Talon Times Vol. 31: Spring Edition 2022

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 2

Advice Index Advice

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Glenforest

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Science

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Student Voice

Plastic-eating "super-enzymes": The Key to the Ecological Crisis?

The Dangers & Unethical Practices of Animal Testing Stress - A Hidden Friend

Global

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Breaking Barriers - A Celebration of Women A Fractured Democracy The Impact of Affirmative Action Business as (un)usual

Culture

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Misconceptions in Gender Equality: The Truth of Feminism Michelin Stars: The Oscars of the Culinary World Dawn FM Album Review Stay-Cation Ideas - What can you do at home instead of traveling?

Benefits of Home Cooking A Man Disguises Himself as an Onion Vendor to Return Home Amidst the Covid Lockdown

Editorial

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You Should Care About the Oxford Comma - Here’s Why

Comics p16 Comics p16

Credits

How to Survive High School Due to a lack of serious questions, we decided to have our team give their own unsolicited advice! In this issue, three senior columnists unearth the ups and downs of their high school experience to help you make it through this strange time in our lives.

However, this new section doesn’t mean that we won’t be answering advice prompts anymore. If you have any questions you’d like to ask our columnists next issue, submit them via our advice box in the library or the form on our Instagram: @gfss.talontimes—link in bio!

Response 1: I kept a list of regrets and panic moments throughout my 4 years at high school so here are the condensed hysteria journal entries distilled with only the finest advice.

1) Find an organization system that allows you to balance your academics + personal life: Notion? Google Calendar?

Time blocking?

2) Make use of all the free time you have instead of playing Genshin six hours a day. It’s the perfect time to explore your interests and experiment, break down your time, and analyze how you are currently living your life. Are you being intentional with your time?

3) I don’t know who needs to hear this, but please learn how to study and learn. I'm serious. Bloom’s taxonomy, active recall, abusing mindmaps, or grinding practice questions! You can experiment. Learn to eliminate these inefficiencies right now in grade 9-12 while the workload is still light.

Teacher Supervisors Ms. Alim

4) For university: knowing exactly what certain university supplementary applications look like ahead of time, the grade boundaries needed, how to build your portfolio for arts, buffing your SAT score, etc.

Editors in Chief

5) Develop a growth mindset instead of a fixed one.

Emily Cao Alex Truong Alex Lu

Cover Designer Chloe Zou

Student Voice

Nayeema Rahat Jahan Sanjali Paruthi Varun R. Dhanam

Journalists

6) Teachers know when you lie, but they’re there for you, so just tell them the truth and work deadlines with them.

Communicate, communicate, communicate with your teachers about makeup tests and deadline extensions. I promise that they’re there for you.

7) Take life a little less seriously, it's just high school: nobody remembers that slip up. You have a second chance, shoot your shot, don’t be consumed by fear, just do it.

8) Build good habits to keep you fit, organized, creative, and hold yourself accountable.

9) Friend groups are flexible and can change, so put yourself out there and find your people!

David Lee Hannah Wang Selena Zhou Tenzin Ghaki Victoria Gotcheva Varchas Varma Krisha Veera Ivona Lu Latinovic Ashwin Kailayaruban Zerina Bakrac Nitya Kharidehal Navam Thind Saanvi Dixit Nayeema Rahat Jahan Riya Piryani Sophia Zhang

10) Yes Savithru, I agree. Join a cappella.

Continued on page 16

17) Always have enough printing credits.

11) Seek out resources: ask your local math teacher if they do extra help at lunch, ask older students for resources, your counselor is your best friend.

12) Read the book twice: the first time for enjoyment and the second time for analysis and annotation.

13) You don’t need fancy stationery for school, stop spending a mini fortune on Muji notebooks and Mildliners.

14) Start scoping reference letters early.

15) For IB students: don’t procrastinate your extended essay or IAs; it’s not worth it.

16) If you can't motivate yourself to work, just set a timer on your phone and watch it tick down; you might as well work~ - Egg

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 3

Advice Response 2:

I’m sure you guys have all heard the old “don’t procrastinate”, “manage your time properly”, and “work hard” advice from everyone around you, so I won’t bother repeating it again. High school is the place to experiment and try new things, so this advice mainly goes to the grade 9s and 10s. In your first few years, it is better to attempt everything, whether it be academic clubs, recreational clubs, or sports teams.

Of course, if you already have a set plan of what you want to do, then don’t worry about it. Continue with the interests you’ve found, but still keep an open mind because you never know what might pop up. I thought I came in with a relatively good plan for high school, as it was essentially an extension of my middle school interests, such as STEM, Debate Club, and Model UN, along with a couple sports teams such as table tennis and badminton. I thought that the arts just weren’t for me. But then I encountered the a cappella team in my grade 10 year. I'm sure we’ve all sung to our favorite songs from the radio or gotten distracted by music while working. Personally, I’d never gone beyond that, but I wasn't too busy so I tried out for a cappella, and what do you know, I made it!

You never know where your talents lie, so it's a good idea to have a broad list. Another benefit is that as the years progress, you’ll automatically find yourself putting more time and attention to 1 or 2 clubs. This way, you’ll easily rise up the ranks since your experience starts straight from grade 9 and you'll have a deep connection with those clubs, which will be very useful for your university applications as most of the time it’s “quality over quantity”. I am fortunate enough to not have many regrets in highschool and I hope you guys can too, because high school is not a place to get overly stressed. It’s a place to have a good time, go out, discover what you enjoy, and make new friends while still keeping in mind the future ahead of you.

- Savithru "Natsu" Kannuri

Response 3: We’ve all heard that high school is supposed to be the best four years of your life. Parties, dances, clubs, new interests and newer friends.

It’s going to be brilliant, everyone says, a key part in shaping your personality. I’m telling you right now that’s the least true thing I’ve ever heard. So this is how I survived high school, everything coming from experience.

Obviously, the next four years of your life aren’t going to be horrible. They might even be good, for you, but they aren’t anything like the movies. Don’t feel any pressure to grow up, to emulate what you’ve seen on late night cable and HBO. We’re still children in many ways, so the first piece of advice is not to hurry. Make as many mistakes as you want, entertain every other hobby, be as silly and stupid and immature as you can. I’m about to turn eighteen, and I spent the last few years trying to get here as fast as I could. But now that I’m here, I’m not exactly sure what to do. How do I win back all the time I had when I was younger? I still feel thirteen. Don’t have huge, media-inspired expectations for the next four years, and don’t waste your time trying desperately to meet them. There are more important things to worry about.

Second piece of advice: get good grades. Work hard, but do not forsake your mental health. Depressive episodes and anxiety attacks are all debilitating. You can’t shower, you can’t eat, and working is off the table. There are going to be people who dismiss what you’re going through and say it's only an inconvenience, but I disagree. Ignoring your issues will only make them worse, until you can’t put them to the side. I skip school now, not because I’m lazy or irresponsible, but because I break down leaving my house. I didn’t heal myself when I should’ve. Assign some of your time to self care—actual self care, not just face masks and bubble baths. Let yourself be unproductive. Watch old, cheesy, terribly-written movies so you can make fun of them. Journal. Drink water and please, sleep. If you tend to forget eating, like me, set alarms (three meals a day, I mean it). Take care of yourself as you would any other, and love yourself as you would anyone else.

Take your time. Don’t rush. Spend your time in high school exactly the way you want to, not how you think you should. This is just another period of your life—it’s going to be okay.

- Harshta

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Glenforest

Student Voice

Photo: Varun Dhanam

1) How do you feel about returning to the traditional semester format this semester?

"I personally like the switch in the schedule. I think it was really hard to stay on top of everything when you had to switch courses every week, especially considering that you’re not supposed to be working on the previous week’s work. You would be missing out on a week of review, which meant you would often forget everything you learned on the previous friday."

"There's pros and cons. I think I get to meet a lot more new people. So that's something that's pretty good. But I think having four courses a day is pretty bad for me, especially because I don't like to deal with four courses every single day. I'd rather just spend two hours on something and get stuff done, versus spending 75 minutes and not getting that much done and just having to move on to different courses."

Photo: Varun Dhanam

Teacher Response: "I like the one hour classes. And not from a teaching perspective — I get a lot more done with two and a half hours — but from a learning perspective. It's easier for students to walk away, try to comprehend, and digest the material when it's in small chunks. So in the end, it makes my job easier, and it's beneficial to students. Even though I can do a lot more with two and a half hours, it’s not very effective. I could talk for hours. So it's all good, but I just don't think it's effective. I don't think it works."

2) Has there been any sort of silver lining to the pandemic for you?

"Generally speaking, no. It was fun at first because I didn't have to wake up absurdly early in the morning. Afterwards, it sort of became a struggle to see how long we could stay online while keeping our sanity intact. After that, it turned into a living nightmare where all we could do was stay at home — no social interactions whatsoever."

"I would say getting a lot of free time to myself. I'm naturally an introvert. So that means I sort of do well in situations by myself. I can just spend that time growing versus other extroverts that need more time being social. So yeah, I guess the main silver lining is just having more time to myself and being able to grow and thrive."

"I got to spend more time with my family. So I got to play with my dog a lot more and form a closer bond with him. I also got to spend time for myself and work on myself a lot, like fixing my sleep schedule. Being online, it gave me more time to work on assignments from school without extra pressure. I can be at home and in the silence, chilling and listening to music and doing whatever I want to. I started to do some DIY projects like glitter paintings with my brother’s girlfriend. I also started to be more active since I have more time to work on myself with the help of my brother's girlfriend."

Photo: Varun Dhanam

"To be honest, I enjoy staying at home. So, that little part where we had online school, I liked it. I also pretty much like online school just because I didn't have to interact with other people when I didn't want to. I feel like socializing online, it just requires less effort than, you know, coming to school every day and having to wake up earlier. Because I did wake up maybe like, half an hour before class or like two minutes before. I love the part of not having to wake up and get ready and stuff. If I missed my friends at times, we’d make days to hang out."

Teacher Response: "At first, more family time. Now, not so much. I'm ready to move on with life. I want to see kids be active and I want to be in the classroom. I learned to make Italian style pizzas. And I taught myself some circuitry with Arduinos and different microcontrollers."

Bonus Thoughts: "What I would do at 48 is the same as what I would do at 50, but what you would do at 15 is different than what you would do at 17, and you can never have 15 back—and that, is ultimately the problem. And don't get me wrong, mental health, all of that is the same for all people. But that fact that you will never get those [youthful] years back. We had those years. It's easy for us to say 'it's okay, it's okay, you'll figure it out'—I already had my years. You didn't have yours. There's the problem."

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 5

Science

Plastic-eating "super-enzymes": the key to the ecological crisis?

By: Krisha Veera

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nce prized for their durability, plastics now clog up oceans and pile up in heaps on land. Plastics take around 450 years to degrade in the ocean and even after this, they only break down into microplastics, remaining harmful to the environment. Hence, when scientists in Japan discovered bacteria that could “eat” plastic, the race to develop the most effective plastic-devouring bacteria began.

The bacterial strain discovered can decompose a type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, its efficacy isn’t nearly high enough to mitigate the tens of millions of tons of plastic waste that enter the environment every year. To make these naturally-occurring bacteria useful, scientists bioengineered the bacteria and increased its decomposition speed to a matter of weeks. In October 2020, this process was improved further by extracting two enzymes from this bacteria and combining them to produce a “super enzyme.”

The super enzyme combined the PETase and MHETase enzymes, allowing the breakdown of plastic up to six times faster than the previously bioengineered bacteria. The implications of this super enzyme are huge for recycling PET. PET is a type of plastic used in single-use drink bottles, carpets, and clothing, which naturally takes hundreds of years to degrade in the environment. With the super enzyme, it can be broken down into its building blocks in only a few days.

These breakthroughs make it possible to see the super enzymes in industrial-scale facilities, used on piles of landfill-bound plastic or on the mountains that accumulate in oceans and rivers. However, large-scale commercial use of plastic-eating microorganisms is still years away, since their release in the environment could create additional unpredicted issues. Furthermore, the enzymes discovered and bioengineered have only been able to digest one type of plastic—PET. There are several major commercial types of plastic, such as polypropylene, which is used to make con-

Photo: Chokniti Khongchum

tainers, and high-density polyethylene, which is used in shampoo bottles and milk jugs.

Additionally, the super enzyme doesn't degrade the plastic back to its core elemental building blocks (such as carbon and hydrogen), it breaks down the plastic into components that companies can reuse to create more plastic. Other concerns include the risk of releasing chemical additives stored in plastic products

and the potential unknown side-effects of releasing genetically engineered microorganisms into nature.

Hence, the large-scale commercial use of plastic-eating enzymes is still years away.

Apart from the bacteria found by scientists in Japan, several other organisms which can decompose plastic have been found. Scientists have reported a fungus that has been degrading plastic at a waste disposal Photo: Lucien Wanda

Photo: Stijn Dijkstra

site in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In March 2020, German scientists discovered bacteria strains that could degrade polyurethane plastic while collecting soil from a brittle plastic waste site in Leipzig.

Furthermore, tiny wax worms also have the ability to chomp through plastics such as polyethylene using the bacteria in their guts.

Mealworms also possess this capability; around 3,0004,000 mealworms can break down a Styrofoam coffee

cup in about a week.

Even with the recent discoveries of plastic-eating microorganisms, the fight against plastic pollution remains dependent on switching to reusable alternatives, ensuring that non-recyclable plastic waste ends up in a landfill rather than in the environment, and using biodegradable materials when possible.

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Science

The dangers and unethical practices of animal testing By: Navam Thind

W

e’ve all heard of animal testing, right?

The harsh practices and experiments that are done on animals to test products for humans. But what actually happens at the laboratories where animals are subjected to cruel operations, and why has animal testing actually increased over the past few years? The term animal testing refers to the procedures performed on live animals for research purposes, and to test the safety of consumer products, such as cosmetics.

Some common animal procedures include: exposure to chemicals or drugs, food and water deprivation, and many more. The most common types of animals used in these unethical experiments include mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and monkeys. Animal testing is

more common than many might think, since it’s legally required for many of the products that we use. For example, there are 10 000 animals killed for every new pesticide chemical tested.

According to the Humane Society International, more than 115 million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year. In Canada, the number of animals being tested on increased to 5 million in the year 2020.

Despite the growing evidence that it is time for change, many laboratories have relied on animal testing as the default method for decades. It is often argued that because animal experiments have been used for centuries and progress has been made in terms of medicine and consumer products, animal testing must be necessary.

New science reviews show

that research using animals correlates very poorly to real human patients. In fact, this data demonstrates that animal studies fail to predict real human outcomes in 50-90% of cases. This is mostly because other species rarely suffer from the same diseases that are found in humans.

The National Institutes of Health state that 95 out of 100 drugs that pass in animals fail in humans.

Animal testing has, in fact, been increasing over the past few years. According to CBS News, the use of animals in experiments has increased nearly 73% in the past 15 years. This is because many of the animals used in these procedures die, without producing sufficient results. Thus, more and more animals keep getting tested. Most of the animals used in tests, such

Photo: Ricky Khara

as mice, rats and birds aren’t defined as ‘animals’ in the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act is the main law in the US that regulates the treatment of animals in research. Because of this, the use of small animals in testing keeps increasing.

Many organizations working to end animal testing, such as PETA, The John

Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, and Americans for Medical Progress. Many groups are researching alternatives to testing on animals by running tests using human cells and tissues. For instance, in Brazil and South Korea, it is illegal for a company to conduct animal experimentation if an approach without

testing animals is available. Animal experiments are a major part of medical history, but we need to move past testing on animals and turn to quality research and modern technology.

Photo: Matthew Henry

Stress - a hidden friend By: Varchas Varma

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e experience stress every single day. Big things like school, social life, our future, or incredibly minute details in our lives, like remembering an assignment due tomorrow right before you go to bed, all result in stress. But if we endure stress multiple times every day, why haven’t we gotten used to it yet?

Under stress, your body releases the hormone known as adrenaline, a key tool in the process of stress.

Your body knows itself better than you do, which means it will always release

enough of the adrenaline hormone to make you feel ‘stressed’. It is possible to do certain exercises to reduce these symptoms or even completely avoid them, but that might not be the most beneficial decision in the long run.

Stress is an instinct.

Think carefully about why we stress and the symptoms we feel. For example, there is a huge test you’re about to take. Your heart beats faster, your breathing quickens, you feel increasingly anxious, and you are thinking about nothing other than the test. All of these symptoms are, in actuality, push-

ing your body into a hyper-state. You breathe faster to bring in more oxygen, your heart beats faster to allow your muscles and brain to think and move quicker, and your anxiety heightens your awareness while you focus on the task at hand.

With no context as to what stress is, these symptoms may feel detrimental, but they are actually trying to help you.

A study conducted in 2010 had 60 students complete a mock-exam, half of whom were told “People think that feeling anxious while taking a standardized test will make them do

poorly,” while the other half were told “recent research suggests that stress doesn’t hurt performance on these tests and can even help performance. People who feel anxious during a test might do better…. If you find yourself feeling anxious, simply remind yourself that your stress could be helping you do well.” This changed mindset in students had a drastic effect on their test scores. Students who viewed stress as a positive process scored much better on the test while those who were told to fear stress scored worse.

For the majority of people, at least in my case, we have been told to suppress our stress or to simply ignore it. However, this attitude does more harm than good.

So what can we do with this newfound mindset?

How does viewing stress positively help our lives?

Well, let's go back to our previous example about a huge test. Learning how to embrace the symptoms of stress instead of fighting them will help you stay more focused and more awake leading to and during the test, and be better adjusted to the ‘stressful’ en-

vironment. In our previous example of remembering an assignment before bed, the adrenaline rush from stress would instantly wake us up.

As our heart beats faster and blood rushes into our muscles quicker, it eliminates any fatigue we once had, aiding us in finishing the task at hand.

Stress is an inherent part of our bodily systems.

Changing our attitude towards it and embracing its positives can, if done properly, vastly improve our mental and physical health.

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 7

Global

Photo: Fairfax Media

Breaking barriers - a celebration of women By: Nitya Kharidehal sion, freedom, and how it

W

ith International Women’s History Month right around the corner, this is the perfect time to celebrate the significant contributions of women.

Women have had to fight for their fundamental rights and to be seen as equals throughout history. Fortunately over time, significant progress was made on this front. Time and again, women used their voices to advocate for important causes worldwide. Today, let us recount a few of these heroes with these five women that have broken barriers and started important conversations: Maya Angelou: Maya Angelou was a renowned writer, poet, activist and director. She was an African-American woman, vastly recognized for her groundbreaking book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This book details Angelou’s early years, her experience with being sexually assaulted, and why she stopped talking after. It is a profound piece of literature that emphasizes oppres-

can change a person. When Angelou started speaking again, she used her voice to advocate for causes like education, anti-racism, and joined the civil rights movement. She worked closely with activists like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and served on the presidential committee twice.

She was honored with several awards including three Grammys, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Langston Hughes Medal for her literary and activist contributions. She wrote several books until her death in 2014. To this day, her work remains influential, and is discussed in academic settings. Her mark on this world cannot be erased!

Malala Yousefzai: Malala’s story is as inspiring as it is haunting to girls all around the world.

Born in a Pakistani family that believed in educating women, Malala treasured her schooling. When the Taliban took over their town, they imposed several rules like banning girls’ education, and those who dared to break them endangered their lives. Enraged,

Yousafzai fearlessly advocated for women’s right to education publicly. For this, she was shot in the head and took several months to recover. While this would have silenced someone else, Malala chose to fight back.

She moved to the UK, started the Malala Fund with an aim to promote girl’s education. Her relentless efforts and great work, made her the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

Now an Oxford graduate, she spoke in the COP26 conference about climate change in relation to gender equality, and has been bestowed with many awards for her work.

Greta Thunberg: Climate change is a controversial and most debated topic.

A high school student is the last person you would expect to speak up about this issue. Yet we live in a world where Greta Thunberg shouldered the responsibility of reminding us about the receding climate. Greta was only seventeen when she walked out of school and called for the Swedish government’s attention regarding the climate crisis.

Her movement garnered

attention from the UN and various countries. She stated she wants us to, “feel the panic that she feels everyday,” thinking about the future of this planet. She continues to advocate and also participated in the COP26 Climate Conference.

Named the Time’s Person of the Year in 2019, Thunberg stands out, not just because of her passion, but because of how young she was when she spoke up. To the world, she is a beacon that displays and celebrates the power of youth. She is proof of what one can achieve with passion and fearlessness.

Alexa McDonough: Canada recently lost Alexa McDonough, an influential politician and social worker from Nova Scotia. She started her political career in the Liberal party before she switched over to the NDP and represented the party as the first woman in the legislature. She led the NDP federally for several years. Throughout her political career, McDonough was notorious for proving naysayers wrong. She was ridiculed and discouraged constantly but each time she won, it spoke volumes

about her talent and prowess. McDonough dedicated her career to advocating for gender equality and social services. Though being the only woman in an unreceptive institution was not easy, she stood strong. Her influence on Canadian politics resulted in many honors and accolades, like naming the Mount Saint Vincent University women’s studies institute after McDonough.

Laxmi Agarwal: Laxmi Agarwal is an Indian woman from New Delhi. She was merely fifteen when she was attacked with acid in public by a man. The attack not only physically deformed her but also gave a lot of mental trauma, along with taunts about her looks. When she realized how unfair society is to women like her, she took it upon herself to change the system. To start off, she filed charges and the perpetrator was sentenced to prison. She then proceeded to fight the laws on acid attacks and acid sales. After her massively successful petition, the Supreme Court of India established rules to protect acid attack victims.

Laxmi Agarwal continues to lead movements to bring

more awareness about acid attack survivors. She founded the Chhanv Foundation, which helps victims with rehab, legal help, and even finding jobs. She aims to change beauty standards and to make society more inclusive towards acid attack victims. Her work is recognized globally, with people like Michelle Obama lauding her. Her resilience and initiative are things to learn from!

These are just five out of the millions of women that defy social norms and expectations every day in their own way. While it is undeniably important to celebrate Women’s History Month in honor of all such women who have opened the doors for future generations, let us remember that one month is just not enough. The unrelenting courage of women must be acknowledged and celebrated each day in as many ways as possible. Let us recognize all women for their strength, courage, sensitivity and perspectives every day. Here’s to women!

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 8

Global Photo: Getwallpapers.com

A fractured democracy By: Saanvi Dixit

O

n November 7th, 2020, Joe Biden was elected as president of the United States, albeit by a narrow margin that could shift again in the upcoming elections. Even with Trump out of office, America is spiraling towards a bleak future.

The 2020 election exposed some of these gaping flaws in the voting system.

One of the biggest problems is the Republican party and the direction that they are taking. More specifically, Trumpism is the issue. Many senior Republicans have already announced that they will not be running for their seats again, leaving the radical ideas of white grievances and anti-democratic action in the hands of younger, more inexperienced politicians. The polarization of the GOP is a looming threat to the 2024 elections, with

the power they currently hold to set up electoral barriers and prevent any progress from being made even if the Democrats win again.

Any progress the Democrats could potentially make would be blocked by the Republicans, who are already infected with extreme partisanship. However, Trumpism isn’t the only problem.

The Republicans have been weaponizing voter suppression to use as a core strategy in their campaigns, where they have been making it harder to vote, especially for minorities. This is a big problem for the Democrats in particular, considering the fact that Biden largely won due to the huge turnout from Black and other minority populations. Undermining the voting system and purging citizens from voter rolls could affect who gets a say in the final results of the elections. To add more fuel to the fire,

current statistics show that the electoral college system the United States employs gives Republican presidential candidates a 4-5% advantage over their Democratic counterparts. This is a problem that primarily lies within the Senate, which favors senators from low-population rural states that have a majority of White electorates. This gives the Republicans a stronger hold over Congress, who can then use that power to prevent the Democrats from reforming the outdated and unrepresentative system. Many of the voter districts are also in favor of the Republicans, who were responsible for drawing the lines in the first place. These kinds of institutional problems make it much more difficult for the United States to move forward.

Another problem is media bias, low-information voters, and misinforma-

tion. Money is an important factor in politics, and media outlets in the status quo are focused far more on sensationalism and conflict as opposed to objective reporting or liberalism. During both the 2016 and the 2020 elections, mainstream media outlets like Fox News and CNN spent more time focusing on Trump because of the controversial statements he would often make.

Due to this, the public gets very little information on actual, substantive policy which could be crucial to a fair democratic election.

Instead, they are fed information that is meaningless and heavily biased. Perhaps the worst part of this, however, is that the public is also culpable for watching and allowing these for-profit channels to benefit from sensational news when the truth is far more important to the longevity of the nation. The media bias from

mainstream sources has led to voters being unable to make fully informed decisions when casting the ballot, with dire consequences for the future of the United States.

The judicial system has also proven to be an obstacle in the path of progress.

Under Trump’s presidency, many Republican judges were instituted, including the three right-winged nominees for Supreme Court justice. While this judicial activism is largely ignored by media outlets, it’s what allows states like Texas to purge large numbers of voters and reduce polling and ballot drop-off stations, further extending the problem of voter suppression.

The woes of the electoral system of the United States may seem far away and unrelated, but the recent federal election in Canada has brought us one step closer into the world

of divisive, polarized politics. We may use the first past-to-post system instead of the electoral college, but the situation is becoming increasingly similar in the sense that people’s votes are less dependent on who they actually want to see in office, and more along the lines of who they don’t want to see in office. This is quite evident with Trudeau being re-elected as prime minister, despite being more actively disliked by Canadians than otherwise. The voting system here in Canada is still quite transparent; however, we still need to understand the flaws of America, the world’s oldest constitutional democracy, to ensure that we continue to uphold the rights of every Canadian.

Photo: John Bakator

Photo: Jim Urquhart

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 9

Global

Photo: Sam Balye

The impact of affirmative action By: Riya Piryani

O

n January 24, 2022, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments that will allow it to rule once more on whether universities can consider race in admissions decisions, and affirmative action supporters are worried about the conservative-dominated court.

After sustaining the decades-old precedent in 2016, the United States Supreme Court will examine the validity of affirmative action in post-secondary learning.

Since 1978, the Supreme Court has held that race can be considered as one of several factors in college admissions, but that

quotas or formulas cannot be used to diversify a class.

The court said that the purpose of a diverse student body supports the use of race, along with other considerations, in admissions rules in the landmark 2003 case Grutter vs. Bollinger, which the cases against Harvard and UNC are attempting to undermine.

Activists argue that abolishing affirmative action would make top universities more racially homogeneous and less representative of the country as a whole. They cite data from a number of states that have abolished racial preferences on their own as proof.

Since the state removed affirmative action in 1996,

enrollment rates for Latino, Black, and Native American students have dropped considerably in the University of California’s system.

According to some higher education experts, abolition of affirmative action would not only harm people from underrepresented groups by denying them access to prestigious colleges, but would also deny students at those schools the benefits of on-campus diversity.

According to a university committee, if Harvard stopped considering race in its admissions process and instead relied solely on race-neutral factors, the proportion of African American students admitted to the class of 2019 would

have dropped from 14 percent to 6 percent, and the proportion of Hispanic or "other" students would have decreased from 14 percent to 9 percent. Meanwhile, the research stated that "this decline would result in a comparable increase in students of other races, mostly white children."

Scores on the standardized exams that universities ask candidates to complete have been presented as evidence in every lawsuit against affirmative action in admissions. Since average racial differences on test scores continue, reflecting deep and long-standing educational inequities, boosting a university's Black student representation ne-

cessitates accepting some Black students with lower test scores than rejected white students. Some of white students will subsequently be able to argue that they have been victims of racial bias. In a very limited sense, they are; it is impossible to say if a specific candidate would have been admitted without affirmative action, but accepting more students from any area at such an extremely selective institution inevitably means accepting fewer students from other groups.

Throughout the decades of debate over affirmative action, opponents have frequently argued that the whole American educational system should be

reformed so that affirmative action is no longer necessary. That argument presumes that racial integration as a goal is inherently objectionable, and it also suggests a project that is nearly unimaginably large.

Many experts believe the issue will be heard by the Supreme Court during its next term, which begins in October.

that were unable to pivot to curbside pick-up or delivery options in time collapsed, while others barely stayed afloat thanks to loyal customers and more forgiving leases. Although the Canadian government provided grants and aid for small businesses, it wasn’t timely nor was it enough to keep them running.

The second wave saw many of these businesses resurface and attempt to return to business as usual. When Canada released restrictions stage-by-stage, in-person stores including restaurants and small shops

that hadn’t completely shut down or transitioned online opened as soon as they could. At this point, most businesses had some sort of online option. So once a third wave hit and in-person shopping and dining were forced to close again, most businesses had experience from the initial shutdown.

This meant that e-commerce platforms—Amazon, UberEats, SkipTheDishes—that were already gaining intense volumes of traffic due to less in-person purchases were continually growing at exponential rates

throughout the pandemic.

In order to stay alive, almost all restaurants had to create an UberEats or similar virtual delivery account. Even businesses that created their websites and delivery options couldn’t outbid aggressive marketing from larger e-commerce platforms.

Currently, small stores are still struggling due to the ongoing pandemic, but thanks to ecommerce and standardized platforms, maybe we can all make it out of this alive.

Business as (un)usual By: Selena Zhou

T

wenty-five years ago, a man named Avtar Singh started a roti shop called Gandhi Indian Cuisine. His restaurant pioneered the concept of combining West and North Indian styles, and for decades his mom and pop shop was one of the most beloved restaurants in Toronto.

Twenty-five years later, Gandhi Indian Cuisine announced its closure. After months of struggling to stay afloat due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this family owned business could no

longer continue.

For nearly two years now, small businesses all over the world have been struck by change after change due to the ongoing pandemic. Policies have teetered unpredictably from complete closure to pivoting to opening and then back to complete closure. Almost all of these businesses have lost an insane number of sales and over 100 000 previously active businesses have been shut down according to StatCan. The impact of COVID on small businesses can be analyzed in three waves: the first shutdown,

when restrictions were lifted, and then when restrictions were reintroduced.

The first wave that hit small businesses was immediately following lockdown when pandemic restrictions were introduced. The first shutdown hit businesses without warning and thus many were unprepared with the limitations COVID brought. Stores were unable to conduct business but still had to continue paying expenses like rent and inventory maintenance. Before the pandemic, many local and family-run shops never needed to get online. Stores

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 10

Culture

Photo: Giacomo Ferroni

Misconceptions in gender equality: the truth of feminism By: Ivona Lu Latinovic

F

eminism. What is it and what's the huge misconception about it? Feminism is an ongoing movement, and has been for many years; however only in recent years has it become more widely discussed, across social media, in school, and in the media.

With this in mind, there are some misconceptions and misunderstandings when it comes to the meaning of this movement.

Often on social media, we come across influencers on Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Twitter, or even strangers and friends expressing their hatred for males. We see videos of them saying things like, “I hate all men” or, “men suck” while also calling themselves a feminist. This confuses young adolescents about what feminism truly is and what

gender equality means. The problem occurs when people connect feminism to men-hating; they think that feminism is a movement to bring men down. However, this is not the case.

Feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Feminism is about giving women choice. It’s about equality, and it’s about supporting each other, not about hating men or forcing female superiority over the rights of men. “Fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with men-hating”, says Emma Watson.

Oftentimes, people believe that bringing down men and fighting for women's rights are the same, which is not true. It creates a stigma where men may feel uncomfortable being a part of this

movement, and unsure of where to stand even when they want to support gender equality. In this case, gender equality affects males too, although in different ways and not to the same extent as women.

There are times we see in the media when men are wrongfully imprisoned by gender-based stereotypes.

Sometimes the stereotypes around men may result in these types of situations. An ongoing problem is when a male of any age is suffering from a mental illness, and is unable to ask for help in fear that it would make them ‘less of a man’. There’s this influx of subliminal messaging around the fact that most men feel they can't be a feminist partly because it is associated with females, and because too often they receive hate as part of this

movement.

Gender equality is about equal rights, where no gender is superior. All genders should have the right to their own feelings and emotions. All genders should feel free to be strong or sensitive, and have characteristics that may not be stereotypically associated with their sex. It should be a right that women are paid the same as their male co-workers for the same job. It should be a right that women are afforded the same respect as men. It should be a right that women are not viewed as weak or powerless based on their gender.

These are considered human rights. It’s imperative we start doing something about this because if we continue down the road of doing nothing it will take 75 years before women can ex-

pect to be paid the same as men, for the same amount of work.

According to the UN, even in 2022, no country in the world has achieved gender equality, and no country will be able to achieve gender equality by 2030 based on current growth.

This is hugely problematic—we've known the extent of this issue for hundreds of years, and clearly not much is changing. We are clearly doing something wrong.

Spreading hate toward males will only make this worse whereas encouraging and creating a comfortable space for them to join this movement can help us achieve gender equality. Teaching young kids stereotypes of their gender and saying things like, “girls are meant to wear dresses and sit and look pretty,” or “don’t cry,

and man up, you look weak,” are the complete opposite to what we should be doing.

Before we do anything else we need to truly understand what feminism is, and be able to spot and fix the misconceptions that come with this movement.

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 11

Culture Michelin Stars:

Photo: Rachel Claire

The Oscars of the culinary world

By: Ashwin Kailayaruban

H

ave you ever wondered what it takes for a restaurant to earn a Michelin Star? What does a Michelin Star even mean? What restaurants have a Michelin star? To put it simply, a Michelin Star is an extraordinary culinary achievement for any restaurant, earned by passing demanding criteria.

It is essentially the Oscar of culinary awards. By the end of this article, you’ll know the ins and outs of what this achievement is and gain a better understanding and appreciation for the restaurants that have obtained this award.

The origin of the Michelin Star stems from the French tire company, Michelin. Back in the early 1900s, brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin wanted to promote their tire product and created a Michelin

guide. This guide consisted of lists of restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and mechanics along popular routes throughout France, as well as road maps and information on how to change tires. When World War One started, there was a halt in the production of the guide until around 1920. During this time, the brothers decided to award a star for restaurants that had an exceptional dining experience in their guide. Production of the guide halted once again during the start of the Second World War but continued in late 1939 due to the maps in the guides aiding allied forces. This idea of rating restaurants has evolved into the system we now know today.

So how does a restaurant achieve this rating? The process starts with undercover customers who are secretly passionate food in-

spectors trained in France.

These inspectors may return multiple times to a restaurant before reporting to other inspectors to decide whether a restaurant deserves a star. The criteria consist of taste, quality of ingredients, and cooking techniques. The aesthetic of a restaurant is not taken into account when stars are awarded. It may be an achievement for a restaurant to be awarded a star, but it is another accomplishment for them to maintain that star rating. Many restaurants have had their stars stripped away, one being Gordon Ramsay’s New York restaurant, The London, which had gone from two stars to zero. Critics claimed that the quality of the food went downhill the minute Gordon Ramsay sold ownership of The London, which ultimately led to the closing of the restaurant in 2014.

So are there levels to the achievement? The short answer is yes, there are three levels to Michelin Stars. According to the Michelin Guide, a OneStar rating refers to “a very good restaurant in its category”. In Tokyo, there are only 161 restaurants that have achieved one star. The Two-Star rating refers to a restaurant with “excellent cooking, worth a detour”.

In 2021, there were close to 417 two-star restaurants in 26 countries. Some examples are Auberge de Cheval Blanc in France and Coi in California. The Three-Star rating refers to a restaurant that provides an “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”. These restaurants are run by world-renowned chefs, provide an unforgettable culinary experience, and in some cases, are tourist attractions. Examples are Per Se in New York

and Benu in San Francisco. So just how many Michelin-starred restaurants are there in the world? As of 2020, there are 2,160 one-star restaurants, 499 two-star restaurants, and 106 three-star restaurants.

France and Japan currently claim the most titles to these stars. In fact, as of 2021, France claimed 632 Michelin starred restaurants, while Japan claimed 413. Apart from the Michelin Star, another unique award enacted

by Michelin is the Bib Gourmand Award. This award is tailored toward restaurants that have exceptionally good food for great value, an example being Ciccio Mio in Chicago.

In summary, the Michelin Star system is a system that awards some of the finest restaurants in the world, and is something that most restaurateurs strive toward. Achieving a star

alone is an extremely difficult task for many restaurants, and maintaining that level is even harder. What started out as a guide used to promote tire products has spawned a prestigious award that signifies a restaurant's perseverance and the hard work that has brought them to where they are today.

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 12

Culture

Stay-Cation ideas: What can you do at home instead of traveling?

Photo: Mashal Khan

By: Zerina Bakrac

W

ith COVID-19 on the rise once again along with newly-discovered variants, it’s best that we all stay in our homes and reduce travel in these tough circumstances. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to still have fun! Below are three different activities that you can do to have a great time, in the safety of your own home. Let’s call it a stay-cation. The three activities that are on this list include cooking, painting and last but not least, a classic movie night. These activities are bound to keep you busy while we all await for what’s to come with COVID-19 and its variants.

Starting with cooking, one of the many amazing dishes you can make is a Brazilian Potato Salad!

The Brazilian Potato Salad comes from Rio Grande do Sul in Southern Brazil and is made with grilled potatoes and charred corn. Its

summery and smokey flavour will delight you. The ingredients you will need to make this dish are yellow potatoes, carrots, mayonnaise and fresh parsley. In order to ensure the potatoes and carrots cook evenly, you will need to dice them to roughly the same size, about half-inch-sized cubes. Don’t overcook them either. You’ll want to cook your potatoes and carrots together until they’re quite tender but not mushy. The potatoes will naturally be softer than the carrots, so the best way to check if they’ve been cooked for the correct amount of time is by sticking a fork through the middle of the potato chunk. If it goes all the way through, you’re good to go. Once the potatoes are cooked, use a strainer to drain the veggies and run some cold water over them to ensure the cooking process has stopped. After that, you must let it cool down, because a mayonnaise based salad tastes best

cold. Once they have cooled down, you’re ready to add the mayo. This recipe calls for about a ½ cup of mayo but you can add more or less depending on your preference. After you’ve done that, you’ve got your Brazilian Potato Salad all ready to eat!

Moving on to painting, there are many different ways to have fun painting even if you’re not an expert at it. For example, you can put your favourite coffee mugs or fruits to use, or even do silly finger art. This will help you capture art in its purest form by painting what you love, even if it doesn’t turn out the way you expect it to. When it comes to painting, there are many different options to try, such as acrylic, watercolour, and oil paint. All of these are amazing unique options for your artwork, so just choose one based on your preferences. The first thing you’ll want to grab for your painting is a piece of paper

or a canvas, then you’ll want to think about what type of painting you want to do.

Once you’ve decided what you’d like to paint either grab a brush or if you don’t have one, use your hands!

There’s nothing wrong with creating a little silly finger painting. Using references online may also help you with your imagination, but you can enjoy your painting

and make the most out of it on your own too.

Finishing off with movie nights! Movie nights are a great way to relax, especially if you’ve been stressed out due to school, work, or anything else. Take a bit of time for yourself and grab some popcorn, a drink, and turn on your favourite movie. Some suggestions include Scream, The Break-

fast Club, The Dark Knight, Coraline, Sixteen Candles, Pulp Fiction and American Psycho. Treat yourself to a proper night of relaxation because you deserve it.

You’ve worked so hard, and many of the people around you are proud of you, even if you yourself have not realized it.

mesh well with The Weeknd.

Overall, I did really like this album, unlike a crap ton of other Weeknd fans who seem to want all his music to be this writhing cesspool of darkness and toxicity. I personally liked this change,

with the Weeknd choosing to use a more 80’s pop/ disco kind of energy. I get that not everyone’s going to like it, but I think it’s a cool change.

Dawn FM was pretty good, and it’s a solid start to 2022 (especially after the

dumpster fire that was 20202021), but I’m expecting a ton of great music this year, so whether I keep listening to this album mostly depends on what we get in the future.

Dawn FM album review By: David Lee

O

kay – so before I start, I just want to say that I am by no means a huge Weeknd fan. I enjoy his music, but I’ve never really taken the time to listen to his older stuff. From what I’ve heard, I generally like his stuff, but when it comes to the artist and the genre, it’s just not my bread and butter. That being said, I didn’t really have any expectations for this album, other than it just being something well put together; I know the Weeknd is the type of artist to take his time with his work, not just shoveling out mediocre trash every 3 weeks. The first thing that stood out to me was, obviously, Jim Carrey, which was a huge trip, but like a good trip.

I didn’t really like Track 2, “Gasoline” at first, especially because of the accent he was using, but after almost 7 listens, it grew on me heavily and it’s probably one of my favorites in the al-

bum now. My biggest gripe with this album, though, is that when you have 16 tracks that all fit within the same kind of genre, it starts to blend together. To me, all the songs are pretty good, but a lot of them do feel very similar, which is probably why I wouldn’t listen to them as much.

After a while, this “Forever 21”-type-retail-storemusic kind of feels drawn out – but then again, I could totally see these songs doing numbers on the radio.

I just don’t think I’d listen to this album in its entirety too often. My favorites on this album, other than “Gasoline”, were “Out of Time”, “Best Friends” and “Is There Someone Else,” mainly because they had really good hooks, clean transitions and they felt like they stood out from the rest of the album.

Since I enjoy slower music, I appreciated these tracks for their pace and relaxing demeanor.

Photo: Universal Music Group

I also appreciate the lack of features on this album, as with the Weeknd specifically, I prefer it when it’s just him. In my opinion, the Tyler and Wayne feature on tracks 8 and 14 didn’t really fit. To me, I don’t think there are many artists that

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 13

Culture

Photo: Bon Appetit

Benefits of home cooking By: Hannah Wang

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ext time you think about going out with your friends at lunch, you might want to rethink that decision with the many benefits you get when enjoying a home-cooked meal.

Cooking at home gives you the ability to know precisely what goes inside your food, and ensures that you are eating exactly what and how much you want to eat to fill your appetite. In addition, it ensures that you’re not wasting as much money on food that most likely contains harmful chemicals.

Has there ever been a time you wanted to keep eating this one dish you tried at a restaurant, but it’s not affordable to just go back for it? Making that dish at home, and even trying out new foods by home cooking, can kickstart a good

habit.

Know a picky eater, or are one yourself? Cooking your own food at home can completely solve that issue, as you’re able to guarantee the ideal meal. You can alter the dish however you want; even those small details that make a big difference! For instance, cooking the exact amount of food you want for you or your family won’t be an issue. Portion sizes are almost always unreasonable when you eat out.

Paying $15 for a small combo again? Even if you’re resorting to the great deals at McDonald’s, the ingredients are absolutely cheap and will cost you your health in the long run. Speaking of fast-food restaurants, many of them feature MSG; KFC, several Chinese food restaurants, and almost any place that offers processed meat contains the harmful mono-

sodium glutamate that tricks you into thinking their food is mouthwatering. You never really know if your burger has harmful chemicals like MSG (unless you really are someone who reads every single ingredient on their website), but when cooking the meat yourself, you’re much more aware of what goes inside it.

Knowledge of the ingredients and overall food you’re consuming is a perfect segue to my second point. Since you’re the one flipping the pan, what you put in it is all up to you.

Thus, this is especially helpful to those who have allergies, especially to common ingredients found in many restaurants, like milk, eggs, soy, wheat, and the classic, nuts. Additionally, if you’re someone that’s trying to reach/maintain a specific weight, you’re fully in-

formed about calories and other important nutritional information. The extra precaution automatically taken when cooking at home ensures your health to the fullest. Eating the right food for your body is crucial, and that starts with being completely cautious of everything in the food.

When looking at the prices of items on the menu, it may seem like no big deal, but once you take a look at the bill after a full meal, both you and your wallet’s fears become a reality. Hence, what’s better than starting off 2022 by being as wise with money as you can? This resolution doesn’t mean buying tons of groceries every week and not eating out, but instead cooking what you already have stored at home. When you finally run out, you then head to the grocery

store, and tada! You’ve saved 2 or 3 times more money than you’d usually spend per week! Even then, eating out once in a while isn’t bad, but research done by Forbes proves that order delivery from a restaurant is 5 times more expensive. Even meal kits are 3 times more expensive despite all the exaggerated prices advertisements show you. If you’re ever worried about wasting money when you cook too much with extra food left, you can preserve it in several ways, like giving it to a neighbour, family friend, or even saving it properly for tomorrow’s dinner as well.

Cooking at home prevents picky eaters from facing struggles from restaurants with the exact taste, promotes being careful with your health, and a great bonus is saving an excellent deal of money that could be

spent on something you’ve always wanted. Therefore, before school the next day, remember how much more beneficial it is to pack food you certainly know you’d enjoy. A nice, warm, homecooked lunch will just do it.

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 14

Culture

Photo: Vijit Bagh

A man disguises himself as an onion vendor to return home amidst COVID lockdown By: Sophia Zhang

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uring early April 2020, Prem Murti Pandey, a 36-year old man working in Mumbai, India, faced a predicament. COVID-19 cases were rising rapidly, and his country was entering a lockdown. Services were being halted, factory work was being suspended, travel by plane and vehicles was being restricted, and the citizens were told to quarantine themselves at home. However, Pandey didn’t want to be stuck in quarantine in the coronavirus hotspot that was Mumbai, alone and socially isolated; he wanted to return home to the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, where the rest of his family lived and where he thought he would be safer.

According to Pandey, he had already spent 21 days in Mumbai during the

lockdown before he finally devised a plan to reunite with his family. At the time, roads were only open to essential travellers; any sort of road travel that was deemed as non-essential was prohibited. Pandey’s plan revolved around exploiting this technicality. If driving home to Prayagraj was considered non-essential travel and was forbidden, then he would simply become an essential traveller.

Pandey noticed how crop vendors were permitted to bypass coronavirus restrictions to travel across India. He wanted to test this for himself, so he walked from his home in Mumbai to the city of Pimpalgaon in Maharashtra. There, he bought 1,300 kilograms of watermelons, which he arranged to be sent back to Mumbai to a local fruit seller.

The plan went off without a hitch. The vehicle carrying the watermelons was given access to the roads, and because Pandey had made a deal with the fruit seller beforehand, he even made a profit.

With his trial having yielded surprisingly successful results, Pandey decided it was time to set his next plan into motion.

Once again in Pimpalgaon, he spent 200,000 Indian Rupees (which is equivalent to roughly 3,371.61 Canadian dollars) to buy 25,520 kilograms of onions. He stored the onions in a truck that he had rented and drove off towards his home in Prayagraj, which was located more than 1000 kilometres away. Pandey passed numerous COVID-19 checkpoints along the way, but fortunately managed to escape detection by posing

as a vendor transporting onions, which were considered to be essential goods.

When Pandey finally reached his destination on April 23, his first course of action was to find a market to sell his onions. Unfortunately for him, Prayagraj was facing a surplus of onions after the lockdown had shut down the majority of manufacturing plants and restaurants, who had previously been the biggest buyers of onions. In essence, the onion supply far outstripped the onion demand, and Pandey couldn’t find anybody who was interested in buying his onions.

To make matters even worse for Pandey, his actions were discovered by the police the very next day after he had arrived home.

According to an interview with the police conducted by

CNN, “He [Pandey] has not shown any symptoms of coronavirus but he has been kept in a quarantine centre as a precautionary measure for two weeks.”

Though the effort Pandey made to return home was admirable, ultimately, he could not evade the law.

He still had to isolate himself in a quarantine centre for two weeks, and now has to find a use for his tragically large and unsellable stock of onions.

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 15

Editorial Photo: Kaboompics

You should care about the Oxford Comma - here’s why By: Victoria Gotcheva

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hen listing the Timbits flavors that Tim Hortons offers, should you write “chocolate, blueberry, and raspberry” or “chocolate, blueberry and raspberry”? Although the difference between these two variations may appear minor, the comma separating the penultimate item in a list from the last is a bone of contention for many people. The Chicago Manual of Style insists that the Oxford comma — also known as the serial comma — be used in any list of three or more items, while the Associated Press Stylebook only upholds its inclusion only in situations where ambiguity cannot otherwise be avoided. In addition to inciting a lawsuit that cost the Oakhurst Dairy Company over $5 million, the controversy surrounding the Oxford comma has sparked a wider discussion about the importance of good grammar. Although numerous individuals have expressed their concern for the proper placement of commas,

others have regarded punctuation as a trivial matter.

Despite this, grammatical proficiency is directly linked to effective communication, and learning about the rules of grammar should be valued rather than treated with disdain.

Language allows people to share information with while expressing thoughts, opinions, and emotions. Having specific rules that people have agreed upon and abide by creates commonalities between how people communicate using language. This facilitates interactions between individuals and keeping grammar conventions in mind when writing can make the finished product less confusing for others to read. Clarity helps ensure that the main message of a written work gets across to the reader and that the emotions intended to be relayed are effective. This is especially relevant for pieces that deal with serious topics and aim to persuade the reader to adopt a certain stance.

Being knowledgeable about proper grammar and making use of it when writ-

ing is also important for establishing a degree of professionalism. Work that is filled with grammatical errors or inconsistencies suggests that the writer did not care enough about the task to pay attention to detail, which, in a work environment, can affect which employees get promoted and which applicants get hired. In fact, there was a study that showed that four in ten job candidates are turned away due to poor grammar and spelling.

Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, strong writing skills are required for a wide range of professions, not only those like journalism and copy editing that are traditionally associated with English majors. Some jobs in the STEM fields, for example, involve writing papers about the findings of a research project, and according to Kristin Sainani, a health policy professor at Stanford University, “Scientists need to know how to write to get their work published and get grants.” Clear and compelling communication is necessary for people to

want to invest in and support new ideas.

In this day and age where there is a heavy reliance on technology, many people argue that they do not need to worry about grammar because of writing assistants, such as Grammarly, that can do that for them. Such softwares are not perfect, however, and existing knowledge of the grammar conventions related to a recommended edit is often needed to determine whether the software’s suggestions are appropriate.

Koltovskaia’s 2020 study, for instance, revealed that

Grammarly only helped students who had incorrectly implemented rules that they were already familiar with. Being overly reliant on technology can also become problematic in situations where the completion of a writing task is monitored and it is not possible to use grammar-checking software. In addition, people with a high level of grammatical proficiency are needed for the creation and improvement of writing assistants.

Whether you support the use of the Oxford comma or not, taking the time

to learn about such topics related to grammar will help you make more intentional and informed decisions when writing. The clearer and more effective communication that results from a deeper understanding of grammar conventions can be an asset for solving problems that directly affect many people. While it would be unreasonable to expect everyone to be a grammar expert, it is important to remain curious and to make the most out of the opportunities for learning and improving that you have or can attain.

Photo: Leah Kelley

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 16

Comics By: Alice Guo

By: Crystal Zhu

Copy Editors

Credits: (Continued)

James Yan Raymond Qiu Stephen Tran Nitya Kharidehal Navam Thind Saanvi Dixit Nayeema Rahat Jahan Riya Piryani Sophia Zhang

Layout Designers

Alex Lu Shahzaib Siddiqui Aakaash Rohra Amy Tang Mina Jeremic Krish Singh

Photographers:

Meesha Hasan Abinaya Sivashanmugathas Rachna Venkatesh Mashal Khan Leon Yang Akshay Satish Samantha Chen Varun R. Dhanam Ayaan Nawab

Advice Columnists "Egg" Savithru "Natsu" Kannuri Harshta Batra

Comic Artists

Alice Guo Crystal Zhu