Thursday, February 3, 2011

For Monday: Practicing for the CATW and Open Thread

For Monday, choose one (or more) essays from the term to either revise or complete as an essay if you haven't yet done so. Leave them in the comments. If you cut and paste from a word document, include a word count. Look at each other's work, leave a comment and take a look at my comments.

You can also add any questions or concerns about Monday's test, and post make-up work on the posts below.

Have a great weekend and good luck on Monday!!!!

9 comments:

  1. The picture perfect family is rapidly changing. The article “Men Who Clean House are Happy” by Tracy Clark-Flory shows that even though families are changing and men are willing to share responsibilities with their partners; the employers are ignoring this fact. This affects the couples’ happiness. I think that this might be true in some cases, but it cannot apply to all couples.
    The meaning of happiness can differ from one person to the other. Clark-Flory states that based on a British survey of 1,000 dads who did more housework and whose wives were working were happier. Since it’s a preliminary result we can’t conclude that that’s why those men are happy. She even gives her own opinion and says” maybe happier men are more likely to split the housework”. So those men could’ve chosen to do part of the housework because they are happy to do so. It is not a fact that those men became happier just by doing more housework. Sometimes when I watch “That 70’s Show” where the husband is working and the wife was staying home and taking care of his needs, i saw that the couple was happy. Then the wife decided to get a job and things dramatically changed and they were arguing more. This survey might be true in England but that does not mean that couples all over the world would have the same result.
    Couples’ happiness does not rely on men doing more housework. I come from a modern Islamic country. We have couples that both work and share all responsibilities, and we also have couples where the husband works and the wife stays home and takes care of the housework. Since I can remember my father was the one who worked and my mother took care of my siblings and I and the house. I never saw it as a problem. My father and my mother felt needed. My mother would prepare my dad’s launch and clothes for work and she was happy being the nurturing one in the family. My father favorite times were when he would buy my mom something she wanted, like the latest kitchen aid bread maker, a watch the she saw on a magazine and liked or flowers just to show how much he appreciated her. They both had different responsibilities but it had some kind of balance and made them happy. This does not mean that every couple would be happy if the wife stays home. It all depends on the couples needs to make them happy.
    As a married women myself, I can’t say that working makes me happier or if my husband does more housework around the house we could have a happier marriage. It differs from one couple to the other to find what makes their relationship work and what makes them happy. Since employers ignore work life policies, couples who want to have that option need to demand it. If there’s nothing done, it will remain the same. Just like any other issue in life, if it doesn’t have a voice.

    -512 words

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  2. Domenica Chum
    ENG099
    01-04-2011


    According to the passage “ Men who clean house are more happier” written by Tracy Clark the idea of the perfect family is changing. Its shows that nowadays more mans are getting more responsibilities in home as much as the women. The author gives us interesting examples of how mans had assumed this roles through the years in order to keep a balance and an equally life between work and home duties.
    What’s more according to the result from a British studies explain that “working dads shows that men who take on more housework and have a wife who puts in a similar number of hours in the workplace as they do are generally happier”, this examples shows that this is happening a lot with young couples in our society, witch are part of this new generation where the woman and man have to work in order to support the home, the same thing happen with housework both have to help and in some way it make man more happier. One example of this is my brother in law. My sister and him got married three years ago they as a young couple both work, they are always busy between work and housework therefore when my sister is working, and my brother in law has his day off he takes totally responsibly of the house duties the same happen when he is working and my sister stay at home. This is something that is happening more often. We are living in a society where both man a woman have to help each order.
    Indeed this is a good change because this is making the family more stronger the teamwork is very important, knows how to help and handled a situation always will be good for the family. Although there is also something that this change may affect and it would be the job of both man a woman. Employees think that when a woman has a baby or start a family her main focus is not just in her work but also in her family, therefore she would not fill all the speciation that her employees want to her. But on the other hand employees are always satisfy with man because they still think that mans are those that going to work, work hard in order to bring the money home. For instance some weeks ago I read an article in where woman were protest about this situation in some jobs employees prefer mans and this in someway is a kind of discrimination something that should not happen in this days because we are equal we both woman and man should have the same right and this society have to stop thinking that the woman is the one that has to stay at home while the man works, it can change if only we want to change it.
    In the end man are acquiring this roles they want to be part of the home so much as the woman want to be part of a job. We are all equal and the society is showing it with facts. I think that a family is happy when they found the perfect balance of everything when they share of good and bad experiences when they help and care of each other, this is a family not just follow by rules. In the end it’s a good changed that we have seen slowly to come to the society something that shows that man also can lead successfully a home as much as the woman.

    597 words

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  3. Hind - Great development and great example of how you can respond to a text by not exactly disagreeing but showing the limitations of the argument. Your last sentence is a little confusion. Think about how you would rework it.

    Dominica - Good development - I like how you move from the example in your family to the next body paragraph on a somewhat different topic with a great transition. Keep looking at word form, especially how you use plurals and possessives - notice when you want to use "man," "men," "man's" or "men's" Also be *sure* you quote the title - and anything else you quote - exactly and correctly.

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  4. Everybody believes on one person or thing. Some people that don’t support any religious belief at least believe in themselves. In any case people like to defend their thoughts and not be told that are incorrect. In the article “I know the truth, so don’t bother me with facts” Jeffrey Kluger explains that people stick to their beliefs even when they are tempted by logical explanations or statistics. I agree with the author because the majority of people are close minded to learn that there might be something else besides their theories, however facts “mean more than fantasy” like Kluger mentions.
    Certain techniques are used to manipulate people’s beliefs. For instance “insinuating pictures or inflammatory quotes” as the author cites, are used in order to create doubt in people’s beliefs. Although this is a good try that has been used into negative political advertisements, studies have shown than less than a third of the people change their mind from their position. A good example is TV commercials. Once people have their reasons to belief that a specific product is useless, no matter how much ads this may have, they would not buy it. My grandmother used to belief in any kind of miraculous green tea offer on TV that promised to make you lose weight without dieting or exercising. After spending her money unsuccessfully and realizing that it was a scam, she doesn’t believe in miraculous dieting products at all.
    People stick to their beliefs even tighter when data is used. There is no clear identified reason to support why people react by being close minded if there are numbers involved. One hypothesis is just people’s ego. Nobody likes being told that your idea of a concept is not truth and doesn’t have a fundament being erroneous. Some researchers are investigating the relationship that our brain has to do relate with this kind of behavior.
    The truth is relative and it depends on how you see it. Nobody is aware of the complete facts or information that an investigation about any kind of matter would entail. Certainly every single person has their own concepts to stick to and defend, but when studies and facts are explain the more logical thing to do is take the take to analyze that we may we wrong.

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  5. Dan Dan Lin
    Essay R

    Spending more time on studying could cause the body exhausted, but spending time on some activities could help body to relax. In the article “Class Action” the writer Sebha Ali argues that schools extend school hours on extracurricular. I think extend school hours could help students keep interesting in school and they should spend extended hours correctly for both students and teachers.

    Extend the school hours could help students keep in interesting in school but not spending extra hours on academics. I agree with writer’s argument because schools should offer more programs such as music, sports, languages, and others. “kids are drilled in math and reading all day.” In addition, attending clubs could help them to improve their creativity and leadership skills.

    On the other hand, It also could make teachers burnout if they didn’t spend the time rightly. Because teachers do not only work at school that they have to work at home also. They need to prepare the lessons and classworks for students, and grade the homeworks from students. Most of the teachers have hundreds of students to teach which means they have hundreds of students to work on. According to the article it shows that more then half of educators quit in first five years. If they extended the school hours, then the rate might be increase.

    When I was in high school I always left school at five O’Clock unlike others left at 3 O’Clock. It is because I attended extra tutoring and a club. I spent two days on tutoring which helped me improve my grades and other two days on club. I have a friend who attended chess club said “It is really good that could help him to use his brain and relax.” It only had one day a week, so the teacher did not have to spend so much time on it.

    It is really significant if students could spend more time on school for the clubs or other activities to keep their interest in learning and improve their skills.

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  6. Men who clean house are happier written by Tracy Clark indicates to show the conflicts between everyday chores and couples. Most of the time media tends to create a image for men to be dominant, strong and mascular. T.V sitcoms make men appear to be masculine without any form of cleaning or doing what a women does. If a Men cleans it makes them look feminie and they are made fun off. Women are often seen as Housewives and everyday mothers. A british survey of 1,000 working dads demostrates the possibility of Men being more happy helping out around the house and sharing similar hours in the workplace with their wife. The idea of the workplace and house chores is changing over time also time spend on family. A couples idea is to split house chores and business. About 82% say they would like more family time. A women and a men sharing is different in many cultures. Even though men are happier in the U.K everyone else has differnt beliefs. From personal experience having a mother who works part time and still manages to clean the house is alot of pressure for a women to take on. Even if my mom and dad split up chores their is still a constant pressure for any women to not have to feel less idependent and seen as an ideal housewife. This example can be true but not always. Men can easily be happy from other things not necesserly cleaning but its a good way to start changing the way Men and women are perceived in the house and workplace.

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  7. Dan Dan Lin
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41371038/ns/us_news-life
    Discern:view/understand(it was difficult to discern)

    In this article the author states that the population of illegal immigrations are keep increasing even the US economic is in recession. In the 2000 there are about 8.4 millions population even after the sept 11 2001 the number remained unchanged. In the 2007 the population reached 12 millions. Due to our laws and the president Obama's policy that the illegal immigrants would keep increasing.

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  8. Johanna - Great use of the ad and your aunt as a specific example. In your third paragraph, be sure to refer back to the text to show where the information comes from.

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  9. Dan Dan - Good development. Be sure to introduce your quotations and link them to the rest of your paragraph.

    Michelle - Good start - be sure to put the title in quotation marks and refer back to it when using evidence that comes from it and think about how to develop further and divide into paragraphs.

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