Databases:

Name of database Facts + Statistics: Teen drivers

What is the purpose of the work? *The purpose of this database is to shed light on the amount of car accidents that teenage drivers are responsible for.

Summary of its content *This database provides statistics for the car accidents that teenagers are responsible for. It compares the stats between different ages, time periods, and causes of the accidents (i.e. intoxication).

Intended audience * The intended audience is the general population.

Relevance to the topic * This database advocates for the legal driving age being raised due to the amount of teenage accidents throughout the years.

Unique features of the material *The website that provides the data discusses the topic teen driving and offers a solution.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *The strengths of this database is that the data for each topic is concise and easy to understandable.

Name of database Teen driving facts and statistics 2022

What is the purpose of the work? *The purpose of this database is to show the main causes of accidents for teenage drivers so that they are safer.

Summary of its content *The database provides facts and statistics on teenage driving. It also has extra details following the various causes of the accidents to show people why it is important to acknowledge them.

Intended audience *The intended audience are teens and adults.

Relevance to the topic *This data base shows stats that prove that teen drivers are more dangerous than any other age group that drives.

Unique features of the material *This database includes a time table that shows the time of day that is most dangerous for teens to drive and the least dangerous time for teens to drive.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *The strength of this database is that it explains why teen driving is so dangerous, and gives tips for teens to be safe.

Name of database Teen drivers by the numbers: population, risks, and accidents

What is the purpose of the work? *The purpose is meant to inform readers on the risks that teen drivers take while they drive.

Summary of its content *This database gives stats on fatalities and accidents that teen drivers are involved in. It also shows the rate of teen car accidents throughout the years to show the reader how much it has changed.

Intended audience *The intended audience are teenagers and adults.

Relevance to the topic *This database is relevant to my topic because it talks about the same risks that I have in my essay about teenagers drivers.

Unique features of the material *This database has a map of the U.S. that compares the number of car crashes of teenagers with each other.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *This database does not have any biases and quickly gives me valuable information.

Articles:

Name of article Unpopular opinion: The Legal Driving Age should be Increased

What is the purpose of the work? *This article’s purpose is to inform it’s readers why the legal driving age in the U.S. should be increased. The article has many points as to why this this opinion should become reality.

Summary of its content *The article starts by talking about the debate about the legal driving age. The writer divides her article into different sections that provide data and experience

Intended audience *The intended audience is safety experts, politicians, teens, and drivers of all ages

Relevance to the topic *This article has useful statistics and topics that are related to the overall problem of teenage driving.

Unique features of the material *This article has links to all the evidence that it uses. This allows the reader to see the data for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *The strength of this article is the credibility writer. She includes the experience of teens that she knows in her article to show why teenage driving is a big problem.

Name of article Why We Should Raise The Minimum Driving Age to 21

What is the purpose of the work? *This article’s purpose is to explain why it is beneficial to increase the legal driving age.

Summary of its content *The article starts by explaining the trouble that the government has with improving driving standards and then introduces her thesis. She states that teens have the right to drive a dangerous vehicle but don’t have the rights to do a lot of other things until adulthood. Afterward, she explains how increasing the driving age will benefit driving safety by using scientific studies and comparing the U.S. driving age with other countries.

Intended audience *The intended audience is government workers and drivers of all ages

Relevance to the topic *This article supports my argument with facts and knowledgeable suggestions from the writer, and provides insight on the argument against raising the legal driving age.

Unique features of the material *This article has links to all the evidence that it uses. This allows the reader to see the data for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *This article contains bias against men when talking about driving statistics.

Name of article The Minimum Driving Age Should be Raised to 18

What is the purpose of the work? *The purpose of this article is to explain pros and cons that will result from increasing the legal driving age.

Summary of its content *This article opens up by introducing the topic of raising the legal driving age and the purpose for doing so. Then it provides 15 “yes” points and 15 “no” points to each reason that addresses the outcomes of raising the driving age.

Intended audience *The intended audience is teen drivers, adult drivers, and old drivers.

Relevance to the topic *This article provides arguments that agree with my side, and provides arguments of the opposite perspective. I can use this article to talk about why the driving age shouldn’t be raised.

Unique features of the material *This article divides it’s arguments into red and green categories to make it clear to the reader when the writer is going to support or go against a reason toward the main debate topic.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *This article uses bias in the form of the writer using her own experiences with driving as support for her arguments against raising the legal driving age. She treats her own experience as fact without the perspective of other teens or adults.

Websites:

Name of Website American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

What is the purpose of the work? *This site’s purpose is to get parents to understand why their teens act in impulsive ways and explain why. It wants parents and authority figures to anticipate teenagers’ behavior so that they can handle it better.

Summary of its content *The website starts by stating that most parents don’t understand why their teens act off of impulse and says that adults and teens differently. The website explains teenage impulses through biological facts and lists tendencies that are normal with teens.

Intended audience *The intended audience is parents and adult authority figures.

Relevance to the topic *The irrational behaviors that this website talks about makes teens riskier on the road, which supports my argument about increasing the legal driving age.

Unique features of the material *The website provides tips for how to deal with kids and adolescents properly with certain topics.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *The weakness of this website is that it’s facts on the teenage brain are too short. Also it only has one page that talks about this topic.

Name of Website National Safety Council

What is the purpose of the work? *The purpose of this page is to inform it’s audience on the dangers of driving in the night, and how to manage the risks that come with driving in the night

Summary of its content *This page introduces the dangers that it will be talking about regarding driving in the night. Then it describes how the night effects a drivers senses and transitions into a concise list of methods that a driver can use to be safer in the night.

Intended audience *The intended audience is drivers that drive frequently in the night during weekends and busy roads.

Relevance to the topic *Driving in the night is a factor that contributes to a large number of car accidents. This supports my stance on teenagers being too inexperienced to handle dangerous situations on the road.

Unique features of the material *This website uses surveys and data from other safety associations as evidence.

Strengths, weaknesses, or biases *This page strength is that provides many solutions to the dangers of driving in the night.

The legal age for driving within the United States should be moved from 16 to 21. This topic is interesting because of how this privilege is unique from the other laws. People must wait until they are 18 to get married, and can only drink when they are 21. Despite this, teens can participate in driving, which is the most dangerous act out of the three since they are dealing with a deadly vehicle. Furthermore, most driving accidents are caused by teenagers within the age range of 16 to 18. I started driving at age 17, so I understand the pressures that make driving so challenging. Even though I drive with an adult passenger, I still get nervous because I have to deal with other drivers, hazards, and pedestrians. Other teens deal with these factors and manage other circumstances that result from their behaviors, which makes them more liable to accidents on the road.

I plan on researching this topic by searching for information on the internet. I will use articles, stats, and documents to see how the driving accidents of minors compare to adults age 21 and above. I will also be able to analyze this topic from the perspective of other people. During my research, I may find it hard to find documents that have the correct demographic of drivers that I am basing my essay on. Another problem I may face is finding a trustworthy source of information that provides facts with as little bias as possible. The general public should be concerned with this topic because driving accidents make up a large portion of deaths in the country. If the legal age of driving in changed then the rate of car accidents can be brought down significantly.

The sun beamed off of his magnificent 

frame as he strook a powerful pose.

As his brown skin glowed, plentiful events

flooded my mind. Suddenly, I was thrust into

The body of a 10 year old. The bird were chirping, people 

Were gathering, and my head darted 

around at the sound of a voice that was bold.

My father: a well meaning man that did not enjoy wasting time.

Except in this case he was pining for pictures with his family.

My disposition towards his desire for pictures

was one of annoyance, but I could not help but

admire the scenery that graced my young eyes.

In one corner of my petite eye, there are

boys running around like rats while kicking 

a ball. They have to care in te world except for the amount of

points that they are trying to earn. 

In the other corner of my eye, I see people eating foods that 

Ooze grease and oils. They would usually be shunned

for this act, yet they devour their meal and move 

on to the next.

My focus is suddenly readjusted;

I am standing next to my two 

brothers, while my lovely mother stands behind us.

I smile as I anticipate this scene of my life

being preserved for the rest of 

time. I open my my mouth and shout “Cheese!”.

1. The plot of Rashomon starts with a priest and a woodsman sitting inside of an abandoned building discussing events that transpired in the past few days. A vagabond comes into the abandoned building and asks them about their story. The woodsman tells the stranger about his day. He went to the mountains to collect wood, but saw a man’s corpse and his belongings. The woodman flees the scene and reports his findings to the police. From this point on witnesses are called to testify about the death of the man, but everyone’s story is different. At the end of the film, the group of men find a baby in a kimono. The vagabond steals the valuables on the baby, and is then rebuked by the the woodsman. After their argument, the vagabond leaves with the valuables and the woodsman decides to take care of the baby, which restores the priest’s faith in humanity.

2. Symbols:

• Forest: The forest represents mystery and the unknown. It lacks light and is secluded, which makes it hard for the characters in the film to discern the true events that transpire within it.
• Amulet: The amulet represents greed. In the middle of the story Tajomaru mentions that he should have took the amulet in the woman’s dagger because it was valuable. Later on the vagabond suspects the woodsman of stealing the amulet and laughs because he knows that he was possessed by his greed.

3. Philosophical questions:

• Is anyone in the world truly good?- This question is relevant because in the modern world, people are finding new ways to be corrupt and cause misery for others. Also, humans that are considered “good” still have the capacity for “evil” in the form of stealing, envy, and etc.
• Can anyone be trusted?- This question is relevant because no one can really remember an event with 100% accuracy. This fact is made worse when many people remember an event differently. It’s for this reason that many cases are left unfinished or people get wrongly convicted.

4. The structure of the film is important to it’s story telling because it doesn’t confirm which of the 4 stories was accurate or who the real killer is. This makes the viewer as confused as the characters. The beginning of the story lays the groundwork for the plot and basic facts, and the main portion of the movie is dedicated to hearing the same story from the perspective of 4 different people. The way that the actions of the characters change with each story makes the viewer second guess them self until they can’t discern the truth at the end. This conclusion strengthens the film’s point of humans not being able to find the truth of any event.

5. I found Tajomaru’s story the most trustworthy because he didn’t have any reason to lie. Tajomaru knew that he would be killed soon so he wouldn’t gain anything by lying to the court. The samurai’s wife was in emotional distress and fainted before the samurai dies. This implies that the samurai killed himself, but doesn’t confirm it. Unlike the other two, The samurai had a grudge against his wife. This grudge makes the samurai center his story around his wife and Tajomaru’s interaction rather than the fight that the two men had. The last witness was the woodsman, but because he wasn’t directly involved with the event, I think that he might have missed a few details.

6. I think Kurosawa is trying to say that there is still hope for humans to do good things through the baby. When the woodsman offers to take the baby, the priest says that his faith in humanity is restored. I think that Kurosawa is acknowledging the fact that humans aren’t complete good, but can still do good things for themselves and for others.

7. I think the thoughts of the characters would be better presented on a page. because they could be described in greater detail. I also think that the setting of the story could be better explained. While the setting of the story is simple, I think that an explanation for the areas involved should be clarified. For instance, I would like an explanation of the history of the tower that the characters are sitting under.

The teachable moment of my essay will be about not giving up on challenges. Instead, use a strategy to overcome them. I hope that the reader can relate to my experience of trying something new and dealing with the challenges that comes with doing so.   

Outline: 

• I joined a summer band program when I was in 5th grade
• My natural affinity for the clarinet made Mr. Sousa transfer me from the 5th grade band to the 8th grade band
• I was good at playing the clarinet, but I had trouble with a piece called “The Tempest”. The piece had about 80 bars and at bar 17, the song would repeat the “a” until bar 36. I got exhausted while playing the song
• I had to master “The Tempest” because I had to play it in a concert with the 8th grade band.
• I was going to quit playing “The Tempest” because I thought that it would be impossible for me to master the song before the concert. 
• My music teacher was Mr. Sousa and he was a very important part of time in band practice.
• He suggested that I joined the summer band program.
• He motivated me to keep practicing when I was about to give up playing “The Tempest”.

•  Mr. Sousa tells me new strategies to help me understand the song.
• I use Mr. Sousa’s advice to break the song down and master each part little by little.
• By the time the concert comes I have mastered “The Tempest” and play it along with the band.
• Our performance was amazing and I finally overcame “The Tempest”
• Playing the song at the concert taught me that I shouldn’t give up when I face a challenge and should form strategies in order to handle them.

Emmanuel  Oyelade

Professor  Ding

English  2150

28  February  2023

                     Assignment 1 Revision

It  was  the  12th  of  July  when  I  attended  the  first  session  of  the  summer  band  program  for  5th  graders  that  were  going  into  the  6th  grade.

When  I  got  into  the  school,  I  was  greeted  by  Mr.  Sousa.  Mr.  Sousa  was  the  music  teacher  for  students  in  grade  6-8,  and  he  introduced  me  to  his  colleagues  that  he  hired  to  assist  the  students.  I  chose  the  clarinet  as  my  instrument.  I  quickly  learned  how  to  play  notes  on  the  clarinet  and  mastered  the  beginner  songs  of  my  grade  level. 

Mr.  Sousa  took  notice  to  my  aptitude  with  the  clarinet  and  placed  me  in  the  group  of  8th  graders  that  were  in  the  band  program.  The  8th  graders  played  more  advanced  music  and  played  all  together  at  the  same  time  like  a  band.  Mr.  Sousa  thought  that  it  would  be  more  challenging  for  me.  He  was  the  type  of  person  that  liked  to  push  students  to  their  potential,  and  he  didn’t  take  no  for  answer  easily  regarding  this  subject.  The  new  music  that  I  was  introduced  to  was  harder  as  it  was  designed  for  older  students  with  more  experience  in  music.  With  extra  practice  I  was  able  to  get  a  handle  on  the  music  that  the  8th  grade  band  had  been  learning.  My  progression  was  going  smoothly  until  I  had  encountered  a  wall.

This  wall  was  a  piece  called  “The  Tempest”.  “The  Tempest”  had  74  bars  in total,  and  half  of  the  entire  song  was  comprised  of  the  same  note.  The  song  was  also  in  a  constant  tempo  of  forte  and  mezzo  forte,  which  meant  that  it  had  to  be  played  fast  from  beginning  to  end.  The  hardest  part  of  this  song  was  that  at  bar  36,  the  clarinet  players  had  to  wait  for  the  other  instruments  to  get  to  certain  point  of  the  song  until  they started  playing.  Mr.  Sousa  said,  “We  are  going  to  be  playing  this  song  as  a  performance  at  a  concert”.  When  I  heard  these  words,  my  heart  dropped  in  terror.  Mr.  Sousa  made  us  practice  this  piece  repeatedly,  and  while  a  lot  of  the  band  members  were  improving,  I  was  not.  By  bar  36  I  got  exhausted  and  sometimes  I  would  miss  my  que  to  start  playing.  When  I  got  home  to  practice  this  song,  it  still  looked  like  nonsense  to  me.  I resorted  to  youtube  after  failing  to  play  the  song  a  few  times.  Despite  watching  professionals  play  the  song,  I  would  still  butcher  “The  Tempest”.  I  seethed  in  response  to  my  constant  failure  and  quit  practice  for  the  day.  For  the  first  time,  I  didn’t  want  to  go  to  the  band  program.

The  next  time  I  went  to  the  band  program,  Mr.  Sousa  immediately  put  the  band  to  practice.  Mr.  Sousa  noticed  that  some  students  weren’t  playing  well.  This  caused  him  to  single  out  some  students  including  me.  The  students  that  were  called  were  instructed  to  play  a certain  bar,  and  succeeded  after  a  few  attempts.  But  when  it  was  my  turn,  I  kept  butchering  my  line  until  Mr.  Sousa  let  out  a sigh  and  moved  on.  A  hole  in  my  body  formed.  I  just  wanted  to  implode  in  that  moment  because  of  the  embarrassment.  After  that  day’s  session  ended,  Mr.  Sousa  announced  that  the  band’s  performance  of  “The  Tempest”  would  take  place  on  October  13th,  after  school.  I  had  lost  all  hope  at  this  point  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  master  “The  Tempest”.  I  asked  Mr.  Sousa  privately  if  I  could  sit  out  of  the  performance.  He  wasn’t  having  any  of  my  complaining  and  told  me  “You  chose  to  sign  up  for  this  program  and  I  picked  you  out  of  other  students,  so  you  have  to  see  it  through”.  

At  first,  I  was  confused  about  why  Mr.  Sousa  was  being  so  hard  on  me.  But  then  I  realized  that  he  was  correct  about  not  giving  up  because  a  challenge  was  hard.  Instead  of  taking  the  easy  way  out,  I  decided  that  I  would  find  different  ways  to  approach  my  challenge.  I  asked  Mr.  Sousa  for  tips  on  how  to  improve  my  performance.  He  smiled  and  told  me  that  I  should  break  the  song  into  small  pieces  instead  of  trying  to  play  all  of  it  at.  Slowly  but  surely,  I  making  progress  with  “The  Tempest”.  Throughout  the  rest  of  the  sessions  of  the  band  program,  we  learned  more  songs.  On  the  final  session  of  the  summer  band  program,  we  had  a  small  party  and  Mr.  Sousa  bid  each  student  farewell  until  the  school  year  started.

When  October  13th  finally  came,  I  was  ready  to  play  “The  Tempest”.  Since  we  had  a  few  hours  until  we  had  to  start  performance,  we  decided  to  get  a  few  practice  sessions  in  to  see  if  we  wanted  to  make  sure  that  everyone  knew  how  to  play  the  song  correctly.  When  the  performance  started,  me  and  the  other  clarinet  players  played  quickly  and  steadily  with  perfect  precision.  From  17  to  36,  we  played  the  “a”  note  non-stop  and  then  stopped  playing  until  we  got  the  que  to  do  so  from  Mr.  Sousa.  When  I  was  queued  in,  I  played  from  bar  36  to  the  end  without  getting  exhausted.  My  band  brewed  our  own  tempest  with  the  force  and  speed  that  we  played  each  note.   My  heart  was  racing  as  I  sat  in  anticipation  of  the  audiences  reaction.  There  was  a  sickening  silence  in  the  large  concert  room,  until  I  heard  screams  of  excitement  and  joy.

The  cheers  that  we  received  from  the  audience  and  our  families  made  me  feel  like  my  practice  paid  off.  The  wall  that  had  once  tormented  me  had  now  been  smashed  by  my  brilliant  performance.  At  this  point  I  realized  that  the  band  program  taught  me that  one  shouldn’t  give  up  when  they  are  presented  with  a  challenge.  Instead,  they  should  attempt  to  tackle  their  challenge  with  different  strategies  until  they  succeed.

I was 7 years old when I had the worst nightmare of my life. It was a Friday and the entire day had been going normally. I went to school, came back, ate some food, played until 8:30 PM, and then got ready for bed. I was sleeping in my living room on the floor, with my brothers when the nightmare occurred. The nightmare in question was a countless number of angry ghosts attacking me in the same spot that I was sleeping in. The ghosts were screaming something that I couldn’t comprehend and they surrounded me. My eyesight was also blurry, so the only features that I could discern were the ghosts’ humanoid forms and pale white skin. The moment I entered this nightmare I was screaming my head off. I didn’t care about who heard me or what happen would happen next, I just indulged in my fear. The nightmare lasted about 20 seconds tops, but by the time I woke up, I was still screaming. Despite my mother’s efforts to comfort me, I kept screaming until my father woke up. He told me that I could sleep in his room and I did just that. When I entered his room and laid down, I was able to sleep peacefully. Till this day, I don’t know what triggered the nightmare. I didn’t watch anything scary or think negative thoughts so the cause of the nightmare is a mystery to me. Strangely enough though, I never had the dream again despite remembering it so vividly.

Reflection: After taking a cold shower, I was able to sort my thoughts more smoothly and ignore my bias. I think the discomfort of being in a cold shower for about 10 minutes cleared my mind and made me feel less self conscious about how my story would be perceived. This freedom helped me make my story detailed and accurate to my experience.

Copied text: “I had all the characteristics of a human being—flesh, blood, skin, hair—but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that my normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning”- American Psycho

It all happened in a flash. One second I was crossing the road with my mother and the next second a car has rammed through my foot and I’m screaming in agony. Despite the reality of the situation, my brain still tried to delude itself into believing something else- “God, is this real? This is just a dream right? Why did this happen to me?”. No matter how many ways I tried to rationalize my situation, the fact still remained that I screwed up. As I was sorting through my thoughts, my physical body was screaming and shrieking. The only things I could feel were emotions of pain and terror- pain, fear, anger, and sorrow. Luckily, these emotions would be slightly alleviated when a few kind samaritans came to my aid. They brought a chair for me to sit down in and called the ambulance. While it only took about 3 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and pick me up, it felt as if 3 hours had occurred. During this time I thought about a lot of things- mostly about how stupid I was for being in this situation.

Reflection: After copying some text from the book, “American Psycho”, I feel that the quality of my writing changed drastically. Instead of focusing on getting my memories down on paper, I was focused on describing my experience as much as possible. I also used more commas and dashes than I usually do when writing. As for the rhythm of my writing, I feel that it became more coherent because my description of one event flowed into the description of the next event.