The essay I chose to write my rhetorical analysis is called, “Did I miss something?” by Lowell Putnam beginning on page 189 in The Contemporary Reader. I chose this essay because I can relate perfectly to the author’s story. He talks about the effect that his parent’s divorce had on him. Even though it wasn’t a drastic effect, it did effect him somewhat. He goes into description about how divorces these days affect children very hard and can do a lot of damage at any age. The whole time while I was reading through the essay, I could see myself as the author when he described how he spends half of his time with his mom and half of his time with his dad. Being that I am a victim of a parents divorce, I have a lot of thoughts concerning the overall topic. I feel that writing an analysis with the main topic being divorce would be very interesting and personal to me.
video critique
I believe my presentation was very clear and well organized. I made sure that each slide topic led into another and had a specific order of when I should talk about each topic. All of my slides were well-arranged with attractive colors and pictures. My argument was very obvious and I thought, very convincing. Clearly, the arts play a crucial role in the school environment and I stated many reasons why that is. I also gave examples and scientific research that supported my argument. When I presented, I also made sure to take the audience into account because I would refer back to everyone’s art and music days back in elementary school. I do believe that I could have made better eye contact during my presentation. When I watched the video, it seemed like I relied a lot on my note-cards. I should have rehearsed a couple more times the night before. Other than that, I believe my presentation went well and I had a strong compelling argument with many supportive examples.
five literacy terms
Semantics: The way images relate more broadly to the issues in the world to gain meaning. It is closely related to semiotics which is the study of symbols. Semantics also includes looking at a symbol’s meaning through form and structure, culturally constructed ideas that shape the interpretation of icons, symbols and representations, and also a social interaction with the images. To develop an understanding of visual semantics you can ask yourself: Who created the image? Who comissioned the image? For what purpose was the image created?
Arrangement: This is the way that symbols, pictures, and texts are organized on the page. It’s important that the arrangement is organized in a visual presentation/argument because it needs to appeal to your audience. Also, having good arrangement will show how professional and creative you are and will also help you convince your audience.
Simplification: This means keeping your visual argument simple, keep in mind the phrase “less is more”. Having too much going on in your argument will distract your audience from your main point. It also might give off the impression to your audience that your thoughts are disorganized.
Color: Using appropriate colors in your visual argument shows tone and creativity. Different colors mean different things; for example, red stands for hunger. Using bright colors such as yellow or lime green might push your audience away because your visual argument is unreadable and straining to the eyes. Taking the time to pick out attractive colors will bring out your creativity, show good advertising, and also prove that you are serious about your topic.
Cropping: Cropping is cutting out unimportant information/pictures in your visual argument. You don’t need every single piece of information in your argument, it’s important to crop out extra information so you can keep your argument sweet and simple.
steps 1-4 pecha kucha: keeping the arts in schools
1. I think that we should be keeping the arts in schools for various reasons. The arts are a very important component to every student’s public school education, no matter where they live or what school they go to. The arts are a break from all of the heavy schoolwork the kids have during the day and help their imagination flourish. For these reasons and many others, arts should stay in the schools.
2. What’s at stake here, is not having the arts in schools anymore. The people who believe in my side of the claim would be furious because their kids won’t have the chance to be creative in the arts classes to expand their imagination.The other side of this claim is that the government would have more money for other things besides school.
3. The key term is for the students to be able to be creative and exercise the other part of their brain. I am going to define this idea by persuading the audience with research, different statistics and pictures from legitimate sources.
4. My audience is going to be consisted of school boards, parents, families, and the government. My audience will be very familiar with the issue because it’s a hot discussion topic right now. I hope to reach out to my audience in an emotional way as well as professional way to get my point across. I think they will take my claim into great consideration after I show how important the arts are for school and how there are specific statistics to prove it.
5 potential opening lines & titles
Titles:
1. “No it’s not hot in here, it’s just you”
2. “It’s a seasonal thing”
3. “One Giant Worldwide Scam”
4. “The Global Warming ho ho hoax”
5.”Climate Confusion”
Sentences:
1. “Save the earth! Go green! Recycle!” I am sure you have all heard those before. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that all of this global warming hype is true.
2. What is to believe anymore?
3. “Is global warming real?” “Of course, just ask the global warming tooth fairy.”
4. “Experts say this global warming is serious, and they are predicting now that by the year 2050, we will be out of party ice”, jokes David Letterman about the issue of global warming.
5. Newsflash: season’s change, glaciers melt, and pollution happens.
Editorial Critique: Still waiting
“Still Waiting” http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-superman-20101012,0,6677923.story
Note: (This piece of writing didn’t have a specific author, so I just used “he”)
1.) How does the author advance his or her argument? What strategies do they use to make their claim?
The author advances his argument by using supportive evidence towards his opinion. He uses evidence to prove that charter schools are basically not accepted to public schools and the union by saying that they operate outside the regular school rules, they receive tax revenues and their teachers often don’t belong to a union. Thus, charter schools are being resisted. Another fact he uses its, “in Chicago, 25 of 27 charter high schools outperform their neighborhood counterparts on state tests, according to 2009 Chicago Public Schools figures. Every one of the charters graduates students at a higher rate than the neighborhood schools. Every one has a stronger attendance rate.” This evidence makes you want to lean towards charter schools because oft he high attendance and graduation rate. The main strategy he uses to make his claim is the argument from authority. There are various political mentions and quotes throughout the editorial to show that there is a strong opinion about charter schools made by the government and numerous public schools.
2.) How does the author differentiate between their position and what others have to say?
To differentiate from his position and what others have to say, the author is uses very persuasive language when discussing his point of view. When he talks about the other side of the argument, he just states the fact and backs it up with an argument form his perspective. It is important that the author is strong and persuasive when trying to make a point towards his argument so that his audience will believe what he has to say, and hopefully take his side.
3.) How does the author incorporate opposing perspectives into their writing? What strategies do they use to anticipate objections?
The author incorporates opposing perspectives into his writing by saying how public schools feel about the charter schools. As I said in number one, he talks about how the public schools and the union resent the whole idea of charter schools because of how they operate outside the regular school rules, tax revenues, and etc. Also when he talks about the other side, he mentions talks about how there is a limit on how many charter schools can exist in Illinois. The strategy that he used to anticipate objections from the audience is when he uses short and bold sentences to get to his point. When he uses short sentences, he makes sure they are strong, and get straight to the point no questions asked. For example: “These kids and parents are being told to wait. They don’t have time to wait.” The objections he will get from these short statements will be controversial arguments upon the issue.
4.) How does the author make you care about the issue in question? What strategies do you see in the writing that speak to you as part of the audience?
The author makes me care about the issue by backing up his opinion with true facts that make you feel sympathetic towards the kids that are not getting a good education. For example, the statement that really got me was, “School officials draw numbered pingpong balls or slips of paper and call out the winning numbers for a coveted slot in the fall class…You won’t forget the crestfallen faces of the kids whose number isn’t called. Bring some Kleenex.” This statement was sad because you could really picture the kids being depressed because they are unhappy where they are, and they are not getting the education they deserve. The way the author speaks to the audience is casually, like he’s having a conversation with the reader. By using this strategy, it makes you feel like you are part of the conversation rather than listening to someone preaching about this topic.
A Modest Proposal: I’ll have a #1 with blue eyes and a side of sarcasm
Perfect house, perfect job, perfect husband… what’s missing? Oh right – the perfect child.
Technology has enhanced greatly in the past decade. Steve Jobbs brought us 20 different iPods, Nintendo broke out the Wii in 2006, and we’ve also discovered WiFi so we can Facebook while we’re in History class. Recently, technology has also brought us this possible ridiculous idea of creating the perfect baby with the use of genetic engineering. For only $19,000 you can have the baby of your dreams! Any takers?
Of course every couple hopes their kid will be successful, smart and beautiful. But what if you could get a 100% guarantee that your kid will be America’s Next Top Model or the school’s star athlete? It used to be that couples would be happy with their babies being healthy. Pretty soon they will be able to order them like a Subway sandwich. The thing is, a baby is NOT a Subway sandwich, it’s a human life.
Not only would genetic engineering be a long expensive process, but it would also be dangerous. Messing around with these genes can have great side effects that would be impossible to fix. These genes might become mutated during the engineering process and be crucial to the survival of the child. People are using the argument that this new technology can help reduce the chance of hereditary diseases. What if you could control whether or not your child was going to be colorblind?
There has been recent proof that this genetic engineering stuff can detect whether an embryo is carrying a cancerous gene. Do you honestly want to know whether or not your kid will have cancer in his/her future? I know I wouldn’t. And what if there is a cancerous gene found, what’s the next step? That’s opening a whole new can of worms. What’s the excitement of having a child if you basically are controlling it’s life before it’s even born?
All this baby science hype, started off with being able to choose the gender of your baby. Now you can pick the characteristics. When is it time to draw the line? Yeah sure, now you have the perfect baby. The thing is, everyone wants their kid to be the next Angelina Jolie. Think about it. Eventually, everyone will be exactly the same. Where will the diversity be in the world?
To me, this all seems completely unethical. What happened to the excitement of having a baby and just being content with it be healthy? Let the magic happen. You never know what you might end up with.
“I want my child to be a boy, with blue eyes and a star athlete.”
Would you also like fries with that?
jezebel response
Hopkin’s article is completely opinionated and satirical. You can tell when a piece of writing has satire because it blends criticism with humor in order to bring attention to a certain fault, problem, or shortcoming. If sattire is written well, it won’t only entertain but it will also make the audience consider problems that they otherwise might not have been aware of and maybe think up solutions for these predicaments. Freedom of speech is one of the highlights in the government and writers need to make sure they don’t take advantage of it. Finding an equal balance between freedom of speech and basic human decency can be a challenge at times if a writer finds himself very bias to a certain topic that he needs to write about. I do believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but just because you have the right to free speech, doesn’t necessarily mean you have to abuse it. You may come off as a threat or an attack towards a certain group of people. Therefore, publishers and editors need to be careful on what they have printed to the public. Censorship is up to the editor and the writer, together they need to make a mature decision. It can go both ways. An article without censorship can be useful in some situations because it can definietely help get the writer’s main point across. Then again, an article with censorship will avoid hurt feelings and controversial problems within the public. If a writer feels strongly against a certain race, gender, or ethnicity, they should go about it professionally instead of being immature about it. To avoid any conflicts, all the facts in the article should be truthful otherwise the writer’s career will be in jeopardy. False information about a certain group of people is not only extremely disrespectful, but will make the audience think low of the author as well as giving the paper a bad reputation.
reverse outline
So far for my research paper has an introduction and three solid body paragraphs.
Paragraph #1: The main point of the first paragraph is to inform the audience of what global warming is. I also go into detail about the history of global warming; various theories and when it came publicly known.
Paragraph #2: The second paragraph is about the effects global warming has had on the world such as the polar ice caps melting, animals becoming extinct, weather conditions, pollution and disease. I describe how each has effected the world and how drastic each effect has been.
Paragraph #3: The third body paragraph is about the opposing viewpoints that people have about the issue of global warming. I talk about the different reasons that people think global warming has been caused and how others think the whole concept is a hoax.
-Are the paragraphs properly focused, or are there multiple main ideas competing for control of a single paragraph?
For the most part I think my paragraphs are properly focus because I think I organized them in a way that leads one paragraph into another. Because of this, the paragraphs focus on one specfic concept.
-Now that you’ve identified the main point of each paragraph, does the topic sentence reflect the point?
I think I need to work on my topic sentences. I don’t feel like they are as strong as they can be. I make my points very clear throughout the paragraphs so I need to work on starting the beginning of my paragraphs strong.
-Are some of those ideas in a paragraph extraneous and should they therefore be deleted from the paper?
As I reviewed my paper, I do think I have some extraneous factors within my paragraphs but for the most part I think all my information I include in my paper are critical points that help make my point.
-When you look at the outline as a whole, does the organization of the paper reflect what you promised in your introduction/thesis?
Yes, the overall organization of my paper so far does represent my outline very well. The paragraphs lead into each other smoothly and have detail that refers back to the thesis. As I continue to finish writing my research paper I need to make sure I continue to organize as well as I’m doing now and keep things in a solid order.
exercise 2 p.38
There are various contrary arguments to Zinczenko’s claim about fast food restaurants being inexpensive and convenient. Although fast food restaurants are very convenient, they aren’t the most nutritious choice . Although it is not that difficult to pass both a McDonalds and Taco Bell on your way home from work, it is just more convenient and healthy to just cook a hearty meal at home. Chicken on the grill versus chicken mcnuggets for dinner is a big difference in calories. Another alternative to stopping for a snack at a fast food joint is to go home and eat a granola bar or a piece of fruit. Overall, there are a variety of other options to choose from instead of a cheeseburger at Burger King or a happy meal at McDonalds.
Zinczencko is correct in that fast food restaurants should be blamed for the obesity of children these days. There are commercials broadcasted everyday on the radio and on television, advertising the new deal of a dollar size drink any size at McDonalds or “check out our new fresh fruit smoothies”! McDonalds is also big on the fact that they have cool new toys every other week of the newest disney movie. Kids thrive for those toys like it’s the end of the world. What do you need to get in order to get those toys? A happy meal: chicken nuggets or hamburger, pick your cup of tea. Don’t forget the fries on the side and your small soft drink. It’s not only McDonalds that does this either; try Burger King, Taco Bell, Steak & Shake, Wendy’s, you name it – they have it. These places attract kids and parents because it’s cheap and an easy way out of making spaghetti and meatballs at home after a long day at work. Is it a good idea to sue these companies for the cause of obesity in our future generations? The majority might say so.
Both of these essays provide different viewpoints on Zienzencko’s article on fast food. There are various heatlhy alternatives to eating fast food and there are also various reasonings why people say that these fast food chains should be blamed for the obesity of the future. Whether or not the companies should be blamed for the obesity of our children is up for debate.
