Adept Writers

Smoking on University Campus
Young students who are currently studying in American colleges are an asset to the nation. They are the future leaders and therefore it is in the nation’s interest for campuses to encourage healthy habits as they impart curiosity and intellectual discipline. The health status of the mind and the body influence each other. Smoking of ci******es poses the biggest danger to the health of those enrolled in college campuses. Studies have shown that a quarter of college students smoke to***co, more than half of them doing it daily. Despite decline in the number cigarette smokers, 18% of college students were current smokers in 2008 (Carla, et al., 2011). There has been a decline in smoking rates amongst the general population in the past decade; however, surveys of college freshmen and high school seniors indicate that smoking has hardly decreased among this age group.
Smoking does not only pose health risk to the smoker, several studies have shown that it also put non-smokers at a great risk of illness due to exposure to second-hand smoke. The dangers of second-hand smoke have become common and agencies such as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have responded with urgency to protect everyone from the dangers posed by second-hand smokes. For example, EPA recently issued guidelines that recommended banning of smoking in public areas and improved ventilation to ensure that people are protected from the effects of smoke from other.
Recent studies have indicated that there is danger of smoking to both smokers and non-smokers and this has brought a new urgency to this matter. An individual can drink alone and eat alone in an enclosed area but he or she can’t smoke alone. A growing body of research has presented evidence showing that smoking does not only pose a significant health risk to smokers but is also harmful to the health of people who don’t smoke. It is estimated that about 3000 lung cancer deaths yearly can be attributed to environmental to***co smoke in the U. S. (CDC, 2004). Furthermore passive smoking has silent and significant effects on the respiratory health status of adults, phlegm production and coughing, reduced lung function and chest pains.
Generally most Americans who smoke begin the habit during their early twenties and teen. A person who reaches the age of 25 and does not smoke is likely never to smoke or use smokeless to***co substances. Therefore college students are always vulnerable when they are put in a stressful social and academic environment. The college years are always the initial taste of freedom away from supervision of parents for many of them. Smoking habits can be adopted earlier but many campus students make part of the last important age group where people begin smoking and become hooked to ni****ne (Dong-Chul et al, 2011).
To***co smoking should not be allowed on college campuses (Michael et al., 2013). In today’s world, the human race is rapidly progressing on various fronts. Yet new problems arise every day, one of which is whether students should be allowed to smoke on campus. This is an issue that has drawn a lot of attention and debate. Some people argue that smoking is an individual right so they should be allowed to smoke on campus while many are of the opinion that smoking on campus is not only responsible for their health issues but also has influence on non-smokers and the environment. From my own perspective, smoking should not be allowed on college campuses. Some people reasonably argue that smoking on campus is not healthy for both the smoker and no-smoker (Georgia et al., 2008).
It is general knowledge that to***co smoking is detrimental to people’s health. Every year millions of people die from to***co related diseases such as heart diseases, lung cancer and stroke. There is a mixture of carbon monoxide and ni****ne in each cigarette which can increase blood pressure and heart rate leading to straining of blood vessels and your heart. Second hand smoke is equally unhealthy. Secondhand smoke is also referred to as environmental to***co smoke, passive smoke, and involuntary smoke. It is a combination of smoke produced by a burning to***co product (side stream smoke) and the smoke exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke). It can also lead to respiratory diseases, cancers and heart diseases. College student’s main task in campus is to seek knowledge and this can be ideally achieved in a good academic environment (Georgia et al., 2008). Exposure to secondhand smoke may cause non-smokers to feel sickened and some even develop allergic reactions. It is therefore severely harms non-smoker’s health and infringes on their rights and influence (Michael et al., 2013).
Academic institutions have the opportunity and responsibility to eradicate negative habits and encourage healthy lifestyle that can last. It is recommended that in order to ensure that every campus becomes smoke-free, the following should be done:
1. Ban smoking in all campus events and buildings.
2. Give assistance to those who want to quit smoking and ensure that the treatment is covered by the college health plan is available to those who relapse.
3. Prohibit the sale of to***co and it products on campus.
4. Prohibit distribution and advertising of to***co and its products on campus.
5. Prohibit the use of the school logo on smoking kits such ashtrays and cigarette lighters.
6. Together with students, create a nourishing culture and environment where smoking is viewed as unhealthy and unacceptable habit.
A smoke free college is necessary to help in protecting all students, staff and faculty from the dangers of smoking. A campus that is free of smoke is no longer an option but an obligation of colleges. Colleges all over the country are bringing smoking on campus to an end. Despite the number of to***co smokers standing at 46 million, there has been an increase in the number of colleges that have adopted smoke free policy in recent years. The success of the policies can be attributed to the numerous efforts made by campus employees and students. The policies have arisen typically because the faculty and students are questioning the impact of to***co in an educational setting and have decided to discourage exposure to and use of to***co (Carla, et al., 2011).
The popularity of smoke free campuses rose significantly in the early 2000’s. The colleges developed their own systems violations for any faculty member or student that failed to comply with the campus rules regulating smoking. Since the development in to***co free college policy, several schools have recorded success in their implementation of smoking guidelines (Borders et al., 2005).
However not everyone is in support of the smoking ban in colleges. They believe that enforcing policies on smoke-free environment is an infringement on the rights of people. Many people are however confident that no-smoking policies will continue to make positive progress. Since people became aware of the negative effects of smoking, the habit has become more socially unacceptable, the student on campus today is very health conscious and socially aware (Carla, et al., 2011). Many schools have enacted the ban because of the need to protect their students, employees, faculty and campus visitors from the risk of second-hand to***co smoke. The bans have made it more difficult for smokers to continue with the negative habit. A research conducted in Indiana University found that students who lived in smoke free campuses had a remarkable change in their attitudes regarding smoking and their smoking habits (Carla, et al., 2011). The positive changes can be attributed to rise in awareness on the policy and media coverage.
Those who argue against smoking ban in campuses claim that there are other fumes in campus that are potentially harmful such as fumes from diesel trucks. Therefore they argue that smoking wouldn’t really have any impact on the quality of air and the overall health. Some argue that smoking is not illegal and therefore students should be allowed to do it in other designated places on campus. They further state that smoking bans violate the smoker’s right and encourages stigma and discrimination against people who are addicted to to***co. They argue that instead implementing and enforcing smoking bans, colleges should focus more resources and effort in smoking cessation. On the other hand, proponents of smoking bans in campus argue that majority of college students don’t smoke and about two thirds of students would prefer to attend classes in campuses that are smoke free. Three quarters of students who smoke and those who don’t agree that it is okay for smoking to be prohibited in campus to keep second hand smoke away from both staff and students. It has also been shown that non-smokers are 40% less likely to smoke to***co if they reside in smoke free environments (Dong-Chul et al, 2011).
Conclusion
Despite the efforts made by the national campaign to reduce smoking, there are many factors which continue to influence the possibility of a person smoking in college campuses. To***co companies have directed their advertising and marketing towards minors. To***co companies are focusing on ensuring college students get promotional material. College students are their perfect targets. They are aged enough to buy ci******es while at the same time young enough to be easily vulnerable to advertisements promoting cool and fun lifestyle. Alternative newspapers and Magazines that are popular amongst college students are full of cigarette advertisements. In addition, feature films normally glamorize smoking making the entertainment industry guilty of encouraging the use of to***co
Millions of death will continue to be caused by smoking yearly making it an urgent need for us to save lives. There should be a unified approach against smoking. Colleges should find means of discouraging to***co use amongst students and try to encourage them to quit. What is the best method that can be used to encourage students to quit smoking? There should be a multi-faceted approach which should include high taxes, powerful anti-smoking advertisements, total ban on public smoking, increased access to rehabilitation services to help smokers quit (Georgia et al., 2008). Pharmaceutical treatment for those who are dependent on ni****ne should also be adapted. In campuses all buildings should be declared smoke-free, such measures will help to protect non-smokers from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and reduce the number of smokers (Dong-Chul et al, 2011). High cigarette taxes and anti-smoking campaigns are not enough to stop college students from smoking, but it is a step in the right direction.

References
Berg, C. J., Lessard, L., Parelkar, P.P., Thrasher, J., Kegler, M. C., Escoffery, C., Goldade, K. & Ahluwalia, J.S. (2011). College student reactions to smoking bans in public, on campus and at home. Advance Access Publication, 26(1), 106–118.
Chaaya M., Alameddine, M., Nakkash, R., Afifi, R.A. Khalil, J. & Nahhas, G. (2012). Students’ attitude and smoking behavior following the implementation of a university smoke-free policy: a cross-sectional study. BMJ.
Dong-Chul Seo, Jonathan T. Macy, Mohammad R. Torabi, Susan E. Middlestadt. (2011). The effect of a smoke-free campus policy on college students' smoking behaviors and attitudes. Preventive Medicine, (53), 347–352.
Georgia, N. L. Polacek, J., & Atkins, J. L. (2008). Smoking behavior, attitudes of second-hand smoke, and no-smoking policies on a university campus. The Health Educator, 40 (1).

Seserman, M., Sullivan, J.L. & Flury, M. (2013). To***co-free U: New Jersey colleges expel to***co. American Cancer Society.

Envisioning Disaster- Haiti Earthquake
A. The other general stories about the earthquake drew less emotion compared to Johan Lehrer’s articles because of the different ways they were reported. Whereas Johan Lehrer does not advocate for reporting of the full scope of the Haitian disaster, the other general reporters were giving large numbers that we could not comprehend making them less emotive. What makes Johan’s articles appealing to emotions is because they give us small or individual stories that we are able to relate to thus eliciting emotional reactions. These individual stories generated credibility to the huge sums of money that was being asked. On the other hand, the general stories were focusing on reporting the full scale of the disaster. For example, they were giving the number of those who died as hundreds of thousands, this large figure is not easy to comprehend because we have never witnessed something like this and, therefore, does not elicit as many emotions.
B. I think the photographs and individual stories about the earthquake enabled people to envision the magnitude of the disaster better. Pictures are a powerful communication tool as they take us to the place and enable us to view the situation as it is on the ground. For example, the story of Reggie Claude who was pulled from the rubbles by Belgian aid workers elicits more emotional reaction than just giving numbers i.e. reporting that thousands of people have been pulled out of collapsed buildings. The picture of collapsed buildings and Haitian children in the aftermath of the earthquake are more effective in helping us comprehend a disaster of this scale, one which we have never experienced before. The numbers were also quite effective in giving us the real picture. For example, when we are told that the death toll is has reached 50,000 we are able to easily envision that compared to when we are told that thousands of people are dead. Individual stories and picture of disasters like this one play an important role in making us comprehend situations that we have never witnessed making them the best for communication.
C. People try to find meaning in disasters as a way of coping with human loss. After the earthquake most Haitians believed that the earthquake was a wrath from God because of their sins. A good example is the story of the woman who had already lost one child and was being informed that her second son was dead too. She wailed “God I can’t take this anymore.” This shows that she was attributing the deaths of her children to God. A known televangelist, Pat Robertson also believed that the Haitian earthquake was as a result of the pact they had signed with the devil hundreds of years ago.
The world has a moral obligation to help Haitians because of the problems that face the country such as corruption, coups, revolts and oppression. The American government should also take action because it is partly to blame for Haitian problems after occupying and later neglecting it.
D. The author believed that the earthquake caused so much human and physical destruction because Haiti as a country had a lot of problems coupled with high levels of poverty, the earthquake, therefore, made the situation worse for the people since it disrupted their livelihoods. Physical damage was also high because the houses in Haiti were poorly built and could not withstand the earthquake leading to loss of lives. In the future, there should be preparedness for such disasters and the buildings should be made stronger.
Genetically modified foods
A. Genetic modification can be said to be the use of new biological engineering techniques to alter the genes of an organism such as an animal or a plant. Genetic modification is used because it is able to change the genes of an organism in ways that cannot be achieved through traditional breeding methods. For example, the New Leaf potato uses a gene from a bacterium that is occurs naturally in the soil to provide it with inbuilt protection against insects. The Monsanto New Leaf potato has the gene incorporated into it which gives it resistance against the Colorado potato beetle.
B. Europeans are so much concerned with genetically engineered food because of the impact they have on the environment. These genetically modified plants are likely to cause insecticides and viruses to develop resistance thus spelling doom to organic farmers. These crops can only be grown once (one generation) and are patented, this is a clear sign that genetically modified foods can spell the end to sustainable farming. American products are not clearly labeled because the biotech industry and Food and Drug Administration have conspired to cover up the issue and are not keen to ensure that those foods are labeled as inorganic.
C. I would prefer organically grown plants followed by plants grown using traditional farming methods with repeated application of insecticides and lastly genetically modified food. Organic farming is sustainable and the foods produced in this way are not only environmentally friendly but also healthy to consume. On the other hand, foods grown using traditional methods with application of pesticides are healthy to eat but the chemicals destroy the environment. Genetically modified foods, on the other hand, are a threat to food sustainability since it will bring an end to organic farming and will lead to the emergence of insects with high levels of resistance.
Metaphors
A. The writer means that physical experiences normally influence how we judge people and situations. The way we react to situations is greatly influenced by how we perceive it. For example, when you meet someone for the first time and he or she offers you called milk, you will judge them as harsh and cruel people whereas a person who offers warm milk will be considered friendly and welcoming. We relate temperature with a person’s temperament unconsciously. Therefore, metaphors can also be expressed in our thoughts, not only through writing and speech.

B. The author means that our thoughts are influenced by what we physically experience. Our thought process, therefore, relies on the physical experiences and this influences how we make judgments and decisions. He also says that abstract thoughts don’t make any sense to us if we don’t have physical experience of them. We, therefore, have to have bodily experience to make sense of virtually everything in the world. The writer further gives an example of the brain. He notes that the brain is the organ of the body responsible for thought, the brain and the body are one and therefore interdependent.

The Story of My Body by Judith Cofer Oritz
How we appear is the first sign of personality and identity that a person shows. Many people often judge by appearance and not personality, but what can happen in case there is a connection between our personality and appearance? Many people would think that our bodies and our identity are contradictory, but the reality is different. Our identity and body are determined by the media and influenced by certain elements in the society such as friends, education and place. We reflect what we think is right in other people’s opinions. This idea has been explained and expanded in “The Story of My Body” authored by Judith Oritz Cofer. She suggests that our body is important in determining our social life. Differences such as color, race and size can lead to uncomfortable situations during adolescence.
Cofer’s work is generally classified as creative nonfiction. Her narrative is strongly influenced by storytelling inspired by her grandma who was an able storyteller as is the tradition amongst Puerto Rican women. Her narrative focuses on her attempts to negotiate her life between two cultures, that is, American and Puerto Rican and how this influences her sensibilities as an author. Her narrative goes ahead and explores issues such as sexism and racism in American culture, female empowerment in Puerto Rican culture, machismo and challenges faced by immigrant.
Cofer tells her audience the story of her body and the varying situations she has been through. One of them was the stigmatization children face based on their appearances. Media has come up with “beauty standard” in the current society, and those who are deemed to be below these standards are normally excluded. She goes further and suggests that showing other talents like writing can help us to overcome such flawed judgments. In her narrative, she says, “I had brains and other talents in life for sure, my appearances were variables that were judged” All images that the media has created are variables that can be avoided. The environment in which we thrive has its own unique definition. Her narrative concerns itself with the overlap of language of cultures and languages into a vision that has meaning to her and others. Cofer Oritz relates the early years of her life revealing ways in which her bicultural background which led to her being judged by others and shaped her identity.
Her ability to juggle easily between different genres shows that she is able to adapt to her conflicting surroundings. She employs this ability as well as explorations of memory and language as tools for negating her own voice in the world of literature. The major themes that are conspicuous in her works are ability of words to transform and create meaning and a person’s identity. For her, words and meanings are connected with memory. At the beginning of “The Story of My Body,” she talks about the subjectivity of memory and why it is important to claim memories so as to make them your own.
The narrative “The story of my body” by Judith Oritz cofer discusses some of the numerous experiences she went through in her life trying to deal with stereotypes and common misunderstandings about Latin American women. In order to further engage her audience, she narrates detailed explanations of past experiences that stood out the most. For readers to fully comprehend those past details, some of which are common among Latinos and are cultural, Cofer narrates them in details albeit carefully. For example, she explains the poems that are composed by men to women on the spot as a show of admiration, also known as piropos. She uses this to introduce her audience to her personal experiences with piropos and how she has overcome them her entire life. She narrates how in one instance a well established man who should have acted differently mocked her with a song assuming that it was acceptable just because she was Latin. This enables the audience to understand Cofer’s anger.
Cofer goes ahead and educates her audience by showing the role played by women when approached by a man reciting piropo. Women should not agree with this and should not acknowledge this kind of attention even though a person from mainstream Latin culture would assume that women approve and are seeking it due to the way they dress. Cofer engages the use of piropos as a means of explaining specific parts of the story such as at the beginning. The narrative begins with a man spotting Cofer on a bus and starts to recite to her rendition of “Maria” extracted from the West Side Story. She uses this incident as a way of explaining that although she has moved from her country, acquired a new language, and is far away from her home, none of those matters because of her inherited looks and stereotyping that has persisted about Latin women in today’s society. She goes ahead to narrate her experience during Career Day while she was in high school. She achieves this by comparing the dressing style or the kind of clothes worn by Latin girls and conservative American girls.
Cofer’s exploration of formations can not only be found in the context her experiences but are also found in the gaps created in between. She also deciphers these spaces by using language. Even though she spent most of her childhood in the United States, her life at home acted as her link to her Puerto Rican past. Her mother was keen in keeping their home a replica of the island. Outside their home, Cofer spoke in English yet when at home she spoke in Spanish. She recalls that, in her childhood, she felt that neither language was suitable for her. She says she was constantly made to feel odd by her peers by her peers, who made fun of her two way accent. She says, “When I spoke Spanish I was told that I sounded like a ‘Gringa’.” The two languages she spoke never showed any inherent influence on each other. Even though she writes in English, Cofer severally uses Spanish words throughout her narrative, allowing both the languages to simultaneously exist.

She creates an inter-lingual reality. Cofer uses her writing to define her identity in relation to the gaps between the cultures that she finds herself in. She depends on the power of language, memory and genre to negotiate these existing spaces. Another crucial aspect of Cofer’s narrative is her ability to create a community. She uses her narrative to bring out her own identity while also attempting to evoke same responses in other identities.