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Oscar Medrano
Marcia Smith
English 1010
05/03/14
Midterm Portfolio
My love for Reading

Growing up we did not have much as other families had as far as
entertainment. I spent most of my time outside running around getting my knees
scraped and clothes ripped from hopping fences. My shoes would start to tear at the
front, which to me seemed like they were little mouths yapping away. I was content
with what we had. Most of our money went to our basic necessities food, clothing,
etc. So we did not have a T.V. or even a computer. I did not have books lying around
none of my family members liked reading so my reading was quite limited at home
it wasnt until I got to school that I began reading in depth, I had a very active
imagination so when I opened up these books my mind went wild bursting out of
that bubble I had been living in my own head as new ideas came flowing in. I
remember going into the library for the very first time! Boy was it exciting!
Hundreds of books everywhere? What was is this place? Where do I start?
The smell of old oak shelves and dusty books filled the air it was around
Christmas time so there were of course the smells of pinecones and that fresh pine
scent as well. The room was warm and inviting and there was this peaceful quiet
that set a mind at ease. The librarian was of course this older woman who seemed
like age had given her wisdom all hidden behind those soul piercing eyes which gave
the impression of authority, eyes that commanded respect for her domain to keep
kids hopped up on caffeine in their place. I was there for a project regarding my
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favorite animal and its characteristics. I didnt have one, the thought had never
crossed my mind. So I scanned the animal section. Growing up with adopted cats, I
was quiet fond of them. My sisters always, to my mothers despair, managed to bring
home strays. I came across the Cheetah a beautiful creature. Swift, agile, deadly, yet
graceful was this wild cat. I decided this would be my favorite.
I opened up the book the pictures said it all It caught its scent the sweet
aroma of fresh meat. The predator is hungry its body tensed up, ears searching for
its quarrys movements; twitching to the left then the right. Though the predator
was new to this game its instincts told it otherwise hundreds of years of its
ancestors perfecting this art, it as bred for this glorious moment. It reaches its
unsuspecting prey just a few yards out, inexperience and impatience gives this cat
away the sound of a branch cracking beneath its soft paws thunders out like
lightning to the Antelopes ears which proceeds to run its heart rapidly pacing at the
sound of danger lurking behind the savanna grass. The hunt begins! In a dead all out
sprint the Cheetah gives chase! my heart starts pounding will it catch it??? I ask
myself confused at why I would cheer on the killer. The Cat though is built for
speed and was already close to its prey. Running at an amazing speed of up to 60
miles per hour it has no problem catching its prey whose feeble attempts at zig
zagging does it no good, the Cheetah is rewarded for its hard work
Amazed that I could play these words out like a movie in my head I grew
excited! What else could I read? There began my love for reading. I would pick up a
novel and read for hours at a time stopping only to eat. When I read the words
would come to life! There were times when I read and was so immersed in it that I
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would forget about what was going on around me. I began reading books at a higher
level for they were filled with more detail and were more intricate with their
different styles of writing.
The thing about reading a book is that there is so much more detail that go
into it you have time to develop a bond with the protagonist you see all sides of the
story and can use your imagination as to how you want them to appear. I love
reading even more now that my comprehension has risen than that of my
elementary level. As I begin to learn to increase my skill in writing I am growing an
appreciation for those authors with their witty work who gave to me knowledge and
a love for reading. I am beginning to see all the hard work that goes into writing a
book and needing capture their audience, and be able to convey their message
clearly.

Time to get serious on energy: Clean or dirty?

In her piece Time to get serious on energy: Clean or dirty? published online
the 26
th
of February 2014 on the CNN Opinion page, columnist Sally Kohn aims to
enlighten her audience to her view of the growing trend of America looking the
other way when dirty energy disasters occur and the terrible outcome that comes
with choosing to take no action. Kohn is clearly writing to a general audience trying
to make them aware of her concern that the American oil and energy companies are
being given too much power to complete their own agenda with out the watchful
eye of the government or environmentally friendly agencies.
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Kohn begins her column with what would be an environmental horror story
of 31,500 gallons of crude oil spilling into the Mississippi River after the tanker had
a collision with a tugboat causing 65 miles of the river to be closed for two days. She
then shares another incident of a radiation leak at a waste storage site for nuclear
waste in New Mexico. She introduces both these stories to the reader by forming
them into questions as if she were casually having a conversation with a friend, Did
you hear that Its as if she really wants to share with the friend (reader)
something interesting that she just learned. Already the reader understands the
writers tone that this is a serious subject and not just simple conversation.
I noticed through out the column that she never actually tries to engage her
readers through humor or relatable anecdotes. If she had done this though it would
have left the reader with no reasonable thoughts after and so she keeps a more
serious tone underlining with a sense of urgency. Kohn doesnt hesitate to go ahead
and name names in both a positive and negative manner. She writes her opinion
that the Environmental Protection Agency has been hollowed out, losing its
authority and resources to protect public safety which gives the reader more
reason to believe her statement that the oil and energy companies are gaining more
and more power.
Kohn reaches out to readers that may not typically think about the
environment or may even criticize those that do by giving an example of residents in
West Virginia having unsafe drinking water that was causing headaches and rashes.
This contaminated water came from coal-processing chemicals leaking from an
energy storage tank. She makes sure the readers know that West Virginia is a red
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state (typically not known for caring about the environment) and says that if these
residents are willing to admit there is a problem then that should make us all
incredibly skeptical of expanding domestic dirty energy projects in the United
States. I viewed this tactic as almost political, trying to say that no matter what
your political vote may be nobody is exempt from dirty energy. At a different
point in the column she again shares her disdain for the Republican party she says
Already hobbled by the Bush administration, the EPAs budget has declined every
year for the past four years.
Continuing on in a more negative manner towards dirty energy and finally
getting to the main point of why she wrote the column in the first place she shares
her concerns about the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline leaked 12 times in its
first year of operation which is clearly an alarming amount. With this last story she
shares her main idea of pursuing green energy more. Kohn does it in a very
constructive manner, she doesnt try to overwhelm the reader by encouraging them
to a drastic change that would require more effort than its worth because that
would probably cause them to lose interest in the column but in a more subtle
approach of educating in alternate options that would be less dramatic. By doing
this she is able to keep the readers interest until the end as well as possibly causing
them to rethink their stance on environmental issues which is definitely her goal.
Wheres the Chicken?

Driving south on Interstate 15 just outside of Sandy every driver can look off
to the side of the road and see what appears to be two cows writing the words EAT
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MOR CHIKEN in graffiti on a billboard. Its simple and humorous really, we all know
that cattle cannot read let alone write and this is displayed by the poor spelling of
the words and by the simplistic style that they are written in. The black, bold
letters catch the eye compared to the white background and even more visually
stimulating is the fact that the cows are actually outside of the billboard, placed on
the edge. And finally, underneath the writing EAT MOR CHIKEN we see the Chick-
Fil-A name and logo.
This type of image is clearly playing on consumer emotions through humor.
Besides being very simple, the ad itself is pretty clever having cows promoting to us
to eat more chicken, which leads to the conclusion that we wont have enough room
for beef. Obviously the cows would push for this type of consumption and even
though we know its an ad for Chick-Fil-A, we the consumer look at it more as the
cows are trying to convince us rather than the actual company. Chick-Fil-As own
credibility does not play a big role in this visual, even though they created it their
own branding takes a back seat to the fact that the cows are the ones promoting to
at more chicken which in turn leads us to the conclusion of eating at Chick-Fil-A.
Whats really wonderful about this add is that the viewer or consumer does not
need to know about the ad campaign itself to understand it. Whether youre familiar
with Chick-Fil-A or not its a pretty easy message to understand that cows would
rather we ate chicken instead of beefkind of a no brainer. I think that the extent of
impact this message is trying to give us at that immediate moment is to think Chick-
Fil-A sounds good, lets go there for lunch today and a more long-term type of
impact would be to keep Chick-Fil-A in mind when considering the next dining out
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option. They arent trying to convince us from leaving a type of service for theres
or even trying to impact us on any type of social issue, and they dont say anything
negative about competitors. All theyre simply trying to do is a put an idea in our
head to think about Chick-Fil-A the next time we think about eating out. I will say
that when I view the handwriting of the cows and their spelling it reminds me that
of a child learning to write, which makes me think that Chick-Fil-A might be trying to
impact a target audience of moms. Moms are going to consider that type of text
more endearing as they may associate it with things that their young children would
have written. Women ages 28-42 are the biggest target audience in America, they
are the consumers that are not only purchasing for themselves but for their
households as well. So why not try to tug at the heartstrings, if they see something
that gives them a positive experience such as a cute memory of their children
theyre more likely to remember and come to the Chick-Fil-A establishment. Finally,
I think that this image is achieving its desired impact. They have created something
that is easy on the eye to look at, simple and fast to read (especially since the
viewers will all be driving), and funny message that will make us remember the
company. I myself appreciate the Chick-Fil-A add campaign as a whole and I like to
see what clever things the cows will come up with next.