Welcome to my World

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren’t vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[caro-a-s]

New “Why I Went Vegan” story messaged to me! Thanks to @zwxv for contributing!

I was on vacation with my parents and I’d been feeling very dirty and like everything I was eating was weighing me down, so I decided to eat vegetarian. Even though we were eating at restaurants and such I’m not picky so they usually had one option for me, at least. Within a day or two I wasn’t feeling any better and it was really easy (I like to challenge myself, but at this point it isn’t challenging anymore) so I decided to be vegan instead! It only took me a few days to phase out all animal products and I guess I was accidentally all right with my nutrition because I didn’t get sick or anything (it makes me so mad how people say you’ll get sick unless you pay super close attention or go super slowly just because that’s not true for everyone, but I digress). The first time I did it I was vegan for about 8 months and every month or so I’d cave in and buy a donut or something and eventually I was put on a medication that made my appetite triple, which made me crave sweets all the time and cry when none were available and gain a ton of weight and blah blah, and the first time I was vegan I’d not cooked much, just eaten sautéed veggies and peanut butter and refried beans, which are all great but I never had any sweets to eat. I had to stop being vegan because my appetite was so out of control (read: did not have to, chose to in one tiny moment) and a few months after I’d gotten it all relatively back in check I started feeling really unclean again as a result of my diet. It was a one-day thought process and after I forgot the first night and ate pizza, I have not looked back again. I intend to be vegan forever now that I’ve gotten really good at cooking a billion different things to satisfy literally any craving I could possibly have. It’s still a learning curve with different additives and people telling me things they are feeding me are fine when they are actually not (MY MOTHER IS AWFUL AT THIS BECAUSE SHE JUST ASSUMES) but I haven’t purposefully eaten anything non-vegan since I restarted. I again switched in a split second and didn’t get sick, and my vitamins and protein are fine, so I just get my blood checked every so often to be sure things are all right there. I’ve been making more of an effort to seek out information that’d make me want to stay vegan (I just did a 10-page essay on the environmental effects of factory farming for my English Comp 1011 class) so that I don’t lose my motivation. I feel like knowing I’m making a difference is way better than having food that is proven to be bad for me anyway.

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren’t vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[caro-a-s]

It’s not too late to tell your story!! Share with the world why YOU decided to go vegan!

[caro-a-s]

Shoutout to @coffeesfortheweak for contributing your “Why I Went Vegan” story! 

Just a reminder to anyone else who is interested that all you have to do is reblog this post with your story attached or you can also personally message me as well! 

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren’t vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[caro-a-s]

It’s not too late to tell your story!! Share with the world why YOU decided to go vegan!

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren’t vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[caro-a-s]

New “Why I Went Vegan” story messaged to me! Thanks to @zwxv for contributing!

I was on vacation with my parents and I'd been feeling very dirty and like everything I was eating was weighing me down, so I decided to eat vegetarian. Even though we were eating at restaurants and such I'm not picky so they usually had one option for me, at least. Within a day or two I wasn't feeling any better and it was really easy (I like to challenge myself, but at this point it isn't challenging anymore) so I decided to be vegan instead! It only took me a few days to phase out all animal products and I guess I was accidentally all right with my nutrition because I didn't get sick or anything (it makes me so mad how people say you'll get sick unless you pay super close attention or go super slowly just because that's not true for everyone, but I digress). The first time I did it I was vegan for about 8 months and every month or so I'd cave in and buy a donut or something and eventually I was put on a medication that made my appetite triple, which made me crave sweets all the time and cry when none were available and gain a ton of weight and blah blah, and the first time I was vegan I'd not cooked much, just eaten sautéed veggies and peanut butter and refried beans, which are all great but I never had any sweets to eat. I had to stop being vegan because my appetite was so out of control (read: did not have to, chose to in one tiny moment) and a few months after I'd gotten it all relatively back in check I started feeling really unclean again as a result of my diet. It was a one-day thought process and after I forgot the first night and ate pizza, I have not looked back again. I intend to be vegan forever now that I've gotten really good at cooking a billion different things to satisfy literally any craving I could possibly have. It's still a learning curve with different additives and people telling me things they are feeding me are fine when they are actually not (MY MOTHER IS AWFUL AT THIS BECAUSE SHE JUST ASSUMES) but I haven't purposefully eaten anything non-vegan since I restarted. I again switched in a split second and didn't get sick, and my vitamins and protein are fine, so I just get my blood checked every so often to be sure things are all right there. I've been making more of an effort to seek out information that'd make me want to stay vegan (I just did a 10-page essay on the environmental effects of factory farming for my English Comp 1011 class) so that I don't lose my motivation. I feel like knowing I'm making a difference is way better than having food that is proven to be bad for me anyway.

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren’t vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[caro-a-s]

Love that I’ve already had 2 people reach out to me and share their stories! If you’re interested don't be intimated, it can be just a few short sentences sharing your personal reasons behind going vegan

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren’t vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[laspalmass-blog1]

When I start telling why I went vegan, I have to say that I wish I had gone vegan sooner. Growing up I was a super picky person so I lived on pasta and chicken nuggets for a good amount of time. Fast track to senior year, I took an environmental science class and was exposed to the food industry of America, from the chemicals used to make our food to the increasing use of GMO seeds to the pollution of water to the factory farming used to “make” meat. After seeing all of that, I couldn’t keep believe the country that was supposed to care about my health didn’t. So I started looking at what I was eating more and this continued for about a year. Slowly I phased out meat, which was easy because I didn’t like red meat in the first place. I got to a point where I was pretty happy with how I was eating, with less chicken and a little more variety, but was still eating milk, eggs, chocolate, etc. Then a 15 second video on Instagram made me realize that all animal products came from the innocent animals who are abused, murdered, and tortured in the factory farm industry. 15 seconds of seeing the pain and terror in a cows eyes as its neck was slit open connected with something within me, telling me this isn’t alright. No animal should be subjected to the pain these animals deal with, simply because they were born a pig or cow instead of a dog. From then on, I knew it was going to take time but the road has been an exciting one. The amount of vegan options is growing everyday, my food options are larger than they have ever been, I get to eat nicecream any time of day, and I know I am saving an animal with every meal I eat, along with the planet. All in all, I became vegan because I can’t push out of my head the pain and suffering these animals feel simply because they were born into this f*ucked up situation. 

[caro-a-s]

Thank you @purusarthaa for sharing your story!  Anyone else interested, all you have to do is reblog this post with your own thoughts attached! 

[caro-a-s]

Attention Vegans of the Internet!

I have been a vegetarian since birth and my whole family is as well.  As someone in this position, I have been interested in going vegan for a few years now.  Currently I am studying the vegan lifestyle for a research project.  That being said, I am trying to round up as many “Why I Went Vegan” stories as I can!  It can be in paragraph form or just a few short sentences, however you would like to share your personal narrative.  All you have to do is repost this with your own comments attached so that I can view them.  I’m so interested to see why people all over have joined a movement that is becoming increasingly popular!

***If you aren’t comfortable posting your thoughts or aren't vegan and just think this is a neat idea, all I ask is that in order to have this reach as many people as possible, you just please ~repost and share~ Thank you!! 

[caro-a-s]

New Tumblr

Anyone following me for ENC 2135:

Go follow my new blog specifically for this class only:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/carolineserda 

[caro-a-s]

Ch. 14 Reflection

When I saw that the title of this chapter was "Heroes & Villains" I was immediately intrigued. In comic books we think of Superman and Batman as the good guys and characters like the Joker as the bad guy. There are also people like this in real life such as those in the military fighting others whom we think of as the villains. However, I liked how it was stated right in the beginning that no person is one-dimensional and can be specifically labeled as a hero or villain. The terrorists in other countries that we look upon as the ultimate villains of this time, do have supporters who see them as their heroes. The definition of a villain is "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime." I found Stuart Fischoff's article about villains in film very interesting to read. He points out that the villains who are portrayed as being so one-dimensional and substanceless are usually forgettable to people. It's those villains that remind us of reality and seem like a real possibility that we remember and are actually afraid of. What makes the villains interesting isn't what they are doing, but the reason behind it. Heroes are people who change the world for the better. We have public heroes that will go down in history such as Martin Luther King Jr. But there are also everyday heroes that are sometimes forgotten. Soldiers, firefighters, and even just the working class are all acting like heroes everyday, just by doing their best work and looking out for others. I found Joshua Freeman's editorial on working-class heroes so important because I had never thought of that group as being heroic before, and that's one of the things that he points out. However on September 11, 2001, those everyday citizens became heroes when they helped to rescue people from the wreckage of the buildings. I think this chapter as a whole was a really important read and it definitely opened my eyes to thinking about the differences in heroes and villains not just in stories but in real life too.

[baw15b-blog]

Chapter 5 Reflection

Coming into this chapter, the title “Choosing a Topic Through Basic Research” was a little intimidating. Fortunately, the authors broke it down into steps: Brainstorm, explore topic ideas, commit to a single topic, and form a working research question. This filled me with relief because at first, I didn’t have a good understanding of what a research proposal was. Breaking it down into four logical steps helped me understand how I am expected to start a successful research proposal.

After deciding on a topic and question comes the main part: writing the actual proposal. The chapter goes on to explain how to research your topic and what are good or bad sources. Once research is found, we need to organize our sources and keep a works cited page, which the chapter also explains how to do.

Overall, this chapter was very beneficial to me and helped me understand how to start a research proposal. This will be great knowledge to have when we start Paper 2.

[caro-a-s]

This chapter will most definitely be helpful when we start Project 2 and I agree with you as well that when the author broke the research proposal down into 4 steps it helped clear up a lot of confusion.  

[lcm14c-blog]

Ch 5 Reflection

I found Chapter 5 to be realistically useful. I really appreciated the part on how to choose a topic. For me, it’s always so difficult to decide on something to write on because my brain is going in all different directions sometimes. Doing research, talking to people, making a list, and free-writing are all great ideas that I’ve never considered before when trying to find a topic. I usually just sit on my floor and brainstorm until I figure something out, which hasn’t always worked well. I found it interesting how the book said to focus on sources for non-experts first before researching specialized sources. This is important because at first you might not completely understand the topic and may need simple information to begin with. 

The book also outlines that it is important to distinguish the facts so that you can use those facts in your own writing, with proper citation of course. The Bedford Book also talks about how, as a writer, one must consider conflicting views and who will disagree with your topic. This relates back to the rhetorical concept of “audience”. If you are aware of your audience and you don’t want to be in direct confrontation with your audience, then you probably shouldn’t write about something that would anger them. Lastly, another thing that really stuck with me from the chapter is the question of “Do you like your topic enough to stick with it?” This is important to me because sometimes after writing a few pages of a paper that I though I was interested in, I’ll lose all interest and get stuck. It’s very important to research something that you are genuinely interested in and will want to write about.

[caro-a-s]

I also typically find it difficult to focus on what I want to write about and definitely agree that this chapter gave a lot of helpful steps to easily pick a research topic.  

[caro-a-s]

Ch. 5 Reflection

Chapter 5 is all about picking your research topic and creating a proposal for it.  I think that this was the perfect chapter to get us started for our next project.  Since my class majority decided to vote that we switch to writing a research paper about a hot topic (still a little bitter about that), I was struggling to figure out how exactly to approach this new idea.  Since my main concern for Project 2 is finding a topic that I feel I can extensively write about, I appreciated the first section which was all about using research to choose your topic.  The best way to start out is to just brainstorm and I learned a few ways to do that such as reading some articles about topics online, talking to others and receiving their input, making lists, and making a mind map.  Once you identify a general topic, the next step would be to explore that idea through some research to find a more specific section of the topic to focus on.  While doing this, some good things to pay attention to while researching include words and facts, opinions, your own perspective, and conflicting views.  After doing this, it’s time to commit to that specific topic and figure out what interests you most about it.  Next, form a research question and figure out how to refine that question as you proceed to make it even more specific.  A good research question cannot be answered by just a yes or no, uses specific terms, can be resolved with the time and resources that you have, and is one that you are really interested in finding the solution to.  The next section was about research paper proposals and was a continuation of the Diabetes example from before.  I learned that a good research proposal helps you when organizing your project, shows that you are clearly focused on your research, demonstrates that you have started with some basic research, gives reasons why you chose this topic, and shows that you are ready for any challenges that come your way.  The last section was about organizing sources and that was a really important read.  It is so necessary for us students to make sure that we are correctly documenting our sources and using the MLA format because we will get in a lot of trouble if any of that is wrong.  An annotated bibliography is something that I haven’t encountered in a few years so learning a little bit more about that was also very helpful.  Overall, I feel that chapter 5 came at the perfect time and really helped to make me feel less anxious about this upcoming project.  It gave me a lot to think about and I feel much more prepared.

[ashley2135-blog]

Chapter 4- Reflection

As I already knew, persuasion is everywhere. This chapter strongly reinforced this concept in my mind. Just about everywhere you go, persuasive writing is in your face. From newspaper editorials, to short advertisements on billboards, someone is always trying to convince you to do something or believe in something. Most success in persuasion comes from the use of rhetorical appeals- ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is successful because people are more likely to take advice from an expert. The chapter provides the example that Stephen King, a respected author, had instant credibility when writing about horror films. All persuasive writings have things in common- the most obvious being their goal. The common goal is to change the minds of the readers/viewers. In doing so, they all make a blunt statement and have an effect on the audiences values and emotions. One thing that persuasion plays a huge role in is advertising. All areas of the advertisement, from design to word choice are carefully thought out and crafted to persuade the viewer. Personally, I believe that persuasive genres are the most crucial in today’s society. Everything is about marketing, and if you are able to market your idea or product, you can become successful. It is important to learn how to persuade others in order to benefit yourself. I was able to really appreciate this chapter because I really do understand the value of persuasion.

[caro-a-s]

It is so true how you said that everything is about marketing.  Especially in this day and age, if a product has a great advertising team then it is likely to be very successful.  

[melkeil21-blog]

Blog 5: Persuasive Genres

“Americans see between three thousand and five thousand ads per day.” Wow!!!! At first I didn’t believe that but thinking about it more I realized we are surrounded by ads on phones, computers, TV, radio, billboards all day and half the time don’t even realize that we are looking at them.

The purpose of persuasive genres is to convince readers of something. To do this the author needs to lay out the idea, anticipate objections, and then support his/her own argument with relevant information.

All three rhetorical appeals play an important role. As the author you need ethos to show you are an expert on the subject, you need logos to provide a logical chain of reasoning to convince your readers and you need pathos so you can connect with your audience on an emotional level. Again, many different types and modes can be used with this kind of writing.

There are two main elements that all persuasive genres have in common. The first one is making an explicit argument/position statement and the second one is tapping into the audiences’ values and emotions. It is important to hold the reader’s attention throughout the whole text and to use good sources to develop credibility.

I like reading though the examples of advertisements, editorials& opinion pieces, researched arguments. Author’s/ Artist’s statements and collages/visual arguments because it helps me see how to apply all that was stated at the beginning of the chapter. I think the checklists provided are really helpful to remember everything that needs to be considered and included when writing a persuasive text.  

[caro-a-s]

I agree with you, I find it helpful going over the examples at the end of the chapter.  I also understand what you mean about the checklists, they really help to explain all of the important parts of the chapter in a really quick manner.  

[caro-a-s]

Ch. 4 Reflection

 Although to my dismay, this chapter was just as long the last one, it was actually my favorite read so far.  Advertisements are such a common topic of interest to me, of course because of my public relations major, but also because I find it fascinating the way that advertisers target a specific group and individualize the message particularly for that group.  I also found it quite interesting how the textbook pointed out that we sometimes endorse and advertise things, such a good movie, to our friends without even realizing it.  Most persuasive communication has two elements in common, it makes a specific argument, and it appeals to the audience’s values and emotions.  

I feel that the use of rhetorical analyzation is most helpful in the advertising business because the whole point is to target the audience and create a composition, whether it’s a billboard, commercial on TV, or ad in a magazine, to promote something to that audience.  Ethos, pathos, and logos are, of course, the best tools to use in persuasive genres.  As an author, it is crucial to establish trustworthiness and have credibility so that when others hear what you are saying they will believe you.  Logos is extremely important when you are arguing for anything because when talking facts, you are trying to sell your reasoning to persuade the other person into feeling the same way.  That is crucial when trying to advertise something because if the audience doesn’t follow your reasoning then the message is lost.  The use of pathos can also come in handy when you need to connect with your audience.  If you share something about yourself and find some common ground, the audience is more likely to feel that if you like something then they would probably like it too.  

Looking through the examples of advertisements, editorials/opinion pieces, researched arguments, and collages/visual arguments in the book is such a great way to really tie in everything the chapter was about.  My favorite section was the collages/visual arguments because I think our generation is really attracted to advertisements that come in that form.  The checklist at the end of the chapter is also a helpful read because it basically wraps up the chapter in a concise form and hits the most important parts.

[tesswp-deactivated20170114]

Chapter 3

Turns out sources are very important for our writing, and we really need to be wary of the sources we decide to use.

               I love the first example the book gives us of a not so reliable source, the crazy guys rambling on about the end of the world.  Reliable sources will have ethos and logos, like Homeland Security.

               The author’s opinion can also get in the way of being reliable. Like right now, everything I’m writing is my opinion, so you shouldn’t really trust this little summary and treat it as your reading. My opinion is all over this, read the passage for yourself!

               I think it’s crazy that something as simple as the nutrition facts has bias.

               The book asks “why share information” and I say it’s because people want, need and request the information, simple as that. The book uses the example of furniture instructions, except they say they share information to reassure those building the chair are reassured, but they also write it because it was needed.

               When writing to inform it is very important to keep your audience in mind as you are writing. And to get those audiences interested in the story, you need to keep on using ethos, logos and pathos, but pathos isn’t really that important when it comes to a set of instructions.

               Composing to inform doesn’t have to just be writing, it can also be illustrations. The books example of tying of tie is perfect, reading about how to do that would get very confusing, an illustration is all you really need to see.

              I can’t believe this textbook used Wikipedia as a source.  

[caro-a-s]

Funny how you pointed out that the textbook used Wikipedia as a source, I definitely agree with you that we all have to be cautious of the sources that we use and we also have to make sure that we are citing them as well.

[caro-a-s]

Ch. 3 Reflection

Information is truly everywhere. However, as the textbook points out, we can’t always trust all of the information that we receive. Finding and reporting the sources of what you are reading and writing is not only important, but sometimes essential in the cases such as college courses where plagiarizing has very serious consequences. The book points out an excellent thought about how knowing the author of a source can be useful because no writer can ever be truly objective. For example, certain news stations and articles are known to often support one political party more than another. Even though two people could be reporting the same story, their views will become apparent by the way they explain certain facts. This calls into question the ethos, or credibility, of those sources. There are many different types of informative writing, such as a set of instructions or an informational brochure. Knowing your audience is necessary when writing to inform as proven in the NPR Explainer feature. The audience listening to this feature most likely was not made up of nuclear experts and so the writers were aware of this and able to present the complex system in a clear and easy to understand way. Using ethos, the way that the author is perceived by the audience, is important when writing to inform because reliable sources are what prove to the audience that what they are reading is credible. Logos is the logic of the author and is used to present things in a way that would be a logical manner to the audience. Pathos is the author using the composition to appeal to the reader's emotions. The key elements of informative writing that make up this genre are accuracy and clarity. Encyclopedia entries, charts and infographics, news articles, and peer-reviewed journal articles are all examples of this informative writing. Even though chapter three was the longest reading we have had so far, at the end I realized the importance of reading and learning about this informative type of writing. Learning the rhetorical styles and genre conventions was interesting to me because I realize the value of knowing this information for not only my college years, but for my future profession as well.