Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109

EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Week 1: Writing workshop

Topic - Speaking English in HK

Many Hong Kongers always associate young English language-learners, who are practicing
their use of language on daily bases, with non-local students or ‘ABC’s (American Born
Chinese). They see speaking or massively making use of a foreign language in daily life as
an act of performing superiority; since they believe such act is showing off, Those Hong
Kongers usually respond with intense hatred towards such act of language application.
However, some teens actually fake accents to own that hollow of superiority, to gain
admirers and popularity. On the contrary, many youths aim to learn the pronunciations of a
language thoroughly by including a great amount of daily applications. For the truth is that
proficiency in English pronunciation not only enhances communication, it is often being
noticed by many and forms a personal impression during conversations. In this essay, then,
further discover the reason behind why people avoids or feels distant from English speakers
and what to pay attention to when speaking English as local Hong Kong students.

Portfolio: Exercise 2, page 29

Topic - Gender inequality at work place
If ever there was an idea custom-made for a Jay Leno monologue, this was it: public
believes that gender stereotypes at the workplace only exist in developing countries. Such
related issue do not take place in any modern regions, like Hong Kong. Isn’t that like
believing that French fries are only produced in France? Whatever happened to social
concern?
I happen to sympathize with these people living in their own imaginations - thinking the
developed cities are equal enough, though, perhaps because that was how the cities are
portrayed as.
In the Orient, women are considered as submissive and are still associated with domestic
matters, which men are totally not in-charge of. Take the examples of certain well-developed
areas in the East, Japan and Korea still have gender issues at work. In case you did not
notice, the higher positions in a Japanese company are most likely to be men; The Japan
Times pointed out that only 15% of leading positions in private companies are while the
target set by the government was 30%. Adding on, Korean women abandoned their career
due to childbirth or marriage. After abandoning their high positions, the management sector
of the company would have to scout suitable replacements. Other than that, women hardly
potentially seem capable This may reveal why women are less welcomed in running for
higher positions of companies or organizations.
Hong Kong could as well share certain gender-related issues that other Eastern regions
suffer. I say, the public should get to know more about the working situation, and how they
could change the stereotypical working culture to being inclusive and injecting diversity.
Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Portfolio: Exercise 2, page 67

Topic - Taking the challenge: Michael Grothaus on his smartphone-
free week
Michael suggested, as in “Taking the challenge: Michael Grothaus on his smartphone-free
week”, that even separating him and his phone for one week does not kill the phone
addiction he has. As quoted from his article, Nottingham Trent University found out thatit is
still possible American adults from 18 to 33, check their phones once per 10 minutes on
average; without realizing their routine-like behaviour. The situation is like a sticky one that
many could not keep their hands off from.
In the end of his article, Michael pointed out that the key of being less phone-attached is the
settings of boundaries and fine tuning the notifications. It highlights that smartphones,
especially those empowered with Internet connection, could drag their users into the eternal
dark hole of the mobile applications and social networking websites. There is hardly anyway
to escape, but it is still possible to take control of our own desires and how attached we want
to be with our smart gadgets.

^add personal elab

Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Week 2: Write for your profolio

Using at least 3 templates from Chapter 15, write a response to
Flannery O’Connor’s story (250-500 words)
O’Conner highlighted how Julian and his mother from “Everything that rises must
converge” attempt to protect their own definition of worldview and beliefs, yet the
protagonists were blinded and exempted each other into different worlds. Some might argue
that when it comes to the conflict between Julian and his mother over their self-entrapment
of their mental, fantasy world, our sympathies should lie with neither of the protagonists.
However, my own view is that one do not have to change along with the transformation of
the society. To accept diversity is exactly what Julian had desired, in terms of nationalities
and skin colour; the one thing Julian did not look into was to understand what his mother had
experienced and how she perceived the society in the 1950s. Therefore, Julian’s mother (as
Mrs. Chestney) was loyal to herself and what she believed. Whereas Julian blinded by his
own rejection towards his mother, had pushed his mother to and out of the margin of the
society.

The protagonists had their own “honours” to defend, yet the convergence took place too late,
ultimately leading to the tragic consequences that Julian had to carry. Julian looked down on
how his mother behaved ‘like a child’ on the integrated bus, and he wanted to ‘teach her a
lesson that would last her a while’. At this point, Julian apparently had a rather distant
relationship with his mother. According to Bryan N. Waytt, the short story suggests Mrs.
Chestney’s great grandfather’s mansion symbolizes the link between Julian and his mother’s
world and perspectives; the link was “decayed” in wreckage but Julian had “it remained in his
mind as his mother had known it”. I agree, but would add that Julian was still unwilling to
accept his mother’s values and manners until the very end.

Some might claim that the evidence of how Mrs. Chestney behaves suggested she had
isolated herself from the society they were living in, but I argue that, on the contrary, it
suggests how she had been raised and how she perceived herself as a Chestney. Julian’s
mother valued her family’s pride by speaking back to Julian of how ‘his great grandfather
had a plantation and two hundred slaves’; hence showing how ‘she knew who she was’ - a
descendent of her family line. Being the only lady to wear gloves and a hat to YMCA, she
showed loyalty and self-awareness to her identity. Unlike Julian, who only wanted to each
his mother a lesson, did not find his own position; resulted in having ‘mixed feelings’, like
‘half-whites’. The womanhood of Mrs. Chestney proved the beauty of persistence and the
determination of believing in how she was being raised.

The beliefs of Julian and his mother could not come to a convergence, leading to the
separation of their worlds: the living world and the world of dead. The irony was Julian
believing that the fact that the old world was gone would not jeopardize her, yet pushing his
mother by teaching her a lesson that has led to the end of his mother’s life. There was no
such need for him to change her, and in the end, he got what he wanted: ‘his entry into a
world of guilt and sorrow’.
Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Week 3: Write for your profolio

Choose a post from www.theysayiblog.com and write a response to
it, using the templates on pp. 72-75. It must be 250-500 words in
length.

Maurie Franke “From he to she in First Grade”

As the society develops into greater liberation of gender issues, children,

like that of Franke, has gained more opportunity in having their own
decision powers on what they prefer. The son of Franke first preferred
dressing in girls’ costume when they were playing puppet theatre at
home. Gradually his son became more self-aware and even suggested
wearing a fluffy pink skirt to the first day of school; and the courage of
this young child was demonstrated when he was fearless to face the
possible bullying from his schoolmates. Adding to Franke’s argument, I
would point out that this “openness” varies across countries. Although
Franke makes the best possible case for the liberation of parents’ minds
on their children’s gender decisions, I am not convinced.

Traditional conservativeness is real, and are arguably the most

significant factor in how parents are willing to accept their children as
they are. Franke is right that certain parents or families have very
liberated mindsets about gender issues, yet his assertion that Franke
wrote in a narrative way in terms of parenthood, describing how they, as
parents, came to accept their child as who he is. As an Asian youth, the
evidence shows that not many parents or more senior generations could
not come to the fact: their children might want to make decisions on their
genders. They tend to be more open-minded about gender issues
nowadays (yes, because of the liberation of Western countries); yet the
challenge is that this might take place in their own children, Accepting
others’ child is seemingly fine for them, however it is a big “no-no” for
their own children in their own case. (271 words)
Week 5: Write for your profolio
Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Choose a post from www.theysayiblog.com and write a response to

it, using the templates on pp. 95-99. It must be 250-500 words in
length.

Elpidorou, "The quiet alarm"

The general public used to think boredom is unnecessary. But recently Andreas
Elpidorou suggests that boredom is unpleasant but has a vital importance and value.
Elpidorou, throughout the passage, compares pain with boredom: he points out the
functions of pain has shown similarities with that of boredom. In other words, pain
and boredom, to him, are both kinds of warning: while the former tends to show an
alarm towards physical danger (for example, feeling burnt or getting a cold); the later
portrays expectation mismatch of expected stimulation and reality. Elpidorou also
quotes from the famous example of insensitivity Gibson: a man who could not feel
pain. He mentions that although Gibson does not feel pain, pain and danger still take
place, while the same is for boredom. Therefore, what Elpidorou pointed out is that
pain acts as an indicator that there is a need for change before one realizes it is too
late; the same applies for boredom.

But who really cares? Who besides me and a handful recent researchers has a
stake in these claims? At the very least, the researchers who formerly believed that
humans should care. As we all know, boredom is never something like a nice
chocolate sundae; it is, indeed, boring as listening to the same lecture over and over
again. It is as mundane as putting on toothpaste caps in a factory eternally. Here,
boredom suggests that humans need to make a change, as boredom alarms us that
what we want do not exist in our activities. The activity taking place is not stimulating
or meeting our expectations. Ultimately, what is at stake here is our unfulfilled desire.
And genuinely, one would lose motivation in commiting to a certain activity.
Therefore, before being completely sucked into the blackhole of dissatisfactory, we
need to seek for more stimulating activities and re-enlighten the passion to persuit
goals. (311 words)
Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Week 6: Write for your profolio

Write a 250-500 word piece in which you summarise another
writer’s article, one that you disagree with, and then argue your
own case (about 50/50 in terms of words) Be sure to use some
of the signal verbs on pp 39-40

Elpidorou, "The quiet alarm"

The general public agree that boredom is unnecessary. But recently
Andreas Elpidorou argues that boredom is unpleasant but has a vital
importance and value. Elpidorou, throughout the passage, compares
pain with boredom: he claims the functions of pain has shown similarities
with that of boredom. In other words, pain and boredom, to him, are
both kinds of warning: while the former reaffirm an alarm towards
physical danger (for example, feeling burnt or getting a cold); the later
emphasize expectation mismatch of expected stimulation and reality.
Elpidorou also quotes from the famous example of insensitivity Gibson: a
man who could not feel pain. He celebrates the fact that although
Gibson does not feel pain, pain and danger still take place, while the
same is for boredom. Therefore, what Elpidorou suggests is that pain
acts as an indicator that there is a need for change before one realizes it
is too late; the same applies for boredom.

Although Elpidorou advocates the importance of boredom as a

functional indicator, I deplore the tendency to agree with him that
boredom has taken up such importance in one’s daily life. Boredom is
not the only indicator to verify the work stimulation, but work efficiency
and the quality of the outcome could also acknowledge the degree of
work stimulation. For example, if the work progress is slow and gradually
lowers the production rate, the efficiency is to be questioned. And low
efficiency could clearly reflect the low stimulation in work. Vice versa for
the quality of the working outcome. Many people assume that boredom
is still the root cause towards low work stimulation, yet self-motivation
level also indicates so. Lacking self-motivation, especially at moments of
feeling lost or uncertain, could lead to low work stimulation - depicts a
Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

kind of unwillingness towards making progress. Therefore, motivation

level refutes the importance of boredom, which appeared as the only
indicator as in “The Quiet Alarm”.

(Word count: 316)

Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

Week 10: “The Art of Metacommentary”

Response to “Are your food facts really food myths?”

Have you ever read any food labels on your food products from your
supermarket? Marion Renault raised readers’ awareness on the communication
between scientists and consumers; as well as the struggle of scientists to convey
their messages apart from using table and charts. In other words, a
misunderstanding over how people think about what the scientists are working on -
on a narrower scope, general public accusing the food scientists on having additives
added into their food products. Many find the abstract technical terms to be “reader-
unfriendly”, hence provoking the debates over how “poorly-presented” scientists are.
On the contrary, I believe that the food scientists are not marketing experts nor
advertising specialist; hence they should not be in-charge of presenting for
themselves. This is not to say that the scientists should be trained to be the best
presenters of the food products, but rather they should not be given the burden from
the society’s pressure and cliche issues.

Scientists have always been used to handling graphs and data, yet making
them demonstrate their point of view with simpler and more general words is asking
rather too much from the fellow scientists. As quoted from Kelly Elisar, “these
students are very technical and science-oriented.” This might relate to stereotypical
impressions since some science students could have proficient delivery skills; yet as
Elisar mentioned, many of them do not. When society has to force them into
speaking both the languages of emotions and numerical tables and graphs, it would
be a great challenge for the fellow budding scientists to diverse their focus and
attention to sub-learning. Although some readers may object that there would be no
purpose if no one understands what the scientists mean, I would answer that the
basic need to demonstrate their ideas is compulsory. The scientists do not need to
drill deep and illustrate complicated theories, but “making people as though they
already know what they want them to know”. However, the scientists should not be
shaped into marketing students as well since their mindsets might be restrained by
those business concepts afterwards thus gradually eliminating their creativity.

In short, scientists do not bear the responsibility to explain those technical

Wong Kwan Ting Naomi 54780109
EN2720 Persuasive Writing

concepts conversationally to the general public or the customers. Perhaps as

mentioned by Annie Specht, the scientists should “put their research into the hands
of someone else and trust them to know what they’re doing”.

(367 words)
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170208/are-your-food-facts-really-food-myths