PK 22 Taking Stock #4

1.       How did you make the decision of the topic of your paper?

2.       What was it like working on a group paper? Explain.

3.       What is the most important step you need to make to allow your paper to be better?

4.       Do you like the outcome of your paper? Why or why not?

1.       At first when my group and I were assigned the project, we had chosen a different topic than we ended up writing our paper on.  One of the members in my group had the idea and we agreed it was a good one.  However, when we went to go research the topic, information was limited and we could not find many scholarly sources.  Therefore, we knew we needed to choose a different topic.  As we got to talking, another group member brought up the idea of writing a paper on the legalization of marijuana because it was a popular topic in the world today.  When we began our research we soon found there was a lot of good information to be used in our paper.

2.       Working in a group always makes me nervous because you never know who is going to actually do the work and who is going to say they’ll do the work, but then never does it.  I have never been a fan of group projects because I like to have the grade of my work to be put in my own hands.  Luckily, the group I was put into was hard working.  Everyone in the group contributed evenly and did their part, with no complaints.

3.       After reviewing our paper and getting feedback, there are still a few adjustments that need to be made.  Overall, the paper came out very well and everyone in the group was very pleased.  The only thing we need to work on is elaboration of our cited works, transitioning the paper better, and beefing up our conclusion.

4.       I like the outcome of the paper.  I think we did a good job of making everything flow together rather than it being clear that each of us wrote about a different section.  Each section intermingles with the other parts of the paper.  I also think our topic is very interesting, which makes it better for the person who is reading it.

4 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 3

                In class today, we split up into the writing workshop groups to have each of the other group member’s review our paper.  At first, the other group read their paper out loud while we read along and then my group gave back our feedback to help them develop their paper more.  After that, we read our paper out loud to the other group.  It was my job to be the reader of our group.  As I got to read our paper out loud, it helped me a lot because I could hear how the paper actually sounded.  At the end of the reading, I was surprisingly extremely pleased with the outcome.  I thought every section of the paper flowed very well into the final product.  There were obviously things and ideas we needed to add and take out of the paper, but overall I think we have a very good start and won’t have much trouble with our final product.  The group reviewing our paper did not have a lot of negative feedback, which was very good.  They thought our paper was very well written, with minor details to be added.

First Draft- Project 3

The legalization of marijuana has most likely been brought up in conversation with everyone once or twice in his or her lifetime.   It has become a very popular issue in the United States over the past few years and becoming more and more popular with each day.   Some are very against it and then others are all for it.  As of right now, the United States has found itself in a lot of trouble economically and many believe legalizing will help this scenario.   However, others still have strong feelings that it will worsen the country, putting it into more trouble.   Each side has their own opinions on why or why not legalizing marijuana would make America a better or a worse place to reside.  For some, this difference in opinion can be due to circumstance.  For example, members of the baby boom generation who have strong opinions regarding marijuana could have a very different point of view compared to that of a drug user.  Due to sometimes drastically different opinions on the legalization of marijuana and controversy surrounding its medical uses, the United States is still undecided on the matter.

 The baby boom was between the years of 1946 -1960.  It was a generation known for legalizing marijuana and for “recreation drug use” (Boomers and MJ 2).  The new behaviors, involving heavy use of alcohol and illegal drugs mostly pertaining to marijuana issued by this generation, were ones that have never seen before by prior generations.  “The issue of marijuana use being a good thing or a bad thing is further complicated by all the media attention around the issue of medical marijuana” (Boomers and MJ 3).  Therefore many people do not know if it should be legal or not.  People who were born around the age of when the baby boom occurred view marijuana from a medical standpoint, generally making them in favor of it becoming legalized.  It was recorded that 74% of people 45 years of age and older are in favor of medical marijuana being accessible if a physician recommends it to the patient (Boomers and MJ 4).  An example of medically advised use of marijuana is people who are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy that take medical marijuana as a substance to help calm their bodies and release any pains they may have.  Although this may sound like a good idea for people with medical issues, many people do not agree with these standpoints, as many of the people born during the baby boom do.

     People born during the baby boom have increase rates, as they get older to be caught up in marijuana use due to the extreme use of the drug during younger developing ages.  Currently, 30% of people have smoked marijuana at one point in their life (Boomers and MJ 4).  The high rate of drug use within the baby boom era causes double the treatment for adults later in their lives when they reach ages 50 or older.  The habits they carry from the 1960s can lead to increased medical problems including heart attack increase.  Due to these medical conditions that may occur, treatments can require expensive costs.  Also, since the public health programs do not feel it is a big issue if older people smoke marijuana, there are hardly any prevention programs for adults.  This overall apathy toward adult usage of marijuana is not assisting the baby boom generation to increase its rehab programs if necessary by someone who could have been smoking for years.  Marijuana can definitely be linked to the beginnings of the baby boom and can explain why it is continuing today to occur in people 45 years old and older.

Other then the baby boom generation that can be linked to the start of the “marijuana use generation,” drug users have a unique input on the legalization of marijuana as well.  Marijuana is the most common drug used by drug users.  Forty percent of the 13.6 million Americans being current users of different illegal drugs use marijuana (Trevino and Richard 92).  The cost of using marijuana is high for drug users due primarily to the fact that it is illegal.  It is argued that drugs are very inexpensive to produce, but are sold at high prices due to the fact that they are illegal, making their accessibility much more limited than legal substances (Trevino and Richard 93).  By making drugs legal, the prices will effectively drop.  Since drug users will be spending less money on marijuana, it is more likely that they will support the cause of legalizing marijuana or other drugs.  Even without the price decrease, heavy drug users are more likely to support legalization if it would assist them to be able to smoke or otherwise consume marijuana without dealing with the current laws against recreational uses of the drug.  The supportive nature that they may portray may not be judged or dictated to others if the law was legal.  The difference between drug users that have experience with the drug compared to those who may not is that they do not agree on marijuana in public health possession.  Marijuana can sometimes be more harmful to your health then beneficial when assisting in medicating a sickly person depending on their condition.  It is hard to tell whether drug users truly do support the legalization of marijuana since not enough studies have been made on it.

Both the opinions of the baby boom generation and drug users in the United States represent a larger issue that factors of people’s lives and backgrounds can influence how they feel about the legalization of marijuana.  “Public opinions poll show that support for drug legalization varies significantly among different sociodemographic and political groups” (Trevino and Richard 94).  After public polls were taken, the study showed that based on political/religious views, sociodemographs, and drug use all affect the opinions people have on whether drugs should be legalized.  However, no matter what the reasons are, the fact is that support for or opposition against legalizing marijuana is split in the United States providing a great deal of controversy on the matter, for both recreational and medical uses of the drug.

            “Perhaps the least controversial issue within the drug legalization debate is whether marijuana should be legalized for medical purposes” (Yacoubian, Jr.).  Marijuana is found to not be an addictive substance, “by the standards applied to therapeutic agents, marijuana is also a safe drug” (Dews).  The use of marijuana for medical purposes is a widely accepted concept.  For example, between July and October 1999, the Survey Research Center at the University of Maryland took 1,002 adults across Maryland and asked them questions pertaining to a variety of drugs and crime related topics.  One question during the survey specifically asked participants “whether they thought physicians should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for medical use”.  Seventy-three percent of the surveyed adults responded positively, showing an overwhelming support for the medical use of marijuana in this study.

Although marijuana is seen as therapeutic for a variety of troubles, the FDA has not approved marijuana for all of these purposes.  “On April 20, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration state, in an “Inter-agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine,” that it does “not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes” (Berg).  According to Berg, during June of 2005, the United States Supreme Court voted that even if state law allowed you to grow and use marijuana, under the Federal Controlled Substances Act you may still be prosecuted.  Due to this technicality, many patients now find themselves caught between state and federal laws.  Patients are legally receiving prescriptions for their doctors, yet due to the vote during June of 2005, they could still fall victim to federal drug raids and criminal prosecution.  There has been “increased demands that the FDA allow greater access (and speedier approval) for new drugs- cancer treatments, AIDS therapies, and even medical marijuana” (Berg).

Sometimes, the debate over medical marijuana is not so simple.  According to Yacoubain, there are a percentage of people who feel that the legalization of medical marijuana could potentially lead to an increase of non-medical patients using the drug.  There is hope, however, that by monitoring administrations such as The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, that complete views, both medical and recreational, of the drug use in the United States could be provided.  If such data shows no increase of marijuana use among the general population then Yacoubain suggests that “a logical next step would be to consider lifting all restrictions on marijuana possession and use.

Currently, there are no states that have legalized marijuana although several have attempted to pass such a law.  However, laws on medical marijuana and decriminalization of marijuana differ depending on the state.  Thus far, only 14 states plus the District of Columbia have successfully made it possible for medical marijuana to be available to the public with a prescription (Ward 2).  Not only can policies vary from state to state, but they can also be inconsistent within regions of the same state.  For example, in Oakland, California a tax on marijuana was proposed that could potentially bring $294,000 in revenue while Anaheim California agrees with the federal law and chooses to ban marijuana (Ward 3).  Although California was the first of the 14 states to legalize medical marijuana, they have not established consistency in their attitudes toward the drug.

In some states where medical marijuana is legalized there are issues not only with consistency throughout the state, but often there is also a lack of clarity in the specified regulation in where the drug can be obtained.  Laws in some states allow a waiver for those with permits to possess marijuana by whatever means but grant no amnesty to those who are growing or selling for their ‘patients’, unless they are a caregiver or dispensary (Ward 6).  The definition of a caregiver is another discrepancy between states.  “In some states, like California and Colorado, a primary caregiver is a designated individual who has a consistent responsibility for the patient's housing, health and safety.  In other states, like Montana and Michigan, she says, the caregiver can be someone responsible for assisting a specific patient with the acquisition, cultivation and use of marijuana” (Ward 6).

In contrast, there are some states, like Colorado, where medical marijuana is strictly regulated, not only for those who are prescribed it but also for those who intend to grow or sell it.  As of this summer, new laws were adopted that require any center distributing marijuana in Colorado to be approved not only on the state level, but also locally.  Also as a result of these laws, physicians must have a legitimate relationship with anyone they are prescribing marijuana to (Ward 8).

Although there are no states where recreational marijuana is legal, the repercussions for violating the laws against the drug differ depending on the state.  Formal punishments for breaking anti-marijuana laws can be as mild as a small fine where states have instituted decriminalization of marijuana to an arrest, community service, or other more severe punishments.  In California, any patient with a valid card can have up to 2. 5 ounces of marijuana without question or any possibility of punishment while in Michigan, even those with a valid permit can still be penalized if they are proven to be using marijuana recreationally (Ward 7).

The legalization of marijuana has been one of the most controversial issues in the United States for quite a long time.  Considering marijuana has already been legally distributed to medical patients in twelve states, many feel that America should take the next step and legalize marijuana.  Not only will legalizing marijuana help with medical patients and people in need, it has the possibility to help America’s economy tremendously.  In his work George Soros explains, “Law enforcement agencies today spend many billions of taxpayer dollars annually trying to enforce this unenforceable prohibition.  The roughly 750,000 arrests they make each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana represent more than 40% of all drug arrests” (Soros 1).  Law enforcement spends way too much money on keep marijuana out of the United States when they could be spending these billions of dollars on getting the country out of debt.    Currently, the United States has such a substantial amount of debt that there are not many easy ways of getting out.  However, if marijuana were legalized, and distributed safely and effectively, the economy could reap the benefits. If the government were to allow marijuana to be distributed legally and place a high tax rate, they could be obtaining profit. A high tax could be implemented on the purchases of marijuana because people who purchase it illegally now are already paying a high price for their needs or desired usage.  In placing this tax, a whole new industry for the United States could be created, giving more jobs to the many that are unemployed (“Legalizing Marijuana”).  Besides all the talk about legalizing marijuana in the United States, another big issue is crime.  Most people believe that crime and fraud are happening because of drugs and their usage.   However, there are bigger and more dangerous drugs that are being illegally distributed that America could be focusing its efforts on.  “It would also reduce the crime, violence and corruption associated with drug markets, and the violations of civil liberties and human rights that occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject to arrest” (Soros 1).  Instead of police needing to focus on finding all of the people who are illegally selling marijuana and those who are illegally using it, they could focus on the more serious crimes going on in America.  Focusing on incidences and offenses that are more important could allow the people who are getting away with more serious crimes to be stopped.

In contrast, there are people in the United States who worry that marijuana is dangerous to the health of Americans.  Marijuana is actually less harmful than many of the medicines and products humans are using today, mostly because it is a natural substance.  Alcohol is considered to be significantly more dangerous than any amounts of marijuana consumed.  Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to liver damage and death where as consuming a large amount of marijuana cannot kill the consumer (“Legalizing Marijuana”).  Those who are against the legalization of marijuana are worried about the supposed health risks of the drug, most likely haven’t looked into the statistics showing a lack of harmful effects of marijuana as opposed to the numerous potential harms of alcohol.  Overall, it seems that the legalization of marijuana could only improve the bad situations America has been facing over the years.

Marijuana has the potential to remove our country from debt due the tax collections that could be gained from marijuana, decrease the crime rate, give more assistance to medical patients, create more jobs for the many who are helplessly unemployed, and make the United States an even better country than it already is. However, there are many people who still oppose the legalization of marijuana on principal. The United States may never know what it is like to legalize marijuana and the eases that it will bring unless it is given a try.

3 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 3

Yesterday afternoon my group and I got together for a last time to put our project together and give it any finishing touches it needed to hand in our first draft.  Being put into group projects sometimes makes me nervous because you may not know how it’s going to work out and if each group member will actually do their part.  Sometimes, unfortunately one gets put into a group that has members that sit back and relax because they know they are in a group and they have other people to do the work.  However, I was very pleased with the group I was put into.  Each member in my group contributed evenly and did their part.  This made the project ten times easier because everyone contributed and no one had to do extra work.  I think our group put together a very well-written first draft and I am very pleased with the outcome.

2 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 3

                After researching and writing notes on what I would write my section of the paper on, I was finally ready to type my first draft.  I was very pleased when I found out we would be changing our paper topic to the legalization of marijuana because when I went to go research the topic, I found many scholarly articles on it.  Also, there were many different topics that the group could write about so it made it easier for us to each take a topic and focus on that one topic to build our paper.  I am very confident that our paper is going to turn out very well.  I chose to write my section on the effect of legalizing marijuana.  There was a wide range of information on this because it is such a controversial subject in the United States right now.  In being so, this also made our paper more effective because there is so much great information out there to inform people about the effects of legalizing marijuana.

1 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 3

                Project three was just assigned last week in class and this time it is very different from project two.  This project is a group project which consists of writing a research paper on any topic that our group chooses.  Our professor assigned our groups and there are four members in my group including myself.  When we got into our groups we were to discuss what we would want to write our paper on.  This was a bit difficult because we didn’t really have any guidelines to what we could write about.  As we thought about it for a bit we first decided we wanted to write on airport security and the body scans that have been recently put into the security at the airport.  After class we went off on our own to research the topic, however there were not many scholarly articles on it.  After discussing more outside of class with the group, it was decided we should change our subject to something we could get a lot more information on.

Project 2 Post Write

To:       M MacKnight

From:   ______________________________

Re:       ______________________________ (title)

[Your writer's postwrite should prepare me to evaluate your project. Tell me about what you learned in the course of this project, about the strengths and weaknesses of your argument analysis, or about your writing process. Try to use the drafts or posts in your process blog as evidence for your claims. Also, be sure to identify what I can help you with in my response to your work.]

Project two was a lot more challenging for me as a writer because I am better with summaries and writing stories rather than writing an analysis.  In the past, I haven’t had much experience with writing an analysis and therefore it was something new and different for me.  Although it may not have been my strongest piece, I did enjoy writing it because I was interested in the topic I was writing about, which was the abortion article.  Since the class was short on time when we went to do our writing workshops, it made it a bit more difficult for me when I went to go edit my paper.  Only one person read my paper when usually two or three people read and edit my first draft.  Also, in class we only had twenty minutes to read and write comments on each other’s papers.  This made things even more difficult because time could not be taken to go through the drafts thoroughly.  However, I learned a lot from writing this analysis.  At first, when assigned the project I was very confused as to what an analysis actually entailed of.  In addition to being confused, when I went to write my first draft, the professor was unable to give a detailed explanation of what was expected in these papers and it made it more difficult for me to write a paper that met all the criteria.  All in all, I eventually learned what the difference between a summary and an analysis was.  An analysis explains more deeply into the article of writing and explains what the author meant when he or she spoke of an idea.  I was unaware of this before the project had been explained.  However, once I had a good idea of what an analysis was, writing my final paper was a lot easier.  Although I had many weaknesses for this project I do feel as though I had one strength.  My one strength was that I had a lot of knowledge in the subject of abortion because it is talked about a lot in my family.  This allowed me to be able to connect with the author of the writing piece about abortion, which eventually helped when it came to writing my paper.  I really enjoyed writing this paper and although it may not have been my best, I think I captured the idea of an analysis pretty well.  To help me with your response to my work I would say explain to me where I could go into more detail about some of the texts I took out from the article to make my paper an even better analysis.

Library Notes & Impressions

                On Tuesday, March 3^rd, my writing class and I went to the library for a presentation on how to find articles and journals in the library.  We needed the presentation because we would be using the libraries database for our next writing project.  In the notes I took from the presentation, it shows what I have gotten out it.  I wrote down what a scholarly source is and what a non-scholarly source is.  A scholarly source is one that would have a long title at the top, there would usually be a small number next to the author’s name where a bigger explanation about them would appear at the end of the article, not many pictures, and the source should have a decent amount of pages.  If the source is not scholarly, the authors name would not contain any detail, there would be a lot of color pictures, and the article would only be around one to two pages.  In addition to figuring out whether a source is scholarly or not, I also learned how to find the journal online or through the URI library.  I wrote down in my notes that to get the full text of the journal you would have to click a link that says “pdf full”.  However, sometimes the articles don’t always have this link.  If the journal doesn’t have a “pdf” link, it can most likely be found in the URI library.  To find out if it is available, there is an option to click the “HELIN catalogue” and search for the journal.  To do so, all one has to know are the serial track, volume, date, and issue of the journal and the website will tell you where to find it in the library.
                This presentation was extremely helpful.  Before going to it, I had no clue how to do any of what the presenter explained.  I feel very confident about using the online databases she has shown us.  I now will be all set when I go to research for my next writing project.  Also, this presentation will be very helpful to me in my future endeavors with my experience in all of my classes at URI.  I am especially thankful I was able to take part in this presentation.

Project 2 Final Paper

Danielle Silva

Professor M. MacKnight

WRT104

27 February 2011

                                                         Project 2: Analyzing a Text

In the article, “Abortion, Right and Wrong”, Rachel Richardson Smith, a student of theology, explains her views on abortion.  Rachel is not for abortion; however she is not against abortion either.  She, among many other people, stands in the middle between pro-life and pro-choice.  Throughout this article, she explains the pros and cons of each topic.  The people who put themselves on the pro-life side sometimes become a bit too overwhelming with their “scare tactics”.  Also, many of the people involved with anti-abortion campaigns are usually on the religious side.  Therefore, they follow these reasoning’s simply because of their religion.  Rachel explains that she leans towards the pro-life side because she simply does not like the idea that abortion is “the taking of human life”.  However, she feels as though our society needs to figure out the “value of human life”.  She explains that in our society abortion seems to be such a big deal because one is taking the life of someone who is not even born yet.  On the other hand, we seem to have no problem taking the life of a person who is born and grown in ways like “self-defense, the death penalty, and war”.  Overall, the author of the article feels as though she cannot take side.  She could never come to terms with herself to agree that abortion is a good idea, however, she also feels as though in some circumstances woman need the choice.

The author begins her article in a way which all writers try to obtain.  Her first sentence reads, “I cannot bring myself to say I am in favor of abortion”.  The reason she starts her article off this way is to grab the attention of the people who are pro-life.  She figures that someone who is anti-abortion will pick up this article, read the first sentence, and be interested right from the start.  Although the article is not totally in favor towards the pro-lifers, she does this to get these types of people to read it and try to get her message out to them.  Rachel wants the anti-abortionists to realize how she and many other people feel about abortion and how in some situations it is not as bad as they make it out to be. However, the author also wants the pro-choice groups to engage in her article.  Those who have had an abortion do feel guilt in most circumstances and the author gives the article the title “Abortion, Right and Wrong” to grab the attention of both groups, however people of abortion would want to read the parts about it being right to make themselves feel more comfortable about their conditions.

The way the author writes the article brings upon new ideas towards abortion.  Everyone seems to think they either need to be pro-life or pro-choice and there cannot be any in-between.  However, Richardson Smith explains her view in a new and interesting way.  She explains, “Even as I refuse to pass judgment on other women’s lives, I weep for the children who might have been”.  Taking a side to be against or for abortion is a confusing thought for the author.  There are so many different ways to look at each argument.  The author shows and explains each side perfectly and creates a new category which she explains as, “I find myself in the awkward position of being both anti-abortion and pro-choice”.  I feel as though a lot of people are unaware of this feeling and they themselves would feel this way after reading this article.  The author does this because she wants people reading the article to be able to feel the way she feels and not have to feel guilty for it.  It’s not a bad thing to hate abortion; however because of the tactics of pro-lifers some may feel scared to think that it is not a horrible procedure.  Writing about the “scary tactics” of the pro-lifers was incorporated into this article to show the religious anti-abortionists how some of their ideas can be a little unrealistic.  Rachel explains, “What I find incomprehensible is that even as they are opposed to abortion they are also opposed to alternative solutions”.  If she still has the pro-life groups interested in her writing, maybe she can convince them that these religious aspects about sex and abortion do not make sense.  It does not seem right to have so much hatred towards people of abortion when the religious groups are not even giving alternatives to prevent people from having to seek for abortion.  The author wants these pro-life groups to try and tweak their policy and also comprehend that because they are not providing an alternative for sex, to not pass judgment on those who are forced to have abortions.

Abortion has become such a large issue to the country and somehow is bound to come up in many conversations.  Some feel very strongly about the topic, while others simply don’t seem to care so much.  Rachel Richardson Smith clearly feels strong about her opinion on abortion, however she is not sure which side she can take.  She does have more cons for the anti-abortionists but she says, “The only thing the anti-abortion groups seem to have right is that abortion is indeed the taking of human life”.  Although this statement is correct, the author disagrees when the pro-lifers call abortion murder because she does not feel it should be considered murder.  Smith brings up this point because she wants the anti-abortion readers to see how wrong it is to call it murder.  She tries to portray this wrongness by explaining how some people make it such a huge ordeal when one agrees to have an abortion and then pursue to call it murder; but then it is completely normal to feel no remorse for those who are murdered because of “the death penalty, war, killing in self-defense”.  By adding this to the article she is trying to show that if one is going to be as persistent as to believing the life of an unborn child is extremely precious, why does he or she not feel the same for those who are well into their lives and already have been born?  Rachel wants readers to understand that by calling abortion murder does not make sense unless every situation in which the life of someone is taken can be called murder.

Bringing in the author’s own personal experience with unplanned pregnancy and abortion is another way she tries to make the reader feel the way she feels.  A lot of people who are anti-abortionists don’t realize how the ones who have experienced an abortion actually feel about getting one.  In her experience she explains, “I also know from experience the crisis an unplanned pregnancy can cause”.  Smith brings out her own personal life story to allow the reader to understand that she is not just another normal writer trying to get the reader to become an anti-abortionist or to become a person of pro-choice.  She wants the reader to know that she actually has knowledge in the subject because she has experienced something similar to the issue.  By doing this, she enables readers who are pro-choice that abortion is not always the best solution depending on the situation.  Someone who is leaning towards abortion simply because they do not want the child inside of them may not realize the joy that comes with having that baby.  The author says, “My children sometimes provoke me and cause me endless frustration, but I can still look at them with tenderness and wonder at the miracle of it all”.  In Rachel’s position it was in her best interest to have the child and feel the regret only when her children seem to aggravate her, rather than feeling the guilt and regret of never having the baby at all.

Abortion, Right and Wrong, explains and interprets each side of abortion so well, however makes the reader realize there is no right or wrong answer to abortion.  When one reads Richardson Smith’s article, first one agrees with the first side she is explaining and then one agrees with the other side, left with confusion.  However, when done reading the entire article, after thinking for a few minutes, it is concluded that there may not be a one side the reader can agree with.  It leaves one with feeling pros and cons on the pro-life side and pros and cons on the pro-choice side.  The author then explains how abortion is definitely not the right answer, however sometimes it depends on the condition.  She explains, “What many people seem to misunderstand is that no woman wants to have an abortion.  Circumstances demand it; women do it”.  She is illuminating how abortion is erroneous, however, in some cases with explanation it can be an understandable situation.  It is not always right to pass judgment on those who have had an abortion because those judging do not know their circumstances.

Rachel Richardson Smith is not trying to make the reader change whether they are pro-life or pro-choice; she is simply trying to get each side to understand the ideas she has brought up that don’t always get explained.  She wants the pro-choice group to see that although they may feel abortion is completely the choice of the woman bearing the child, more thought should be put into the minds of these women before decisions are made because abortion is killing an innocent life.  In addition to that, she wants the pro-life group to grasp that some of their strategies are a bit too stringent and these people need to ease up a bit and recognize they cannot be so severe with some of the actions the group portrays and the words spoken by he or she.  Lastly, the author shows that those who feel they cannot choose whether they are pro-life or pro-choice do not need to decide which side he or she is on.  It is completely fine to be in-between, however the writer wants those human beings to understand what each side is about and they can learn this through her article.  Personally, I feel as though this article opened up so many new ideas and feelings towards abortion.  Before reading and examining the text, I was felt very strongly about abortion.  Pro-life was my definite choice.  The reasoning behind the fact that I am was an anti-abortionist was simply because of the way I was brought up.  Coming from a religious family, my thoughts towards abortion were always evil.  Although I still do not agree with abortion, as I never will, the article brings up various exceptional points that I can cope with.  The way she states she is both anti-abortion and pro-choice is very appealing to me.  Thinking deeply into the subject never was a thought for me.  The author thought deeply for me in her text by allowing myself to read it.  Realizing many new ideas from the article, one thing I will do differently simply because of the reading is cut back on the judgment of those who have had or who are going to have an abortion.  This text showed me, among many other things, not to feel so strongly about being anti-abortion.  I’m sure many other pro-life men and women would conclude to feeling the way I do because of Rachel Richardson Smiths article, Abortion, Right and Wrong.  In the end of the article she states, “I suspect I am not alone”.  She is most definitely not alone, seeing as I agree with her explanations and interpretations towards abortion completely.

5 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 2

                Editing my paper for project two was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.  After I had read through my paper and added the detail I thought needed to be added to make it complete, I figured I would be all set.  However, as I started to look through my paper more closely I realized it felt more like a summary and I needed to add more analysis to it.  In order to do this, I found myself re-reading the article on abortion several times and making notes in the margins on the text and underlining the important parts that I would want to add to my paper.  My peer editor told me to leave my personal input out of the paper, however, I really wanted to keep some of it in there because abortion is something that really interests me and I wanted to show how well the author went about trying to allow the pro-life people to understand.  Since I am a person of pro-life I explained that she had made me feel differently about abortion, which was what she was actually trying to do.  I hope that it is not a bad thing that I left my personal opinion in my paper and that it does not affect my grade in a negative way.

4 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 2

                Luckily, our writing professor was nice enough to give us extra time to work on the final of our paper since our class schedule became a bit confusing.  This gave me a lot of time to go over my first draft and pick out the parts that didn’t work well and add in more detail to places it needed to go.  I have not gone back into my draft on the computer yet and cut out what I don’t need and put in the detail I do need.  I’m not sure that my paper will be long enough because it needs to be at least four pages.  I wrote down a lot of detail and new information on my draft so I am hoping everything works out.  Adding more quotes to my paper might be a good idea also so then I can elaborate on an idea off of the quote.

3 of 5 Independence Process Blog for Project 2

Last class, on Tuesday, we had a reading workshop.  Since the previous class did not go as planned, the class had to start over somewhat and talk about each of the three readings (Smith, Gould, King).  After discussing the readings successfully, the professor spoke about the differences between a summary and an analysis.  Since we would be writing an analysis on one of the three readings, the lecture was really helpful to me.  Our first draft paper was due in class on Tuesday and I struggled a little bit when writing it because I was unaware of what an analysis was.  However, after class on Tuesday I felt a million times better about writing my final draft of my paper.  Especially after the reading workshop considering I got some really good feedback.  Since we had to discuss the readings all over again, the writing workshop was only going on for about twenty minutes.  Usually, we would get in groups of about three people and read our papers out loud and get feedback that way.  Unfortunately, because of the time only one other person could read my paper and we did not have time to read each other’s out loud individually.  I am a little bit nervous about the outcome of my analysis, and I hope that I am truly getting the point of an analysis.