Blog 17

1- a) Amount of oil utilized on SUV with HEMI engine. Statistics and studies which prove that hybrid cars are more helpful for the world save oil.
b) The world needs to save oil.
c) Provide information about the oil reserves, how it has been utilized, and the amount that still left.
d) Oil can be saved from other sources that save more oil than a simple car. Oil is not essential for life. It can be substituted for other things.

2- a) Statistics
b) There is a big amount of illegitimacy among unwed mothers.
c) Single mothers are taking advantage of the welfare system.
d) Unwed and single mother are mother in the same way. Why should the government pay only for one of them and discriminate the other?

Blog 16

Why the consume of drugs is prohibited in the U.S.?

Why the drinking age is 21 years while the driving and vote age are not so high in the U.S.?

Why americans even being upsat with the president (spending so much money in war) voted on the re-election of Bush?

Why FIU, being an International Univesity, makes so difficult to Florida non-residents to get in here?

Why do only Miami Clubs closes at 5a.m. and clubs in other parts of the state closes at 2a.m.?

Why is status so important in social life?

Blog 15

Gender- Female: Even with the insertion of women in the work force, it is still hard to conduct a job interview being a woman. Society still looks to women as house-wives. Many people believe that men are more respected and taken more seriously than women are. I do not think things should be this way but this is just how it is very often.

Age- 20: About jobs it is not so bad. Lately more and more young people are working in high positions in big companies. Employers believe that young people are more open-minded and innovative, opening the perspectives of the company. In family, no matter your age, you will always be a baby. For society I am old enough to vote, drive and be arrested, but not to buy liquor; lame. Besides that, I look younger than I really am. Sometimes people don’t believe when I say that I’m 20 and not 18.

Ethnic Group-Unknown: In Brazil I would be considered white, but here in the US I do not fit in this group. Well, I’m not Hispanic (Brazil speaks Portuguese and not Spanish), I’m not Asian, I’m not Afro. When I’m answering a survey, most of time I have trouble in filling this part, leaving it in blank. It’s not a big deal, but in a job interview it could be considered a lack of attention while answering the survey for those who don’t have further explanations about it.

Religion or philosophy-Catholic: I’m part of a very religious family. Since I was born I was introduced to this religion not by choice, but for family’s desire. I do not practice the religion, and I have many points where I disagree with their way of conduct things. I believe in various aspects of other religions. I think that I have my own beliefs, where I mix a little bit of each religion. I’m not extreme and I respect all kind of beliefs. For family purposes I’m catholic.

Political Party- Not Political: I do not identify myself with any specific group. I think that is a bad thing because it can be considered as a miss of knowledge in politics for not having an opinion about it. Actually, I think that politics is not about being republican, democrat or whatever, but know how to conduct things for the improvement. It could be a company, the society or a country. Sometimes you have to be more conservative, sometimes innovative. I think that the most important is conducting the thing in the right way and not care about being labeled.

Socio-economic group- middle class: I Always had enough money to have a good life, travel, and have desired items. It was possible not thought savings, but for the hard work of my parents. I look forward to keep this stability and raise it. In Brazil it is difficult to have good savings due to the country’s economy. The US has many opportunities, that way I look for achieve my personal objectives and raise my economic situation.

I believe that the bias that will be hard to change is my gender. The society is changing, but it still has prejudices that restrict certain evolutions on women’s life.

Common Symbols and Their Meaning

Cheetah - Speed
Cupid Heart - Love
Horseshoes - Luck
Dove - Peace
Uncle Sam - USA
Hat and Wand - Magic
Horseshoes are considered a good luck charm in many cultures. The shape, fabrication, placement, and manner of sourcing are all important. A common tradition is that if a horseshoe is hung on a door with the two ends pointing up then good luck will occur. However, if the two ends point downwards then bad luck will occur. Traditions do differ on this point, though. In some cultures, the horseshoe is hung points down (so the luck pours onto you); in others, it is hung points up (so the luck doesn't fall out); still in others it doesn't matter so long as the horseshoe has been used (not new), was found (not purchased), and can be touched. In all traditions, luck is contained in the shoe and can pour out through the ends.
In some traditions, any good or bad luck achieved will only occur to the owner of the horseshoe, not the person who hangs it up. Therefore, if the horseshoe was stolen, borrowed or even just found then the owner, not the person who found or stole the horseshoe will get any good or bad luck. Other traditions require that the horseshoe be found to be effective.
One reputed origin of the tradition of lucky horseshoes is the story of Saint Dunstan and the Devil. Dunstan, who would become the Archbishop of Canterbury in AD 959, was a blacksmith by trade. The story relates that he once nailed a horseshoe to the Devil's hoof when he was asked to reshoe the Devil's horse. This caused the Devil great pain, and Dunstan only agreed to remove the shoe and release the Devil after the Devil promised never to enter a place where a horseshoe is hung over the door.
Also some believe that if guests come to a house where a horseshoe is above the door. If they enter through that door they must leave the same way or they will take the luck from the horseshoe with them from your house.

Self Reflective Post

It is amazing how an author can articulate words and change the point of view of things. Authors do it in order to transmit certain emotions, thoughts, or feelings to the readers. When writing the positive and negative sides of the same thing in the anterior blog, I’ve tried to use this ability that the authors have in order to reach the purpose of my assignment. As I was in a good mood when I was writing, it was much easier to write the positive side of sit in front of the GC than the negative one. To write the negative side I had to take a breath, give a walk through the campus, think in bad things such as bad grades, cheating, don’t go out on the weekend, and finally try to get me in a real bad mood. I’ve tried to see things in a shadowy perspective. When the intention is transmit peace, happiness, pleasure, normally vivid and intense words are used. In my case I used words such as: great experience, pleased, pride, wonderful, among others. But when the intention is transmit the negative side of things, authors make use of dark, strong, and sad words. In my story I used the words: terrible, annoys me, impossible, and others. Besides the mood of the author when he is writing, it is also important to care about the rhetorical context, and the message that the author wants to transmit when writing that; his purpose. All these aspects together form the basic requirement to write a good essay. These were aspects that I tried to use when writing the previous blog.

The two sides of the same story

Positive

Sit in front of the GC in a sunny day is such a good experience. I feel myself so pleased to be here. Sited here I can experience the sun and the really soft wind typical of Miami in this period of the year. I feel the panther pride when the sun shines on the walls of GC. Hundreds of people get in and out of this building every single minute. The GC is like the center of the university. This is the place where students have classes, they can have their meals, they have beauty saloon, and others. As you can find everything here in GC, here you also will always find someone that you know. Every single student passes through here at least one time a day. Its location is also a spectacular thing because it has a garage right in front of it. It is a tremendous privilege for those who have classes there. Normally the buildings on the campus are a little bit far from the parking. The GC is my favorite building in FIU. It is so great have the opportunity to see the variety of things that a single building can proportionate. If I could I would sit here every day for a couple of hours. This place is wonderful. It is the main heart of the university. Here is the place where you can see the different people that attend FIU. You can see the abilities and disabilities of these people. Here you can see life!


Negative

Sit in front of GC in a sunny day is such a terrible experience. The hot weather of Miami makes you sweat in seconds. The wind is so soft that you can not notice it. Sometimes I may say that there is no wind at all. There is any pleasure in sit here, not even for five minutes. The garage right in front here annoys me. The sound of the engine of the cars going up and down on the garage looking for a parking doesn’t let me concentrate in anything that I start to do. Study here is an impossible task. Together with this crazy sound there is the bell. It rings every hour to announce that one more hour has passed. Come on. Isn’t the noise of the car enough? The answer seems to be no. More and more things that increase the noise in this place are implemented during the days. The bell doesn’t have a simple ring. It plays some ridiculous music. May I ask for whom? Does the university think that students between seventeen and thirty years old care for this kind of song? People are interested in study, in popular songs, in party, not on this strange sound. Another disgusting thing of being here is that so many people pass through GC every moment that you feel lost in the middle of a crowd. You don’t have privacy here. There is so many people, so many languages, and so many sounds here. Oh my god, I think that I’m going to get crazy if I stay here for one more second.

Conclusion

The same product can be exposed in various ways in order to reach different people just like the examples here cited about the brand Dolce & Gabbana. The ads have more influence in our lives that we can imagine. They estipulate how should we follow our lives, when, and where. What define us as rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, cult or stupid. Some advertisements are more aggressive, some are more angelical; all depends of which public they want to reach and what message they want to transmit.

Marketing is a smart approach that marketing people found to rule the population’s costume and habit. It has more influence in our lives that we can imagine. Through advertisements the market stipulates the society way of life and wants. It stipulates what can be considered beautiful or ugly, rich or poor, in or out. You can notice this intention of control when you see that two different merchandises can be presented to the market in different forms. It happens because marketing wants to reach all the population, and as nobody has the same style, attitude or thoughts, the marketing make different ads to reach these different society groups. The ads in general can be shown in an aggressive way or softer; all depends of the purpose of the; what image it wants to give, how efficient, and why. This technique is used looking for having a total control of the population under their wants to better control the market production, consumption and their supply.

Revisisng paper 2

ADVERTISEMENT: THEY RULE THE LIFE

In these days it is common have to wait around two or three minutes on intervals between parts of our favorite show in the television watching gorgeous people driving expensive cars, fat reducers advertisements, enormous houses being sold easily among other or even when looking at a magazine we can find hundreds of companies selling their products between articles. This is the era of the merchandising; people are surrounded by advertisements everywhere, all the time and they have their life ruled by it unconsciously. Lately, advertisements are not willing just to sell the product, but also domain, rule, create, and make tendencies of market. When we look at two Dolce & Gabbana advertisements we can understand it.
In one ad, the brand explores the aspects that transport us to an old world. The day is in transition with the night, transmitting a bucolic sensation. The people present on the ad seem to be located in a place that can be associated with the gardens of a medieval castle, with beautiful sculptures on it and the ground seems to be sand. The trees are in a dark green, and the flowers are open, letting us assume that is spring time. The furniture present in this garden is classical; expensive fabric chairs in gold details. Four women and two men are shown in this add. Two women are lying on the chairs. Those two women have the expression on their face like they are not feeling well; by some reason they are shocked and one of the man present is rescuing and taking care of one and one woman dresses as man is taking care of the other. These lying women are dressed in beautiful light and long dresses with a belt around the stomach. There is a woman lying on the ground, apparently she is fainted, but looking further we can see some pillows under her, transporting our imagination to the fact that she is not fainted but just lying on the ground and disappointed as the other two women. She is the only woman that is without partner. She is wearing pants but either ways she is wearing fancy shoes. All of them are looking at nowhere.
Looking to the men in the advertisement we can notice that all of them are with a women; actually one of them are represented with a woman and one of them is grabbing just an arm. This one is wearing gray shirt and pants and black boat over the pants. He is looking in a weird way to the guy that is on his knees on the sand. This guy is the only one that is not blond. He has brown and short hair, differently of all the other, and he is wearing only a plant crowd around his head; no clothes at all. Apparently this is the fact why all women are shocked. In that time it wasn’t normal be naked in front of others. Dolce & Gabbana is trying with this advertisement reach the adults with the argument that they know the past, and they know the new. They understand both, but they follow the fashionable, and it is not fashionable anymore. Dolce & Gabbana wants to bring the new to the old people.
The second advertisement of D&G is more provocative. Looking to reach young adults, the ad stereotype the ideal male’s body as strong arms, well shaped abdomen and short hair. There are four men in this second ad and one woman. Differently of the first one, in this ad everybody has dark brown hair. All men are looking to the woman that is lying on the ground in a provocative position with her hips elevated. The woman is wearing a black suit; her legs, arms and shoulders are totally free of clothes. She is using red lipstick, what makes allusion to seduction, and black heals, that putting together with her outfit gives her a sexy look. She has a gorgeous and skinny body and long hair. Two of the guys and shitless, and the other two have their shirt open, having their abdomen visible. They are swelling. The advertisement takes place during the day light and a blue sky with some clouds is shown, giving the allusion that they are in the sky. One of the guys is holding the woman’s arm on the ground. The position that they are can be considered sensual. This ad appeals to young adults’ ego. It appeals to the desire of these people of being recognized, beautiful, and to their hormones that at this age are burning (where the sexual appeal takes place).
The same product can be exposed in various ways in order to reach different people just like the examples here cited about the brand Dolce & Gabbana. The ads have more influence in our lives that we can imagine. They estipulate how should we follow our lives, when, and where. What define us as rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, cult or stupid. Some advertisements are more aggressive, some are more angelical; all depends of which public they want to reach and what message they want to transmit.



In my revising process for the second paper I am supposed to “re-see” my analysis and ads. When I think in doing it a question comes out; how should I do it? Well, first of all I need to take a look in the ads that I chose and observe them deeply. Check the highs and lows of the advertisements, see if it is an ad that has a lot of images that would help me to do a better description and further on a good analysis. The second step is read my draft and check if all possible characteristics of the advertisement are listed. If not I should include them. The characteristics are really important because through them the reader can visualize the ad while he is reading the essay. Looking at the characteristics of the ad I should think in what the purpose of the characteristics there presented is. This is procedure is called analysis. After doing that I should look at my draft, and look for my analysis of the ad and their characteristics. I should correct if there is something wrong, missing or over. Every single detail is very important because through them the reader can have a clear image of what you are talking about, and understand better the “so what?” question. As many details and explanation you give in the essay, better it is. The essay gets more efficient, well structured and have a good flow. The revising process in this second paper should be done at least twice. As many you do it, more mistakes and lack of information you avoid and more clear and concise you get.

Title + Intro

Recently, during the summer term here at FIU, I have done a research paper titled Pursuit of Spaces. The intention of the ambiguous title was to capture a bigger range of readers. At first impression the title could be associated to a personal pursuit of space in the world, in someone’s life, in the market; but the real meaning of it is to expose the parking problem at FIU. The introduction of the essay let explicit the original idea of the title. The audience that I was expecting was mostly the students, specifically from the University Park campus, the faculty, staff, and the administration from FIU. Also, the story would be directed at anyone that is interested in the university matters. The initial interests that would lead my readers to keep reading my essay would be that if they own a car, probably they would be related to the topic, considering the long waiting time for a free parking spot that all of us are submitted to. Others may like the polemic subject. About attention-grabber, I think that I have it because I start the essay by exposing results of some interviews, letting clear that the essay is based on real facts and researches, not only in personal experiences. Towards the end of my introduction, I state my thesis, where I say that FIU should give more attention to parking in order to avoid current and future problems. Along the essay I explain these problems, expose some of own and other people’s experiences and give some ideas of solutions. The intention was not to write a boring story, but aware people about things happening outside the classroom.

Photo Journal

Café by Candido Portinari

The piece of art that I chose is a picture of a famous Brazilian painter named Candido Portinari. This specific piece is called “Café”, Coffee in English. The intention of the artist in this painting is show and tell a little bit of the history of Brazil during the colonization period. We can assume that it represents the colonization period analyzing the evidences in the picture. The work is exposed as primitive. People are carrying bags of coffee in their heads, no machinery was used. The use of solid colors makes an association with a shadowy period considered bad in human behavior. We can notice that there are only black people working. None white, Asiatic, or other ethnicity people are exposed in this picture, letting us to assume that in that period only the black people were the labors, making associations we conclude the work as slavery. The clothes are simple, basic t-shirts, pants and no shoes, letting us to think in the cruelty of people against each other in that time. Not even women were free of this exhausting work. They worked under the sun with any place to relax and the only escape for the hot was their hats. The only man with boots in this picture seems like to be ordering something. He seems to be the boss that was the patrolling the workers at all time. He has a rude attitude, letting us assume that the work at that time was really rigid and cruel. This is how I understand the history of Brazil at that time based on this piece of art.

Thirsty??

I like this advertisement of Coke because as you can see, this particular one appeals to our senses, even though we are only using our eyes. The beads of water forming on the bottle, the ice surrounding, it tells us that this beverage is cold and desirable; the perfect beverage to finish with our thirsty. The spray from the bottle almost comes right out at you. It makes you crave it more because it's right there. While the sensory cues are very important in the selling of Coke, there is a more important marketing tool…Product recognition. You'd have to be out in the most remote regions of the Himalayans to not recognize the Coke label. The bold red background and old glass bottle with the Coca-Cola insignia is hard not to notice. Especially with the global market employed by Coca-Cola, you can't really get away from it. So, does it really work? Yes. Coca-Cola has remained the top selling soft drink bottler for over fifty years. The visual effects on this advertisement makes you feel the sensation of drinking this beverage, consequently, right after looking at this picture the most common reaction of people is to buy a bottle of coke. The useless of objects around the machine and colors give emphasis on the image of the bottle letting clear with beverage is being advertised. The use of the machine instead a single bottle sells the idea that you can have a coke easily, fast and everywhere, even at most uncommon places as Antarctica, and other snowy and unreachable places as the ice around the machine brings our imagination.

Revising Process

The revising process is extremely necessary after writing, especially after writing the paper the first time. The first writing is nominated draft. This is where you throw your ideas, suggestions and beliefs. The revising is extremely important because here is where you can find the parts that need to be re-constructed, parts that run away of the theme, lack of information, development of ideas and other basic points necessary for a good essay.

Writers revise their paper constantly. There are some books that have many editions, caused by revisions that the authors make on their work. Every time that you re-read your paper you can see some point that can be modified, improved or changed. By the time that you are revising the paper I would suggest that each time that you read the essay you read as a different person and ask questions like: Why should I read it? What do I have in common with this story? Where it affects me? So what?

The revising process in an essay can be considered one of the most important points on being a writer because this is the part where you can fix all errors that the paper might have. When re-reading a paper it is important to look up for things like tension, check the structure, grammar, stay away from abstractions, have a good plot, and catch the reader from the beginning until the end of the essay.

It is extremely important to revise the paper before you turn it in. In the revision you can eliminate all errors that could have in the essay and make it more reliable, correct, well structured, interesting, and well developed. The revising process makes the essay a good and pleasurable reading.

Situation Analysis

First of all, an advice that I can give to a person who wants to write a freelance article in a magazine is to be aware of the genre of the magazine and who the readers are. Following these steps the article should probably end up well. To explain this better, let’s consider a person who wants to write an article to The Rolling Stone Magazine.

Before the writer starts to write the article he must have some knowledge about this magazine, such as, this is a musical magazine directed mostly for young people and teenagers. The boarded subjects are about singers’ lives, band tours, and particularities of famous singers, inside the stage, fights between singers, and others. As a result, knowledge of every kind of information related to music is a prerequisite.

Another important point is that the writer must identify is that as the readers are teenagers, the articles can not be very long, otherwise it gets boring and the aimed public won’t read it until the end. The articles also don’t go deep in the subject; they only provide superficial information.

The language must be clear, direct, and popular, at last, an informal and easy language, sometimes making use of slang, visual effects, new stylish format. There is a large amount of advertisement of music channels, events, drinks, movies, and everything else related to the young universe and somehow related to music.

Considering all these criteria before writing is essential, otherwise the writer could by mistake write for a different public with different format, language and subject. If the writer follows these basic steps, they will succeed in their purpose which is to sell a freelance article to the magazine.

Unforgettable

Writing an autobiography is not a hard task as you will write about your own experience. This experience could be good or tragic, memorable or forgetful, but either way, it is something that you have lived sometime, somewhere, with somebody, or somehow. All kinds of information are helpful and necessary to situate the reader.

By the time that you are writing you need to consider who the reader of the plot that you are writing is, thus it will help you in making a better story and structure. Identifying precisely all the characters and their characteristics such as personality, template, tone of voice, and every single important information that you can provide from this person is an important point, as this way you can approach your life experience with the reader’s life, making the essay interesting and catching the reader until the end.

The character beyond yourself doesn’t have necessarily to be a friend, or somebody known; when the fact has occurred you could be alone, but somebody was watching you or passing by. The character can be an animal, a person, a group, in conclusion, something that was on the same place as you in that specific time, because they have their importance on the fact. Somehow they participate in the event, and it is also necessary to specify their action on the scene. If it shows that they were helping, participating, or just looking is also very important.

Exposing the character trough a dialogue is valid and efficient if a conversation was made between you, if not, describing the person and their manners is already enough. The conclusion is that as much as you can characterize and tell about the other character in your history is better because it makes them vivid and memorable, and provides to the reader the background for your story. However, choosing the best way to introduce the character as the whole plot is essential considering who the reader is. After that and with a good story the essay would be successful.

Letter X Summary

After reading the civil engineer’s original letter on page 17 of Allyn & Bacon, with the one-sentence summary on page 42, it was easy to compare these works and notice that both are about the same subject, but they differ on how they are written. On the original letter the engineer explained and gave examples of each topic that he is approaching. On the summary, as the proper name says, it is summarizing; it is general, vague and without further explanations and examples. It provides only the main point of the discussion.

In the letter, the engineer starts telling to the editor that he doesn’t agree with an editorial posted by him and already giving previous reasons why he doesn’t agree. Along the letter the engineer explains how that model would be inefficient, such as materials, weather and location, and to be even more reliable, the engineers makes use of technical language and show that he is a professional in this area, having knowledge and experience enough to prove his statements.

Both articles are understandable, but how the letter is more explained in detail, it is easier to understand and believe in the writer. In the case of the summary, it is not possible to trust a hundred percent in the article at the first time, as it has a lack of information. Therefore, making the thesis statement weak it was necessary to make some researches by your own in order to get a background and understand the situation, later on, turning the article a reliable and understandable piece with a logical point.

From the bottom to the top

Enjoying a piece that I write is not a common thing. Last summer came to change things in my life. I started my classes at FIU and took mostly easy going classes, as SLS and music appreciation, except for one class: ENC1930. As an international student, my first language being Portuguese, and inexperienced with English writing, this class became my nightmare during my summer. My first essays came with very low grades, and I had the feeling that I would fail the course. Along the course my grades started to increase, but not as much as I wished it would. My last work was a research paper that was twenty points toward the final grade.

Since the day that I knew it I couldn’t sleep anymore, I couldn’t think about anything else besides that paper. I had a huge problem along my way. Working on it 24 hours a day wasn’t enough. I had to work with the grammar, structure, and my shyness as much in writing. My communicating abilities was also weak for I had to do surveys and interviews for the paper and to find time to do it since I was working full time in an airline, which consumed most of my time. I tried to get the most help possible, like going to the learning center, help from friends, teachers, and more.

In the last class before the due date, the professor called us one by one to give us a review on how we were progressing in the class. Well, mine wasn’t the best evaluation. In order to get an A on that class I would have to get minimum of 19 points on the paper, something that not even the professor believed that could happen. I remember her words since today; “I believe that you will get a B, but surprise me”, and that is exactly what happened. Days after days I kept looking for my grades on my profile but FIU didn’t post it. I was almost loosing my hope when two weeks before the end of classes the grades were posted and surprisingly I got an A in the English class.

I was at work by the time that I saw my grade. I couldn’t control myself and as soon as I saw it I got so shocked that I screamed all of a sudden and started to jump in the office. My co-workers looked at me terrified trying to figure out what was happening with me. Excited as I was, I hugged one by one and explained them the occurrence. All of them congratulated me and got very happy because they knew how hard it had been for me, and how much that meant. I realized that I’m capable to do things that I can’t even imagine.

Writing under strict rules and closed format is easier in the beginning because it makes a basis of how you have to conduct things along the essay, explicit thesis statement and having logical support. That was probably the reason why I could get such a high grade. In the future I believe the open format will be easier to write on, but at the moment I prefer the closed type. That is what I have used on the research paper and got the excellent feedback, and that is the one that I feel the most comfortable when I write.