Noah Chan > Recent Status Updates

I am done but had to mark as reading to update.
I was not a fan of the multiple chapters focusing on South Central. They added context, but I thought they were unneccesary. The author probably added these for context and so that we could learn about the area.

I often disagree with Little, the AP English teacher. She creates huge arguments out of minor disagreements. The reason for this may be because a man she loved left her for no reason, and she has been scarred by it, and can't trust anyone. However, it's still stupid and immature. This also may be because she is one of the only white people in a black school, but much less so.

Unspoken rules heavily impart our sense of belonging in a group. Sadi, a character in the book, knows the rules of gangs but does not join them. He feels lonely because "the gangbangers on campus thought he had turned into an Urkle, a nerd' (Corwin 36). Since Sadi broke the unspoken rule of not working in school, he no longer fit in with them. This caused him to feel lonely and isolated.

I researched gang violence in LA this week. It helped me with context in the book, and to sympathize with the characters. It could also be a discussion topic.

I had a sticky note about Little, one of the English teachers. She seems kind of bipolar, because she can be an amazing teacher, but often goes into emotional rants, shouting things like, "This is insidious. I won't do it. ... I am a scholar. ... I will not be ordered around like this" (Corwin 30). I wonder if her rants will damage the students, or be good for them, or if she will ever develop a different personality

Very good so far.

NOTE: Pages are wrong compared to my copy. last page of afterword was page 276.

EDIT PLEASE READ THIS VERSION !!!!!!!! I think that my author mostly uses appeals, but also uses scare factors. This strengthens his argument considerably, because he uses statistics and examples well. The fear factor is also effective, because when the author says that "78.6% of ... ground beef contained microbes [from] fecal material" that is a large "AHH" factor (Schlosser 197).

I think that my author mostly uses appeals, but also uses scare factors. This strengthens his argument considerably, because he uses statistics and examples well. The fear factor is also effective, because when you hear "98% of ground beef has fecal bacteria in it," that is a large "AHH" factor.