SWA #23

Colby Carter

English 102-111

April 2, 2012

Paper 4 Outline

Outline for Essay 4

Title: Changing Adoption

Thesis: The way adoption works in America right now does not give the adoptee a say so, this must be changed. Through this plan the adoptee finally has a say so in a decision that they had no control over.

1. The problem in adoption today is that the adoptee does not get to decide whether they want a relationship with their birth parents, this should be changed.

1. The child had no say so in their adoption
2. Should have some input in their own life. 

1. The solution to this problem would be to allow the child to make a decision at the age of 16 what they want to do.
1. 16, because if they are able to drive, they can make these decisions
2. Semi-Open until 16
3. Pictures are sent from adoptive parents
4. At 16 the adoptee decides what relationship they want

3. I believe that this is the best option because it allows the adoptee to have a say so. 

SWA #22

Colby Carter

English 102-111

March 28, 2012

Paper [4], Outline

Essay 4

My forth essay will be a proposal paper on a local (within the United States) issue. I am proposing to change the adoption laws regarding domestic adoption to allow the adoptee at the age of 12 to decide whether they want, from that point in time, their adoption to be open, semi-open, or closed from then on. I believe that until they are of age, the birthparents are given the right to decide if they want the adoptive parents to share pictures and write letters regarding the child. I plan on explaining the differences in each type of adoption and use a personal account in my paper. 

SWA #21

The issue is social media and the impact it has on society. I see four perspectives, but they do not differ that much between one another. I see two that really are the same, and need changing. I don't think the essay is effective. For me, by quoting a movie, they lose the creditability.

Essay 3 Outline

Colby Carter

English 102-111

March 21, 2012

Paper [3], Draft [1]

Outline for Essay 3

Title: Adoption's Many Viewpoints

Thesis: Adoption has evolved and changed over the years, the one thing that stays consistent is the people involved with the decision, the purpose of this paper is to show the three sides of adoption and the past and present laws that surround the sensitive topic.

1. The past, like in many legal issues, has shaped the present and helps to litigate the adoption process.
   1. Background information
      1. Ancient Rome
      2. Stanley vs. Illinois
      3. 1851 Massachusetts
   2. Present day Laws

1. Hague Convention
2. Model State Adoption Act
3. Open Adoption Laws in certain states.

2. The decision to put a child up for adoption regards the desires of the birth mother, and recently the birth father
   1. The options a birth mother has when placing a child up for adoption
   2. Child out of wedlock
      1. Rights the mother has
      2. Rights the father has
      3. Ways to gain information on child that has been adopted

3. Potential adoptive parents face many challenges and requirements when going through the adoption process.
   1. The process of obtaining a child
   2. Items they must possess in order to adopt out of the country

4. The main focus of adoption is indeed the child being put up for adoption.
   1. Ways to obtain birth records and reach out to birth parents and states where open adoption is widely practiced.
   2. Statistics of adopted children's wellbeing
   3. Personal account and story of adopted child

Conclusion: The process and concept of adoption is one that is debated and always changing. The ideas and beliefs on what should take place whether the adoption be open/closed, birth parents decision/agencies are widely discussed and have the information I have read has formed my opinion. I believe that children should know that they are adopted, and even where they are born. But I think the decision should be up to the child if they want to meet their birth parents or not.  

SWA #18

I found that while reading the article there weren't terms that I did not know and was surprisingly pretty familiar with most of the players names. Growing up my dad was a baseball coach and an avid baseball fan. I grew up watching the sport and can talk baseball with most guys. I think this helped me with the article and understand what Kang was saying, without my previous knowledge I would have had a hard time following along with the article.

Silverman, Brett. "The Winds of Change in Adoption Laws." Family Court. 39.1 (2005 ): n. page. Print.


This article discusses the current laws regarding adoption. The article also talks about the challenges that all people involved in the adoption process must deal with. The main topic in the article is coming up with a way to change the adoption laws to benefit the adoptee in being able to access their adoption records at a certain age. 

3/12/12

The author uses baseball metaphors and examples of different players to show the racial struggles and barriers that many races must face in America.

The life of racial and ethnic stereotypes in sports-
The beliefs that African American's must be fast because thats the stereotype they have been given. Just as he states that even though he is Korean, he is grouped with Ichiro because he is Japanese and they look the same. The stereotype goes deeper than just racial issues, deepening into those of height and weight. A person who is abnormally tall will be stereotyped as a basketball player, and a person is is abnormally large, a football lineman.

Ironically one of the first articles that appears after typing "Asian Americans" is "Linsanity" which for those who are in the know about sports will know that Jeremy Lin is a basketball player. Due to his recent place in the spotlight many have coined the term "Linsanity" when discussing his athletic abilities.

SWA #17

narr. "Open Adoption A Lifetime Story." Open Adoption A Lifetime Story. Lifetime Adoption , 23 Mar 2010. web. 12 Mar 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ1w-9j_0qs>.


This is a video posted by The Lifetime Adoption Center. It discusses the different types of adoption, closed, semi-open, and open. It also has testimonies of both sides of the adoption process. The video gives encouragement and helps the viewer to understand why adoption is a great thing. The video also discusses the aid that the Open Adoption Center can give to a women who is wanting to give their child up or for families looking to adopt. 


Jeanne A. Howard, et al. "Open Adoptions In Child Welfare: Social Worker And Foster/Adoptive Parent Attitudes." Journal Of Public Child Welfare 5.4 (2011): 445-466. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

SWA #16

Katz, Stanford. "Rewriting the Adoption Story." Family Advocates . 9. (1982): n. page. Print.


This article discusses the progression that adoption has made. It also discusses how adoption came to be, and how the first laws about it were formed.


Cook, Lawrence . "Open Adoption: Can visitation with natural family members be in the child's best interest? ." J. Family . 30.437 (1991): n. page. Print.


This article discusses that courts may feel the need to remove children from bad environments for the sake of their well-being, but should the courts place them up for adoption, thus removing all family ties and causing them to completely remove themselves from their relatives. 

SWA #15

Colby Carter
February 27th, 2012

After spending time researching my three topics on both Google Scholar and USC Library website, I found that there is a plethora of information on Open Adoption. The resources were endless and therefore causing me to lean more towards this topic. Depression, really a mental illness, had many articles but not many that were focused on what I want to write about. This is still an option for my writing. The topic that, surprisingly, had the least amount of information was the South Carolina drinking laws, therefore this topic is not in consideration for my research.

SWA #13

1.
A.South Carolina drinking laws
B. Just being somewhere where alcohol is present results in a drinking ticket.
C. I am against the laws, they prevent people from being the designated driver
D. Why they are how they are

2.
A. Open adoption records
B. Adoptive parents want to keep it a secret from the child that they are adopted
C. I am for open records
D. How to change this and why it is the way that it is

3.
A. Depression, really a chemical imbalance or a persons state of mind
B. People assume that being happy is a choice, and that a person has complete control over that decision
C. As a person diagnosed with depression, this is not the case for me
D. Explain that it is a chemical imbalance

SWA #12

Waters, Alice. "A Healthy Constitution." The Carolina Reader: Third Edition. Ed. Lee Kauknight and W. Matthew J. Simmons. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead Press, 2012. 337-338. Print.

Water says that food can be used “to teach values that are central to democracy” by “becoming connected to the community and the land.” It is also linked with the values that lead our deomcrazy. Waters uses an example of a school who used home-grown and healthy foods and how it improved the student behavior. I do believe that more statistics and more thorough examples would help her prove her point and make her case even more convincing.  

Paragraph

While this may seem like a hard thing to accomplish, it has been done before and the results are very impressive. In 1998 the US decided on a Tobacco settlement. The tobacco companies agreed to switch from marketing “pro” smoking, to start the show the harmful affects that smoking has. Since this was set into affect, more than half of the smokers have quit, and the smoking rates are half of what they were. The unhealthy foods that have been proposed to have higher taxes have a direct link to Type 2 diabetes and other heart affects. The essay states that while you may be drinking a sugary drink, it is not in place of something unhealthy, it is in addition to. Which is adding to the daily calorie intake. The idea is that the money from the taxes will be used to lower health care costs, and help farmers who produce healthy items have a cheaper production. 

Colby Carter

February 15^th, 2012

Title: Bad food? Tax it

Thesis: The number of obese people in America is steady increasing year by year, the foods that cause this are usually the cheapest, so this theory is to raise the cost of those fatty foods, lower the cost of healthy foods and the number of obese people will decrease.

A. How do you justify taxes foods and increasing the cost of “bad” foods?

1. Per-Unit tax
2. Consumption of unhealthy beverages decreases, so does public health costs
3. Make the change, and see the reward
4. Examples of other countries that are doing this already

B. While this may seem like a hard thing to accomplish, it has been done before and the results are very impressive.

1. 1998 Tobacco settlement
2. Sugary drinks only add calories, not replace
3. Examples of the Tobacco settlement and the doubts that people have about this

C.The predictions for what will happen to Americans if this is put to action is very convincing.

1. List statistics
1. List other ideas of change

D. The changes that would occur due to this increase in tax can only benefit Americans, it does not make sense that a country with health issues like our should not implement something of this nature. 

Concerns

1. Being too repetitive
2. Not enough information
3. Not enough points
4. Too short

SWA #6

SWA #6

The same product, different brands, and two completely different target markets. These are two very well-known, high standard brands, Dior and Juicy Couture, are both advertising perfume. Dior's ad is simply and classy, drawing the attention of the more sophisticated reader. While the Juicy Couture ad draws the attention of the younger reader. The bright colors and fun logo is used to attract attention to the youthfulness feel of the ad. While both ads have the option to smell the perfume, the way that it is positioned on the ad also aids the assumption of who the target market is. The Dior ad has the classic flap on the side of the page to lift and smell the scent. While Juicy Couture has the scent flap positioned on the bottle of perfume that the model is holding, it has a shiny paper over the top of it drawing attention to it. 

SWA #5

SWA #5

The publication that my articles were found in is Glamour Magazine. Glamour discusses the topics of Fashion, Beauty, Entertainment, Sex and Love, Weddings, and Health and Diet. The target demographic is women ages 18 through 49. The majority of products being advertised are clothing, perfume, make-up, eye wear, and movies. All the advertisements have a direct relationship with the topics being covered. The publisher assumes that the women reading this magazine are interested in the latest trends and enjoy reading the topics covered. 

Colby Carter

English 102-111

January 30, 2012

Magazine Ads

The ads that I selected are perfume ads that were featured in Glamour Magazine. The audience of Glamour is strictly women, and in my opinion ages ranging from 18 to 25. I would say the target market is trendy women who enjoy nice things. The majority of ads in Glamour are very well known designers.

The Michael Kors Ad-

-Woman wearing very revealing sweater

-Wispy, wind blown dirty blonde hair

-Perfume bottle in the bottom right hand corner

-Woman wearing gold watch on the left wrist

-Bold white traditional “Michael Kors” logo in the bottom center

Juicy Couture Ad-

-White furniture in the background

-Blonde haired girl, green eyes, messy hair pulled back

-Black puffy, shear dress

-Holding large signature Juicy perfume bottle with large pink bow

-Scent sticker on the bottle, shiny top coat

-Large hot pink “Viva La Juicy” on the bottom center

-Traditional Juicy Couture logo small underneath Viva La Juicy in white

I chose these two ads because they are both two of my favorite designers and I have both of the items that they are advertising. They both appeal to women who want to seem sexy. I think the Michael Kors ad is more directed towards a softer side of the market, while the Juicy ad is has a harder look. The stereotypes are very obvious, women who like nice things and want to seem sexier than they are. 

SWA #3

Colby Carter

English 102-111

January 23, 2012

SWA #3

The argument in the article in Carolina Reader about the Prison System states that the US has more prisoners than any other country, even though our population is not the highest. It also states that the majority of the prisoners in the US are non-violent offenders. I found through my research that the conditions of the prisons are not humain, the article also states that while the judges give a sentencing, they do not state or possibly realize what else that includes. Such as rape, STD's, isolations, and sometimes torture. Something else that I learned was that the US inmate population has more than tripled in the past thirty years, but the money spent on the prisons has barely increased, with more prisoners, more money should be spent to take care of them. While they have obviously done something wrong and bad enough to land them in prison, they still should be able to have a safe time while in prison. As of 2009 1 in every 31 adults are in the US prison system, which makes that 7.3 million Americans are behind bars. I learned that African Americans are four times more likely to be under prison control than whites are. A crime is a crime, no matter the race of the offender and I think that people should be judged on their crime and not their race.

The Writing Arguments picture that I chose was at the bottom of page 9. It shows a family with a lot of suitcases and the fact that airlines now charge fifteen dollars a bag, the picture next to it shows their solution, wearing their clothes. This picture struck a cord with me because I have a family of five and we travel a lot. I have already been on an international flight this year and when preparing for a trip our luggage is always the huge problem. Everyone can only have one carry-on and can only check one bag. Not only that, but your checked bag can not exceed fifty pounds without paying another fee and your carry-on bag has to be under certain height and width requirements. Also you have to deal with the problem of hoping that there is room in the overhead bins for your carry-ons, because as we all know this is not always the case. The picture addresses the issue and also pokes fun at how silly it is that people have to make such a big deal out of it.

"Get Smarter"

Response to “Get Smarter”

The article “Get Smarter” is very clearly stating the opposite side of the argument that “Is Google Making us Stupid” does. “Get Smarter” states that the mind has had to adapt and change to the world and the advances the world has made from the beginning of time. The article discusses the idea of fluid intelligence and that the mind has the ability to find sense out of confusion. Basically, even though the mind is overwhelmed with all the knowledge and what not that technology presents, it has the ability to sift through the information and retain what is important. The article states that advances in technology are inevitable and the mind either has to adapt and change to the world or be left behind. This idea is also stated when the use of brain enhancing drugs is discussed. It is true that in college most people use medicine that will allow them to focus and be “all in” their studies with full energy. It is discussed that it would be impossible to make a superhuman mind because the technology would always be advancing and it would never be possible to have the most up to date version. While in the article “Is Google Making us Stupid” we are told that the large amount of information that our brain is now able to get ahold of is actually causing us to go back in our intelligence and not advancing. The difference is the two articles is that the first states that we are progressing too much and are taking on more than we can handle, while the latter states that this change is coming whether we are ready or not. 

Reflection

Colby Carter

English 102-111

January 18, 2012

Reflection

My Senior year of high school I took AP Literature and Composition. I had an amazing teacher who challenged all of my thoughts and opinions regarding Literature. As a class we read so many novels by amazing writers. We wrote a response paper to each novel we completed and also had many hands on projects regarding each one. At the end of the year we did many practice AP test essay prompts. The AP exam essays give you a statement, or question and require the student to respond to the prompt using two or more literary pieces for examples and comparisons. Another essay prompt would require you to read two or more poems and then compare and contrast them. This proved repeatedly to be my biggest challenge. After many practice essays I finally “got the hang of it” and my teacher scored my practice essay at a 6, which is very well for AP exam grading. Throughout the majority of my papers I was arguing a characters point of view or the reasons an author would write certain things.

My best writing experience was my final exam for this class. My teacher required us to take a practice AP exam, from start to finish, timed, and set up exactly like the real one would be. I have always done extremely well on multiple choice, so I was not worried about that. My main concern was that my essays would not score high enough for me to get a score on the AP exam that would allow me to pass the exam. Shockingly the essay that I did the best on was the poem one, I received an eight on it! The highest possible score is a nine. I was so proud of myself and how I did, I had so much confidence going into the real AP exam after receiving the scores for my final exam. The worst experience that I had writing for this class was the first exam of the semester. I did terribly on it, granted I did not spend much time on it, so my grade was worth the amount of effort I put into it. This was a bad experience for me but also very motivational. I love my AP Lit teacher and wanted to impress him. I was so embarrassed when I did poorly that it motivated me to try so much harder on the rest of the papers for this class.