Unit 3
Elayne Susana Matos
Professor Hall
English
11/21/2019
How to do it
My genre is writing a magazine article about autism. To be more specific, I will be doing an article for teen vogue. When writing a magazine article you want to catch the reader’s attention. Therefore, you need a good hook! When looking at the articles teen vogue had to offer, I was amazed by the hooks they had. For example, “Camila Cabello Apologized for “Hurtful” Language After She Was Called Out for Racism.”. It made me want to read the article, because the main topic was already exposed in the title. That’s when I realized one of the most important of the formula is a great and shocking hook. As I kept reading the other articles, I saw there was suspense they didn’t tell you what you were looking for right away. They just hit you with details and facts, it feels like forever to get to the point, but it is information that Honestly would be good to know. After noticing the hook and the suspense that comes right after, I immediately compared it to my topic on autism. Including what type of Audience I’m seeking for. Since my topic is not about a celebrity or something trendy, it is in fact something informative. Finding a catchy hook for that will be hard but it isn’t impossible! After finding my hook, I will ease my reader with information that’s not boring and too scientific. I will write it in a way they feel I’m speaking to them directly face to face. I think that is a good tactic to keep the reader engaged in the reading and actually taking something out from it. I do need to be careful with the information I share. Not making it more interesting than what the actual hook will do this. When I get to my main point of the article, I will ask questions to help the reader relate to a person with autism, and see where people with autism are coming from or dealing with on a daily basis. Finally, I will end my article with a little sentimental conclusion. Ending with one fact that they will carry on with them.
Health
Are you being stereotypical when it comes to mental
disorders ?
“These stereotypes happen more often than you think.”
By Elayne Susana Matos
December 3, 2019
Most people just assume things all the time about anything. Imagine something complicated like a mental disorder. Let’s focus on autism, “ people with autism are retards”. This is one of the most common stereotypes I’ve heard followed by, “They don’t feel emotions”. There is always a stereotype for every group of people. It’s wrong, but hey it’s true. Now how would you know if you’re being stereotypical? Well, you would have to know the facts first.
The facts
People with autism have trouble with acknowledging people’s feelings. According to the National Autistic Society, “ Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people”. This means that they will know if you’re sad or happy, eventually. It would just take them longer to process that you are feeling the way you do . Not knowing this information when interacting with a person with autism waiting for a quick reaction, might be awkward. It might make you assume things that are not true.
Autism, first and foremost has 4 different spectrums. Yes, there’s 4 different types of autism! According to Autism speaks,”In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association merged four distinct autism diagnoses into one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.” (What is autism?). The different types are autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. During my research I read about an autistic child who used typing as a way of communicating. I’ve also seen and read about others with photographic memory. Autistic people can range from solving the quadratic formula in seconds to struggling with just 2+2. They do not fall under one category. They come in many different shapes and sizes just like the majority of the population with no mental disabilities.
Something interesting that most people don’t know about autistic people is that they carry a certain interest with them all the time. What do I mean by this? Okay so, as seen on the netflix show “Atypical” by Robvia Rashid the main character is let’s say obsessed with penguins. The penguins are his main interest. Now how does he carry this interest with him? When in a situation or before a situation happens in his regular life he thinks what would penguins do?When he developed a crush on his therapist. The main character followed the steps penguins make when finding a mate. These interests help them understand and deal with what is going on around them.
After reading these facts, did you find yourself stereotypical to this group of people? Did one of these facts clear up something you had in your head about autistic people? When we read the facts we find the faults in stereotypes. Next time please don’t assume. Look it up online instead of assuming. When interacting with someone with autism please remember these they have feelings too! https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism
Unit 2
Elayne Susana Matos
Professor Hall
English
The world as we see it so simple and full of agendas to fulfill. Everyday things we are accustomed to like Asking another how you’re doing or acknowledging that someone is there, that comes so natural to us. Now might that be the case for everyone? The way we function and react since babies have impacted our social lives. A large majority of us don’t react and understand like the rest. These people are viewed differently and are misjudged. Which made me stop being selfish and actually want to understand the different perspectives of life. Instead of ignoring the facts I decided to learn about different disabilities one by one. Which brought me to my question “What is autism? How does a person with autism process information?” Let’s find out!
Before we get into the specifics, as you should know autism is considered a disability and people with disabilities often get discriminated because they are not understood and are misjudged. “HR Hub“ a website where it’s insured employees are not being discriminated against by displaying news specifically on employees suing their jobs for violations and etc also showing ADA compliance guide. On this website cases from employers are displayed legitimely with details. A person with a mental disability at Chuck E Cheese in wisconsin was fired due to their disability of mental retardation. This is an example of disability discrimination. The EEOC which is an agency responsible for enforcing federal laws of applicants or employees such as harassment or discrimination brought Chuck E cheese to court, making EEOC plaintiffs and chuck E cheese the defendants. While the defendants argued “ it is highly unlikely that he experienced any significant distress as a result of his termination”(Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case). Basically that because of this person’s mental state being fired didn’t significantly affect them. Opposing, the plaintiff’s argued that just because of a person’s mental state that does not mean they cannot acknowledge discriminations they do consider these feelings even if it’s not done in a traditional way. As a result the jury’s decision was a sum of 13 million dollars in punitive damages, 10,000 in back pay and 70,000 in compensatory. The jury also wanted this to be a message for employers to give equal opportunities to those with mental disabilities.
When reading this case I felt disgusted by this employer’s actions. Having a mental disability does not mean you are vulnerable. The plaintiff’s brought a statement from the Chuck E Cheese manager stating “ Chuck E Cheese don’t hire those type of people” (Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case). As the manager called it ‘those type of people’ are just people who view the word different than we do and that is okay, we shouldn’t fear that. The comments made about how the ex employer wouldn’t acknowledge the distress was very ignorant from their side. The jury did a great job with their decision and sending a message to employers across america.
Social interactions for people with autism is a constant everyday battle. They are blind and/or immune into understanding that someone is sad. That sadness and happiness are two different things. They struggle with asking questions that come naturally to us like “how are you feeling today?”. The national autism society is the UK’s leading charity for autistic people. They are often getting involved in autistic cases which is why this is such a reliable source. In their article they stated “Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people – recognising or understanding others’ feelings and intentions”(Autism).They have a hard time acknowledging people’s feelings. In addition, “This can make it very hard for them to navigate the social world”(Autism). Navigating everyday life is difficult. they tend to appear insensitive because of this and not seek comfort by other people.
A big key to humanity in my opinion is feelings and social interactions. Feelings can often affect your actions and help people describe who you are in their eyes.It is import to acknowledge this about autistic people and take them into consideration. I actually find this very interesting because I think feelings are involved with passion. Something autistic people have is passion and dedication. They have these feelings and they aren’t even aware of them. Which is something I’ve been learning about them and most people don’t know. Unfortunately, they don’t share that instinct with us instead they replace that skill into other skills we don’t acknowledge ourselves.
Aside from having trouble with social interaction people with autism have different ways of communicating. The Time is known for their partnership with the new cast CNN. They did an article called “inside the autistc minds” written by Claudia Wallis. She is the managing editor of scientific minds and a health reporter. They focused on autistic kids and gathered evidence about them which made this such a reliable source. Hannah, a kid with autism, she communicates by typing. “ a girl thought to be incapable to read or write wrote I love mom”(Claudia Wallis). In this case the specialist were worried this girl couldn’t communicate but they found out that she can just in a different way. This girl was actually full with information inside of her head. The reason is “autistic children tend to have the brain of a 13 year old.”(Claudia Wallis). Later on she was asked, “ Do you have a photographic memory?’ and ‘Hannah typed “yes”(Claudia Wallis). These people have abilities we just can see it’s all inside their minds.
Do most autistic people have a photographic memory? I would like to know. Hannah was given a worksheet with 30 math problems and got all 30 right in an instance. This shows how she remembers everything she sees. As you can see autistic kids are very quick. They are in tune with the world already full of knowledge with everything they see and they analyze it since a young age. Which is pretty amazing how rapid their brains grow.Now that we are getting deep into the brains of autistic children. Autistic kids brains start growing rapidly since the start. “ they experience rapid expansion since the age of 2” (Claudia Wallis). Since the age of 2 they start to analyze and process information. Which a regular person does not do.
People with autism always have an interest that is what they think about and relate every scenario to. Atypical a show on netflix produced by robia rashid a talented writer of hit shows was interested in kids growing into independence who are in the spectrum. When writing this show she did a lot of research and met with a lot of people asking what they thought about her main character who was on the spectrum. This is why this is a credible source .In the netflix show Atypical the main character is autistic and he is very interested in penguins and antártica. When he confronts situations in his everyday life he compares it to a penguin it relaxes him and helps him better understand the situation and what he should do. When he decided he was ready to start dating he compared himself to the penguin male and how they find a partner. He saw how penguins get attention from the female penguins and assert their dominance and so he did the same he changed his appearance. He even made desserts for the person he was trying to make his partner. He wasn’t doing it because of how he felt he did it because it was what penguins did when they are ready to mate.As you can see penguins take a big part in his life and is very important to him. I see this as a comfort zone for him.
In this show, you get to see how and why he makes his every move. This autistic kid being the main character helped understand what might be going on inside an autistic person’s mind. When it comes to the interest we just don’t see that he likes penguins we see that he relates and helps him to cooperate with his everyday life. It shows how he is always thinking about it and it calms him down. This inside look helped understand what can be going on inside an autistic mind and of course how information might be processed in their head.
After reading all these articles learning all these new things I still want to read more and if I’m lucky watch one more netflix show like the one I introduced. Did I answer my question for the most part yes but my question has an on going answer that keeps building on every month year or day as we speak. It is a question I have to keep my eyes on. The autistic mind could feel like a maze to people very hard to understand this is why I chose this question. There are still other things I did not get to discuss that I will research on my own. What is the process of helping people with autism with social interaction? And so does it help them in the real world?
“Autism – What Is It?” Autism Support – Leading UK Charity – National Autistic Society, www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx.
“Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case.” Www.hrhub.com, www.hrhub.com/doc/jury-awards-record-13-million-in-disability-d-0001.
Wallis, Claudia. “Inside the Autistic Mind.” Time, Time Inc., 7 May 2006, content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1191843,00.html.
Ramos, Dino-Ray. “’Atypical’ EP And Cast Discuss Authentic Representation Of Autism And The Casey-Izzie Romance – ATX.” Deadline, 10 June 2019, deadline.com/2019/06/atypical-mary-rohlich-brigette-lundy-paine-fivel-stewart-jenna-boyd-amy-okuda-robia-rashid-netflix-1202629867/.
Unit 1
Elayne Susana matos
Prof. Hall
English 1101
9/12/2019
After transferring schools Clinton was NOT your regular high school at all, I don’t care how much you can relate or compare to your high school. This school was just on some other shit. On my first day of school… let me tell you. That is when I realized this school was not shit. Why right when I walk in through the doors the security guards by the scanners were looking at me like I’m their next predictor. Looking like hungry ass lions in the wild. Honestly this is a school. They swore they were working at a prison word to my mother. You got security guards patting you down and passing the hand wand all around you. I’m just thinking in my head “What the fuck do these kids bring to school? Like am I bugging or?” .
Anyways, after the trauma with the security guards. which was nothing compared to what I saw. I literally could not tell the difference, like was I at school or on Fordham road right now? These guys were posted up on the wall, hollering at girls and playing dice (sort of like gambling) in the corners. I just kept walking straight trying to ignore all this nonsense. Specially these ugly kids trying to holla at me. I saw a friend I made on Facebook that went to this school down the hallway. I was so relieved because I didn’t even have a schedule in my hand. therefore, I had no clue where my classes were. She was so cute with her dirty blonde curly hair and her Nike outfit from head to toe. She approached me all happy and excited. She laughs at me and says “are you okay you look lost hahahah” which I was honestly. “Yes, I am I need to find an office or something because I do not even have my schedule bro” I responded stressed. She directed me to an office where I waited a whole hour. Walking with her felt like I was a child at a carnaval who had lost their mother. At every corner she greeted someone and every time I blinked she was on to the next. It was so stressful figuring out where she went and all these people looking at me.
Once I walked in, there was a huge line with students filled with complaints about their schedules and all that nonsense. When the counselor finally got to me she kept going on how I was not on the system yet. A bunch of excuses on why I didn’t have a schedule set up yet. She looked weird to me. She had pointy reading glasses and looked like the suit maker from the incredibles. Honestly I did not care I just wanted this to be over with. She made my schedule right then and there. I mean you could say I was lucky because I got to pick which classes I wanted which is rare in high school.While she was putting my schedule together breaks were taken in-between with a lot conversation about nothing work related very unprofessional.
After leaving that office at 12p. I headed to my 5th period class, where only 10-7 students were present. Mind you the attendance had about 30 students who were supposed to be there. Now this was the most shocking thing. I see this spacious room with no students. The teacher rushing around the room with her blond curly hair going on about some nonsense. A couple of students on the smart board watching a football game and the rest well talking. I sat down and just stared at everything going on. She exclaimed out of nowhere saying “please take out a pen and paper and look productive thank you”. So is she not planning on teaching a lesson? Anything? I realized how going to class in this school was rare I just couldn’t understand why would that even be rare. I came from a school where if you came late you had detention or if You didn’t wear uniform you got sent home and where you rarely saw one person in the hallways. Also you would have to pay a dollar Friday’s to Not wear uniform but that is another story.
Coming to Dewitt clinton high school impacted the way I viewed education and school, because first and foremost no one seemed to care about their education. The staff and teachers didn’t care about giving it to the students either. This school showed me how a school is an effort everyone part takes in it not only the teachers. A teacher can not teach a class if the students do not show up. This also showed me how some educational campuses are corrupted and most importantly none cares about your education more than you. What you put in is what you get out of it. This school that I am describing to you is where a lot of famous people graduated from including Stan lee. A school with money and many opportunities of programs and everything you can name provided and these kids did not take advantage. Education and school has to be something you want and are willing to work for it will not be handed to you all the time. Sometimes you have to work for it. That was a big lesson I learned there. It also impacted me to learn on my own and to not rely on my teachers for everything, to take responsibility for my own education.
Homework
On my paper I did not specify the audience. I need to go over my writing and find not only the audience but the topic and why the reader is reading my story. I will remove sentences and apply more scenes to back up my topic. Also I will work on my transition to make it easier for the reader to know the audience I’m seeking. I did not specify if I was talking to teachers students or both which throws off my whole writing. Transitioning my writing will also help. the reader catch up to what I’m saying going in steps. Instead of me jumping from one thing to another.My plans for all of this is to start over with the goal and audience and applying all these things I said like transition and etc.The other option I had in mind was to take the old version and just add on sort of editing it instead of writing it over. I have a feeling writing it all over would be better because can focus on what I want to perfect on. This means I will automatically remove irrelevant things in my writing. I will also take count on the readings we have read in class to help with my writing. The readings will help me reflect so I can improve what I have. Basically I will start over from scratch with the same side and a solid topic to better my paper. I will also ask my peers to read it for more support.
Reflection
As I look at my work for the research project on unit 2, I can tell I learned new things just by looking at it. The first thing I learned was how to do a research project. Which is very different from a research paper I might add. The struggles I went through doing this project has prepared me to write a better one in the future. Another thing I took away from this project was how to do a proper citation even though we just copied and pasted from a website. I learned the way a citation should look and what needs to be included. Citations was one of my big take away because college writing is different from high school. In high school teachers weren’t so strict about quotations and giving credit to where you found the information from. On the other hand in college is very important you do those things because college is actually a transition to the real world. In college you’re not being babied you start taking responsibilities. This is why I’m glad this unit taught me about how to properly use and make citations because there is big consequences when credit isn’t given. I have become a better writer because everything you learn as little as it can be, can influence your writing. I believe there is always room for change, even if you think you are perfect at something, you can learn something new and become better at it. On our last unit, the genre unit I learned and saw the difference between genre, I also saw how the genre impacted how you are supposed to write your paperIncludin the structure. This stood out to me so much, because I saw how people went through their own own struggles trying to meet their genre requirement. For example me i had to read several articles to fulfill my requirement. Overall, as I went back to revise my work, many errors were found. I revised unit 3 and 1 and there were so many run ons. Since we also learned in class how to use commas and quotations properly. I went back and added so many commas and periods, Honestly looking back at my work opened my eyes. The group project we had in class really helped me fix my grammatical errors. In addition, not only did I add quotations and commas. I also added sentences like evidence and deleted sentences. I also re-phrased
What I meant to say in a much simpler way.
