Author Archives: KEMARA GOPEESINGH

One thing that stood out to me, was in the first article titled “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know about Gen Z So Far” by Kim Parker and Ruth Igielnik, when they say that Gen Z is very opinionated in regards to social and policy issues, which I believe is true. I believe this is true, not because we want to be opinionated about these things, but we have to for the fact that the decisions that the president makes majority of the time, effects us, and if we don’t say something or bring awareness to the issues going on and how it affects us, then we will just continue to be stepped on. Another thing that stood out to me was in the second article titled “Gen Z Rising: 6 Things to Know about Gen Z, Politics, and 2020” by Rishika Dugyala and Kamran Rahman, when they say that Gen Z is less likely to vote. I agree with that statement, because many of us feel discouraged to vote, thinking it doesn’t matter, and that their vote is not going to make a difference. The last thing that stood out to me was in the article titled “Gen Z is about to go to the Polls, Many for the First Time.  Here’s What They Care About” by Kate Bubacz, when one of the individuals said, “I think young people don’t vote because they are constantly being told that their opinions are wrong or that they don’t matter and that older people know better than us.” I can relate to this because I have had my own family argue me that I don’t know what I am talking, because I am too young and that I am not            educated enough to be having an opinion on politics today. After reading all the articles I feel that everything stated is true and very relatable.  It also makes very depressed and angry, because it’s sad to believe that this is the world we live in, where we are judged and looked down on. If I were interviewed for one of these stories, I would’ve addressed with what is goin in the media, specifically with the misrepresentation of certain groups. I honestly feel that Gen Z missed out on just being teenagers, because now society has high standards to “fit in,” which is highly portrayed in the media. What Gen Z gets right is their views on politics and issues their passionate about, because they have the right to use their voice.

This post was very funny to me, because throughout this whole virus, Trump barely wore a mask and has been saying to keep calm, that him and his people have everything under control. If everything was really under control, why hasn’t there been a vaccine to actually work and treat the virus? Trump is advising everyone else to wear a mask, but he rarely ever wore a mask, until he came out the hospital, which was only for like two minutes. The cases have already risen again by 20%, and people say that there is supposed to be a second wave of this virus thats supposed to hit harder than what it is now.

Orwell is saying that politics and economics have a cause an effect relationship with modern english. Orwell is implying that, because of the abundant amount of issues occuring globally, we write about that instead of our own ideas, in which we lack originality. Orwell says “It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” Relating back to what I said I said earlier about how because of the abundant amount of issues occuring globally, we write about that instead of our own ideas, in which we lack originality, its because of everyone hearing and reading about the same thing, that everybody is thinking like been there done that. We saw this specifically during the presidential debate, because everybody had an idea already of the kind of answers Trump was going to give from his press conferences. However, One quote that really stood out to me was. “As I have tried to show, modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug.” In this quote Orwell is blatantly saying that modern writing an exaggeration of what someone is actually trying to say, or what actually happened, which is what the writing techniques of metaphors and imagery imposes. This is extremely relatable for when we have to write professional emails, whether it be to your boss, teacher, etc, because when we type out what we have to say, we proofread it over to make sure everything makes sense, and for it to not come off in the wrong way. One of the categories of language use that most disturb Orwell is meaningless words. When writers use “meaningless words,” they use it to make a comparison according to Orwell. I read a book called Nickeled and Dimed, where a comparison was made between people who work for minimum wage versus people who don’t have to struggle to work and pay off their bills. However, seeing other writers do this, I would say that I have used this type of language in my writing but haven’t noticed it until now. In relation to politics and language, I would say that gender neutral bathrooms versus gender bathrooms have been the subject of debate for years now. Some people believe that whatever gender someone was born with is what they should stick with for the rest of their life, where as other people accept the fact that not many people are happy with their gender at birth and grow out of it at some point in their life. Therefore, the state of California became the first state in 2017 to make single- occupancy bathrooms gender neutral.

In the campaign ad I chose it talks about how Trump knew about Covid 19 since January, but didn’t decide to take action until march. In his speeches from the video he kept saying that he is working with china and other countries and that it is under control. Based on my what I watched, I would say that the target audience for the campaign ad is people who are aware of the corona virus numbers, and people who favors a leader who takes immediate action. This ad is also negative, because it portrays Trump as a president who doesn’t know what he is saying or what he us doing. The campaign includes some clips from Trumps press conferences and his posts on twitter with the exact dates, where he is saying that is working with multiple countries including China, to keep it under control, whereas the number of cases increase globally everyday. The campaign ad also shows the exacts date that the U.S government was informed of the virus. The video uses a mixture of logos, ethos and pathos, because the ad includes news articles, news reports as well as incorporates the numbers of deaths tolls & cases everyday. The filters and timelines used makes the video feel like you are watching a documentary. However, I wouldn’t say this campaign is very convincing, its very neutral in regards to people might second guess the information and just think the person altered the information to make Biden seem like he will take immediate action against Covid 19. People also might have questions like how will Biden help fight the virus? Will Biden actually take action? Does Biden have his plan well thought out? If Trump supporters are watching this I wouldn’t think that they would be at all convinced, because like I said this ad is very neutral.

In Rethinking the First Draft by George Dila, he basically says that the purpose of first drafts is just to gather your thoughts or ideas, whether it is realistic or not. Being that nobody is seeing the first draft, you have the ability to organize your thoughts, and see what information is relevant to your piece of writing in order to properly structure your second draft, third draft and so on. Also according to Mr. Dila, if you don’t do this then you’re not an actual writer, because then your points in your piece will be scattered, and all over the place, therefore the reader will get confused. In Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott, her points are similar to that of George, where all good writers have first drafts that need a lot of editing and organizing, and that first draft is called the “child’s draft.” Anne makes a good point in her article when she says, “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident.” Many of the writers write for the entertainment of the public and because they have the incentive of money to look forward to. However, they may not do it because they are passionate or confident about the things they write about. According to Anne Lamott, her approach to writing is editing as you go, in case you find new ideas you want to include. From reading both authors’ approaches to writing, which is gathering your information first, then structuring it, and to edit as you are writing, I would have to say my way of writing is a mixture of both. When I write, I kind of gather my thoughts and ideas in the form of an essay, which would be my first draft, then edit that, and sometimes my second draft would be my final draft.