English 101 discussion
For this week’s assignment, you’ll need to read and respond to at least two other students’ essays and provide them feedback. These responses must include the Peer Review rubric. Use the rubric to provide constructive feedback, incorporating specific, positive remarks as well as helpful suggestions so your peer can see you genuinely evaluated their rough draft.
Additional Instructions:
- Select at least one essay which has only one or no responses so everyone has a chance to receive feedback.
- Focus primarily on content, not grammar, spelling, punctuation, or format. If you point out errors, give examples from the paper so the writer knows where to look.
Here is a link to the Peer Review Rubric to utilize in your feedback:
Peer Review Rubric
Provide an overall conclusion and impression of your peer’s paper. What did your peer do right? What could they improve? This should include recommendations and constructive comments to help your peer improve.
This week we will be undergoing the Peer Review process. This process is important because it allows us to gain insight from other perspectives (as well as allow us to give insight). For this week’s discussion, your initial post will consist of your Week 6 Rough draft (which you should submit in Week 6 after you’ve submitted your rough draft to your instructor). You will need to respond to at least two of your fellow student’s rough drafts as well. There are two key things to remember when doing this: Try not to give one sentence answers, but instead provide positive feedback as well as constructive criticism. Remember that the idea is to support your classmates’ and let them know what they are doing well and what could be improved (but make sure to avoid negativity). Also, focus on the larger issues with the essay (content, structure, organization, use of sources, arguments, thesis, etc.) rather than smaller issues like editing or proofreading.
Must be 150 words. Also see attachment to complete assignment
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Fish Are Friends, Not Food
Sean Parr
EN101: English Composition 1
Grantham University
Danna Teicheira
March 22, 2021
“A dog is a man’s best friend”. Sweet, cuddly beings that have the most innocent souls. It is said to believe that any “bad” dog is because a human has mistreated it. Such gentle creatures, it would take a truly evil person to hurt a dog. Right? Let’s flip the script. “Each year, an estimated 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are slaughtered each year in China.” (Animals Asia Foundation, 2020) Does the abuse and killing of these dogs make it okay just because they are being used for food purposes? Absolutely not, right?
America has a tricky way of picking and choosing which animals are acceptable for consumption. Listed below are a few animals that would and would not be acceptable for eating:
· Cows: Yes, can’t give up burgers.
· Pigs: Yes! Bacon!
· Dogs: Never
· Cats: Of course not, even for the people who “hate cats”.
· Ducks: Sure.
· Dolphins: Nope.
· Chickens: Duh!
· Penguins: No, they are so cute.
So basically, it all boils down to how sweet and cuddly an animal it to be considered socially acceptable to eat them. What is the difference in pigs and dogs? Both animals have emotions and feelings, learn their names and can learn different commands. Pigs and dogs are kind, loving animals. The only real difference is their looks. Is this what makes pigs acceptable to eat and not dogs? How shallow are humans?
Eating animals does not come naturally. One does not simply look at a bunny and think “dinner!”. It has been taught in our culture and passed down to children. Children learn that “milk gives them strong bones” and “meat will make you big and strong”. Almost every restaurant in America has meat as the main dishes. Eating meat is normal, right? “More than 10 billion land animals are killed each year in the U.S. alone to produce meat, dairy, and eggs. That’s more than one million every hour.” (Factory Farms, 2021) Is that normal?
In America, the educational system is pretty black and white. There is a strict curriculum that schools and teachers are required to follow. This is so teachers do not add any of their personal perspectives into their teachings. In health class, every student is taught the beloved food guide pyramid. People are taught that meat and dairy are important features of a human’s diet. What is not taught is “there is no nutritional need for humans to eat any animal products; all of our dietary needs, even as infants and children, are best supplied by an animal-free diet” (PETA, 2013). Believe it or not, the human body is designed as herbivores, not omnivores. We know this by different reasons, one example is the way the humans jaw moves, which is similar to a horse or a gorilla. The human jaw moves left to right and up and down. The jaw of a carnivore or omnivore strictly moves up and down, like a cat or dog’s jaw. Another example is human intestines. Human intestines are much larger than ones of a carnivore, a tiger for example. This allows the body to break down the fibers and absorb all nutrients in the consumed foods. “Meat actually begins to rot while it makes its way through human intestines, which increases the risk of developing colon cancer.” (PETA, 2013)
Eating meat is a huge part of the American culture. From backyard bbq’s to chili-cook-offs, anywhere there is food, there is always meat or dairy involved. People gather to come try and taste new, exciting foods. The problem is that people do not stop and think “how did this get on my plate?”. If people were to see the terror that the animals have to go through to get there, people may think twice about consuming them. Culture is very important in life, but just because people do something culturally, does not make it ethical. Take slavery for example. In the 1800’s, slavery was a part of everyday life. It was very common for people to own slaves and treat them however they pleased. Just because this was considered “normal” back then, we now know that slavery is immorally and ethically wrong, making it illegal. When will humans stop enslaving animals? Animals do have rights, but those rights are stripped away for our tastebuds.
There is hope for the future of society without animal products. “Non-dairy milk sales have increased by 61% while dairy milk sales have decreased by 22% in the recent years”. (Bourassa, 2021) Fast food chains are now adding plant-based products on their menu, such as White Castle adding the Impossible Sliders and Pizza Hut adding the Beyond Sausage to their menus. Newly added documentaries on Netflix are booming as people learn more and more about veganism.
Just like humans, animals have emotions, feeling and souls. They are creatures that were put on this earth to live just as equal as humans were. Giving them a fair shot at life only seems like the right thing to do. Making this lifestyle change will not only improve one’s health, but also relieve the guilty conscious of killing innocent animals. Remember, Dory said it best, “fish are friends, not food”.
Resources
“Facts About the Asian Dog Meat Trade; Dog Meat Festivals.” About the Dog Meat Trade in Asia, Animals Asia Foundation, 2020, www.animalsasia.org/us/our-work/cat-and-dog-welfare/facts-about-dog-meat-trade.html.
“Factory Farms.” A Well-Fed World, 8 Feb. 2021, awellfedworld.org/factory-farms/.
“Don’t We Need to Eat Meat and Dairy Products to Be Healthy?” PETA, 14 Oct. 2013, www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/dont-we-need-to-eat-meat-and-dairy-products-to-be-healthy/#:~:text=No!,by%20an%20animal%2Dfree%20diet
Bourassa, Lacey, “Vegan and Plant-Based Diet Statistics for 2021.” PlantProteins.co, 13 Jan. 2021, www.plantproteins.co/vegan-plant-based-diet-statistics/#:~:text=Vegan%20Population%20Statistics%20in%20the%20United%20States&text=While%20we%20can%27t%20know,that%20figure%20spiked%20to%206%25.
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PERSUASIVE ESSAY ROUGH DRAFT
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Persuasive Essay Rough Draft
Pamela Williams
ENG 101
Prof Dana Teicheira
Persuasive Essay Rough Draft
The fact that the current world is suffering a great deal is not a surprising one. There are many things happening that make it difficult for people to do as they normally would. One of the worst things we are currently dealing with is the Coronavirus pandemic. Because of this, we have to do things vastly different than we are used to. And it is not only the adults that are dealing with this. The children have a lot of struggles as well. A great many of them are not used to the way they have to do things, mainly school. Many have had to switch to online schooling. Completely online schooling is not as effective as going in person, especially for the very young students.
Children in this country have become accustomed to getting up every day and going to school. When they are there, they are surrounded by their peers and teachers. They have become used to learning in this environment. The sudden and drastic change from this is difficult for them to adjust to. Every child learns differently, and children have always had to get used to doing the best they could going to school how they normally did. Now, we have children that struggled to find a good flow with in-person learning having to struggle to learn in a whole new way. Not all of them are able to pick up on it fast enough to produce good grades.
Social interaction is another important factor. A lot of children are too young to know in any real capacity how badly the pandemic is changing things. So, when we tell them they cannot go out and play, visit, and other things as they normally would, they may not understand. In addition, the social aspect of school in person is what can help a lot of children learn better. For these children, online can hurt more than it helps. And even though there is some level of socialization, it is not the same as it once was. Based on observing grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and others, it is clear that many times, the teacher is not even visible, and neither are other students. There are some children who need that constant visual presence of teachers and classmates.
To clarify, this is not to speak against online school. This is in fact the type of schooling I am currently participating in. However, adults and even teenagers have more experience with change than young children. They are also more developed and can self-direct more than the very young. For example, one child witnessed has struggled continuously and the teacher constantly emails the parent about an issue. It is harder for both her and her mom because of the mother working. If she were in regular school, she would be able to be kept on track better. While it can be argued that online is necessary due to the current pandemic issues, this can be handled as safely as possible by ensuring students are practicing safe measures. This will be the responsibility of the teachers.
The current method of handling online schooling is not effective for the students or the parents. This does not mean that it cannot work, but students should be able to have schooling that is closer to the normal way of doing it than they have now. Even if the solution is still online, it needs to be more interactive. This would vastly improve the current circumstances. The bottom line is students, especially the younger ones, are not learning as well as they did when they attended in person schooling.