Author: Stephanie Ponce

Reading Notes –Chapter 1: Rewriting

This chapter was a brief introduction to very useful tools we would utilize in this writing class such as coming to terms, forwarding, countering, taking an approach, and revising. It gave a sneak peak of what each tool was and how the writer can use these tools when writing a text. Each of these tools has a unique role and are used differently for different purposes. The audience is intended for anyone who wants to learn about certain writing techniques that they can incorporate in their own writing. They accomplished their purpose in which we know that they were able to teach the readers about these techniques. These techniques have definitely helped me formulate my ideas clearly and using other sources in a way where I am incorporating them and adding value to my projects this semester.

Reading Notes– Improving End-of-Life Care: A Public Health Call to Action

Hess’s article was one of the first readings we closely analyzed at the beginning of the semester. This reading gave me a good glimpse of what was going to be expected while doing research in this class when annotating the text. Hess argued the importance of end of life care is and how crucial it is for people to start paying more attention to it. In class, we figured out why the author was writing this text and what her exigence was. The author was writing this paper as a dissertation to her capstone so she has a reason to argue about end of life care. Her audience in mainly intended for policy makers, end of life patients/families, and anyone who is interested in knowing about topics like this. She uses a unique way of capturing the reader’s attention by incorporating a loved one in her dissertation.

Furthering the Conversation

In my project, I am trying to figure out how race and socioeconomic status affects a disadvantaged individual receive medicare because these are important factors that are important to ensure whether medicare is provided to everyone equally or whether there are disparities among people. My targeted audience can definitely people who are disadvantaged patients, care providers, health insurance providers, and the general public. This audience is not limited and can also include sociologists, psychologists, etc. I still have yet to think about the form I want this project to take but I decided to incorporate the idea of socioeconomic status in my topic question to avoid generalizations as much as possible. Any race can struggle achieving the adequate resources for medicare so I did not want to paint a certain race group with the same brush. With socioeconomic status, it makes it more easier for me to explain the main race groups that are affected by medicare and the types of race groups that are at a disadvantage. I am still struggling to find a way to go against my position I will be taking in my project. I feel like I am explaining too much about the types of groups that are affected and in what ways/how they are, but It would be helpful to find a clever way to find a rebuttal to my arguments.

A Place at the Table Review

This riveting and informing film focused on the food security many face in today’s society. Surprisingly, one would not think food security exists in this country because we are known to produce plenty of food (while unhealthy) and there are restaurants everywhere. What’s important is that there are more fast food places than healthy food places and the idea of food security adds to a different twist in this film. There is an interesting way the filmmakers used research in this documentary to paint an accurate picture on the issues many Americans are facing today with food security. Unlike any other texts that many of us are familiar with, the research is presented in through a film/documentary. Most people would never think of a film to be considered a piece of text, but this film did provide useful information just like a typical study, article, journal, etc. would. The filmmakers in this documentary used research different in ways where their research is based on primary research and professional research. Raj Matel, an Author of the book “Stuffed and Starved,” and Marion Nestle, the author of “Food Politics” add value to the research done in the film. These authors add credible information and sources from people who know the issue accurately and can converse about it. The little girl used in research is the primary research as her lenses on the issue also adds as much value to this research because she is immediately impacted from food security. Additionally, the African American girl in this film who suffers from obesity also contributes to the research because has a disease that is a common health issue in America. Food security is an important issue and the filmmakers made sure to portray the information in an alarming way because it’s serious and it causes youth obesity, lack of healthy food available, etc. The fight for healthier foods and better school lunches from young women who do not have the proper resources to feed their children added to the pathos in this film. Overall, the research presented in this film is different yet it accomplishes important goals to ensure people are aware of these common issues.

Class Notes 3/21

Class Notes:

Unit 3 –> putting to use everything that we have learned all semester

Major Projects:

  1. Annotated bibliographies: for every source write 2 paragraphs on it.

First paragraph: what it is, background info, etc

Second paragraph: what use it has for you

  1. Conversation dialogue

Joe Harris Notes:

  • Before we can do close work with our writing, we need to really understand sources completely
  • Countering –>
  • J.Harris 3 step process: come to terms with the point of view, identified the limits or problems with the perspective, construct your own position and response
  • Sources: you’re looking for sources that will help develop thinking and not so much articles that agree with your stance
  • Pg 57: 3 ways to think about countering work
  1. Pick up on something someone has said, complicate it or dispute it
  2. Uncover the significance about what they have overlooked
  3. Disagreement: find the limitations of what others have said

 

Importance of engaging with different perspectives:

  • Enhances the significance of what you have to say
  • It’s a better approach to acknowledge what others have to say and avoids emotional attacks

For Wednesday 3/23:

  1. Complete TIRQ in journal on blackboard
  2. Finish TIRQ diagram we worked on in class
  3. Find 3 sources that may serve a purpose in your paper

In class assignment 2/22

  1. I’m interested in where these issues/conversations bump into each other: [name those conversations–i.e. public health and social class and end-of-life]
  • I am interested in how public health and hospice care go hand in hand. After going to Francis House two weeks ago, I wanted to learn more about hospice care/ end of life treatment for patients. I noticed the environment was very different from a typical hospital. It would be interesting to know reasons why people end up in hospice care and why end of life treatment is important for both the patients and families. Additionally, because I am an econ major, I am interested to see if hospice care is better off economically compared to the other methods of dealing with end of life care.

 

  • 2. Here are some of the search terms I’m finding productive in this quest: [list them here]
  • End of Life
  • Public Health
  • Hospice Care

3. Here is an article I’ve found at this intersection (include title, author, place of publication, not just a url): [note that this does not have to be your final choice for the research brief; you’re collecting possibilities at this point!]

  • http://nq5hl7cp9d.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Hospice+care+reduces+end-of-life+costs%2C+hospitalizations+for+Medicare+beneficiaries&rft.jtitle=HEM%2FONC+Today&rft.au=Alexandra+Todak&rft.au=Mark+Leiser&rft.au=T+Declan+Walsh&rft.date=2015-12-25&rft.pub=SLACK+INCORPORATED&rft.issn=1526-0488&rft.volume=16&rft.issue=24&rft.spage=138&rft.externalDocID=3925334011&paramdict=en-US

Title: Hospice care reduces end-of-life costs, hospitalizations for Medicare beneficiaries

Author: Alexandra Todak

Place of Publication: United States

4. Here’s how research is working in this article (using Harris’s terminology): [discuss specific passages from the article and name those uses—illustrating, borrowing, extending, authorizing, contextualizing]

  • The author here does a great job with illustrating/contextualizing her points with using statistics done through a test and past studies done about end of life care with with economics. The author here. She uses references from authors who wrote in JAMA (The Journal of American Medical Association).

Rhetorical Analysis on Sources

 

Syracuse has nation’s highest poverty concentrated among blacks, Hispanics

This article speaks about the concentration of poverty in minority neighborhoods. The author Mark Weiner directs this article to people like you and me to inform us on how big of an impact poverty plays in the lives of many minorities. His exigence is stated by “…Syracuse is at the leading edge of a disturbing national trend in which the number of people living in extreme-poverty neighborhoods nearly doubled from 7.2 million in 2000 to 13.8 million in 2013, the highest on record”

The author here uses a lot of statistics to engage the readers into believing what they’re reading by supporting it with numbers. He uses graphs and a map of the US on areas that are most affected with poverty.

Obese kids in Onondaga County: Nearly half of students in some schools too fat

This article talks about a very important public health that many Americans face. In this case, kids in the Onondaga County. The author James T Mulder gives a lot of evidence and statistics of the number of obese kids in this county. He explains his exigence by saying “public health officials say the epidemic puts children at risk of developing diabetes, social and psychological problems, and increases their odds of having heart attacks, strokes and other serious health problems as adults…” His purpose is to bring this issue and make the readers realize that this is something we should all care about.

This author also supports his context with the same kind of evidence that the author from my first article. He uses a lot of graphs and statistics that helps the readers visualize where the problems are occurring. Visual aids are great ways to get readers to engage in the reading and the evidence you are supplying to think about the information in a different way.

Public Health Issues in Syracuse

  • http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/syracuse_has_nations_highest_poverty_concentrated_among_blacks_hispanics.html

This article above shows where Syracuse ranks among other cities in the United States based on the concentration of poverty this city encounters. It reiterates our discussion in class about Syracuse jumping to the number one spot of the most poorest city in the country. The article mentioned that the reason why Syracuse has experienced such high levels of poverty if because of suburban development that came at the expense of the central city and older suburbs.

  • http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2012/06/health_care_disparities_povert.html

This article mentions how the poverty in Syracuse leads to poor health in many minority communities. Thus, poverty leads to many health issues such as obesity, asthma, etc. It also speaks about the effects it has on kids and school.

 

Examples of Public Health Writing:

  • “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer –> This books deals with big slaughterhouses in the US and the big meat companies that used to exist in the 70-80’s. This book also reminds me of the essay by Susan Hess about end of life care specifically in animals and the way companies would kill animals in a cold-hearted way just so that the public can eat meat.
  • This article discusses the health issues sugar has on people’s diets. As society is becoming more advanced, people are realizing how much of an impact sugar plays in people’s health http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/sugar-is-the-new-public-health-enemy-1/423207/