Revised Paragraphs C and D

C) Online chat rooms have become a great source of communication. By utilizing a chat room you can talk with lots of different people all at once. These people can be from all over the world, or your next-door neighbor. A lot of classes around campus have the chat rooms set up privately for only the students registered in that class. Chat rooms are very effective resources because they have even allowed me to converse with other members of my Biology class to discuss the lectures and labs. The chat room is a good resource to use inside and outside of the classroom.

D) In Los Angeles (L.A.) the use of dogs in the police force has been rejected, and the use of weapons is preferred. During the Watts riots, which took place in L.A., officers employed guns as means of protection; some looters and perpetrators were killed (Knutson and Revering 64). Clearly dogs are a more suitable and effective alternative to weapons. The purpose of canines in the police force is to provide an alternative to excessive and deadly force. Although suspects have claimed to be badly bitten, these cases are extremely rare compared to the many documented good deeds and rescues involving human lives performed by police canines. It has been concluded by the 6th Circuit Court that, "since deaths are rare in police dog cases, deploying dogs cannot be condemned as deadly force" (Savage para. 12).

Cohesion Exercise

“The use of E85 fuel and the production of its component ethanol has become an increasingly popular business in America. @[However], the production of the ethanol is not very energy-efficient. * For my next paper, I will write a proposal paper on what can be done to make the production of ethanol in America more energy efficient. @[I will accomplish this by first] explaining why the production process of E85 needs to be revised. @[Then] I will proceed to give an alternate plan and resources for making E85. @[Finally], I will use Brazil’s methods of producing ethanol to show that ethanol can be produced in an energy-efficient way. Brazil has developed a very efficient way of producing ethanol, using sugarcane and its byproducts, to make an ethanol-gasoline mixed fuel. @[Nevertheless], I need to find more sources on the actual production process of ethanol in Brazil and America in order to accurately make my proposal.”

This is my topic proposal, slightly revised. I used this in class for the cohesion exercise. It helped me add a few transitions to the paragraph and I also revised it some. The @[] is the cohesion, or transition, word used between the sentences to help it flow. The sentence after the * is the topic sentence. This exercise helped me revise this paragraph to make it better.

Canceling Tiger-Burn

I haven't really heard about the decision to cancel the traditional tiger burn before the Clemson game this year. I didn't even know what the tradition was until this year because I grew up in a predominately Clemson family, with myself being the exception. I think whoever made the decision to cancel it this year has made a mistake. It's been a tradition for a very long time, and they probably want to cancel it because they think it doesn't make the school look good. This game is between schools that have been rivals for an extremely long time. Why did they choose to cancel it this year when it has been happening every year for a long time? I think someone doesn't want to give the school a bad reputation, although by canceling it many fans are disappointed before the Clemson-Carolina game. People might also think it is disrespectful because of the Ocean Isle tragedy. I think the people who died in that fire would want the tradition carried on. I knew some of those students, and they were always huge on school spirit in high school and in college. They would have wanted the tiger to burn before the Clemson game.

Carolina Reader Ch 7 #5

In their articles located in the Carolina Reader, environmentalists Patrick Moore and Jamie Lincoln Kitman make surprising arguments not usually associated with environmentalists. Patrick Moore's argument is about the effectiveness of hybrid cars and why they may not be very effective. Kitman's argument is for nuclear energy and whether we should pursue it as a reliable energy source to replace coal.
Moore supports his argument by giving facts about different hybrids and why they are good or bad. In some cases, he says a hybrid makes sense, like driving a Toyota Prius around town where it gets great gas mileage. Yet while the Prius and other cars like it get very good gas mileage around town because they run mainly off electricity at low speeds, they use all gas at highway speeds, making it less efficient for highways. Likewise, some hybrids, such as hybrid SUVs, don't get much better gas mileage overall than their gasoline-powered counterparts yet cost a lot more. Moore also defends his argument against a failed bill that proposed a tax break for those who own hybrid cars. Moore points out this doesn't make sense when a person driving a hybrid Dodge Durango, getting 14 mpg, gets a tax break while someone driving a fuel-efficient Civic doesn't. Moore is effective in showing how hybrids may not be just that great.
Kitman makes his argument by stating that even though he is an environmentalist, there are some good things having nuclear energy could do. Replacing coal plants with nuclear plants would greatly reduce carbon emissions and emissions overall. The alternative solutions can't produce the quantity of energy that nuclear energy can produce. Recently, technology for nuclear technology has advanced and plants can be constructed that are very safe. The biographies for each author influences their persuasiveness because it shows that they have a thorough knowledge of the subject. It also shows that they have researched the opposing argument and therefore are able to counter that argument effectively.

Chapter 7 Question 4

Jeffrey Kluger and Richard Lindzen, in each of their articles, discuss global warming and the effect it has made and will make on the Earth. Kluger's argument focuses on what is causing global warming and what will happen if we don't stop it. Lindzen's argument focuses more on the alarming claims that scientists are making without having supporting evidence. The arguments are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Kluger uses carbon dioxide frequently in his article as a main reason humans have caused global warming. Lindzen doesn't focus on the causes, but on why the scientists are publishing papers complaining about global warming without any sufficient evidence. Kluger gives examples of studies that have shown an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere lately. Kluger argues because of the increase in temperature due to carbon dioxide, there are more natural disasters that are more devastating. Lindzen doesn't really talk about the cause of natural disasters being due to carbon dioxide emissions. Although I don't necessarily agree with it, Kluger's essay is more persuasive. It gives a lot of evidence and seems to try and appeal to the reader by appealing to their emotions.

topic proposal

The use and production of ethanol to make E85 fuel has become an increasing business in America. However, the production of the ethanol is not very energy-efficient. For my next paper, I will write a proposal paper on what can be done to make the production of ethanol in America more energy efficient.

I will accomplish this by using Brazil’s methods of producing ethanol to help form a way America can produce ethanol efficiently. This can be done by using a source other than corn, and by changing how the production plants are powered. Brazil has developed a very efficient way of producing ethanol to make an ethanol-gasoline mixed fuel. I need to find more sources on the actual production process of ethanol in Brazil and America in order to accurately make my proposal.

Issue from Exploratory Paper

1. The three perspectives from my exploratory paper on E85 ethanol fuel vary. The first one is that E85 is bad for the environment overall and is not energy efficient. The second argument is that E85 is not produced effectively right now in the United States, but there is hope for it. The third argument is that E85 is very good for the environment and can help reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The second argument is dominant because it has great promise. Even though production in America isn't efficient today, there are many possibilities to help improve it.

2. I believe that the second perspective should be the dominant one because it has lots of possibilities to become a very efficient and cost-effective alternative fuel.

3. The perspective cannot be enforced as a policy but more as a proposal as to what can be done to help make the process better.

Campus Issue - Parking Issues

On the campus here at USC, there are many issues that need to be resolved. One that affects many students is the parking issue. Students that live on campus and have a car usually need to purchase a garage spot in order to have a place to park their car. As of this year, the parking lots at the Coliseum are closed from 2am to 6am. This means students have to find parking elsewhere. What happens when the student doesn't need their car everyday, but have to move it each morning to find a different parking space. Because the Coliseum lot is closed, many resident students with a regular parking pass have had trouble finding a parking spot. Some students don't want to pay for a garage spot, which over the course of the year is at least 5 or 6 times more expensive, if not even more. The school needs to leave the Coliseum lot open all night and all day so that students who live on campus can have a place to park their car without constantly thinking about when and where they need to move it the next day or night.

Playing Devil's Advocate:
I believe that the Coliseum is closed so that cars aren't left down there overnight each night. The school probably wants to leave them open so that commuter students will have a place to park. Another reason I think they close them for 4 hours each night is so that the school will make more money by selling garage spots. Garage spaces also went up in price for this year. Bull Street Garage, which being the most expensive costs $320 a semester, can probably hold at least one or two thousand cars just in the first two gates, not the third visitor gate. When added up, that is a whole lot of money. That doesn't include the other 3 parking garaged available to students. I'm pretty sure this is another reason as to why they won't keep the Coliseum, and any other lots like it, open at night.

Achenbach's essay vs. Reilly's essay

These two essays have to deal with swearing in public. Achenbach's, titled "The F-bomb", is mainly arguing that "we must...protect this word, and ensure that, years from now, it remains obscene." Reilly's claim is that people just swear too much and it needs to be stopped, including himself. They are each arguing their claims from opposite perspectives; Achenbach supports it, at least one very strong word, and Reilly is arguing against it stating it has become to common. However, they do share some views. Reilly's support for his argument mainly comes from college sports examples and how the students behave. He believes they should be more civilized instead of chanting using the f-word. Achenbach has a similar view as to the swearing of kids. He believes that swearing should be just for adults, not kids. Otherwise, the articles differ in perspective. Achenbach is all for preserving the f-word for times when a strong swear word is needed. Reilly is trying to get people to stop using swear words, but they can substitute words that sound similar. I buy Reilly's perspective more. I believe there is too much swearing going on in the world around me, but I'm fine with substituting other words. As long as it is publicly acceptable, it's ok.

Freewrite

At the beginning of high school, my view of the girls that were pregnant or already had a kid was that they were different than me. Then, in my junior year, one of my friends found out she had been pregnant for two or three months but had miscarried. This definitely changed my perspective of teenage mothers. When she found out that she was pregnant, before and after she knew she had miscarried, we talked about it almost everyday in class. One thing she pointed out was very true; most of her friends would have deserted her if she had actually had the baby, especially some of the friends we had in common. I knew that I couldn't desert her in her time of need. Another incident that affected my perspective was a girl in one of my classes last year had a two year old son. The strength and determination she has shown to continue to achieve her goals is amazing. This fall she started college, and took her son with her. Teenage mothers can be very strong, sometimes more so than others girls their age. They may also need the friendship and support of others around them, even if they don't specifically ask for it.

SWA #9

6. The effect of the ethos presented by Wendy Shanker is very convincing. In the exert from her book The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life, Shanker uses her own life experiences to express her opinions on body image and the word “fat”. By doing this she comes across as being a very believable source because people tend to believe something if it can relate to a person’s life. Her target audience for her book is a woman who feels that she is fat, whether it is true or not. In her book she points out that even women that are a size 2 can feel fat. This book reaches the targeted audience because any woman that has ever felt that way can relate to the experiences that Shanker has experienced and mentioned in her book. Most women feel insecure about themselves, and this book may help them to learn how to love themselves and their bodies, regardless of how they look.

7. In Eleanor Randolph’s article titled “The Big Fat American Kid Crisis…and 10 Things We Should Do about It”, she presents her argument by stating what is causing kids to get fat and 10 things America can do to help stop and prevent it. She blames most of the cause on “Big Food”, or the food companies that target children to advertise their fattening foods. Then Randolph proceeds to give the ten ways to improve kids’ nutrition and health, and most of the reasons have to deal with how to stop “Big Food” from reaching kids. However, she isn’t very effective in making all of her proposals seem feasible. Some of her proposals, such as the subsidies and food labeling, would be very hard to accomplish if it could be done at all. Getting the government to change something is hard, especially something such as changing the values of food stamps depending on what it is used to purchase. By doing so the government would have to establish a very strict guide as to what a healthy choice is and what junk food is. There are also foods that fall in between that category. This poses a large complication to creating these subsidies, and this example is only one of Rudolph’s proposals.

Questions for the Reviewer

**Does my paper flow very well? I tend to have a problem with transitions.
**Is my claim clearly stated?
**Are there enough arguments for the supporting side of the issue? There were many more sources for arguments against it in some way or another.
**What can I add to make it a little bit longer?
**Is there anything I should change to make it more effective?

Freewriting

This last year has been a devastating one for the high school I went to. It seems as though some higher power has something out for the people that have recently graduated from there. The high school is James L. Mann High School in Greenville, SC. I went off to college thinking things were going to be good, I was going to make new friends and stay friends with those from high school. I didn't know that once I got to USC, four people I knew were going to die. My sister is still at Mann, a junior, and now I am constantly getting information from her on what is going on there and how people feel. Last year a guy that graduated two years before me was killed at a bar in Greenville in a gay hate crime. Another death last year was when a boy my brother's age died, I think he may have accidentally hung himself. His older brother was a year older than me. Now I'm off at college, ready to start a new life when one of my fellow classmates and three more that are older than me have already died.

How is body-image culturally constructed?

Body-image is a very touchy subject in America because, as Michael Rosenwald points out in his article "Why America Has to Be Fat", two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Body-image is not usually constructed by us, but by others. It is constructed by people who are in charge of what we watch, read, and do. This includes models, magazines, tv shows, movies, professional athletes, or just about anyone we could see as an example for how we are to live our lives. It is common knowledge that teenage girls want to look like the models in the magazines, and those models are unnaturally skinny and most of them have eating disorders. Yet this is what the industry uses as role models for vulnerable people. In addition, family members and friends can have a large influence in how someone feels about their body-image. I know I have had friends whose parents told them they were fat when they were already really skinny. Friends could also tell someone something playfully, but then they could take it the wrong way and try to fix that part of their body.
Everywhere you look in America, you will see an ad or show that stars a thin, beautiful person while most of America is becoming overweight. By having this "nationally accepted" body-image, most common people, who are most likely overweight, spend lots of money on dieting and gym memberships. This helps bring in revenue to the companies, even if they are never used by the consumer. The food industry also takes advantage of this trend by going against this type of body-image. It does this by producing meals and products with more calories and fat were produced few decades ago. This goes against the "tall, thin, and tan" idea that most people believe is the ideal body image.
This image holds true for people of most all ages, but it is especially true for younger people who very often may judge people on how they look. I have found this to be true at college and all during high school. My surprise in how America values looks and body-image came when my brother started middle school just over two years ago. When I was in middle school not so long ago, people weren't dressing very risky and constantly switching between boyfriends or girlfriends. Granted, some of the students were like that. But after picking up my brother every day after school last year and getting to know some of the other students there, my opinion on that age has changed. Students those age place a lot on their appearances. This is due mostly to society and what magazines and tv shows, especially on Disney Channel, have taught them to believe what is "cool".

Annotated Bibliography

“Corn lobby’s tall tale of a gas substitute.” Christian Science Monitor 12 May 2006.

This article addresses some of the benefits and downsides associated with using ethanol as an alternative fuel to gasoline. The newspaper Christian Science Monitor is published by The First Church of Christ, Science out of Boston, MA. It does not rely on wire articles but has writers located around the globe. Some of the information in this article is very helpful in writing my papers. I learned from this text that very little net energy is produced from making ethanol from corn. It also doesn’t help that in order to make the ethanol from corn, the processing companies use natural gas or coal to power the plants. Using coal counterbalances the greenhouse gains of using ethanol.

Dean, Cornelia. “Panel Sees Problems in Ethanol Production” The New York Times 11 Oct. 2007: A24.

Dean wrote this piece for The New York Times which is a very respectable daily newspaper. This article addresses some problems that may occur if we continue to produce ethanol at a faster rate. Dean gives information from a panel headed by the National Research Council that shows how producing ethanol would inhibit and possibly even pollute our water supplies. I am going to use this article to show that by increasing our corn production for ethanol, we are hurting our water supply.

Evans, David. “Race is on for ‘green gold’ of tomorrow; High oil prices have propelled biofuels into the global mainstream.” Birmingham Post 19 June 2006: Business 32.

In this article Evans presents sources of alternative fuels to the reader and focuses mostly on ethanol. He gives examples of how Brazil has developed a very efficient way to produce ethanol. Biodiesel is also mentioned in this article, including where it is manufactured and what it is produced from. I will use this article as a source to show how to produce ethanol efficiently and what the United States could learn from Brazil.

Gritzinger, Bob. “Flex Fuel for the Future; Is E85 the next unleaded or a pipe dream?” AutoWeek 24 Apr. 2006: 18.

The article focuses mainly on where actual ethanol pumps can be found in the country and what benefits we get out of using ethanol. The article was published in AutoWeek which is a very respectable automotive magazine published weekly. Gritzinger also points out that even though E85 costs about the same as gasoline; it gets 15 percent less miles per gallon. This source will help me in showing that most of the places to get E85 are in the rural parts of the Midwest and cannot be found in major cities across the country.

Lynch, David J. “Brazil hopes to build on its ethanol success; Nation aims to turn alternative fuel into a global commodity.” USA Today 29 Mar. 2006: B1.

Lynch introduces the fact that Brazil is now energy independent. The article focuses on Brazil’s production of ethanol fuel and how they plan on exporting more and more as the need for alternative fuels become more demanding to other countries. This in part is due to the fact that they are able to produce more sugar cane in order to produce more ethanol. The article was on the cover page of the money section of USA Today. This shows that it was a very hot topic at the time, and still is. USA Today is a source of news for all different aspects of life; it is a national newspaper. This article will be useful to me because it helps to show how a country can produce ethanol efficiently. It will also give me a resource for my policy paper.

“NPRA’s Slaughter: ‘Biofuels are not the answer’.” Oil and Gas Journal 13 Nov. 2006: 29.

This article is a summary of the views of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association’s president, Bob Slaughter, on America’s use and production of E85 ethanol fuel. Some of the quotes in this article by Slaughter are very relevant to my topic and I will use them in both of my essays to help back up my issue.

Potera, Carol. “Alternative Fuels: The Economics of Ethanol” Environmental Health Perspectives 1 (2002): A18.

Potera uses two different studies to write this article. She introduces different reasons as to why America shouldn’t focus on converting to using ethanol instead of gasoline to power cars. Some of these reasons include what the effects will be if we continue to grow more corn in order to produce ethanol. This article will be very helpful to me to show how the environment will be impacted by producing more E85 ethanol fuel.

Samuelson, Robert J. “The Upside of Recession?” Newsweek Web Exclusive 30 Apr. 2007. 15 Oct. 2007 .

Samuelson’s article is mainly about inflation and recession in today’s world. A few of the paragraphs have to deal with rising food prices. He attributes this rise to the production of ethanol in America and the use of corn for ethanol. This article is important to my essays because it helps show how using corn to produce ethanol has affected food prices and the production of meat and poultry.

SWA #8: Topic Proposal and Sources

Ethanol as a Fuel

In recent years, E85 ethanol has become an increasingly popular alternative to gasoline as a way to power our cars. Chevrolet is constantly advertising its flex fuel vehicles, or those that can run on both gasoline and E85 ethanol. The government also repeats itself often in stating that using ethanol helps to decrease America’s dependency on foreign oil. Advocates for ethanol also claim that it is an energy efficient way to power cars.

My paper will explore the effects of ethanol on America’s agriculture and how it reduces our dependency on foreign oil. I will also show how studies have shown that the production of ethanol may affect our water sources. Ethanol has also had an effect on rising prices of meat and food at the grocery store. The materials used to research this topic include articles from highly respected newspapers, magazines, environmental journals, and online publications.

My audience will be my classmates and those around me who may have an interest in this topic. Ethanol is becoming a more popular subject to debate, and more people are forming their own opinions on it. My goal is to write a paper that shows the different sides of using ethanol by showing what the pros and cons are of producing ethanol.

Works Cited

Dean, Cornelia. “Panel Sees Problems in Ethanol Production” The New York Times 11 Oct. 2007.

Gross, Daniel. “Popcorn: Is the ethanol boom going bust?” Newsweek 5 Oct. 2007 .

Potera, Carol. “Alternative Fuels: The Economics of Ethanol” Environmental Health Perspectives 1 (2002): A18.

Samuelson, Robert J. “The Upside of Recession?” Newsweek Web Exclusive 30 Apr. 2007. 15 Oct. 2007 .

Sever, Megan. “Is ethanol the answer?” Geotimes June 2006. 15 Oct. 2007 >.

Tenenbaum, David J. “Harvesting the Potential of Biomass” Environmental Health Perspectives 11 (2005): A750-A753.

Smoking Ban Brainstorming

**Who is affected by smoking bans? Smokers who want to smoke while at a restauraunt or out to eat. Restauraunt and bar owners are very affected by it. They may lose business to people who spend a lot of money there.
**Why are bans put in place? It is legal to smoke above the age of 17, but cities and counties are starting to put bans on where people can and can't smoke.
**Does this go against their rights as American citizens?
**Why are smoking bans put into place at all?
**Who decides where people can and can't smoke?

My PostSecret Card

The text on my card is "I don't love my parents, but I tell them I do". This kind of applies to my life, as I have felt this way before, but I haven't felt that way in a long while. I tried to pick a real topic that people could relate to. I think my classmates understood what I was going for and what I was trying to say. I don't know if they read beyond what the card said; no body said anything about that. The background is just white and the lettering is black. It is that way because I wanted it to be very plain and the text to stand out. That way people could interpret it as they wanted.

"Secret" Post

picture

The claim in this post card is that the author doesn't have feelings towards real life tragedies. The claim isn't explicitly stated, but it is there. The author says that they "cried for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars but not for the Tsunami victims". This could be applied to many tragedies today. People don't always feel for things the way they should, or how society expects them to. People have different ways of dealing with things, and that could be the reason why the author didn't cry for the Tsunami victims. The author could be just about anyone. Any person, whether it be a child or elderly person, man or woman, with any background could be saying this. The audience could also be any person. The audience could feel the same way as the author or the audience could be appalled that someone was capable of feeling that. The visual component isn't very strong. It doesn't draw in the reader immediately; it just shows a night sky on the top and some water on the bottom, but you can't see a wave like a tsunami.

visual argument

http://www.emsresponder.com/images/homepage/1004_cartoon.jpg

This cartoon gets the message across clearly that a person needs to take care of themself. It works in getting the reader's attention. The intended audience is for older people, probably those in their 30s or 40s. At that age, people become aware of what damage they have done to their body. It clearly states that if a person doesn't take good care of themself, they could end up having a heart attack (hence the man clutching his chest) and needing the EMT to come rescue them. This support is that the EMT is telling the man that it could have been prevented if he ate healthier and didn't sit in his recliner all the time. The evidence is that he is sitting in his recliner with his belly hanging out of his shirt and pants. The warrant is that it is common knowledge that if one doesn't eat healthy and take care of themself, there is a good chance they will have a heart attack.

Short Writing Assignment #6

Restricting Television Viewers
In his article titled “My Plan to Save Network Television”, writer and producer Charlie Hauck claims that old people should be banned from watching certain network television shows. The author points out that even certain television shows have a target audience of young people, it may end up that the primary audience of the show is elderly people, making the producers unhappy. He gives an example of a television show that should appeal to young people, but after the first episode it is reported that the audience is mostly older people.
The author is making this claim because he is a producer, and wants to target young people. One reason producers want to target young people is because they have a more disposable income and will spend their money very freely. Older people will not. Hauck does not introduce any opposing views, much less refute them. He sticks to his side of the argument and tries to persuade the reader to come to the opinion as him.

“Realistic Idealists”
In “Realistic Idealists” by Alex Williams, the author makes the claim that today’s generation of young people are getting more involved in community service; not just for their college applications but because they want to make the world a better place. He supports this by giving examples of what groups of students have done in recent years in response to devastating events, such as the deadly hurricane season in Florida in 2004, Hurricane Katrina, and the tsunami in Asia. The author tells how right after Hurricane Katrina, students at high schools across the country jumped into action to help raise money and send relief to Louisiana and Mississippi. The author also quotes different admissions officers from colleges around the country with their opinions on why they believe students are doing more and more community service.
The author became interested in this topic because his youngest daughter, unlike his oldest, became very involved in the community even before she entered high school. This led the author to wonder why today’s teenagers are becoming involved in the community. The author does introduce some opposing views, but doesn’t refute them very much. The author does acknowledge that one reason students may be doing more community service is because it looks really good on college applications, but that it is not the only reason. I think doing community service is very rewarding and that students are doing more of it because it makes them feel good about themselves.

Rhetorical Analysis

Essay"Where Have All the Criminals Gone?"
Central Claim:
"Legalized abortion led to less unwantedness; unwantedness leads to high crime; legalized abortion, therefore, led to less crime." (p. 443)

My Central Claim:
"Levitt and Dubner effectively show [how legalizing abortion is responsible for the drop in crime] by explaining why many other factors commonly believed by the public were not affective and how studies and statistics from other countries show the relation between legalized abortion and the drop in crime." (p.1)

My revised claim:
"The central claim is shown as the authors discredit other explanations for the drop in crime since the authors introduce the abortion theory after discrediting many other explanations and show how effective abortion was in that regard."

My conclusion:
"Levitt and Dubner leave the reader with basically no doubt in their minds that abortion had a great affect on the drop in crime in the 1990s." (p.4)

Rhetorical Analysis Outline

The two articles I read were "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" by Steven Johnson and "Where Have All the Criminals Gone?" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. They both would be a good piece to use for this assignment because they make really good arguments. Johnson makes a good argument as to why television can make one smarter and shows examples of why this is true. The piece by Levitt and Dubner, a chapter taken from their book Freakonomics, is very well written. I have already read the book earlier this year. This chapter is very controversial, but the authors use very good evidence in supporting their argument. That is why I chose to write my rhetorical analysis on the piece by Levitt and Dubner. Since I have already read it once, I feel I can really pick apart the piece and get a lot out of it.
My tentative outline is that I will first summarize the article, or at least summarized the argument and what they are trying to say in it. Then I will go into detail in the next paragraphs explaining what types of examples they used to back up their claim. I will also work on getting across what claim they are making, and why they made it. I want to use as much evidence as I can while also showing how well the argument is made.

SWA #5

Scared of Calling a Killer a Killer
The article “Virginia Tech and Our Impoverished Language for Evil”, written by Gregg Easterbrook for The New Republic, shows how the media is scared of making the Virginia Tech tragedy just that, a tragedy. The article talks about how many major television news companies and papers referred to Cho Seung-Hui, the killer, as a shooter and nothing more.
This article itself is more of a persuasive argument because the author wants to persuade the reader to think otherwise; to understand that Cho was not just a shooter but a killer, a murderer. The reader is not just an average reader either. The author’s targeted audience is most likely a person who reads a political news source, such as the one for which the article was written. The reader probably also has an interest in what happened at Virginia Tech that day.
The author didn’t have many constraints when writing the article; the main thing is that he pointed out all kinds of news sources, such as NBC and CNN, as being cowards for not referring to the killer for what he was. The author was also upset that the journalists and reporters made it seem as though Cho were out for a “shooting spree”, just as if he was going on a shopping.
Just like the author had his constraints while writing the piece, I had my own while reading in. A constraint that influenced me when I read the essay was the fact that I didn’t really watch the news much regarding this event. I didn’t know that the reporters referred to Cho in this way. It seems cowardly to do so, and it doesn’t help teach the nation and world that Cho was a killer, he wasn’t just a shooter. He killed 32 people that day, not including himself. This matter is not to be taken lightly, although it seems the reporters and journalists did take this way to a certain point. Easterbrook ends with a very powerful theory George Orwell showed in his novels; “unless we call a thing what it is, we can neither think about it clearly nor oppose it.”

SWA #4 Blogging vs. Social Networking

David Friedman’s blog is geared towards people who are interested in finding an alternative to air conditioning, preferably something more environmentally friendly. Friedman is an academic economist who writes short blogs to spur discussions on issues relevant to our world today. Looking at my friends’ facebooks, their writing styles and rhetorical situations are very different the Friedman’s blog. On facebook, people are writing to let people know about themselves and to socialize; they aren’t necessarily writing to start a discussion or make people think about current issues in our society. Blogging and social networking can be two very different things; they can also be two very similar things.
Differences in these two online forums vary in each case, but these are some of the differences that are true for most of these forums. After reading different types of blogs, I found that the format is usually similar to that of an essay or article. On social networking sites, the author tends to format it however they want with no real format. Blogging tends to be for more mature people who want to share their thoughts and opinions with the world. Social networking sites are exactly what the name says; a place for people to go to keep in touch with friends and colleagues while expressing themselves however they want. The audiences of blogging and social networking also differ. In blogging, the targeted audience is usually an audience that has an interest in the subject the author is writing about. On social networking sites, like facebook or MySpace, the targeted audiences are usually the friends of the author.
Even though there are some differences in these types of sites, there are some similarities. The first main similarity is that both of these types of sites are on the internet. The topics the authors choose in both blogging and social networking are usually to inform the readers. These topics could be that the author got a new haircut or have read an interesting article in The New York Times and want to share the article and their opinion of it with the readers. On a blog site, such as blogger.com, the user can create a profile and post a photo of them so the reader can see and learn about the author that wrote the blog they are reading. On a social networking site, the user also creates a profile with information about them and can post a photo (usually more than one) for the same reason. The user wants the reader to know who they are and what their background is.
Readers can find many differences and similarities in any sample of a blog and facebook. These are just a few that apply to the majority of both kinds. Just because they’re on the internet, it doesn’t mean they have the same characteristics. Blogging and social networking each have special characteristics unique to that type of forum on the internet.

SWA #3

My personal style of argument is more consensual then adversarial. I sometimes change my views on things if someone else can persuade me. I’m not always looking to change someone else’s views either. I don’t picture myself as a lawyer or a politician, someone who writes to change another’s views. I prefer to resolve conflicts and make everyone happy. I don’t like it when people fight over small things and can never come to terms and agree.
Argument doesn’t always have to be to change another’s views on an issue. This is how I view argument. People’s views can be different, but not to the point where nothing can be accomplished even though in our government we see this happen frequently. If people were more open to compromise, more things would be accomplished. Consensual argument is the way to go.

SWA #2 - Response to “Seeking Balance in an Either-Or World” by Kathleen Parker

The article “Seeking Balance in an Either-Or World” by Kathleen Parker is about the growing numbers of centrists, or people with moderate views, in America. Parker points out that even though most politicians cater to the extremes, polls have shown that the number of voters who claim themselves as Independent is growing rapidly. The author also discusses her views of abortion and how she is in the middle between both sides. One poll Parker mentions, published by The Economist in 2005, “broke down voters as 39 percent Independent, 31 percent Democrat and 30 percent Republican.”
I find myself agreeing very much with Parker’s article. She also talks about how centrist are looked down upon and that they are usually “weak”. I consider myself a centrist, or Independent. In most discussions I have with my friends and peers, I find I can see where both sides are coming from. In addition to this, I find that most times I agree with certain aspects of each side. This usually helps me to be a mediator of sorts between friends. I can imagine others who find themselves with the same positions as me end up doing the same thing.
Parker points out that the majority of Independent centrists are young people like myself. I don’t agree with either side of the spectrum; the very liberal or very conservative people. Our society should learn to accept that not everyone’s beliefs are at the extremes and to accept the people in the middle. People should not be forced by society to choose one side or the other just because society does not want to deal with people who agree with both sides.

SWA #1

Professor Michael Skube has many concerns regarding today’s college students. He has noticed over the last few years that most incoming college students do not read for pleasure, or much at all, and therefore do not have a deep knowledge of vocabulary. From my experiences throughout high school and now college, I have to agree with his concerns and beliefs. Throughout high school, I rarely saw my classmates read any required readings, much less something for their own enjoyment. I was also frequently involved in conversations with peers who would ask the meaning of a word I took for granted. These students included some of the top people in my class. I do believe his claims are accurate based on my own experiences.
I have also discussed this article with some other people I have met here on campus. They agree with Mr. Skube’s point of view on the subject. They also pointed out that most students stop reading once they are required to read boring books for school. I have a personal experience with this. In first grade my brother was one of the top readers in his grade; he was always reading books from the school library. Once his teachers started assigning books for class, he stopped reading for fun, and he basically stopped reading at all. The same happened for me and most of my friends. We loved to read through middle school and the earlier years of high school, but as we were required to read random books for summer reading and English class, we stopped reading books for fun. Over the past two years, I have read maybe two books that weren’t for school. I used to read a variety of books over the years.
I believe another reason for the lack of reading by today’s young population is the overwhelming amount of time students spend watching television and playing video games. Many students, including myself, feel there is a certain amount of television one should watch a week, or certain shows that everyone has to see. Most of my guy friends spend most of their waking hours outside of school playing computer or video games. I know this because they would talk about the different games in class. There are many factors that provide other entertainment besides reading, and these are just a few.
Todd Hagstette’s way of “aggressive reading” would help these students that do not spend their time reading and developing their vocabulary. By reading aggressively, as Hagstette states in his article, students are able to absorb the text much more so than by just reading the text once, especially if it is a complicated subject matter. When students can fully absorb and understand the text, they can acquire much more from the text and are more likely to take full advantage of the information in the article. If students spent more time reading aggressively, as Hagstette suggests, and less time watching television or playing computer games, they will have an advantage when they start college since they would be able to write much better.