Response #2

“Realistic Ideas” is a piece that explores why young people are doing far more community service than in the past. The main claim in this piece is that our generation is doing community service to help others in need not just to benefit themselves in the college admission process. This is most accurately shown by the use of statistics. The amounts of community service work has increased and the presence of many huge disasters in our world today. A great example of this is the use the example of the student that completes 500 hours of service. A student would not commit this type of time to something they did not feel strongly about. Again the opposite side of the argument was rarely even mentioned in the article.

Response #1

In My Plan to Save Network TV the author provides a humorous solution to the problem of advertising for older viewers of television. Charlie Hauck suggest that all television viewers over the age of 49 should not be allowed to watch the four major television networks. The target audience of TV networks is that of people between the ages of 18 and 49. This is because people in this group have a greater disposable income and are more likely to buy interesting products. The central claim can be summarized into “Mature viewers are threatening the well being of network television.” While this piece is obviously intended to be humorous it does however present a valid case for this outrageous plan. Many facts and opinions are used the most important being the fact the author thinks that older viewers are not important. In my opinion it does not refute the other side of the argument very well or even at all.

Claim

Essay- Going Nuclear:A Green Makes the Case

Central Claim- "Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power" (p. 308)

My Central Claim- Patrick Moore does an outstanding job at defending the use of nuclear power throughout this piece.

My revised claim- Patrick Moore's piece Going Nuclear does a great job at supporting nuclear power through the use of many useful statistics.

My Conclussion- Patrick Moore does an outstanding job at defending the use of nuclear power throughout this piece.

Prep for Rhetorical Analysis

Eat this now grabbed my attention. It is about the way the US is overrun by food. I think this is a good article to write a rhetorical analysis for because it is a very prevalent issue in my life. The article has many points which can be examined and the trace method can be easily applied.

Another essay I read was Dropping the F-Bomb. This obviously grabbed my attention because of its title. It is about the F-word it origins and its use in life today. I do not think this would be a good article to write about because of its humor and its content.

Another article I read was "Ugly, The American" by James Poniewozik is an article that discusses the effects of TV on immigration issues. It would be very difficult to write an essay on this article because of the content of the article.

Outline
Intro- Trace
Talk about society in America dealing with food
Talk about change in Attitude that needs to happen
Talk about changes in the food industry that need to happen
Conclussion

SWA #5

“Shootings” by Adam Gopnik is an example of a rhetorical argument used in society. “Shootings” was written shortly after the disaster at Virginia Tech this past spring for the New Yorker magazine. This article provides the reader with personal suggestions of what should be done in the United States to help limit these types of tragedies. The main idea of this piece is that gun regulation should become stricter. Gopnik argues that if the gun control laws had made it more difficult for Cho to obtain these weapons the outcome would not have been as grave in Blacksburg.
The targeted audience for this piece was the readers of the New Yorker magazine. While this is a very large target audience some of the audience can be swayed one way or another depending on the writing. Gopnik writes it so as to be emotionally moving and to provide logical ideas.
Adam Gopnik is the author of this piece. He obviously feels very strongly about the situation that occurred at V.T. He also does not mind challenging the people that run the government and how the situation was handled. One constraint that Gopnik might experience could be his personal experience. If Gopnik had a friend or family member involved he might feel much more strongly about the situation than if he was less involved. Another constraint could be being involved with a group that is pro gun control. This would cause Gopnik to push that idea more than other solutions. The exigence in this piece was the tragedy of the V.T. shooting that Gopnik believes might not have been as bad if gun control was stricter. Before reading this article I considered the selling of guns in the US to be very strict but after reading this I know otherwise. Gopnik managed to convince me that run control should be stricter so that more shootings do not occur with the ease of which this one seemed to happen.

SWA #4

It seems at least at first glance that both David Friedman’s “Ideas” and my Facebook account have little in common. They are both texts that are available to people through the internet. “Ideas” is a blog through the website blogger.com while my facebook account is through the social network facebook.com. With a facebook you have only little control of the appearance of the text while with blogs you have much more personal control of the appearance of the text and the appearance of the layout. In both these websites you can control an extent of the content on the site like the main blog point and you can delete posts if you don’t want it there. With “Idea” Friedman uses no pictures or videos to emphasize his points while on facebook I have added pictures video and have joined groups to show certain things. An example of this is the joining of a group called USC Class of 2011 to let people know where you go to school and when you plan on graduating. If Friedman had added a video to emphasize his point it would be similar.
The targeted audience of both forums is the reader of the website. The main audience of my facebook would be my friends to see what is going on with me while the audience of “Ideas” is anyone that agrees with Friedman’s idea on a particular day. Facebook can be used to convince people of how “cool” a person is. “Ideas” can be used to convince people of a certain idea relating to a topic.
The author of “Ideas” is David Friedman. Friedman is academic economist who teaches at a law school and has never taken a course for credit in either field. This qualifies him to give intelligent ideas on many things involving economics and law which include many different topics. Facebook is a site where people can write about themselves. Thus the author of my facebook would be me a college freshman at USC. I am the expert on my life so I can make my facebook the most personal. In “Ideas” some constraints are that the reader will agree with Friedman. Another constraint could be that the reader is intelligent enough to comprehend the writing. One constraint of facebook is that the person reading the article wants to know me or wants to contact me. Facebook does not contain an exigence. The exigence of “Ideas” is the reasoning behind his argument.

SWA #3

It seems that the consensual style of argument describes my style of argument better than the adversarial type of argument. Though my argument style might be closer to the consensual style of argument I still in some cases can use the adversarial type of argument. I believe that my consensual argument type comes from my upbringing and my life experiences. I was raised to where religion played a large part in my life and I have gone to church for my entire life. Religion I believe helps promote the consensual style because the idea of not wanting conflict is usually an idea found in religion. Also religion can contribute to this type of argument by the favoring of the community over the individual.
Also I believe that through my upbringing I gained my ability to stay nonaggressive in most situations. This is partly of how I grew up with a younger sibling and was forced at times to be nonaggressive. This was a good skill that my parents instilled into me as a young child. My parents also taught me to see many sides of an issue. They told me to not just see pro and con which in the end was beneficial. It allowed me to stay more open to new ideas and proposals. Also lastly I think my avoidance of conflict and my dislike of fighting is something that just happened through the course of my life. Through this analysis I believe that my argument style is more likely aimed to compromise an argument than fight just for my side. This is done to gain a middle ground more than an extreme on either side. In some cases that I feel very strong for or against I might not be as willing to compromise on the subject but in most cases I can compromise. Also when I argue I often times use personal example and emotions to help get my point across. I can though use concrete ideas and reasoning to help gain support for my position of an argument.

SWA #2

In today’s society it is very difficult to consider yourself a moderate in political arenas. If you present yourself as a moderate you are considered a person that cannot make up their mind. Both sides want you to come to their side of the spectrum even though it might depend on the issue or you might not be on one particular side on the issue. This occurs largely with the issue of abortion, Parker express her opinion but it is neither pro-life nor advocating abortion.
Parker in this writing points out how difficult it is to be in the public eye. The pressure seems like it would be immense. You would constantly be being pushed and pulled to one side of the spectrum. For this I applaud those involved with politics that manage to stay with a moderate position and not be swayed by the super conservatives and the super liberal sides of each issue. While these two sides exist most people lie between the far left and the far right in the moderate range. I consider myself a moderate and “independents are the fastest growing group of voters across the country” this is especially true for voters around my age. 50% of all voters consider themselves a moderate which leaves only about 25% for each end of the spectrum. Being a moderate is sometimes difficult because while you might see the conservative view on one subject while on another topic you might side with the liberals. Being in the public light would make this even more difficult having your every opinion scrutinized and questioned. “Extremists and ideological purists on either side of the political aisle condemn compromise” this idea leads to either the issue is considered irrelevant or gridlock is reached. People involved in politics must be able to see both sides of an issue even if they do not agree with them. Compromise is a vital part of the political process without it nothing would ever be done.

SWA #1

Michael Skube explains in Writing Off Reading how more often than in the past more and more college students are arriving unprepared for the writing aspect of college. While GPAs keep rising the knowledge of the English language is decreasing. Many college students cannot name more than a few authors and often times have trouble understanding the vocabulary used in the novel. His claims in my mind seem accurate although in many cases while students might not be reading novels and short stories they are reading web pages and magazines which contribute to our knowledge and comprehension of the English language. The truth is that less and less college age students read books but you cannot contribute the decrease in understanding to this, being that there is almost limitless amounts of information available to every college and high school aged student via the internet. While novels and wonderful poetry are available online students avoid them because there are less entertaining than most other works of writing online, they usually stick to blogs, news, and sports. The idea of aggressive reading can greatly help the college aged student. The idea that you must get uncomfortable to read could help in that they would be more focused on the reading and less focused on the reality show in the background. This is a major problem for lots of students in that most students where they read with music or a TV going. This is alright for some types of reading but not for readings that are for school and require a certain level of attentiveness. Most students read too passively, they do not take the time to comprehend difficult material. If students would take the time to analyze and comprehend material they might understand more and gain more from it. Another way that students can gain more from reading is by questioning everything in a book. By doing this students will internalize the idea and thus gain a greater understanding. If a student doesn’t understand something they should do it again. While this is a very basic concept it is also very hard for students to do it. If students could just follow the guide of aggressive reading than the rate at which student gain knowledge would improve dramatically. If the “A” students could add aggressive reading to there skill set the quality of writing would increase greatly.