Major Writing Assignment Analysis

The main purpose of the first major writing assignment is to show you understanding and knowledge of the characteristics of writing in your profession and then, condense that understanding and knowledge into a one sentence statement about the role of writing in your profession. The audience, or the person you are writing towards is a, group of high school/college students looking into your intended profession. As for the genre type, the goal is to write and informal report to these students. In this situation your stance is neutral, you are just supposed to inform the students and make them more aware of writing in the profession. Also, the media is print because the report must be typed on a computer, and the design of the informal report is in APA format.

Rhetorical Situation Analysis of high school English paper

I choose to analyze my research paper from junior year on stem cells. The purpose of the assignment was to inform and persuade an imaginary audience. Students were to choose a controversial topic and pick a side to argue within their paper. Within my own essay, I informed people of the benefits of stem cell research and tried to persuade my audience that the benefits out way the risks in most cases. As for my audience, we were told to write like we were giving an important document to executives or government officials so the paper had to be formal. For example, there were no personal pronouns in the essay, and all of the arguments made were backed up with reliable sources.  The other audience member was my teacher, and as a result I format my paper to the teacher's standard which was MLA standard format. The genre was a formal research paper so I used a serious tone and again only used researched sourced materials for information. As for my stance, I choose to take the pro-side of stem cell research and that can be seen from my thesis statement. I wrote, "Although many doctors and scientist are skeptical of the uses and benefits of stem cells research, the research has enormous benefits in the medical field with the uses of 3-D printers, drug testing, and the potential to reverse diseases with the stem cell therapies.". The media, or the way information was communicated, was through the computer. The essay had to be typed and students were limited to online scholarly articles for sources so, no other forms of media could have even been use to communicate or get the information.

Paper: 

 In 1998, James Thompson isolated cells of early embryos and as a result; he developed the first embryonic stem cells (Murnagham). When taken from human embryos these cells have the ability to grow into any type of cell in the human body, but stem cells are not limited to human embryos. They can be found in the brain, the spinal cord, bone marrow, muscle, skin, gut, liver, teeth, and heart. Studying stem cells will help researchers understand how they form into specialized cells and create enormous potential in all fields of medicine. Still with the use of stem cells critics come to the surface. Some researchers and doctors share their skepticisms about the potential treatments and uses of stem cells, and often feel there is more accurate, reliable, and safe alternative to stem cells. Although many doctors and scientist are skeptical of the uses and benefits of stem cells research, the research has enormous benefits in the medical field with the uses of 3-D printers, drug testing, and the potential to reverse diseases with the stem cell therapies. 

            3-D printers provide a unique and beneficial medical treatment that can help create specific cells and potentially organs. Researchers from Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have developed a cell printer that creates living embryonic stem cells. The printer was capable of printing droplet-size cells. These cells printed still maintained the ability to turn into different cell types (Lewis). This new printer could be used to create 3-D human tissues that may be used for drug testing, growing organs, or be printed in the human body directly. Dr. Shu says, “The manipulability of stem cells (hESCs) make them ideal for use in regenerative medicine- repairing, replacing, and regenerating damaged cells, tissues, or organs” –Dr. Shu (Lewis).

            Although the printing process might seem easy it is actually extremely complicated and took years to get right. In a lab dish, hESCs can be placed in a solution that tells the cells to develop into specific tissue types. The process begins with the cell forming embryoid bodies, which can be modeled into a specific shape and size. The printer is made with two “bio-ink” dispensers: one containing stem cells and the other containing just a medium. Two inks were dispensed in layers in order to create cell droplets and then put into small wells. Once the process is finished the wells should have clumps of stem cells (Lewis). For years scientists encountered trouble with stabilizing the cells and keeping them alive, but with the new printer made in Edinburgh the test revealed more promising results. After twenty-four hours, more than ninety-five percent of the cells were alive. After three days more than eighty-nine percent were alive (Lewis).

            More specifically than just making cells, 3-D printers have, or will have, the potential for organ, and bone replacement. Some eighteen people die in the U.S. each day waiting for a transplant (Griggs). 3-D printers have the ability to reproduce the vascular system required to make organs useful for transplantation. There is hope that one day 3-D printers could produce a whole organ such as the liver or pancreas for transplant. Scientists today are already using the printer to print small strips of organ tissues. For example Griggs say, “ A 2-year-old girl in Illinois, born without a trachea, received a windpipe built with her own stem cells” (Griggs). To create a bone replacement, the printer creates a scaffold in the shape of the bone, and coats it with stem cells. The benefit of the scaffold is the person has the ability to organize where the cells are located. This leads to better blood vessel and bone formation (Lewis). These are just some examples of the abundances of circumstances where a 3-D printer provided a solution to a medical problem using stem cells. Without the help of stem cells, 3-D printers would never be able to create any cell or organ for any use.

            Stem cells are expected to dramatically improve the ability of drug companies to screen for side effects and the effectiveness of new drugs much earlier in the development process (Accelerate Basic Research). This would significantly lower the cost and the time frame of developing a new drug while also saving millions of lives. At the University of Madison, researchers found a new way to test drug toxicity by monitoring the behavior of embryonic stem cells introduced to a potential drug candidate (Jennifer Chu). Testing a drug’s toxicity in lab rats is really unreliable because some drugs that appear safe in rat can be found to be toxic in humans. Studying stem cells and drugs could provide a more accurate prediction of a drug’s safety. Gaberial Cezar, assistant professor at UWM said, “ Exposure to a toxic drug may skew concentration of molecules that direct cellular metabolism and differentiation, disrupting cell-to-cell interactions and causing a biological cascade resulting in potential development disorders” (Jennifer Chu).

            The most common drug side effects are on the liver, kidney, and heart. That is why researchers are using stem cells to use for testing drugs (Accelerate Basic Research). Drug companies would have banks of stem cells from people with wide variety of genetic backgrounds and would provide a similar spectrum as if testing on hundreds of people. This type of personalized medicine would allow companies to develop safer and more effective drugs. Also it could reveal groups of people, with the use of their genetic makeup, that either do or don’t respond well to a certain drug (Accelerate Basic Research). The main goal is to test the drug on human cells before human trials and with the research ongoing the future of drug testing looks bright.

            Another application of stem cells is making cells and tissues for medical therapies (Frequently Asked Questions). Therapeutic treatments with stem cells show enormous potential for diseases related to genetic disorders. Stem cells are expected to be the most useful in treating multigenic diseases. Diseases that may be treated by stem cells include: Type-1 diabetes, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease (Pearson).

Today, the number of people needing a transplant far exceeds the number of organs available for transplant (Frequently Asked Questions). Pluripotent stem cells will hopefully offer a renewable source of replacement cells to treat many conditions. They are created by iPS or SCNT and are genetically identical to the donator (Accelerate Basic Research). Once the cells are created, the hope is they will be used to treat that person’s medical condition. hESCs are thought to provide potential cures and therapies for many devastating diseases (Frequently Asked Questions).

            Biotechnology companies have built on the basic foundations to begin creating stem cell- based human therapies (Frequently Asked Questions). For years many biotechnology companies have conducted clinical trials to test stem cells. One company is testing the use of human spinal cord stem cells to treat (ALS) Lou Gehrig’s disease. Another company is conducting three different clinical trials with Mesenchymal stem cells. The first tried to protect pancreatic cells in people with Type-1 diabetes. The second tried to repair the heart tissues after a person has had a heart attach. Then the third trial was to repair lung tissue in patients with (COPD) chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (Frequently Asked Questions). Bone marrow also contains stem cells and those have been used and studied for years by biotechnological companies.

            Stem Cells provide a wonderful tool for studying how diseases develop in the human body (Accelerate Basic Research). For example, if researchers extracted diseased tissues, drug companies or doctors could use them to find drugs, treatment, or even reverse the disease. Stem cell researchers can study the cells to understand what goes wrong when diseases form in the cell. It could lead to better ways of detecting the disease at an early stage or help develop treatments (Accelerate Basic Research). Another example is if a person has Parkinson’s disease, researchers could grow it in a dish and see what happens as it starts to form. Then they could test different treatments or even try to manipulate the genes in the cells. 

            Although many doctors and scientist are not optimistic about the uses and benefits of stem cell research, the research provides enormous potential in the medical fields with the uses of 3-D printers, drug testing, and the potential to reverse disease with stem cell therapies. With the research collected about stem cells, scientists can save millions of people suffering from horrible diseases. The research information gained can help provide new and unique ways of treatment and help researchers understand cells more extensively. Stem cell research is becoming more common in the medical field as a way to treat many genetic diseases and conditions. It is being trusted into the world of modern medicine with enormous expectations, which can be achieved with continuation of the research.

Works Cited

Chu, Jennifer. "Testing Drugs with Stem Cells | MIT Technology Review." MIT Technology

Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

"Frequently Asked Questions." Stem Cells and Diseases [Stem Cell

Information]. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Griggs, Brandon. "The next Frontier in 3-D Printing: Human Organs." CNN. Cable News

Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Lewis, Tanya. "3D-Printed Human Embryonic Stem Cells Created for First Time." LiveScience.

TechMedia Network, 05 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Murnagham, Ian. "Benefits of Stem Cells." Benefits of Stem Cells. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Pearson, John. "Point: The Potential Of Stem Cell Research." Points Of View: Stem Cell

Research (2013): 5. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.

"Stem Cells Accelerating Basic Research." California's Stem Cell Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 21

Apr. 2014.

Welcome to Business Rhetoric

Welcome to our class blog. I'll post announcements and assignments on this site. We will also have a list of blogs of all students. You can navigate to your peer's blogs and read their posts and comments on them.