Blog Entry 12: Final Essay

Reflective Essay (Final)

English 101 has assisted me in my writing. I came into this class only knowing how to do basic writing and this class. As the class progressed, I learned more about the aspects of writing, such as the different types of research papers, and the different places where the claim and the thesis can go in an introductory paragraph. As a writer, I started off knowing about certain research aspects and basic writing. I usually write creative essays, and poems. My writing skills were good in my opinion due to the fact that I wrote pages and pages of details for my stories, but once I got some of my papers back I realized that I needed work on my writing. As I learned more in the class, my writing started to improve and a great example of my improvements was on the research paper that we had to do.

The preconceptions that I had about writing was the same in every English class: summary in the introduction with a thesis or a claim, body paragraphs consisting of the evidence and explanation of your thesis or claim, and a conclusion summarizing what you wrote in the essay. Basically the essay formats were the same but there was a deeper meaning to it. The examples had to be explained in detail and the claim had to either be the first sentence in the introductory paragraph or the last sentence and you had to explain the claim so it wouldn't confuse the professor. I thought that the research paper just had to have your stance on a certain situation and explain your decision with evidence from sources and then cite the sources both in the paper and as a works cited pages so the reader could know where the evidence came from. My opinion of the writing and the research paper were slightly off. In the regular writing, the examples in my essays weren't explained deep enough or they didn't pertain enough to the paper. It would also make the reader a bit confused about what I was writing. In my research paper some of my things weren't cited and some of the words I used weren't defined well enough.

My weakness in the researching process was the fact that my topics wasn't showing up well in the case of sources. It took most of my researching time because I had to constantly look deep online to find a good source I could use to explain my reasons in detail and not to have my reasons in the paper without any evidence. I think that if I change the way I come up with my topics, then I would be able to find more sources that pertain to my research paper.

What I leaned in this class was mostly in the book we read, Fast Food Nation. The book opened my eyes to how the fast food company work and the reality of what we eat. It illustrated that meat products should be taken into consideration when purchasing t Also what I learned in this class is the different styles of writing. Through all the PowerPoint slides and the lectures the professor gave, it really helped me become a better writer. Most of the lectures and lessons the professor taught was the common errors that everyone made mistakes on and this helped me because I was having problems in those areas as well.

Now since we had the chance to do research, I’m pretty confident that my skills will better myself for other classes and has shown already through my other classes. In my criminology class, we had two case studies where we had to research and figure out criminological theories for certain offenders. I used some of the skills I used in this English class and applied it to my essay for criminology class and wrote a good paper. The grade that I got for the paper was a 90.  

Writing will play a major role in my future career. Writing in the criminal justice field alone is essential to the career. I plan on being a forensic scientist and that career consists on a lot of writing. There will be writing in the form of reports when it comes to explaining the crime scene, and writing about the lab results that I have to collect from the crime scene.

I believe that this class and the professor have shown me how to be more detail with my work to a certain extent. It has influenced me to challenge my skills as a writer and continue to improve my writing so that it can be top standard by the time I reach my career job as a forensic scientist. This class has been a great place to be at and the atmosphere of the class was welcoming 24/7. I hope I could be able to have Professor Smith in the fall semester.

Blog Entry #11: Rough Draft For Research Paper

Tyanna Willis

Professor Smith

English 101

20 May 2014

How Clean Are These “Slaughterhouses?”

How would you feel if you found out that the meat you purchase and consume could be dangerous to your health? Would you like to know the reason as to why the meat you eat is dangerous? Most would say that it’s due to the fact that the meat wasn’t processed in a sanitary atmosphere. The sanitation of slaughterhouses defined is basically the cleanliness of these places. It refers to how well the janitorial staff cleans and sanitizes the machinery and other things, such as the conveyor belts, cutting tools, tables, etc. Most slaughterhouses work at a fast pace, to the point where sanitation can become a problem because the workers can’t keep up with proper hygiene and Some slaughterhouses neglect proper hygiene and proper sanitation just to get their products out there as soon as possible. An unsanitary slaughterhouse can lead to infections and/or serious issues which can arise from the public if it slips out. I feel that we should take action and make sure that these slaughterhouses are regulated, cleaned, sanitized  and observed by the managers or owners so that they can prevent any potential outbreaks from spreading and harming the consumers.

          My paper will consist of two sections and a conclusion. The first section will consist of the two major problems that can arise when sanitation goes neglected in slaughterhouses. I will explain them and the risks that can occur if nothing is done about the problems. The last section will illustrate two solutions that I believe can be considered so that  the sanitation of slaughterhouses can be achieved to prevent the issues that are stated above from happening. The conclusion will sum up my position and illustrate the things we should do in order to keep things in order at slaughterhouses.

PROBLEMS

Cross Contamination. Cross contamination is one of the issues that can potentially lead to infection and dangerous health risks. Cross contamination is when food, especially meat that has bacteria comes in contact which another food product, in this case another product of meat, and carries that bacteria to that other meat product.Many researchers and authors have concluded that many of the meats that become contaminated were in contact with other parts of the animal’s body. Those bacteria can be harmless or fatal. Many meat products are, “ likely to come in contact with an infected animal’s stomach contents or manure, during slaughter or subsequent processing” (Schlosser 197). These stomach contents contain many types of bacteria, some of which includes Salmonella. Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause diarrhea, pain and cramps in the abs, and fever. This illness can last anywhere from 72 hours to a week. Some people that contract the bacteria and they need to be hospitalized. Due to the production and the inexperienced workers, they mistakenly cut the wrong part of the animal or forget to sterilize their material, which can can keep the bacteria on that piece of material and can be easily transferred onto the next piece of meat they cut of a different animal. once the bacteria is on this new piece of meat, the contamination problem can inflate, even spreading to other products, such as fruits and vegetables once the meat arrives at supermarkets.

Risk of Diseases. Diseases is another issue that can arise in unsanitary slaughterhouses.  A disease is an illness that can affect any living thing and cause them to work abnormally or below their natural everyday function, which can eventually harm a person in the long run. Alongside with the cross contamination of the meat products, disease can fatally harm or kill consumers. As production in slaughterhouses continue to please the boss by producing a high amount of meat products at a quick amount of time, diseases become more present in the meat. This happens due to the fact that the speed and lack of time to sanitize materials helps transfer potentially dangerous diseases around from meat product to meat product. According to this article, “ working with meat has been shown to increase the risk of leukemia and lymphoma. In fact the increased risk of these diseases extends from meat workers from the slaughterhouse all the way down to the supermarket butcher” ("The Forgotten Casualties of Meat - Slaughterhouse Workers").

Another way that diseases appear in the meat products is due to fact that the animals are raised in poor conditions. These animals are put close together until they are ready to be slaughtered. Some of the animals, due to the limited space fight for space, biting and eating other animals. This leads to open wounds in animals, which leads to infection and eventually animals with diseases. Then these animals are mixed with the healthy animals and easily transfer any diseases that the wounded. According to Undercover Investigations, “Calves are seen crammed into tiny wooden crates, often chained at the neck and unable to turn around or lie down comfortably, and workers are documented violently kicking and beating them...Hidden-camera video exposed extreme cruelty to animals at a chicken hatchery owned by Maple Leaf Foods, one of Canada's largest meat producers. The shocking video footage shows baby chicks flung by their fragile wings and slammed into metal dividers, live chicks sent through a scalding washing machine, burned, and drowned, and birds being overloaded and roughly crammed into macerators to be ground up alive” (“Undercover Investigations”). This illustrates how the sanitation with the animals are very poor and something needs to be done about it.

Solutions

Spending More Time Cleaning.Slaughterhouses can be contaminated with leftover body parts of animals. These remains can contain bacteria that can linger after cleaning if the cleanliness isn't carried out the right way. The cleaning of a slaughterhouse should be carried out with proper cleaning and sanitizing after the cleaning to assure that there’s no type of harmful bacteria lingering around, which can transfer easily to meat product. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) should carry out out more inspection more regularly and more continue to change their regulatory rules. As a way of ensuring that all measure and procedures are upheld in these slaughterhouses they should use random check inspections this would allow the USDA to understand what truly happen inside slaughterhouses. Using planned visit for inspection allow these companies to create false sense of reality as if they were following all the procedures set in place to allow safe food processing.There should also be more severe penalties for those who fail to continue to maintain the standard of USDA. harsher penalties would decrease the use of shortcut procedures both by companies and by workers if a worker failed to follow the correct procedure he or she should be penalized harshly and so should the manufacturer if upon investigation it can be proven that the owners of the slaughterhouse could have prevented such an error. with the use of harsh tactics and stiff penalties companies would be more fearful and more mindful in the way they operate and also would find new way to continue to slaughter animal. workers should be constantly overlooked and monitored to make sure they are following the regulatory rules on how to properly process food, it is also important that they be constantly updated on the methods and procedures of slaughtering this would allow for some if not all to ensure that the steps they use to kill animals are within the regulatory rules of slaughtering.

Create a More Relaxed Atmosphere in the Slaughterhouse. When the slaughterhouse is under an intense atmosphere, the workers are pressured to give in to the certain amount of tasks in a limited amount of time. is under an intense atmosphere, the workers are pressured to give in to the certain amount of tasks in a limited amount of time. With these pressures and intensity, workers can get injured or even become careless with their work. Some don’t even have a chance to sanitize and disinfect themselves, which can contribute to poor sanitation and eventually risks for consumers in the long run. When the workers become injured at the job they have a risk of infecting themselves or infecting the meat products. The problem with the American slaughterhouses is that many slaughterhouses they find ways to manipulate the system. This allow them to undermine many food regulatory rules and only adhere to these rules set to ensure that  these slaughter houses are sanitary when it's time for inspection government officials. Many slaughterhouses are suspected of paying workers or illegal immigrants to keep quiet about the actual work conditions they work and process meat for the general public.  The conditions that are presented in the media as how many slaughterhouses operate are not always the conditions in reality for with the constant expectation of quick processing of meat from the slaughterhouse to the merchants they fail to ensure that conditions are always at maximum cleanliness.

The managers at slaughterhouses should take the time to figure out the cleaning process. If the management didn’t put such a time limit on the janitorial staff, then the sanitation and the cleanliness of the slaughterhouse would be much better than what we hear about today. Once the staff knows that they can relax and not be pressured into cleaning under a certain amount time, more things would be much cleaner and the risk of serious diseases would be contained.

Conclusion

In conclusion, many slaughterhouses are very unsanitary and actions need to be taken into serious consideration. I believe that these issues and solutions should be looked at and should influence consumers to be aware of how these slaughterhouses are regulated and what they should be cautious for. Slaughterhouses needs to be regulated better than how they are regulated now. If there’s no change in the way they do things, severe consequences will happen and the potential risks of more outbreaks could flourish. So ask yourself, “Is it worth your life to sit there and not do anything about it?”

Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. "An Ideal System For New Pathogens." Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the

All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 197. Print.

"The Forgotten Casualties of Meat - Slaughterhouse Workers." Vegetarian News and Views. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 21 May 2014.

"Undercover Investigations of Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses."MercyForAnimals.org. N.p., n.d.

Web. 26 May 2014.

"What Is Salmonellosis?" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, 05 Apr. 2012. Web. 26 May 2014.

Blog Entry 10: Sentence Outline

Title: How Clean Are These “Slaughterhouses?”

Introduction

1. Possible "Hook" to get the reader interested?
1. Ask a question(rhetorical question)
2. Tell a quick explanation of the issue
2. Definition of Issue or Problem:
1. The sanitation of slaughterhouses defined is basically the cleanliness of these places. It refers to how well the janitorial staff cleans and sanitizes the machinery and other things, such as the conveyor belts, cutting tools, tables, etc.
3. Claim or Call to Action: The sanitation of slaughterhouses should be observed and tested so that potential harm doesn’t reach the consumer and potentially put any consumers’ lives on the line.

Body Paragraph

1. Main Point, Idea, or Issue:
1. Cross contamination between the meat in the slaughterhouses (prevent cross contamination), (define and explain a little)
2. Supporting Information:Cross contamination is one of the issues that can potentially lead to infection and dangerous health risks. Cross contamination is when food, especially meat that has bacteria comes in contact which another food product, in this case another product of meat, and carries that bacteria to that other meat product. Those bacteria can be harmless or fatal. Workers in slaughterhouses, due to the speed of the production, mistakenly cut the wrong part of the animal, or forget to sterilize their material, which can keep the bacteria on that piece of material and can be easily transferred onto the next piece of meat they cut of a different animal.
3. Supporting Details or Data:

Body Paragraph

1. Main Point, Idea, or Issue:
1. Spread of Diseases into the meat and transferring to consumers
2. Supporting Information:
3. Supporting Details or Data:

Body Paragraph

1. Main Point, Idea, or Issue:
1. Spending more time cleaning the slaughterhouses
2. Supporting Information:
3. Supporting Details or Data:

Body Paragraph

1. Main Point, Idea, or Issue:
2. Supporting Information:
3. Supporting Details or Data:

Blog Entry #9: Research

• General Subject:
• My general subject for my research project is  Sanitation in Slaughterhouses
• Focus or Narrowed Topic:
• How clean these slaughterhouses are kept to the point where diseases can't survive and spread
• Plan to Argue or Support for?
• The managers at the slaughterhouses should take extra time to assure that the slaughterhouses are kept extra clean to risk diseases from spreading to the meat and eventually affecting people and potentially killing them
• Sources looked at and how will they be useful:
• I haven't looked at any sources as yet
• Next Steps if the topic is approved:
• Next steps in the writing and research process:
• Research using approved databases
• Highlight and quote the useful information that can support my argument
• Use an outline to plan the writing process
• Pre-write by creating a draft
• Difficulties in moving forward in the researching process:
• The topic might lead to stray to other concerns
• My argument might be a little broad   

Blog Entry #8: Mid-term Essay

Advertisements that targeted children seems to be a trend that companies use to get their products across to consumers. Now most advertisements that are targeted at children send a negative message in the long run. Fast food companies target children to eat unhealthy food without the care f the impact it will have on them in the future. Parents try to set children in the right direction but due to the numerous amounts of advertising that appeals to the children, many of them realize that they are fighting a losing battle. This is why I believe that the government should take more action and regulate the advertisements of the food industry so that the health of children won't be compromised.

One reason why the government should crack down on unhealthy food advertisements is that the government is dealing with a nationwide weight issue. The government reports that many people, especially children and adolescents are overweight or obese. This problem is due to the many ads that illustrate unhealthy foods such as Mcdonald’s with their Big Mac and Burger King with their Whopper. According to the article, “Public Agrees on Obesity’s Impact,” obesity is ranked the second most public health problem. This is caused by the fact that the ads are played more frequently during children's’ shows, which induces the children to be more influenced by the unhealthy advertisement. If the government limited the number of unhealthy food ads that were shown during a child’s problem, then the obesity problem would decrease.

Another reason why the government should step up is due to the fact that the government is a huge influence and they’re the second line of authority in the nation, following parents. Every day children are taught to follow these two people: parents and the government When it comes to food, children tend to rebel against their parents when anything healthy comes to the table. But when the government advertises McDonald’s, or Pizza Hut on T.V., the child tends to be influenced more than they would be if they saw an ad about healthy products. The government, as the second authority to children's’ lives, should team up with parents to focus more on healthy products.

            In conclusion, advertisements that are targeting children are harming them in the long run. The government has taken small measures to improve the health of children by limiting the number of fast food companies in certain schools. Also, Michelle Obama has started a campaign to help get children into shape. But these actions aren’t enough; more actions should be taken into consideration so that our children don’t end up living short lives. The government regulates the media, so they should regulate more4 of these unhealthy ads. Ask yourself, “Would children would be better off with short lives filled with complications or long lives with good health?”

Blog Entry #7: The Meatrix Issues

The issue that i want to look more into is animal cruelty. this issue concerns everyone and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Animal cruelty has been a problem since the food industry changed from regular farming to production line based slaughterhouses. The way animals are treated today is and I believe that we should take action and help these poor animals by reverting back to farming. If the animals were back on a farm and raised the way they are supposed to be, the risks for diseased animals and poor treatment would decrease.

Blog Entry #6: Brand identification

One brand name item that is constantly seen in my house is Jordans. My family has a history of buying Jordans almost every Saturday that they come out. We mostly buy the sneakers because that’s the only thing that we crave from the company. It’s like these sneakers are a hobby in our family. I remember when my mother and I went shopping for Jordans. We would go to Brooklyn and shop on Nostrand Avenue at V.I.M.S. Every Saturday we would go early so that we could get our sizes before the store ran out. When we would go, we would always have fun going and picking out the latest styles they had. Most of the time we bought matching Jordans because my mom wanted people to know that her daughter is just like her and when people asked about our matching sneakers she would always say, “like mother, like daughter.” I would feel amazingly happy due to the fact that no matter what my mom would always buy me Jordans just like hers to show that I was her daughter and that I would be just like her. Now I limit the number of Jordans I purchase to about two or three times a year due to the fact that Jordans costs much more than they did back then. I also limit the purchases because I have a huge collection of Jordans that are in my closet. I like to wear the old school Jordans because some of the old ones can’t be found anywhere and I also love the comments that people give me when I wear them. Some people wonder how got them and I always tell them that I had them since they first came out. To get comments like that gives me a sense of happiness and proudness because I can keep my Jordans up like new and people always wonder about the different styles and where they can find them.

Another brand name that is seen around my house frequently is Sony. We purchase a bunch of Sony products that include one PlayStation One, two PlayStation 2s, one PlayStation 3, six PlayStation Portables, and the very first PlayStation console. In my house, we’re all hardcore gamers, excluding my grandma. My brothers and I always play games no matter what time of day it is. The game that we play nonstop is Black Ops. That game turns all of us into animals due to the fact that we get so hooked into the game that the only time we actually take a break from it is when we’re either hungry or if one of us has to use the bathroom. The reason a person would see multiple PlayStation consoles from Sony is due to the fact that we’re hardcore gamers as I explained before. It all started when my brothers and I went to visit my aunt. My aunt had the first PlayStation ever made and she was playing her favorite game, Tony Hawk. We heard about the game but we never played it. So, she let us play the game a little so they we could experience the game. After a few rounds we got hooked on the game and eventually my brothers and I had knockout battles against my aunt. After that day, my grandma decided that for Christmas instead of buying a bunch of toys that she knew that we would eventually get bored of, she bought a PlayStation 2. When we found out that she bought it, we opened it and played the PlayStation 2 that whole Christmas day. Now we use the PlayStation Portables to play against each other when we’re not home to play the other consoles. My brothers and I even play against our neighbors. Our neighbors have Sony products as well and we connect with them when we have rounds of Black Ops on the PlayStation 3. When my brothers and I play against our neighbors, nothing comes between our battles and all hell breaks loose. We close ourselves in one room away from any distractions and we go all in. We get so into the game that we get a little reckless with our language when the game gets too serious.