cover letter draft

Dear Portfolio reader,
For the first essay, Rhetorical Analysis, I learned to analyze essays by rhetorical techniques at a college level, and support my claim with evidence from the essay. For example, in the second paragraph, I analyze the use of logos in the article. I suggest that the writer use statistics to appeal to people’s logic and convince the readers that America is behind in science education. I used in-text citation to provide evidences from the article. Then, I analyze how these evidence can persuade the readers. I also analyze pathos and writing self. I provide the evidence from the essay and further analyze its purpose.

research argument paper update

My research argument paper is moving slowly, but the direction is right. It is not hard to find information on the topic of stress, which gives me a lot of evidences. On the other hand, it could seem disorganized and disconnected. I am working on making my arguments more coherent. I am still figuring out what to do with the counter arguments. I am having problem finding evidence to refute the counter arguments. Maybe a small amount of stress isn’t harmful. Also evidence that shows stress could be helpful also could support my conclusion. The counterarguments that stress could be good for you could support my conclusion that seeing stress in a positive way could reduce stress. I am still figuring out the conclusion. I am not sure ending it saying that seeing stress in a positive way is an effective way to reduce is a good conclusion. I might try some other direction.

research paper-update

what’s easy about writing this essay is  there are a lot of information about stress on the internet. what ‘s not easy about writing this essay is the conclusion. i want the conclusion to be about how people should deal with stress, what they can do to reduce the effect of stress on them . the research i found suggest that the way people see stress is relevant. people who think that they are under a lot of pressure , tend to be affected the most. so all the harm of stress , for example, heart disease,diabetes, eating disorder, anxiety, depression, undermining performance, may all depend on how much pressure you feel. It ‘s possible that someone who is under a lot of pressure but don’t feel that they are to be not affected by stress. I just think does this make my claims about the harm of stress less convincing? i feel like maybe i am not answering the question is stress good or bad for you, because it’s is a matter of how you see stress.

Gaisler-Salomon, Inna. “inheriting stress”, New York Times. March .7.2014.Web.8.April.2014

Summary: can the stress a parents feel passed on to the children?

 

This is an article published on New York times written by inna Gaisler-salomon, who is an assistant professor in psychobiology at the university of Haifa. It discussed the question can you inherit stress. A group of researcher’s made experiment on lab rats. The experiment shows that how children behave under stress is related to if the is under stress before getting pregnant. However,  “ it is also influenced by the stress the offspring themselves experienced”.

 

This helps me understand the mechanism of stress. It also tells me that although stress is inheritable , however , it is still affected by how the people themselves experience stress.

 

this  is the article-Inheriting Stress

Research Proposal – Stress

Introduction- We all experience stress in our life. We are all affected by stress. We know that it can be harmful, and some people thinks they are most productive when they are under stress. How does it affect people physically and psychologically? Some people handle stress well and others’ don’t. How can people minimize the negative effect of stress? What degree of stress is safe to have?

Rational- I realize one day that stress is affecting my life. I find that I can’t think when I am under stress, I just freeze, and I always let stress get inside my head. For example, I was in a debate competition for the first time, totally inexperienced and unprepared. When my opponent found a loophole in my argument and ask me about it, my mind just went completely blank and I couldn’t think of anything to say. This experience make me realize how poorly I perform under stress. Stress has always been holding me back. I always think maybe I could do better if stress is not affecting me. Maybe if I can handle it better, I can reduce the negative effect stress has on me.

Research plan- one side of the opinion is stress can be harmful. It cause health problem such as heart disease and premature death. Stress also cause mental problem such as depression. Bulimia can also be stress related. In a newspaper article I found called “Feeling Stressed? It’s Probably Harming Your Health”, it says “the perception of the negative effects of stress may increase blood pressure or heart rate, or have indirect effects like increasing smoking or excessive drinking”(Bakalar). In another article “stress and anxiety”, it says “Studies suggest that the inability to adapt to stress is associated with the onset of depression or anxiety.” On the other hand, stress can also stimulate creativity. Stress also makes brain release chemical that makes you more social. There is this stress hormone call oxytocin which from its name suggest that it release when the brain is under stress. “This hormone makes people crave physical contact, enhance empathy, makes people more compassionate and caring” this is what I learned after I watched a ted talk named “How to make stress your friend” by kelly Mcgonigal. And if people has a positive attitude toward stress, stress can turn into motivation and production. Also, social economic status and stress are related. People who live in poverty are more likely to be affected by stress. I need more research on all of the above, also what are the ways that people suggest to reduce streese? How does stress cause health and mental problem? What are the proves that stress stimulate creativity or productivity? How much stress is safe and healthy to people since it is impossible for people to not feel stress?

Implication- the world is more competitive than ever, and people are under a lot of pressure from all aspect of their life, for example their financial condition, stress from their family, social life. We all experience stress, that is the reason why the public should care. Stress can be harmful to people, and there should be a way to decrease the level of harm. Since stress is related to social economic status, from learning about how stress is affecting people, cause people with low social status to perform poorly at their job or school, maybe we can find a way out of the poverty cycle.

This is the TED talk that make me want to do this topic –Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend

here are two Newspaper Article:
Feeling Stressed? It’s Probably Harming Your Healthn By NICHOLAS BAKALAR JULY 1, 2013 Feeling Stressed? It’s Probably Harming Your Health

Stress and Anxiety Stress and Anxiety

pro/con Exercise

My topic: stress
My tentative question: how does stress affect people’s life and how can we deal with it.
Your tentative thesis/main argument: stress being used in a certain way can be good to people

Claims 1 stress affect people’s health and cause health problems. (Find more prove on stress related disease, for example heart disease and premature death. People with high-stress work like in wall- street retire early).

Claims 2 stress affect performance. Stress make people performance worse than they can. ( I need actual studies and proves for this. this is what I felt from my personal experience.)

Claims 3 stress related mental illness (depression, anxiety and Bulimia, need more evidence on that)

Counterclaims:
Claims 1: stress and provoke creativity

Claims 2: stress make people more social because when people are under stress, the brain release a chemical that make people more social.(I need more statistic and evidence for that, this is something I read on a website)

Claim 3: stress may be harmful when people see it as a threat, but when people see the benefit of stress, stress can be helpful.

Monsters and Marvels

The monster and marvels exhibition is very interesting. The exhibition interest me because I have the same observation. When iron man 3 come out , and I heard the villain’s name is mandarin, I thought marvel, you really are going to make a movie that will be seen everywhere including china, and have it’s villain’s name be mandarin.

I think the ones I found really interesting are the brain and the lotus blossom. The brain is usually a math or science whiz, a hyper intelligent genius with low social skills and no friends. The origin of this stereotype come from the fear that the western employer is afraid that the Chinese labor are plotting behind their back. And it evolved when a lot of highly educated Asian with skills in science immigrated to the western world. This make the impression that Asian are all intelligent math whiz deep into people’s head. The stereotype still exist. As a Chinese, I think that the western world has a misunderstanding of our math or science skills. Chinese students are generally good at math because we teach math differently. The math we learned are more difficult and students are helped by a lot of exercises and practices everyday day. This stereotype come from not understanding why Asian are better at science or math. Another reason could be a lot of the immigrants got immigrated because of their specialty in math or science. That’s what constitute a lot of the Asian immigrant community, so it left people the impression of the stereotype. Last but not least, Asian culture has a tremendous respect for education, which makes them more likely to be better at school. It still exist today. In fact, it is harder for an Asian student to get into an Ivy League school, because there are too many qualified candidates.

Another archetype that got my attention is the lotus blossom. The lotus blossom is basically the submissive Asian wives, and after being abused and exploited by the husbands, they are betrayed by them, and finally sacrificed themselves. I find this archetype interesting cause it has both gender and ethnic factors in it which makes it more complicated in my opinion. I think the majority of Asian woman today cannot be represented by this archetype. Although, sexist still exists, feminism has come a long way. Woman today has more power than before, and less dependent on man emotionally and financially. They don’t need a knight to save their life. I think this archetype comes from when the westerners were just beginning to explore eastern countries and it’s their first contact with the eastern culture. It’s the product of that time period -the colonial period. I don’t think this type of character exist today.

I never thought I would be considered any kinds of stereotype. My first roommate asked me math questions. And these exercise was easy for any Chinese students, but because of bad teaching, it didn’t seem easy to her. Therefore, she thinks I am good at math. But I am just average at math, and I don’t even like it. My other roommate who is from korea helped her with her Wifi, and she said “ oh, your Asian are smart.” The harm of stereotype is that when a person has talent for example in art, but as a Asian, one was expected to be good at math and school and he believes it too because of the stereotype. He wasted his talent. It kills talents , kills diversity. People have different talent. and it’s the out or within ethnic groups . I believe stereotype does more harm than good.

Research Topics

Research topic 1: stress

We all experience stress. I want to know what happen to the body when the person is under stress. And is stress good for people’s health or not. Does stress affect people’s cognition and judgment, how. I want to research stress because when I am stressed, I panic and my brain just goes completely blank. I don’t perform well when I am under stress. By knowing stress better, I can deal with stress better.

I Know that when people are under stress , they don’t sleep well , loss hair. However, I also know that stress has advantages. if you recognize that stress can be beneficial, and you handle stress better. When people are under stress, you brain release some chemical that makes you more social.

I need to find studies on body under stress. And the cases of people who is under a lot stress and their health condition. Studies on the advantages of stress.

Stress can be harmful and beneficial at the same time. Somepeople think we should stay away from stressful environment, and someone suggest that we turn stress into an advantages. By research these issues, i can maybe learn to handle stress better.

People of all ages deal with stress, and lot of them don’t handle it well. I want them to know about stress , and maybe could find a way to turn stress into motivation or production. They should care about what I have to day because, I am in the same place as a lot of people, we don’t handle stress very well. By researching stress, I hope I could help myself and others.

 

Research topic 2: parenting

I want to know how does parenting affect children, and how important is parenting in people’s life. is there a right way of parenting? I think parenting is really important in developing children’s personality. It affect what kind of people they turn out to be.

What I know? I know that raising a kid is a combination of nature and nurture. There no saying which one is important. I also know that there is a certain gene, if a children have it, parenting won’t affect them that much. And if a Children don’t have it , then parenting palys very important role in their life. I also think there’s no one right way of parenting, every children is different, you need to treat you children based on them.

I need to found the study on the gene, and more study on parenting.

There’s the big difference between “Western” of parenting, and “eastern” way of parenting. There is a lot of controversies on the subject of “Chinese parenting”.

People of all ages. I want parents to know more about parenting , and find out what’s best for their children. And children to understand their parents, why they do what they did. People should listen to me because I am really interested and passionate about this matter.

i think “Saving ethiopia ‘s ” Church Forests””and “man discovers a new life- form at a south africa truck stop”.they are very similar in their writing style. they are both mainly narrtion with the persuasive techniques like logos, ethos , and pathos. However, i don’t think the subjects they are talking about have any connection.

Comparitive Analysis

The article saving Ethiopia’s “church Forest”, written by T Delene Beeland , mainly talks about the preservation of forests considered to be the holy place for all creature around the forest. And there are some difficulty during the process of protecting it. And Beeland uses logos, pathos and ethos to make people who leave in cities and other parts of the world aware and understand what’s is happening in Ethiopia.

She uses logos to appeal to people’s sense. For instance, she gives a very detailed description on the research of scientist Lowman. She uses direct quote from Lowman to maintain the accuracy of science. For example , she quotes that “we found a preponderance of dung beetles specific to human feces, so obviously to system is being degraded even without intent”. This is a direct quote from Lowland which keep the terms like preponderance and degraded, which left the impression that this article is careful with its scientific facts. Beeland ,by keeping the direct quote, guaranteed the scientificity of this article, which also make the article credible and more persuasive.

Although, she tries to keep the article scientific, this article ‘s narration or description takes more space than examples, which makes this article more interesting to read and easy to comprehend to readers who don’t have a scientific background. The whole article is basically following the scientist Lowlands research from the beginning. It began by helping another researcher, and ended up going there herself and visit there repeatedly. She even make the research bigger by including other scientists into the research. This make the reader feel like they have been on a journey with them. make the audience feel involved. Also Beeland tells the story of how the research are able to get young people from the region involved and by which they could plant the idea of conservation in their head. This brings hope to people , make them feel that this research is promising.

The other article “new- life form at a south African truck stop”, is more dependent on narrative or description. it tells the story of how a new order of animal came to be discovered. it describe in detail how the animal is discovered , and how they collect more specimen vividly, as if the readers are in the expedition with them. next , the author dunn mentions another scientist who has seen this insect before but have never suspect it could be another order. He tries to convey the message that scientific discovery might be right under your eyes , you might have take it for granted. You need observant eyes.

What the two article have in common is that most of the article is narrative essay companies by the use of logos.