I HAVE A DREAM

There is no individual who used rhetoric better than Martin Luther King, Jr. He changed the world and started a revolution, all from behind a podium. Im sure we are all familiar with his speech, so I am going to pick out a few points where he kills the rhetorical game :)

Firstly, King uses alliterations often. At times in his speech, his words sound like a poem or a song, and those are the quotes people don't forget. Example: Rise from the dark and desolate…the marvelous new militancy…trials and tribulations…"

He also uses allusions, referencing common themes in American's pasts. These are things we all share and can relate to. For example, in I Have A Dream, King said "Five score years ago, a great American…signed the Emancipation Proclamation."

Finally, King states a lot of his points twice in a row. This also makes it stick in the mind of listeners, and it also makes the statement more intense. "America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” 

What do you guys think about rhetoric in King's famous speech? Can you find other examples of the techniques I presented above? 

Mediating Language at Home

I live in an apartment with two of my friends.  Most of the time, everything is great.  We have a lot in common, so we do a lot of things together.  We do projects together (our latest project is building a wood lathe), and we generally get along really well.  However, living with anybody can cause animosity.  One of my roommates is a very opinionated person.  He’s a great guy, but he is very stubborn. Sometimes I wish he would compromise more.  One of the things that gets on my nerves the most is when he doesn’t clean his dirty dishes.  Whenever he uses a dish, he just throws it in the sink, claiming it needs to “soak” before it can be washed.  In reality, he could just rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t see it this way.  When confronted about them, he claims that he will do them later, but invariably, either my roommate or I end up loading the dishwasher.  The problem is, the sink gets so full we can’t load all of the dishes in the dishwasher, so the sink is only half empty, and it quickly fills up again.  These situations are very trying, and it very important to use mediating language when dealing with them.  If not, angry roommates can make life difficult and not enjoyable.  Mediating language is there to make sure that we’re still friends when we move out.  I’ll be happy when that is the case, but I also wish that he would do the dishes more often.

If I Taught This Class

This class was a lot different than I was expecting.  If I taught it, I would do some things different, but all in all, I enjoyed the class.  I really liked how the class was structured overall.  We started out very small, just figuring out some problems in our community, and we ended up writing a research paper aimed at proposing a solution to one of those problems that we originally came up with.  I really liked how the assignments, for the most part, were aimed at getting us to explore different rhetorical ideas, and building on those ideas up to the final paper.  The most helpful assignments were the presentation and Assignment 2.1, where we had to argue both sides of our argument.  The presentation helped with the organization of my arguments.  I was able to group arguments and find sources that pertained to each group.  Assignment 2.1 was helpful because it is easy to forget that there are two sides to an argument, and that if you don’t address the other viewpoints, you won’t be very convincing in your argument.  It is easy to list all of the reasons why you think you are right.  It is much harder to formulate arguments for why someone else is wrong.  The biggest thing that I would change about the class is the structure of the blog.  I feel like part of the reason that there are so many people posting on the blog so late is that there was a lot of ambiguity as to what we should write about.  We didn’t know what to write about, so we just didn’t write.  If the blog was given more direction, or specific prompts for some of the posts, I think that we would be much more compelled to do the posts.  In addition, I think that this would allow for much more discussion in the comments. All in all, I’m glad that I took this class, and I think I am a better writer for it.

Movie Trailers

Have you ever watched a movie trailer and been really excited to see the movie, but then you go to the theater and walk out wishing you had your $15 back?  If it was a comedy, they put every joke in the trailer, and the rest was filled with awkward dialogue and little plot.  If it was a horror movie, they put every jump scare and blood curdling scream in the trailer, but overall the movie was underwhelming.  Too often this is the case.  You know why this happens?  Because the directors of the movie trailers got an A in their college rhetoric class.  They are intimately aware of who their audience is and what makes them tick.  They know how to sell movies.  They can make any movie, no matter how mediocre it is a whole, shine in a trailer.  It’s all about knowing your audience and using that information to carefully edit and string together scenes that will get people interested.  It is quite analogous to the introduction to a paper.  That’s where you catch the attention of the reader, and make them want to continue reading.  If the rest of the paper is not well written, they will have the same feeling as you did when you walk out of the movie theater after a bad movie. The most important part of your paper is the introduction, because even if you have a good argument, nobody is going to read it if the intro is not interesting.  However, make sure you don’t have a good intro with no meat in the rest of the paper.

My Favorite Part of the Class

My favorite part of the class was the different medium presentations. It really let me delve into different research aspects of my topic without doing an entire research presentation. For my medium, I chose to write a blog. My favorite part of the blog was interviewing one of the students from a nearby, low income school that I tutor. Even though it was not in my community, I feel that I gained perspective on what it feel like to go to school in a low income school, and be a minority. (I am a minority and did go to a low income school, but it wasn't the same). But it was enriching experience hearing from another person about how they felt about their school and how they felt about being in a primarily minority school. It tied well into the school district I was focusing on where almost 96% of the district is minorities. I feel that research and overall statistics are important, but  behind those statistics are real people, an aspect that people tend to forget about. I feel that having the interview in my blog strengthened the pathos, and provided a first hand student perspective of being in a disadvantaged school situation. After that interview, I felt more than ever there was a definite inequality in education.

Language is Weird

My friend and roommate recently told me about an exchange that he had with a teacher of his and his academic adviser.  He has a Co-Op this semester, so he is not taking any classes.  He works 9 to 5 every day, so it was difficult for him to meet with his academic adviser to discuss his registration for next semester.  Most of his contact, he did via email with his adviser and the chair of the aero department.  In one such email, he was complaining to the both of them that the schedule for his classes didn’t make sense.  Somehow, two of his classes were scheduled at the same time, and they were supposed to be taught by the same teacher.  In the email, he made it very clear that he needed advice as soon as possible.  In the subject of the email, he put “PLEASE RESPOND” in all caps.  In the body, he included something to the effect of “the schedule is whacked.” He received a quick response from his professor, however his academic adviser was not very happy with his email.  She felt that his email was not professional enough for the setting.  This is a great example of how your audience determines how your writing will be interpreted.  She also did not appreciate the use of caps in his subject.  She thought that it was too demanding.  Audience is everything in your writing.  My friend had to write a very carefully worded email to apologize to his adviser.  This is a very real example of what we learned in class.

Comedians: Master of Rhetoric

The 2013 White House Correspondents' Dinner was a wild success that year. A comedian is a person who job it is to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh with through jokes, slapstick, or amusing situations. Being a comedian is very different as they need to make funny and do stand-up face of a large audience. Jokes can be anything from word play, gags, subtle or humorous intention. A comedian need to be a master of rhetoric because their stand-up act and jokes require it. Presidents Obama made jokes about the government and have a good time. Conan O'Brien took the stage that Saturday night and was the comedian who spoke at the White House Correspondents Dinner. He gave about thirty minute speech to close the annual dinner attended by celebrities and politicians. He made funny the politicians, news networks, and several other current events. They could easily get into serious trouble if they make wrong jokes about certain issues or events. O’Brien uses satire, but he mainly used anodyne, not to offend anyone. O’Brien used comedy to touch on several issues and events occurring in the media and the government doing that time period. The some of the people in the crowd do not react that strongly because some of them take it too seriously.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvS4aTcUyQ

My Thoughts on the Class

As you may or may not know, I am a junior taking this class meant for freshmen.  Going into the class, I thought it was going to be a breeze.  I thought I was going to walk in, write a few papers, and walk out with an A.  That was not the case at all.  I was a bit discouraged at the beginning of the class when I got my first papers back.  The grades were not where I thought they were going to be.  I think a little of that was because it was a new teacher, with new expectations.  However, looking back at the papers, they were not well written.  I wasn’t putting enough effort into the class, and once I did, my grades improved.  I learned a lot from this class: something I wasn’t expecting.  Perhaps the most important idea that I am taking away is that not all writing is created equal.  What I mean is that all writing should be geared toward your specific audience. This may seem obvious, but it wasn’t something that I consciously considered before this class. The paper that I write for one of my engineering class presenting a product as a viable solution to a problem is going to be different that the paper that we wrote for this class, as the first has a different audience than the second. The first might be written for a committee reviewing the product for safety, while our papers were written for lawmakers.  It’s extremely important to consider this when writing anything, as it could be the difference between convincing your audience or not. 

RHETORIC IS EVERYWHERE!!! HELP!!!

No but really…this class has made me realize rhetoric is EVERYWHERE! Almost every time I have a conversation, I am using rhetoric to benefit from the conversation. Earlier today, I used emotional and logical appeal to convince my roommate to buy me lunch. I explained to him that I was out of meal swipes, so I would be starving if he didn't swipe me in (that was me exploiting his emotions to make him feel sorry for me, resulting in him buying me lunch). I also used logical appeal, reminding him that he drank all of my gatorade the previous week, so he owed me. In case you were wondering…I successfully exploited my roommate, and he bought me lunch. Lol

RHETORIC IS LITERALLY LIFE!!!! AHH!!! 

Emojis in texting…adding emotion!

Ms. Gibney's earlier post about mediating language in texting really made me think. Clearly, texting is incredibly useful because you can send messages to people without having to call them, and it is almost instant. Another benefit to texting is that people have time to think about their response, so they can make sure to say it in the best way possible. This is one problem that I sometimes find in face to face arguments with people- I just can't get my words together. As a result my argument is lacking and I leave feeling unsatisfied. In that sense, texting is a good medium to debate or argue with someone. But, is it worth it? Often times, emotion is lost in texting and people misinterpret the tone you are trying to convey. Texts with periods are often interpreted as serious, while texts with capital letters are interpreted as yelling…which may not even be the case. So, how can we improve texting to have more emotion? The answer is simple…use emojis!! By using emojis in texts more, people can send emotions along with a message. That way, people receiving the text will have more context and things will go more smoothly. I think emojis make texting more personal.
What do you guys think about emojis? Do you use them? Do you think emojis can be used to add emotion to otherwise emotionless messages?

The Crime of Swatting

Swatting is the act to trick an emergency service like 9-1-1 into dispatching an emergency response based on the false report. Depend on the how serious situation the fake report claims to be, the operators can send one police officer or SWAT unit.  "Sometimes swatting is done for revenge, sometimes as a prank. Either way, it is a serious crime, and one that has potentially dangerous consequences." Misusing 9-1-1 service can result in a misdemeanor or a felony in the U.S. Swatting cause massive disorder in public peace and potentially hurt or kill someone involved. Swatting has used in the home of celebrities like Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift, and Clint Eastwood as a prank and on several live-streamers as a prank. To swat someone, the callers need the victims’ personal information like their address and phone number, then use caller ID spoofing technology when calling 9-1-1. “Spoofing” technology which lets the callers to mask their own numbers. People who make these false calls seem to be credible and they have no trouble convincing 9-1-1 operators they are telling the truth. Swatting is a serious crime as the prank callers cause taxpayers’ money to be wasted and the emergency response units’ time is wasted. It is blame to place some the on the police as some believe that they are responding to strongly. Swatting do bring up an issue about America's militarization of the police.

Sources: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/september/the-crime-of-swatting-fake-9-1-1-calls-have-real-consequences/the-crime-of-swatting-fake-9-1-1-calls-have-real-consequences  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting  

Example of Swatting check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH-uRFIr3mA about 6:30 is when the police enter the picture.

Mediating Language in Texting

Since texting is the most popular means of communication in this generation, it is important to know how to mediate language behind the screen of your phone or computer. When conversing with someone via text message, it is next to impossible to know exactly what tone the other person has. Without the knowledge of mediation of language, you could unknowingly offend someone that you did not intend to offend. This is why mediating your language and making sure the other person understands your tone is important. This is also why word choice is so important. The same word could be said in excitement by one party and taken as annoyance by the other. I never realized how much I actually mediated the language I use every day. Up until recently, I had never thought about how effective mediating my language through texting could be. When having a dispute with someone, respectfully acknowledging their opinion and then giving your own works a lot better than just telling the other person they are wrong. Almost always when disputing with someone via text message, I think about how I would feel if I was the one receiving the message. This usually results in me deleting what I originally wanted to say and rewriting it to sound more respectful. Which is usually how it goes when trying to mediate your language in your papers too. By doing this I am also considering my audience (the person receiving the messages), which is an important part of mediating language. I find myself doing this more often than I would like to admit.

Reflection of the Class

Unfortunately, the time has come to part ways with this class. A lot has changed since the beginning of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, I was very confused on the assignments purpose, and why I continually received bad grades. As the semester progressed, I felt that I got better at knowing the purpose of the assignment and understanding the prompt better. However, I feel that I wish we talked about more during class. I feel that most of the class periods were taken up with explanation of the assignments, instead learning more about rhetoric and language and substantial work. I feel that I did not leave the class wanting to learn more or continue readings, but just to get by and do well on the class. I feel like grades were a big deal in the class, which inhibited us to be full engaged in learning, instead having us focus on trying to raise our grades. I agree that grades are important, but if the majority or some part of the class is constantly worried or failing an introductory English course, it might not be a reflection of the students in the class, but the instructor. I feel that it is a part of professor's job to  try and make sure that his/her students are doing well, or have more chances to improve. It shows an obvious problem if the grades in an introductory course are not at least above average. I feel that most of the grading was arbitrary, so it was hard for us to improve our writing throughout the semester.

Syllabus Switch

Today we talked about rearranging some of the assignments on the syllabus. It was suggested that the final paper be due two-thirds of the way through the semester. I like this idea because then we would be able to revise the final paper at the end of the semester if we needed to. I also like this idea because most, if not all, of the previous assignments would be more fresh in your mind. It was also suggested that their be an assignment devoted to an outline of your paper. But the question was posed, “What if writing an outline before isn’t effective for some people?’. I myself do not write outlines before, however, if there were an assignment that required me to, I could potentially benefit from that. If you get stuck at a point in your writing, you can refer back to your outline to help create more ideas. Also, you do not necessarily have to use that outline when writing your final paper. It could just be a helpful tool IF you needed it.

I also liked the idea of the multimedia assignments being due at the end because the final paper can be a helpful guide in figuring out what to include in the multimedia projects. Since the final paper poses your most important arguments, you know that those will be the most important arguments to discuss in the multimedia projects. When creating the multimedia projects, it was sometimes difficult to know what to include and what did not necessarily need to discussed. By having the final paper already done, these things will be easier to determine.

Rhetoric in Ambiguity

In one of the assigned readings, the author stated how politicians' words are filled ambiguity which is a not a useful method of rhetoric. I feel that I disagree with that statement. The purpose of an argument is to convince others of what you are saying, and sometimes by not giving a definitive answer it gives room to interperate, which is sometimes more convincing. Also, making an argument for something where the complete answer is not known is avoided, by giving more of an ambiguous answer. I feel that people are always on the search for a definitive answer, and I do not know why it is very wrong in saying that you do not necessarily know what the answer is to some problems. Politicians give straight answers, but then if it does not work out the public says that politicians are liars. If politicians say that they do not know exactly and give vague answers, the politicians are not doing their job properly. People are only able to predict so much about the future and reprimanding others for not trying to predict the future properly is not what the general public should do. I agree that if you are arguing for a certain law or policy than you should give the general facts and potential consequences, but to give definite answers for every aspects of the policy is very hard to do.

"Anatomy of an Effective Blog Post"

As the end is upon and I am scrambling to try and figure out what to write my blog posts about, I decided that I should learn how to write an effective blog post. I found the article "Anatomy of an Effective Blog Post" from the Huffington Post to be quite helpful in trying to discover how to even write a blog post. The author argues that the most important part of the blog post is the title. This is because if you do not have a compelling title, you will not persuade anyone to continue reading. He argues that the second most important part of the post is your lead paragraph. This is where you connect with your readers and keep them interested. It is important not to lose the reader here. The author argues that adding your personal experience can help you because readers can connect with personal stories. For your main paragraph (or part of the post), he argues that you should make it scannable. This can be done by using simple words and short sentences that the reader can easily skim over. You will not impress your readers with the use of “big words”.

Although the article was short and in the form of a numbered list, I still found it helpful in determining how to write blog posts. I also found it helpful that the author gave suggestions for word choice and sentence length. By following these few suggestions, it will be easier to compose blog posts.

http://michaelhyatt.com/anatomy-of-an-effective-blog-post.html

Tone in our PowerPoint Presentation

For one of the assignments during class, we were assigned to make a presentation and perform it during class. In our rough draft we were given feedback, based off of what we had in our PowerPoint. For our final grade, I feel that we were predominantly graded on the PowerPoint presentation instead of what we were saying. I feel that in order to grade based on rhetoric in this instance, we should have been graded predominantly on what we were saying instead of how well our PowerPoint was done. The main argument of rhetoric in this presentation was what we were saying and how the words were delivered. I felt that someone could have had a great PowerPoint, but not have delivered their message well. I feel that I am a stronger speaker than writer, so I avoided writing much on my PowerPoint, so that people would pay more attention to me. The most important part of the presentation is the tone and way the words are delivered to convince your audience to care about the issue. I  feel that since it was our first presentation this entire semester it was also nerve-racking to be up there which played a major part of the delivery of the message. Because of this, I feel that we should have had some practice and pointers with our tone, alongside other rhetoric devices, so that we felt more prepared for the PowerPoint. I was very surprised at how well our class presented, and thought they for the most part did well in engaging the audience.

Mediating Language

As I wrote my last blog post my friend was next to me critiquing my writing. I thought to myself how he has not learned the art of mediating language, and how harsh tone and words can be. Because of the lack of mediating language, I felt like I wanted to listen to him less. I now understand the usefulness and necessity of mediating language. In order to formulate a strong argument or point against another person, the use of condescending words and rude tone creates a negative environment for both parties involved. In order to have proper communication with other people and give a constructive criticism, an individual should point out both the good along with the bad, so that the individual is inclined to listen more. I thought back to the time where we talked about different methods of communication like stated in the they say, I say article. If something is given a more approach in the "they say" it is more credible that personal opinion. If a person argues against an idea or decision you have made in your writing they should not only disapprove what you have to say, but give a solid reason to why they think another way is more effective. I am glad we learned about mediating language, so I could calmly respond to him effectively and write this blog post instead to execute my anger.

Rhetorical reflection

We are being persuaded all the time. Sometimes we don't even think through what we are being told. This is especially crucial at our age…soon, I will be voting in elections. It is important that I am an educated voter. Media runs wild during election time, which is why its important to not be persuaded and to form our own educated opinions. Thats why its important to under stand how and why we are persuaded. Politicians utilize ethos, pathos, and logos to win over the votes from all over the country. They use ethos to appeal to fundamental rights that all Americans share. They use "buzz words" to sound more factual. These are normally words that mean nothing but sound smart. They use pathos to play on our fears and our worries, but also on our nostalgia and humor.

By being conscious of these techniques, we can look past the blaring advertisements and look at the facts. Once we have the facts straight we can make the best decision for us. This is one of the best things this class gave me. Besides becoming a better writer, it made me more conscious of the rhetoric that is constantly being thrown at me. I never viewed things like this through an analytical lens like this before this class. For that, I am grateful. It definitely slightly changed the way I view the world and the decisions I make.

Rhetoric in a Novel

In class, I remember a time when I talked about the difference in rhetoric in novels compared to the rhetoric used by politicians. We read an assigned reading that stated a lot of rules to use in order to be a convincing writer. The author of the reading proceeded to state how rhetoric and the art of persuasive writing is dying suggesting there must be a change. I thought about how all of his rules did not apply to novels. When I asked that question, Mr. Strickland said that there is a distinct difference between novels and informative writing. I pondered this question more, and came to the conclusion that this mindset is wrong. Isn't a novel trying to persuade you of an idea? Isn't it using the same ethos, pathos, and logos we have spent many class periods talking about? I feel that more than anything the purpose of a novel is to convince individuals. It is meant to convince people who are reading that they are taken to a different world where they are side by side the character, and living and breathing the lives of the characters.  I feel that if there are any rules that should apply to convincing writing, it should apply to novels too. That is why I feel that the author of that article was completely wrong. Those rules the author stated might sound ideal on paper, but the foundation of his article was not applicable to the true meaning of conviction of writing persuasively.

If I Could Do it All Again

   Throughout the course of this semester, I began to pick up on a few things that I probably could have changed to be more successful. In regards to English 1900, I can name a few areas in which I could have improved upon.
   The first is that I should not have judged the class by the grade I got on the first assignment. I will admit, the first grade that I got back freaked me out. The first thought in my head was, "Oh boy, looks like this is gonna be a toughie." So for the next couple of weeks I kind of gave up hope that I'll have a chance of getting a semi-decent grade in the class. However I learned later on that I could actually pull out a good grade on some of the assignments, and all of the sudden I was inspired to put more into the class.
   During that period where I gave up hope I acquired a bunch of nasty habits. The first was one of the biggest stigmas that students face, procrastination. I can honestly say that there were not too many papers that I did not write the night before. Also, I did not even take the time to read them over again to look for mistakes. So when the final paper came around the corner and I saw how many mistakes I made on that on the first draft, I realized quickly that my previous papers were probably infested with errors. Even this blog post that I'm writing at 11:30 at night will probably have a bunch of mistakes simply because my procrastination has not gotten much better.
   Those are just a few of the things that I would go back and change, but knowing me, I will probably struggle to get rid of these habits now that they're already in place. I'll say that I'll change, but I'm all talk and little game.

Beyond Rhetoric, What Makes Writing Powerful?

   Since this class was all about rhetoric and how to apply it to real life situations, I was thinking what else can be done to make a project or paper an exceptional piece of work. Of course there are the little things like formatting, grammar, and sentence structure, but there's probably a plethora of other elements to a piece of work that can make it stand out.
   Just to clarify, in my opinion a work that has good rhetoric has good ethos, pathos, and logos. So emotional appeal, credibility, and reasoning are all on the table right now. I guess what I am looking for is the sort of flair that makes certain pieces of work the best they can be. To be more clear, what is it that makes writing by George Orwell and Orson Scott Card better than other science fiction authors?
   Maybe it's just some unnameable quality that makes a larger audience appreciate the work more, but then again the reviewers of literary work or scholarly work are probably able to figure it out. But I ask you all, do you know of any other part of a piece of work that makes it that much better? Maybe I am just not that well versed in writing criticism, but it seems to me like there has to be some reason why people like some works better than others. The only other qualities that I can think of are writing style and voice. In my opinion those are pretty hard things to improve upon through taking classes, it seems to be something that some people inherently have. But then again, I'm not the expert.

Reflection of this class

When I first registered from this class, I was expecting this one to be my easiest class. But as the semester went on, I realized that it would be my hardest class.

Even though I thought this was going to be an easy class, I still worked hard on all my papers. However when I got my first assignments back, I didn't get the grade I thought I deserved. I was lost in communication with the professor and even though I wrote my paper following the prompt I received, I didn't have certain components that Mr. Strickland was hoping my paper would have. After this, I tried looking at the rest of the prompts from a different point of view and writing based on that.

My favorite project was the multimedia and presentation project. It was different from the other papers I had to write and but it still contained the same information, I was able to use my creativity and make my pages look appealing.

Now that this semester is over and this class is wrapping up, I can honestly say that I still wasn't able to communicate efficiently and get the grades I wanted to get on my papers. I can say that I am a better writer, and that something I can take away from this English class.

If I Actually Became an Eloquent Human Being This Semester

   When we got our papers back on Friday with our original demand for what we wanted out of the class, I had written that I wanted to become a more eloquent human being, like the course syllabus describes we would become more like. So I considered whether that goal was actually achieved and I would like to think that it has to an extent.
   If given the time and the resources (research, data, etc.) then I feel like I could come up with much more eloquent work than I could have made this January. Writing papers and doing presentations where evidence and a certain audience is required comes much more naturally to me now than it did months ago. I feel like the main thing that helped with that was the model that was shown in class a few weeks ago that helped visualize how a paragraph should be written. Also all of the other experiences in class and working on the assignments out of class have attributed to my growth as an eloquent human being.
   The only reason why I would say that I have not become a much more eloquent person is due to the fact we never really wrote too much on the "I say" of the "They say, I say" argument. Sure the first few assignments were pretty much the development of the I say part but in my opinion that was very far from the focus of what made the later papers complete. The thesis was the product of our own creation, and that is a sign of increasing eloquence, but the only thing that made that thesis valid was the they say part of the argument. I'm not entirely sure if using other people's arguments in our own is making us more eloquent, but if it is then I'll agree that I have become a much more eloquent human being at the least, I cannot speak for everyone in this class.

Where to go from here

   After putting the finishing touches on the final paper, I asked myself a few days later what the next step should be in terms of english classes to take. So with that decision comes some deliberating over how well this class went overall and if I should continue doing more writing and such done in this class.
   I will say that the project that I look back on with the most fond memories is the multimedia project where we chose from a film, podcast, etc.. There was a lot of room for the creative juices to flow and I really enjoyed letting my inner designer let loose. Another aspect that helped was that the video I ended up making was pretty well received, if people did not appreciate my kind of humor than this blog post would be heading in a very different direction.
   All of the other projects just did not really resonate with me as well as the multimedia one. It's just once there's a bunch of criteria with very few ways to fulfill it then I start to lose the enjoyment in doing the work. To expand a little the article on templates addressed the issue that their templates may hinder creative thought, and the same goes for some of the assignments in this class. The powerpoint was nice because it made the transition from paper to presentation, but it limited the audience which narrowed the way it could be made. Now I probably do not know best when it comes to designing a class and I have nothing against doing assignments with certain rules in place, but it's just not something that I could see myself doing for fun or as an integral part of a job.
   With all of this being said, I do appreciate all of the things this class has taught me, even though it may have not been in the most ideal way for my personal tastes. As I'm writing this now I feel like maybe I'm complaining a little too much and whining that the class was not absolutely perfect in my eyes. The fact is I now know what I may want to take for my future english classes, and those are the ones that have less boundaries.

Rhetoric in Review

Similarly to some other class reviews I've read, I came into this class not fully certain of what to expect.  English courses have always been my favorite and as a result I've never worried too much about them but I found that with this class I really had to refocus my attention and really put a lot of work into succeeding.

I liked the format and structure of this class a lot and found it very helpful that all of our projects led into our final paper.  As a notorious procrastinator I found for probably the first time in my life how relieving it is to slowly work on bits of a project in small portions leading up to the big thing rather than saving it all for the last minute and suffering from it.  It probably wasn't enough to change my habits entirely, but I have seen a little change in how I handle coursework in other classes--bits at a time.  I think it was an especially good setup for this class as sort of an intro to college English courses at least for me, because it has given me the perspective to see that my usual work habits need to shift a little for me to succeed in college, because there is no way I could have completed this final paper in time had we not been working on it all year long.

I also thought that what we were learning in general will be key in the years to come.  As I mentioned previously, this was my first college English course and I think it has done a good job preparing me for really every class to come.  Writing papers and researching is a part of nearly every class we will take in college and it is helpful to know exactly what is expected of us and how to go about doing it.

All in all, while this class was a little difficult to get the hang of to start with, it worked out for the best.  I feel like I am further prepared to succeed at SLU.

Tone in different kinds of writing

When I first started writing my research paper, I started my introduction with a personal anecdote. It seemed fitting because we started this project with how a topic in our community affects us. My topic is related to illegal immigration in the community of Arizona. This topic affects me because I experienced a situation when I was working at a healthcare clinic. However, after review of my rough draft, the tone of the paper did not match the formality with the rest of it. It was unprofessional to discuss a personal story in terms of a research paper. This showed me how important it it to maintain tone through word choice. Tone is a crucial part of a paper in order to establish the appropriate meaning in the correct context.

This also made me think about tone in different areas of  writing and how it can be misunderstood. The most prominent example of this is through social media. It is extremely difficult to portray tone when texting or typing on social media. This is because there is no voice to accommodate for the words. Therefore, the meaning can lost in translation. People have used emojis or caps lock in order to help portray tone which can be used as an indicator of how someone is saying something. However, there can still be problems of miscommunication between people through texts or conversations on social media. It is important to establish tone in a paper in order to show intended meaning to the audience.

Reflection of this Class

With the semester almost over, English 1900 has been a much different experience than I thought it to be. Coming into this class, I thought it would be a piece of cake. My friends have told me that is very easy and even though there is a lot of writing it is very easy to get an A. However, this feeling soon changed when I received my grades back on my first few assignments. I realized I was going to have to put a lot more work in this than I originally thought. 

The different assignments in this class have led up to the final research paper. These different assignments have developed a greater knowledge and understanding for our particular topic to expand on the issue. This is one thing that I found particularly useful in the class because it allows for continuous research. However, many times it was difficult to improve upon various assignments because of the different feedback received on the assignments. For example, on my presentation to the class I received different feedback from the professor and my peers. This made it difficult to correct because it was hard to incorporate the different views of others and then being graded by only one person. 

From this class, I learned how to persevere and adapt to a different class. I've learned how to write a lot more straight forward writing compared to more fluent, flowy writing. Through reading different articles and group discussions, I've been able to get a new perspective of the English language in modern society. 

Use of Word Choice

From a recent mock interview, a particular question that stuck out to me when the interviewer asked me was what is the difference between sympathy and empathy. I was able to explain that the difference is primarily based upon how one feels for others. Sympathy is when you feel sorry or bad for another person. However, empathy is being able to relate and understand to the problems of someone else and connecting on a higher level.

When answering another question in a different, I referenced myself as being a future physician who is sympathetic toward others. At the end of this mock interview, the interviewer told me to use the word empathetic instead of sympathetic. Even though I had previously explained the difference between the two, I didn't realize how it had made such a huge difference when using it to describe yourself. The interview told me that saying you're sympathetic means that you're looking at others as "outsiders" and that isn't a quality a physician should use to describe themselves.

This experience showed me the importance of carefully choosing our words and how it greatly impacts the meaning of what you intend to say. We discussed in class of how using big or fancy words to replace mediocre ones is not always as effective. This is because it gets lost in translation and has a different meaning than what it is supposed to. Using the right set of words in speech and writing is crucial in order to accurately relay thoughts and ideas.

Grit in This Class

     As a part of my learning community, this past week we had our last TED Talk discussion. It was led by my History teacher from first semester. He began by telling us his biography and then related it to the TED Talk after we had all watched the talk. The talk was about this concept called “Grit”. Grit is the ability to be able to keep going and pick ourselves up, and work towards long term goals even when we fail. If we fail we simply need to re-attack and come back strong. Grit is what will eventually separate the marathoners from the sprinters. Every long term goal takes a marathon to achieve. There will be stumbles and you will fall, but having grit is to get back up and keep going.

               While listening to this and then reflecting on it afterwards, I thought of this class. Throughout this semester I have struggled with some of the assignments. At the very beginning I was greatly discouraged after receiving Fs on both of the first two assignments. I realized that in order to make it through this class successfully I was going to need to put everything in for the long haul. I reached for the grit inside of me and made it a goal to pick myself up from where I had fallen so early in the race and keep on going. I have now completed the semester, turned in my final paper, and only have one class left. I accomplished the marathon.

               I also believe that grit is inherent in rhetoric. When joining that boat, that is the vehicle of argument, especially in the middle, one must possess grit in order to keep up and push the conversation forward. Grit is a very important concept and one that everyone should figure out how to find in themselves.

Why take English classes?

I don't think I am the only one who throughout grade school and high school wondered why taking English class was required. I thought since I already was fluent in the language, what was the point? I have finally come to realize the importance of taking these classes.

First off, it's important to be able to write with correct grammar. In this post, you could nit-pick a few mistakes here and there, however for the most part I am able to convey a message clearly. This is due to the many English classes I have taken.  Being able to use correct grammar is important when looking for a job . If an employee turns in a resume, or has to show in writing why he/she should get the job, and the grammar is awful, it will look bad for the employee. I'm not claiming it will always be the difference from being hired or not, but it could change the employer's first impression of you.

Secondly, it is important to be able to convey ideas in writing. Many careers require communication in the form of writing. For example you could be required to  publishing a paper on research findings, or just write a email to a boss. It is important to be able to effectively convey your message in these instances.

These are just a few reasons why I am glad I have taken so many years of English classes (even if I wasn't given an option). Are there any other instances that English classes can benefit you in the future?

Is your name on a coke bottle?

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/is-your-name-on-a-coke-bottle-find-out-here

Remember when Coca Cola bottles had our names on it? I personally don't like Coca Cola or soda in general, but every single time I went to Target or Walmart I would search through all the bottles to see if it had my name on it, and every single time I would buy it. I would go home, put it in my fridge and never bother to drink it. I just, for that brief moment that I found it in the store and saw the name 'Julie' on that label, felt a connection between me and that bottle (sounds weird, but it's true)

This is exactly what the advertisers of Coca Cola were aiming for. They used the pathos appeal with the name recognition so that we would feel a connection to that bottle, even though there were hundreds and thousands of other bottles with different names on it.

And as if that wasn't enough that just my name was on it, they also promoted 'Share a Coke with a friend'

http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/packages/history/share-a-coke/

So now that every time I went to the store, I not only looked for my name, but my sisters, or my dads, or my best friends. So I would walk out of the store buying a bottle for me, my friends and my mom. This new slogan appealed to me in a way that sharing soda would make me happy and help me make friends.

#makeithappy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibgvkXm9Qkc

When I was thinking about things to post on this blog, I thought of advertisements. How do companies portray their product? What do they focus on being their selling point?

I came across this Coca Cola ad. The focus of this ad was spreading happiness. In the ad, it seems that Coca Cola solved the hate in the world and instead spread happiness. I doubt that Coca Cola thinks that spilling soda on electronics can solve all the bad things in the world, but they can at least pretend.

At the beginning of the ad, negative words, angry and sad people take up the first few seconds. After the Coca Cola spill is presented, it seems to make the difference and negative words turn into positive words and the background music that plays is peaceful and can't help provoke feelings of happiness. As you can see, this ad relied heavily on pathos to get people to attract customers.

Now that Coca Cola has got their audience to feel good and happy, the idea is that this promotes their product and now a bunch of people are going to buy the soda.

Rhetorical Analysis of Grey's Anatomy

With the release of one of the most intense episode of Grey's Anatomy last Thursday, I decided to examine this show more closely with a rhetoric point of view.

This show, created by Shonda Rhimes, first aired in 2005. With 11 seasons, and still going. A TV that follows fictional surgeons, their surgeries and the drama that comes with it. This show is popular among adults and young adults alike. But what is the appeal? Why are we so drawn to this show and continue to watch it week by week?

Although there are different ways to rhetorically analyze this show, I'm going to focus on 'pathos'.

The 'pathos' appeal is all about the emotional reaction of the viewers, and connecting it back to their values. Although I'm not pre-med, or even had a major surgery, I'm still very interested in this show and find myself connecting to the characters in every episode. The drama in this show is essential, and even though unrealistic and a little over the top, it gives the show it's biggest appeal. The romance and betrayal in this show is primarily what the non-pre-meds seem to be drawn to the most. Without it, would just be medical terminology that only med students would understand and there's nothing suspenseful about that.

Even though the life of a real life surgeon isn't as glamorous. dramatic and ideal as the show makes it out to be, but that's what makes this show stand out.

Disney's 'Frozen'

Many of you may seen Disney's latest movie, Frozen. Released last year, kids and even teens raved over the movie and it was considered a success. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, the main character, Anna, teams up with a mountain man, Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven. They are on a journey to find Anna's sister, Queen Elsa, who has frozen their kingdom in an eternal winter.

As I was reflecting over this movie, it made me wonder why it was so successful and what the appeal of it was. Using rhetoric, and ethos, pathos and logos, I concluded that the reason this movie was such a success was that it was a Disney movie, a love story, and the highest grossing movie of 2013.

The ethos appeal was the fact that this movie was a Disney movie. Most (or all) of us has seen at least one Disney movie in our lifetime and they never disappoint. Disney is recognized for it's classic movies that instill good values and positive messages.

'Pathos' is used in the love story aspect. Even though this movies (spoiler alert) didn't end like your traditional movie, and showed that the love between sisters can conquer anything, it still managed to get an emotional appeal out of kids, teenagers and even adults.

The last appeal, which is logos, is demonstrated in the fact that this movie was the highest grossing movie in 2013. And that wasn't just a coincidence. With that fact, it shows that there is obviously something about this movie that is attracting people and is a must see.

Interfaith Immigrant Legal Services

Over this past weekend I volunteered at a buffet for the group Interfaith Immigrant Legal Services. While volunteering at the event I was able to learn about the organization and what they do. It is an organization with the purpose of helping immigrants get the formal paperwork they need, whether it be to get authorization for work, or to become legal. The only goal of this organization is to help people. They rely greatly upon donations and volunteers to do all of the amazing work that they do. The greatest take away that I received from this buffet and fundraiser was how illegal immigrants become classified as refugees once they are already here. At the end of the event a video was played. This video was a once illegal immigrant from Mexico who became legal after appealing to the courts. It was a very touching video, and quite astonishing at what she went through. To become a legal immigrant and many others besides her, to become refugees, they had to appeal their reasoning to the courts. By this, I mean that they needed to present the situation they are in and why they should be classified as refugees. In this presentation the use of rhetoric would be greatly beneficial. By using rhetoric these people would be able to present their points persuasively and using ethos, logos, and pathos. This would greatly benefit the appeals because they would be able to present the direness of their situation better to the judges. Overall rhetoric greatly benefits many people.

Group Discussions and Dialogue

When deciding for housing last year I was talking with my roommate and we decided to join a living learning community. We looked at them and decided to join the living learning community, Leadership and Social Change because it was not related to either of our majors and something we were both interested in. Going in I wasn’t really sure how I would enjoy the learning community. I am a rather quiet, reserved person and don’t really take a big part in group discussions. Back in October the week following midterms my learning community held a group discussion in the lounge on my floor. The discussion was taking place because of the sit ins happening on campus during mid terms weeks. My RA is Jonathan Pulphus and he was leading the sit in. We had the chance to come together and share our views, use mediating language and comment on other people’s views. The point of this was to bring out a dialogue and allow people in the learning community to understand different viewpoints. This discussion was slotted to last for an hour but ended up lasting for three hours just because so many people had so many different points and wanted to share. A great deal of rhetoric was being used that day and in many discussions to follow about the same topic and different topics. Rhetoric is the art of persuasive writing or speaking. While we were not necessarily trying to persuade each other, we were always arguing for or defending our points of view. Using rhetoric and logic was very useful in these discussions because it allowed me to better defend and make my points.

Rhetoric in Cover Letter Writing

In the past few weeks I have been writing multiple cover letters as I apply for numerous summer jobs. In a cover letter, the goal is to display the parts of your personality that set you apart, as an applicant, which your resume just cannot do. The cover letter makes you more human to the person reviewing your application. In order to do this effectively I have found myself moving away from telling what I am and more to rhetoric. In my most recent cover letter I had two pages to tell the hiring manager about myself. Instead of telling certain traits like, I am hard working or I want to constantly improve, I told stories that demonstrated the traits I wanted to present for myself. I argued, but without really arguing. I tried to persuade without being to persuasive. I used rhetoric and logic to make my points and make myself sound how I wanted to sound. Not only does rhetoric help my writing in cover letter writing by allowing me to make points without telling, but it also makes my writing better. I feel like my writing flows more naturally from point to point when I use rhetoric. Throughout this course I have found that I am able to use the devices we learned in the beginning of the course to my advantage. I try to use rhetoric every time I write now. It is a better way to write and make points.

Speaking of Transplants...

April is national Donate Life month and as it is a subject close to me, I thought I might as well make a post arguing the importance of joining the cause (Rhetoric, right? This totally relates to class.)

For those who have never heard of it, Donate Life is an alliance dedicated to increasing the donation of organ, eyes and tissue nationwide.  Their ultimate mission is to get as many people as possible to sign up as donors--basically to save lives.  Often, organ transplantation is a greatly overlooked niche of healthcare, despite just how many people it affects. In 2013 alone there were 28,953 transplants performed. 

I'll start with a little bit about transplantation itself.  At this moment, more than 120,000 people in the United States are awaiting a transplant.  This situation is subjectively a very tedious and usually very trying one.  Simply to make it onto the list one must be extremely ill--there is no pre-list or just-in-case insurance.  Just to make it into being considered for a place on the wait-list, the life of a person must already be severely impeded by the illness affecting them, enough so that a board analyzing your case will find you a worthy candidate.  When that point is reached, the patient must then undergo the lengthy process of appealing and preparing, which is generally a multi-day all-day process in which the already very ill patient visits between various doctors who analyze and prepare them for the transplant (hopefully) to come, in great detail.  Once the patient has been awarded a spot on the wait-list and have undergone the lengthy preparation process, all that is left to do is quite literally wait on the ring.   Patients can wait anywhere from months to years to receive an organ, growing sicker and sicker all the while--and some never do.  Go back to high school, when you applied to college.  Imagine all the stress surrounding every application filled and sent, the exhausting thrill of spending day after day visiting potential school after potential school--and then remember the anxiety that weighed you down day after day waiting to hear back, not sure it would even be good news.  This is the closest comparison I can make to awaiting the call that says they have got an organ for you--except instead of worrying about whether or not you'll get into your dream school, you are worrying about your life.

So what can you do to help?

Often, transplantation is overlooked because of the lack of education about it.  While a few organ donations can be made from living donors by volunteering (kidney, or a portion of liver, lung, intestine, pancreas), signing up as a donor simply means that when a person dies, they give doctors the opportunity to use their organs to save the lives of still-living people who need them to remain alive.  Many people are uncomfortable considering their own mortality and that is normal--but it makes organ donation a hard thing to discuss.  The importance however, is unchanged.  Death is hard to consider, yes--but by signing up for organ donation you can find comfort in the fact that it will bring life to many more people (and yes, one organ donor can save up to eight lives--and up to 50 if tissue and eyes are donated as well).

There are many misconceptions about transplantation as well--questions of things such as religious correctness and who can donate.  The most important thing to know is that anyone can donate, regardless of age or other medical conditions.  There is almost always a way you can save someone else, and transplant doctors are specifically trained to make certain that the organs used for transplant will not harm the recipient.  Additionally, there are very few religious traditions that condemn transplantation, and ultimately only do in the most orthodox settings.  It is also important to note that if you are a donor you are not considered such until you are deceased.  This may seem clear, however more often than not people forgo becoming a donor because they fear this status will make their lives less valued when they are admitted to a hospital.  This is simply untrue--a doctor's first priority is always to you. 

This may sound over-exaggerated and cheesy, but the simple fact is that organ donation saves lives and anyone can do it.  I hope this cleared up some facts and misconceptions and I am happy to answer any that anyone has been left with.  You don't use your organs once you are gone, but someone else can.

If you are interested in registering to become a donor, click here.

Sources:
http://donatelife.net/
http://www.transplantliving.org/community/patient-resources/frequently-asked-questions/

First Ever Head Transplant

Today in class we talked about how the first ever head transplant is going to take place in as early as two years from now. I found this to be really interesting because of how dangerous this procedure would be and just overall how they plan to do it. In doing further research on head transplants I found this won’t be the first one ever attempted. With the amount of failed attempts, I am surprised they still have not had a successful head transplant.

In 1954, Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov attempted the first head transplant on a dog. A puppy’s head was transplanted onto the body of a larger, older dog. Demikhov had attempted this many other times after but the longest survival was only six days. Many died after two. In 1970, a somewhat successful head transplant took place in which one head was replaced by a different head led by a man named Robert White. This took place at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Robert White did this head transplant on a monkey which after the transplant was able to breathe with artificial assistance. After 9 days the immune system rejected the head and the monkey died. Many head transplants have been attempted since and with how technologically advanced we are today, we are just years away from the first successful had transplant.

 In the year 2013, a man named Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neruomodulation Group in Italy, proposed we do the first human head transplant. Through surgical procedures, he wants to extend the lives of people whose muscles and nerves are degenerating, or people whose organs are infected with cancer. According to Canavero, the most difficult part of the procedure with not be the head transplant itself but instead fusing the spinal cord and preventing the body’s immune system from shutting down after rejecting the new head. He predicts the surgery could be ready as early as 2017.

Sergio Canavero plans to announce his plan to attempt the first human head transplant at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgeons (AANOS). This conference will be help in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 2015.

Sources:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/human-head-transplant-two-years-away/
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530103.700-first-human-head-transplant-could-happen-in-two-years.html#.VUEPPu90zmQ

Rhetoric in Speech

As a medical scholar, I have been preparing for my medical school interview coming up shortly. I've noticed certain aspects of my preparation that relate to this class. For example, I use rhetoric in my speech rather than my writing to convince my interviewer that I am a strong candidate for medical school. It is interesting to see the connection of rhetoric on paper compared to talking. Devices of rhetoric that I use for my interview include talking about relevant and significant experiences that show the type of person I am. Instead of saying things like, "I am caring" or "I want to be a doctor", the use of rhetoric allows me to show this through different stories I share. Another important aspect of rhetoric in talking that cannot be seen on paper is the fluctuation of voice. Through the voice of an individual, qualities such as passion can be heard in your voice. This is very important because it is an effective persuasive technique to use for an audience. This relates to my multimedia project and the presentation we gave in class. We had to turn the words on a paper and use rhetoric to convince an audience of the argument we were making using our voice. This can also relate to other aspects of jobs and employment because it is important to show your employer why you are good for the job. Whether an individual knows it or not, he or she is using rhetoric to do this by utilizing different techniques to persuade an audience.

Can Film Trailers Ruin their Films?

Trailers are an advertisement preview for a film that will be shown in the future in theater. Trailers for films have existed for decades. This relates to class to because trailers are supposed to be like an introduction in an essay. The introduction to anything is supposed to get a simple explanation about the topic. The main point of a trailer is to get the auction interested in the film and to highlight what type of film it is going to be. The recent film trailers have been either spoiling major plot point, show a cliff note version of the film, or they are falsely advertised. A few past examples of trailers that showing too much information about their films is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Terminator Salvation, and The Amazing Spider-Man. The Hobbit trailers showed play by play of everything that happens in the film. Terminator Salvation showed that one of the main characters was a terminator and it was supposed to a twist. The Amazing Spider-Man is the best example, as showed a major character death, things that are not in the final film, and scenes that set up the next film. A few examples of trailers that are misleading is Drive (2011 film) and Hercules (2014 film). Drive was marketed as an intense action film when it was more of a neo noir film. Hercules showed about the first 20 minutes of the film, but after that it was becoming different film than expected. One of the best trailer that was released recently was Interstellar as it peak my interest and give me a basic idea of it is going to be about and do not spoil anything.

Link: http://metro.co.uk/2014/11/15/5-reasons-why-trailers-are-ruining-movies-4941834/

The Importance of Feedback.

I recently went to writing services to go over my draft, and found it very helpful. This gave me the idea to write about the importance of reviewing your draft and getting feedback.

I think feedback is like constructive criticism. When you review your own paper, you are less likely to find mistakes in your writing, possibly because you have a bias towards your own work. Having someone else look at your paper could help your find these mistakes that you overlooked.

Feedback helped when we did our PowerPoint presentations. Before we gave our presentation, we did a peer review. Before the peer review, my PowerPoint was a mess. I found that the feedback I received was very helpful as I was able to understand what I needed to improve in my PowerPoint, and what was effective in my PowerPoint. After our Presentation we were asked questions about our proposal. These questions could help us understand what points need to be made clearer in our research paper.

When asking for feedback, the most common question I ask is “is this point clear” or something similar to that. I think that this is an important question because when you are evaluating your own work, almost everything makes sense to you, because you are the one wrote it, and understands it. When you ask someone who has just seen the project you have been working on, you will get an unbiased view on the clarity of your work. 

The Importance of Annotation

While reading a passage or article, many people will use a skill called “annotating” to help them improve reading comprehension. Writing an annotation helps the reader get a deeper understanding of the reading because he or she is engaging in conversation with the author. Writing an annotation allows you to ask questions, make arguments, point out important details, find the thesis statement, and identify writing which requires further research. It also pushes the reader to think critically, focus on key points, and read with a purpose. There is a difference between annotating and taking notes. Unlike notes, the information is composed of fewer pieces in order to keep it organized. Annotations are more specific and directly to the point opposed to searching through pages of notes. Through annotations the reader gains a deeper understanding of the text. There are many benefits of annotation. For one, it makes the reader an active participant in the context. It also helps the reader understand the flow of the writing. It helps the reader compare their own ideas with the ideas of the writer. You are challenging, connecting, appreciating, and amending the context. Most importantly, you’re taking the authors context and transforming it into your own text and thoughts because annotations can be a guide or a pathway to your own writing. Writing an annotation can be more beneficial than reading a review, or using SparkNotes, CliffNotes, etc. A high level of critical engagement with the context is expected of college students, but for any level of reader, annotation aids in comprehension and analysis. Annotations make an excellent study tool and will be beneficial to students in the future.

Reference:

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. New York: The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1960.

Using Rhetorical Analysis and Writing Conventions In My Major

Earlier today I came across an article called “Rhetorical Analysis and Nursing Writing Conventions” and found it to be interesting because I can relate my major, nursing, to our English class which will be beneficial to me throughout these next three years here at SLU. A rhetorical analysis is not a summary of a source of writing but is identifying the components of the style in which the author is writing. These components are made up of many different factors such as conventions, audience, purpose, and context. This is what makes up a rhetorical analysis which relates to the nursing profession. If you’re wondering what conventions are, they are general agreements about basic principles or procedures. Organization, formality, Informality, accuracy in data, correct grammar and mechanics, and understanding of medical terminology, are all examples of conventions. In nursing one of the most important things is being able to effectively communicate with patients. The average person reads at a 5^th grade reading level so medical terminology and medicine dosage could be hard for the average American to understand. Throughout the semester we have learned the importance of knowing who your intended audience is. A nurses intended audience can be anyone working in a hospital setting (nurses, doctors, therapists, surgeons, etc.), patients, families, and community resources. We have also learned about purpose and context in our English class. Purpose is making sure that your intended audience understands what you are saying and trying to get them to gain knowledge on the topic you are informing them about. Context includes all the cultural, social, and historical factors that go into a piece of writing. It is important to look at every aspect in a broader sense when writing in nursing in order to ensure patient safety and the best possible care. This also allows nurses to provide holistic care which allows nurses to accurately record information and report back to other health professionals.

References:

Black, B.P, & Chitty, K.K. (2011). Professional nursing concepts & challenges. Maryland Heights, Missouri: Saunders Elsevier.
Kolin, P.C., & Kolin, J.L. (1980). Professional writing for nurses in education, practice, and research. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby Company.
Webster, M. (n.d.). Conventions. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conventions

What Makes Music Powerful?

   This idea has been on my mind for quite sometime now and I think I have the answer but I won't reveal it until the end. Based of some ideas from this class, there are a few factors that I can think of that would make music more powerful.
   First off one of the more talked about topics on the blog, originality, seems to have a pretty big influence on the power music has to some people. For instance dubstep appeared to hit its peak when there were very few artists that were mastering the new genre. They created something different that all of the sudden took a large audience in at a rapid pace. The reason why some individuals begin to bash the genre now is because most of the music sounds very similar, and thats most likely due to the fact there is not many other different ways to recreate the sound that was made in the beginning. Originality is kind of hit or miss though as some indie artists are never really recognized and their music does not have a huge impact on those who are more into the mainstream.
   Speaking of mainstream, another factor that seems to carry a great deal of weight in the music industry is the artist that lies behind the music. Knowing that you are listening to one of the most popular music artists and that maybe you have grown up listening to them most of your life would definitely give that artist a boost in musical pathos and ethos. Individuals who get emotionally attached to singers or other musicians are most likely going to have those same feelings towards their music.
   So while these two factors are rather important to music power, the one that I have put at the top of my list is nostalgia. It kind of goes along with the idea that emotion is a very powerful aspect in music. Essentially what I personally believe is that music that can bring an individual back to a certain happy place or time is the most powerful. Music that can conjure up pleasant memories as well as good times in the present resonate the most with me. Maybe I'm just an old man at heart, but that is my take on the power of music. Obviously there are other influences that determine the power of music, but I for sure cannot cover them all here. What do you think is the most important factor? Is it the rhetoric associated with the artist? Our opinions probably differ since everyone has unique tastes in music.

Fan Fiction and Originality

Not long after our discussions about originality, I came across this intriguing article and bookmarked it to talk about later.  The article itself is a discussion of a form of writing called “fan fiction,” which the author defines as stories that makes use of characters and settings from other professional creative works.  This definition is greatly expanded upon throughout the article, but most basically, it is a fan-written extension of a creative universe that is not strictly their own.  This of course raises the question of originality and copyright and whether this creative outlet is acceptable—just as we have discussed in class.  Like the NPR broadcast we listened to, the author, Lev Grossman, raises the question about art originality.  He asks, “Is art about making up new things or about transforming the raw material that's out there? Cutting, pasting, sampling, remixing and mashing up have become mainstream modes of cultural expression, and fan fiction is part of that” (Grossman).  It was at this point in my reading of the article that I made the connection between the two, and I found it to be just as thought provoking in the article as it was in the broadcast.  

For me, it raises a question of where exactly the line falls.  No one makes money off of fan fiction; another point made in this article—and many well-loved authors support the form of expression, including JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyers.  It is written and shared purely for the enjoyment of the fans who read and write it.  It is compared to music quite a bit—bands play cover songs because they enjoy the music and wish to share it.  Which again—leads to copyright.  The author says that in the US, copyright is checked by “fair use,” which has several qualifying factors.  Most basically, these factors include whether or not the work competes with the original work for income and whether it is “transformative.”  There are of course authors who are against fan fiction, who do believe it is an infringement of their copyright, or argue that emotionally the characters are theirs, and they are uncomfortable with them being appropriated.  

In perhaps the most interesting part of this article, Grossman comes to the conclusion that neither side is actually wrong.  Historically, fan fiction has been a part of writing.  Examples given include Shakespeare who borrowed his characters from history and Virgil who took his from The Odyssey.  Even today fan fiction is a prevalent part of our pop culture, present in shows such as ABC’s Once Upon a Time, which quite literally expands upon the fairy tale universe created by Disney and German tales.  And again, it comes back to originality; is this a reflection of the lack of it in today’s society, as noted by Mark Ronson in the NPR broadcast? And is it necessarily worse than or different from the sampling and sharing of music? I think that fan fiction is often tabooed by its nature in more traditional English settings; however, I also believe it brings an interesting and complex argument to the table that should be discussed.  What thoughts do you all have on this topic?