Is playing the lottery an addiction?

Ethos: Imagining winning the lottery activates the 'motivation' part of the brain. This motivation causes a person to buy more lottery tickets. 

Pathos: This causes people to become more superstitious and believe that they can win. The lottery can cause your mind to get hooked on playing because brains can't cope with how little the chances are of winning it.  

Logos: The odds of winning the lottery are so complex that it confused people's brains. If you keep spending money of tickets that have the slimmest change of ever getting picked, you will slowly become more addicted and keep losing money which could potentially put you in debt which would then make you very upset. 

High Interest Question

Would you rather be wealthy and sad, or poor and happy?

Limit Technology?

I disagree on the article “Docs to parents: Limit kids’ texts, tweets, online”. In my opinion, I believe that kids should not be limited and should be able to use their cell phones, electronics, and watch television. In some cases, students might have to use the internet or computer to submit their assignments, or they might need to research information for more than just the two hours that they’re given to finish a digital project and pass it in. This is because in today’s society most of the teachers are relying on the fact that we students can use electronics to an advantage so we don’t waste paper and so the teachers don’t have to carry piles of papers home to grade. For example, in my Journalism class, the way we pass in our work is we post it to our blog that way my teacher can go home with a lighter load of work to correct. Another reason as to why I don’t think electronics should be banned is for communication purposes. If a kid doesn’t have their phone on them and doesn’t come home right after school, their guardian or parent wouldn’t be able to contact them to see if they stayed after to make up a test, or stopped at the store on the way home. This factor also falls under the category of what is something bad happened to the kid and they can’t get in contact with anyone. Some kids I would imagine don’t even use the internet and electronic devices for the mischievous things most parents think they do. They might just need twitter to ask a fellow classmate or student what their homework was that night or maybe they need help on a problem in math. These are all reasons that support my opinion in stating that kids shouldn't be limited to electronic usage.

Seventeen Magazine Review

 The Magazine that I chose to analyze was “Seventeen”. Ironically the magazine named “Seventeen” has an article in it written for an eleven year old. The Fry Graph has proven by the amount of sentences in a one hundred word article with the amount of sentences and syllables that it is suitable for an eleven year old. The ratio of content pages to advertising pages is 81:66. This means that the magazine “Seventeen” has many pages that have nothing to do with what the magazine is about. There were various advertisements all throughout it. My magazine compared to others at my group has a lot more advertising. This says that “Seventeen” magazine is taken less seriously because it has a lot less content pages for actual articles. This also goes along the lines that it is for eleven year olds so they aren’t even going to notice the ratio between ads and content pages. A profile of this magazines prototypical target reader would be an eleven year old female, with a not so good reading level because there are few articles and they’re all decently short. They would be interested in fashion, life tips including boys, ways to eat healthy and also just plain old gossip.

Transitions From High School To College

     How do freshman in college view the transition from high school to college? Do you think that some students are able to adapt better, or do you think some find it difficult to even adapt at all? What about both? I was very curious and wanted a heads up for when I go to college to know how well the average student views his or her transition from high school to college. In doing so, I emailed my sister who graduated Norton High last year and is now a freshman at Regis College in Weston, Ma, asking her to forward the email in which I sent her, to other students attending Regis as well. In my email I wrote, “How do freshman in college view the transition from high school to college?” and I got five responses.

     In the five responses I received, they all wrote a few opinionated sentences on how they felt about the transition. Between all of them, two out of the five said that the transition is made out to be more scary and intense than it actually was, and three of the five said that it was very for them to adapt. The emails varied from missing home, families, siblings, old friends and getting used to the work load of staying up till 1 am to study for a test to expecting all of this work and preparing your self to stay up late and study as long as you can. Some took the summer to mentally prepare for the life on your own and even preparing for the amount of work given and expected to be done while others took the summer to live in the moment and take their last few weeks with their families and friends to relax, enjoy their freedom, and try not to stress out as much before school actually starts. Sydney Castagno, a current freshman at Regis, states that “overall, I think this transition makes people learn a lot about themselves, and what they’re really capable of”. Coming from Rachel Baldrate, she says how the classes are a lot more difficult than high school classes considering that you are more independent. She conveys the general message that “the professors will not hold your hand through an assignment” so you are on your own. Throughout all of the hardships in the transition such as work and time spend on assignments; they all seemed to love the freedom they are given. They are expected to do everything on their own but as two of the replies mentioned, they love the freedom that is given to them.

     As a result, you can conclude that two fifths of the survey thought that the transition from high school to college was about what they had expected and prepared them selves for while the other three fifths said that the transition was not easy and a pretty tough especially the first few weeks. This shows that more than fifty percent of students that I surveyed agreed that the transition was more tough for them than not.

Research Question:

How do freshman in college view the transition from high school to college?

My First Cursive Word

     I sat there staring with my mind in a knot. How could something look so beautiful, yet be almost impossible to follow. As my eyes went in circles tracing the thin black line it felt like it just was never going to end. I sat back and attempted to take it all in. As I looked around all the others were already in deep thought staring blankly at their papers. I then looked down and let my thoughts race.

     I dragged my hand over to my paper as I gripped my pencil with my sweaty palm. As the tip touched the dotted line it felt like the temperature of the room had risen fifty degrees. Up, then down; swinging left to right. Loopty-loop, then a flip at the end for a finish. My mouth dropped as I looked at the squiggle on my paper. I looked to the left then to my right to see my classmates work. I then looked back down at my own paper and saw that my classmates were far ahead of me. With panic, I quickly started trying to copy the board. By this point I was not even in the lines anymore. It was official, I was incapable. The devastation that filled my head became aggravation that was apparently noticeable because my teacher had walked over to me. She said that if I took my time I was capable of anything. She grabbed my hand and swung it in little circles as my mouth dropped in awe. It was like she sent a magic touch through my hands onto the paper. After a sentence of swirly lines, it was then my turn.
     I wiped the sweat off my hand onto my blue jeans. I sat up straight, then grabbed my pencil that my teacher had just quickly sharpened. As I gripped the thin piece of wood I dragged it back and forth through the dotted line. I picked my pencil up off the paper in excitement and relief. I had just written my first cursive word. With applause, my teacher smiled and said “I told you so.” My grin was shining from a mile away. I could not wait to go home and tell my parents that I was just like them and could write in cursive. It felt like I was a grown up for the first time.
     Before I knew it I had written an entire sentence in cursive. The exaggerated loops and swirls became my signature mark. It was fun to see how fast you could write, or even how sloppy or pretty you could make it. It was a habit now and made writing enjoyable. Cursive had turned into a mature trendy thing for us third-graders. As class ended it felt like only a few minutes had gone by. But, one thing was for sure, cursive became my new hobby.