Dieting: A Waist Is a Terrible Thing to Mind.

I found this article very interesting to discuss because it is about dieting. This article will be the reference to people who want to practice diet. This article covers a wide range of current issues relating to the phenomenon of weight control. Generally, people who are overweight do not really consider the component of foods. Nowadays there are too many foods that contain dangerous ingredient such as chemical, cholesterol and others that can seriously affect their health. It proves that people should take extra precaution when eating. This is why, when the overweight decide to perform a diet, they should consider the effect of dieting before proceeding.

The writer, Seligman informs the audience about the negative side of available weight loss programs. He does not only inform but also provides an extended warning to readers that they should not easily believe the claims made by commercially driven product providers. Nowadays there are loads of weights loss products that are very dangerous. Those who want to practice the dieting program should have expert’s advice. The overweight always shows a lack of willpower, they tend to lack of confidence and self-esteem. To overcome this problem, they will try to reduce their weight by practice the diet, exercise and consume diet pills. It might show a little bit of positive effects but in the long term they might faced a problem

From the article, it stated that negative effects arise from uncontrolled dieting program are such as bulimia and anorexia. Dieting also can lead to depression. The outcomes of depressions are failure and helplessness. It is because when someone who overweight fails to reduce their weight, they will feel so stress and it can lead to depression. They think that their effort on reducing weight is waste of time and money.


I have learned a lot of things from this article. Those without any weight problems should be very thankful because your weight is ideal to maintain. To avoid from becoming overweight, we should control our eating habits. Perform plenty of exercises and try to maintain a healthy and balanced meal in our daily diet. I also have learned that we should avoid from taking any dieting pills and product as these things are not only life-threatening, but it is such a waste of money.

ThE iNvASioN oF thE Bay SNaTcHeRs

Invasion of the Baby Snatchers

TOPIC:

The article focuses on the missing children and child abductions however, it does not stop on that matter, in fact, it also focuses on irresponsible adult who have neglected and abandoned their children. This article, emphasizing on the matter where media only riveting on the missing children or news that are headline worthy but they failed to report children who lacked of love and attention by their parent.


CONTENT:

The article is led off with stories of child abductions, the murder of Danielle Van Dam in San Diego, California to named a few. The writer concludes the statistic of these cases and precedes asking on why such crime occurs and how safe are the children of today’s generation? Aside from that, the writer stated that, media attention do not cover all of the sufferings of children.


SOURCE:

The article comes from the ‘TIME’ on August 26, 2002 and it is written by Walter Kirn. This article has been posted on the ‘viewpoint’ section.

AUDIENCE:

The article is written generally for the public, especially for the parents as well as young teenagers so they are aware of the current issue and be prepared. Nevertheless, the article is also written to remind the media that there are other important cases of suffering children that should be taken seriously.


RHETORICAL FUNCTION:

The article is designed to inform the readers of the current issue that has widely occurred. Aside from that, the writer offers some brilliant advice to the public and warns the readers about the children who have gone missing without us even realizing it. Finally, the writer also explains on why children are so vulnerable to this kind of situation.


PURPOSE:

The article aims to enhance the reader’s knowledge on this crime which is severely increasing each day. On top of that, the article encourages the reader to be more attentive so better action or responses can be taken in the future to steer clear from unwanted tragedy to happened to their loved ones.


PERSPECTIVE:

The stance taken in this article is that the writer directly shows his negative perception of the media’s attention on the sufferings on children. He clearly stated that the focus is only to cases that are newsworthy. The writer’s point of view is absolutely accurate and can be widely accepted by the readers of all generation. To add, the writer’s criticism of adults who deserted the children and those who are involves in such crimes are spot on.


POSITIONING:

The article describes the writer’s encouragement towards the readers to be accommodating in decreasing the possibility of this crime to occur and the writer has perfectly use this article as a medium to deliver his message and information to the public about the centralized issue. The formal language and phrases used by the writer is clearly comprehended.


IMPACT:

The effect on the readers is expected to be effective as the writer’s message is successfully conveyed and readers are likely to take serious action toward this matter. Furthermore this article is predictable to raise and increase the public care and desire to protect the children of today’s generation.


VISUAL LITERACY:

The visual aspects of the text are significant due to the facts that it can easily draw the reader’s attention to read more on the article. The picture of the crime’s victims, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman is clearly posted to attract the readers by far apart from the bolded title.

Entry 1

On all the interesting topic to be covered in the Unit 2 is the Reading 2.1 “Battling the Bullies”. The article focused on a serious matter that is the bullying problems. This problem is very common as it occurs in most educational centre. The writer tells a true story about the bullying cases and the steps taken by the victim’s parents. In this article, the writer concludes some of the quotation by the experts on this matter and the experts suggestion on how to handle a traumatize children. The high authority of an educational centre should form a full cooperation with parents in order to prevent this matter from getting much more serious.


Entry 2

The most difficult topic to understand in unit 2 is Reading 2.2 “Language, Perspective, Ideology”. It is because the focus is more on the language that are appropriate to include in the newspaper articles. Apart from that, the reading also shows the differences between the two local foreign newspapers and it stressed on the choice of words used in the newspaper article. Even though the reading includes lots of example, the reading was still difficult to understand and might confuse the reader to search for the main point of the reading.


Entry 3

Battling the bullies is an article about the bullying problem occurs in the educational centre in Australia. The writer’s approach the reader by the interesting picture of the article and the experience that Mary Watson’s son has faced. The writer also tells on the steps that that the bully victim’s parent has take to handle the problem. Due to this, most of the teachers and parents of existing student in that particular school have become more aware on this bullying issue. Clearly, writer wanted to inform the seriousness this problem and the impact if no steps are taken to prevent this matter. Generally this article talks about the bullying problem occurs and the experience that was faced by the traumatize victim.

CRitiCaL LiTeRaCy

Entry 1

“Critical Literacy” is a subject known to all semester four of Diploma in English Communication (DeCOM) students. A compulsory subject that is needed to be taken in this particular semester is basically about giving our opinions and point of view based on newspaper article or any other literature materials. In my opinion, this is one the challenging subject for this semester due to think critically and be able to frame a text that is to frame around a piece of writing and recognize that is has been product in a particular context. There are ten elements that can be use to read the text critically. I had been given the task in Reading 1.1 on an article titled convicted killer back at work. So, I have to use all the elements for the text. First and foremost, the element that I learned is “topic”. I have to look at the picture and write down my opinion. Then, I have to “predict” what I am thinking about the article. The other elements are "content, source, audience, rhetorical function and purpose". This element is easy to me because I used it most of the time in my essay. So, it does not give me any difficultly to use this particular element. For other elements, there are "perspective, positioning, impact and visual literacy".


Entry 2

Reading 2.2 is Stories and Facts. It is basically focusing on the forms of factual writing like description, recount, and procedure in writing and to illustrate the link before form and purpose. From my point of view, “recount” means a type of story through communication and it is mostly from personal experience. After recounting, the procedure may draw to conclude and explain the event that has happened. Description on the other hand is to describe the particular features of people or events while report writing will focus on the function of the reports. Despite the difficulties in understanding the other terms such as genre, explanation and exposition, I am totally upbeat in learning the other chapters in order to deepen my knowledge.

Entry 3

I have learned about rules and regulation in reading 1.3. This chapter is realated to everyone and any other element in their daily life. Everywhere, no matter suburbs or urban, they have rules that we must abide. Rules and regulation are extremely important to our life because it allows and makes everyone disciplined. Rules usually created by a leader in a small parties while regulation created by the high authority. As stated by my dear lecturer Sir Ahmad Saruddin, “Rules aren’t meant to be broken, it is meant to assist”.