out there for people to understand and recognize that these images are to inform the public about how tragedy can manifest in all different types of situations, but its not to degrade or be disrespectful to the victims, but instead, inform society about tragedy.

"The Boston Photographs"

In the story titled, "The Boston Photographs," by Nora Ephron talks about photojournalism and how hard it is to them to give the public vivid details about harsh times that may not be appealing to many. Also, many disagrees with these photos, saying how they exploit people in this minor, but who can say that these photos exploits these people? Are the families complaining? Maybe they just wanted to inform the public about their tragic loss. I think they have the right to give their own opinions about these things because the newspaper cant always be focused on the positive things of life. There are tragic stories out there as well. I think Ephron balanced her story out very well because she used names and newspapers to make her point. I like how she kind of jumps back and fourth with her own opinions that goes alongside with the photos that she is talking about. In recounting the reactions to the photograph, there were three stories…
The 1st story about the women and child being rescued by the fireman on the escape ladder. The 2nd pictured showed the fire escape slipping off the building. The child had fallen on the escape and seemed about to slide off the edge.
3rd picture showed the women and child in midair, falling to the ground. The response around the country was enormous, and almost all of it was negative. I don’t see why they’re mostly negative thoughts about these images, because this could happen anywhere at anytime around the world, and wouldn’t you want the public to be inform of this minor, but big deal? I know I will because these images are just being blown out of proportion. For defending the pictures, Ephron gives many examples, but the one I want to state is Thomas Keevil of the Costa Mesa Daily Pilot who printed a ballot for readers to vote on whether they would have printed the pictures. I know if I had to vote to tell people if I would of printed these pictures, I would of vote yes, because these pictures aren’t hurting anyone and I don’t see the young lady’s family complaining. Who knows, maybe they wanted these pictures to be broadcasted, so the public can know and understand that these things can happen to anyone and any given day. Ephron balances everything well and explains everything with much details that we need to know. I loved her layout, how she jumps back in fourth to give us her examples and opinions about the photos.

"Why College is a Waste of Time and Money"

In the essay, "Why College is a Waste of Time and Money," Caroline Bird talks about how college is a waste of time and money be illustrating her ideas throughout the essay in vivid details, so the read can follow clearly. I was told to come up with two ideas that are effective, and two ideas that are ineffective. Although there were many ideas to choose from, I finally picked the ones I think are the best in the essay.

The first effective idea: “By 1970, colleges and universities were spending more than 30 billion dollars annually… According to estimates made by the economist Fritz Machlup, if we had been educating every young person until age 22, the bill for higher education would have reached 47.5 billon dollars, 12.5 billon more than the total corporate profits of the year.I think this piece of evidence is effective because it states and describes how colleges are wasting the corporation funding on students who probably don’t want to be in school, they just go because they are pressured to by their peers, society, and by their parents. This piece of evidence doesn’t say if these numbers come from highly financial troubled families, or by families who are kind of financial challenged. I will really like to know more about this idea that she states.

The second effective idea: “But bad as it is, college is often preferable to a far worse fate. It is better than the drudgery of an uninspiring nine-to-five job, and better than doing nothing when no jobs are available.” This is an effective piece of evidence because its talking about how students are just going to college because they have nothing else to do, or they don’t want to work a boring nine-to-five job. This goes with waste of time because these students will only put in little effort and probably end up flunking out of college anyways.

The first ineffective idea: “But when students rebelling against the Vietnam War and the draft discovered they could disrupt a campus completely, administrators had to act on some students complaints.”This his nothing to do with the main topic of this essay which is how college is a waste of time and money. I got absolutely nothing from this piece of idea. I totally don’t think this though goes with the essay… Do you??

The second ineffective idea: “All across the country, I have been overwhelmed by the prevailing sadness on American campuses.”What is she trying to say?… That American college students are more sadder and that they don’t speak up as much as other colleges around the country? This idea has no relevance with the main topic of this essay, because who knows how many colleges she went to, to determine this point of view. She could of only went to like two colleges to make this judgment. Who really knows. I just don’t see this having anything to do with her essay.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is how she states and give evidence of people and how they talked about how they “blew” their money on college and stuff. I don’t think I’m blowing my hard working money on college, because it’s a personal experience and it will better develop me in the future to succeed at my dream job. Which is, becoming a Dentist!!!

"Where Heaven and Earth Touch"

In Telushlun’s essay, “Where Heaven and Earth Touch,” discusses the “Speak No Evil Day” which is a day where “We” come to view others as individuals and realize that negative stereotypes of large ethnic, religious, and gender groups are unfair and untrue. It also provides a day where people can’t say hurtful sayings and thoughts about one another meaning… no- name-calling, rude remarks, hurtful words, etc… I think this day will never succeed efficiently because people cant follow the rules right. Like who does? I think people judge each other all the time because that what is what we do as a society. We judge one another. The concept is a good one, but not everybody will participate accordingly. Like people don’t even follow the rules when there’s the day of silence, and what about when we have to remain quit for the people who lost their lives, so we can live our lives. People cant follow direction well. I like the Golden Rule approach, speak about people the same way that you want to be spoken about. I know we don’t follow this judgment well, but at lease this may be a little easier to do because its not taking away a whole day and its very minimal. Just try to use your words differently.
To recap everything is by saying will the “Speak No Evil Day” actually happen? Will our society actually follow this rule? I highly doubt it because people don’t want to change themselves to please another person they probably wont know. Its like taking away their rights as human beings. It will never work in my eyes. We are a judgmental society, and if you can accept that, or cant handle it, you should try to do something about it, but don’t make a day that will take away from someone’s privilege to speak their minds. I don’t think I will be able to follow this day to be truthful because I tend to judge people on a day to day basics. that’s what I do, and I know many more out there that does the same thing. I judge others on how they act, rudeness, playfully, and maybe if they judge me in some way, shape, or form, I will judge them in return. I know its not right to do this stereotyping, but this subject is put out there by our society to eat up and use it on one another. So, will our society really change one day? Will we be able to corporate the “Speak No Evil Day” for just one day? Only our society will be the judge of that because we follow their “judgments” and rules.

"Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A's" & "The Gender Gap at School"

The differences between these two passages are as follow- In the essay titled “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” states many points that I found interesting, but I was only allow to pick 4, so they four I chose are…
“Some departments shower students with A’s to fill poorly attended courses that might otherwise be canceled.” I think this important and kind of true to an extent because some teachers will give the students who don’t show up throughout the semester better grades than the students who do show up to class everyday. I think they do this because they like the student, or they want to have a higher passing percentage then other classes. I think it all bad because if the student don’t deserve the grade, then they deserve the grade the get the, because I work hard for all my grades and I want to be recognized for it.
“Today, colleges of every stature permit them to appeal low grades through deans or permanent boards of inquiry.” I do see this happening all the time in college, and I had to do this once in college, but I had a ligament reason which was I was in a car accident the day of my final so I couldn’t take it. Everything worked out fine and I have no problem if a student has a good reason to petition the grade.
“The evidence suggests that students and parents are demanding- and getting- what they think of as their money’s worth.” This is interesting because I haven’t noticed this in college, but in high school this happened all the time because the parents felt that their kid deserved the grade which they didn’t really deserve. I’m sure this happens in college because college is expensive and parents and the student wants to get passing grades, so they wont have to pay again to retake the class.
The Johnson plan was an eye opener which states, “Recalculating the grade point average to give rigorously graded courses greater weight.” This is an useful information because I didn’t know they were trying to do this in some colleges. I find it heard to understand why the people who “adopted” the plan, want their names kept secret. If they agree, wouldn’t they not care about the backlash? Probably they really don’t want it to pass, but doing it for the higher demands. Students will shy away from these courses because they want to pass, not fail the class, and this plan will be a risk for many.
In, “The Gender Gap at School,” David Brooks give many examples that backup his point of view. The four I pick are as follow…
I found how Brooks talks about, “The three gender-segregated sections of the airport.” This is important because people may not know how the law works. Like, if someone didn’t know that a male cops cant search females, well now they know. This is very useful information.
Brooks states how, “Male and female brains work differently.” very interesting to me because I didn’t really realize how different males and females are from one another. I never thought to much about how different the brains can be from each other, but this points out many key facts that verifies its true.
Didn’t agree with Brooks on, “Nor should it be a surprise that men are drifting away from occupations that involve reading and school.” my profession and many of my friends are involved with lots of reading courses and school, so I disagree with him because I think that now-a-days professions that deal with men and women are intertwining with each other. Men are doing more with school related things now then back in the day, well that’s what I think.Dr. Leonard Sax makes an important statement which is, “Men and women can excel at any subject. They just have to be taught in different ways.” This is useful because kids out there can realize that it doesn’t matter what sex you are, but how you are being taught and how you study. I think that anybody can do whatever they want to do in life, if they really try at it and have that mentality set into their minds that they can achieve all there dreams in life.