Attention Please!

The basis for my research was illness on disorder of ADHD and the different causes that have been recognized. The causes of ADHD are unknown and there are only research and potential causes that cause people to have ADHD. Some believe that ADHD stems from the genes that have evolved differently for some humans. The difference in this evolution is seen to some scientists as a just different way of living, such as a faster reaction time and a difference in attention span. In order to try to figure out which gene or genes is the source of ADHD, scientists have started to research gene mapping among twins to look for genes that have a 50% similarity rate. The genes that have this much of a similarity are marked as a risk gene and are further studied.

The first article looks at how it chooses who to affect. It compares two different studies on ADHD. One being the characteristics the child carries up until the age of seven years old and the other being that ADHD is “biologically based.” The second article I looked at considers, perhaps the different subtypes of ADHD and the onsets of the of these subtypes. One of these subtypes are more dominant and common among young males. This subtype is a combination of both the subtypes, the hyperactive and impulsive as well as the inattentive subtype. The subtype that is most common in young women is the hyperactive-impulsive subtype. The third article looks at the abnormalities in the brain, such as the amount of tissue in certain parts of the brain and the density of gray matter within the brain. Children with ADHD, have a lower amount of tissue in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Along with the lower amount of tissue, the density of gray matter within the back cortex of the brain also was much greater in the children who have ADHD. The areas in which these abnormalities are all common in are responsible for the controlling of behavior. One study showed that the difference of the groups of the brain and its regions and the ability to retain the information and the ability, or lack thereof, to maintain attention.

Annotated Bibliography

Brown, Kathryn. “New Attention to ADHD Genes”. Science 301.5630 (2003): 160–161. Web.

This article written by Kathryn Brown is based on information found about the roots of ADHD and how it chooses who to affect. Starting in the 1980s, doctors have defined ADHD by characteristics that a child must have before he/she is 7 years old. These characteristics include being severely inattentive and hyperactive or impulsive. New studies that have been conducted have shown that ADHD is “biologically based” and some scientists that the neurotransmitter, dopamine, has something to do with this mental disorder. Robert Moyzis, from the university of California stated that the DRD4 gene “seems to have been selected for in human evolution, suggesting that it supported an adaptive trait”. He also states that kids with the gene “may have inherited faster reaction times or different attention spans”. He does not believe this is a disorder, rather a change in the way these children, as well as some adults, have evolved. In order to find the genes that are responsible for ADHD, more scientists are conducting scans between a set of twins, and any gene that has over a 50% similarity rate, is marked as a risk factor. Kathryn Brown has a degree of psychology and journalism from the University of Missouri and is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine.

Aguiar, Andréa, Paul A. Eubig, and Susan L. Schantz. “Attention Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder: A Focused Overview for Children’s Environmental Health Researchers”. Environmental Health Perspectives 118.12 (2010): 1646–1653. Web.

This article takes a look at the effects of the environment on children who have ADHD. The authors define ADHD as “impulsivity and inattention, has an onset in early school age, and can persist into adulthood”. The article also defines all of the three types of ADHD, which include predominantly inattentive type, when the patient has six items selected from the inattentive-disorganized dimension, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type, which is when six items are selected from the hyperactive-impulsive dimension, and a combined type, when is when six items are selected from both categories. Of these sub-types, the predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type is most common in girls and the combined type is most common in boys. Andrea Aguiar is a research assistant of comparative bio-sciences and assistant director of children’s environmental health research center at Illinois, Beckman Institute. Paul Eubig has a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame, D.V.M. from the University of Georgia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Susan L. Schantz is a professor of veterinary bio-sciences and psychology, who studied at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her research includes the effects of poly-chlorinated biphenyls and methyl-mercury and how they affect the development and aging, regards to the nervous system.

Bruce Bower. “Adhd’s Brain Trail”. Science News 164.22 (2003): 339–339. Web.

This article talks about the different abnormalities of the brain and how they seem to lead to more children with ADHD. Studies have now shown that there is less tissue in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain in people with ADHD as compared to the people who do not have ADHD. There was also excessive density of gray matter, which is a neural tissue in the brain, in the cortex, the outer layer, in the back of the brain. The area in which these all of these abnormalities seem to lead back to are responsible for the regulation of attention and the controlling of behavior. In a study conducted, it was shown that there is a difference in the groups of brain regions that were implicated in the ability to retain information and the keep up attention. Bruce Bower had a degree of psychology from Pepperdine University and writes about psychology, anthropology, archaeology, and mental health issues for the Science magazine since 1984.

Mind Apocalypse

Zombies are not as dead as they are thought to be by definition. They are slowly on the rise in our modern day lives over the past several years Studies show, “Roughly 5.3 million people watched the first episode of “The Walking Dead on AMC…” Zombies are millions of followers friends as well as millions of anti-monsters laughs. I classify myself as one that gets full laughter out of the growing brain dead market.  I believe the series is very creative but just don’t quite understand why people spend so much time with something that’s so unreal. I know of several heavy zombie lovers that have found their selves getting emotional during some episodes of “The Walking Dead.” Zombies are seen as creatures of no communication or purpose, but to only eat the flesh of humans. The symbolic relationship between them and us, is fear. Chuck Klosterman said, “From a creative standpoint these fear projections are narrative linchpins; they turn creatures into ideas, and that’s the point.” He is saying that a lot of today’s people live life exactly like killing zombies. Your fears of of anything in life will always come back and follow you around wanting to eat through you.

You have to kill these fears at point blank range and keep killing them until you survive or run out of fears left in you. Little did a lot of people know that the whole monster thing is a cycle, just like mostly anything in today’s modern lives. It was vampires but now the people wanted a little more to relate to, so they now have zombies.

Work Cited:

Klosterman, Chuck. “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Dec. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Finding Himself

Rob has gone through a lot in his life, from family difficulties to rough times with friends. One thing that usually stays stable for him is school. Education is Rob’s happy place where he is able to find himself, relax, and forget about all the bad things. Until, Rob has to pick between some of the top Ivy League schools in the country. He starts to go through a rough time with the one thing that gets him up in the mornings. He wants to do whats right for his mother, Jackie, as well as for himself and his own education. He doesn’t want to put a bigger debt on his mother. Rob also wants to take advantage of the Ivy schools wanting him. This all then leads Rob to question what he wants to study. Rob murmured to Victor, “I don’t know what I want to do.” (112) He later on told Victor that he wished he wasn’t as smart as he was. He thinks by him being so smart is leaving him with these hard decisions with school. Rob in a way wishes that his horizon was a little less narrower, where it would be easier to navigate. All in all, Rob is part of a lucky few and could take his potential to new levels by doing any of his possible options.

Suitcase

I come from a small town, smaller than Hickory. The community of Stanfield has its own make-up. Most people are described as unintelligent, respectful, church going, orthodox farmers. My family, amongst of a few others, were not held in that same category. My sister and I both graduated ahead of most in high school and my parents both were well educated with higher medium-class paying jobs. We were a respected family in our community and respected all others, no matter where you came from. Grew up as Christians, but wasn’t able to go every Sunday, like most. My sister and I were both the athletes in the family with some type of ball scheduled for most weekends. As a family we were not orthodox to most. We weren’t the traditional farmers. I see my family through Jim Miller saying, “But you don’t have to live in the past, you can’t even if you try. You don’t have to talk old-fashioned, dress old-fashioned.” One of the biggest milestones, in my personal life, was going to college. It’s a step in the life that polishes off the shaping of yourself as well as your family and friends. It is tough being away from the people that form you into what you’re today. College is a chance for you to start a new chapter in your life and take along with you some of the past pages. College wasn’t as much of a peer shock to me as much as the living on my own aspect. I basically have two families; one being baseball and the other being blood. Same goes for Lenoir-Rhyne, where I now have a bigger baseball family along with my family back home. I just don’t get to see my family back home as much. At the beginning I felt as the Brier Sermon states, “I was living in somebody else’s house. I kept stepping out somebody else’s door and the roads I traveled kept winding, twisting, had no beginning, had no end.” As I’ve moving forward, I have been setting new goals with academics and sports. I am beginning to find myself in college and group myself and the right friends.

Everyone has something in their life that they regret, rather it be something you did or something you were born with. There are some things in my life that I would like to continue to take along with me, as well as, some that I won’t to do away with and hope it makes me a better person. Jim Miller repeats the phrase, “You must be born again,” throughout his sermon. I feel as if this quote doesn’t only mean spiritually, but also can be
used for any trait in life. In my case, I want to leave behind my laziness, when it comes to school, because that will only get you through high school. I want to take along with me my respectful and generous traits, because that shows the person you are as well as the person you will be remembered as. When it comes to baseball, I wish to pack up and take my hard working attitude. If I do the best of my ability in school, I feel like baseball can take me the rest of the way if I work hard each and every day. I hope to take along with me, and keep forever, the experiences I have had with my family. The ones that will last forever like holidays, adventures, and even all the pictures we’ve saved.

Jim Miller states, “I know it’s hard to turn loose of that old self, that confused self.” Sometimes in life you have to break away from things that you may not need anymore. Most times you will spend a huge duration in your life trying to find your comfort zone with yourself. I, on the other hand, believe how George Shaw says it, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” You have to create the person you want to be by making the right decisions to lead you to that. My family has set a solid brick foundation for me to only build on for the rest of my life. “You don’t have to ridge-to-ridge… You can think ocean-to-ocean.” This sermon taught me how to really go out and see more in life. It’s helped make transitions easier to endure.

Writing Through Your Mind

In Matt Richtel’s New York Times article on information technology in the classroom, he states: “The term paper has been falling from favor for some time,” and “…the bulk of writing assignments were for papers of one to five pages.” He reports on the drilling of the “correct format” of the paper by forcing students to make a point and defend it through however many pages it takes. Professor Andrea Lunsford, at Stanford University, constantly instructs good format, but the new blogging could be putting a strain on that. Richtel’s article focused on the challenges of high school and college students with low inspiration and a lot of procrastination.

Most students today say that they prefer blogging over any other kinds of writing assignments, such as term papers or just putting their pencil to a paper. I cannot speak for all but I can most definitely speak for myself. I can put a lot more passion with the new blogging that has been introduced to me. If I’m going to take my time to sculpt a masterpiece, I want it to be for a bigger audience and for them to interact by critiquing. It makes myself feel like I am rather then producing a masterpiece that can be rewarding as I can constantly take in others thoughts and edit. I believe that writing is a tedious task and called outdated by technology. For the relationship of student vs professors, it is a personal level. You find that hand writing to your professor is only seen by your professor, unlike blogs, where they are seen by any blogging guru. This leaves some students to say that they don’t particularly like blogging. Others often say that when it comes to writing, it was designed for pencil and paper, which means little to no technology involved.

Although some professors disagree with Davidson’s use of blogs, stating that they prefer blogging over other kinds of writing assignments. Mr. Fitzhugh says of Professor Davidson, “Writing is being murdered. But the solution isn’t blogs, the solution is more reading. We don’t pay taxes so kids can talk about themselves and their home lives.” His point says that we don’t teach kids like me to basically not come to school and to sit at home with our technology in our laps. Other professors see it as a growing transformation because it’s the way we will live and work someday. For the grader, I could see it being more user friendly for grading and catching little mistakes like grammar.

One student almost got kicked out of a writing program for thinking low of a five-paragraph essay. Davidson said, “I’m not against discipline. I’m not sure that writing a five-paragraph essay is discipline so much as standardization. She now tutors in the writing department at a community college. One of her college students was given a paper with “prescribed sentence length and structure.” “I urged him to follow all the rules,” she says. “If he’d done it my way, I don’t know he’d have passed the class. “The sad thing is, he’s now convinced there is brilliance in the art world, brilliance in the multimedia world, brilliance in the music world and that writing is boring,” Professor Davidson says. “I hated teaching him bad writing.” This goes to show that not all professor see writing the same way. Some carry different writing concepts and stick to them even if the other is better.

I agree with the last student mentioned. If I am taught proper generic writing tools, then writing would mean a lot more to me. Here, in the first several weeks of English 101, I have been taught more about writing then the last nineteen years of my life. I do not prefer writing (as in pencil and paper) more than the term “blogging.” I can stand behind this, only because, I love computers. Blogging and typing my work out makes it easier for me. Makes things more interesting and relatively fun. Like Shelley Wright says, “I love writing essays. There’s something satisfying about rendering the chaos of thoughts into an elegant form. But I love blogging more. It feels like playing.” I feel as if blogging is a faster and easier way to teach “illiterate” kids quickly and proficiently. I feel like my response matters just like I feel every student in a writing classes response matters. We are the ones doing the most writing and nevertheless, ours gets graded!

Works Cited

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.

Wright, Sheller. “Blogging Is the New Persuasive Essay.” N.p., 5 July 2012. Web.

i know the grandmother one had hands

Jaki Shelton Green is a sneaky poet by the way she writes. The grammar she used raised a lot of attention in our class. She uses little to no punctuation and has zero capitalization. This could mean that she is not trying to draw attention to her, by saying “I,” but too make us readers focus on her grandmother. She raised several questions in her work, such as, the way she laid her piece out. She put it in two similar columns with what meaning? Another would be the title of the poem. The title is not capitalized either which I guess just show you how she will end up writing, who knows. Three things that I took from her writing that will be useful to me is the way she planned more then she actual wrote. Another would be as a writer you always want to keep the reader or his or her toes and leave questions unanswered. Finally, finding a structure to your writing that might answer questions without the reader even knowing.

“Green is a poet who thinks a lot about hands. She works a lot with non-traditional writers — “the other folk, the other writers,” she said. She often works with women on death row, and hands are an image she has them use to tell their stories and get into their memories, like the last time they brushed a daughter’s hair years before.”