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.