Why you should quit smoking

      Did you know that In the United States, an estimated 24.8 million men and 21.1 million women are smokers? That’s just in the U.S, worldwide 47 percent of men and 12 percent of women smoke a total of 6 trillion cigarettes a year. Now that’s a lot of smoking if you ask me. About four million people die worldwide each year as a result of smoking. In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths, killing more than 490,000 Americans each year. Just think about how many more people would still be alive if they never smoked isn’t that crazy?

       Do you ever wonder what causes people to start? I can think of a lot of reasons such as to look cool, to eat less, stress, depression, to be social, but the number one reasons though is that its addicting and with that first inhale your stuck. I know this from experience, I started my freshman year in high school to look cool but then it became an addiction. I have just recently quit and I feel so much better its crazy how different you actually feel it’s not just a bunch of hoopla that people are saying to convince you to quit.

     I am now going to share with you some information on cigarettes that will hopefully persuade any one that smokes to stop. First off Money, think about how much money you would save if you didn’t smoke. I know when I smoked I paid about forty dollars a carton that’s so much money I could of used towards something else. I bet you didn’t know that cigarettes are crawling with germs, so just imagine how many germs you are putting into your mouth every cigarette you smoke. One very interesting fact is that smoking can affect you in the bedroom; it affects blood circulation which causes lack of blood flow to your genitals. In other words arousal for men & woman can be difficult.

      Women smokers have been found to lose 2.3% to 3.3% of bone mineral density, these effects are even worse for postmenopausal women. Smokers have a 70% chance of developing hearing loss. One study found that people who live in smoking households were up to 6.6 times more likely to experience a fire injury than those in nonsmoking households. According to another study, cigarettes were the cause of 55% of all house fires involving a fatality. Now to me that’s kind of selfish to the other people in living in the household.

       A lot of people think that smoking is only bad for your lungs, WRONG! It affects a lot more than just your lungs. Smokers are at two to four times ‘at a greater risk of developing coronary heart disease as nonsmokers. Cigarette smokers with coronary heart disease are also at twice the risk for sudden cardiac death as nonsmokers with coronary heart disease. Also believe or not the brain is a common site for lung cancer to spread.  I’m pretty sure you all know about your teeth, and how horrible they start to look after awhile, but that’s not all you can also get gum cancer.

   Also you’ll be less wrinkly which men don’t really seem to mind too much but I know woman do. So woman you may think you look sexy now but just imagine your poor skin in ten years when it starts to drastically change for the worst. This happens do to the narrowing of your skin's blood vessels and the damaging of tissues that give the skin its strength and elasticity.

 Also if you have smoked for more than 20 years you’re more likely to get acid reflux, which I have and trust me it’s not pleasant. Also if you quit smoking your food will taste better and also you will have a better sense of smell. And your fingers, they start to get permanently stained with a yellowish tint, and who is going to want to hold your hands with them looking like that? Next is your hair, it turns grey a lot faster so if you’re a smoker you might want to start buying hair dye now you’re going to need it.  Now when I was a smoker I know that I started to have burn holes everywhere in my car, in my clothes even in my shoes so therefore if you quit you don’t have to worry about those anymore. So there’s my reasons for why I think you should quit I hope I have persuaded you.

        So, if you are ready to quit here are some ways on how to do it…

Make a list of reasons why you like them and then make another list of reasons why quitting isn’t easy, next to each entry jot down a way to overcome that challenge and then set a date, like a contract. Then write all the reasons for quitting on an index card and keep it with all the time. Then prepare a list of things to do when you start to have a craving. When your quit date arrives throw out everything that remotely reminds you of smoking. If you relapse its ok, just start again.

Chapter 20: Proposing a Solution

 When you propose a solution your goal is to argue for a positive change, you want to convince readers to accept and contribute. To accomplish this you need to describe a problem, analyze its causes and effects, argue for a solution, defend that solution and then prove the solution. This requires a willingness to challenge the reader with an open mind. Whatever the solution may be it should be based on a personal understanding of the problem and an exploration of all possible solutions. Know readers, just like anything you should know what kind of audience you are trying to persuade. Make sure your research is legit, to build that quality you must conduct primary research, checking journals, books, internet,possible solutions, & have solid support for your solution.

Chapter 19: Persuading Readers to Act

  When your persuading someone you are trying to convince them to believe you, from whatever their perspective is on something. Your goal is to get the reader to change their mind on a debatable, complex, and timely issue. You should be achieving this goal with sound logic, reliable support, and fitting appeals.  When persuading readers to act you want to urge them to change their behavior or to take action. First, you need to know your audience whether they are peers, professors, college community or a nation. You need to know their knowledge and their attitudes toward the topic. Next, you need to promote your cause this is your goal to motivate your readers to act. Last is to be reasonable, review your thinking to identify any logical fallacies.Some topics you might consider are

• personal experiences
• personal ideas
• community concerns
• national affairs
• "No comment" topics

Chapter 18: Taking a Position

 In other words taking a stand, you need to refine what you think and feel, to clarify and deepen your perspective on an issue. The goal in writing a paper like this is to explain what you believe and why. You need to try to explore all positions just because your very set on your opinion doesn't mean it is right, do your research. Go beyond and make a position instead of stating your opinion it shows mature thinking. Try and soften your stance, no need to come off like a snob. Let evidence speak for itself.

An Apology for the Life of Ms.Barbie D. Doll

Reading for better writing

1. The way the word apology is used in the title seems to be kind of sarcastic, it could also be taken defensively. To alot of people such as myself we don't see the wrong doing in barbie dolls. I know when I was little girl I owned many and I didn't try and dress like them, maybe like a princess but that was as far as it went. I do understand however how they might make girls have lower self esteem because it isn't realistic to have a tiny waste and huge boobs with perfect skin. But I don't think that anyone who made barbie's should have to apologize.
2. I think the writer treats the original source very well cause he isn't attacking the source what so ever. There are many concessions and rebuttals in this arguement and they were very understandable. He always goes back and forth between the different view points on the subject, and he seems to have an answer for every arguement that people might have with them.

Chapter 17 Strategies for Argumentation & Persuasion

    This chapter explains the foundations of arguementation & persuasion & introduces 3 related forms

• taking position
• persuading readers to act
• proposing solution

 An arguement is a series of statements arranged in a logical sequence, it is supported with evidence, and is expressed powerfully. They appear in a variety of places.

• research paper
• an analysis
• a debate

When you prepare your arguement you need to first consider the situation. Then you need to distinguish claims from facts and opinions. After you do that you need to develop a supportable claim this balances confidence with common sense.Next you need to gather evidence, get an "eyewitness" perspective shaped by the oberver's viewpoint. You may want to think of an arguement as an intelligent, lively dialogue with readers, so therefore you should make concessions this strengthens your overall argument.

My Best Birthday Compared to my Worst

    My birthday has always been my favorite time of celebration; I mean I can’t really think of anyone that doesn’t enjoy a full day of doing nothing and getting absolutely pampered. I guess the older you get the more you dread it but I’m not at that point in my life yet thank god. I have been very blessed to have such wonderful people in my life to always try and give me the best birthday ever, but sad to say there has been one birthday that just wasn’t the greatest it was just a birthday gone wrong!

    I’m going to start by talking about my best birthday, it was my sweet sixteen.  It was absolutely awesome my grandma took me on a shopping spree and got me the perfect dress and perfect high heels to match. Then my mom did my hair and died the tips of my hair pink cause that’s my favorite color. All my friends came to my house around 5 o’clock and then we waited because my mom said that she had a surprise, her surprises are always the best so I was so excited! Then a limo pulled up in front of my grandma’s house, I was in shock I was so happy. So my friend’s and I  got in the limo not knowing where it was going to take us but the suspense was what was making it all the more fun. We blasted music and hung out of the sun roof and took a lot of pictures. Then we were at our destination, Universal Studios! My all time favorite amusement park, it was so cool. When we got in there this one guy and his kids asked to take my picture and get my autograph, I guess they thought I was famous. We had so much fun we went on all the rides and ate at a really nice restaurant. We stayed till the park closed and then summoned for the limo, we felt like royalty.

    The limo brought us back to my grandma’s house where we then sang happy birthday and had cake. And then of course I opened up my presents. And that was my best birthday ever, thank you mom!!

      The worst was actually my last birthday, my nineteenth. It started out nice my grandma and my brother came from out of town to spend it with me. I got all dolled up like I usually do, and we went out to breakfast at ihop. Then my grandma took me on her usual shopping spree and I got a lot of beautiful clothes. Then we ate at the cheesecake factory for my birthday dinner it was very nice, it was my grandma, my brother and my in-laws and we were all getting along it was so nice and pleasant. But my mom wasn’t there so it wasn’t complete, she wasn’t able to get the time off of work.

   After dinner we went and did more shopping my grandma is a shopaholic, which is fine with me. Then we went home, and my grandma got a phone call that her dog had died. It was actually my dog my mom had bought her for me when I was a little girl, but when we moved in with my grandma she kind of just made the dog her’s which was fine with me because she was all alone after my grandpa’s death. So when I had heard that she had died I was miserable I loved that dog so much and I barely had gotten to see her since I moved up here. And on my birthday are you serious?

    My friends were throwing me a surprise birthday party at her house so I had to go, but I was an absolute wreck. When I got there and realized all they had done for me it made me feel a little better. I started to drink and relax and dance with my girlfriends. There were lots of yummy cookies that I just couldn’t get enough of. But then in the middle of eating my third one my friend told me that those were weed cookies because she has her medical marijuana license. I was in shock I didn’t know what to do; I tried to just stay calm because I didn’t feel any different. So we started playing games and laughing and everything was fine. But then I started sweating and started to feel panicky. I felt like everyone was staring at me, the room was spinning I had to lie down. So I laid down and started to feel better but then my dog ran and jumped on my stomach making it so I puked all over myself. It was disgusting; I got all cleaned up and went back to bed. And that was my worst birthday ever!  

Chapter 16: Definition

Understanding Dementia
Reading for Better Writing

1. The writer introduces the topic by explaining how shw tells the lady who she is and then 5 minutes later she forgets, this is because of her dementia. This to me is effective because it caught my attention.
2. In paragraph 5 it states that dementia is a broad term that refers to a number of health problems along with Alzheimer's disease, brain tumors, arteriosclerosis, & hardening of arteries. All of these have to do with memory loss.
3. She goes into detail that people with dementia express strange beliefs or fears, and that they have diminished language skills. She goes more into detail about their behavorial changes, I find them effective because she gave alot of information which kept me intrigued.
4. I think that the closing is fitting because since there is no cure we must give hem patience, kindness, and love.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Reading for better writing

1. The writer uses an analogy in the introduction to compare hair to a field of grass. Then in the second paragraph he tells you more in detail how the skull is the grass and the scalp is the soil. The top layer of the scalp is the epidermis and the bottom layer is the dermis.I think this is effective cause it gives you a good visual.
2. The picture helps because it looks just like aplant sprouting fromt he ground.
3. His voice seems calm and imaginitive, I think it does achieve his purpose cause it grabs the readers attention.

Chapter 15: Process Writing

Process writing is what they call practical writing, it answers questions we face everyday. There are 3 basic forms of process writing describing a process, explaining a process, and giving instructions.The writers goal is to analyze a process, break it into specific steps, and write about it using: a description of a process, an explanation of the process, or instructions on how to carry out a process.

Three Family Cancers

Reading for better writing

1. Her personal anecdote strengthens the essay because it catches your attention. In the beginning he is a young child trying to cure cancer, and then at the end he is na adult still trying it really makes you sympathize.
2. I think that it helps clarify the subject because each grandparent had a different kind of cancer and because of them getting them thats why she decided to spend her time coming up with a cure.
3. In paragraph 9, yes because he is comparing the 2 cancers his grandparents had.

Chapter 14:Classification

When using classification a writer looks at a topic and then breaks it down into components that can be sorted into subgroups. A writers goal for writing a classification , is to divide a group of people, places, things, or concepts then write an essay that helps readers understand each components and the topic as a whole.

Shrouded in Contradiction

Reading for Better Writing

1. Her position on hijab is really a contradiction sometimes she hates it other times she values it. She wears it for a hint of rebellion, to her it's not that big a deal.
2. Except when it is. I think the reason behind the sentence paragraph is to lead to the suspence of the next paragraph of how the hijab has caused her difficulties.
3. Woman in make-up and clunky heels wear knee-length jackets with pants, their hair daringly exposed beneath sheer scarves.
4. Cause she doesn't believe what she is told.
5. She is again talking about the veil that she has to wear, this is what bothers her the most.

Chapter 13: Comparison and Contrast

In this chapter, four writers use compare and contrast organization: one analyzed the attack of the World Trade Center, two of them  explain the views of the river, third to assess 2 patterns of dress for an Iranian women, and then the fourth to describe ethnic groups.

Adrenaline Junkies

Reading for Better Writing

1. It catches my attention by starting with a question that makes me give some thought. Then it gives a list of different people that were adreanline junkies so that makes it interesting and then it ends with another question that it so you wanna keep reading.
2. "yes," because everybody wants to experience different things certain things to different people could be risky or dangerous it just all depends on the person.
3. An adreanline junkie fun or dangerous? I find it very convincing because there are alot of adrenaline junkies out there and it could be good for you or it could be extremely damaging.
4. I think it is a very effective ending, because it is playful so therefore it makes it enjoyable.

The stream in the ravine

Reading for better writing

1. Each one of those places that she say's describes the outside everything she loved about it.
2. She starts off by giving background information, and then goes into detail on all of her visits and the action that she encounters. then she shares her personal importance to the stream. Then she wraps it all up with her wanting to go back in time. I think the strategy the writer used was trying make it relatable to the audience, and I thought it was very effective.
3. The photo shows the father, the daughter, and their bridge. She wants her parents to be back together so they can be a family and share more happy memories like that.
4. The tone is differnet because the stream for her now brings back sadness of her family, when she was little it was everything to her but now she doesn't want to ever go back.

A Hanging

Reading for better writing
1.) Yes, very much so because the whole story is about the hanging so it wouldn't make scence to make it a surprise.
2.)It catches the readers attention.
3.)The dog running up to the person being hung.
4.)I think it's because they used to hang people because they had commited sins so therefore it made it there job to hang them and make it a relief that it was one less criminal in the world.
5.) To leave it up to the imagination

Narritive essay

The Worst Day Ever

It was September 13, 2008 on a Saturday I was working my usual shift at Noah’s Bagels, loving my job not thinking that anything could go wrong. I went on my lunch break around 12:30 and ate one of the delicious six cheese bagels with garlic cream cheese calling all my friends to talk but nobody answering. So I decided to give my mom a call since I hadn’t talked to her in awhile. When she answered she wasn’t her normal cheery self, I could tell something was wrong. She was very hesitant to tell me though so I knew it must be really bad!

  

   I started to become frantic all these horrible thoughts started going through my head, did somebody die? Is somebody ill? WHAT???  But I managed to calm down; telling myself it’s probably nothing so I need to not jump to conclusions. And that’s when she told me that my grandpa had died the day before in a metro link accident. I was in absolute shock; my phone fell out of my hands breaking on the floor. How could this happen I just saw him not to long ago and now he’s gone just like that?

  

  I just broke down and balled my eyes out; I had never in my life cried so many tears. I couldn’t move I couldn’t breathe and to make it worse I was still at work and my shift wasn’t over. My boss heard me crying outside so she came to talk to me. She told me that I needed to go back to work because there was no one else to take my shift. So I sucked it up and went back to work trying my hardest not show my anger towards her for having such little compassion. I tried to just shove it to the back of my head like it didn’t happen I don’t think I completely fully grasped the loss yet.  Thousands of questions started running through my head like how did the train crash? Who else died? How am I going to afford to get down there for his funeral? How is my grandma? My brother? And then I got a flash back of the last conversation I had with him. “I hate you “I said at the top of my lungs! Those were the last words I ever said to my dear grandpa.  I will never in my life regret anything more than that.

My grandpa’s name is Howard Allen Pompel he was born March 22, 1938 and his life was taken September 12, 2008. He was the only father my brother and I had ever known. He was not just my grandpa, my father but also my best friend. I could talk to him about anything and everything. So you’re probably asking yourself if I loved him so much than why did I tell him that I hated him it’s because I took him for granted thinking that he was always going to be around so it didn’t matter how I spoke to him but man was I wrong.    

 When I got off work that day I went straight home to get all of my questions answered.  That wasn’t hard at all considering the fact that it was on every news channel in America. My grandpa worked at the World Trade Center in L.A. and he resided in Moorpark which was a ways away from work so he took the train there to conserve the gas. That day he had left work early to go play scrabble with his friend’s because he was the best scrabble player of all time. And that day he sat in the first car of the train which is something he never does. The train driver decided to text that day and missed the track he was supposed to turn onto making it so they crashed head on into another train. Everyone in the first car died instantly.  My grandpa was a very well known man so everybody who was anybody was talking about his death and how it’s such a shame that his life had to come to an end so fast. But my other questions still weren’t answered, since I live in northern California how was I at the last second going to be able to get down there for his funeral cause there was absolutely no way I was missing that.  But of course my mom came through and bought me my airplane ticket and I was there to properly say my goodbyes.

But when I got there I could not feel sorry for myself at all because my question of how my grandma and little brother were doing was answered, they were an absolute wreck. So I put my sadness aside to be there for them. My brother is autistic so he doesn’t fully understand the concept of death yet and this was his first encounter with it. He loved my grandpa soon much and all he knew was the fact that he was gone and never coming back so he was angry. Seeing this made my pain for my grandpa’s death kind of go to the side because my sadness became more for my loved ones that were suffering so much grief. I just wish I could take their pain away, but I knew that nothing I did or said could do that. It made everything hurt so much more why did there have to be such a thing as horrible as death?

It is now September 20, 2010 three years later and I am still grieving I don’t know if it will ever fully go away. But I have a learned a very valuable lesson from all of this which I hope to share to others for this is the purpose behind me writing this and that is “Don’t ever take your loved ones for granted for you never know when they might walk out that door and never return”.

Chapter10: Narration & Description

When writing a personal narrative your goal is to write about something significant that's happened to you. You should be passionate, choose a topic that still makes you feel happy, angry, humble, afraid, or any other strong emotion. Make sure to include characters and create memorable descriptions. First, use your sensesto trigger the reader's senses, what did you see? Hear? Last, show! Some topics you should consider are: initiation, loss, run-in, arrival, and occasion. The guidelines are 1. select a topic they could be a stranger, more wonderful, more complex than you had as a child.2.Narrow your focus heres some questions that can help:
What is the most important moment?
What led up to it?
what's really going on?
How did others experience this event?
What did you learn?
What would you have changed?
3. Determine your purpose & audience. Consider is it to entertain? To celebrate? To remind? Or possibly to gain sympathy?
Then write your first draft, share, revise, edit, then prepare your final copy.

Chapter9:Forms of College Writing

Did you know that writing helps you in two ways? 1. to learn course content & 2. to learn how to carry on a written dialogue with others in your line of work. It's very important that you know all the forms of writing. The purpose of this chapter is to show 3 important things about the writing curriculum:
1.) How a college curriculum & faculty are organized
2.)What kinds of writing you can expect to do in your courses
3.)How writing & thinking skills required in one class are linked to writing & thinking skills required in another class.
This chapter helps accomplish these tasks.
College curriculum is generally divided into 3 groups: humanities, social sciences, & natural & applied sciences.Then they are subdivided into biology, chemistry, & physics. Then you break it down such as humanities you have to think about what they study and what they examine and then jot down all the departments in the division such as: archeology, asian studies etc.

Chapter 8: One Writer's Process

This chapter is about a writer named Angela Franco and her writing process. She was assigned an essay for her Environmental Policies class.
First, she examines the assignment by reading and making notes writing the subject, purpose, audience, form, & assessment. She then explored and narrowed her assignment. She did this by clustering and freewriting. The cluster she writes the subject in the middle and connects details to it. Then the freewriting, she used water pollution then based on that she rephrased to narrow its focus. Then she reviewed her narrowed assignment and reassessed her topic.She did some research and then decided how she was going to organize her writing. She had 3 guidelines: 1. Review & record response 2. decide upon your thesis statement and think about your essay's possible content and organization 3. chose an overall method and reflect on it's potential effectiveness. After coming up with opening, middle, and closing she then put together her first draft. She then revised, and then revised again, edited, proofread, and then finished.

Chapter7: Submitting Writing & Creating Portfolios

This Chapter helps you prepare your writing for any audience or publication. First off you need to format your writing.This entails keeping your work clear and uncluttered it needs to be easy to follow. Once you have formatted and proofread you should be ready to share your writing. Before you submit you should consider your audience,then make sure you have appropriate submission methods paper or electronic. Then you need to use a writing portfolio, there are 2 basic types (1) working portfolio (2) showcase portfolio. Then after you have chosen one of those your ready tosubmitt.

Chapter 6 Editing & Proofreading

Before you begin you must make sure you have the proper tools: handbook, dictionary, thesaurus, computer spell check, etc.You will also need a partnerto edit your work. Then you prepare your final draft, following the guidelines. There is alot that entails to editing and proofreading your revised work first you consider word choice, watch for reptition. Then combining sentences, edit short, simplistic sentences. Next theres expanding sentences substitute these with cumulative sentences. Review your writing for sentence variety, avoid weak constructions and then proofread.

Chapter5:Revising

Revising takes courage.I say this because when you are done writing your first draft you want so badly to be done butt a good writer always revises. During this step you make changes, to get started you need to assess the overall quality of the ideas, organization, and voice in writing. Its a good idea to share your draft with others, all writers benefit from criticism. When you revise you have to look at the big picture, then you need to deterimine whether its interesting, informative, and worth sharing.

Chapter 4: Drafting

When you write your first draft you need to reconsider your audience, reconsider your purpose, & focus on your subject. As you develop your first draft, these strategies help keep your subject in focus. The opening draft is the opening paragraph this is one of the most important elements in composition. It should accomplish these three thing (1) engage the reader; (2)establish your direction, tone, & level of language (3) introduce your thoughts. When you develop the middle of an essay you have to do some "heavy lifting" this is where you develop your main points. You should advance your thesis to cover your main points and support them. Ending your draft can be important for tying up loose ends and clarifying key points.

Chapter 3: Planning

Planning entails careful thinking, when you plan an essay, you have 2 thinking objectives:1 establishing a thesis for your writing & 2 organizing the supporting information. To do these things you must re- examine you topic, ask yourself some questions about the subject, audience, and the purpose. Then form your thesis statement to do this you state your thesis in a sentence that is effective and expresses what you want to explore. Then you state your thesis this sets the tone and direction of your writing. An effective thesis will often suggest an organizing pattern. After you should be ready to organize the information you have collected.

Chapter 2: Beginning the Writing Process

This chapter basically goes into every detail on how the writing process works. The three main points are subject,audience, and purpose. Without these you cannot write. Now understanding your subject involves gathering and assimilating all relevant details, this includes history. makeup, function, & impact on people and culture. Knowing all of this will help you know what to include in your writing and how to organize it. Understanding your audience you need to ask yourself these questions:

• Who are my readers?
• What do they know or need to know?
• How well do they understand?
• What are their attitudes toward my topic?
• How well do they read written english?
• How will they use my writing?

Understanding the purpose  helps you make decisions, such as choosing good strategies.

Chapter 1: Critical Thinking Through Reading, Viewing, and Writing

   This chapter teaches you how you can use critical thinking through reading, viewing and writing.
First it teaches you a reading strategy: SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.  In the first step which is Survey, this means before you read a story you should first go over and read the study guide. Then go back and read the introductory and conclusion of each page. The benefit to this serves three important purposes:(1) gives you the big picture, (2) stabilizes and directs your thoughts and (3) gets you over the starting hump. The next step is question, after you survey you should begin to ask yourself questions that you can answer while you read. Asking questions will keep you constantly thinking about what will be coming up next. Now you read, this will give you the answers to your questions and give you the big picture. Now after you finish reading a page you recite it outloud, answering your questions. Then you last but not least review, double check the questions you asked, are there answers? Those are the five steps to the SQ3R I thought they were very helpful, it will deffinitely make it easier for me next time I have to read and write.