If I could change anything in my society...

Amanda Gamban

Professor Knapp

English 1A

27 April 2013

Research topic:  Fair Trade

If I could change anything in the world I would want to change many things.  One of the things I would want to change the most in the world is to stop our need for over-consumption and outsourcing to other countries. What will solve this is problem is bringing awareness to people about the dangers and horrific outcomes of outsourcing and to teach people about fair trade. Fair trade is a solution that will not only prevent outsourcing but bring so many other positive outcomes as well, such as a cleaner environment, create better products and bring third world countries out poverty. Instead of the United States and other first world companies only profiting from the worlds resources, fair trade creates and equal opportunity for every other country as well.

We live in a society that has a major demand to stay in trend, update ourselves, and have a fixation on everything new. Why is that? Well we live in a country where we consume to help create jobs, help our economy, and try to live in the life of luxury. That sounds nice right? But what is our consumption really doing to the rest of the world? Many people are unaware that our everyday choices are affecting the lives of others, especially in developing countries. The reason being is that major companies in the United States have gone over seas to get the cheapest price of labor and don’t cause environmental effects in our hometowns. While Americans and other first world countries are benefiting from the well priced clothing and seasonal fruit that comes all year round, the rest of the world is suffering.

When we think about developing countries, we imagine the poverty and the hardship they go through. There are organizations and charities out there that help developing countries, but is that the best way to help them improve? Emma Watson a supporter of Fair Trade states, “[that] charity as wonderful as it is money runs out”. She visited the Swallows of India and saw how fair trade jobs significantly helped those people. For people in developing countries fair trade jobs do so much more that give them more of the profit. Workers and farmers help rebuild their communities and give them a positive outlook on life. When these countries are building better communities they are creating a better way for there children to be educated, better health care programs, and a cleaner environment.

What people need to be aware of is that the consumer holds the largest impact on these Fair Trade companies. By being aware of what is occurring in the rest of the world we can realistically create a better world to live in. We hold the power to change how society should really look at major corporate companies. Instead of buying what is going to be in trend one minute and out the next we can buy not only for ourselves but also for the sake of creating a better life for others.

Works Cited 

"The Importance of Fair Trade Fashion - Emma Watson and Safia Minney."YouTube.     YouTube, 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

RA : Killer Culture

Amanda Gamban

Professor Knapp

English 1A

21 April 2013

Rhetorical Analysis: “Killer Culture”

            David Kupelian the author of the article “Killer Culture” has written many other articles such as, “7 Radical Things that would happen if Obama is Reelected” and “Why conservatives are abandoning the ‘Gay’ issued”.  Most of his articles are issues of the American people with conservative points of view. The main audience that he is trying to reach for this article is parents, so he could inform them of the affects and outcome of this generation before it is too late. The audience is also intended for other conservatives and republican Americans who share the same beliefs as him. The audience reaction to this article if they did not share the same beliefs as him would be shocked and possibly insulted.

            In this article the text demonstrates a character and tone that engages the reader.  The type of character that Kupelian uses within the text is formal due to the large amount research and evidence. He also engages the reader by characterizing the text academically as he is trying to inform the reader along with the use of hip vocabulary. Even though his style of text is demonstrated well his sense tone is ignorant, too serious, and maddening. Even though he supports his opinions with evidence he over states his view by thinking that every teenager will end up horrible if affected by MTV, tattoos, rap music or corporations like Disney, which is certainly is wrong and disrespectful.

What Kupelian is trying to accomplish in this article is to persuade the reader that corporations, rap music, TV shows, tattoos etc. create outcomes that are extremely horrendous and negatively influence this new generation of teenagers and kids. For example describes to the reader that today children are exposed and strongly influenced by a toxic attraction to trends. Such as “gangster nation” as Kupelian explains that this cool trend is where kids are trying to act more black or gangster by how they dress and act. Not only does he adopt a strong attitude against today’s generation he reviles that the only way to make sure your child doesn’t end up corrupted is by not exposing to today’s society at all . His point of view is unmistakably shown throughout the entire article. In this article his supports his text by not only by research but by comparing this generation to what past generations have done and his own personal experiences.

In “Killer Culture” Kupelian arranges the article so the reader can easily comprehend his perspective and evidence he found. He thoroughly integrates his opinions and points of view with in his information. How he displays his work makes it easier for the reader to understand where he is coming from. By breaking his topics into sections the reader can see many different examples of how Kupelian see’s this generation of teenagers as a “ Killer Culture”. He strongly emphasizes on the negativity that this new generation brings instead of the good things, which can reveal too much bias to the reader and minimize the view of how teenagers really are. Kupelian’s intentions are only sought to be good but depending how the reader reacts to his use of ignorant language and far-right views this article come across as a slap to the face of how this generation has become.

Reading Response #3

Gamban 6

Amanda Gamban

Professor Knapp

English 1A

14 April 2013

Reader Response #3: Killer Culture

            They type of life style, influences, and trends have always changed for every generation. In the article “Killer Culture” by David Kupelian illustrates to the reader that the influences and trends of today have a severe negative affect on the youth of America. Kupelian’s evidence and religious based opinions are strongly shown through this article, along with what he thinks can prevent and solve this troubled generation. He explains how morals have changed and what was once an extreme is now normal such as piercings,cutting, tattoos, rap music, and sex. His view on the generation of today is that teenagers have been corrupted by corporations and trends and then demonstrate no more respect for themselves of the people around them.          

            Kupelain revels how children have been influenced into what is “cool”. He states according the PBS Frontline documentary “Merchants of Cool” that, “major corporations-Viacom, Disney, AOL/TimeWarner and others-study American’s Children like laboratory rats in other to sell them billions of dollars in merchandise by tempting, degrading, and corrupting them” (654). To say that they are corrupting the minds of little children seemed at first a little extreme. If you think about it any type of business wants to insure satisfaction to their customers and they do so by discovering what they like. Through the eyes of Kupelain corporations manipulate children by wanting the newest of toys, shows, amusement parks, etc. by discovering what they like and then using it against them.  As he explains you start to consider his point of view because for example kids to adults always want the newest of things (smartphones, cars, clothes etc.) Kupelain states that, “ [corporations] look at the teen markets as a part of this massive empire they’re trying to colonize”. They are simply trying to win over and manipulate teenagers and kids to keep them for wanting more and more of their product.

            So what do teenagers and kids want more of? According to the article they want more intoxicating music, clothing, sex, books, films and trends that corporations produce. For example MTV and other networks are basically commercializing products for different companies to influence their watchers to buy their product or trend. MTV and other networks also show how teenagers are supposed to be, by producing raunchy and relaxed sexual TV shows, movies, and other products as well. Kueplain believes that, “Real Life and TV life have begun to blur”. He does have a point when it comes to networks relaxing sex when it comes to teenagers. Today’s society see's sex as a casual thing rather than a promise you are supposed to make to God, which does influence kids and faces them with the facts of the outcomes that come along with those actions. From a teenagers perspective you always want to try new things and these shows and trends might influence you, but that doesn’t necessarily brainwash you into doing raunchy devious acts.

            Kueplian strong religious beliefs and morals certainly don’t believe nor care for what society if doing to today’s youth. In the article he explains how self-mutilation such as cutting, piercing, and tattoos has become a common practice for teenagers. He explains that, “[they] feel as though they too, are moving not toward death, but toward life and greater “spirituality”” (658). He believes that they are going toward a spiritualty where you end up closer to the center of the earth rather than the sky. First of all tattoos and piercings are forms of expression and cutting it a more of a psychological problem. From a religious standpoint you could agree with his opinion, but from where the American society is today with freedom of expression in our blood his statement is a very old-fashioned and outdated.

            His archaic views have given him the idea of the only way for your children to not be influenced by these corporations and negative influences is to homeschool them. Also to choose their activities they should participate in. This is defiantly not the only way to raise your children to prevent them into becoming a horrible person in “Kueplian’s terms”. Many people go to public school and choose their own activities and don’t turn out rotten or brainwashed. Kueplian’s intentions are only to prevent children from being negatively influenced, which seems promising at first. Then as you read through the rest of the article, his views are biased and far to extreme to what is the reality of the actual situation.

MLA Information

Callamard, Dr. Agnes .”Unvieled: Art and Censorship in Iran”. Article19.org,. Article 19 MENA Programme, 25 Sept. 2006. Web. 10 Mar. 2013

This was source is an online Journal Article from Article 19.org. According to Instructor Knapp, “Indirect quotations are not exact wordings but rather re-phrasings or summaries of another person's words. In this case, it is not necessary to use quotation marks. However, indirect quotations still require proper citations, and you will be committing plagiarism if you fail to do so.” From not knowing this before, this saved me from making wrong attributions in my paper. I know now that by citing your information properly will protect you from committing plagiarism. Also this shows where you found your insightful information instead of having the reader keep guessing where it came from or assuming it came directly from you.

            Library 10 has been helpful on showing me proper ways to attribute our work in MLA stlye. Library 10 also helps us with the process of building our knowledge of writing a research paper and helping us find accurate information to use from the library.