Text Response: In Praise of Chain Stores

 Virginia Postrel writes about chain stores within this paper. This starts out saying how basically multiple locations all have the same exact stores with the same exact items. Along with this, she also states how most places look the same as well, because stores don't give places character, other things do. I agree chain stores are everywhere. Although they may be everywhere and it can be boring, it is also convenient too. Having the same stores does not leave for much surprise, but at the same time, you will always be able to find what you want no matter where you are. Now, that just goes for the content of this entry. As for the convincing or persuasive side of it, I feel she does a decent job of doing so. However, she also does not support her cause until further into the paper and that led me into some confusion because at the beginning I was under the impression she was against chain stores. I was mistaken. Her thesis did not initially stand out to me. With what I have learned about persuasive or convincing writing, her tact may not necessarily be bad for the piece she chose to write about. When it comes to being the reader this time though, I know I felt confused after I continued to read. I felt as though she could have framed her paper a little differently to convince me better. The convincing did work though, simply because I generally agree with her point, but if I had a different point of view, I do not know that this paper would have fully persuaded my thought process.

Holiday Shenanigans

 The spirit filled holidays are quickly approaching and because of this, I sat down at my kitchen table today to try to figure out what I was going to purchase for people and have an idea of cost. Not only does it excite me to think of what i'm going to buy people, but it also makes me stressed for the face that I will probably break my bank doing it. Although there is Black Friday, which I do participate in, I still know there are some things you just cannot purchase at Black Friday. Some people require gift cards, such as my pregnant sister in which I will for sure be buying her a Baby's R Us gift card. When it comes to gifts, I have become a pro shopper for deals, but that does not take away the stress of finding what people will like and not paying an arm and a leg for it at the same time. Why do holidays have to be so expensive? Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy them. But holy cow, the end of the year is definitely a stressful time just as much as its enjoyable. I wanna know how people go purchase a million gifts for everyone, is there a secret store I am unaware of that has awesome prices? Besides the monetary aspect of holidays, I can not even wait to have a break from school and blogs and be with the family. So many traditions!

Chapter 19 text response

Chapter 19 discusses writing with style. Writing concisely is one of the main parts of writing with style. Writing with style has to deal with active and passive voice effectively and how wording things to specific people is important to readers. I agree that the way to get a point across to readers has much to do with how something is being said. This chapter talks about taking out pointless words and basically getting to the point of what someone is trying to say. Sentences can be extremely long that don't need to be. With that being said, taking out useless words may also help keep the reader interested. Along with that, introductions should not be filled with cliches and untrue facts. An introduction should be interesting to keep the reading wanting more. I completely agree and can relate with this because I know if I am starting to read something that if the beginning is boring, there is a high chance I will not continue reading, nor will I care about what was being said. Writers that just rant on about their topic also lose my interest because I don't feel the writing is open to various readers. Just as chapter nineteen discusses, some words and phrases can alienate some readers and that can definitely be avoided. I have felt that way when reading so I completely agree with that. This has also given me a whole new way to view my writing. Now when writing, I think of way to say things precisely without beating around the bush and adding in pointless words or redundant points.

My Rant About Constant Government Talk

     Recently, the government has apparently shut down. My opinion on that? It is inconvenient as all get out, however, I am not a politic nut who is going to live and breathe the shut down. When it does come to my opinions on it though, I feel like it makes us as a country look ignorant for the simple fact our government cannot solve its problems, but instead must shut down. Shutting down does not help our country, and it does not make us look very intelligent either. Along with that, I feel as though our government does things like this pretty frequently that makes us appear to be idiots...such as Obama care. I am not very informed on politics, because I usually do not care as much, but if someone could enlighten me on who, besides Obama, would think Obama care is a good idea, that would be awesome. Again, to reiterate the fact that I am not too knowledgeable about politics, because I honestly do not really care to be, I still think most of the actions our country takes are inconvenient, especially for the citizens. Other countries probably view us as ignorant, money hungry, and rash. I also think that I dislike politics so much because I am so used to hearing about our governmental issues, rather than hearing about the government coming up with beneficial and logical solutions to problems. Quite frankly, I am over the government. Our leaders, and country as a whole, need to get it figured out in a positive manner. Then maybe, just maybe, I will want to take the time to understand everything going on entirely. Until then, why must we all obsess about the consistent stupidity..

Chapter Seven, "Living (and Dying) Large"

Living (and Dying) Large is a paper used as an example in chapter seven. This entry discusses football players and how they feel the need to be very large to excel in their sport. It states that although football requires speed and strength, the media focuses mostly on football players and their weight. NFL offensive linemen who weigh less than three hundred pounds are considered to be “undersized”. Due to this image, NFL players, and even younger football players, like high school teams, feel they should be larger as well. Because of this, they are going to unhealthy extremes to get bigger. Both the NFL players and high school players are taking legal supplements to help increase size. In turn, some of the steps they are taking are making them dehydrated. Long summer training camps do not mix well with dehydration. The increase in dehydration also increases chance of heatstroke.

I agree that all of the statements above result in a true analysis. I have seen people talk about how they need to be bigger and stronger and I have also seen the extent of which they go to as well. Football players are not the only athletes to do this. I know how it feels to be an athlete and feel like you could do better if your body was stronger or faster. I do understand that type of pressured feeling; however, I do not agree with the extent of which they go to. I also know that the media makes this problem much worse too. I don’t think athletes would feel as much pressure to be bigger or faster if it weren’t for surrounding influences. I also don’t agree about the extent some of the football players or other athletes go through to accomplish this. Athletics is not worth living the rest of your life with an unfixable health issue, or even death.