Journal 1

Throughout the years, there have been a lot of homemade meals that I have fallen in love with, but there is one that my dad makes that just always tops the rest. It is a meal that is made a little bit differently every time but always ends up tasting amazing. We call it mayo chicken (I know it sounds weird, but it has amazing flavor). It is a pretty easy meal to make, only needing a few ingredients for the main portion. The chicken is always made with breast, even though thighs would be practically the same, and each chicken breast is always cut horizontally into three pieces, each relatively thin. The chicken is then slathered in a creamy mixture of mayonnaise, Italian breadcrumbs (not panko), garlic salt, onion salt, and Italian seasonings (these change each time). On top of the mayonnaise mixture, there is another layer of breadcrumbs to help the chicken crisp in the oven. Then the chicken is baked until perfectly crispy. My dad always serves the meal with two side dishes, a bowl of rice, and a vegetable. The rice is always the same, rice pilaf, but the vegetable changes depending on the day. I am not really sure how my dad makes the rice, but it always comes out buttery and fluffy. My favorite is when the chicken is paired with garlic-roasted green beans, but during the warmer months, corn on the cob with butter is a great pairing as well. Sometimes we will cook some rolls or mini baguettes to have some bread with the meal and it really finishes the meal perfectly.

Journal 3

One thing that I found interesting is that some writers just throw quotes in their work without explaining who said the quote. I find it confusing when someone adds a quote with no context as to who said it. I also found it helpful when the chapter talked about only adding relevant quotes to your topic. The page about introducing quotes is really helpful for me and is something that I will use in my future writing. I really liked how the chapter emphasized the importance of explaining quotes as well as giving examples of what not to do and how to add quotes correctly. I find it quite helpful when I am shown what not to do and given a basis for how to introduce the quotes properly. Overall, I found this chapter very informative and I learned a lot about how to add quotes to my writing. This is information that I will definitely use in all of my future writing.

Journal 4

I have always had a pretty standard drafting process when it comes to my writing. I find that having an organized outline and multiple drafts work better for me. When I am doing a large writing assignment, I like to make an outline of the main points that I will be writing about. I was taught in high school English to add as many details and full sentences in my outlines as possible. This has proven very helpful when I am writing a first draft. I have a hard time planning out what I am going to write until I am actually writing it. I find that what I want to say comes more naturally to me as I am trying to write something. In high school, we never really peer-reviewed in class. We were given an assignment and it had to be done completely outside of class, which made the opportunity to peer review tricky. However, I have always sent important writing assignments to my sister and grandfather to read before I attempt to revise them. My sister is a teacher, and my grandfather is a law professor, so I found that they are able to give me feedback that is can use to edit and revise my work.  I have always found it helpful for me to have other people look at my work before I try to revise it. After other people look my writing over, I go back through and revise what needs to be fixed. I always like to read my writing out loud to myself once I have revised it, to make sure that it sounds smooth. I also try to read it to another person in case there was something that I missed. Once all of these steps are completed, I am usually confident enough to submit what I have as a final draft.

Journal 5

I thought that this chapter in they say I say was extremely helpful. I liked how the book offered different writing templates in order to help “enter the conversation” and then encouraged you to actually use them. These templates are something that I will be using in my future writing when I need assistance in introducing a topic. I learned a lot of interesting things about academic writing and how important it is to not just argue your point but to introduce it into a conversation with the readers. I thought it was interesting when the chapter talked about how adding the ‘they say’ into an argument is important or it can leave the readers wondering why the argument is being talked about in the first place. I guess I never really thought about how the ‘they say’ adds clarity to the argument you are delivering. I found it helpful how in-depth the chapter went into the need to add the ‘they say’ in an argument. It really emphasizes the importance of other people’s views on the controversial topic in your writing. I found the templates to enter the conversation easy to understand but also very well set up. I found the paragraph about plagiarism really helpful for me. I have never really been the type to use pre-written templates like these in my work because I was worried about plagiarizing. However, because I now know that it isn’t plagiarism and I can use templates like these in my writing is very helpful. I also found these templates quite helpful because sometimes I have a hard time coming up with the right things to say, so being able to use these as a jumping-off point is going to really improve my writing. I feel like the information that this chapter provided will be extremely useful for me when I am writing in the future.

Journal 7

There were definitely a few different times throughout this essay where I either agreed or disagreed with something from Mann’s essay.

The first time was on page 3 in the last paragraph. This is when Mann is explaining how the Wizards view the prophet’s ideas. I do not agree with the wizard’s thinking here. I don’t believe that reducing consumption and cutting back on farming is intellectually dishonest, indifferent to the poor, or racist. I don’t believe that trying to save the environment before it is too late is in any way racist. Yes, I can see where the wizards are coming from. It would be more of a challenge to people who are already short on food to reduce their supply, but I don’t believe that is racist. It is not directed at people who live in a certain part of the world. It would be everybody working together to try and save the world’s ecosystem. I do not agree that it is dishonest to want to think about the environment and not put your complete faith in future technology. However, it is a complicated situation, for both the wizards and the prophets.

The second thing is on page 4 in the first paragraph. I agree with the statement talking about the long run. I don’t know much about the science and technology that the wizards are trying to enforce, but I know that it is extremely important to think about the long run when it comes to the health of the planet. If industrial farming is a short-term solution that causes more pollution and damage to our ecosystem, I don’t see it as a good investment. I don’t think that doing something that will do more damage, in the long run, is something that should be done at all, even if that means that there needs to be another short-term solution. If there was a way to industrialize farming that was better for the environment, I would be all for it, but the way that the wizards are suggesting is doing more harm than good. I can see the point the prophets are trying to make here, and I agree with it.

The third thing is on page 7 in the second full paragraph. I agree with what Mann was saying about needing to require some type of education about agricultural history. I think that it is really important that people are aware of how farming works and how soil affects the plant. I feel like if everyone had a little bit of an idea of how agriculture grows, it would allow people to have a better relationship with nature. If people were taught the negative impacts of factory-made fertilizer they might be less inclined to use it. I think that it should be required to some extent to educate people about the importance of agriculture and the major factors that are affecting it.

Journal 8

There were a few things in my essay that my peer reviewers agreed needed some work. I found that they all suggested that I introduce soylent a little bit better than I did. There were also a few comments about adding in-text citations that I found really helpful because I might have forgotten to add them. A lot of the comments that I offered were about MLA format. I really wanted to make sure that everybody had everything they needed to get the point for MLA format. I feel like it is hard to put everything that I wanted to say into a comment, so I used the comments as a starting point for my discussions. For example, in one essay, I left a comment about a sentence that did not flow very well. Then when we talked in person, I was able to explain my thinking and give a few suggestions about how to edit the sentence. Another comment I left was talking about a sentence being repetitive, and during the discussion, I was able to help change the sentence a little bit to make it sound smoother. I wish that we talked a little bit more about Barclay’s formula when peer reviewing. This peer review is very different that what I did in high school. We really did not do a lot of peer reviewing in school. My teachers would not give us much time to work together in class to peer review, so we never really found the time to do it. I like this a lot better. I find it really nice that we were able to look over each other’s essays before class so we would be able to actually discuss everything during class. I think this is a really helpful way to review an essay.

Journal 9

After reading “What the crow knows”, I realized that there is a lot that I don’t know about animals. I never really thought about how smart some animals actually are. There are so many things that I learned about the way that animals, specifically birds, think. I found this entire essay fascinating, but I especially thought that the idea of animals possibly having a consciousness of their own was so cool. I never spent the time to think about the way that animals think, similarly to humans. I am curious to know if all animals have a certain level of consciousness, or if it is just some of them. I also did not know that there was a specific group of people who brought up the idea that animals are conscious beings who feel some kind of emotion. I think that deep down I knew that animals were evolved enough to feel some kind of feeling, but this essay is really opening my eyes to how animals live their lives. I found it incredibly interesting that crows are smart enough to hold grudges and I now know how smart they actually are. While I was reading this essay, there were parts of it that reminded me of “consider the lobster”. I saw similarities between the two essays when they were talking about specific animals being able to feel pain and suffer. I was aware that a lot of animals are able to feel pain to some extent, but I did not realize just how much they are able to actually feel. I learned so much from reading this essay and it really made me see how similar humans and other animals actually are.

Journal 10

Page 317, the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the essay talk about the major differences between industrial-style farming and the type of farming that Polyface does. I think this is one of the main topics of the essay. Industrial farms focus on making money and being efficient, but it has a major impact on the animals and the environment. Polyface farm uses a different style of farming that is more similar to their natural ecosystems. I think that Pollan wanted to highlight this major difference in farming practices to show both the positive and negative aspects of both.  He wanted to show that the animals raised on the Polyface farm are treated like animals, not just like objects that make money. I think this section of the essay is closely related to Borlaug and Vogt and their perspectives. The essay shows the pros and cons of a farming style that is more technology and machinery based as well as one that is more traditional and environmentally friendly.

The second important passage is on page 320 in the second and third paragraphs. These talk about the treatment of pigs while at industrial farms. I think this is an important part of the essay because it shows how little industrial farms care about the animals’ well-being and how much they focus on making a profit. These types of farms focus on efficiency, and it impacts the quality of life of the animals. For example, taking away a pig from its mother at a very young age because they don’t gain weight fast enough. Another example clubbing a sick pig to death instead because it takes too much to treat it. Other types of farms choose to focus on the animal’s well-being instead of its ability to bring a profit.

Another important passage is on pages 322, paragraph 7, and 323 paragraphs one and two. This section of the essay focuses on explaining the importance of forests for farms. Pollan goes into detail about the many positive impacts trees have on farmlands and animals. He explains how the water supply of the farm is dependent on the forests holding in the moisture, but he also talks about how the shade that trees provide impacts the pigs and their stress levels, that live in the savanna. I think it is really important to understand that farms are not all grass and soil and that without the benefits that trees provide, farms would erode, dry up, and be a poor environment for animals to live in.

Journal 11

There were a lot of similarities between this chapter and some of the others that we have read. This chapter also focuses on the importance of including the “they say” perspective when arguing your point. I found it helpful that this chapter, like the others, stresses the necessity of adding the information that others are saying, especially when it motivates your argument. I found that I was never great at introducing other people’s views in my work, but the more I read about the “they say”, I become more confident about including it when I am writing. I think that this chapter was extremely helpful in showing me the best ways to add the “they say” into my writing through all of the examples and templates it provided. I find that I learn better when I am shown what to do using examples, instead of just being told, so having these templates to go back and use when I need to, is really helpful. I found this chapter as a whole super informative and I think it reiterated the importance of including the “they say” that we read about in the other chapters as well, without being too repetitive. I thought it was really cool to see that the chapter used real-world examples as well as the templates that were written specifically for this book. I also found it incredibly helpful that the chapter included exercises to try and practice with, as well as the templates. I think it is a great way for me to work on including other people’s ideas when I am writing. Out of all of the chapters that we have read so far, I think that this one has provided the most helpful information and examples for me.

Journal 12

There is, and probably will forever be, an ongoing debate over people’s willingness to be considerate. There is no right or wrong to a person’s beliefs, and everyone has a limit to how considerate they are inclined to be. However, many struggle to see the reasons behind a person’s ethical standings towards some plants and animals. Everyone sees the environment and the animals differently. Some believe that they are something that needs to be protected at all costs, and others see them as objects with the only purpose of keeping humans alive. But there is a grey area in this discussion. A middle ground that sees plants and animals as both food and living things. Not every person needs to pick a side in the ethical battle of whether humans should consider the well-being of every animal they want to eat. David Foster Wallace brings up the point that people avoid thinking about the ethics behind eating animals, and it is true. When a person makes the decision to cook a lobster, most of the time they just throw it into the pot without thinking of the moral implications of doing so. This is because people have limitations of how considerate they are willing to be. These limitations vary between people. I am the first to admit that I am not a vegetarian. I enjoy having meat in my diet, but that does not mean that I support the slaughtering of all animals. I certainly could never be the one to kill them, and I know that there are many out there who feel the same way. People avoid thinking about the pain and suffering that some animals feel when they die, and many are considerate to an extent. A large number of people see many things as morally less important than human beings, and that is not just directed toward animals. The environment is one thing that a lot of people choose not to think about. There are people whose limits of being considerate end on the planet. It is seen as the home to all living things, but the health of our ecosystems is not always considered. Some are unwilling to consider the environment as something that needs to be protected. There are even people who draw their lines at other humans. Sometimes those who stand higher up in life choose not to be considerate of those who are not as well off. Every person has their own beliefs as to what is ethically right and wrong, and this plays a huge role in how much thought is put into some decisions. There are many factors that determine whether a person is willing to be considerate.

Journal 13

After rereading Consider the Lobster, there were a lot of things that David Foster Wallace says that I still agree with. However, there were also a few parts that I changed my opinion on after thinking about the other essays I have read. I have never agreed with boiling seafood alive when cooking them, and with what I have learned about animals’ ability to feel pain and have a consciousness to some extent, I definitely still feel strongly about this. I do not like to eat lobster anyway, but I believe that people should use a more humane way of killing them before they cook. Especially because there are other ways of killing the lobsters less painfully. I am not against eating animals like lobsters, I just do not think that putting them through this much suffering, because it has been proven that they can feel some type of pain, is right. As much as I hate to admit it, I partially agree with Wallace about animals, some of them but not all of them, being morally less important than humans. I hate the idea of animals being slaughtered so that people can enjoy the meat, but I find that I avoid thinking about the ethics behind it as much as possible because I do eat meat. I think after reading Michael Pollan’s essay and really getting an understanding of how industrial farms treat animals, I definitely want to start thinking more about the pain animals feel when they are killed. If there is a more humane way of killing or cooking some animals, specifically the lobster than I am all for it. I know that everyone is not going to just stop eating meat because they might feel emotions, but I am hopeful that some people will find alternative ways to kill animals so that at least they will not have to suffer. This is something that not everybody spends the time to think about, but it is definitely something that I will debate if I am ever cooking lobsters.

Journal 14

I really liked the story that the chapter opened with. I found it very helpful to know that criticism is a natural part of writing and even professionals receive some for their work. I did not realize how much including the criticism that you received can improve your writing. I find it interesting that accepting criticism and incorporating it can only strengthen your side in your writing. I also liked that this chapter included an illustration. It helped explain the chapter’s main point in a way that was easy to visualize and fun to look at. Just like with the other chapters we have read in this book, I found the templates very helpful. I have never been good at addressing critiques in my writing because I was worried about coming across as rude or difficult. Having the templates to show me how to entertain others’ objections respectfully will allow me to include any criticism in my writing. I also found it helpful that the chapter talked about different ways to incorporate “naysayers” opinions fairly while still being able to stand your ground. This explains how to answer any questions about the point without losing sight of your main argument, which I find really important. Like the last chapter we read, I found it super helpful that the end of the chapter includes some exercises for people to do. These allow me to practice including the naysayer’s opinion in paragraphs that were already written. I think that these practice exercises will be helpful for me and are something that I will certainly utilize along with the many templates throughout the chapter. Overall, I found the information that this chapter provided very insightful and something that I will work on when I am writing.

Journal 16

I think the first thing I am going to do to revise my paper goes back and relook at all the comments that my peer reviewers posted. I want to make sure that they all make sense, and I will get rid of the ones that repeat between peers. Then I will go back and make a sort of “outline” of all the information I will add using the comments. I find if I map out what I need to work on or change it will make it easier to add to my essay. I will then go through and follow the suggestions that were left throughout the essay, making sure that everything I need to change is fixed. Once I add all of the new revisions to my paper, I want to thoroughly go through the entire essay, making sure that it runs smoothly and is grammatically correct. I will probably reread the essay multiple times to make sure that adding additional information did not alter the flow of the essay at all. I always like to read my writing out loud to myself because I find that I catch a lot more errors that way. Once I have gone through everything I will edit anything that needs to be fixed, making sure there are no spelling errors. I will probably read the essay to someone else as well to see if others can catch any mistakes.

Journal 17

After I had thoroughly read through both my peers’ comments and my essay again, I went through and made many revisions to my paper. I wanted to make sure that I mapped out everything that I wanted to add or change in my draft, so I made an “outline” of my plans. I wanted to focus on what my peers had suggested before I went back through and edited the paper for grammar and spelling. I made sure to incorporate any ideas that my peers had where I thought they would fit best. One of the major things that both of my peer reviewers mentioned was about my transitions. I went through and made sure that I had transitions that not only made sense but made transitioning from paragraph to paragraph smooth. I feel like I took more time and actually listened to my peer review comments this time around better than last time. I also had to go through and make major changes throughout my essay because I incorporated too many sources in my draft. I think this step was easy for me because my review comments were really helpful, and my peers had given me a lot of great feedback to help me change things up. I think that the feedback I had gotten was helpful for me and allowed me to make changes to my essay that had an impact. I have learned how important peer reviewing is in the writing process. Having multiple sets of eyes on my work helped catch any errors in my writing and overall allowed me to make it better. I think that the revision process is a lot easier to do when you have some great feedback to work off of. I think the entire revision step was easier to do for this project than for the last one.

Journal 18

Page 4 paragraph 2 talks about how people spend more time watching cooking than actually cooking. I think this would be an interesting thing to write about because it is true. I find it so interesting that people still enjoy watching television shows about cooking but do not want to cook food for themselves. I think it is fascinating how much time people spend making themselves dinner compared to how much time people used to spend.

Page 5 paragraph 2 is all about Julia Child and how she was not afraid to make mistakes when she was cooking. I found this part super interesting because it made the television show feel real. It allowed normal people to relate to a professional chef in the kitchen. She made cooking something that anyone can do, and she inspired so many people to follow along and make food for themselves. I think this is a really important part of cooking shows.

Page 12 paragraph 1 is all about how the Food Network made their shows less about cooking real food and more about getting people to watch more television. I think this is something I would like to write about. Food television shows used to be about teaching people who are not chefs how to cook, and now they are all about getting views. I love to watch the competition shows that Food Network runs, but I do not learn anything new from watching them. They are only for entertainment purposes. Having shows like this makes people not want to cook as much as just sit and watch other people cook.

Journal 21

I think the main focus for my revision of project three is going to be incorporating all of my sources and having a strong Barclay’s formula. I have my sources and quotes picked out and scattered throughout my essay, but as my peers mentioned, I really did not connect them together very well. I connected them back to Pollan a little bit, but I wanted to try to relate them to each other as well. I also want to read through my essay again and work on my transitions more. Some of my comments pointed out that they could be smoother, and I agree. I need to work on making my paragraphs fit together better even though they are talking about separate topics. After I have gone through and added anything I need to or changed anything, I want to make sure I have all of the requirements from the rubric and read through to make sure that my essay makes sense and sounds good. The last thing that I do when revising my essays is put everything into MLA format. I write my papers in single-line spacing and double-space them when I am done. After I have everything ready I always like to have someone else read my essays one last time to make sure that everything is ready to be turned in.