IB 7

My proposal argument for restaurants having gluten free products would be that each ASU vendor having at least one gluten free product would benefit them and the students at ASU.  I would try and persuade them by using facts that show the benefits that living a gluten free or a low gluten diet can have on a person and hopefully these facts would persuade ASU vendors to provide these.  It would be awesome if most, if not all the vendors at ASU could provide gluten free products.  My audience would be all the food providers at ASU.  Most likely the media wouldn't help too much with my argument.  My tactic would be to go to each of them individually and discuss the reasons why having gluten free products would be beneficial to them and to ASU students.   My essay will primarily consist of facts and data that support my argument.  I will also research ways that having gluten free products will be beneficial to the vendors.   I will state my argument in an essay that I can paraphrase to the food vendors.

IB7

For my proposal I will be writing and editorial to a newspaper, I'm not sure if I should stay local, or submit it to like a nationally covered newspaper. My argument’s primary audience would be parents and school board members, that may seem limited but they are ultimately the ones who could actually enforce the change I’m proposing. My solution, proposal, is simple. Schools should hold mini workouts during recesses. One local school in Tempe, AZ does 7 minute little work outs with the whole school on Friday mornings, which I am adapting to the idea of holding mini work outs DURING recess for several minutes and then continuing with recess. I think because students don’t always run around during recess, making fun little workout activities for kids to be active during the day would be very beneficial for their lifestyles. Because it could be integrated into the already allotted times for recess, it wouldn’t be altering the schools days at all. It would just be a means of creating fun games or exercises intended on making kids get active. Some parents who may be opposed to it could argue that its taking away the child’s choice to participate in recess, because recess is the time for them to not have to follow teachers order, (like and adult on break during work) but if the games are creative and fun and engaging, then it wouldn’t be forcing a child to participate; plus after the workout, which can be anywhere from 7-10 minutes, the kids can just continue with recess. Others may argue that Physical Education is the same thing as what I’m proposing, whoever its not. Physical education is typically a class that students do once a week, whereas my proposal would be everyday for several minutes DURING recess, then children can continue on with recess after the several minutes of activity. I’ve outlined my intended audience, how I propose change, as well as some opposing statements that could be said about my proposal. This is how I intend on writing my editorial. 

IB 7

I am going to promote date rape by using fliers.  I think we I can create flyers that I can put all around the ASU campus that would draw people attention it would be a good asset on getting students aware that date rape is out there and what it is about. The flyers will have details about what date rape is all about but more importantly it will have a website that you can go on and learn all about date rape.   I will put all my research papers on the website and also all the information I have gathered over this semester. N Once I put the flyers out, I want to make a facebook page all about date rape.  I think if I got it on the web especially facebook where there are millions of viewers it would make a big impact.  Everyone I know has a facebook even my mother who is so out of touch with technology and this stuff, so even if people didn’t take the time to read the page they would at least come across it which would put the thought in their head.

IB7 - Alex Chandler

Basically what I plan to do is create a video that is appealing to students so that it can promote the new ASU smoking policy in a positive light, and create less resentment. Then it will be distributed hopefully through ASU's Tobacco-Free team. If not I will ask Paulette if I can just post it into a lot of different streams related to ASU (Twitter, Facebook, etc). The video will primarily strive to show students the benefits of this policy, and the ways in which they can prepare to quit smoking for this upcoming August when the policy comes into effect. The change being evoked is that of the mindsets to the idea of a new policy, and that it is a good thing.

Tayla and Chelsea, I have approval from Mrs. Zilmer :)

IB 6

I am going to continue to talk about the seriousness of date rape.  It has been my topic since the first paper and I think I can talk a lot about it and I have some very good ideas on how to make it more aware and a bigger concern in our community.   I think that if we took it to the news stand and to magazines about how drinking alcohol has such a big effect on the amount of date rapes that have been happening it would decrease the amount of them happening.  I think my proposal argument should be on the seriousness of alcohol contributing to the amount of date rapes that are happening.  I would like my audience to be the owners of alcohol companies and every on whom helps distribute it.  I spoke with my teacher in the beginning of the year and she said that I should try and focus more on the laws and the understanding of what date rape really is.  A lot of people today don’t understand that there is a difference between date rape and actually rape.  I think we have started to give students and people flyers so they could learn about what date rape was or even had some sort of program that kids could go to learn about it that would help.  I think I may make flies and hand them out that discuss what date rape is and how to go about actually following through with pressing charges on someone so more people no that it is not a joke or should not be taken lightly.

Alex Chandler - IB6

There are several campuses following in suit, like ASU, in becoming a tabacco free campus. This being said ASU has made it their goal to become Tabacco free by August 2013. In doing so they hope to at the same time ween college students off their habit by helping them quit smoking.
The stakeholders I have previously discussed may have some hard feeling about canceling out this"freedom." But many will see it as a positive action by the school in promoting healthy living, and longer lives. The only stake holder really going to have an issue with this decree will be college students who do smoke, and many of them may even be happy as it will be good reason to quit smoking and will take the issue of peer pressure out of the ordeal. Many college students have felt peer pressured into smoking because of the people they were around who smoked. In turn getting addicted to a nasty habit which they didn't think was healthy in the first place. Making this almost a universally acceptable action taken by the school.
This is a good thing, and if you don't believe it you are just making a buck with the tabacco industry so please consider young people's health before your dollar. Thanks, -- Alex.

IB 6

Over the semester my focus has been on childhood obesity in our nation. I’m going to continue this focus with my third paper as well. I can think of plenty of things that need to change in this area, but I’m not so good and coming up with ways to go about changing those problems. I’ve been toying around with lots of things to call attention to change about, from school lunches buying from local producers, TV stations not airing during certain hours to encourage kids to get outside, and schools offering more time for recesses.  During my first essay a teacher I spoke to and interviewed said that her school offers Fitness Fridays, where the school kids get together and do little work outs. After much thought, I decided on this as solution for childhood obesity. In Japan, offices and schools take breaks and do exercises to encourage a healthy lifestyle and activity. I think we should take this idea and use it in our school systems. At recesses schools should lead an easy activity to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Some kids at recess run around and are active while others merely sit in the grass; by having an activity for all kids to participate in, it allows kids to be active daily (and not opt out of joining in). It wouldn’t be too difficult to integrate either because it would be during recesses that are already included in the day, it wouldn’t be taking time away from teaching. If this is something we can integrate into schools, during already allotted times of recess it will be another method at promoting healthier lifestyles.  

paper 3

Gluten-free products need to be more accessible.  No one knows how many people have gluten sensitivity, but estimates are that it may be as high as 50 percent, or even 70 percent, of the population. A gluten-free diet is a way of life for the person with celiac disease, a digestive disorder due to severe gluten sensitivity or dermatitis herpetiformis, a skin condition directly linked with gluten sensitivity. One in every one-hundred people has celiac disease, which is an allergy to gluten, but most don’t know it.  No one needs to  stay completely off of gluten, the protein component in many grains. But people with joint pain, brain fog, loss of balance or other neurologic and auto-immune disorders can be improved by living gluten free.   All of these have been linked with gluten consumption.Stakeholders that relate to gluten-free products being more accessible are obviously those who are striving to live a gluten-free diet.  For some, living gluten free is a necessity, their allergy to gluten can hinder their health and cause them to be more sluggish and not at their best.  For others, being gluten free is just a strive to live a more healthful life.  My family and I have been trying to live gluten free lately, and it has been a struggle to find good food that doesn't include gluten.  A good solution to this problem would be if every restaurant or food provider was forced to provide one gluten free product.  

IB 5

Yolo should be promoted to be used in positive ways.  Famous people should start to used yolo when they are doing cool and uplifting things.  The famous people should start using yolo when doing positive things will definitely challenge an audience.  One cannot make someone say something they don't want to.   The Constitution's First Amendment tells us that.  Of course it is impractical to try and get every famous person to participate in making yolo a positive thing, but if you could get a group of really famous and liked stars to start the movement then it could really make a difference.  A sad example of the use of yolo is when people drink and drive.  Yolo can make people feel invinsible and that they can withstand anything.  These stars who start the yolo campaign could talk about the dangers of drinking and driving, and then state things they do in their lives that are spontaneous.  For example hiking to watch the sun rise or zip lining etc.  Drinking and driving is a serious problem that kills so many people.  It would be great if role models could discourage it so that more people can be safe.

IB5

There are many conclusions one can get from Alcohol.  Alcohol is the leading cause of date rape because the more people the drink the more stupid things they will do like having sex when its not wanted.  People drink alcohol and black out and can remember what happened the night before and they wake up in some random persons bed and they claim that it is rape.  My main audience with be teenagers that drink and are in college I will be using pathos and the emotion ties with teenagers and drinking makes them unstable.  I will be showing all the results that alcohol has relating with all the date rapes.  Most date rapes go un reported because the young teenagers have alcohol in their system and they don’t want to get into trouble because they are still under age.  The main problem I may face with this is that a lot of the time the teenagers don’t report their rapes.  So there isn’t a lot of facts behind it.  This teenagers don’t realize what has happened till after they have showered and its to late to have any evidence on them.  Another thing is a lot of the girls will claim rape because they don’t remember it or don’t like the guy and want to get back at them which just makes the girls look like they are crying wolf.  When to many girls start to do this, when someone actually is raped no one believes them.

IB 5

Throughout my paper I want my audience to draw several conclusions about kids meals. My main argument will be that kids meals are a leading cause in childhood obesity because they draw kids into eating fast food at a young age. Along the way, there will be other conclusions that they should reach. My target audience will be parents so I will be targeting their pathos, and emotional ties to their children in order to show claim how fast food is targeting children at younger ages in order to keep them consumers as they grow up.  I will show the history of fast food chains and kids meals, then I will show how they continue to promote their own sales and food by having extremely timely toys, meaning the toys that the have in their kids meals have to do with whatever is going on in the world of children (usually movies or TV shows that change weekly). The challenge that I may face with my argument and statement is that fast food companies are now offering healthier options for their kid’s meals, but to refute that however my claim will be that those healthier options are usually an additional cost. To provide evidence for this I will find several kids meals options at several fast food chains and see what their kids meals contain and if they offer healthier options, whether or not they are an additional cost. I think these will be the major enthymemes that will arise from my argument; there may be more however that come up as I continue writing my paper. 

IB5 - Alex Chandler

The conclusion I hope readers to end with is that the portrayal of smoking in films depends on the context of when the film was made. And this will hopefully be shown adequately through an example of how the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany's, has a much different portrayal of smoking than their current contextual knowledge of films made in the present era.
A line of defense that will need to be made to back this up is in regards to the present political situation in which films have started to portray the smoking of weed. Though this is a different substance and illegal, it is a topic of much controversy. The reason this will have to be defended against is because there are many films now-a-days that portray this smoking as okay as they are trying to cause influence for the legalization of marijuana. But on the other hand smoking, in regards to cigarettes, is still portrayed in a more negative light, and very little of it.
What I may then have to do is to describe the current situations in today's film, and perhaps use one or two examples from present day films that do portray the smoking of cigarettes.

Topic Proposal: Kids Meals

Trying to find a great iconic "artifact" for childhood obesity was pretty difficult. All I could really think of was cultural ideas or images that evoke thoughts about childhood obesity. But then with some help brainstorming from a friend, I discovered the artifact that best represents childhood obesity: toys in kid’s meals. Think about all of the fast food restaurants you have been too; McDonalds, Burger Kings, Wendy's etc., ALL of them offer kids toys in their kids meals. It’s calling to the child's inner id, "I want it and I want it now!" The reason the child gets they meal is for the toy, and then they are eating a meal that is not even healthy because they wanted a toy. Not only are they toys, which no matter what it is kids will want it to play with for a matter of five minutes, then later forget about it, they are toys that typically are current and relate so some movie or TV show that is out. This means that every time parents take their kids to a fast food restaurant, there is a DIFFERENT toy offered there. It is a continuous cycle of advertising poor food to children. With this artifact in the use of my next paper it will be easy to isolate an audience, the significance of the kids meals toys (using statistics on the profit through the use of kids meal toys), as well as how it reframes the message fast food companies are sending to children. I think this artifact is a great topic for my next essay. 

That's the motto

YOLO (You Only Live Once) was super huge in around spring of 2012.  A song called "The Motto," by Drake and Lil Wayne created a massisve phenomenon of teenagers saying YOLO after every sentence.  This motto that teens lived by for those couple months had a huge impact.  At least in my life and with my friends when we said it it gave us an excuse to do something crazy or funny just to 'live.' This motto could have positive effects like causing people to have more fun and live life more in the moment.  For example when my friends and I jumped in the lake in the middle of the night we used YOLO as an excuse that we should do it.  It potentially could have had some negative effects in the same reguard.  For example people going out and partying harder, trying new drugs or drinking more.  I know some of my friends did some really dumb things and used YOLO as an excuse to justify them.  It's amazing to think that one song could cause such a fad in recent times.  It shows how much influence stars and the media can have.  Within the context of the song I don't think that YOLO was supposed to have a meaning which caused people to go out and do worthwhile and uplifting things, but I think that for many it did have this positive effect.  YOLO had a massive impact on people, especially teenagers, during this spring and created this nationwide feeling of carpe diem.

Paper Proposal 2!

Evaluation Argument: 250 Word Proposal

 For this evaluation argument, I will write about the song “Lose Yourself” by hip-hop artist Eminem, which is a song that became extremely popular in 2003. I will be writing to the audience of Rolling Stone Magazine, which publishes articles about music and popular culture. I will use this to analyze the topic of Generation Y’s unique view of the American dream. The American dream of the Millenials, the most influential, relevant generation today in the United States, consists of different visions and has various characteristics. For this paper’s purpose, I will focus on the passionate desire for Millenials to reach extremely high levels of economic success at an early age. 

 “ Lose Yourself” represents many of the different inputs that go into our generation’s individuals achieving this version of the American dream. These inputs are all based on the theme of the song: taking advantage of any opportunity that comes one’s way to quickly achieve economic success. Subtopics that will be discussed include why Generation Y emphasizes reaching economic success at such an early age (importance of social status and reputation, the desire to live life freely and without worry not at the end of one’s career upon retirement, but throughout one’s youth, etc.). Various components of the song in question exploit this desire. Additionally, themes such as an increase in competition, the rarity of early economic success making it especially attractive, not settling to blend in with the middle class, and defying all odds by overcoming seemingly constant obstacles are all present in Eminem’s 21^st century hit, and all directly parallel with what goes into achieving the American Dream.

 To support this argument, I can pull from various references and sources. Research will include generation studies and works depicting development of generation trends to help define the topic, Eminem’s background to help tie in the entire representation of the song’s themes to the American dream, and statistical data showing the increased competition; thus, the necessity to seize any opportunity that comes one’s way to defy odds and find economic success at an early age.

Link to song & lyrics (censored): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taTUM5Am-ss