ENGL102 Week 5 Forum

Classmate #1:

Hello Class,

I chose the essay “Veil of Ignorance” by Leila Ahmed because I wanted to get more knowledge on why Middle Eastern women wear head coverings. I see several different types of coverings and I would wonder what the variance is. I noticed that there are veils, the Islamic head scarf and hijabs but I don’t understand why one would be worn and not the other.

This essay does not discuss an issue that I am currently facing, I just want to be well versed on the subject for myself. After conducting a search in the school library, I discovered that this essay is peer reviewed. The claim of the essay is did Albert Hourani who wrote the article “The Vanishing Veil: A Challenge to the Old Order” get it wrong when he said that veiling is a fast disappearing practice in most Arab societies (Ahmed, 40).

In the past, the author herself saw the notion of the veil as a requirement by law or a form of social pressure when she was growing up in an Arab country. When she moved to Cambridge, Mass., in 1998 she was shocked to see a large crowd of women in hijabs (Ahmed, 40). It was odd to her that the women would still wear a covering when they are living in a country where you have freedom of dress. Ahmed interviewed several women and it changed how she saw wearing the veil, one woman said “I wear it for the same reason as my Jewish friends wear a yarmulke”, the hijab was required dress that made visible the presence of a religious minority entitled to justice and equality” (Ahmed, 41). Another women said she wanted to raise awareness of society’s sexist message about women’s body and dress as her reasoning for wearing the hijab (Ahmed, 40). Ahmed realized that the Veil and other coverings aren’t going away because it is a sense of pride and the rejecting of negative stereotypes. The author uses the Toulmin Method with her organization, claim of fact, problem base claim and her sources.

Works Cited:

Ahmed, Leila. “VEIL OF IGNORANCE.” Foreign Policy, no. 186, May, 2011, pp. 40-43,10. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/867919448?accountid=8289.

Classmate #2:

The essay I chose for this week’s forum is “The Great Climate Experiment” by Ken Caldeira. I feel that this particular issue is something that should be at the forefront of all Americans minds. Not only should the American people be concerned about this topic, but everyone worldwide needs to “wake-up” and come to the realization that global warming is a real issue.

I struggled a little bit with the claim for this particular piece, but here is what I chose for it: “In reality, carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere today will affect the Earth hundreds of thousands of years hence” (Caldeira). Throughout this essay Calderia states numerous facts about how carbon is currently affecting & will affect the world in the future. In one example he states that “without any change in our habits, Earth may warm by about five degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, although the actual arming could be half or even double this amount, depending primarily on how clouds respond” (Calderia). The author seemed to have hit on the main aspects of the Toulmin method. He even had a well-executed rebuttal when discussing how the oceans will absorb most of our CO2 (Calderia).

One of the things I really liked about “The Great Climate Experiment” is how the author didn’t state “exactly” what would happen. He was honest and made it clear that the effects of global warming can’t be 100% predicted, however there has already, and will continue to be consequences if the world doesn’t change.

Work Cited

Caldeira, Ken. “The Great Climate Experiment.” Scientific American, vol. 307, no. 3, Sept. 2012, pp. 78–83. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0912-78.

Minimum 150 words answer to each