Can sexual orientation be altered??

I just read about a study done on nematode worms in which they altered their brains to be attracted to the same sex.  I found this article very interesting.  Now I’m not sure if this can be performed on humans and I’m really not sure if it would be a good thing to have access to.  Science has advanced our society tremendously but has it gone too far?  It will be intersting to see if science can actually alter human brains in the same way and if they are successful, how the public will react.  To read more on the study click here.

Discrimination against gay men in the workplace

“Gay men working in management and traditional blue-collar, male-dominated jobs make less than straight men because they are discriminated against by their employers.”

I guess I never thought about how gay men would be discriminated in certain jobs.  I understand how they would be thought of as not competent in jobs such as construction because of the stereotype of gay men acting ‘girly’.  Furthermore, I can see how lesbian’s are not discriminated as their stereotype classifies them as butch which would make them good canidates for jobs like construction.  Stereotypes are so catty and should really be eliminated even though I’m pretty sure that would be impossible to do.  Many people you meet will break stereotypes you had and will force you to reevaluate those ideas.  To read more on this study.

Dumbledore is G-A-Y

I recently read in the news (via AOL.com) that author of the Harry Potter books has outed one of the most beloved characters of the book…Dumbledore.  Now there are many people who say they knew it all along but I read 4 1/2 of the 7 books & I have to admit, I never even thought about his sexual orientation.  I really never cared which gender Dumbledore preferred because it was not a reason why any reader loved him. 

This is how the whole topic came up:

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds “true love.”

“Dumbledore is gay,” the author responded to gasps and applause.

 I think it is awesome that she had a gay character in a children’s book because usually you don’t have that.  I’m also glad that the truth about Dumbledore didn’t come out until after all of the books came out & people had already gone crazy over the Harry Potter phenomenon.  I wonder if the books will now be banned in certain areas because of one gay character?

SWA 10

1. My present writing process is to think a lot about my topic and plan out in my head how it should be organized and then sit down and write the entire paper in one sitting if I have the train of thought.  I don’t like to stop writing while I have the train of thought fresh in my mind or else I forget where I’m going with the paper.  Two suggestions that I would consider using are to make a schedule of times to do certain parts of the paper and to keep a folder of ideas.  I think these would help me because I like to procrastinate so having a schedule would keep me focused and a folder of ideas would help me to not lose any thoughts or ideas that I come across.
2. The advantages of outlining your ideas before writing a draft are never getting stuck and not knowing what to write about next and it keeps you on task and focused because you know what you are going to write about next.  It saves a lot of time while actually writing the draft.
3. Look at your Draft as a Whole: This is just proofreading your paper and making sure everything flows.  Also, by doing this, you can see if you organized your ideas in the right way and transitioned from one to the other effectively.  Probably the most helpful part of doing this is that you can make sure your introduction and conclusion are strong and effective.

          Ask Revision Questions:  This will help me to make sure that I have said what I meant to say with the paper and got all of my points across.  Also, it will help me to see that I did not ramble in the paper.

          Peer Review:  By letting someone else read my paper, they might see something that I was looking over.  Also, they can give good ideas of how to organize my paper and good words to use in my paper.

     4.  The exploratory paper examines all of the sides of the argument that have ever been.  The paper is completely neutral in the argument and does not take sides.  It helps to pave the way to my position paper because I am forced to examine all sides of my issue and therefore, can better take a position and make a valid argument in my favor.

      5.  Some ways of conducting peer review are to get together in small groups and have everyone take turns reading their paper aloud, to take turns reading everyone’s silently and make corrections manually, or to take each other’s home and read and revise them for the next meeting.  Advantages of peer review are having a third party look over your paper and suggest what you could do differently and to help you make sure your paper is the best that it can be.

Gay Rights

Gay rights is a huge issue in society right now.  There are about as many gay and lesbian people in the world as there are left-handed people.  For someone to say that they do not know one gay person is absolute ludicrous.  I know a handful personally.  You do not have to be gay to care about gay rights.  I just don’t think it’s fair that they get treated as if what they’re doing is wrong.  Who said that loving someone is wrong?  I know that everyone does not agree with same-sex marriage, but can we please just leave out all the religious junk already.  This country prides itself on the principles of freedom of religion and the division of church and state.  Religion should never be considered an argument!

SWA 7

1.   The two main differences between library subscription databases and the World Wide Web are price and credibility.  The library subscription databases have been bought by the school or library and you must obtain a password to use them.  Whereas, the web is free for everyone.  The library subsription databases are more reliable than all of the sites on the web.  Some websites have faulty information because they have been posted without going through an editor first.  You can use the databases for all reliable material relevant to your research but try to only use the web for live-chatting or e-mailing or using sites that have an editor.

 2.   A bibliography is the alphabetically arranged list of evaluated sources you have decided are credible, related to your isse, and potantially valuable to your research.  An annotated bibliography is a bibliography with the addition of a summary or reaction for each source.  An annotated bibliography helps you understand which sources will be most helpful to you and in which order to use them.

3.   Some characteristics of a credible source are being associated with an organization in that field, a reputable domain, peer-reviewed, universally written, very well edited, and in tune with your values.  For online sources, those same characteristics apply in addition to being duplicated in print and assessed by a large number of people.

4.   Creating a tentative research plan will help you stay focused at the task at hand rather than get distracted easily.  Also, it will help you do all of your research a lot faster and keep you organized while researching.

5.   “Plagarism is the dishonorable act of passing someone else’s words off as your own, whether or not the material is published.” (Lynne McTaggart)  You can avoid plagarism by taking very good notes that clearly indicate when you are directly quoting another’s words.  Just make sure that you acknowledge another’s words when they are not your own.

SWA 6

In today’s society, pretty much everything you do has a detrimental effect to a person, especially watching T.V. There are many debates on how much T.V. is too much to watch. So many people justify they’re T.V. watching by claiming what they are watching is ‘educational’. After reading Johnson’s essay, I thought that he was giving people an even better excuse to watch as much T.V. as their hearts desire. I can totally understand why producers would want to make shows about the government and address controversial issues that can help people feel that the content of the shows they enjoy to view is beneficial. The Sleeper Curve is a great way to encourage people to watch your T.V. show. Producers are taking advantage of this technique to grab higher ratings and I can say that it is a bad thing. As long as shows are becoming at least somewhat better to watch, then I do not have a problem. I suppose watching T.V. that utilizes the Sleeper Curve will help to make its audience smarter and that is not a bad thing at all.

SWA 5

In Belen Aranda Alvarado’s essay, “Fade to Blonde”, she was trying to prove that simply changing a little aspect of her life would not change her heritage.  What she found was that even though changing one’s hair color may seem minimal, she experienced a culturally eye opening experience.  By going from brunette to blonde, she received more attention from white men but less from Latino men.  She expected all of her Latino friends to be disappointed in her change and ended up getting a lot of support and positive feedback from them.  Throughout the change, she realized that the only thing that changed was her view about herself.  The Latino community did not disown her for changing her hair color.  She saw that in the end, she was not comfortable with the fact that she changed her hair color because she a a proud Latina and wants everyone to know that she is Latina.  By going rubia, she felt that she was not representing her culture the way that she wanted to.  Many Latinas dye their hair from brown to blonde not to hide their culture, but because they want to be blonde.  To me, physical attributes do not define a culture but rather, a cultures attitudes and customs do.  Who really cares what color your hair is?  Sometimes everyone just needs a little change to find out who they are and the kind of person they really want to be.

TRACE- Virginia Tech

“Making a Killing” is an article for the New York Times.  The audience that Mike White was directing his article to was the adults in our society but furthermore, the screenwriters of films with violence.  Mike White is a screenwriter himself and feels that maybe screenwriters should think twice before adding such violent scenes in their films when clearly their audience is teenage boys to young adult men.  He feels that screenwriters are not responsible for kids acting violently but also thinks that by writing such violent movies, they are not helping to the situation at all.    

Some constraints that Mike White faced involved the fact that he was criticizing some of his colleagues.  He knows what types of movies will be produced and which won’t and in our society, the more gruesome the script, the better the chances are to be produced.  Before reading this article, I felt that violent movies weren’t corrupting kids but rather parents’ lack of discipline or their poor decisions about what their children are allowed to watch.  After reading this article, I still felt that the majority of the blame should be on parenting choices but I began to think that it would help if screenwriters lessened the violence in their films.

The exigence of this article was the shootings at Virginia Tech but really teen violence in general.  Mike White felt the need to address the issue of too much violence in movies causing aggressive children.  This is a very controversial issue that has arisen in the past 10 years.  Teen violence is becoming much more common and almost accepted which is very sad. 

The common ground I share with this author is the fact that I am in college and the Virginia Tech shootings happened in at a university.  Also, I watch movies and he writes them.  His argument was pretty convincing because before I read the article, I pretty much had my own opinion on the issue and he challenged me to see another side.  Additionally, he did not tell his audience that screenwriters are in the wrong for writing such violent films.  He merely suggested that it couldn’t hurt for screenwriters to subside some of the hostility in their films.

My Style of Argument

As for my style of argument, I would have to say that I do not lean towards consensual nor to adversarial.  I am stuck somewhere in between the two.  My favorite type of argument would be when I get the chance to defend my side of an issue.  However, I do not believe that arguments only have two sides because there are many issues that I see both sides on and do not lean towards either of the two.  On these issues I believe in a compromise of both sides being the best way to resolve the issue. 

When it comes to listening to arguments, I definitely prefer individual opinions to a consensus of a group.  By hearing an individual opinion, I get the chance to question my own opinion or to discover another reason to support my outlook of the situation.  When arguing, I respond much better to persons being direct but also open to hearing my side.  I feel that more can be accomplished when both parties are calm, rational, and open to hearing another opinion.  My sister and I used to fight terribly and never stopped to actually listen to what each other was saying but instead just yelled over one another.  Recently, we started to rationally discuss any argument that arose and we found that we accomplished more that way.  This sort of cooperation is considered consensual.  However, being direct and open is considered adversarial.

My style of argument has most likely been shaped by my older sister, Mary Alice.  She loves to pick fights and then win them with her convincing arguments.  Although I do not enjoy picking fights with others, I do enjoy changing people’s views on certain topics.  There are a couple of issues in the world that I am extraordinarily passionate about.  For example, gay marriage and the war in Iraq.  I am pro-gay marriage but anti-war in Iraq and I will talk your head off if you let me.  It is not worth discussing a controversial issue if you have no sincere interest in it.  Arguing is probably one of the most common forms of interaction between individuals or groups of people.  It is something that is encountered every day.  Argument is not always negative but sometimes just a means of communication because not every argument leaves the parties involved bitter.  Some are merely discussions that help broaden one’s views on an issue.