This image is an advertisement for a sale at Urban Outfitters that was received via email. The ad is trying to tell us that there is a 30% off sale on appealing clothing, such as sweaters, for the current weather that is happening. It tells us how much we can save, but there are also other appealing aspects to the sale, including smaller deals that appeal to people who shop online, or people who are a part of Urban Outfitters’ membership rewards, making it appealing to the brand as a whole.
We as consumers should know that if we do not buy anything at all, we would be saving money. If we did not spend anything at all, that is how we would save the most, however, because Urban Outfitters is saying that there is a 30% off sale, it seems like an appropriate time to buy clothes. Their clothes are expensive to begin with, so offering a sale in the first place would make the ad interesting to consumers.
It uses things such as the framing of the main sale, the colors of Christmas time and the textures, as well as smaller print on stickers to appeal to the consumer. This is a dynamic sale, and Urban Outfitters knows it will draw people to their website, even if it is not for the main sale. There are other aspects to it, such as the rewards program they offer.
This advertisement is a dynamic way to appeal to the consumer, and invite them to utilize different parts of their website and ultimately buy more things.
Stress. Sometimes even that word makes people shiver. However, that does not have to be you. The usage of mindfulness meditation is a healthy process that relieves the detrimental stresses of a high intensity society on mental and physical well-being, and leads to numerous benefits. Mindfulness meditation should be implemented into a person’s everyday schedule because it may increase the overall quality of life by reducing everyday stress.
Meditation, in simple words, is sitting or lying down (you can stand if you really feel like it), and you take a few minutes to focus on your breathing and clear your mind. Some people also use yoga or other activities like that as their meditation. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895748/)
Going back to the terrible word “stress”, as a college student, you have probably experienced it before. Unfortunately, this stress is actually way more detrimental to your health than you think. If you are someone who wants to do well in classes, without burning out, or just someone who does not want to be stressed out from school, meditation is for you. Productivity and focus can be achieved through meditation. According to Ami Kapadia’s article (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882186/), she is a primary care doctor who was completely burned out doing her job. This reduced the quality of her work.
Yes… she is a doctor. You do not want a doctor to do their job terribly. She turned to meditation, and found herself being more productive, her burnout was reduced, and her quality of work increased.
(You don’t have to look like this while doing it)
Now, obviously, most of you are probably not doctors, some may be planning to, or some may not be. Regardless, you are a student, and stress is a part of schoolwork. It does not have to be. Meditation is an easy (and free, for broke college students) to reduce their stress and increase the quality of their work. It gives you a break; it is like a mini nap where you’re not actually sleeping. Whether it is 5 minutes or 30 minutes, it is beneficial just to give yourself a break. After reading this, I challenge you to close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus on your breathing and only your breathing. Notice how you feel a little calmer. That is basically because your heart rate has probably slowed down.
Meditation is a way that you can thrive and achieve great things in school without burning out. Imagine having a 4.0 and no stress! What a dream!
For my P3 essay, my topic is mindfulness meditation. This is a topic I am pretty knowledgable on, and is something I do every day of my life.
I am not too worried about this essay. My plan is to write on days where I feel most energized and excited to talk about something I love; otherwise, the essay will lack the ethos that I know I can portray in it. For example, last night, I wrote the intro and part of the background because I felt inspired to do so. If I start early, then I can write in baby steps and be finished before Thanksgiving break.
Regarding research, I found a lot of really good sources, so I will just look through them when I continue to write my background. This will give me an idea of which sources I want to use in the actual essay and which one’s I don’t need.
Overall, this won’t be a bad essay. I am going to take it step by step.
In my other blog post, I mentioned how I was going to be doing this topic for my proposal. This will simply be a reiteration of why I chose the topic and the benefits of it.
Meditation and mindfulness is a priceless (literally, it’s free), quick, and easy way to improve quality of life and reduce burnout in jobs and school. If a person has a really demanding job, such as a doctor, taking 5-15 minutes of their time to dedicate it to meditation and mindfulness has proven to increase their performance. They will be less stressed, thus giving them better results in the quality of their work. If a person is enrolled in school and has a demanding workload or other responsibilities, dedicating some time to re-grounding oneself will reduce the amount of negative impact the stress may have. This may include anxiety and depression. Lastly, if a person simply wants to improve the quality of their life, meditation and mindfulness is a way to make life more vibrant. Noticing and realizing all of the bits and pieces of life that we miss out on everyday because of work or responsibilities will entirely change one’s outlook on life. Meditation and mindfulness is something everyone should implement in their everyday routine.
For my research proposal, I am researching the benefits of meditation and mindfulness. Meditation and mindfulness is for every type of person, of every age group. Whether you are a doctor or in a demanding job, or a student with an enormous workload, or just someone who needs to slow down every once in a while; meditation and mindfulness is for you. That sounded like an advertisement. Whoops.
I began my proposal simply by talking about all of the positive aspects to meditation and mindfulness, such as: – reducing burnout – increasing immune system functions – increasing efficiency and productivity – enhances focus and self awareness – promotes weight loss – uplifts one’s mood and many other things.
My plan for my research project is to appeal to all types of people, who are all struggling with different things in today’s harsh, demanding society. I plan to appeal to students, aspiring doctors, people searching for jobs, people who are aging and feeling pessimistic because of it, and many more.
Transhumanism is unethical and should not be something brought into everyday life because it may give unfair advantages to humans and cause competition within society. Per the Wikipedia article, transhumanism is a movement that supports advantages to human condition, physically or mentally. These advantages can stop disabilities, promote immortality, and many other things. I am focused mainly on the physical advantages of transhumanism, because I have grown up as an active and athletic person, and just the word “physical advantages” makes me cringe. I will explain this through example that may make you look at the way your neighbors do things.
For example, if you receive a procedure to your body that increases the speed at which you can physically mow your lawn, your neighbor may observe that also try to find new ways to mow their lawn faster. If people are advancing the way they do normal things every single day, it is going to create a competition amongst people in society who want to keep doing things better and better. Your neighbor will keep trying to top you, and you will keep trying to top them, and mowing lawns that often is simply not good for your grass.
For another example, if I am working hard every day outside playing basketball, and I see my younger neighbor receiving transhumanistic advantages to make them make a basket every single time they shoot, that would feel unfair. They did not have to go through all of the actual hard work to get to where I am, and yet they have a higher skill set than me. They did not have to experience hardships to get to that point. Because of this physical advantage the transhumanist movement has caused, I will now experience hatred for my annoying neighbor.
This video is a prime example of people who would take advantage of these new physical abilities. NBA players are people who are transhuman, and the children are everyday people. Imagine if it became super easy to acquire such an advantage over people.
Tension between neighbors would just be the start if transhumanism became prevalent. It would branch later into greater communities, sports/athletics, politics, and even global problems, and everyone would simply make a competition out of everything.
In Ben Schlusser’s Essay, “Progress Built on a Wasteland: Electronic Consumerism & the Dangers of E-waste”, the main view is that humans constantly buy new electronic products, and this increases the amount of waste that becomes present on the planet. The waste causes numerous environmental problems and dangers. The author does a good job at conveying that change is needed, or else our planet may be destroyed, but he uses mostly factual and logical evidence. His lack of emotion may not appeal to every type of person. For example, someone who is easily convinced by facts and logic may agree with this essay and advocate for change, but someone who needs emotions to act on something may not see this essay as appealing. However, the essay does explain to the reader that change is necessary through its abundance of examples of the tactics that companies use on consumers. It is clear to the audience that this excessive consumption of electronics is detrimental to us and the environment.
Thesis: increased consumption of electronics adds to the amount of waste produced by electronics. It uses a specific structure to help the reader identify the main subject of the essay. By putting this at the end of the first paragraph, it establishes reasoning and authority. The author provides initial factual information, and is ready to back up the thesis with the rest of the essay.
The target audience is society. The author argues that society is obsessed with new devices and wants to get a new every time it comes out. The author wants society to realize that their obsession is what is causing an excess of electronic waste. The author’s diction addresses society as a whole in the thesis, thus creating more of a sense of authority.
The author uses logic and evidence throughout every paragraph of the essay. This structure is successful at providing enough evidence to support the author’s thesis. The author organizes the essay through separating each tactic companies use to keep customers coming back to buy more electronic devices. These tactics are separate, and then supported with a fact or instance where it has occurred.
The author constructs authority by the amount of evidence they provide. Simply put, they have enough evidence to support their claim, thus providing them the authority that one would need to make a point. The author’s tone is strong, and they do not doubt themselves. The evidence they use is provided by major establishments, such as The New York Times and Consumer Reports.
The author establishes emotion in their essay through the seeking of empathy. The author talks about the effect electronic waste has on workers in developing countries such as Kenya, China, Mexico, and Pakistan, using diction such as “disadvantaged workers”.
The author argues for more of a rational argument than a moral one. Because the author is arguing that the mass consumption of new products adds waste, thus creating pollution, it reveals the author’s concern for the planet. The author already created authority through their evidence and reasoning, and the occasion is precise due to this era’s addiction to electronic devices; therefore, the author establishes rationality.
After a long, hard day, I had ordered dinner from my favorite Italian place nearby. I ordered an eggplant parmesan sandwich. I bit into it, chewed the sandwich and realized that it was chicken, not eggplant. I immediately became nauseous. Before this, I would not have been repulsed by meat; however, I stopped eating meat two years ago, in an attempt to save myself, as well as my planet. Through this action of becoming a vegetarian, I taught myself how to influence others and fight for what I believed in.
Towards the middle of my high school career, I began to find new ways to make myself healthier, whether it was working out, eating right or meditating. On this journey, I would discover new ways to learn about this health: articles, documentaries, podcasts. I came across one documentary, What the Health?, which particularly struck interest in me. It talked about how cutting meat out of our lives would affect the amount of meat agricultural companies would have to produce. This could possibly shrink the CO2 and methane output of agricultural companies, thus cutting out a huge problem to global warming. Once I understood this, I realized that if we as humans did not save our planet, there would simply be no point in taking care of myself, for Earth would be destroyed.
Following the acquisition of this knowledge, I felt defeated. I was putting an immense amount of work into bettering myself, and yet our planet was still being destroyed by greater things. After watching the documentary, I decided to do as much as I personally could do and decided to stop eating meat. I became just vegetarian to begin with, because I knew that going fully vegan would be extremely difficult; however, at some point in my life I will reach that point. Some days of the week I eat completely vegan, and other times I will just stay vegetarian because I enjoy eggs. I very, very rarely consume cow’s milk. If I do, it would be in a baked good, otherwise I use oat milk or almond milk for meals.
I knew I was not going to single handedly save the planet. I was one person, and there are over seven billion people on this planet. I began to think of other ways I could contribute so I decided to influence other people. One of my friends cut out meat for a month, and two of my friends are now completely vegan! This news was completely and utterly rewarding because they really felt as though they were making a difference and standing up for something they believed in. It was a good feeling knowing that I had helped someone feel good about their decisions. Not everyone has to go full out. It is the thought and even minor effort that makes a difference. I learned that if everyone in the world cut out meat two or three days a week, it would make a tremendous difference.
Becoming a vegetarian gave me a chance to inspire other people, and I felt wonderful about myself after this. I not only felt wonderful mentally, but physically. My body changed, in that I dropped body fat and I never felt bloated after a big meal. I began to consume vegan protein shakes after workouts, and I felt cleaner overall. Even my family members who were not vegan or vegetarian contributed, such as cooking vegetarian and vegan meals for my sister and I, or going to vegan restaurants. It was a really cool thing.
The protein I use after a workout
By not eating meat, I not only was I helping myself, others, and the planet, but I was teaching myself diligence. It was a way to show the world something I believed in, and how to seriously support a cause. I hope that throughout the next few years, I can influence others, whether it has to do with not eating meat or simply attempting to make any difference in the world.
Hi there, my name is Nina Freda. I am a freshman at UD, and my major is English Education. I am from South Jersey (go Birds!) and love to go to the Jersey shores in the summer.
One thing about myself is that I am persistent. I am always in pursuit of the next best thing I can do to better myself. I really enjoy learning, exercising, and meditating. I love to find new things that can inspire me, but also help me to relax. With that, I try to maintain a balance in my life of things to keep me healthy mentally and physically. For example, if I have a tough workout one day, I know I have to balance that out with a good sleep that night, or if I have a strenuous day of classes, I know I have to find time to unwind and read a good book or watch a fun documentary.
Over the last few years of my life, I have found that this balance is the key to a happy and healthy life. I am super grateful to have acquired this skill, and I hope I can provide some insight to others about how to accomplish a higher quality of life. 🙂
E110 FA19 Class Blog 