Model Senate 2015
In the model senate project we spent time studying politics and how our government functions (or how it lacks function). We then dug deeper into the parliamentary procedures of how a bill is passed through the Senate. Through the project we were assigned a senator of a particular party to study and represent. Once we did thorough research on our senator we had to co-author a piece of legislation that would be considered for debate with another senator of the same committee and party. Every single bill written was analyzed by a panel and only two were chosen for exhibition. In preparation for the exhibition I had to write a speech that spoke against the bill in my committee, the Environment Public Works Committee. I was put in the first section of rounds of speeches during exhibition, Senate Floor 1.
My Co-Authored Bill
My Speech
Good afternoon. I am Cory Gardner of Colorado. I believe that this bill, The Hold It All In Act, should not be enacted based on a variety of reasons pertaining to the United States’ current and future oil demands and our reliance on offshore drilling. I am very passionate about keeping energy prices low. Stopping new leases on all offshore oil and gas is incredibly illogical. Doing so will ultimately lower the amount of oil and gas running through America’s system therefore increasing its demand and furthermore increasing its price. But honestly, nobody likes high gas prices. Just one offshore oilrig can maintain up to 200 jobs. With, for example, over 120 manned rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico alone, stopping those leases, as explicitly proposed in Section 2 of bill no. 2-2015, would put a sizable amount of our country’s individuals in a world of hurt. Not to mention the other 36 rigs in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would cease operation once their leases run out. Also considering the vast potential for exploration in and around the Arctic Ocean and within the outer Continental Shelf, stopping leases to do so would impede upon the sincere possibility of hundreds upon hundreds of new jobs being created. If I am to come anywhere close to passing this bill then I would need to see an amendment to cut Section 2 out the bill entirely.
If we were to pass this bill, then there would be a great likelihood of not reaching the prospective oil and gas needs for our country. By the year 2040 the United States’ oil and gas products will reach a demand of 105.7% relative to today with a growth rate of 0.3% per year. So by that point all current leases on offshore oilrigs will by far have expired, leaving America drained of the oil and gas we desperately need to feed our transportation, infrastructure and all day to day energy needs. Despite the fact that the current numbers of oilrigs sitting on federal land is declining, stopping all oil, gas, coal and fracturing leases on federal land will furthermore decrease the oil we have to prospectively run our country. Passing this bill as it is will increase gas prices. It will increase demand for oil and create a greater reliance on more expensive forms of energy. It will halt the advancement of the civilization of our country. Thank you.
If we were to pass this bill, then there would be a great likelihood of not reaching the prospective oil and gas needs for our country. By the year 2040 the United States’ oil and gas products will reach a demand of 105.7% relative to today with a growth rate of 0.3% per year. So by that point all current leases on offshore oilrigs will by far have expired, leaving America drained of the oil and gas we desperately need to feed our transportation, infrastructure and all day to day energy needs. Despite the fact that the current numbers of oilrigs sitting on federal land is declining, stopping all oil, gas, coal and fracturing leases on federal land will furthermore decrease the oil we have to prospectively run our country. Passing this bill as it is will increase gas prices. It will increase demand for oil and create a greater reliance on more expensive forms of energy. It will halt the advancement of the civilization of our country. Thank you.
Writing Reflection 1
Goal 1 – Interpreting Quotes I will make sure that I have fully interpreted quotes correctly before incorporating and building upon them in my writing. In my Tocqueville essay, I was marked down significantly because I drastically misidentified a key point in the quote in which my entire essay was built upon. The quote in question was “For nothing is more customary in man than to recognize superior wisdom in the person of his oppressor.” In this quote, I thought that Tocqueville was saying the oppressor actually has superior wisdom within the eyes of the oppressed. What he actually was saying was that the oppressed only believe the oppressor has superior wisdom. This type of misinterpretation is something I need to remedy when analyzing quotes in my future writings. To do this, I will spend more time examining the quote and finding clarifying information from the article I pull it from. I also need to aggressively annotate to keep my ideas in line so I don’t stray from the main point or idea of the quote.
Goal 2 – Proofreading I will make sure I read through my entire piece of writing out loud in order to catch any grammar mistakes or incorrect phrases. In both my Tocqueville essay and my college essay I did not proofread thoroughly and ended up with small mistakes that weakened both of the writings. In my college essay, there were sections that I did not proofread and as a result I ended up spelling the word “bringing” wrong and had several other mistakes including repeated words and missing commas. In my Tocqueville essay I ended up the word “do” instead of the word I needed, “to,” a result of bad proofreading. Proofreading is something that has never really been one of my strengths. To make my future writings stronger I will make going over my writing multiple times, with intentions of catching mistakes, a critical step in my writing process. After every paragraph I write I will go right back and reread it before continuing on to a new one. If I write a long and elaborate sentence I will immediately go back and proofread it before moving on to the next one.
Goal 3 – Engagement I will make sure to keep my writing active and engaging for the reader. Both my college essay and my blog posts lacked aspects of flow that did not capture the reader’s attention as affectively as they could have. One of my peers critiqued a draft of my college essay and came to the conclusion that it was a little “mechanical.” She claimed that even though all the ideas were connected and it was easy to follow it did not flow in a very engaging manner. In my most recent blog post I did make an attempt to be engaging at all; I wanted only got my ideas out on paper without putting any energy into making it a very enlightened or happy piece of writing. An easy solution to this predicament is to utilize a more voluptuous word choice. With more interesting words and phrases I will be able to catch the reader’s attention. I also will try to make more connections between different topics or subtopics in order to allow the reader to make associations between their experiences and the text.
College Essay Revision Through my college essay I feel that I have definitely improved upon my ability to be concise. This is something I have struggled in past writings, I would usually tend to irrationally justify and generalize many points I made and end up straying off topic. In the last paragraph of the first draft of my college essay I had a sentence that stated, “Through this type of thought process is how I will bring a strong mindset to the University of Colorado Boulder in order to stay engaged and included in all aspects of my education.” In this sentence I was lacking specific clarification in regards to the prompt, I had tried to add too many little details that did not make me sound like a strong asset to CU Boulder. My peer critiques declared that the sentence only ‘told’ the reader why I would be a strong asset to the institution; it did not ‘show’ the reader. I took this feedback and applied it to my writing. My final result was “In climbing, I am constantly faced with routes that require a complex combination of foot and hand movements that must be executed with precision in order to do the rock climb…Having the skill and ability to decipher such moves will allow me to have an engaging and diverse mindset within the University of Colorado Boulder.” Through these sentences I was able to be concise and connect to the point I was making in the first portion of my essay in regards to how I would bring an inclusive and engaging mindset to CU Boulder. In my first draft the sentence was quite bland, I knew that it was not concise and with the knowledge that conciseness was a growth aspect of mine drove me to spend extra time on that portion of my essay. I was able to gain peer feedback in order to improve the section of my paper and, to the best of my ability, make it the best that it could be.
Goal 2 – Proofreading I will make sure I read through my entire piece of writing out loud in order to catch any grammar mistakes or incorrect phrases. In both my Tocqueville essay and my college essay I did not proofread thoroughly and ended up with small mistakes that weakened both of the writings. In my college essay, there were sections that I did not proofread and as a result I ended up spelling the word “bringing” wrong and had several other mistakes including repeated words and missing commas. In my Tocqueville essay I ended up the word “do” instead of the word I needed, “to,” a result of bad proofreading. Proofreading is something that has never really been one of my strengths. To make my future writings stronger I will make going over my writing multiple times, with intentions of catching mistakes, a critical step in my writing process. After every paragraph I write I will go right back and reread it before continuing on to a new one. If I write a long and elaborate sentence I will immediately go back and proofread it before moving on to the next one.
Goal 3 – Engagement I will make sure to keep my writing active and engaging for the reader. Both my college essay and my blog posts lacked aspects of flow that did not capture the reader’s attention as affectively as they could have. One of my peers critiqued a draft of my college essay and came to the conclusion that it was a little “mechanical.” She claimed that even though all the ideas were connected and it was easy to follow it did not flow in a very engaging manner. In my most recent blog post I did make an attempt to be engaging at all; I wanted only got my ideas out on paper without putting any energy into making it a very enlightened or happy piece of writing. An easy solution to this predicament is to utilize a more voluptuous word choice. With more interesting words and phrases I will be able to catch the reader’s attention. I also will try to make more connections between different topics or subtopics in order to allow the reader to make associations between their experiences and the text.
College Essay Revision Through my college essay I feel that I have definitely improved upon my ability to be concise. This is something I have struggled in past writings, I would usually tend to irrationally justify and generalize many points I made and end up straying off topic. In the last paragraph of the first draft of my college essay I had a sentence that stated, “Through this type of thought process is how I will bring a strong mindset to the University of Colorado Boulder in order to stay engaged and included in all aspects of my education.” In this sentence I was lacking specific clarification in regards to the prompt, I had tried to add too many little details that did not make me sound like a strong asset to CU Boulder. My peer critiques declared that the sentence only ‘told’ the reader why I would be a strong asset to the institution; it did not ‘show’ the reader. I took this feedback and applied it to my writing. My final result was “In climbing, I am constantly faced with routes that require a complex combination of foot and hand movements that must be executed with precision in order to do the rock climb…Having the skill and ability to decipher such moves will allow me to have an engaging and diverse mindset within the University of Colorado Boulder.” Through these sentences I was able to be concise and connect to the point I was making in the first portion of my essay in regards to how I would bring an inclusive and engaging mindset to CU Boulder. In my first draft the sentence was quite bland, I knew that it was not concise and with the knowledge that conciseness was a growth aspect of mine drove me to spend extra time on that portion of my essay. I was able to gain peer feedback in order to improve the section of my paper and, to the best of my ability, make it the best that it could be.
Mini Project: Street Law
Through this project we were
exposed to a plethora of content regarding the 4th and 5th
Amendment. We analyzed multiple situations where the 4th Amendment
was at play and where conflicts arose that dealt with whether incriminating
acts made by citizens and the police were constitutional. We then took what we
learned and incorporated it into a medium of our choice in order to present it.
For my project I chose to look at the difference between search and seizure in schools versus in your home and present it using an infographic (shown above.) I was interested in this topic because it was an aspect of the project content that I did not know a whole lot about. So being able to do research on it and connect it to the fact that it pertained to me because I am currently in a school setting brought me a lot of joy. Connecting the content I learned to the real world brings a lot of meaning to my life, and this project definitely allowed me to do just that.
For my project I chose to look at the difference between search and seizure in schools versus in your home and present it using an infographic (shown above.) I was interested in this topic because it was an aspect of the project content that I did not know a whole lot about. So being able to do research on it and connect it to the fact that it pertained to me because I am currently in a school setting brought me a lot of joy. Connecting the content I learned to the real world brings a lot of meaning to my life, and this project definitely allowed me to do just that.