TOW #26: Russia Can't Decide if Ukranian Jews are Victims or Villains By: Alina Polyakova

Reading Goals: Understand the main purpose of the article (this one is quite complex)

Writing goals: Practice writing about a topic that I may not know a lot about, but while sounding convincing and finding examples in a seemingly rhetoric-free article

  Civil unrest in Ukraine this year has been multi-dimensional and convoluted. Russia has invaded a peaceful country and attempted to take back what was once their territory. Russian troops have taken over the Crimean peninsula, and this action has shocked the world, and split many opinions about the matter. Possibly one of the most confusing issue within the topic of Ukraine may be the difference of those citizens who support Russia and those who oppose Russia, and want a free Ukraine. The most recent accusation from those who support Russia is that the Jewish leaders of the Ukrainian opposition are the enemy, and in some way, supporting Nazism. Alina Polyakova, a journalist for the New Republic aims to tackle and report on this complex topic by utilizing concise statement.

  Polyavoka uses concise conclusions and statements in order to clearly come across to the audience. Throughout the article, she first explains the complexities of an issue, and then, at the end of her explanation, she offers a concise conclusion, such as, "the protesters are Nazis, the interim government contains Nazis, and before long they will come for the Jews," and "the term neatly captures two deep fears of Putin's regime. The first is Jewish oligarchs have too much power...The second fear is of successful democratic movements". With these two statements, Polyavoka is able to summarize both of the main points in her article. Who the people were, what they were doing, and why. 

   Thus, Alina Polyakova is able to achieve her purpose, to tackle and inform about the complex topic of the Ukranian and Russian statements about Jews, through concise statements which clearly outline her conclusions. These concise statements allow her reader to comprehend and the article has more impact on the reader as they go on about their lives. And because the reader now understands this topic, they may go on to use this information in a casual dinner conversation, write a report, understand any new news even more,  or even, to help the Ukrainian Jews. 

(zhidobandera, the derogetory term Russian-supporting Ukrainians use about democratic Ukranian Jews, with a menorah depicted with Nazi colors, showing just how complex the countries' dynamics are presently)

TOW #25: Donut Picture circa 1948

Reading Goals:  find the message and find at least one device

Writing Goals: Write a concise essay, even if I just have one device (change it up a bit)

(Source)

Everyone loves donuts. Kids used to line up at our neighborhood’s local KrispyKreme just to watch the donut production line. They would start bubbling in the hot grease, and move along to the oven, where they were warmed to perfection. Then, the glaze machine would pour the sweet sticky syrup of gods over them and they would be left to cool. Kids loved those donuts for decades. The donut is often the symbol for obesity. Homer Simpson is always pictured eating donuts, and cops who don’t do much of anything are stereotyped to be always eating a donut. This picture, photographed circa 1948, is aimed to illustrate how the American donut hole is getting smaller, but the actual dough amount is getting larger through parallelism.

Parallelism between the donuts of the different decades illustrate the prevalent difference in dough-to-hole ratios. As one can see, the donut is the largest in hole diameter in 1927, but has the least amount of dough. As the years continue, the picture includes the same setup but you can see the donut start to change. This parallelism allows the viewer to clearly see the difference in the donuts throughout the years. This difference in donuts brings the readers attention to the fact that with each passing decade, the donut hole is getting smaller and the amount of dough is getting larger. This brings to a point the underlying message. It shows that throughout the years, Americans have wanted more dough and a smaller donut hole. This alludes to the obesity epidemic in America. This increase in dough might be one of the many things that exemplify Americans’ mounting greediness and overall inclination toward more food. Therefore, this parallelism allows you to see the evolution and difference in eating habits of Americans.

Parallelism in this image exemplifies the difference between donuts and donut hole size throughout the years, which in turn gets the picture’s underlying message across: more dough in our donuts is exactly why Americans are becoming fatter. We just don’t need the extra food.

IRB Intro #4: Lies My Teacher Told Me by: James Loewen

  As we approach May, AP tests loom in my future. The one with the most hard-core information that I have to remember is by far AP US. History (APUSH). I will surely be cramming and re-cramming my brain with dates, presidents, and wars. With laws, legislation, and amendments. But, I will surely be thankful when it is all over, because I officially have the CollegeBoard's approval that I know all about United States History.
   My dad, however, disagrees. This past summer, when I was reading The Crucible, to gear up for APUSH, my dad was reading a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen. He told me that I absolutely have to read the book. Lies My Teacher Told Me is specifically about United States History. It examines the flaws in American textbooks and teachings across the country, and, supposedly, tells the reader what US History was really like. It cuts out all of the extra fluff details about our founding fathers, and other "great" leaders of America. Occasionally it exploits the glorified leaders for who they really are, often, they are not the good men you would expect. Most of all, it attempts to tell history from other points of view than just who wrote history.
  I hope to learn a few things from this book, especially now that I've just about finish the AP course. I strategically did not want to read this before so that I would not mess up the information I need to know for the test (because we all know how important that is). But now, I will be able to compare my two sources of information and maybe find faults within the book's claim, or even our education ethics here in America about our own history. After all, the losers never get to write the history books...something that Lies My Teacher Told Me aims to set right.

(Source)

TOW #24 Secrets of the Brain by: Carl Zimmer

Reading goals:

• find an interesting article from a different source

Writing goals:

• seamless transition
• fully analyze each device & connect back to thesis

The brain, as recently educated journalist Carl Zimmer describes it, is an extremely complex organ. Scientists agree, but, to a certain extent they understand even more so how little we know about the human brain. In a sense, most scientists would say that Zimmer was understating the brain’s intricacies. We have only studied the brain intensively for only a few short decades, and we have just started to grasp it’s capabilities and inner workings. Carl Zimmer, journalist from the National Geographic, aims to put these new found discoveries in the spotlight in his article “Secrets of the Brain,” by utilizing both imagery and numerical data.

In the beginning of his article, Zimmer describes laying in the machine to receive an MRI. He speaks of his thought process while laying in the machine, and mentions many parts of the brain, referring to how his “emotions were the creation of the three-pound loaf of flesh” in his head. He also mentions that all of the memories he is able to draw on were “coordinated by seahorse-shaped folds in the brain called the hippocampus,” and that the “web of links” that was his brain were firing. This imagery that Zimmer utilizes allows him to convey the brain as more of an operating system, or something that is alive. People commonly do not think about their brain and it’s functions so this is the perfect introduction to what the brain is like in simple terms before Zimmer talks about science-type things. Imagery helps the reader to begin thinking about the brains functions, and later on numerical data solidifies the new ideas that Zimmer presents.

Like any good scientific article, Zimmer presents the reader with numerical data in order to solidify concepts and theories for the reader. In order to convey just how much work barely dents the complexities of the brain, Zimmer describes researcher's brain mapping: “[they have been] charting the activity of 20,000 protein-coding genes at 700 sites within each brain.” Zimmer also is able to convey the magnitude of the brain. He states that even just for a mouse brain, it will take “another two years to complete a scan of all 70 million neurons in a mouse.” This concrete data appeals to logos in the reader. Who can argue the cold hard facts? Especially because it is a scientific article to an audience that is interested in science, these numbers will aid comprehension and make the information more believable.

Zimmer is able to shine a spotlight on new scientific discoveries about the brain while utilizing imagery in order to ease the reader into the topic, and then numerical data in order to solidify the validity of the research the article discusses. Thus, Zimmer is able to open up the eyes of the reader to a blossoming world in science.

(Robert Clark)

** Note: totally did not realize that my previous article was about neuroscience as well. I guess I'm unconsciously very interested in brains!**