1.  For our upcoming essay exam, what exactly are you looking for in terms of literary analysis and applications?  

2.  Are you encouragin us to use our own interpretations or are you wanting an exact and particular response?

3.  This relates to question #2 – How are you expecting us to relate international trade with cheese?  Is it however we interpret international trade and cheese? 

4.  Will we be expected to relate the prompt with outside readings?     

While reading the two assigned sections in Chapter 24, “How Exams Written Under Pressure Differ from Other Essays” and “Analyzing Exam Questions,” I found myself feeling quite familiar with the subject matter.  After reading “How Exams Written Under Pressure Differ from Other Essays,”  it became clear that although essay exams can share similar characteristics to other writing assignments, they do have their own different set of characteristics.  While most writing assignments may have a broad range of audiences, the audience for essay exams is the instructor.  For that reason, it is important to know the instructor and what he/she focuses on in an essay so that the response is exactly was the instructor is looking for.  Also, in this section, I learned that there really is a reason English teachers and courses require a certain number of books and other literature pieces to be read.  Although I figured this out back in my high school AP English classes, it helped me to stop and realize that when the instructor suggests particular pieces for students to read, it is only to benefit the student, not just give them more work to do.  Being familiar with authors, writers, books, poems, and other pieces provides great support for the exam response and enables the student to relate and apply ideas and topics, such as taking a poem and relating its ideas to nature and society.  This section also provided a few strategies which will aid in essay exam writing.   In, “Analyzing Exam Questions,” the idea that essay exams focus on interpretation was stressed.  This section provides the student with some reassurance in the way that it explained how, although many essay exam prompts start out with a quote and/or writer that the student may not be familiar with, that does not mean the student will not be able to form a response to the prompt.  The strategy that was given in this section is that even if the prompt contains unfamilar works, by deconstructing the prompt and looking for cue words and phrases, the student will see that the prompt will give a hint as to what a certain writer or piece was about as well as provide questions that are answerable and points out that the key is to relate or use the works as a means for support of the student’s response.  Also, the importance of knowing what certain essay-question verbs mean so that the prompt will be easier to understand.       

I do not think essay exams are of my greatest desire to do.  I love to write, but I feel that when I am pressured to write a certain paper in a given amount of time, I am not able to express my true feelings and everything I would have liked to put in the paper.  At times, I feel rushed and unorganized, which is not a great thing concidering it is an exam and organization is a key element in the grading process of the paper.  I find it hard to go into great detail which means I am only able to swim in the shallow end instead of swimming far out into the water, exploring each and every thought, opinion, and statement.  However, sometimes being rushed to write an exam paper enables me to write everything that is flowing out of my head at that moment, evne if it may not be quite so organized, I can get everything I want written in my paper.  Having a short period of time to write an essay keeps me from delaying my writing and not writing a paper that expressed all of my thoughts.  Perhaps this is why English teachers always give timed-writings. 

            The need to ban childhood corporal punishment is supported by studies proving that physical punishment during childhood may lead to behavioural and psychological problems in adulthood.  In more cases than not, linear trend analyses showed statistically significant associations between increasing frequency of reported slapping or spanking and increasing rates of lifetime psychiatric disorder (MacMillan 1999).  According to this study, continuous spanking of a child will indeed have a negative outcome on a child’s future behaviors.  However, even with the knowledge that physical punishment can potentially have a negative effect on a child, American parents still support the usage of spanking.

            Most Americans have a very strong support for the spanking of children, and there is proof of this.  For instance, when Sally J. Lieber, a member of the California state assembly, recently made an attempt to move one step closer towards banning corporal punishment.  Lieber had proposed a legislative bill that would declare California the first state to make the use of corporal punishment of children under age 3 a misdemeanor (Alvy 2007).  However, on February 23, 2007, the bill was abandoned because the author of the bill “conceded that it had little chance of passing” (McKinley 2007).  Sadly, the majority of their reasons for supporting corporal punishment during childhood are myths.  (Straus 1994).  According to Straus, one such myth states that if you do not spank your children, they will be spoiled and disobedient.  Although this may be true, part of the reason children become disobedient when they are not spanked may be because the parent did not discuss the child’s misbehavior or they used harsh verbal remarks to criticize the child’s wrongdoings (Straus 1994).  Therefore, spanking is not necessary to prevent a child from running wild and being mischievous.  A long, nice conversation with a child to explain what the child did wrong and why the child is in trouble for they did, rather than reverting to the belt-to-butt punishment, can make all the difference in a child’s future behavior.           

I used Word to type this blog, but since it would not paste on my post the way I had intended it to, I included a link to the document of my blog.   

argument-audience-and-fallacies-blog.doc

controversial-paper-research-prospectus.doc

controversial-paper-annotated-bibliography.doccontroversial-paper-annotated-bibliography.doc

Before I begin, let me notify you that it has taken me all day to finally get this thing all REWRITTEN and POSTED on here.  I had typed up this entire post when I pressed “Save” well, it gave me the “you are not logged in, please log in” notice.  And, as I expected would happen, all was ERASED…it was very sad and let me down.  So, finally, I was able to rewrite my thoughts and have them successfully posted! =]   

Paragraph 1 - The author (or perhaps I should call him by his blogging name “marmiteboy” – this sounds REALLY professional!) is discussing how he was introduced to an article through an e-mail concerning a 6-year old child who is disabled and is recieving a growth-stopping treatment.

Paragraph 2 – The author points out that although the child’s treatment is wrong (in his POV), an argument can be posed about the medical profession agreeing to give the child this growth-stopping treatment. 

Paragraph 3 – The author gives no opinion of his own here but rather uses quotes from others and simply quotes a comment from two doctors about how children with developmental disabilities can be tough to care for which become especially difficult to care for as the child grows.

Paragraph 4 - The author quote another person? (it is not clear who because there are no citations) who states that stopping the childs growth would take a burden off the parents because it will not be nearly as hard to take care of the child.   

Paragraph 5 – Finally, an opinion (10 words of the whole paragraph)!…The author quotes “the doctors” who say that even though the girl has a neurological disability, she can still communicate with her parents and all the author replys with is, “Shame she hasn’t been treated like one then isn’t it?”

Paragraph 6 – Another opinion!  Here, the reader is informed that the girl has been in treatment for one year and ”the doctors” say there have been no complications, but the author finally writes something to express his viewpoint on the topic by showing his concern for the girl getting osteoporosis because of such an early hysterectomy. 

Paragraph 7 – The author basically states how it is wrong to treat the disabled girl by stopping her growth and giving her the hysterectomy because the girl does not have the ability to have a say so in the matter. 

Paragraph 8 - Once again, the author basically loses his own voice in the matter and does nothing but quote someone who explains how it will take much more research and debating to find out whether stopping a childs growth is with or against our moral values for the care of disabled children.     

Paragraph 9 – The author places his strongest statements that concider his “against” view on the topic, in this last paragraph.  For example, he writes, “There is only one thing to say about this. It is totally unacceptable and wrong to treat a child (disabled or not) like a laboratory rat.” 

 I definitely do not think that this would be a logical source in writing a paper about Ashley because, well, first of all, did you notice the name of the author and the names of the people who commented on this article?!  Weird!!  Second, the author does not do a very good job citing his sources.  It is also quite clear that the author does not have much of a voice of his own because all he seems to be able to do is quote other people AND he even ends a few paragraphs with quotations of others. 

1. What is your topic?

The spanking of children. 

2. What interests you in this topic?  Why did you choose it?

This topic came of interest to me because as a child, I was abused by my alcoholic father for many years and when my mother moved out, she tried so hard to get the courts/law officials to do something about our father abusing my brother and I, but the courts/law officials did nothing about it.  All that time I wondered, how much is going to be enough?  How much will it take for the officials to realize that his methods of discipline are not just spanking, but beating and abuse? 

3. Why does your topic matter?  Why should other people care about it?

This topic matters because adults need to be able to discipline their children, and to some degree, spanking may be a method of disipline.  However, it can be taken to the extreme way too easily, in which parents then are abusing their children to discipline them, rather than simply spanking them. 

4. How can you quailfy (or limit) your topic? 

Spanking.  How much is enough?  

5. Can you limit your topic by geography or location?

The spanking of children in the (South, certain states (which ones prohibit spanking?)).

6. By time?

Spanking (today?).

7. By specific groups affected? 

Children (1-10)

8. What other questions can you think of? 

** How much does the law consider “too much”?

** What are other means of “discipline” that can be used in place of spanking? 

** How might spanking affect a child’s life later on?