Chancer, The Wonder Dog

I have always wanted another dog ever since my first dog died in kindergarten. But, my brother became highly allergic so I probably won't have another dog for awhile. But, this article "Wonder Dog" by Melissa Fay Greene highlights how dogs can be so much more than just pets and companions. For a now thirteen year old boy named Iyal Winokur, his golden retriever Chancer has changed his life. Iyal was adopted by the Winokurs from Russia in 1999 and was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome. FAS is a form of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders where because the mother drank alcohol during her pregnancy, her child's brain and nervous system were severely and permanently damaged. Iyal was explosive with tantrums caused by the tiniest things, urgency, attempts to jump out of moving cars, and rages in the middle of the night. After trying everything, the Winokurs called 4 Paws and went to Ohio to receive a dog that changed their family's life. Chancer has the ability to keep Iyal anchored in the world with full night sleeps, disrupting tantrums and providing the emotional companion that Iyal could never find in his family or humans.

Melissa Fay Greene writes an amazing article with pathos, logos, and ethos. The pathos is just the story she reports in its entirety about how a dog was able to change a boy's life with FAS and prevent his mental state from completely declining to schizophrenia or psychosis. The logos involved are the numerous different statistics and quotations from organizations and doctors, like Alan G. Weintraub, Dr. Jacquelyn Betrand of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. general surgeon, and Alan M. Beck, the director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University's College of Veterinary Medicine. The ethos appeal is established with Greene's credibility of knowing which people to talk to and quote on Iyal's story, including his family, Karen Shirk, and Jeremy Dulebohn. Another interesting technique that was used was "Before Chancer, B.C." and "After Chancer, A.C." for how situations have changed. Honestly, I highly recommend this article; it was truly a wonderful story.

Source: Greene, Melissa Fay. "Wonder Dog."The New York Times 2 Feb. 2012, sec. Opinion: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 6 Feb. 2012.

Click here to read the article

How the Marines video made the Afghan war even tougher

This personal reflection opinion article by Timothy Kudo on the viral video of United States Marines urinating on dead Taliban insurgents was an incredible inside look of what it is like to be a Marine. Timothy Kudo served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2009-2011 as a Marine captain. And what was even more interesting was that he knew the infantry that posted the disgraceful video on the Internet, the 3rd Batallion, 2nd Marines. Kudo speaks of the Marines most important mission of a sense of morality in building local support. The 42 second video ruined that sense of morality and is going to create a hard battle ahead for those going back to Afghanistan. Not only that, but the peace negotiations the United States is trying to achieve now are going to be more difficult to achieve. Kudo's anger at his fellow Marines provides so much emotion when he describes the process of dealing with enemy death with respect.

The main appeal of the Washington Post's "How the Marines video made the Afghan war even tougher" is ethos and pathos. The ethos appeal is established immediately when Timothy Kudo defines himself as not only a United States Marine, but one who has been to Afghanistan and Iraq. This ethos establishes a great amount of credibility with the audience because Kudo can relate to the Marines and tell his audience what other Marines think of this action. The pathos appeal shows when Kudo says, "I can't imagine what went through the heads of the men in the video, because desecrating the dead goes against every custom and value the Marines hold dear," (Kudo 1). The disappointment and failure of morality in these Marines is what Kudo writes about and how they were taught to treat the dead with respect. With that, Kudo writes of his own experiences while fighting in the Afghan war and how there were situations where discipline was hard, especially when one of their own died, but it still shined through. The pathos appeal and Kudo's Marine experiences really make this Washington Post article incredible.

Source: Kudo, Timothy. "How the Marines video made the Afghan war even tougher." The Washington Post 13 Jan. 2012, sec. Opinion: n. pag. The Washington Post. Web. 14 Jan. 2012.

Click here to read the article

Why kids need solitude

In Salon.com's article "Why kids need solitude", Diana Senechal expresses her opinion that students today need more time of solitude where we can think and create our own opinions and solutions. Honestly, the article was very intriguing in the question and answer question session with Alice Karekezi asking Diana Senechal the questions. She brings up so many valid points, in my opinion. For example, she discusses that group work and workshops are used too much by teachers and that many different approaches need to be used for different lessons. Senechal also says that an engaged class doesn't necessarily have students who can deal with questions that require reflection and thinking on the spot. Also, what I found interesting was that Senechal believes that curriculums have a higher priority over tests, but tests still have an important place. Tests can give a perspective when comparing different areas and provide a baseline of knowledge.  My favorite answer that Senechal gives is, "But if the emphasis is on the success and not on the thing being accomplished, the latter almost inevitably gets reduced," (Karekezi 1). She is right, just aiming for success is not enough, you have to aim for something to be accomplished and remember what it takes to get that thing accomplished.

The question and answer format of the article "Why kids need solitude" holds the audience's attention and gives them a direction for what is being talked about. The bolded questions allow the audience to know the next subject or topic going to be discussed, instead of getting lost in the flow of the article. When defining solitude, Senechal quotes both Epictetus (a Greek philosopher) and Quintilian to help her find her own definition of solitude. This technique proves to the audience that Senechal is a knowledgeable speaker on this subject and is able to reflect on past opinions to create her own. Another establishment of ethos for Diana Senechal is that Alice Karekezi provides the audience with background information on Senechal and how she is a teacher and author. With that knowledge, the audience can understand how Senechal is able to speak of such common situations in the classroom, with students, and in everyday life. Her use of scenarios really made me feel like Senechal understood those same situations. A technique that appealed not only to ethos, but pathos too. Overall, Karekezi's interview with Senechal is a very informative and relatable article with situations that many students can understand.

Source: Karekezi, Alice . "Why kids need solitude." Salon.com 28 Dec. 2011: n. pag. Salon.com. Web. 29 Dec. 2011

Strong Willpower Needs a Strong Mindset

Willpower. As a high school student, sometimes my willpower is lacking when there are seemingly "better" things to do like go out with my friends, a favorite television show, or a sports game. I have definitely had times of complete motivation and strong willpower and times of bad procrastination. This article caught my interest because what if there was a scientific way of obtaining a strong willpower? I would want to know it especially in that week with three papers and two major tests so I could get them all done. Some of the factors people have proposed to control willpower include biology, amount of glucose, and just a strong mindset. Well in this article's case, only one of these factors is right and it's a strong mindset. If you believe willpower doesn't have a limit, then you will procrastinate less and cut down on excess spending. And those with this mindset would perform well with or without consuming sugar. Amazing!

Greg Walton and Carol Dweck write the informative article "Willpower: It's in Your Head" with a logos appeal to their audience. The authors write of multiple studies conducted on willpower including Linda Bacon's biology control, Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney's glucose proposal, and their own mindset proposal with Veronika Job. This technique appeals to the logos of an audience and proves both authors as credible reporters on the topic. One study that Walton and Dweck write about is on 153 college students and how their mindset affected their willpower which appeals to the audience of anyone who has been to college or is planning on going to college. The two authors' opinions are very obvious in this article when they write of taking the other theories into consideration. They write, "But are these theories correct? We don't think so," (Walton, Dweck, 1). In the New York Times article written by Greg Walton and Carol Dweck, the two authors discover the main controller of strong willpower is a strong mindset.

Source: Walton, Greg, and Carol Dweck. "Willpower: It's In Your Head." The New York Times 26 Nov. 2011, sec. Opinion: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.