Monday:
WRITE: First source entry! Print 2 copies and bring to class; one for peer review and one to turn in to me. Try to include at least one “quote sandwich” in there. Remember to introduce, explain and analyze your quote! Use the examples I posted on Agenda for Week 7 as models for your own source entry; go over the assignment for the Annotated Bibliography again for details about what I expect to see in this (and each) source entry.
Wednesday:
WRITE: Your second “Source Entry” Draft. Post it here as a comment.
David Rivera
Source #2 Title: “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” Author: James Paul Gee Year: 2003
` Summary
This influential book explores how video games can facilitate learning by engaging players in problem-solving, critical thinking, and active participation. Gee’s work provides insights into the educational potential of video games. He goes into detail talking about how playing strategy games can increase the cognitive abilities of people. He even goes on talking about his own video-gaming experience learning and using games as diverse as Lara Croft and Arcanum, Gee looks at major specific cognitive like how people develop sense of identity, grasps meanings, evaluating and following commands and how people pick role models and how they think about the world.
Rhetorical Analysis
The title speaks for itself and it’s about how gaming can help you develop key things to live in the world today. This book was written as an educational piece to inform people that videogames are not as bad as the seam but that they really do teach people everyday lessons. I believe that he was able to get his point across and teach people that just because a game may seem pointless that there is an actual lesson behind them most of the time. The tone he uses is also effective because he is also coming from a personal standpoint and is trying to connect with the reader while getting his point across. The evidence is reliable because it was from scientific research done to find out an accurate way of telling if video games are actually threatening or not.
Source #2: Munshi-South, Jason. “I’ve Studied N.Y.C Rodents for 12 Years. The Enemy Is Us.” The New York Times, August 2023. I’ve Studied N.Y.C Rodents for 12 Years. The Enemy Is Us.
Summary:
The article starts by introducing the Mayor of New York City actions towards the rat population. Mayor Eric Adams has publicized his hatred for rats and is doing everything in his power to manage the population. His first phase in finding a solution to the rat problem was hiring a “rat czar”. A “rat czar” is a city-wide director of rodent mitigation and the person appointed for the job is Kathleen Corradi. According to the article, New York City is trying to decrease the rat population by killing as many rats as possible instead of limiting major factors rats benefit from. These factors can consist of the large amounts of garbage on streets that give them food and water, and the abandoned buildings that give them a place to live and hide. The rat czar acknowledged these factors and decided to improve New York City’s strategy by restricting rats’ access to human food and outdated infrastructure. Before this New York City strategy was mainly killing rats with poison to decrease their population. The article claims in 2021, city agencies applied over 60,000 pounds of rodenticide poisons in New York. Killing rats with poison can be considered insufficient because of rats’ reproduction system. It only takes 6 weeks for female rats to become sexually mature and depending on their health conditions, one female can give birth to two or three pups each year. Therefore, it is impossible to kill rats faster than they are breeding. Only a few survivors are necessary to restore a population. The rat problem in New York City also has an impact on racial and socioeconomic inequality. Rats prefer to live in old and damaged buildings, which ultimately leads them to the poorer neighborhoods. Rats’ presence alone diminishes the local standard of living in these areas and the article claims that rat infestations can increase mental health problems among residents. The article continues by claiming rats have their own genetic “neighborhoods” that correlate with human ones. Rats are expected to stay close to their birth place, only traveling within a few city blocks. Therefore, a possible solution to managing the rat population would be targeting known areas where rats live since we know that they will most likely stay in that area. The rat czar mentioned in the beginning has acted on his strategy as well. She is in the process of mandating more secure garbage containers, improving trash pickups, and removing food from the normal waste system in rat populated areas. However, the rat czar and New York City can only do so much alone. The people who live here need to start contributing too. The article comes to an end by highlighting New York City’s issue with food waste. New Yorkers are estimated to waste 6.5 million pounds of food per day. If the people in New York City want to decrease the rat population, cleaning up after yourself plays an important role. The article ends by stating “We must start focusing on our behaviors, not theirs”.
Key quotes:
Rhetorical Analysis:
The purpose of this article is to educate the reader on why New York City has so many rats and why the population is growing so fast. The author of this article is a professor of biology at Fordham University and has been studying rodents for 12 years. As expected the article is extremely informative and also trustworthy. In addition to the article providing reliable facts, data, and statistics the author shares his opinion on the topic. The author gives important insight on how New York City can manage the rat population. Furthermore, the author explains the tactics and strategies New York City is using and elaborates on which ones he prefers and why. This article can be intended for a multitude of audiences. It can appeal to readers who simply want to learn about the topic, or readers who want to learn from someone who is exceedingly knowledgeable on the topic. Some readers would also enjoy this article because they want to hear a reasonable opinion on the rat population in New York City.
Source 2: Robinson, Bryan. “May 1, 2002 — For a nerd, Spider-Man’s not doing so bad these days — after 40…”. ABC News. 14 Feb. 2006, 10:27 a.m., https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/story?id=101230&page=1
Summary: Ken Feliu, a 29-year-old commercial production director and not to mention, lifelong comic book reader, had something to say about Spider-Man. He said “”He was just like an everyman”. Ken may have wanted to say “every day man” because Spider-Man’s alter-ego, Peter Parker, is an Everyday kind of man. The site mentions about the troubles Peter faces and how it relates to everyone else. They talk about how Peter worries about rent, school, and having a stable job all the same with many people out there. This site is talking about the character in general, instead of its movie coming out. At the time of this post, “Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man” was coming out on the big screen.
Key Notes:
Rhetorical Analysis:
This site post is really helpful with researching the question because of how it’s talking a bunch about the character, instead of a movie advertisement. It goes into depth on what Peter Parker faces and that is what makes him relatable, which also makes him popular with teenagers. The whole rent thing, high school, and the job, all of this is what most human beings have to go through and in a way there’s finally recognition of all that. Then to grab a bit more attention, he has superpowers. Basically, he’s a regular New York teen who has to go through the challenges of life as Peter Parker, and now has to deal with the life Spider-Man adds on.
Source #2:
“How Carbon Fiber is made animation | Karthi Explains” by Karthi Explains, YouTube, April 27, 2021 How Carbon Fiber is made animation
Summary:
The video begins with Karthi giving the viewers a brief explanation on what carbon fiber is made up of. 90% of the carbon fiber’s atoms are made from Polyacrylonitrile plastic and the remaining 10% is made of either Rayon or petroleum pitch. Karthi mentions that the process for manufacturing Polyacrylonitrile (PAN for short) is long and complicated, so he says he’ll go over it in another video. Karthi goes on to show the five steps PAN goes through to become carbon fiber. First is spinning, then stabilizing, carbonizing, surfacing, and lastly is sizing. In the spinning process, PAN plastic is turned into PAN fibers. From there, the fibers are mixed with chemicals, quenched, stretched, and then washed and stretched a few more times before drying and being packed. In the Stabilizing step, a.k.a Oxidation, the fibers pass through hot rollers and are suspended by flowing hot air, where the fibers will slowly change color, from gold to copper, to a dull brown, to black. In the Carbonizing stage, the fibers are passed through a furnace where they’re heated to a temperature 1000 degrees to 3000 degrees celsius for several minutes. While the fibers are heated, the furnace is filled with a gas mixture that doesn’t contain any traces of oxygen to keep the fibers from burning at high temperatures. The Surfacing step is where the surface of the fibers are slightly oxidized, causing it to be etched and roughened so that the fibers can better bond to epoxies. The last step is Sizing, where the fibers are coated in epoxy, polyester, nylon, or other materials. Then the fibers are spun into what is called a bobbin. The bobbins are placed in a spinning machine where the fibers are weaved into different sizes of yarns.
Rhetorical Analysis:
The YouTube video is presented as a simple 3D animation slideshow. The creator of the video, Karthi, goes through each slide at a steady pace. The animation is basic and makes the information being presented and explained easy to understand. There are no complex moving parts and no overly bright colors either. While Karthi voices over the video explaining what is happening as something is happening, he also provides subtitles in the video itself. Two things that I feel Karthi left out are what Rayon and petroleum pitch are and what the woven yarns of carbon fiber look like when finished. Still, this video is very well composed and great even for young audiences to understand.