I chose racism and internet. I chose these two topics because I am interested in them and I want to learn more about them. These topics were the ones that stood out to me while skimming through the list of given topics. I think I will do a good job writing about racism and the internet and how it affects society and people.

1. The country’s cause of death for 16-year-old teenagers is driving. Quindlen wants to postpone the age to about two more years (18). Statistics suggest that 13-year-olds are too young as well as 16-year-olds. The drinking age increased to 21 and has saved thousands of lives. Also not using seat belts and airbags could have been the other causes for deaths.

“In America some states have taken a tough-love position and bumped up the requirements for young drivers: longer permit periods, restrictions or bans on night driving. Since the greatest danger to a teenage driver is another teenager in the car—the chance of having an accident doubles with two teenage passengers and skyrockets with three or more—some new rules forbid novice drivers from transporting their peers.”

“Yet in early January three students leaving school in Freehold Township died in a horrific accident in which the car’s 17-year-old driver was violating that regulation by carrying two friends.”

2. Quindlen uses pathos that gets attention.

“If someone told you that there was one behavior most likely to lead to the premature death of your kid, wouldn’t you do something about that?”

“The yearbook has a picture or two with a black border. ”

3. Quindlen is a writer for a magazine for Newsweek. She starts her statement with a concern paragraph saying she is worried about the teens.

4. Quindlen does a great job convincing parents but if it was directed towards teenagers then it wouldn’t work. She provides details and emotional passages that grabs the attention of readers.

 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004131132_myspaced18.html

Logos: The attorneys general from 49 states are in the move to prevent strangers  from contacting under-aged Myspace users, sexual predators, and inappropriate content. There will be better monitoring of content and age-verification software. “A 24 hour hotline and a 72 hour deadline to investigate complaints offer to comfort parents and law-enforcement officials who have long demanded the Internet to do a better job protecting underage users.”

Pathos: There was a teenage girl in Missouri who fell in love or “obsessed” with a “boy” which turned out to be a former friend’s mother. The girl killed herself because of the “boy.” There’s an article about it in seattletimes. This case shocked the heart of many parents.

Credibility : Attorney Generals, the government is taking action of social web sites. Parents read the articles because its about their kids, kids read them because its the news or homework.

Alex Horton, the author of the Sandbox is a military man in his 20’s who has signed up for the Iraq War. It describes his day to day actions and he makes jokes and plays around on his breaks. Like AQWF, he’s made friends with the other soldiers. They go through the same routines and have training in preparation for war. The soldiers may be called up at any time in the day or night for a QRF mission. He met a lot of people during the war and took pictures with them. He thinks of war as an adventure and dangerous at the same time. Its good and lucky that he’s still alive for three years in the war. He posted the picture where a helicopter was coming and showed their asses. Picture of a plastic Christmas tree, pictures with his friends and people whom he met during the war.

I chose the story with the traveler searching for treasure. I think a CYOA is much better than a traditional story because there can be a lot of different endings. I think a story is good if you can choose options that lead to one of the endings. A CYOA is fun to read and its best when its not too long because that can get the reader bored. It may be a children’s book but its interesting to see how the story will turn out. It gets a little annoying when you have to go back a few times when you failed to get something that you needed at a certain part of the story like the traveler one.

1. Coffins are made for the soldiers when they die.
2. The barrels on the guns are worn out so the shells fall into their own trenches.
3. The soldiers remove blades from their bayonets because the enemies will kill them immediately if caught using it.
4. A new recruit tries to leave but Kat and Paul came to beat him up to accept that he needs to stay here and fight and listen to his superiors.
5. Himmelstoss was hiding in a dugout pretending to be injured.
6. Himmelstoss gives food and easy jobs for the new and young recruits.
7. They find women while they were swimming. They decide to go visit them at their house on the other side. At night they swam across the canal.
8. Paul arrives home and sees his sister and his mom sick. His mom tells him that there are potato cakes and whortleberries and he knows they probably bought them when they went cheap. His father annoys him with questions but his mom doesn’t ask a lot.
9. Paul finds out that their old schoolmaster; Kantorek has been enlisted to be a wannabe soldier to march around the town with a gun. His friend, Mittelstaedt tries to embarrass him everytime when he gets the chances.
10. Paul visits Kemmerich’s mother to tell her the news of her son’s death. She is determined to find out how her son died, calling Paul out on his lies that he died quickly with little pain and suffering.