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.