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samuelasche · 2 years

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My Reflective Statement

After taking ENC 2135, I can certainly say that my writing has advanced in regards to composing research and using different genres and rhetorical strategies. The college-level literature classes that I chose to take in high school such as AP Literature prepared me for this class, but they did not teach me the importance of different genres and rhetorical strategies nor go into the level of detail that this class entails. When I first opened up our prompt about genres, I thought about the various categories of books. I had no idea that the word genre could take on a whole new meaning in literature. I never considered the use of genres like social media, billboards, or even an advertisement on a highway to be a part of literature, however they are an essential part of rhetoric. Finding the best possible genre to use is the only way to make an effective piece of literature that convinces the audience. In the past, I only ever considered using a peer-reviewed journal or another written source to support information in an essay or to research. ENC 2135 taught me that anything with words or pictures can be considered a genre and be useful to literature if it applies to an argument. A crucial part of writing that I never considered before this class was putting an emphasis on the audience and writing out different possible audiences in a research proposal. For example, when catering to a younger audience like high school or college students, I learned that using social media to spread my message is a much more effective genre. Few younger people want to sit behind a computer, searching through a virtual library, or even look at physical texts in a traditional library when they can find the same information on Instagram or Facebook. Furthermore, there are so many more rhetorical strategies that I never considered using such as structure, exigence, and formality. I advanced from solely using ethos, pathos, and logos to creating a more complex essay that analyzes several different rhetorical strategies. ENC 2135 pushed me to be more detailed with my writing than ever before because I had to complete unique assignments like the RAFA. I never imagined analyzing a Youtube video instead of a long, boring research paper. Lastly, my ability to compose research greatly improved. I learned how to compose a research proposal and map out my plan for writing. The proposals I made this semester made it much easier to find peer-reviewed journals, as I had a better idea of what I was looking for than if I simply jumped into the research without a specific topic and research question in mind. Before this class, I would only pick a topic before I began my research, and it would take me twice as long to find valuable information because of the amount of broad results I would encounter. Instead of wasting my time finding useless articles that do not relate to my argument, I learned how to be much more efficient and professional with my research.

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samuelasche · 2 years

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Revised RAFA Project Two

Introduction:

A huge issue in the medical industry today is the inequality that African Americans and other minorities face. The problem continues today, as the majority of privileged Americans receive quality care and are not affected. Furthermore, fewer African Americans are diagnosed with illnesses such as diabetes, anemia, kidney failure, and high blood pressure than white Americans. Often, by the time they are diagnosed, it is too late to fully recover. White Americans are more likely to be prescribed necessary medication or sent to. Because of the fear in the minds of minorities, they are often scared to receive vaccines and treatment, exacerbating their risk level. Overall, the American healthcare system’s inability to acknowledge health disparities experienced by African Americans further intensifies the problem today by increasing the gap between quality of treatment. Some medical professionals try to make a difference but not rough to make any major changes. The following two artifacts discuss these issues with race. For example, in the video “The Divide: Confronting Racism in American Healthcare”, and the article “The Costs of Institutional Racism and its Ethical Implication for Healthcare” by Elias and Paradies, rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos along with imagery and tone are used to build trust and resonate with the audience.

Analysis of first artifact:

In the video “The Divide: Confronting Racism in American Healthcare”, medical professionals in St. Louis, MO discuss the economic divide between black and white neighborhoods and how racism negatively affects the black community. The video presents a plethora of medical professionals of all different races and genders, and it even lists the education of each doctor when he or she is introduced to the video. For example, Bethany Johnson-Javois, the CEO of St. Louis Integrated Health Network, speaks in the video (0:43). She is a well-spoken and professional-looking middle-aged black woman. Everything from her words to her modest and expensive-looking clothes show the listener that this is the person to listen to. Listing her position as CEO of her company builds ethos by suggesting that she is extremely educated and hard-working or at the very least has plenty of connections. By presenting a diverse set of put-together individuals throughout the video, the greatest potential ethos is built.

Taking advantage of natural human emotions is another efficient way for the creators of media to make a subject more convincing and better connect with a viewer. A major appeal to pathos is made when a young doctor interviews a kind, older patient who says “it ain’t gonna kill you to just listen to them”. The elderly woman in the video clip breaks down into tears when her physician asks her how she could improve in her job. It is such a simple request, but the fact that it causes her emotions to overwhelm her says so much about her maltreatment, proving to the viewer that healthcare for African Americans really is as bad as the staff claim in the video. The woman’s emotions express years and years of bottled-up frustration, and now she is finally able to have her voice heard. Using this specific clip is an extremely witty move, as seeing an interaction between a patient and a doctor that is so raw and personal makes it seem as if the doctors in St. Louis are doing a big part to end racism, further validating the source.

It is one thing to read about economic divide in scholarly articles or hear about it on the news but seeing imagery of the situation makes it much easier for viewers to understand the reality of living in poverty and having such little access to quality healthcare. For the first twenty-five seconds of the video, a camera crew shows houses with chipping paint, sagging rooflines, and garbage strewn across yards in the poorer St. Louis neighborhoods. This allows the viewer to visualize the “poverty stricken” areas the medical staff in the video keep referencing. The comparison of the resource-deprived northern neighborhoods with the wealthier and prominent southern neighborhoods provides a good of example of the difference in lifestyle, and it also allows viewers to see exactly why black neighborhoods are struggling to pay for or access quality medical care. In conclusion, the imagery in the video is powerful, and it provides a powerful introduction that immediately helps the viewer understand the struggles that black Americans face in the medical field by putting an image to the words of the medical staff.

The tone of the doctors is another important tactic used in the article. The video starts off with a woman named Kaytlin Reed-Rogier speaking, who is one of the Program Coordinators for the project to reduce racism in healthcare. At one minute and three seconds in the video, Kaytlin explains the closing of a large public hospital that mostly treats black patients. Although the topic is sad, her encouraging tone shows that she is hopeful that healthcare in St. Louis can bounce back, and she seems like someone the audience can trust to fight for the cause. Furthermore, the codirector for the health center at Cornell, Jamila Michener seems intelligent and uplifting when discussing the mistrust within black communities. Her soft voice comforts listeners when there is not much comfort to be found in the harsh topic being discussed.

Another major rhetorical strategy to consider in the video is the creator's purpose. Different parts of the video contain different purposes. For example, the first twenty-seven seconds of the video showcase a comparison between the nicer neighborhoods and those that experience greater levels of poverty in St. Louis. The video creator does this to evoke pity from the audience. The clips of the poverty in the city show just how frustrating it can be when living conditions are already a challenge, and on top of that, finding quality healthcare or even being able to afford healthcare at all is a huge obstacle. The author's purpose in this is to make the audience angry at how challenging it is for African Americans to simply get by in their day-to-day lives in the city. To conclude, it is clear that the video creator's purpose is to convince the viewers to take action but also that there are powerful authorities who are willing to put in the work in to make a change.

Analysis of second artifact:

In the introduction of the article, ethos is immediately built when citations are made from several different medical professionals, decreasing the potential bias. Information is cited form scholarly sources by “Nelson…Green…and…Stone”. It becomes much easier to trust an article when multiple scholarly sources are quoted that all seem to contain agreeing information. Immediately following, Elias and Paradies make connections to other areas such as law enforcement where racism is also a big problem. With the article primarily being about racism in healthcare, the authors build even more trust with the reader by showcasing their knowledge in other areas, even naming specific racially motivated incidents. Finally, there is no doubt that the authors are not qualified to be relaying the information, and the reader has no reason not to put their full trust into the article.

In the online article “The Costs of Institutional Racism and its Ethical Implication for Healthcare”, authors Elias and Paradies the title heavily foreshadows what the audience of the journal will be. The title explains the type of article, such as whether it is going to be a biased news article or an informative scholarly journal. The article uses vocabulary that most readers should understand, however it is advanced enough that the reader can trust the article to hold valid information, and the article remains symmetrical, using the same intelligent tone throughout, meant to draw on readers with a medical background. From the title, less-educated readers will be scared away, as it suggests that an audience that is more educated on the topic of medicine may be the only audience that is able to understand the article. Although some readers who are not educated on the medical field may be interested, the title implies that they will find difficulty in understanding the topic.

In “The Costs of Institutional Racism and its Ethical Implications for Healthcare”, the introduction of the article immediately radiates a scholarly tone. Although the tone of the title was already analyzed above, the fact that the title and the content of the essay share the same tone immediately shows that the author is not trying to trick the reader. The professional tone used in the article makes it clear that the author is passionate about the topic, which often makes it easier to trust the author and shows that the information being displayed is accurate and thorough research was done beforehand. Elias and Paradies use language that is elevated above daily vocabulary while also formulating sentence structure that is easy to understand when they say, “These interrelated forms of racism are exhibited interpersonally, with white individuals acting against black individuals, and collectively, with the white community acting against the black community”. In the sentence and throughout the article, the authors find the perfect medium between too scholarly and too basic to create a highly intelligent sounding article that is accessible to most but not all readers.

Comparison and Conclusion

In the video “The Divide: Confronting Racism in American Healthcare” and the article “The Costs of Institutional Racism and its Ethical Implication for Healthcare”, there are several differences between tone, rhetorical appeals, audience, and imagery. The article takes on a more scholarly tone that is a bit bland, while the video is more enthusiastic and livelier about the future of healthcare. Rhetorical appeals are present in both sources; however, the article is heavier on ethos, and the video primarily uses pathos, combining it with the live images of human emotions. The potential for using imagery in the video is much higher, and that level of live imagery cannot be found in a scholarly article. Although it is possible to use imagery in writing, that was not the goal for Paradise and Elias, rather they keep their artifact much simpler, focusing more on facts and intelligence. The title of the video foreshadows material that will be hard to understand, while the reality is quite the opposite with the information in the video being substantially easier to understand than the content in the article. From the title, it seems that both of the artifacts will have a similar audience, but after observing this technique, it becomes apparent that title of an artifact can be misleading, and it is important to analyze other parts of an artifact.

Works Cited

Elias, A., & Paradies, Y. (2021). The costs of institutional racism and its ethical implications for healthcare. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-020-10073-0

(2022). Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/video/2022/feb/divide-confronting-racism-american-health-care.

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samuelasche · 2 years

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Second Artifact - Zombie Apocalypse Speech

Hello, I’m Sam, I’m Jake, and I’m Tommy, we’re desperately in need of help. We’re out of supplies, our shelter was overrun by zombies, and we don’t know what else to do. You're our only option, and we'd like to know if we could stay with you.

I noticed when we were coming onto your property that there are some fences that have fallen down and that your animal pens could use a little repair. I worked at Home Depot for 3 years and I have a lot of experience repairing things as a handyman, you could ask my old boss if the zombies didn’t get him. I could fix up some things on the property and improve your security in case zombies come.

I noticed you guys have a ton of animals to take care of, and with such a small family, I wouldn’t want you to feel overwhelmed. I have plenty of experience taking care of animals, and with my help, you guys can be much more relaxed, and spend time together as a family before the zombies destroy the whole world.

I’ve got a special set of skills. I can fight off and kill zombies with any weapon or tool that I am given. Whether it is a shovel, hammer, or bale of hay I can fight off zombies within seconds. I will be able to keep the house and everyone in it safe and sound from this apocalypse. I will also be able to protect all of the animals and crops from the undead so that we can continue to have food throughout this journey.

I know that we will be a good help around the farm. You don’t have to accept our offer, but this is our only chance to survive.

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samuelasche · 2 years

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First Artifact - IFE Research Proposal

Research Question: What is the relationship between demographic factors such as race and income/economic status when it comes to access to healthcare in the United States?

Working Title: Access to Quality Healthcare: Low Income and Minority Communities

Project Summary: In my project, the topic that I want to research is access to healthcare in the United States. Specifically, I want to learn more about the challenges of being a minority or growing up in poverty and how that can make access to healthcare even more challenging. While people are usually quick to come up with what they think is a solution, I know that the healthcare system is much more complicated, which is why I want to learn more details about the challenges first. Some specifics that I would like to research are which demographics specifically lack access to quality healthcare, and why those specific demographics cannot escape a cycle of struggle. Playing off that last detail, I also want to research proposals for solutions to the healthcare system in the United States that would benefit everyone and provide a fair chance to all people regardless of their race or economic status. Some key terms that come up frequently from my research are life expectancy, mortality, economic status, poverty, financial instability, out-of-pocket costs, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Some questions that I am going to use to guide my research are:

What demographic(s) in the United States would benefit the most from universal healthcare or more accessible healthcare?

What is the relationship between race and access to healthcare?

How does income affect access to healthcare?

Why is healthcare so expensive in the United States?

How could the government do more to help those that struggle with being able to afford quality healthcare?

How does the quality of healthcare in the United States compare to that of other countries?

What specific problems make it difficult to obtain proper healthcare?

4. Reason for choosing topic: For most of my childhood, my mom was a single mother, and she did not receive much financial help from my dad even though he was legally obligated to help. My mom worked tirelessly to give us a good life, but medical expenses for my sister and I were challenging to pay even with the plan provided to my mom by her employer. As healthcare costs were something that my family struggled with growing up, I have always been interested in learning about ways to solve the healthcare crisis and become more knowledgeable about the topic.

My aunt, who I was always close with growing up, worked in the healthcare industry, and she made good money but was not particularly wealthy. Even being someone who worked in the industry, she still struggled to pay off her bills when it came to medical expenses. Growing up, I have watched so many kind and hard-working families fall into thousands of dollars of credit card debt simply because of insurmountable costs.

5. One of the biggest challenges that I have faced so far in my research is understanding the different government healthcare programs that already exist in the United States such as Medicare and Medicaid. I know the basics of each system, but many of the online articles I have read go into detail about the programs, and I get lost in the sea of medical and financial terms. Although, I believe that with more research this will not be an issue.

Another worry that I have about my project is that the topic is too broad. I think that to find more valuable information when I am researching, I need to narrow down the questions to find articles that specifically answer questions about specific information. My research-guiding questions have helped me a lot, but I think that I underestimated the degree of specificity that is required for such a popular topic like healthcare.

My comments: In my previous English classes, I had completed assignments that are somewhat similar to this, but I had never created a proposal that is so in-depth. This proposal helped me properly prepare for the essay and visualize all of my ideas in an organized manner.

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