Anzaldúa

Anzaldúa, "Tlilli, Tlapalli:  The Path of the Red and Black Ink"

Summary

In Gloria Analdua's article, "Tlilli, Tlapalli:  The Path of the Red and Black Ink" she is a feminist writer who talks about personal stories.  She talks about how she loved to read and how she would sit in bed reading at night.  She also talks a lot about culture.  She goes in to detail about how she does things such as drawing  or putting music to a movie.

Sythesis

I would relate Anzaldua's article to many other articles that we have read previously.  I would first relate it to McCloud's because she talks about if she doesn't write down an image she gets sick about it.  This article also relates to any author that is a feminist. Closely related to Flynn.

Thoughts

This article was very interesting to me.  She talks a lot about herself personally and what she does as a person in her writing and images.  It is interesting how she thinks about writing.  I also like that she talks about cultures.

 

Response	Quotation
I like this quote because she is describing her writing and how she sees it as an image.	"I can see the deep structure, the scaffolding." (220)
Interesting what she writes about this culture and their sacrifices.	"Western cultures behave differently towards works of art than do tribal cultures." (221)
She feel ill because she does not want to forget them so she has to write them down right then and there.	"When I don't write the images down for several days or weeks or months. I get physically ill." (222)
Interesting reading this because it explains what she personally has to do.	"To facilitate the "movies" with soundtracks, I need to be alone, or in a sensory deprived state." (222)

Cixous

 Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa"

Response	Quote
I liked this quote because she is saying nothing will change if we don't move forward from the past.	“The future must no longer be determined by the past.”
I liked this quote because it shows good meaning.	“Let us not be trapped by an analysis still encumbered with the old automatisms.”
She is saying that women have a standard and men have a standard.	“I write woman: woman must write woman.  And man, man.”
Don't let society get to you and be who you want to be.	“Let nobody threaten you; in satisfying your desire, let not the fear of becoming the accomplice to a socially succeed the old-time fear of being ‘taken."
I like this quote because it kind of gives and inside to the author.	“As a woman, I have been clouded over by the great shadow of the scepter and been told: idolize it, that which you cannot brandish.”

Definitions

Whiteness-the quality or state of the achromatic color of greatest lightness (bearing the least resemblance to black).

 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/between-the-lines/201112/the-meaning-whiteness

Marginalized- Treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral: "they marginalize those who disagree"; "marginalized groups".

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marginalization.html

Heterotypical- designating or of the first meiotic division of a germ cell.

http://websters.yourdictionary.com/heterotypical

Those words are connect together because in the world people are put in to groups by color.  Not so much anymore,but people used to be categorized by color.  Racism is a big part of society.  White people were treated different than black people were.  


Worked Cited
Lyubansky, Mikhail, Between the Lines, Psychology Today, Website

Business Dictionary, Website, Definition of Marginalization

Websters New World, Website, Definition of Heterotypical 

Alexander

Alexander

Synthesis

For Jonathan Alexander's article, "Transgender Rhetorics:(Re)Composing Narratives of the gendered Body", there were only a few articles that I could really relate him to.  The articles that I can relate him to are the ones that we have been reading recently.  The first article would be Flynn's article.  I would relate them to each other because of the fact that Flynn talks about the feminist inquiry and all about feminism which relates to Alexander because he also talks about feminism.  I would also connect Alexanders article to Malinowitz.  I would connect them because she talks about gay and lesbian discourses and Alexander also does.

I like this quote because it explains what the whole article is going to be about and gives you a little overview.	"This essay attempts to demonstrate how transgender theories can inspire pedagogical methods that complement feminist compositionist pedagogical apporches to understanding the narration of gender as a social construct" (195)
I like this quote because he is talking about a "queer feminist" and that brings Malinowitz and Flynn's articles together.	"As a queer feminist compositionist, I have given a lot of thought to the relationships among narrative, identity, gender, and the teaching of writing." (195)
Turning our attention to multivalent force of gender in subtle and profound ways.	"Sullivan's work thus argued that gender is a multivalent force that has an impact on composing in both subtle and profound ways, and she maintained that we should turn attention to an examination of that impact." (197)
Seeing how different genders write, is a possibility for respecting that specific gender.	"Seeing writing as possibility for respecting gender, as opposed to revealing of a fundamental gender, is a significant shift in thinking about the composition of gender." (197)
I like this quotes because it closely relates with Malinowitz because of the talk of sexuality and how sexuality intersects with gender.	"Most recently, composition scholarship is this vein has grappled with issues not only of gender but also of sexuality, recognizing that sexuality intersects with and complicates our understanding of gender." (198)
Gender swapping has given opportunities to explore useful insights about gender and sexuality.	"I am not sure that our narratives of gender  swapping and transition were necessarily helping liberate participants from gender norms, even though I believe they offered us opportunities to explore useful insights." (212)

Thoughts

Alexander's article is very interesting.  I really liked that it related with several articles that we have recently read about.  He kind of bring sexuality and feminism together in his article. 

Progress Report

Progress Report

For my project 3, I have started to revise some of the things that Allison suggested in peer review.  There are a few things that i have noticed that are simple changes that would make my paper just a little better.  I plan to add a person narrative because I was a cheerleader myself and I feel I should put my personal experience into my paper.  I also plan to go to the writing center to see what they have to say about my paper.

Smitherman

Before you Read

I have definitely prejudged someone by there voice.  For example, when I heard a British man talk on a recording, I thought they would look very proper and put together, but it was a 20 year old British boy that was not put together and looked like a normal teenager.

Summary

In Smitherman's article she talks about black English and how it is taught.  She focuses on dialect and how people are taught in the classroom.  She uses examples from other literature and how it is used in the discourse.

Response	Quotation
What she is saying is, whats right and what wrong? The classroom is worried about what is right and wrong.	“A quick look at the tradition of schoolroom grammars and the undergirding ideology of early English grammarians reveals that the current ‘national mania for correctness’ has been around a long time.”
People that don't know where they are in society, don't really know their personal identity.	“So Americans, lacking a fixed place in society, don’t know where they be in terms of social and personal identity.”
So interesting to see how language works.	"It is interesting to note the way this class consciousness neurosis is reflected in the area of language.”
There is no right and wrong language.	“Because, you see, the plain and simple fact is that language does not exist in a vacuum but in the socio-cultural reality.”

QD 7

7. Mastery of a dominant discourse sometimes is a risk for disenfranchised individuals because they are nervous about not fitting in and being forgotten.

Thoughts

This article was a little confusing.  I did like that she was taking about slang terms and and how black language is taught in schools.

Flynn

Flynn

Before you Read

The feminist inquiry is a book by Mary E. Hawkesworth. From Political Conviction to Methodological Innovation.

Summary

Flynn's article is mostly about feminism.  She talks about the differences between men and women and their relationships with others.  She talks about how men and women's compositions are different.

Synthesis

Flynn's article is similar to a few authors.  It is similar to Berger's because he talks about women and advertising. Wysocki also talks about similar things.  This article can also be related to Malowitz because she talks about sexuality.

Response	Quotation
I picked this quote because it is saying that there is a meaning behind things.	“Powerfully present in the work of composition researchers and theorists is the ideal of a committed teacher concerned about the growth and maturity of her students who provides feedback on ungraded drafts, reads journals, and attempts to tease out meaning from the seeming incoherence of student language.” (156)
This quote just shows that womens opinions were not cared about in the past. They were put to the side.	"Women's perspectives have been suppressed, silenced, marginalized, written out of what counts as authoritative knowledge."(157)
Men have more power and women are judged because of them.	“Men become the standard against which woman are judged.” (157)
Women are very different from men in the way that they act and use language.	“We ought not assume the males and females use language in identical ways or represent the world in a similar fashion.” (162)

QD 3

3. Women's opinions and believes were silenced and not listened to for the longest time because they weren't thought of to be as important as men.

Thoughts

I liked this article.  I liked it because they were talking about women and how they are treated.  I liked it because it was close to Bergers article and I found his article to be very interesting.

 

 

Progress on Project #3

 Progress on Project #3

          For project #3, I have gotten a good start.  Once I figured out my interview questions, I made a point to email my high school coach and a coach from another school.  I have not gotten any responses on the questions yet.  I’m assuming they will be emailing me in a few days.  I also texted some of the girls from my high school team to get their input on the discourse community.  I got their emails and I’m still in the process of getting responses from them too.  I have also been looking online for information about the cheerleading discourse.  I am looking to see all of the different language that is used in the community and all of the different teaching methods.  There are many other blogs that talk about the cheerleading discourse, so I have been trying to look at those to gather information.  I think the project is going well so far, I just need to get more information and put it all together.  

Project #3 Interview Questions

Project #3 Interview Questions

In my interview, I plan to explain what a Discourse community is before asking any questions.  I feel I will get more complete answers after explaining what that is.

I will be getting interviews with my high school cheerleading coach, high school cheerleading coach from another school at home, girls from my cheerleading squad and new freshman girls new on the freshman squad.

What does it take it get into the discourse?

What is some specific terminology or language that people use in the cheerleading community?

Is cheerleading vocabulary the same in all squads? All schools?

How are the new cheerleaders taught cheers? Is that the same in all schools?

What did the new freshman cheerleaders have to do to adapt to become a part of the team?  Was learning to cheerleading language hard?

What is the overall goal of being a cheerleader?

Heilker and Yergeau

Heilker and Yergeau

ROW pg. 261

Summary

For this article, "Autism and Rhetoric", by Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau, they explain the mind of an autistic person and how they have a language too.  They use personal narratives to help explain more about the topic.  The article wants the reader to focus on rhetorical reading so they people can understand the lives of other people in different discourse communities.

Sythesis

For me, this article connects to only a few other readings.  First I connected it to Devitt because of how both talk about people from discourse communities talk to people outside their discourses.   I also related this article to Malinowitz, because her discussion of Gay and Lesbian discourse is similar to the way the Autistic discourse is.  People need to have more understanding about it and give it more of a chance.  Lastly, I connected this article to Glenn because of the talk about advertisement. 

Thoughts

This article was very interesting.  I am glad that they used personal narratives in this article.  I feel that it makes the article a little easier to read when you are reading something a little more personal to someone.  I would actually love to read more about this discourse communities. 

“We are being swamped by a massive increase in fundamentally uncertain yet persuasive discourse” 261

Autism is a very uncertain disciuse and not many people understand what it is all about.

I like that this starts off the article, it kind of sets up what this article is going to be a bout.	"Public awareness and public discourse about autism are approaching critical mass.'' 261
We should treat autism like any other discourse.	"If autism is a rhetoric, then we are beholden to respond to it with cultural sensitivity, ethical care, and pedagogical complexity."262
We already have the tools to treat this discourse as any other discourse.	"And if autism is a rhetoric and autistics are minority rhetors, English faculty already posses all the tools and experience they will need to do exactly that."262
Rhetoric listening it very important so people can understand people in other discourse communities.	“Similarly, rhetorical listening allows us to generate a more productive discourse about autism and the rhetorical triangle.” Pg 265
We can now make autistic people more a part of society rather than back when we used to exclude people from society because they were autistic.	“Conceiving of autism as rhetoric, as a way of being in the world through language, allows us to reconstruct what we have historically seen as language deficits as, instead, language differences.”269

Malinowitz

Malinowitz

ROW p.110

Before you Read

To define the word "queer" I would say it would mean weird, kind of strange.

Summary

For the article "Queer Texts, Queer Contexts" by Harriot Malinowitz, she talks mostly about discourse communities.  She focuses on the gay and lesbian discourse community.  She goes on about talking about sexuality identity.  She also talks about essentialism and generalization. 

Synthesis

Malinowitz's article can relate to many articles that we have already read.  It can relate to any article talking about discourse communities.  Such as Porter, Glenn, Gee, Wardle, and Swales. All of these articles go over what discourse communities are and give examples to help to explain the concept.

Responses	Quotes
I liked this quote because it just shows how accepting our generation is and not all generations are like us.	“It’s not that students have suddenly and universally become emphatic and comfortable with lesbian and gay existence; but they do seem to regard the issue itself with much less suspicion or surprise than they used to.” (110)
I never really actually thought of teachers to be afraid to come out to their collages and students. I am sure that is very hard for teachers to do.	“Yet I am a lesbian teacher who, until four years ago, hesitated to come our to my students and to many of my colleagues – except in protected parts of the “ivory closet”, such as women's studies programs.” (113)
Just the same as teachers, students are afraid to come out to their fellow classmates and teachers.  Afraid of what others might think.	“I can hypothesize that the closeted gay students in my classes remain silent our of some of the same fears” (113).
This quotes just shows how diverse our society is becoming.  More and more people have grown to except others how they are.	“The focus of multicultural curricula has evolved in recent decades not as an abstract need to make education itself more diverse, but rather in the context of political developments and liberation movements in the nation and the world." (114)
I liked this quote because it is saying that women can do things on their own and we do not need to be handled like we are fragile.	“We believe women aren't so fragile that we need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches; in a better world you would see that we are competent enough to vote”(121)

QUOTE: “The contempory term ‘queer,’ used mostly by younger activists and artists, conveys in popular jargon the basic idea of a broad category embracing a spectrum of those who deviate from the heterosexual norm.” (126)

 

RESPONSE:  I liked that she kind of explained what the term means to people today.  Makes me understand what this whole article is about.

 

AE 2

For my discourse community that I was involved in, cheerleading, we had our own launage that only my team and other cheerleaders would understand.  If I would not have been involved in that discourse I would not understand many of the things that they talk about.

 

Thoughts

For this article, I thought it was very interesting and informative.  Made me understand how diverse our society is today.  It also made me understand a little more about the gay and lesbian community and how they feel about society and societies acceptance of them and how they are.   

Devitt et al.

Devitt ROW p. 98

Before you Read

Types of communication I use on a daily basis:

-Texting

-Phone (Calling people)

-Writing

-Facetime

-Twitter

-Facebook

-Instagram

Summary

In Amy J. Devitt's article in Readings on Writings, "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities", she talks about her take about Discourse communities and communities in general.  In the article she also has two other authors that are involved in her writing that give their take on Discourses.  All of the authors talk about the importance of specialized vocabulary in a discourse and the different genres. 

Sythesis

 In this article by Amy J. Devitt, I think it closely relates to many authors that we have previously read about.  It can relate to Porter because of discourse community.  It can also relate to discourse through Wardle.  Devitt is also related to Swales through Genres. 

Responses	Quotes
In other discourse communities, people might have a hard time understanding what people in other discourses are saying because all discourses have their own vocabulary and genre.	“While their purposes seem to be inclusive, to give nonmembers access to the community’s knowledge, genre analysis strongly suggests that the specialist and nonspecialist users have different beliefs, interests, and purposes as well as levels of knowledge.” (99)
This quote goes to show that you need to be in a certain discourse to understand vocabulary from a certain discourse.  If you are not in that specific discourse you will most likely not understand that discourses jargon.	“Tax forms are designed by the IRS, but they are supposedly meant to be used by people who may know little of tax regulations.  The fact that so many people hire specialists to complete their tax forms merely confirms the difficulty of the task of translating specialists’ knowledge into laypersons’ actions.” (99)
This quote is a little confusing to me.  I think this is supposed to explain what a genre is.	“Genres are not just forms.  Genres are forms of life, ways of being.” (104)
This quote is stating just how important ethnographic methodology is in understanding discourse communities.	“If ethnographies are understood as studies of communities and their social actions, and genres taken to be rhetorical manifestations or maps of community's actions, then genre analysis is an especially helpful path in ethnographic methodology.” (107)
I like this quote because it is explaining that when we research about a certain discourse it is saying that by observing that discourse we kind of become a part of that community.	"When students carry out ethnographies, they become researchers who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes." (109)

 MM

I think the best way to learn about a discourse community is through research.  Research is not easy to gain quickly, it will take time to learn about the discourse completely.

Thoughts

For this article, I thought that is really helped me explain genre and what discourse are about.  It explained conflicting genres and the difference between specialized and non specialized.  I liked that it explained ethnography, because that will help me to better complete project 3.

 

Project #3 Proposal

Project #3 Proposal

For my project three, I will be studying the Discourse community of cheerleading.   I cheered from the time I was four years only up until my senior year of high school.  I have been in several different squads during my years as a cheerleader and I have noticed that all of the squads are generally the same.  I have learned so much through cheerleading about so much about its Discourse community.  Cheerleading is actually a very difficult sport and through my research and this project, I hope to give people and inside look at what the cheerleading Discourse is all about. 

Wardle

Identify, Authority, and learning to Write in New Workplaces
Elizabeth Wardle Pg. 520

Before You Read
-exams used to be test
-semester used to be quarters
-going to class used to be going to school

Summary
In Wardle's article, "Identify, Authority, and learning to Write in New Workplaces", she is very interested with how people learn to write.  She talks about differebt discourse communities and how adults moving through different discourses learn.  She talks about he struggle with finding register or lexis for her writing and how others have a hard time fitting into new discourses.  This article was a result of a study so there are many examples in the article.

Synthesis
This article talks so much about discourse communities and finding your own discourse.  I think this article relates to Gee, Glenn, Swales, and Allen.  It relates to all of those articles because of how much it talks about being in a discourse and the struggles behind finding your own discourse community.

Responses	Quotes
This quote was in the very last paragraph of the article and I liked it because it showed what Alan had learned.	"Alan's example illustrates that learning to write in new communities entails more then learning discrete sets of skills or improving cognitive abilities." (533)
Shows that many discourses could have afforded Allan.	"A number of discourse conventions existed in the department that could have afforded Alan further authority." (529)
Shows where Allan was in the discourse because he had authority.	"Allan's sense of his level of authority was evident in the way he talked about the faculty members in the department." (528)
He left what his previous position was because it didn't allow him enough responsibility.	"Alan's sense of what it meant to fill a support staff position was very different from the faculty's sense." (528)
I like this quote because it kind of tells us how we should understand writing and how we view learning.	"If we understand writing as one tool among many through which knowledge, identity, and authority and continually negotiated, then we must view learning to write in new ways as a complex and often messy network of tool-mediated human relationships best explored in terms of the social and cultural practices that people bring to their shared uses of tools." (526)

Thoughts
I really liked this article.  It was very much liked everything we have been reading lately.  Talks mostly about discourses.  I found it to be very informative.

Compare and contrast

Swales and Gee Compare and Contrast 

 

Compare

Swales and Gee are similar in many ways.  To make a discourse, they both have tension and acceptance.  They both talk about what a discourse is and how there are many different discourses.  They explain what kinds of characteristics a discourse has.  Both know that one needs to have discourse literacy to be apart of one. They both talk about sponsorship and apprenticeship.  Each talk about the certain communications to be apart of a discourse community.

Contrast

Swales and Gee are also very different from each other.  Swales talks more about the discourse community where Gee talks about Discourse with a capital "D".  In Gee's article he talks about primary and secondary discourses, but in Swales he only really mentions primary discourses.  Swales in more about Intertextuality and conceptualization where Gee is about learning from someone already in the discourse and learning from the community.

Swales and Gee

Swales & Gee

Before You Read

There are many times that I have felt out of place, but one time that I can specifically remember is when I decided to join a sports medicine club in high school.  I decided to join this club because all of my close friends were joining and I thought if they liked it, I would like it too.  Not the case.  I ended up hating it and i felt so out of place because all the my friends and all of the other members of the club loved what they were doing.

Summary

In Swales article, "The Concept of Discourse Community", he talks a lot about genre and genre analysis.  he talks about the discourse communities and how they are different from a speech community.  He tells us how the definition of discourse communities need clarification and what framing material is.

Synthesis

 Swales article closely relates to Porter and Allen's articles.  They all talk about the discourse community and different kinds of discourse communities.  They all give examples of discourse communities. 

QD 5 and 6
5.  I cant really think of a discourse communities that I am involved with now, but in high school I was involved in cheerleading and I think that should be considered a discourse community.  Our common goal would be to strive to be a better team and make sure we all know what we are doing.  We all knew how to communicate with each other and understand what everyone had to say.  Giving each other feedback was a big part of being a team.  We all knew specialized terminology for things that only we would understand.

6.  I was forced to join the the debate team in high school.  My friends all really wanted to do it together.  I was totally against it because i thought it was going to take up way too much time and I didnt want to have one more organization to worry about, but I joined and ended up loving it.

Thoughts
This article was a very long, dense article.  It took a lot out of me to get through it.  After reading it, I have a better understanding of a discourse community and all of its characteristics.  It also showed me many examples of discourse communities.

Gee

Before You Read
When I search the term "mushfake" on google, it says the definition is like "faking it".

Summary
In Gee's article, "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics", he talks about the main idea of discourses and how he thinks that Discourses should be capitalized.  He talks about dominating discourse and how you are either in or out.  He also talks about how one must find their own discourse.

Synthesis
I think that Gee's article is can closely relate to pretty much the same articles that Swales article is related to.  This is because they stay on the same subject of discourses and what discourses are.  His article is reltated to Porter's, Allen's, and Swales.

Response	Quotation
I liked this quote because it made me think about myself and my own personal discourse communities.	“Finally, and yet more importantly, we can always ask about how much tension or conflict is present between any two of a person’s Discourses.” (485)
I like this quote because it shows that you need to have discourse literacy.	“I believe that a socially useful definition of ‘literacy’ must be couched in terms of the notion of Discourse.” (486)
This the first line of the article, and I like it because it sets up the article so you know what you’re going to be reading right from the beginning.	“What I propose in the following papers, in the main, is a way of talking about literacy and linguistics.” (482)
This makes me think of many discourses that don’t involve reading or writing and how they work.	“Not all Discourses involve writing or reading, though many do.” (488)
This quote stuck out to me because he is made really understand filtering and how secondary discourses are filtered into primary discourses.	“ “Filtering” is a process whereby aspects of the language, attitude, values, and other elements of certain types of secondary Discourses are filtered into primary Discourse.” (492)

 
Meta Moment
I could use the knowledge i gained from reading Gee in many Discourse communities because now I have a better understanding of them and their different aspects.

Thoughts
This article was also very long and dense. To be honest I think I liked Swales better than I liked this one.  Both are very similar, but very different at the same time.  If I had to choose though, I would choose Swales over Gee's.

 

Glenn and Pollan

Glenn & Pollan

Before you Read

When I picture a farm with with farm animals, I don't picture a very pleasant scene between the farmer and the farm animals.  The farmer probably doesn't treat the animals very nice.  I feel that all the farmer really cares about is the animals being slaughtered and him getting the money for it. 

Summary
In Glenn's article, "Constructing Consumables and Consent:  A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm Industry Discourse", she attempts to explain how animals are really treated on a farm and how their living conditions are terrible.  She uses examples and stories to help explain.  She talks about factory fram discourse and discourse communities.  

Synthesis

Glenn's article relates to only a few authors.  It slightly relates to Pollan's article because in Pollan's he talks about how farmers want to keep their processes cheap and Glenn is worried about livestock's living conditions and the way they are treated.  Glenn's article can also relate to Baron's because he talks about technology and it can relate to Glenn's because farmers are always trying to find a cheaper, easier way to have livestock and take care of their livestock.  

 

Response	Quotation
Through this quote, I feel that Glenn is trying to explain what this article is going to be about and I like that she try’s to set up the article for us.	“Discourse, for the purposes of this article, denotes the production of knowledge and power through language, and discursive practices are those institutional formations(or epistemes) within which meanings of and between contradictory discourses are constructed” (144)
Again, at the beginning of the article trying to set up what she is going to be talking about through out the whole article.	“In this article I am concerned with how that construction is accomplished and how it contributes to the way USAmericans think about nonhuman animals confined on factory farms.” (144)
Trying to make us get emotional about the Hens so we are emotionally reading the article to become more involved in the article.	“Hens also suffer immensely so that farmers can extract from them as many eggs as possible.” (148)
Just like in any other business the bottom line is profit, but farmers should care more for their animals.	“For the factory farm, as in other corporations, the bottom line is profit.” (149)
We are in an age of technology and that anything can change because of technology.	“Fox reminds us that we are in an age of cloning and of technology that can radically change the way we relate to the environment and other animals.” (151)

QD 1

The environment is also a product of our social institutions.  They are making livestock living conditions look ok when they are really not.  They are making it look as if farmers treat their animals with respect and make sure they are treated well.  Society is buying into something that is not really there.

Thoughts

I liked this article because it was about something that we haven't read about yet.  It was talking about real issues. It mostly related to Baron's article about technology.  I really enjoyed Barons article and I think that's why i liked this one so much.  It was really a great article and she made some great points.

 Pollan

Summary
In Pollan's article, "Farmer in Chief", he writes a letter to the President.  In the letter he talks about the the American food system.  He talks about how things need to change and he talks about how it effects everyone.  He also gives examples how how to fix the problem.

Synthesis
Pollan's article strongly relates to Glenn's article in the sense that he is talking about the food system and that Glenn's is talking about livestock and the food we get out of our livestock.  This could also relate to Baron's in talking about technology and how things need to change and they will always be changing.  

Response	Quotation
I like this quote because it just shows how bad Americans health really is and how something needs to change.	“You cannot expect to reform the health care system, much less expand coverage, without confronting the public health catastrophe that is the modern-American diet.”
I found this quote to be very interesting.  I never really thought about how much fuel we use to make food.	"After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy - 19 percent."
This is so true, we need to make American consume healthier things because this is about all that America is eating right now.	“The era of cheap oil-based food is drawing to a close.”
We need to start with the younger generation so that when they get to be old enough they can also help to make the change.	"Changing the food culture must begin with our children, and it must begin in the schools."
This quote just shows that reforming the food industry is not going to be an easy thing to do.	“Reforming the food system is not inherently a right-or-left issue.”

Thoughts
I really liked this article.  I like that Pollan decided to write to Obama.  I agree completely with Pollan.  I think a change does need to be made in America.