Final Reflection

English 103 focuses on the theme Culture, Identity, and Society. We finished assignments on visual rhetoric, including the ideas of logos, pathos, and ethos, and assignments that focused on our ability to use technology. We incorporated rhetoric into each assignment throughout the semester, and used rhetoric as a main tool of influence and argumentation to either persuade or move our audience to our point of view.
In the first assignment on advertisements, we focused our attention on how well an advertisement accomplished bringing in clientele for its business and how rhetoric was displayed in pictures, words, and setting. In our second assignment, we conducted research on important issues in our society today, and tied together background information of the issue and personal ideas about how our culture should react to the issue. In our third assignment, we used rhetorical strategies to develop an argument about either problems in our immediate society or in our broad culture today. We used technology, including Windows MovieMaker and digital cameras, to capture videos and pictures that would generate and support our argument.
Each assignment incorporated rhetorical ideas to provide basis for argument, but also included influences from culture, our own personal identities, and society. English 103 has taught us to use rhetoric to form our ideas over an argument and use them to define our place in society today.

p. 210-Group Discussion

1. Our presentation will consist of our movie and pictures with oral speech.
2. Our audience is the class, students who also have eaten at the dining halls and understand everything we're talking about in the videos. That common background will help our audience relate to our purpose and views. Our audience deals with dining hall food everyday and will probably agree with us completely.
3. Our purpose is to show how bad the dining hall food is and to convince enough people to try to change what is offered in dining halls.
4. Our presentation is considered deliberative or legislative discourse. It is designed to argue a position.
5. We want to come across as concerned and friendly to our audience. I want to be seen as an equal that happens to be doing something about a common problem.
6. We want to use an informative and concerned tone in this paper.
7. We'll use quotes and data from research and photographs and videos in a movie/photo essay.

p. 219

Format for our presentation:
Our presentation will sort of be a mix between a photo essay, with pictures and written comments about the pictures, and a movie, with videos and interviews with people around campus.
Materials used for our presentation:
Digital camera with video, Windows Movie Maker
Potential outline:
-What foods could be better
-What students want to replace the current dining hall foods
-What dining hall faculty think is available to replace dining hall food
-What are some healthier choices available

p. 174 At a Glance-Draft Revision

When looking at my first draft after a long break, I noticed that I often assumed the reader already had background knowledge on my topic, which led me to leave out important definitions and statements that would help the reader understand my argument. I also noticed that I would give evidence to support my argument but not say where the evidence came from or elaborate on how the evidence backed up each point of my argument.
In the middle of my paper, where I defined different types of stem cells, I need to use sections to clearly separate the differences in each type of stem cell. I also need to improve my transitions within each paragraph of my paper, and include an image.
Revising my paper would help the paper flow better and make it easier for the reader to understand each specific point of my argument. All of my revisions will help connect every idea in my paper.

Christopher McKee
Research Paper Outline
March 3, 2009
Stem Cells in Treatment of Parkinson's Disease
Introduction:

1. Give my own personal experience growing up watching my father's Parkinson's disease progress, limiting his ability to work and enjoy many activities that were everyday life.
2. Give background information on stem cells and Parkinson's disease.
3. Talk about how the idea of treatment using stem cells gives not only my dad, but my entire family, hope for finding a cure for this disease.
4. Thesis: Stem cells could provide a potential cure for Parkinson's disease in a short amount of time, and with new noncontroversial forms of stem cells, we should waste no time in research and the pursuit of a better quality of life for Parkinson's patients.

1. First Body Paragraph: Parkinson's Disease

• Causes
• Symptoms
• Current treatments
• Use interview with my dad and the book by Evelyn B. Kelly

2. Second Body Paragraph: Stem Cells

• Define what stem cells are and where they are found
• Differentiate between embronic and adult stem cells, and how the use of adult, or somatic, stem cells would eliminate the controversy of stem cells.
• Discuss the past research developments that placed stem cells as a top priority for medical treatment.

3. Third Body Paragraph: Somatic Stem Cells in Treating Parkinson's Disease

• Embryonic stem cells have proved fairly successful in treating similar diseases to Parkinson's disease in mice.
• Somatic stem cells can be researched and developed to be just as useful as embryonic stem cells.
• Discuss how transplantation of stem cells into the brain can reproduce lost neurons that produce dopamine.

4. Conclusion:

• Somatic stem cells should be researched further in order to produce an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease.
• Stem cell therapy could provide the cure for Parkinson's disease.
  

Plagiarism

Plagiarism in any form can not only damage a student's grade and reputation, but can also reflect badly on the original author of the work. Students who are caught plagiarizing are viewed as slackers and cheaters who will do anything to get a good grade for the lack of work. Here at Clemson, the idea of a good grade gets knocked out immediately upon the decision to copy someone's work because of the anti-plagiarism policy, and the sudden consequences of copying another person's work can be a failed assignment, course, or expulsion from Clemson University all together. The student who is caught copying another work automatically brings a negative reputation to his or her name and negates whatever is claimed original in the assignment. Plagiarism also damages the original author's work, leading people to associate the negative work of the cheater with the authentic work of the author. Plagiarism, or any other form of copying another person's work and claiming it as one's own, is wrong and should not be accepted anywhere for any assignment.

Log - February 16

I found another book title Stem Cell Now, by Christopher Thomas Scott, which mentions the use of stem cells for Parkinson's Disease on page 3 and talks about the development of the nervous system on page 31 and discuss how neural stem cells work on the following pages, mentioning Parkinson's and other diseases. Starting on page 78, there is a section titled, "Can Embryonic Stem Cells Cure Parkinson's Disease?" My paper is on somatic stem cells curing Parkinson's Disease, but this section might have useful information relevant to my topic.

Log - February 13

I found the book Cell of Cells on the fifth floor of the library, but I did not find any information that I thought would be helpful for this paper. I found a book, Stem Cell Transplantation by Ho, Hoffman, and Zanjani, which talked about stem cells producing neural cells on page 80. It even mentions the SC derived neurons containing dopaminergic pathway, which involves dopamine, the chemical Parkinson's patients lack. Another book, Chemical and Functional Genomic Approaches to Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine edited by Sheng Ding, talks about neural stem cells on page 38. Another book, Stem Cells by Evelyn B. Kelly, talks about Parkinson's Disease and the hope of stem cells on page 49. These books could possibly have a lot more information in following pages, but I haven't looked yet.

Research Log

I found an speech given by a Parkinson's patient to an audience to convince them of the benefits of using adult somatic stem cells to treat the disease. He had his own brain tissue removed, and his own stem cells were used to treat his condition. His symptoms improved dramatically and he was able to live with a better quality of life.
http://www.leaderu.com/science/stemcelltestimony_turner.html
I found a picture showing how stem cells can be used to develop any form of tissue that needs more development or treatment. I used the key words "somatic stem cells" in images.
I found a book in Cooper Library by searching the topic Stem Cells--Transplantation. The book's name is Cell of Cells: the global race to capture and control the stem cell, by Cynthia Fox.
Looking on PubMed, I looked in PMC and typed in Somatic Stem Cells, and I found an article titled "Comparative transcriptome analysis of embryonic and adult stem cells with extended and limited differentiation capacity."

Research Log Template

For keeping track of sources and the information I use from them, I will use the following guidelines to record that information.
What's the title of the source? When did I find the source, and how did I find it? Did I use a computer, or a reference desk in the library?
If I did use a computer, what search terms helped me find the source? Were there search terms that led me to the source? Which terms seemed to have the most available information?
Write down some quotes from the source, and summarize some of the main points of the source in order to remember what the source can be used for.

Free Write

Parkinson's Disease affects millions of people all over the world, from Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox to a neighbor down the street and my dad. Even with the enormous amount of medicines and surgeries these patients could take to slightly relieve the symptoms, no cure has yet been found. As anyone suffering with a disease or condition would tell you, a possible cure is an idea that immediately gives hope and excitement for a better life. Stem cells can regrow neurons in the brain that cause the disease, and in a short amount of time. Stem cells could provide a potential cure for Parkinson's Disease in a short amount of time, and with new noncontroversial forms of stem cells, we should waste no time in research and the pursuit of a better quality of life for Parkinson's patients.
Since I have not looked into this topic much, my initial source will be Wikipedia. I want to gather general information and be able to pursue other sources. I could also look at medical journals, such as the monthly newsletter that my dad gets concerning developments for Parkinson's disease, or maybe some websites that I've used for biology classes, such as PubMed or other scholarly journals.
Major obstacles that I will probably face writing this paper will be trying to focus on convincing people that stem cells provide a potential cure for Parkinson's Disease, and so they should be used without hesitation. I could possibly get sidetracked in an argument over embryonic stem cells or somatic stem cells, and I could also get caught up in writing an informative paper on Parkinson's Disease.

Page 35 Questions

My father was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, which involved my entire family, and it happened when I was 12 years old. The issue under discussion is whether or not it is ethical to use stem cells to find a cure for the disease. I want to use stem cells as the pathway for finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease, and potentially the only way. One interpretation says stem cells are good for finding cures for diseases, but the other interpretation says stem cells are unethical because of killing fetuses.
My dad being affected by the disease has caused me to be very involved with wanting a cure. His quality of life has been reduced over the past few years. Finding a cure for the disease is great, but killing a baby is not. People have mixed emotions over abortions, so they will probably have mixed emotions over stem cells. Hopefully stem cells found in the cheek would work, so as to go around the abortion controversy. We should find if cheek stem cells work for finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease, and we should say that a certain amount of research should be done at all times to find a cure.

Page 27 Questions

A current issue that matters to my family is the research and development of medicine, or maybe even the cure, for Parkinson's disease. My dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's about 10 years ago, and since then the idea of better medicine appeals greatly to my family, we want more research to be done on the cure. The audience I'm talking to already knows about certain diseases, such as cancer or AIDS, so they should already know how research is done to find treatment for diseases. This topic has so many topics within one topic that I should not have any problem writing a complex paper for this assignment.

Research Topic

When I typed in my research topic into Google, the first link I was given was a website for a health site explaining how stem cells are the best long term treatment for Parkinson's Disease. The next link was for Wikipedia, which gave general information on the disease and also on stem cells. As I looked over the page, I also noticed other links for types of stem cells, which might bypass the controversy over stem cells and also maybe give a type of stem cell that would work best for finding a cure. Maybe stem cells from the cheek would be best for curing Parkinson's Disease, or maybe stem cells from another part of the body.

Research Paper Topic

My research paper topic is how stem cells could provide Parkinson's Disease patients with a cure. Embryonic stem cells are controversial, but we could use other forms of stem cells.
1. Yes I am interested in the topic. I am interested and want to convince people to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease.
2. Yes I can argue a position. With enough factual evidence and statistics on how easily stem cells could provide a cure, I can provide a strong argument in favor of stem cells.
3. I think there will be plenty of articles on how stem cells can affect research for a cure for Parkinson's disease.
4. I am a biology major, so anatomy and the workings of the human body are right in my line of study. I know enough to put medical articles into basic terms in my paper.

Superbowl Commercials

Out of all the commercials during the Super Bowl, my favorite was the Doritos commercial involving a guy that changed things around him to suite his wants, but once he ran out of Doritos he got hit by a truck. Not only did I think the ad was very funny, appealing to pathos, but also gave the audience a sense of urgency to acquire a bag of Doritos. The way the chips allowed the guy to have power over his surroundings makes the viewer feel like the chips will help solve any problem, and a lack of Doritos will ultimately have horrible outcomes, once again appealing to pathos. Ethos does not really play a major role in the commercial because there is no source besides the voice in the background, but logos does cause the audience to evaluate whether the events of the commercial are possible. Pathos weighs the most and has the most influence, not only because of the humor, but also because it makes the audience feel a necessity to buy Doritos.

Peer Reviews

Today I read Brad Miller's paper and Katie Sharpe's paper. Brad's paper showed how the influence of Muhammad Ali can really push a company's products to success because of how the audience views his status as the greats athlete of all time. He told me that I need to have a title in my own paper.
Reading Katie's paper about children watching too much of the wrong things on TV showed me how easily children are influenced and how an inappropriate show might emotionally scar a child for life. Parents need to monitor their children and make sure they do not watch too much TV. She told me I need to have a conclusion with a closing sentence.

Reflection

Reading Brad Miller's paper, I really enjoyed the presentation of an advertisement with Muhammad Ali. He was the greatest ever, and I thought the ad really used his image well to promote Adidas. Brad used a very well organized argument and made me feel connected to the ad somehow.
Katie Sharpe convinced me that too much TV is an awful thing. Now I am scared to even look at the TV, let alone keep a little child from watching too. Very good papers that convinced me completely.

Thesis Statement for Visual Rhetoric

The Chick-fil-a ad has a lighthearted appeal to every audience with the image of the cow dressing up as a chicken to promote the restaurant, while also pushing the thought of a desperate cow attempting anything to keep us from eating beef.

Chick-fil-a Ad

The visual I chose to use for my first major assignment is a Chick-fil-a billboard, showing a cow with a chicken head writing the words, "U wanna peece of me?" This ad appeals to the pathetic aspect of humor, making us want to eat chicken for the cow's sake, the basis for most of Chick-fil-a ads. This billboard also incorporates the logos ethos appeal because we almost question the ethical dimensions of a cow telling us not to eat beef, but some other animal. Realizing that we will eat chicken anyway, and some beef, the ads are humorous and catchy.

Photo Bio

My name is Christopher McKee, and I was born and raised in Florence, South Carolina. I grew up idolizing my dad and my big brother, John-David, who taught me to play many sports, my favorites being tennis, baseball, football, and golf. I come from a very close-knit family where everyone knows everything about everyone from uncles to fifth cousins, and they have always been my support and foundation that pushed me to where I am now.
My parents brought me up in a Southern Baptist Church, and the family I have there has also been influential in my development and growth as a child and teenager. My relationship with God strengthens me everyday and allows me to handle difficult situations that I would not be able to without Him.
I started to consider Clemson as a college when my brother came here, and since I was only in the seventh grade, I thought very highly of this university. I worked through high school to be able to come here, and now that I achieved that goal, I catch myself missing just how special this place is.
I want to finish my education here at Clemson and then move on to the MUSC Dental School in Charleston, where my dad went to dental school. That's my new goal, and I'm putting all of my effort into getting there.

Visual Rhetoric

On page 46 in our Envision textbook, there is an add for a Ford Escape Hybrid. The add shows the vehicle in the background surrounded by wilderness, green trees, and open air, while Kermit the Frog is in the foreground saying, "I guess it is easy being green." The term "green" refers to minimal energy consumption and harm to the environment, and the fuel-efficient 36 mpg rate is the tie to the green Kermit the Frog and the nature scene around the car. The images around the car automatically present an atmosphere of a nature friendly and gas-saving car.

Rhetoric

This morning, when I woke up, I turned on the television to try to get started and open my eyes. I watched a car commercial, and then watched it again right after part of another commercial. The car lot was based in Easley, and the guys were yelling trying to catch the audience's attention. I thought the commercial was kind of funny because of the salesman's desperate attempt to persuade the audience to buy their cars.
Walking out of my room, I saw a poster advertising FCA on Thursday nights, and another advertising for a research project on different diseases here at Clemson. The posters didn't have really any special texts or anything besides just stating the meet times and what the meetings would be about.