September 2020

In chapters 15 and 16, the author speaks about events that I believe can traumatize anyone. Its some what traumatizing to read those stories or to see the images.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s background structured her to want better for people; it allowed her to empathize with people. My background has structured me to want better for people as well. The lessons I learned weren’t about my background and how my family survived past struggles. My lessons were surviving the struggle of the present.

Those lessons taught me to be humble, to respect others, and to give back. I think the way the world is now, many people are in helpless situation waiting for help. The lessons I was taught reminded me no matter the authority someone has or doesn’t have, that person will always need help. No one is ever to boastful or prideful to be broken.

These lessons also taught me to empathize with people. Always remain helpful and if you want respect from someone give that person respect. Many people’s struggles are not your struggle. Many people’s struggles won’t define them, but will sculpt them into a different version of themselves.

In the “Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay” module, two concepts that I found interesting/ something that I didn’t know was that organic essays have a more arguable thesis. The second concept I found interesting was the logic to structure.

Learning about how organic essays have a thesis that is arguable, is something that I found interesting. Being accustomed to a thesis representing your points/subject of your essay with out it being argumentative. Most thesis of a formulaic essay are very clear and the information through-out the essay is very clear and not as broad as an organic essay.

The logic to structure concept is a concept that I knew had more concepts. The concepts like rank or spatial were two concepts that I didn’t know. The other two concepts chronological and general to specific were concepts that I would typically use or see in someone else’s essay. These two concept I will begin to use. I think these are important to a more effective essay.

In chapters 12-14 of What the Eyes Don’t See, the author speaks about stress and how stressed she is about the contaminated water that she rarely sleeps or eats. Her research was very important for not only her family but, her patients and the entire city of Flint.

Over the course, while doing my research for problems in my home-town, I ran into a similar problem as the author of this book. That problem is stressing about, whether or not I have gathered enough information or did I gather the correct information. Due to being unsure about my research, I have been stuck trying to figure out the right move that will make for a good essay. I have been trying to figure out, is the problem I want to address in my home-town a big enough problem? I respond to the problems I run into by re-evaluating my thinking, keeping an open-mind.

While in the book the author had support from her friends, colleagues, and family, I don’t have that support. While figuring out how to write about certain problems in my home-town, I don’t have the help or support that the author had.

During the rhetorical appeals module, the two things that I encountered were: STAR and kairos. While reading this module I was re-informed about: pathos, logos, and ethos. In learning more about these concepts, I learned that what can be seen as the fourth rhetorical appeal is kairos. In learning about kairos, I learned that it is about time and how we know when the right time is to state something and how stating it at a specific time makes the statement more affective.

While learning more about logos, I encountered the acronym STAR. Since logos is about appealing to the audience’s logical side, STAR focuses on being sufficient,typical,accurate, and relevant. I think when writing any paper or essay this can be helpful.

In applying these concepts outside of class, I think applying STAR is something that I would have to learn to work in to other essays and papers. The kairos concept is something,I think, most people already do, including myself. Knowing the correct placing of a statement or when to say it can make a paper better and can help in life.

While reading chapters 9-11 of What the Eyes Don’t See the similarities I would say that I see between my home state and flint is rarely focusing on problems in minorities. In chapter 9 the author mentions a lot about ,the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, how certain events hurt the entire city of Flint, but in particular minority families. The author mention the sit-down strike and how workers refused to work for 44 days; she mentions Governor Frank Murphy as being “the first justice to ever use the word racism in a Supreme Court opinion. I believe that everywhere is racism, but in Mississippi it is suppressed and not fully resolved.

In chapters 9-11 the author goes over the history of Flint and she is surprised by her findings. Although, she is a doctor, she is not a scientist. I think many people find information outside of their jobs and to their surprise, its subject that are hurting their communities and families. In Horn Lake there was an issue, where there was E.coli in the water, the difference between Flint and Horn Lake is the Governor and city officials took proper precautions to maintain the safety of the community and they found a resolution to the problem with in a week.

I think through-out chapters 9-11, the information the author needed was established. I also think that the similarities with a lot of cities and important people in those cities is that, no one knows everything. The author being a doctor didn’t know that Lead was a relevant problem with more than just being in an older house; she could have never guessed that lead would be present in the water system. Along with the situation in D.C. no one knows about the history of the city or state until something drastic occurs and forces them to take certain measures.

While learning through this module the things that two things that I take from this and will apply to other classes or to essays is The language of Analytic Assignments and Overcoming Barriers to Analysis. These two concepts were important to me because it’s something I never considered with analyzing a story or article. I found the overcoming barrier to analysis to be more helpful. I think when analyzing it’s easy to allow your views and your own experience to influence how you perceive a situation. Going into analyzing with an open-mind is the best possible way to receive a new understanding. With the language of analytic assignments I found it important to know the questions such as: How something works, what something means, why is something important, and how the parts relate to the whole. This made me realize it’s important to classify problems to identify the appropriate algorithms, recognize flaws and inconsistencies in a opinion editorial, and separate relevant from irrelevant information. This information is very helpful and is some information I’ll use in other classes.

The Rhetorical Reading Module taught me that everything we do or read has a purpose. This lesson teaches how to establish a new vocabulary and also teaches on active reading strategies; These are two important things that I will use in other classes and outside of classes.

These two concepts I encountered were two things I knew were helpful if I used them. I would use them, but then stop. I have started to use these strategies again, as they are more helpful in college than they were in high school. The active reading strategies talks about doing things to grasp a better understanding of your reading. One of the strategies I find most helpful is to not bite off more than I can chew. I found this one most helpful and will use it in all of my classes because, I tend to overwhelm myself with trying to finish everything in one setting. The other strategy I would use is the reading process loop just so I  know that I’m retaining the information I need. I’m also going to start a personal lexicon for my vocabulary. I will apply these strategies to majority of my classes, with these strategies I will have to change my way of thinking.

The evaluating sources lesson taught me a lot that I wasn’t aware of. It also referenced some things that I had known. The lesson touched on things like print sources also being available as online sources. It mentioned things that I thought were more important to journalism and not writing an essay. Things that I thought were important to journalism include: date of publication, date of copyright, whether or not the writer was biased,etc. After this lesson two important concepts that I learned about was C.R.A.A.P. and the way it is used with the different types of sources; I also learned about was how different sources are more trustworthy. I don’t think all sources are reliable and living in the world today I thought online sources are very reliable and are able to get information a lot quicker than a newspaper. I learned that a printed sources doesn’t exclude online articles because they can be printed at a later time. Applying the concepts I learned outside of our class, I think will be challenging. Not many times will I have to cite my work, but it does give the information I would use more credibility. The lessons also taught me when a source could be reliable or when to trust someones opinion about a certain topic. I was taught that it was more to writing than just having informative statements.

What the Eyes Don’t See is a very intellectual and informative book, not only about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, but also about the author, Mona Hanna-Attisha, life.

In the first chapters of this book it is an introduction to the struggles that Hanna-Attisha and her family faced, while in Iraq and moving to America. I believe that this strongly impacted her and gave her some type of motivation when it came to the crisis in Flint and D.C.. The author had a lot of support from family and friends as this epidemic was exposed to her and the residents of Flint. From the support and help of her mother to the help of her friend Elin.

As you read chapters 5-8 the topic gets more relatable. Although the epidemic isn’t the same, it is similar to what the world is going through now with a pandemic. The situations aren’t to far apart from each other. Many lives being taken, many people being harmed and what is seems like many people not caring. Through chapters 5 – 8 she tells about learning new information about the crisis and no one trying to find a solution to the problem, in comparison to the pandemic we are in now, we learn new information weekly or even monthly, but there is still no solution to the problem. There has only been minor fixes or small solutions such as-for Flint drinking out of water bottles-for the world mask, gloves, and stressing the importance of hand hygiene.

The way things are for Flint and it being an ongoing problem to this day is saddening, it’s even more saddening to think that the people who can make a change aren’t or they are unable to make that change.

“What one man can do is dream. What one man can do is love. What one man can do is change the world.”  -John Denver.