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.