The article I read by Aaron E. Keller, addresses the recent study which disproves the popular “five-second rule”. This piece is written from the perspective of a doctor, as he explains the recent findings which show that floors, in comparison to other items and places, really aren’t that dirty after all. The counter and handles in kitchens actually contain many more germs per square inch than the floor, and this is true throughout the house. Even in bathrooms, the counter, faucet handle, and more contain more bacteria than the floor or even the toilet seat. The author discusses how this common misconception has led to a lot of misplaced worry. We handle dollar bills, cell phones, atm buttons, gas pumps, and other public things that have a staggering number of bacteria per square inch. In fact, according to the article “One study, for instance, found that about 95 percent of mobile phones carried by health care workers were contaminated with nosocomial bacteria. Of those contaminated with staph aureus, more than half were contaminated with methicillin resistant bacteria (MRSA).” People worry about dropping a bit of food on the floor for more than 5 seconds, yet we constantly use our cell phones without ever cleaning them, and accept food handled by others with no knowledge as to if its been contaminated. Also the idea that food will be clean as long as it’s only 5 seconds has no validity either. Even the quickest touch will have the same effect, but it’s nothing to worry about in the scheme of things. Considering the filthy objects we handle daily with no problem, we shouldn’t be fussing over even cleaner things touching our food.
The article “I’m a Doctor. If I Drop Food on the Kitchen Floor, I Still Eat It.” is extremely relevant to society. This “five-second rule” is known by a great majority of the population and the amount of worry surrounded around dirty floors or toilet seats, has in fact, been in a way uncalled for. It’s important for people to be aware of the cleanliness of these daily, household, and public items. Most of society never cleans their phones or money, wipes down their keyboards, or washes their handles, when these things are actual contaminated with the most bacteria. Staying healthy is directly connected to washing your hands and such, so it is relevant and important for people to be educated on what poses the greatest threat to their wellness. Also, it is good to assure people that they don't need to worry or stress over little things like the five second rule. The author explains the strength of our immune system and our ability to fight off germs. We live on our cell phones every day which are covered in different bacteria, yet we never clean them and don't even consider the effects. But people need to recognize that we're still fine despite that, and a chip laying on the floor for a couple seconds isn't going to kill you.
Overall I felt Keller did a very good job with this article. He kep the language and tone personable throughout and easy to understand. Considering the information applicability to so many people the basic, welcoming level of writing is the right choice. The author also includes a lot of numbers and data which helps to increase this pieces credibility and convince the reader more easily. This article also was good about addressing the fact that one still needs to wash their hands and be cognizant of harmful germs, but that there are other alternatives to cleaning every little things or being overly cautious. The only things I found missing from this piece was acknowledging the fact and clarifying that not all floors are clean and can be eaten off of when u drop somethings. In this sense, I found that some of Keller’s points were a little bit too generalized which could lead to some misinterpretations by other people. If he just went and tightened a few things up and clarified a couple ideas, this would be an even stronger article.
I thought that Grace did a great job of summarizing the article. She used examples in her summary to help the reader get a sense of the topic; some facts she used to highlight the key points of the piece are that kitchen counters and faucet handles tend to have more germs per square inch than a kitchen floor, and that one study found that 95% of cell phones carried by health care providers are contaminated with nosocomial bacteria. Grace also stated the article's relevance to society well. In order to do this, she explained that most people do not wipe down their phones or keyboards (which contain large amounts of bacteria) but are uneasy about eating food that has fallen on the floor (which contains relatively less bacteria). Finally, Grace did a good job of debunking common misconceptions about germs, including the "5 second rule" and assumption that food handled by others is not contaminated with bacteria, which aided to the reader's understanding of the subject.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Grace did many things well in her review, she mentioned that the author used a significant amount of "numbers and data" in his analysis, but she did not include this data in her review. It would have been nice to have hard data to support her claims. Finally, there were a few grammatical and punctuation errors throughout, which distracted from the content of her report.
Grace's review of the article “I’m a Doctor. If I Drop Food on the Kitchen Floor, I Still Eat It.” educated me about the cleanliness of various household objects and helped me understand that eating food that has been on the floor is by far not one of the largest encounters people have with bacteria on a daily basis. This article is very relevant to people's daily lives, and it cleared up many misunderstandings I had about germs.
I think that Grace did a great job reviewing the article. One thing that I enjoyed about this review is how Grace incorporated quotes from the article in her summary. It allowed the reader of her review to get a sense of the article and how the author worded the point that he was trying to make. Something else that I liked was the detail that she used in her summary. Instead of writing a vague summary like other people do, she used direct examples like, “We handle dollar bills, cell phones, atm buttons, gas pumps, and other public things that have a staggering number of bacteria per square inch”. She also said, “People worry about dropping a bit of food on the floor for more than 5 seconds, yet we constantly use our cell phones without ever cleaning them, and accept food handled by others with no knowledge as to if its been contaminated.” And lastly, I really like the way she reviewed the article. She clearly stated what she liked and what she disliked giving me a sense of the pros and cons of the article. It was very clear and not confusing, starting off the first few sentences with the good things and finishing off with those that needed improvement.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I thought Grace’s review was good overall, I think that there are a few aspects of it that she could have improved. Sometimes she spelled some words incorrectly, not on purpose, but because she was typing fast. For one sentence, instead of writing “kept” she wrote “kep” which was probably just an innocent typing mistake. She could have reread her review to make it have less spelling errors but it did not make it too difficult to understand. Along with some spelling errors there were also some grammatical errors as well like some missing commas. Sometimes it made her sentences a bit confusing but overall not too difficult to understand.
Graces review of this article “I’m a Doctor. If I Drop Food on the Kitchen Floor, I Still Eat It," was very interesting and I learned a lot. I think that this article teaches a good lesson about our daily lives. How dropping a piece of food on the ground and and eating it is not any worse than touching your dirty phone, dollar bills, or atm machines. Overall I think that Grace did a good job reviewing this article.
Sophia Dibbini
ReplyDeleteCarroll, Aaron E., Dr. "I’m a Doctor. If I Drop Food on the Kitchen Floor, I Still Eat It." The New York Times. The Upshot, 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 12 Oct. 2016. .
I read the article and the review of “I’m a Doctor. If I Drop Food on the Kitchen Floor, I Still Eat it,” by New York Times, and I thought it was very interesting and I learned a lot. I liked many parts of this article. First, I love the title. It is so interesting and strange that it immediately pulls you in. The title made me want to read it right away, and I am glad I did. I also liked how the author of the article used the information everyone else already knew, and made a counter argument, showing that our prior knowledge is incorrect and drawing us in. Lastly, I liked how the author of the article and of the review tried to relate and be personal with the readers, it made the article much more interesting to read. Overall, I really enjoyed this article.
Although this article had its positives, it also had its negatives. First, I did not like how the author did not include the opinions of other outside sources, because we are listening to one person’s opinion and hearing from an outside source would open our eyes more. Also, I did not like how the article did not stem into another idea or topic, because it was kind of repetitive and it brought up the same ideas over and over, just changing the view. Even though it had its negatives, I enjoyed reading it.
I learned a lot from reading this article. I learned about how contaminated our everyday used objects are, such as our phones and door handles, and how us being worried about the five second rule is nonsense compared to this. This affects and impacts our society greatly because it relates to every person- no one knows where the germs really are and how much of it there really is. Overall, I really enjoyed this article and I look forward to learning more about this topic in the future.
Carroll, Aaron E., Dr. "I’m a Doctor. If I Drop Food on the Kitchen Floor, I Still Eat It." The New York
ReplyDeleteTimes. The Upshot, 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
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Grace Randall did her current event on an article about the infamous “five-second rule”. She summarizes the author’s reasoning for how he disproves this rule. A main argument is that floors are actually cleaner than many other objects that we come in contact with throughout our day. For example she states, “We handle dollar bills, cell phones, atm buttons, gas pumps, and other public things that have a staggering number of bacteria per square inch.” Our cell phones contain tons of different bacterias that we never would have that they contain. We worry about dropping our food on the ground for five seconds, yet the majority of us do not question the people who handle our food at restaurants. One final point that Grace made is that, five seconds would not have any different effect than one second, if the bacteria touches it for the slightest second it will have an effect.
I chose to read Grace’s current event because the title of her article intrigued me. I have always been a believer of the five-second rule, so when I saw the title of the article I wanted to read her current event to learn more. I think that Grace could have improved her current event by including the numbers and data that she says the author included in the article, because it would give her writing more credibility and authenticity. I think that Grace also could have included the fact that, just because other objects are dirtier than the floor, does not mean we should eat things off the floor, it really implies that we should be more cautious towards cleanliness.
Grace’s current event was very informative and the subject was extremely interesting. I learned so much about the filthiness of everything that I touch throughout the day and this is really something that everyone should know. This article review makes me think differently about keeping things clean, but at the same time not obsessing over things such as the five-second rule which is really irrelevant since the second a piece of food touches the ground, it is already contaminated with bacteria.