EN 106 Park University First Year Writing II Reflective Essays writing Portfolio Our attention in Unit Seven shifts to preparation for the final portfolio

EN 106 Park University First Year Writing II Reflective Essays writing Portfolio

Our attention in Unit Seven shifts to preparation for the final portfolio, which is due at the end of this unit. Your portfolio should be submitted no later than 11:59pm CST on Sunday. The portfolio counts as 20% of your overall grade in the course.

FINAL PORTFOLIO GUIDELINES

Required Components:

A reflective essay (about 4 full pages, double-spaced)
Your two best essays from this class, each with further revision (in most cases, these will be revisions of Essays #3 and #5)
Artifacts of your writing process

Length: Your reflective essay must be between 800-1200 words. Your two best essays should be as long as they need to be fully achieve their rhetorical purposes.

Style/Format: The revised essays essays should be formatted in a standard scholarly format. (Most students follow MLA or APA guidelines, which are outlined in Easy Writer.) No matter what format you follow, be sure to do the following:

Use 12 point, Times New Roman font, double-spaced.
Use 1-inch margins top, bottom, and sides.
Although no cover page is needed, you should include your name, my name, the course number/title, and date at the upper left-hand corner of the manuscript.

File format: Please submit your portfolio as a single file attachment in a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. These formats are available in most word processors, including Google Docs and Open Office, and will ensure that your instructor is able to comment on your work.

Works Cited/References: Those essays that refer to outside sources must include a page of Works Cited, References, or whatever bibliography is required by the guidelines you choose.

Deadline: Submit the portfolio as a single file to Submit Assignment no later than Midnight CST on Sunday at the end of this unit.

WHY THIS ASSIGNMENT IS IMPORTANT

This portfolio serves as the core assessment measure for EN106 at Park University. Let’s consider that term for a moment. At Park, a “core assessment” is a required assignment that is common across all sections of a course, both online and face-to-face. This assignment is meant to serve as a tool for instructors to evaluate student learning across sections, terms, campus centers, and modalities. In other words, the portfolio is your opportunity to show off what you have learned in this course, and an opportunity for Park faculty to learn more about how our teaching works. Ideally, we use the lessons from your core assessments to inform changes to curriculum. As you prepare the portfolio, think about using it to make an argument: to use a metaphor from the law, you should make a case for what you have learned this term in EN106.

Your portfolio should demonstrate what you know about academic research and writing. Your EN106 portfolio is a “best works portfolio”—that is, your portfolio should be a collection of your strongest, most polished academic writing. It will contain three primary pieces: a reflective essay, your two best essays from this class, and artifacts from your writing process. Melina Arca
EN106 First Year Writing II
Unit 4: Essay #3
July 3, 2020
Ms. Jana Hutcheson
Expanding the Conversation
The educational system is not what it once was. Students are reminded of the financial
value associated with their education and how studying and reaching a certain level of education
can potentially get them a high paying job. No longer is it that students go to class, become
enlightened, and go home to do assignments. Academics have transitioned students with a
passion to learn into students with a consumer mindset. College is supposed to be a positive
experience, but it can be tough because not only is their end goal is hoping to land a high paid
job, it’s the stress of how am I students are able to pay for school to get a high paid job.
A part of the consumer mindset in education and society is the concept that individuals
want things done a certain way and if they don’t get what they want, they complain until they
can get it. Edmundson stated that this is an issue educators are facing. He explains to incoming
students what they should expect from faculty, administration, and themselves. “Students want
the credentials that will help them get ahead. They want the certificate that will grant them
access to Wall Street, or entrance into law or medical or business school. And how can we blame
them?” (Edmundson, 2013). Students are accomplishing the bare-minimum just to graduate yet
want the finer things in life. Students think college is about showing up to class, paying attention,
and getting good grades for the next four years and that will make them successful.
Edmundson’s father mentioned he should go to college and major in something that interests him
but also something that will make good money. The decision about your career path should be
chosen wisely but money cannot be the overall factor for choosing a career. You can be who you
were raised to be, but the path is your ultimate choice of who you want to be. So, attending
college is the time to find your true calling. It is up to you to find what are your values and what
you believe in. He mentioned “no one will suggest that you might use Plato as your bible for a
week or years or longer. No one, in short, will ask you to use Plato to help you change your life”.
Knowing whether your dream job will keep you financially secure, or make you rich, it is for
you to decide whether you choose to continue to pursue it. You decide if the time and cost
involved in pursuing your education will help advance you to what you are capable of.
But students find themselves in a dilemma of “how am I going to pay for school to get
this high-end job”. Students are struggling to pay for tuition, books, housing and food yet are
working to stay afloat to afford school and while trying to maintain good grades. According to?
“95 percent of American colleges are too expensive for the majority of low-income students”
(Martin, 2020). Almost half of undergraduate students come from middle-class to lower-class
income family. Yes, there are is government assistance like financial aids and scholarships but
not everyone gets it, but to afford college, students will have to take out loans and will graduate
with debt. “The annual family income of more than 47 percent of undergraduates is less than
$40,000” (O’Shaughnessy, 2011). What is your point here? Provide a summary statement that
wraps up your paragraph idea.
Seven out of 10 college students are stressed and overwhelmed about personal finances
and basic living needs. “Twenty three percent of full-time undergrads, who are 24 or younger,
work 20 hours or more a week” (O’Shaughnessy, 2011). Nearly 60 percent of students are
worried about having enough money to pay for school while half are concerned about paying
their monthly expenses. These statistics shows not only over half of college students are worried
about graduating, but also worried of being able to financially make it through the next 4 four
years.
A switch in focus is needed to value the importance of education so students can take
what they learned and succeed in life and be able to showcase their skills. It is important for
finding your place at a university and getting good grades will help in securing a position of
employment after graduation. However, students are in a bind of attending college for a high-end
job, but college puts them in a strain of affording for college. Students spend a lot of their time
academically, but does it actually contribute to life after college with a career? Money is a such a
taboo and driving force in this world and it is a factor in college students’ lives.
References
Edmundson, M. (2013). Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? A Word to the
Incoming Class, from Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education. Bloomsbury Publish
Martin, K. (2020, March 30). Majority of students cannot afford 95 percent of US
colleges. Retrieved July 07, 2020, from
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/04/08/studa08.html
O’Shaughnessy, L. (2011, October 11). 20 Surprising Statistics about College Students.
Retrieved July 07, 2020, from https://www.thecollegesolution.com/20-surprisingstatisticsabout-college-students/
Ideas are somewhat clear but need to tie back into a main idea. Some formatting issues are
needed. Why did you cut out so much of your previous essay? You had a lot of good
information that tied together well. This essay is a bit disjointed.
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Revised introduction/thesis
Fixed grammatical errors
Removed some context information that did not flow with paper
Rearranged paragraphs to flow better
Revised closing paragraph to tie in thesis
Melina Arca
EN106 First Year Writing II
Unit 6: Essay #5
July 18, 2020
Adding Research
Climate change has been a significant concern in the 20th century with environmental
problems like global warming. Climate change entails changes in weather patterns on land or
oceans occurring for a long time frame. One of the significant effects of climate change is global
warming. Global warming is a phenomenon that threatened the world, giving the general
increase in temperature level and damaging the ecosystem for extended periods. Human
activities have contributed close to 1.0 above industrial levels (Change, 2017). According to
researchers, carbon emission is contributing mainly to global warming as a result of of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. Human daily activities like production of food, distribution, and
transportation have an impact on the environment directly or indirectly as well. Modern methods
of food production are not always sustainable. Climate change influences the quality and quantity
of food produced, and global food production systems contribute to climate change.
Global warming is a threat to this century and a population, the global food sector is
among the most significant contributor to global warming but it is an opportunity for us to reduce
the outcome of climate change where we need to be aware how our choices contribute to the
changes to our world. But despite threats posed by carbon emission in the atmosphere, we have
done little or nothing at all in reducing its effect. Mitigating and reducing the impact of global
warming requires knowledge of causes and the potential effect of global warming, need for
selfawareness of individual share in controlling its impact and emerging technologies in food
production sector- a sector considered to contribute effectively to global warming as discussed
by Anna Lappe, Michael Pollan and McKay Jenkins.
This essay will strive to answer ways on how the food system, lack of individual
initiatives in addressing climate change, and emerging technologies can contribute to climate
change and possible recommendations to help solve climate change. “The Climate Crisis at the
End of Our Fork” by Anna Lappe, points out that the system of producing and distributing food
across the globe through modern means is responsible for one-third of the human-caused global
warming effect. For instance, changes in land use during production or distribution of food led to
land degradation, which further attributes to the long-lasting impacts on climate change (Costa
Carvalho, 2020). Effect of agricultural food production and distribution and climate change have
outlined via three connections; connection of land use, farm connection, and waste and
transportation connection. Destruction activities done on land at the stage of food production
deemed to be the first connection between food production and climate change. Firstly, land
deforestation usually occurs as a result of freeing more space for the process of food production.
In the process of creating room for agricultural production through land usage, biomes such as
forests, bogs, and rainforests ae destroyed (Costa Carvalho, 2020). This destruction of biomes led
to an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere.
The second connection entails all the direct impact agricultural activities have on climate.
For instance, the livestock sector has the most substantial impact accounting for 18% of the
global warming effect. Lappe observed that the majority of individuals ignored the impact of
food and say industrial emissions and automobiles are the major contributors to climate change,
but 18 percent of global warming worldwide revolves around the livestock sector. A change in
the food system will contribute to a change in climate and global warming. (cite)
Food distribution similarly contributes equally to climate change. Similarly, agricultural
products disposal through garbage or burning of fossil fuels release poisonous gases into the
atmosphere. In addition to this, vessels used in transportation like cars release carbon dioxide
gas into the atmosphere affecting causing the greenhouse effect.
Michael Pollan’s “Why to Bother?” posed a question about changing daily lifestyles to
help boost the sustainability of our planet. Addressing climate change will highly depend on
personal transformation, which will serve as the solution to global warming. He stated, “Personal
choices, no matter how virtuous, cannot do enough. It will also take laws and money” (Pollan,
2008). Pollan mentioned how people aren’t making changes in their life because they feel like it
will not make any difference. When each person did his or her share, the problem of climate
change will end. Pollan further emphasized that difficulty faced in an attempt to avert climate
change was because of a lack of collaboration through making changes to normal human
activities.
He developed three claims to showcase why he believed that very little had been done to
mitigate climate change. When the task of contributing once the share is considered to be too
simple, that to some extent, viewed as a bother. Secondly, man’s everyday actions put him at risk
of further damaging climate to a greater context when summed up together. For instance,
transport accounts for up to 55-90% of greenhouse effects two- thirds of which is attributed to
private vehicles (Zafar, 2019). He later explains that every little difference count. The third claim
lies in the notation that modern man fails to realize that personal change is required to address
climate change. This argument was supported by ideas of specialization, which makes people
believe that he has nothing to deal with environmental concerns. Still, preferably specialists in
such areas have the mandate to do so (Pollan, 91).
McKay Jenkins further wrote on how “Can GMOs Be Sustainable” considered if
genetically modified foods (GMOs) is regarded as sustainable. Genetically modified organisms
will be highly used in the farming industry, leading to the development of “natural” food
products. Jenkins mentioned the Schmidts family and how of a significant contributor to the
industrial food system they are. And their farm has acquired recognition for its environmental
stewardship efforts. “They practice a wide range of soil conservation techniques… Rather than
strip their fields bare after harvest, they leave withered plants to serve as “green manure.” They
use integrated pest management. Because they spray their weeds, the Schmidts don’t have to till
their soil, which means they can reduce their carbon footprint — both by driving their tractor less
and by leaving carbon in the land, where it belongs. They plant cover crops, which both hold
their soil in place for future crops and prevent erosion.” (Jenkins, 2017). It may be impossible to
achieve zero impact on the climate, but there are actions which can be essential in limiting the
effects of the food system to climate change.
However, arguments made that do not support GMO food have led consumers to choose
food products that have not been modified even though genetically modified food will be
nutritious. Industrial agriculture revolves around genetically modified organisms, growth
hormones, and others do not harm the environment or natural resources. But people will still
choose food products that are not sustainable as opposed to sustainable products.
Using agriculture as opposed to modern methods can help address the effect of the food
system on climate change. For instance, organic crops are more sustainable and have more
organic value hence beneficial. Similarly, every individual has personal responsibility in
preventing climate change, as addressed by Pollan. Taking the individual initiative will thus
require a positive mindset that is free from relying on others to take care of what each individual
can make. In conclusion, it is crucial how global warming and climate change indicate food
production, and it will continue to be the leading cause of climate change and global warming.
While being a contributor to global warming, the agricultural sector also holds an opportunity for
achieving sustainability. It is best to reduce the effect of the industrial food chain on climate
change and global warming.
Reference
Change, P. C. (2018). Global warming of 1.5° C. Geneva, Switzerland: World Meteorological
Organization.
Costa Carvalho, S., & Bisquert I Perez, K. M. (2020). Food and Climate Change: Their
Connections and Mitigation Pathways Through Education. Climate Action, 497508.
Jenkins, M. (2017). Food Fight: GMOs and the Future of the American Diet. Penguin.
Lappé, A. (2009). The Climate Crisis at the end of your fork. Sustainable Table. October.
Pollan, M. (2008). Why bother? New York Times, 20.
Zafar, M. W., Saud, S., & Hou, F. (2019). The impact of globalization and financial development
on environmental quality: evidence from selected countries in the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Environmental science
and pollution research, 26(13), 13246-13262.
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Definition of climate change and global warming
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Connection between climate change and human activities
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Statement of problem: what the project will seek to address and objectives
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Main focus
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Supporting arguments
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Three connection between food production, distribution and climate change
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Outside reference added
You have a lot of good information here. I would suggest reviewing each body paragraph topic
sentence that indicates the point you are trying to make in each paragraph. Then tie your ideas
together into a central idea. If they do not fit a central idea consider revision. Your overall
argument is not clear despite all the data. Organization of ideas needed.

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