My Freshman Year English Class Experience

Looking back, it seems like it was just yesterday when my classmates and I first walked through the door of our first college level English class with my professor Sean McPherson at BSU. Although, now it’s already the end of the semester and everyone’s stressing over finals. I learned a lot of things from taking this English class such as how to be a better writer (at a college level).

To begin, I learned that I had been writing my essays in a way that I shouldn’t have throughout the whole time I was in high school. For example, my professor told us from the beginning of the semester that including a parallel thesis statement in an essay is not common and incorrect in college style writing. I then realized that I was taught to write that way since middle school and it was hard to stray away from using that style of writing, but I picked up college style writing quite easily after reading our textbook weekly, doing in class activities, taking notes, etc.

In addition, my English professor told my classmates and I that despite everything that we’ve learned in high school, college style writing must be written in a different format from what we were used to before. To demonstrate, before my classmates and I got assigned an essay to write we were told that paragraphs must be broken up and shorter than usual in all college style written essays. After hearing this from my teacher I knew that I had to make a lot of changes in how I wrote my essays from then on.

Furthermore, Professor McPherson also went over how to correctly include writing tools into our writing with each different genre of writing. To illustrate, when our Professor assigned us a rhetorical analysis to write he told us to take notes while he explained how to properly include ethos, pathos, and logos in our writing to persuade the audience to buy into our opinions. After our Professor told us this my classmates and I learned how to better include appeal to credibility, appeal to emotion, and appeal to logic in our writing in order to persuade the audience to buy into our opinions on a certain topic.

I will definitely miss going to English every week and I am very glad that I was able to take Professor McPherson’s class this semester. Overall, this semester was great and I learned many things (in English class especially) that I will carry on to use in future classes/ assignments.

The Effects of Heavy Workloads on Students

It is common that students are expected to complete excessive amounts of work given by their teachers. Although, when students are given a lot of work it can/ has easily become a problem in many ways. I believe students should be able to receive a reasonable amount of work, but they shouldn’t receive extra work that seems unnecessary.
Kadianne Haughton, resident with Lutheran Medical Center confirms the link between workload and depression in students. In the Queens Chronicle article; Heavy Workloads and Students’ Health, the author talks about a 20-year-old she is caring for and states, “[the patient] suffers from manic depression and suicidal ideation from getting too much work in school…” Heavy workloads on students can lead to students getting depression.
In Effects of Workload on Academic Performance Among Students in an Undergraduate Engineering Program the author/ researcher Yoshiki Kurata explains the link between students having a heavy workload and their overall academic performance. She states, “workload components are the key tasks characteristics influencing human performance which define how people accomplish required work and in what manner a person comprehends the task.” The more work a student is required to do can affect a student’s academics.
According to Lea Winerman (student researcher) in the American Psychological Association article; By the Numbers: Stress on Campus “28% of students are stressed due to academics.” This number is so high due to the high expectations of students by teachers.
Teachers should strive towards using class time to complete some of the work he/ she hopes to get through by the end of class. Then, he/ she should be able to assign homework based on the little work that wasn’t completed in class. This would leave students able to get all the work done for each of their classes while spending equal time completing work for each of their classes.
When students are given less work they will be more able to complete all their work without worrying, maintain good grades in all classes, and have time for other activities that they enjoy.
If students are given less work then the percentage of depressed and/ or stressed students due to academics would most likely decrease. Also, if students are happier in their classes they should be more motivated to complete all their work for classes.
Students need time to allow themselves to not constantly have their lives consumed by schoolwork and this could be one of the many positive outcomes if they receive less work from teachers. With the high percentage of stressed and depressed students something should definitely be done to address the problem and if it isn’t addressed it could easily worsen.

The True Impact of Immigration

Immigration has been a very controversial topic in the U.S news lately due to many restrictions the president has said to impose on them. Although, it seems that immigration in the U.S has more benefits than downfalls even though many Americans tend to disagree. New generation immigrants have more incentives to educate themselves and they are taking advantage of them.
To begin, in the Huffington Post article, How Immigration Benefits Americans And Is Key To US Leadership In The World the author; Samier Mansur proves that immigration can be very beneficial to the American economy. To demonstrate, as the author describes the economic benefits of immigrants he states, “while immigrants only make up 13% of the overall US population, they over-represent their contributions to the economy by fulfilling 15% of the national economic output…” Immigrants are very hard workers and have the potential to even improve the economy.
The author strongly shows that immigrants are more than capable of improving the U.S national economy by fulfilling 15% of the economic output which 2% more than the U.S immigrant population percentage. The amount of work immigrants do is very impressive considering they don’t make up very much of the U.S population.
However, in the N.Y Times article; What Does Immigration Actually Cost us? By Thomas B. Ensall, he explains the many ways that immigration can be problematic to the U.S such as lowering wages for long time American workers. For example, as the author mentions the effect immigrants have on Americans’ wages he states, “immigrant workers in America lower the wages of competing workers, while raising the return to capital and the wages of complementary workers.” The author does seem to make a valid argument here because this is something that can occur due to immigration.
In contrast, this isn’t something that only happens due to immigrants because robots/ machines could cause workers to get a wage decrease or even take over a workers whole career if a company has the technological advancements to do so.
Furthermore, the N.Y Times article; What Does Immigration Actually Cost us? By Thomas B. Ensall also shows the reader that immigration may be beneficial by writing about their productivity in the workforce. To illustrate, as Ensall describes the benefits of immigration he states, “When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP.” Immigrants are very productive compared to average citizens.
Thomas Ensall does seem to have a good point while he explains how productive they are. If the immigrants increase the productivity of the economy and GDP then that means they have a very positive impact on the labor force.
Many immigrants seem to be coming into the U.S and citizens may think that immigration is problematic to the nation. Overall, the potential benefits that America can get out of immigration outweigh the disadvantages.

Pro Immigration Sources:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-immigration-benefits-americans-and-is-key-to-us_us_59b6db42e4b02bebae75f071

Con Immigration Sources:

Why Ted Turned Out to be a Success

In the comedic movie, Ted (2012) directed by well known comedian Seth Macfarlane is a successful, well known movie which is why it has earned a 4 ½ of 5 star rating. The movie includes famous actors such as Mark Wahlberg as John Bennett, Mila Kunis as his girlfriend; Lori Collins, and Seth Macfarlane as Ted.
Seth Macfarlane did a great job creating/ directing this movie because many comedies lack a storyline. Although, in the movie, Ted Seth Macfarlane made the movie funny while maintaining a great story line.
It all started when John told his parents what he wanted for Christmas; a true friend for life. So, his parents gave him an enormous teddy bear and that same night they sat in his bed with a flashlight, John asked Ted to be his real and true forever friend. Ted comes to life and agrees. As they grew up John rented an apartment and lived with his girlfriend and Ted. However, after a while things started to get tense between Ted and Lori.
Throughout the movie; Ted there are many scenes that are very funny and this is definitely a factor of what has made the movie so successful. An example of one of the many funny scenes in the movie is when Ted was driving John to work at the car rental shop, but he then badly hit a car in the lot. Then, John’s boss came outside and gave Ted and John a dirty look and Ted’s only excuse was “my bad, I was sending a tweet!” as he drove off (leaving John there to get yelled at by bis boss).
Furthermore, the whole movie is based upon a sensical yet creative storyline. The storyline of the movie really is well thought out because it all comes together and makes sense which seems to be an area of difficulty for comedic movies. This is most likely the case for these type of movies (comedies) because most directors are more focussed on the comedic aspects of the movie rather than the storyline.
In addition, the storyline of the movie was very well developed because it started with John having a Christmas wish come true as a child. Later, it shows how John learns to live with a live teddy bear as he grows up and he finds each other slowly growing apart as he becomes closer with his girlfriend. The storyline makes sense and adds up overall because each event that occurs connects to the next one.
Mark Wahlberg may be known for playing serious roles, but in Ted you can see that he does a great job playing a more comedic role. As you can see, Ted is a great comedy if you are someone who is looking for a good movie that’s funny this is the movie for you.

Home Depot Heist

In the late afternoon on September 17, 2018, everyone from Norwood was left in disbelief after it became known to the manager, customers, and employees that two suspects allegedly stole at least $500.00 worth of items simply by discreetly walking into the store like regular customers and walking out with many items without paying at the local Home Depot in Norwood, MA.
The manager of this store was especially surprised about what happened that day and stated, “it was just very unexpected, nobody seemed to be ready for this. I’ve managed this Norwood store for many years and I have never seen anything like what these two men managed to do/ get away with it!”
Also, when this robbery occurred customers were still shopping and employees were still working. Everyone seemed to be “completely unaware and clueless as to what was going on (including himself) as the suspects were stealing” said a customer who happened to be there as the robbery was taking place. He hopes that the suspects get caught before they “pull another stunt.”
According to another customer who said “I’ve been living here (in Norwood) all my life and shopping regularly at this Home depot for as long as I can remember.” She always seemed to think the store was “safe and secure as it should be” and she never considered the town or area to be “high crime, it’s the opposite if anything.” However, things like this happen all the time and it doesn’t matter where it is even though major crimes such as this are “almost unheard of in this area” as it was told by this long time customer.
Employees were also left shocked by this crime in addition to customers and the manager. One relatively new employee was asked how he felt about the situation and he said that he remembered the manager, corporate, and even the Norwood store owner telling all of the employees including himself to look out for anything suspicious such as this. However, he said that none of them have dealt with anything like this and it happened so unexpectedly, they were clearly unprepared and unaware of how to identify and/ or address something like this.
Although, does the fact that the incident occurred unexpectedly seem like a valid excuse for losing over $500.00 worth of items? The manager admits that the employees “definitely needed to be better trained as how to deal with something like this.” He says that the company is working to improve their security policy in all stores after a rude awakening.

What You Probably Don’t Know About White Mystery Airheads

Many people seem to enjoy these well known American candies that have been around since 1985. Airheads consumers probably think that there isn’t anything particularly different about these candies. However, Airheads white mystery flavor is made in a way that most wouldn’t expect. From what has been gathered from sources (reddit.com and reference.com) it definitely seems possible that white mystery Airheads could be a mix of multiple leftover flavors!
Reddit.com proves that Airheads mystery flavor are a mix of multiple leftover flavors. First, on the website a former manufacturer of the candy talks about the mystery flavor, how it is made, and what is in it. To demonstrate, as the manufacturer describes the Airheads mystery flavor he states, “​the Airheads white mystery flavor is just the leftover flavorings that couldn’t make a full batch​…” It seems to be quite possible that this well known candy that many people seem to enjoy could be made in a way that many wouldn’t expect considering a former manufacturer said this.
There are many ways that a reference.com article shows that Airheads white mystery flavor is made from leftover scraps of many different flavors. To add, in the article, ​What is the Airheads Mystery Flavor ​By Emma Gibbs: a researcher/ consumer of candy mentions how Airheads mystery flavor candies vary from batch to batch since they are made differently every time. For example, as the article describes the making of these candies she states, “the Airheads white mystery flavor changes from batch to batch…​Each may be a mix of flavors, or the individual bar may be one easily identifiable flavor.” Every Airheads white mystery flavor varies in taste/ flavor because they most likely include whatever flavors happen to be leftover after producing other flavors.
Also, the author of the reference.com article, ​What is The Airheads Mystery Flavor persuades the reader that Airheads white mystery candies are made with multiple flavors by comparing it to another widely known candy. To demonstrate, as the author goes on about what goes into the making of white mystery Airheads she states, “a similar technique is used for Dum Dum Pops. When one batch finishes, its flavors will often mix into the beginning of the next batch. The company simply packages the dual-flavor pops as ‘mystery’ flavored.” It is definitely possible that Airheads makes the white mystery flavor with a mix of many leftover flavors. The article makes it sound as if it isn’t very uncommon to do this by comparing it to companies such as Dum Dums who also do the same thing with their mystery flavor lollipops.
As you can see, the these sources have strong arguments proving that Airheads white mystery is made from leftover flavors mixed together. Nevertheless, many people who enjoy these candies may still not know this since Airheads doesn’t seem to
be very public about it.

Synthesis

Work isn’t always a word that people like to think about, but for most of us it’s something that most of us have to do in order to lead successful lives. However, many people also interpret work as something they love and are passionate about. Nevertheless, right now for me work is something that I must do in order to live the life that I want even though I might not always enjoy it; such as a chore. People tend to do chores because they are required to in order to get the result that they want which is also why people do work.
Furthermore, there is a famous quote that I will always remember hearing that made me change the way I felt about work.To prove, when I was younger, during a big game I remember hearing my coach say “work hard, play hard”-Coach Andrews. This shows that if you work hard you will then enjoy your accomplishment knowing that you worked hard to get it by doing your best (in this case the ideal result would be a winning state champs and getting trophies).
Also, in a classic movie about boxing the main character describes what it takes to win or get what you want. For example, as Sylvester Stallone/ “Rocky” explains what it takes to win fights he states, “nobody is gonna hit as hard as life… it’s about how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done” (Sylvester Stallone/ “Rocky Balboa” In the movie, Rocky). This shows that you must work for want you want in life (for Rocky it was to win a fight) and it’s not always the easiest thing to do, but in the end it’s worth it.
In addition, in another classic movie/ book there is an inspirational quote that tells the viewer and/ or reader that you must work to get where you want to in life. To illustrate, as the character Don Vito Corleone or “The Godfather” talks about how someone can be great he states, “great men are not born, they grow great” (Don Vito Corleone in the Italian mobster movie, The Godfather). This quote shows that you can’t become successful without working for it. In the movie, The Godfather, Don Vito Corleone is looked up to by others and he worked hard to be as successful as he was for himself/ his family name before he later died in the movie.
Overall, work is something that people (such as myself) tend to have a love/ hate relationship with. Although, it may not be everyone’s favorite thing to do, but in the long run it will lead to a better result for ourselves.

sources:
-Rocky (1976, directed by John G. Avildsen, written by Sylvester Stallone)
-The Godfather (1972, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Mario Puzo)

Profile

In a classroom at my local elementary school that seems to have been there forever, overlooking busy Nichols Street with cars constantly driving by. That is where you can find my mother working during the week. My mother is a hard worker who is always busy doing something and one of those things that she is very passionate about is teaching first grade. She herself knows she is a great teacher as well as one of my friends and her coworkers. From what I know teaching young children (especially first graders) is no easy task considering the constant distractions you must avoid in order to get work done.
To begin, a lot of teachers/ people are unable to pursue a career in teaching because it requires lots of work, patience, and demands to fulfill. To prove, “many people are not capable of having enough patience to be able to do this job, but you just need to learn to laugh and enjoy it while you can” said my mother as she described what it’s like to be a teacher of young students. More importantly, my mother loves her job because she gets to see the children she taught grow into more mature and successful students as the years go by. For example, as my mother describes what she likes the most about her job she says, “I love to see the children I taught grow and into successful people because once they’re out of my class the next thing you know they’re in high school and going to college doing bigger, better things.” My mother takes a lot of pride in her work which is why she works so hard/ cares about her students so much and it definitely shows.
In addition, one of my friends also knew that my mother is a great, hardworking teacher from experience since he had her as a teacher during first grade. To illustrate, as he told me what it was like to have my mother as a teacher he said, “she always helped when I didn’t understand something, you can tell how she really cares about her students by always being engaged with us about whatever it may be.” You must always be on your feet and attentive with students when teaching at this young age and my mother clearly does that with her students.
Lastly, a coworker of my mother who I happened to have as my first grade teacher also believes my mother is a great teacher and even takes tips from her when she can. For instance, as she described to me what she observed about my mother’s teaching style she said, “I really love working with her, I learn new things to better my teaching from her all the time… Not to mention, she is also a great help when I need something.” My mother is very committed to her job as well as she is to helping others she works with (not only students). As I asked a few of my previous teachers about my mother I found that answers to this question were relatively the same all around. Another one of my mother’s coworkers then said, “without her (my mother) I don’t know where I’d be.”

Memoir

The sun was beaming down on my teammates on a May day, the ball was slowly rolling across the long grass (that desperately needed to be cut) at the local field in Norwood. We were in the middle of playing a soccer game against one of the best teams in Massachusetts, the game was tied (2-2), it was a hard fight, and we were in the last fifteen minutes of the game so we were under serious pressure to get the ball into the back of the opponents net. However, the odds didn’t seem to be in our favor as our goalie struggled to constantly save goals.

Then, my coach who was left speechless and flustered as to how we could manage to win the game, he then subbed out all of the offensive players (including myself). He told us that he would put us back in as soon as he could, but before that he told us something that I’ve never heard any of my coaches say. He said, “the other team has some very good players, they seem to be a stronger team overall, but I still think you guys can do this if you’ve gotten this far you just need to finish strong, not alone; but together as a team.” We knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy task considering most of the players on our team were completely drained of energy.

After all, most of my teammates and I had been playing together since first grade and we had something that the other team didn’t and that was a close sense of togetherness. As we impatiently waited on the bench dying to get in the game, my friend (Ryan) asked me, “do you want to switch positions?” I happily said, “yes!” since my coach asked me to play left midfield, but I am a righty and Ryan was going to play on the right, but he is lefty. Before I could even take a sip of my ice cold water, my coach called us up to get back in the game and I was playing the position I am best at, despite the heat and the fact that I was about to finish a game with only one substitution I still felt extremely motivated to win.

About 5-10 minutes into my shift, my teammate PJ called out my name to pass the ball to me which became the beginning of a play that changed the game completely. I sprinted toward the ball and I was all by myself like the other team’s goalie seemed to be most of the game. Next thing I knew I was inside the other team’s eighteen yard line. I looked at the goalie’s face, he seemed to be completely unworried, I heard my coach nervously yell “Michael.. SHOOOT!!” so I shot the ball as soon as I got close enough.The ball drifted to the top right corner of the goal as it fled off of my cleet.

Hearing the ball swish against the back of the net was the biggest sense of relief for all of my teammates and I. In contrast, the other team was left completely shocked and disappointed in themselves considering that they seemed to be the bigger, better, stronger team throughout most of the game. Lastly, my whole team came running to me faster than the wind, the crowd was loud, and my coach then yelled “that was a hell of a goal!”

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetoric is using language effectively and persuasively, it has been used for many years and is still used widely to this day. In the article, “As Flags Fly, the N.F.L. Is Blasted for a ‘Left-Wing’ Tackling Policy” by Ken Belson it describes a new rule brought about by the NFL. This new rule is against roughing the passer to decrease the amount of possible injuries has had the whole league under fire with the amount of flags recently thrown (too many). In this article, the author’s audience seems to be football fans and anyone affiliated with the NFL in any way. The author uses a disapproving tone towards the new rule as well as real examples to prove to the audience/ readers that this new rule is ineffective which is the purpose he accomplishes by writing this way (logos).

There are many ways that the author uses a disapproving tone to prove how ineffective this new rule is. First, the author uses a disapproving tone by saying the rule has not achieved what the league hoped for. For example, as the author describes how the league developed this new rule he states, “its high-minded intentions have produced an unwelcome result: heaps of criticism from some of its star players, past and present; confusion among fans”. This shows that Belson persuasively uses a disapproving tone by describing how the rule didn’t work how it was anticipated to and led to a bad result. Also, Belson uses a disapproving tone by describing how the league has changed for the worse due to this rule. To demonstrate, as a former Washington Redskins quarterback commented on the subject he states, “It’s made up by people who never played the position… basically, you’re asking defensive guys not to hit the quarterback. What is the defensive player supposed to do?” This shows that the author uses a disapproving tone to prove to the reader that the league has changed the game to decrease hitting which is supposed to be a common occurrence in football.
There are many ways that the author persuasively uses real life examples to convince the reader that this new rule is a bad turn that the league has taken.

To begin, Belson proves that the rule is just unfair by mentioning the penalties against Clay Matthews. To illustrate, as the author mentions Clay Matthews he states, “Packers’ Pro Bowl linebacker, has been penalized for roughing the passer in all three of his team’s games…Two of the penalties have come at crucial moments…” This shows that the author persuades the reader that the new rule is unfair by talking about the unfair calls against Matthews. Finally, the author proves his point once more by using the example of how William Hayes (Miami DE) tried to land according to the new rule and ended up hurting himself. To prove, “the rule has even been blamed for seriously injuring a defender. After Miami Dolphins defensive end William Hayes tore his anterior cruciate ligament while sacking Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr on Sunday.” This shows that the author proves his point by describing this example of a defensive end trying to tackle a quarterback without violating this new rule.

Overall, in the article, “As Flags Fly, the N.F.L. Is Blasted for a ‘Left-Wing’ Tackling Policy” by Ken Belson uses a disapproving tone towards the new rule and good examples. The author definitely accomplishes his purpose of the article; to persuade the audience to resent the ridiculous rule as well as many others.

Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/sports/nfl-jason-witten-roughing-the-passer-clay-matthews.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FNational%20Football%20League&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=collection