Free Write

This week has started off pretty crappy. First my car got towed on sunday night and I had to pay 250 bucks to get it out. It was such BS because my car was parked legally, there wern't any signs or anything. I thought my car had gotten stolen at first. So I called the police and found out it had been towed. I think I almost would have rather gotten it stolen so I could get insurance money and a whole new car. I love my car actually so I'm glad I got it back. But before I got my car towed I had gotten in a wreck a week ago, so my parents are not very happy with me. I told both of them but they haven't really responded too much. I think they are pretty pissed. Oh well what can you do. I found out that I got a job for the summer lined up, not too exciting though because I basically got my job from last summer again. Waiting tables at Posados. Hey at least its a job, I'm hoping I can actually find another one too that maybe makes a little bit more money. I've decided that I'm never driving again because only bad things seem to happen when I'm in the car. Sounds like a good plan.

Unit 3 Proposal

For Unit 3, our group has decided to do the legalization of marijuana.  We will take the acitivist side of the argument and basically break our argument down into three genres.  We will focus on our generation, our parents generation, and senior citizens.  Each group has a specific reason why marijuana should be legalization and we plan on discussing these reasons.  Our generation tends to use pot recreationally, our parents generation would like to tax marijuana in order to get some economic benefit out of the whole situation, and senior citizens would use marijuana for medicinal purposes to help with chronic disease and pain.  We plan on using some sort of political cartoon or poster for our medium as well as a business report or some type of report.  This way we can include visuals with the report, but still be able to get statistics across to our audience.  This is a great topic because there are a lot of sources and opinions on this issue so we plan on using these sources to get our argument across.  Sources with a lot of emotional appeal and ethical appeal will be our best bet when trying to get our point across.  By using a business report or newspaper article we will be able to get the facts across to our audience and as long as we include political cartoons and other visuals with it to keep it interesting.

In Class: Argument Book visuals

The first question that I found most interesting was the what argumentative purpose does the visual text convey? This applies to Unit 3, because this unit is about arguing one side of an argument so it is very important that you know the purpose of these arguments. Especially Visual arguments. A strong visual argument allows the argument to convey emotion across to the reader or audience. When readers see strong emotions in an argument, especially visually, we tend to express opinion on the matter. Another question like what emotions does the visual evoke? This is important in a visual argument, because getting emotion across to the reader is important, because emotions are very strong persuasive elements. The next question I found interesting was how is the visual text composed and where is your eye drawn to first? This is important in a visual argument, because where the reader looks first is their first impression on the matter, and how they will look at the rest of the visual.

In Class: Reading Last Night

The reading last night was a chapter about style in arguments. It started out with sentence structure and argument which talked about how to organize your writing in a way that makes your argument flow. This is important to argument, because if your reader cannot understand your writing, you will not be able to get your argument across to them. It then moved on to punctuation and argument, which talks about how to punctuate the most effectively to make your argument the most effective. Figurative language is also important to argument style. It is important to have good comparasion, because arguments usually involve some sort of comparing to something else.
In applying this to our Unit 3 paper, it will be important to make sure I have all of these things. We will need to have good sentence structure and punctuation to make sure to be able to get our ideas across. And having good figurative language is a necessity in all good writing, because it adds analysis to your claims.

Unit 3: Job Title

In our group of Jenna, Ashley, and Brennn, I am the research/technology guy.  Basically my job entitles finding sources, along with Brennan, for our topic.  I'll be responsible for finding a lot of information for our group to use, so I need to make sure I find good, credible sources.  By finding good sources, I'll be able to help make our presentation look credible and factual.  The second half of my job is to do a lot of the technology aspects of the presentation.  These means if we need any images, I'll have to make images in Photoshop.  I'll be in charge of powerpoints if we have one in our project.  Basically any program that we have to use, I'll be the one using it.  This role is pretty important to the group, because I'll be in charge of making our presentation look professional and clean, as well as streamlined.  The group won't be able to function correctly if our powerpoint is constantly messing up, so my role will add a lot of functionality to the group.  The other members in my group had other roles that will be important to the functionality of group as well.  Ashley is our group leader/organizer so it is her responsibilty to make sure we are well organized.  Brennan is our Genre researcher, so his research will be key to tieing in all the genres into our presentation.  All of our roles together will build up to a top-performing and organized group.

In Class: Group Project

This one time in high school I had to do a health project. I was in a group with people he didn't like to do pretty much anything. So I ended up doing everything, which sucked. But it was only highschool so it was like a powerpoint that took me an hour, but still I was pissed. Other then that most of my group projects have been pretty good. As long as people do what they are supposed to and turn in things on time its all good. A group needs a strong group leader to organize stuff and make sure things get done, so I guess that would be my biggest concern. Also, make sure that the work is distributed evenly.
An ideal group work situation would be a group that has everyone doing their part exactly the way they are supposed too. Getting things turned in on time, practicing their presentation part, helping others out that need it. All of these things would make a good group. Also a group that communicates well with eachother is ideal. You don't want people just sitting there not saying anything, because that gets you no where. Having fun in the group definitly makes it more enjoyable, but making sure the work gets done first.
The different roles of this group will include a team leader. The leader will be someone who organizes the group and sets others roles for the group members. They will also help make sure the project is getting accomplished in a timely manner. Another role would be researchers. These will be the people researching the subject and finding material to be used on the presentation. Another role might be a powerpoint creator, or some type of presentation. Of course everyone will help contribute to the presentation, but there might be like a technology type of role person. Leader, technology person, researchers are all the roles in a group.

In Class: Writing this semester

Looking back at my first posts on this site, I would have to say there have been many interesting things written. From introducing my self to writing about what I had for breakfast one morning, all of this shows just how much writing we did this semester. After doing all of this writing, I would hope that my writing has actually improved. Based off of my first post, I would say it has because I wrote pretty much ridiculous things. Although I appreciate all the writing we've done, I'm glad to have another Unit done and in the books. I'm not looking forward to moving on to the next unit however. No more writing please. Probably won't happen but I can always dream can't I. Right now my brain is so fried from writing so many pages last night, I would like nothing better then to just zone out and do absolutely nothing. That's what I'm gonna plan on doing any way, and actually I think that probably happens in class more often then I think it would. I would like to take a nap right now, that would be awesome. Maybe eat some breakfast since I didn't get too, because I was finishing the unit paper this morning. Done with writing for now.

In Class: Freewrite/Invention

They fit together because they are all different points of view of the whole Michael Phelps controversy. Each one has an author who states his side of the argument and then tries to back up what he or she says with evidence. Some of the texts do it better then other ones. The texts are similar in that they are newspaper articles with some sort of slant in them. Each one makes a different argument then the others, so they may appear biased. They are different because each article was taken from somewhere different in the world. One of them is from England, another is a local Pennsylvania newspaper, and the last one is a nationwide American paper. The meaning that I can make from these similarities/differences is that two of the paper share the same point of view so it will be easy to connect them. The differences allow me to show how different parts of the nation, as well as the world, reacted to the image of Phelps taking a bong hit. The difference in how each author backed up his claim was different as well. Some claims were backed up with solid evidence while others tended to be strongly opinionated.
The unspoken values and assumptions that allow this argument to function are the fact that everyone has an opinion about pot. Whether it be that you support it or you are against it, people will look at the issue and pick a side. Since a lot of people feel like pot is causing kids to lose their motivation and move onto harder drugs, the anti-marijuana side of the issue is strong. On the other hand, many people support marijuana use and are trying to get it legalized, so they will side with Phelps and support him. These three texts have led me to believe that we do live in a culture of assertion. People feel the need to give their opinions to newspapers or other forms of news outlets to get their points across. Although many times people do back up their assertions with facts that prove their point, many people tend to just say things that they think and not what is true. For example, the Hero Hoy article, Hero Hoy asserts his opinions without givng much evidence.

Unit 2 Propasal: Michael Phelps

I plan on doin my Unit 2 assignment on the whole Michael Phelps pot smoking controversey.  In the past couple months Phelps has been taking a lot of heat for a picture of him ripping a bong.  The image would shake his reputation up and caused many people to lose respect in him.  However, I think it will be interesting to analyze how different people reacted to this and what they published to assert their opinion on it.  We are supposed to tie in to how we live in a culture of assertion, so by analyzing what people assert about him or even what Phelps himself said in response to the picture will definitly be interesting.  Some people assert that he is a bad role model to their kids while others try to defend the olympian.  Both sides have taken stabs at what they think about it so it will be interesting to see what their explanations on their opinions are.  I tend to find my primary sources from different news sites (CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN) etc, etc with shows like Hardball and that good stuff have good opinions on the subject.  Also the picture itself of him smoking could be a source, as well as the statements Phelps gave after the whole incident.  Also all the online news databases with magazine articles about it, I'm certain there will be plenty to choose from.  I chose this case because I am a competitive swimmer here at TCU so I follow a lot of stuff in the swimming world.  When this hit the scene I thought it was pretty interesting to see all the different reactions that took place.  Whether you defend him or criticize him, there is evidence from both sides of it all.

In Class: Free Write

Well I haven't been to class in a week because I was at the MWC Championships so i really don't know too much going on other then that we started a new unit and it is a big one. So ya I have a lot of questions about that but don't know where to begin really. Like what do I do? Anyway I'm sure I'll figure it out. The end of my meet pretty much sucked because I got the flu and was pretty miserable and not able to compete very well. When I got back Sunday morning I had a 102.5 fever and basically felt like I was on my death bed which is not a good feeling. I went to the doctor and got a steroid shot and a antibiotic shot which worked wonders on me, and I was also prescribed some antibiotics. SO I'm feeling much better now on my road to recovery although I wish I was still in bed right now and not in class. Oh and I have to take a test in like 2 hours which will not be fun, because I don't really know how to do it. I'll just wing it I'm sure it'll work out. But ya I guess I should probably figure out what I should be doing in this class so I don't have to wing it in here. Sounds like I need to find some type of case study to analyze. Hmm case study sounds like the study of a case. I'll just wing it.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos of the Mall

For my unit 1 project I sat in the mall (in a sitting area as well as the food court).  The ethos of these areas are pretty different.  For example, I sat in front of foot locker for a little bit which I think makes the ethical argument that they are a good store to buy athletic shoes from.  The emotional appeal is that there are pictures of guys with really ripped calf muscles, so maybe guys will want to buy the shoe because they think it will make their calves look swoll.  Some logical appeal I saw in the store was mostly just sale signs which had some shoes for 20% off, which is making the argument to buy from them rather then a competeing shoe store.  I saw a mostly younger crowd in this area.  I was also by the store Forever 21 which appeals to younger girls so they are making the ethical argument that they appeal to girls.  Logical appeal in this store I saw were for sale signs in the windows of the store which had various items for a certain percent off.  The store is using statistics to argue that people should come and buy in their store rather then in a competitors store.  The emotional appeal of Forever 21 were pictures of pretty girls in their display, because if girls see beauty in the advertisements it appeals to them because most girls want to look fashionable.  The next area I went to was the food court, which was filled with all sorts of people.  Basically anyone who was at the mall was in this area.  I didn't really see any particular pattern of people at different restauraunts in the area.  Logical appeal at most of the restauraunts wassome sort of combo deal to try and out do the restauraunts next to them, although most of the restauraunts had a different variety of food.  Ethical appeal of say Subway was their slogan "Eat Fresh" so they were making the argument that they were the healthiest place to get food from.  Emotional appeal were all those juicy looking foods they had up on the menus that made you want to go to each store.  Those shots they get of those cookies look incredible, makes you hungry as you watch everyone else get them.  Other then that I feel like I had a pretty successful trip to the mall.

In Class: Visuals

My attention was drawn right to the cigarette, because when you see someone smoking a cigarette it usually says something about the person. Also this is a little girl smoking this cigarette, so it says that she is rebellious or maybe making poor decisions. In our society smoking is frowned upon because of the negative effects of it, so when you see someone smoking a cigarette you usually have a negative attitude towards this person.
The image kind of has a focus on the cigarette because it's dead in the middle of the picture, and the lighting on it makes it like bright. And then the girl has a white dress on so all the focus is just right in the center. The girls face is really depressed looking and she has bags under her eyes. Looks like she might be in a park. Looks like there is someone in the background watching her. The girl smoking looks like she could be older, but then again the girl next to her is really young. She is standing like she wants to look like she is older. The lights at the top of the picture look like they are highlighting her. Maybe she is smoking because she wants to be the center of attention. She is in the center of the picture.
I would say the image is pretty sad, it looks like the girl is upset or mad. The other girl is standing with her hands at her hips, so maybe she is mad at the girl smoking the cigarette. The girl with the cigarette is holding it like she doesn't care. The colors are just black and white so it adds to the depressing feel of the picture.
The purpose of this image is draw on the emotions of the viewer. Maybe this girl is having troubles in her life and has turned to smoking cigarettes to deal with her issues. Supposed to make the viewer feel sorry for her, because this girl looks like she could use some help. The image name is Candy Cigarette so maybe its supposed to make a false assumption to the viewer.

In Class: Logos

I pretty much understood everything I read in chapter 4 about logos, but one thing I found particularly interesting was how logical appeal is not just stats and numbers. According to the book a good appeal to logos is also human experiences. When a lawyer calls on a reliable witness to testify against the defendent, the witnesses personal experience helps prove the lawyers point. I guess maybe a not so clear understanding is when the book talks about how interviews are logical appeal as well. I suppose when someone tells of a personal experience that is truthful, they show an argument of reason. The book uses a 60 minutes argument to show an example of it, where an interviewer is interviewing an arsonist who is arguing the label of eco-terrorist and saying that he was just protesting. His answers to the interviewers quests are arguments of reason, because he is stating and fact and then backing it up with a reason, which is what logos is all about I think. Stating a fact and then backing it up with support.

In Class: Ethical Appeal

I brought in a pack of cigarettes for my ethical appeal, because I figured it goes against some peoples ethics of tobacco use. It can show what type of character that somebody is. For example, someone may judge somebody else based on their tobacco use and say that they are unhealthy or don't care about other peoples health. Advertisements for anti smoking appeal to ethics because alot of times in their advertisements they make the tobacco industry come out as liars. Those truth commercials always have some fact that they say tobacco companies lied about, which is pretty much true so they have a good point, but it appeals to peoples ethics because most people know that smoking is wrong but they still do it, whether its because they can't quit or they just don't care. Even on the box itself, cigarettes have a surgeon's general warning which claims that cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide and that women who are pregnant should not smoke. The point is cigarettes are bad for you and tobacco companies lie about their products so many people choose not to smoke because it goes against their ethics.

People watching at the mall

For my Unit 1 project I've decided to do my analysis at the Hulen Mall.  This seems appealing to me because at this mall there are all sorts of people from different social classes, backgrounds, and of course different races.  They all come together to this one place to get their shopping done.  I chose the mall because I think it will be interesting to see how all these different types of people interact with eachother.  I pretty much just plan on sitting in the middle of the mall and watch and see what people do when they must interact with people that arn't similar to them.  I expect there to be people who change the way they act when they address different types of people.  For example, when a younger person interacts with an elderly person, I think the younger person with start treating the elder with respect and courtesy.  But when they start talking with their friends again I expect them to ease up and start acting goofy or be funny.  I'm a part of some of the target audience, which would be that of college students.  I expect there to be some college students there but we are just a small percentage.  I have pre-conceived ideas that maybe the younger, lower class people will act more disruptive or treat people with less respect (gang member looking people).  However, I will treat all people without bias and just write down everything everyone does so I don't take sides with the people more similar with me.  

In Class: Public Place

I think it would be interesting to go to some public place where people are bargaining alot with eachother. This would show how people have to use different appeals because they have to convince someone to get what they want. An example of a place like this might be somewhere like a flea market or maybe even like a street market. Another place that I think would be interesting, although I wouldn't be able to go there would be the stock exchange floor in like New York. People have to make tough decisions about whether to buy or sell as well as making deals with others, so that would definitly be interesting to see how the traders would interact. Maybe even going to like one of those speed dating things and watching how guys try and convince girls to date them would be pretty humorous and interesting. I really don't know what place I'm going to do, but I'm leaning towards sitting in the mall and watching people. Everyone goes to the mall so its a great place to peoplewatch, and theres always interesting people at the Ft. Worth malls, because there are people there from all sorts of different groups and income classes. The malls in my home town are full of mostly rich people, so it would be interesting to watch how people from completely different backgrounds differ from others.

In class: Deep random thoughts... maybe not so deep

Well today I woke up and ate a bananna. It was kinda nasty because my girlfriend left it sitting in my room for a few days but it was still better then nothing. I'm going to practice this afternoon and reeaally not looking forward to it. But before I have that I have to meet with some lady because I had my internet disabled for some reason that the school decided not to tell me about. I know its about the music downloading I have been doing but I plead the fifth right? This weekend I saw the movie Notorious which was really good, and speaking of which it makes me want to download some of Biggie's songs right now. But probably not a good idea. Almost Friday, thank god this week feels like it has lasted forever. Oh last night I went to the basketball game which was a lot of fun we beat Wyoming by 1 point in overtime which was nuts. For the most part of the second half I was pissed though because we were basically handing them the game. But we pulled through so its all good. I haven't really thought about what I'm going to do this weekend I think I want to go to the zoo. Havent been there since I was little and my gf wants to go. My stomach is growllling right now because that bananna did little to fill me up. I want one of those omelets in the main and some of those really good danish things they always have. The ones with like the apple inside and the cinnamon on top. Mmm. I hope I don't have homework this weekend that would suck, but somehow I have a feeling I'm going to be writing on this page for hw this weekend. I wonder if it's going to be hot this weekend I just had the urge to go play some volleyball or something. I hope so.

Obama in the house

As I was watching Obama's inaugeral speech, I found that he is quite the convincing politician. Throughout his speech he argues his many different points in which he tries to persuade his audience (the whole nation) to join his side of the issues. Of course he uses the three different types of appeal with ease and makes good points to get his arguments across. The first argument that I noticed he used was an argument about the present. He talks about how America is at war with the terrorists in the middle east. He operates this by saying, "a war against a far reaching network of violence and hate. This appeals to the emotions I would say, because many American families have children or husbands and wives in Iraq, which many of them would like to come home. The next argument he uses is an argument to make decisions. He uses this argument when he is talking about the weakened economy. He says that we have a weak economy because of the failure of some, but the real reason is because of the inability to make hard decisions (which I think he is blaming Bush). This means that he is arguing that he will make these hard decisions over the economy. The third is the argument to convince, which he uses when he is talking about all the problems of that America is facing right now. He lists how all of these problems in the past have not been met, but that they will now be met, now that he is in office. He is arguing to convince that he will fix all these problems. The fourth argument Obama uses is an argument about the past. He claims that the past Americans have worked so hard to establish a country where everyone has a chance to be free and live prosperiously. He also argues that 60 years ago a man of his color would not even be given a thought about the position he is in. He moves on to his fifth type of argument, which is an argument about the future. He says we need to "pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and make America again." He is arguing that America needs to pick up the pace again and put us back on top in the global marketplace. I feel like he uses these arguments very effective and he is a powerful speaker. After watching his speech I felt pretty motivated about him being president (I wasn't too fond of him I, I leaned more towards McCain.) He seems like he knows what he is doing and he is quite the effective arguer. Overall, I felt that his speech was very moving and I think he has a great oppurtunity to turn this country around from where it's going.

In Class: Arguing over Argumenting

After reading the assigned reading for the weekend about what arguments, my perspective of arguments has changed a little bit. I found out that pretty much everything really is an argument and basically even a street sign is arguing something. The fact is even when you introduct yourself by saying "Hello, how are you?" that is even arguing that your hello deserves to have a response. Arguments are either convictive or persuasive, your either arguing for the truth or you know the truth and are trying to persuade someone to your side of the truth. Theres an argument to everything, from the clothes that you wear arguing what type of person you are, the things I'm writing on this post is arguing what I'm trying to say about myself. As the book says there really is an argument to everything. The fact that arguments deal with pathos, ethos, and logos was pretty interesting as well, because we have been arguing since Aristotle's time which is alot of time to be aruging over arguments.

In Class: Deep Thoughts on.. Pot

For my in class argument I brought a webpage that states the pros and cons of the legalization of marijuana. I think I chose this because I have done multiple research stuff on this and I have found that both sides of the argument are pretty good. The pros of legalization of pot include its not any more harmful then tobacco or alcohol, it has medical benefits for cancer patients, and it could be a good source of tax revenue for our government who is now in like what trillions of dollars of debt. The negative sides of course include stoned driving would become a hazard, some consider it a stepping stone to harder drugs, and legalization could increase the use of the drug by kids. Although many of the negative sides of legalization have been disproven, such as the fact that it may be a gateway drug. Researchers have found that that is not necessarily true and they have found that people who use harder drugs will use harder drugs no matter if they smoke pot or not, because of the way that person is (personality, addiction, etc.). The pro side of legalization has many more advantages in my opinion because the positive effects outweight the negative effects. FDA will regulate the drug just like alcohol or tobacco products which will make the drug safer. Cancer patients will have their pain eased just from the simple act of haven a few tokes and being able to eat. According to my article pot is a simple act of pleasure like sex and cigarettes so who wouldnt want it to be legalized?

Deep Thoughts on... Me

My name is Jeff and I was born and raised in Plano, TX. I am currently a sophmore and I'm on the TCU swimming team.  I am a CITE (Computer Information Technologies) major with a minor in Business.  I really am just taking this class because my academic advisor told me it's required, but I do enjoy writing a little bit.  I think of myself as a pretty decent writer, but I guess you will be the judge of that.  As to what I want to get out of this course, pretty much just to improve the flow of my essays.  In the past I have mostly written mostly persuasive and comparitive essays, as well as research papers.  Out of school the only writing I do is texting, facebooking, and e-mail.  I'm not really sure how the blog is a form of argument, I guess I am arguing whether or not I'm a good writer.  I chose for my blog to be dark colors because the title is Deep Thoughts, even though I don't think think I have very deep thoughts, haha.  I guess it shows I'm just trying to be ironic.  I think of the blog as pretty much whatever the author wants to say so whatever they want to argue is their deal.

Well other then that I have read and agreed to the course syllabus.