Final Blog

In the definition paper about freedom and how wikileaks are not covered by freedom of speech I think the writer was cleaver to show the relationship of international relationships and high school. Also, in the freedom of speech paper the author made a strong emotional claim to the audience about Russia mobilizing their armed forces, because of one wrong piece of information. Another strong argument the author makes is that giving people the freedom of speech impedes our other rights like freedom of privacy and freedom to live in peace. In the paper about solitary confinement the author starts off by enticing the reader by describing what goes through the mind of an inmate in solitary confinement. In the solitary confinement paper the author uses her resources very well to get their point across and boost their ethos, for example the quote from national geographic that said that solitary confinement can be just as damaging as any of the other forms of torture mentioned before. The quote from the convict that was going to be released from prison helps bring the reader into the paper and gives it an emotional connection. By quoting John McCain the author boosts their ethos, because he is a well known politician after running for election.

In my paper I need to start with a more enticing opening scene to hook the reader before going into all the different points I want to make within the story. I need to make more of a connection between the word I am defining and the cultural element I want to argue. I need to do more research, so that I can incorporate more quotes into the paper in order to boost my ethos and make my arguments stronger. I need to make more emotional appeals to my audience, so that I connect with the reader more. Finally, I need to strengthen my conclusion by applying my point to a larger topic of discussion today.

Proposal

I am evaluating Lupe Fiasco as a good human rights activist given that he freely speaks out against government action in the middle east, his lyrics speak out against hate and racism, and Lupe Fiasco is not afraid of who he offends as long as he gets his point across. In order to establish that all rappers are not inciting violence among youths.

Research

            "Bill O'Reilly Interviews Rapper Lupe Fiasco - 6/20/11." Youtube.com. Web. 1 Aug 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYJ20INbM7Q

           

I will use this article to show how Lupe Fiasco is a rapper, but through his music he displays his strong opinions on government and politics. I will use the video to also show how many people in the United States disagree with his opinions, but he continues to voice it despite the people’s opinion of him.

"Lupe Fiasco Pays tribute to Malcolm X at OSU concert." Lupe Fiasco Toasts Malcolm X At OSU. Web. 2 Aug 2011. <http://idolator.com/5870482/lupe-fiasco-malcolm-x>.

I will use this video of Lupe Fiasco dedicating his song to Malcolm X, because it shows how Lupe Fiasco was inspired by Malcolm X and adopted his beliefs of human rights. I will compare Lupe Fiasco to Malcolm X; because they have the same beliefs only instead of being a public speaker Lupe Fiasco spreads his messages through his songs.

Lupe Fiasco Clarifies His Political Views On The Colbert Report. Web. 2 Aug 2011. <http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.15062/title.lupe-fiasco-clarifies-his-political-views-on-the-colbert-report>.

This video shows how Lupe Fiasco came about having his viewpoint, and how he feels about our government actions. It also displays a key point of his “you should always criticize those in power”.

Lady Gaga

They make the argument that Lady Gaga is the death of sex, because she draws so much attention although she dresses in flamboyant outfits that most people would not find attractive. They say that Lady Gaga became the way she is from having influences like Madonna growing up, rather than her Catholic background. Because of her influence from many other stars some people just call her a copy cat of some people like elton john and drag queens from the 1950's. They try to make the point that Lady Gaga is a trickster, because she uses both sides of the realm of the universe in her song. She shows the world and the underworld. Gaga brings up "God makes no mistakes" in her song to persuade those who believe that homosexuality is a choice that if God doesn't make mistakes then having gays must not be a mistake. The author mentions how it was not the Catholic background of Lady Gaga to show that even though she had strong family values the cultural corruption overcame her and she lost her way with God.

Cultural Object

Lupe Fiasco is a musician who sings about issues in our culture. I think this is important for our culture, because he raises up issues that most people don't like to talk about. He sings about war, violence, and power struggle in the world which are important topics. It shows that not everyone is afraid to voice their opinions about very controversial topics. It is interesting, because he makes great music by incorporating these issues into his songs. Many people listen to his music, which means that he is spreading his opinions through his music, because people are listening to it. Lupe Fiasco is a well known artist, so by telling others about these issues they become informed through the music. His music has had the most influence on teenagers who listen to music, because they make up most of his audience.

Cultural Object

A cultural object is Tosh.o. Daniel Tosh has a tv show on comedy central where he shows vulgar clips from the internet. This is bad for our culture. The show is pointless and only displays videos that are either disgusting or where people get injured. People are interested in his show, because they think it is funny. Most of the content is crude, for example he has one segment called "is it racist?" He shows a clip and the audience must decide whether they think the clip is racist or not. Most the time they are. People react to the show by creating their own videos doing stupid things trying to imitate the footage shown on the show. One video showed a person sitting on an airbag when it explodes and the man was shot up into the ceiling. This is negatively influencing children. I don't know how such content is allowed to be put on cable television.

Cultural Object

I think that the colbert report is good for our culture, because not only is it an entertaining comedy it also gives important news information too people that do not watch the news. I like to watch it because it helps me to learn about important topics without having to watch the news. On the colbert report Steven Colbert brings up major topics that are going on throughout the country. For example in one of his recent episodes he showed himself going to Washington D.C. to start a "Super Pac" to get donations for the upcoming national election. This allows people to donate money to the republican campaign, and during his show he has a ticker at the bottom of the screen of people that have donated to the Super Pac. When you see all the names that go by you can see the impact Steven Colbert has on the american public. Some people claim that it is just making fun of politics and should not be allowed to air such content on tv.

Peer Edit Review

During the peer edit, Vishal helped me by showing me some places where I was Reflecting too much and was not showing the reader. In some paragraphs he pointed out where I should add some dialogue to help the bring the reader into the story, so they can become part of the story instead of just reading it. Also, I needed to put more descriptions into parts of my story, because they lacked detail. Vishal also pointed out some good examples of my good descriptions, so I could try to put more into other portions of my paper. There were a few grammatical errors that Vishal pointed out for me, so that I could fix them. Vishal did not tell help too much with the style advice for my paper though. Overall the peer edit seemed to be very effective.

Dinner Description

Tonight for dinner I had a salad, a barbecue turkey sandwich, a piece of chicken, and some bbq ribs. The salad consisted of some moist iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheese, and caesar dressing. The dressing was a little bitter. The barbecue turkey sandwich was very good, the barbecue sauce was very tangy and a little spicy. The roll was slightly soggy from the sauce, and made a bit of a mess. The chicken was a little dry, but was still good. It had some kind of spice on it, but I could not tell what. The ribs were a bit fatty, but overall good. Along with the food I had 2 cups of wild cherry pepsi with ice. It was very refreshing. I ate with my roommate, will. We went to the south side buffet located in redifer commons. The line for the buffet was not very long, most likely because we went fairly early. There was a lot of empty tables in the buffet.

Free Write

I spend most of my time listening to music and playing videogames. I spend my time doing this, because it makes me feel relaxed and takes away the stress of everyday life. I listen to music everyday just to calm me down, and depending on what kind of mood I am in I will listen to a different style of music. I play all types of videogames from shooting games to sports. I play videogames, because they take your mind off of everyday life and it's as if you are in an alternate world. They interest me, because I have always enjoyed listening to music although i go though trends of what kinds I listen to, I still always have liked it in general. In my opinion, there is no greater thing than sitting in a quiet room and listening to music. My fond of videogames did not start until middle school, but once i started playing them I only played more.

Free Write

Ever since I was little I can remember my older sister getting in trouble with my parents. I found that learning from her mistakes helped me avoid trouble, even if she never did. So, since I was little I have tried to appease my parents and other authority figures. This worked out very well, I rarely got in trouble. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I forgot how to state my own opinion, because I was too busy trying to make everyone else happy. I found that trying to make everyone else happy can cause oneself to become very short-tempered. As I grew up I realized that it was not worth my time to worry about how everyone else felt about my actions. This seems rather selfish, but it has helped me become an overall happier person. So, it is not worth my own suffering to make sure that I do not upset anyone along the way.

Narrative Reading Response

The narratives we read were had little structure to them. It was just an account of someone's experiences as they happened how they were important to the author. The tone of a narrative is much less professional, and more of a story with an argument hidden inside. This is different from the other papers we have written, because we were supposed to clearly state the point of the papers within the papers themselves. The techniques the author uses are more to appeal to the readers emotions, and less about the ethos of the author.

The purpose of I Kept Playing was to inform readers about the dangers of gaming addiction, and that it is up to the gamer to decide how much time is appropriate for themselves. This is mainly to show gamers that it is not the game creators' fault for making an addictive game, and that the gamers need to take responsibility for their actions. The audience is videogame users that play in excess, so the author is trying to get them to change their ways before they lose what they have, like in the authors case.

Free write

The last time I was really happy was when I went to senior week with all my friends. It was exciting because it was the last time would see most of my friends from high school for a long time. We all were very pumped to get down to ocean city Maryland, so we left our house at 4am to drive down. The drive down seemed to take forever, but when we had arrived. The first thing we did was go get some breakfast, and then we hit the beach. We were all very tired so most of us fell asleep on the beach. After a long day on the beach, and a lot of sunburn, we went to the real estate office to get the keys to our house. When we got the house it set in that we had a whole week of vacation without any worries or responsibilities. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I think about how I will not be close with most of the people that I was there. The day we left the only thing I could think about was how I was leaving for college the next day and I would lose contact with most of my friends. But for one week I had the time of my life and I still think about all the great times I had.

Peer Review Feedback

The peer review was very helpful. Vishal gave me good points about how to make my paper relate back to the definition of my word to make the paper more relevant to the topic of the paper. I also was pointed out some of my weaker points that I needed to remove from the paper, because they worked against my argument more than they helped. Next, Vishal showed me how to restructure some of my sentences that were very awkward. Finally, he looked for some grammatical errors that needed to be fixed. Some things that I thought could go better is fixing the rhetorical appeals in my paper. When I look over someone else's paper I now know that grammatical errors are the last thing i should look for, and that I should focus on the actual content of the paper and how it relates to the purpose of the paper.

Violent videogames are not harmful to children
-purely entertainment
-they do not incite violence
-there is no damage caused to the people playing the games

Topic for Definition Paper

Freedom of speech debate, the word Freedom.

Rebuttal Topic

Evan's Two Moms chapter 23 page 375

Dexter and Smalley debate

The main point of contention between Dexter and Smalley is whether the assemblers would be able to build more assemblers. Dexter thinks they will be able to, but Smalley believes they have fat and sticky fingers so it would not be possible.

In the argument Dexter's and Smalley's reputations and fame in the scientific community are at stake and which ever turns out to be correct will receive great valor throughout the world.

Dexter and Smalley mention each others arguments and point out flaws in their points. Smalley agrees with a few of Dexter's points, but then argues the details of others which makes him seem more reliable of a source. Smalley also critiques the vague statements Dexter talks about like the enzymes and ribosomes.

Dexter seems very reliable, because he was a pioneer of the nano technology research and he even cofounded an institute. Dexter also helps seem more trustworthy by mentioning other scientist and organizations that back his studies. Smalley is a glorified professor and mentions how he graduated from MIT.

One Fallacy by Smalley is that he uses every point that Dexter says and turns it to a comparison of a waltz and a girl and a boy dancing together. Dexter has a fallacy in believing that his idea of self-producing nanobots are plausible in a real atmosphere instead of on the computer.

I believe Smalley makes the more convincing argument by showing that each of Dexter's ideas are flawed and will not work in a real world situation and are only fairy tales.

Rhetorical Analysis of Barbara Jordan's statement on the articles of impeachment

3 Context points

• Jackson mentions that the audience of Jordan's speech consists of 34 members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
• Jackson says that the purpose of the statement is to convince the committee that what Nixon did was illegal and he needed to be impeached.
• Jackson also says that not only was Jordan trying to convince the committee members, but the entire american public who was watching on television.

3 Textual points

• Jackson shows how Jordan tried to appeal to the emotion of the audience by showing that the thing she loved, the constitution, was in jeopardy of being under attack.
• Jackson mentions how Jordan was showing that she is a trustworthy person by quoting founding fathers of the constitution such as James Madison.
• Jackson then tells how Jordan mentions words like "burglars", "arrested", "break-in" and "fabrication" to show that the logical choice is to impeach Nixon.

Original Observations

• Jordan quotes Woodrow Wilson saying that when the president breaks the law political parties need to be put aside and justice needs to be put into effect.
• Jordan appeals to the minorities and women in the audience by showing that they now have the power to be involved in the constitutional powers they are assigned and she does not want to see them not use their important power that they have received over the years. 

Introduction Post

I am not the best writer, and I need to improve my skills in multiple areas. I am decent at the focus of a paper, but I struggle with conventions and grammar. During high school I did not have a lot of formal writing assignments, which included only 2 major research papers that only were approximately 4 pages in length, a few persuasive essays that were only about 2 pages, and some comparative and reactionary papers dealing with articles or novels discussed in class. In English 15 I hope to become a better writer overall. Which includes strengthening the content of the paper and having a better word choice to enhance the topic of the paper.