Revised Thesis

In it's current state fracking, a way to obtain natural gas, has it's ups and downs. The procedure is a step towards clean energy however, it leads to pollution and use of trillions of gallons of water.  With the right modifications to its procedure and fixing human mistakes, the energy industry may be able to turn it into a safe and reliable source of energy.

My subtopics will be about the cost of this procedure, problems with the current procedure, regulation of the industry, and the environmental pollution it is causing.

My claim is important because it focuses on how an industry is having negative effects on the environment and people. My subtopics will exactly what the problems are that make this procedure negative in certain areas.

Toward a Policy on Drugs

Narrow topic:

A policy to minimize drug abuse.

Thesis:

I do not think that either approach take sufficient account of the social realities of drug abuse...
(bottom of the second page)

Expectations:

Discuss
a. Criminal justice system
b. Try a different approach to drugs
c. Refer to other countries situation and how they deal with it
d. Explanation of why our current policy doesn't work

Subtopics and sub points:

- Current status of war on drugs
a. Define usage
b. Define punishments
c. How war on drugs should work and why it doesn't
d. Showing the economic implications of our course of action

- Legalizing as a solution
a. Deregulation
b. Decriminalization
c. Medicinal drug trade

- Crime
a. Correlation between violence and crime
b. Arguing against correlation

Conclusion:

Before we offer a solution, we need to understand the problem better

BS

I think the primary claim in this episode of Bull Shit is that college is a flawed system because they're to concerned with diversity. It did a good and bad job at focusing on the different parts of college that they thought was Bull Shit. I liked how they focused how language codes were stifling the first amendment but I didn't like how they interviewed Noam Chomsky, they didn't include much of his responses to their questions.

Pop Quiz

1. Narrow topic, identify articles and authors, tentative thesis for the final paper

2. Article by article or point to point method.

3. Summarize they main points on both sides and explain how these points would affect the audiences decision.

Immigration Articles

Angels in America

In this essay the author touches on the topics of legal immigration, illegal immigration, immigration in history, immigrants on welfare, family, laws, and politicians. The message was that there are illegal immigrants who make a positive impact on society and that his situation is similar to many people's immigrant ancestors. He wrote this to get people to think about the topic of immigration in a different light, and I think the people he is targeting are the common people who are anti-immigrants or haven't picked a side in this debate. Through his writing Tierney comes across as a man who loves fairness and appreciates hard work. For example, he knows Angel is illegal but he acknowledges that he is a contributor to society and believes that he should be allowed citizenship. Another way he wrote the essay is to try and to appeal to the softer side of human nature when he talks about how Angel may have to leave his daughter behind if he gets deported.



Our Brave New World of Immigration

This essay talks about, immigration, politics, crime, and work. Hanson's message is that despite the benefit of cheap labor, immigrants pose a threat to American citizens. He also says that laws regarding immigration aren't strict enough or enforced as they should be. The purpose of the article is to to show Americans that if they become to relaxed about illegal immigration that it could become a serious problem. I believe his audience is the common people that don't know much about immigrants and or don't interact with them. His style of writing is to convince people by appealing to their fears of safety. He does this by bringing up the example of they car accident that resulted in 3 casualties and 8 injured people. He's pretty much saying this is what can happen if we become complacent on this topic.

Narrower topics

Broad topic: Forms of energy people use

Whats involved:
Energy companies
Lobbyists
Politicians
General population

Narrower topic: Energy companies affect politicians

Who's involved:
Politicians
Lobbyists
Energy companies

Question: How do politics affect our energy use

Question: How does media sway public opinion in terms of forms of energy

Idea: The political and personal ideas of people in charge of media may be expressed by what they write about or advertise. The media then affects what the general population thinks

Gossip Response

In the ted talk we watched in class the presenter focused mainly on how gossip is an important part of pop culture to day and in the past. Branching from that main point she talks about how it isn't enough to be good at something anymore, to make waves in society you have to make people talk about you. She also notes that it is ones form of communication that lasts for many years. While Lainey notes that gossip has a bad stigma, her main goal in the talk is to get people to realize that gossip is something normal and essential in life.