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Today I finished my expository essay. how proud you must be of me. That means that this progress blog is now officially not necessary, but i will continue it reluctantly anyway at the risk of getting a 1/2 on this blog. Here are the reasons why it should be passed: It keeps child molesters away from children. It keeps the psychiatrists happy by keeping them out of the hospitals. Jacob Duncan (He really deserves a category of his own), and because it is the bomb. Here are the reasons that it should not be passed. Child molesters have rights too and people sympathize with them. 

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Today I did not do anything on my paper because I was lazy, but I am very close to being done so I don't feel much obligation to. I discovered that a very evil man named Jacob Duncan skipped out on his bail for raping a child and went to a house and raped and killed a boy and molested his sister and then killed their entire family. That man was not a very nice guy. He should have been watched more closely the first time.

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I found a written source!, it is a book written about sex offenders and their sentencing. I think that it is a really good book because it is going to be used in my expository essay that is due on Friday. Like the diligent worker than I am, I also wrote more of my essay. 

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wrote some more of my paper. I was very proud of myself. I had to stop eventually though because I got tired of writing it. I was happy to have written part of it though. I included some sources.

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I began writing some of my paper on the various sides of the issue of Jessica's law; however, after a few moments I was conquered by a sudden frisson of desire to abruptly halt my actions, and as I did so, my paper's progress simultaneously halted

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 I did some research, but I didn't find anything

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Today I completed my proposal paper. I will now write some words.

 The idea of Jessica's law was created when Jessica Lunsford, a young girl from Florida, was raped and murdered by John Couey, a man who had been previously convicted as a sex offender. This act obviously angered the Floridians, who then created the law as an attempt to ensure that previous offenders could not receive a small sentence and continue to abuse others. 

Im done now.

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I worked very hard on my project. I did some research on Jessica's Law, a law that if passed would ensure that a judge would be required to sentence a convicted pedophile to minimum of 25 years in prison. This law is hardcore, and it eliminates a judge's ability to let a convicted criminal off with a very small sentence. 

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My inquiry contract proposal is coming along quite well. I am working very hard on this inquiry contract proposal. I searched deep inside myself for something that would make a good inquiry contract proposal. I did some research on my inquiry contract proposal. I love my inquiry contract proposal. I have a deep emotional connection to my inquiry contract proposal. The research that I did has really helped me with my inquiry contract proposal. I have not done much else to prepare myself to write my inquiry contract proposal. I am planning on doing the mandatory sentencing of pedophiles for my inquiry contract proposal. 

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This argument is rather well written, using a great deal of logic in his arguments as well as a great deal of support by making reference to many reliable statistics. He also appeals emotionally to the sympathy of the reader by discussing the many people who die of cancer and AIDs who must go without pain medication extracted from opiates. He also helps prove his point with the argument that the current status quo on the fight against the Opiate trade is not working. He illustrates that even though the trade is banned, people continue to trade and make use of the opiates. In doing this, the author makes it more clear to the reader that change is not necessary and makes it harder for the reader to remain indifferent by portraying doing nothing as the opposite side to his argument. The author is logical throughout the argument and his points make sense and are well structured. 

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Yoshino declares that the mainstream is a myth because in reality, he believes, there is no social norm that everyone can match themselves to. He believes that every individual person has their own individual qualities and that because of this, there is no standard that can fairly describe more than a very small group of people. He states that even the white man, who appears to satisfy the typical American in every way, has his own personal differences that would separate him from the mainstream, regardless of his familiar appearance. Yoshino is very persuasive because he uses quite a few examples and represents ideas and views already understood by many of us. I would represent the mainstream in America as a white able-bodied male or female who understands and matches with the rest of society. This of course is more of an average because it never actually occurs perfectly. 

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Life in the North is quite shy of the expectations that Linda had for it. When she came to the North she expected to find a land in which blacks and whites were treated fairly and equally, but she instead finds that while the slavery is gone, the racial inequality and prejudice is clearly still present. This is illustrated very visibly when she goes to buy a train ticket. Although Linda has the money to pay for a first class ticket, she is barred from buying one by the person who sells them due to the color of her skin. She also learns that in the North she is not truly free. Once the fugitive slave act had been passed, her master had the right to come into free states to reclaim her as his slave, causing her emotional burden and insecurity inherent of being a fugitive until she was purchased for $300. 

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In this reading, I found it particularly moving when linda describes the reaction of the white population to the Turner Rebellion. She mentions the cruelty and mistreatment of both the slaves by the slave owners and later moves on to describe how blacks as a race were treated in the South. She then also mentions the slaveless white farmers, and though without any slaves of their own, in many instances they are more cruel to the slaves than the masters are. She then goes to use more graphic imagery to ensure a greater emotional attachment to the slaves. After she had described the punishments of innocent men based on race and class using graphic terms like "the blood stood... at their feet," I deeply sympathized with the blacks she was referring to, and I felt that she was successful in her rhetorical plot. 

Slave

It is very important that this tale is not fiction because fiction provides a reader with the ability to escape from the concerns and sympathy that they might feel for the slave girl through the idea that it never happened. Even though the reader might understand that there have been worse times in slave history, making a book like this fiction would ruin its credibility and tarnish its purpose. Any person who was truly emotionally moved by this book would naturally begin to attack its credibility. They would rather tell themselves that it does not occur, never occurred, and that they have no obligation to sacrifice themselves to ensure that this does not happen. When the book is not fiction, the reader no longer has that option of escape. Instead, the reader must accept every word that is stated as truth, and they are forced to understand that this actually happened. Although it may be painful for them, in order for them to learn the truth of slavery and fulfill the purpose of the book, it is vital that they read the book as if it were real and absorb every blow to the main character as if it were to themselves. if this does not happen, the reader can ignore what they are hearing and continue living in their fantasy world in which such things do not exist. 

Election

As I was watching the election with relentless vigor, I began to slowly contemplate the various proceedings of the election. It seemed rather peculiar to me that the John McCain was perceived through the vantage point of his similarity to both his predecessor and to the lack success of previous tactics employed rather than to his new ideas and an analytically based view of what impact they would potentially have. I found this rather unsettling, and the magnitude of the effect that the  general public on this idea further led to my disbelief. Instead of postulating the candidates by perceived value, the public fled from tragic circumstances of the current economy by embracing the opposite. These actions were not manifested through logic, but through fear. In essence, I concluded, the people must not only have developed the belief that the presidential power is absolute, but also that the few similarities between McCain and the previous president will undoubtedly yield a similar result. This however is the likely irreparable nature of humanity: judging others by a compilation of similarities to others they have encountered. When an individual encounters another, often, even if only subconsciously, that person will recognize that individual through similarities to those they have met or heard of, establishing the basis for many common prejudices, including racism. This idea does not only apply to humanity however, but seems to be present in all animals. Such is illustrated through the example of an abused dog I confronted in my childhood. When I approached the animal out of curiosity, it growled at me. Upon my asking the female owner quickly retold the life of the poor animal.This dog was blind in one eye and had been frequently been beaten badly by a male who was known to wear a baseball cap. Over and over the dog had been beaten. Eventually, the abused animal hated the bitter owner and did all it could to avoid him. Presently, she told me, although the dog had not been exposed to any further violence, the dog instantly bears great resentment toward all males and even greater so to those who are wearing baseball caps. The dog can smell, she says. The dog knows his previous owner is gone and that those approaching are clearly separate entities, but the dog still bears the fear and resentment toward males and caps due to the one experience with his owner, who exhibited both of these traits. It is clear through analysis that it is in our nature to relate people through similarities such as the dog did with his abuser. It is my fear that the election exploited this instinctive response at the expense of John McCain.

Racism

Coming from a school which had no diversity, I honestly have never had a racial encounter worth mentioning. I have, however, seen a bit of racism take place. Once when I was in a car, one of my friends parents was angry that he had just been cut off by a man on a bike. After he had come to a screeching halt, out of anger, he shouted that he should slam on the brakes whenever he sees a black person on the side of the road. This is the end of my story, and it is the most racism I have ever witnessed in my life. It seemed interesting that he blamed the fact that he was cut off on the fact that the guy riding the bike was black. It seems that this is the easiest way to do things. 

While I hate to appear a liar, I have never personally been openly racist. While I have sometimes made jokes about various races and made jokes about how ridiculous it is to be absurdly racist, I never feel like I have discriminated. This is most likely because I never met anyone of a different race other than Sonia before coming to University. 

Parillo discusses the socialization process in a way that illustrates its power over the youngest generation of society. He states that prejudice, an idea in which one person has a predisposed position on a person before meeting them, is spawned in a child simply from the ideas of their parents and peers. This occurs because when a person is born, they have no opinion of what the world is or how it works. They then are ready to accept the ideas of any person who they come into contact with, and with no developed sense of right or wrong, the child naturally assumes that what they are hearing is right. Sometimes the children know exactly what they are doing, blatantly disregarding others whom they have been taught to avoid and other times, the child may not even know that they have developed these ideas until they start to naturally drift away from social whom they have developed a natural fear of. He ultimately believes that the prejudice that we see in the world would not exist if it were not for the existing prejudice that contaminates the minds of children in their youth, and that the bad character that exists in the world is a product of misled role models and imperfect peers. 

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This story displays the importance of acknowledging or giving reparations to those to whom a nation has shown injustice or fault. This was illustrated through the repayment of Japanese AMericans following internment. After they were interned, many had lost their homes and had lost even more objects of great moral value. After they were released, however, the US showed sympathy for the innocent harmed, and provided each of the interned with a substantial sum of money. Although this sense of reparation does not directly apply to the descendants of the one's unjustly harmed, the same ideology can back its enactment. Giving reparations to an unjustly harmed race, even if the ones harmed have already been gone, it displays a nation's willingness to accept its faults, and it helps to eliminate some of the racism still occurring within the nation.

Cora

While Willy and Cora are put into similar situations in the readings, Cora differs from Willy in that Cora is where she is through her own beliefs and not through blind conformity to society. Willy had spent his whole life conforming to a society which eventually turned on him, and when he was done conforming, no part of his original self remained. Cora was different. While she did have monetary problems and was not working her dream job, she still had the ideas and urges for change in society that were meaningful to her from the beginning. Willy's profession slowly provided him less income as society changed, and Cora's job did not provide her with much money to live in a nice apartment, but while from a monetary standpoint they were approximately equal, the one thing that Willy did not have that Cora had, was individuality of character, and this vital yet intangible concept drove Willy to insanity and ultimate failure. 

Individual Opportunity

Willy's idea of individual opportunity was one's opportunity to be well liked and generally accepted by the people around him and he consistently illustrated this throughout the novel. Willy always was content when others displayed appreciation for him, mostly by means of making a great sales deal. He would also commonly brag about how well he was liked by the world to his family, which created a bit of resentment with his son. His death further displays his connection with his personal image. When his main contacts died, the world stopped recognizing him, and his son illustrated resentment for him as well, Willy ultimately realized that he was a failure in his own eyes, and he killed himself.

The author's idea of individual opportunity was likely different, and by means of Willy he wished to portray to the world that being well liked is not one and the same with success. There is no clear point in which the author suggests his personal opinions on what it means to be successful, but he likely believed that success consists of a multitude of different aspects, and that believing and chasing only one of them, will most likely lead to one's personal death and realization of personal failure. 

Discussion Question about death of a salesman

Was Willy's death the fault of the American system, or that of his own failure to persevere?

More speeches

The speeches were overall pretty good. While some speeches had their flaws, and sometimes I had strong and general rebuttals that were not addressed in any way during some of the speeches, I found that the majority of the speeches either never had those errors or made up for them with charismatic speaking, eye contact, and rather touching appeals to pathos.

Now I will blog about some specific speeches. Sammie did the poor house. It was a great speech. The appeal to pathos was intense. When she was done I felt compelled to donate to her cause.

Mathew Ciulla made an excellent speech on boyscouts of America. I found this speech to be particularly interesting because of his charismatic nature and insight into the purpose of his organization. He illustrated the need for boyscouts of America. He stated that the true purpose of boyscouts of America was to establish a father figure for orphans, those who had been abandoned, those neglected by their fathers, and even for those who had been blessed with great fathers, it was to help them manage their lives, learn to be honorable and to obey the rules, and to learn the skills and confidence necessary to become successful. 

Speeches today

The speeches today were interesting. Colin's speech was rather enthralling. he used silence and pauses in his speech in the attempt to draw the desired emotion from the reader and he used few and powerful words to ensure that the listener could understand the meaning of what he was saying. He used statistics to appeal to ethos, establishing a firm connection with the reader. With evidence at hand, Colin was able to force the reader to accept what was happening in the world, and maintained the underlying assertion that his cause is worth donating to. After hearing his speech it was absolutely clear to me what Second Helpings desires to do, and how they help people in need. Colin also did a good job of ensuring that the listener was given an unbiased view of the evidence that he was using to support his claim. Often, when seemingly outrageous statistics are used, listeners reject them, believing them to have been manipulated for the sole purpose of promoting the cause. Colin countered this natural rebellion by introducing the statistics from both angles by first putting them into perspective with a percent, and then quantifying them with the large number that is incumbent of translating any substantial percent to a number in America. 

Jim Ray's speech was the best.

Speech progress

My speech is progressing very well. I have written the entire speech. My speech is very awesome. It had something to do with the Toulmin system. When I finished my speech, i was very happy. I should get an A on the speech for being done so early. Now I will blog about some of the difficulties I had in writing my speech. 

I had difficulties in discovering information about my charity because it is relatively new, and therefor valuable information like success statistics, student stories, and interviews were scarce if if present at all. I eventually found all of the information that I needed through diligent searching and evaluating information.

While my speech is already written, throughout the course of the week I plan to revise and edit it so that it is flawless when presented. As all great writers know, few things come out perfectly the first time; however, Mozart did this and was recognized for his musical genius. 

Speech I have to do

There is an old chinese proverb 

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." 

For my organization to help the impoverished and misled America, I chose Providence Cristo Rey High School. This school, designed for the impoverished, teaches not only essential skills such as Math, Science, and Literature, but it also inspires great hope and self-esteem in students by teaching them essential job hunting skills, basic work ethic, has them wear nice clothing to class, and works out deals with companies to allow students to spend one day a week working a real job, which helps them pay off their tuition. While other non-profit organizations can provide money, clothing, and shelter to those in need, none can truly compare to the opportunities that these students are provided. Many students like this come from families who never had hope for a decent job themselves, and never taught their children that dreams can be worth pursuing. In this high school, that can be done. One graduate even went so far as to state that neither his mother nor his father graduated high school, and that his father had dealt with construction his entire life. Before going there, he explained, was to drop out of high school and go into construction like his father. Over the course of his education, however, while he admits it was not easy, he said that he felt like he could pursue dreams higher than he had thought possible and instead of dropping out of high school, said he wanted to go on to college to further his education. This illustrates the utter importance of what this school is doing. While as of now it can only hold 500 students, it provokes the realization in them that they are not doomed to relive the impoverished life of their parents; it provides them with the experience they need to find and work in formal white collar jobs, and it is one small step to help repair america and allows the graduates, and possibly, even the graduates' children, to understand that poverty is not irreversible and that America might not be as cruel as they or their parents thought it to be.

The undeniable concept that separates this organization from the rest, is that simply giving money to the homeless and dropping pennies in the hobo's cup helps him only until people run out of spare change. At this school, the children who came from impoverished families, will never lose the skills and hope they gained there. They will be able to take care of themselves and their families for a lifetime. 

Emerson

In the reading, Emerson argues that in order to be successful, an individual must maintain their own characteristics and resist the demand to conform to society. He believes that conform is the downfall of success in society because in conforming to what others wish to see in you, you are sacrificing the potential personalized achievements that you could have reached. Emerson also mentions that maintaining the same views is bad. While others wish an individual to maintain their views so that they can be defined, Emerson believes that frequently changing views depending on the circumstances is important. Although it is important to note Emerson's ideas here, most of the time success is only paired with a bit of both conform and individuality. In today's society, for example, a person can only be successful if others will allow them to be. If a person were to follow Emerson's example with the idea that if he maintains his lack of conformity, he will be successful, and his idea of success is sitting around all day and doing nothing, but receiving a large salary and benefits, that person will likely not reach his idea of success. That person must instead maintain the idea, but conform to something society appreciates. He could do this by going to Law School, and becoming a Congressman, where his job would be much the same as described, but his occasional voting would earn him the appreciation and wealth that is generally accepted as success. 

wealthy and poor

I think that this article is implying that the wealthy are taking advantage of the poor, but in any argument, it is important to analyze the basis of the points being taken. While this article attempts to appear in an impartial context, the fact that it was written suggests that it wishes to convince someone to change something and have an impact on the world. Because an article arguing against the point that the rich are in favor of the poor would only appear beneficial as a rebuttal to an opposing argument, I justly assume that the article intends to open the reader's mind to the possibility that the rich are taking advantage of the poor. This, however, must be defined further if it should be later analyzed. There is no clear definition of what taking advantage of something is. Take a high paying profession such as a medical Doctor for example. The article mentions the statistic that those with higher SAT scores get higher paying jobs. This is very important because SAT scores reflect the intelligence of an individual and his or her ability to reason and learn. The intelligence required to get these scores would allow the individual to go and learn from medical school, ultimately striving to save lives. By the time this man becomes a doctor, at around age 30, it is only just that he is paid more and rewarded for his perseverance.  If he were not paid more than other jobs that required less education, then he would have never put himself in the position of a doctor in the first place. Who would want to perform open heart surgery at $7.50 an hour, not to mention pay to learn how. The rich and the poor are ultimately determined through the analysis of ability and knowledge and there is no way to change that and maintain the honest integrity of the system. Even with an unfairly based system though, the poor are not being taken advantage of. While the rich do need the poor to operate, the poor also need the rich. Without the poor, the rich would have messy homes, no corn to eat, and would be forced to eat indoors for the rest of their lives, and without the rich, the poor would be far more subject to disease and technology would be significantly retrogressed. In a working society, it is necessary that both the rich and the poor do their part to keep it running, and it is unfortunate, but necessary that the rich are rewarded for their education and perseverance to help the world. 

Cruz/Ragged

Steven Cruz's story shares similar themes with Ragged Dick, offering the main character the same opportunities, but in Steven Cruz's story, instead of just happily accepting his good fortune and high paying job, the main character becomes extremely concerned with the fact that he likely only received the job that he did as a result of his Mexican race. For Ragged Dick, the story ended here, he accepted that fact that some luck was involved in his success and embraced his new life of riches. The protagonist of Steven Cruz's story concerns himself so greatly with the unfairness and hypocrisy of his position that he ends up quitting the high paying jobs that are offered to him, sacrificing his success for his cause. Both of the stories seem to agree that success in America is determined by some element of luck, but the stories separate in that Dick embraced his look and looked upon it as a product of his success, while Cruz's character had the luck to be successful, but in the attempt to maintain fairness, declined it. 

Ragged Dick

Ragged Dick displays the implicit argument that success is ultimately a combination of both luck and skill or strength of character. In the story, Dick had to work hard and use a great deal of skillful manuevering to be where he was at the time, but ultimately, that work and perserverance alone was not enough to get him where he was. When he was looking for a job,  he was given the opportunity to save a man's child. He did not know however, that the man who owned the child was extremely wealthy and that he would get a great deal in return for his morally expected action. The man then hired him for his morally sound character. While it was important that he had the skills required to do the job successfully, the author points out that it is also important that a person also has luck and is morally strong to be successful. Otherwise, it is suggested, that Dick would not have gotten the job. 

Visual Blog

Visual arguments in today's society seem to be having a greater effect than their non-visual brethren due to the increased sensory comprehension, the opportunity to reach a greater audience, and the significantly reduced time it takes for the argument to get its point across. While a strongly worded argument will often make believers out of the people who sit down and read them in their entirety, often times nobody feels that reading an argument, especially one that contradicts their beliefs, is actually worthy of their time. A visual argument, however, is different. With a visual argument, a person does not have the ability to look at the thesis, determine that they do not agree with it, and walk away. Because the argument hits them all at once, they must accept it for what it is, regardless of their previous dispositions. The argument will then hit, not only people who are too "busy" to read, but also those who are stubbornly opposed to your beliefs. 

Recently, visual arguments have also been popular because of their ability to be placed in commonly viewed locations. While written arguments are restricted to books, packets of paper, and courtrooms, visual arguments can hit thousands of people through placement on TVs, Billboards, and bumper stickers. While often people consider these pointless, over time, they make a subconscious difference, and making even a slight impact on millions of people, is all an argument can really be expected to do. 

post # 13

When using persuasive rhetorical strategies such as ethos and pathos, the arguer must ensure that not only is the point reasonable and accurately stated, but also that the evidence used is completely rounded, illustrating all known benefits and downfalls of the point being made.  It is easy to lie in an argument with a made up statistic, and it is easy to deceive people with "true" ones that don't convey the full meaning (like saying 25% of girls die of cancer per year in a school containing four girls); however, this truly is not the point of arguing. The true point of arguing is to approach the truth, which if understood, will please the general will of the population. Those who wish to intentionally convince others of falsities can only be described as acting out of selfish greed. The unfortunate thing is, it is very difficult to determine if someone has created a decent idea out of developed, rounded, and meaningful arguments, or if they are intentionally leaving evidence out, using emotions to override logic, or even lying. This is why it is important for organizations such as the media to be truthful in its evidence.  People, who love and wish the best for their country watch the news and expect the news to tell the full story. When the news tells them lies, or subtly  deceives them with bias, the ignorant population will likely accept the news as fact, for if they are watching the news, they likely do not know when they are being misled. It is therefore important for arguments to stay informatively impartial when attempting to educate a population. While sides can and should be established on certain issues in the inevitable pursuit of the truth, ideally, the population should be making that choice, not the media. 

skateboarding

The author uses plenty of evidence to support his claims. he first describes a situation in which he was skateboarding. In this scenario, he describes the law enforcement as if they are criminals, implying his complete innocence and the excessive unfairness of the policemen. He then attempts to sympathize with the reader by pointing out a mistake that an average person would be likely to make, and he refers to his friend who had to pay $50 to make it sound more tragic. He backs his argument further by using a stereotype of his own to describe how stereotypes are afflicting him. Nearing the end, he re-states the point that skaters don't have anywhere to go, using ambiguous rules as an example and over crowded and poorly built skate parks as an example. He follows this point up with argument that skaters make the environment cleaner because they don't drive or sail in gasoline powered boats. This argument, while worded cleverly, has many faults, which the writer purposefully ignores. This writer's cunning impresses me, however, his argument does not. 

Pseudo Arguments!

Pseudo arguments are frustrating because they commonly elicit the same effect as expressing your opinions to a brick wall, and almost always end up with both sides stubbornly saying to themselves, "This guy/girl has absolutely no idea what he/she is talking about!" This is because neither can understand the other's attack on the argument because they disagree on a fundamental issue. While the supporting issue could then become the new argument and truth pursuit could follow, reality never seems to make it that easy. When person A argues against person B that racism is bad because colored people are dying, and person B comments that their dead bodies match the trees, person A will be flabbergasted. All through his life person A has been taught the horrors of racism, and person B establishes a complete standstill to all of his arguments by showing no care or sympathy and points out the convenient color coordination. Person A really has nowhere to go from this point. If person B is unwilling to accept that discrimination due to race is bad, all examples such as death rates, rights differences, and emotional examples of people who cannot pursue their dreams are useless. Because emotional connection and fairness to others is the only real basis behind equality, ignoring this leaves no way to pursue the "truth."In a sense, with a pseudo argument, neither side will head in the right direction. Topics such as racism and abortion are very sensitive issues. Politics struggles so greatly with abortion for much the same reason as the example above. When Pro-life argues that abortion is murder, pro-choice says nobody cared for the baby anyway, and when Pro-choice argues for abortion, those who are pro-life are blinded to reason by their emotional connections to their own children and loved ones. There ultimately comes a point in a pseudo argument when one realizes, there is no point in pursuing it further.

Pathos

Pathos, or emotions, is an exceptionally strong rhetorical device because it catches the attention of a large variety of audiences, establishes a solid and understandable medium for most viewers to relate to, and its attachment to emotion can keep the argument in the audience's memory for a long time. Arguments containing only persuasion can be intractably ignored, and arguments with no understanding will inevitably prove ineffective; however, the use of "pathos" attacks both of these issues and commonly proves more effective than ones based entirely on logic and reason.

While people will commonly not respond to or commonly even understand an argument about a controversial topic such as economics, emotions, like sympathy, will register with the reader or listener. For example, when establishing a point to an audience with a little education, mentioning the stock market patterns will prove pointless, but mentioning the one legged hobos on the sides of the streets will draw tears, and the person will go back and spread the "need for change" to his or her friends and family. 

If emotion alone does not connect the reader to the piece, pressure to do so often will finish the job. For example, an argument encouraging acting out against pet abuse will show the harmful and irreversible effects of abuse on a defenseless animal, such as a puppy. Just the sympathy for the baby animal alone will change the majority of the audience member's minds, but those who are not will then fall into a category contrary to "peer pressure." They will be attacked for being heartless, inconsiderate, and having an unreasonable hatred of puppies. Regardless of how this person responds or the level of logic that his argument has, the opinions of the peers around him will remain unchanged; such is the power of pathos. Not only will the emotions bring out the most powerful, angry emotions in people, but they will also pressure those who remain loyal to reason to change. 

This is not to say, however, that emotional arguments are perfect. While they do have the extremely beneficial attributes mentioned above, emotions are no substitute for reason. Emotions alone will only convince a small majority of people, and the ones that are convinced, will commonly later reason out their error in judgement. It is therefore important to maintain a balance of logic and emotion, for without emotion, you will get few listeners, and without logic, those who do listen will often not remain loyal to the cause.  

Torture

I agree with a great deal of the ideas mentioned in the article suggesting torture should be allowed under certain circumstances. While there are some faults in the piece, the faults, from what I can see, are not faults of the argument itself, but the somewhat useless nature of the argument. The argument itself is quick, solid, and specific. It describes situations in which only the most irrational of people would not imply that torture would be the correct option. The lack of application is the argument's main issue. I understand this, but it is important to understand that this is not actually the fault of the argument. When undergoing radical hyperbole this argument should be considered "useless" not "bad."

The argument uses surveys, hypothetical situations, and even historical situations to prove his point. The author points out, people were outraged that Hitler was not assassinated and assassination is simply a relative of torture. To me, this displays that some of his hypothetical circumstances, which appear at first to be too narrowly focused, have actually had application in history without being stretched to far to retain meaning. From this perspective then, the argument is clearly not useless. Hitler was the cause of the death of millions. A great majority of Jewish men would have happily shot four or five guards to get a shot at Hitler. The torture or death of innocents is unfortunate, and the author agrees, but one must understand that you are picking the lesser of two evils. The pain of a few innocents (possibly, and not included in the argument), or the death of a far greater number of innocents, just hours away from explosion. Sure, sometimes the criminal will be tough enough to handle it, and sometimes you have damaged 202 people rather than 200, but those two people are not dead. They will recover. The dead and their families, however, don't get that chance. You can't just let criminals plant a bomb, taunt America, and walk away with money, hundreds dead. Though this was not argued, the fact that we are willing to torture, will encourage fewer people to even attempt this, knowing that they will just crack later. Even worse, knowing that we will never torture will have just the opposite effect. 

Genetic Foods #2

The reading discusses both sides of the controversial issue of genetic food production and consumption. One side of the argument explores the potential long-term dangers of consuming bio-tech foods. The author discusses the possibilities of illness, potential of food to lose its nutritional value, and the harm that widespread ignorance could inflict on humanity. The author concludes with the assertion that we should halt all production of genetic foods. The other side of the argument makes the point that extensive labeling will just confuse and scare customers and decrease effectivity by increasing the price. The author states that the foods have all been extensively tested already and that the advantages of genetic foods outweigh any remaining potential harms.

I believe that genetic foods are productive and valuable. While I too share some minor concerns for the dangers of practices such as irradiation, I do not think these concerns are very valid or problematic. As with all things entering society, new genetic foods undergo extensive testing, and so far, they have shown little to no chance of harm. All things considered, it doesn't make sense to instantly condemn this exciting new research. With problems slowly developing in the world, there will undoubtedly be a time when genetic foods will prove their worth. i suppose it is also possible, though unlikely, that genetic foods illustrate problematic signs and of concern to humanity. Until then however, there is no reason to irrationally ignore the great advantages of bio-tech foods with no evidence to support the claim but potential problems and hypothetical circumstances.

Genetic Foods

The arguments on pages 1 and 24 take different approaches on the same argument. The argument on page 1 is a comic of a starving boy being refused food by a well-fed, man claiming the food has been genetically engineered and therefor, the boy should not eat it. This implicit argument is powerful because it clearly makes the reader draw the conclusion that genetic foods are helpful because, if nothing else, they are better than not having food at all. The other argument is a mix of both implicit and explicit arguments. First it illustrates a picture of a can of (genetically engineered) food. It then, instead of placing the ingredients and nutrition facts in their rightful places, puts "None of Your Business" in its place. It also has a label underneath it explaining the potentially harmful long-term effects of using genetically engineered foods. This argument, while it displays a strong point, falls a bit shorter than the other simply because a starving boy, who has nothing else to eat, would much rather eat and risk long term health problems, then perish from starvation and never live to see the long-term.

Implicit and Explicit Arguments!

Implicit and explicit arguments differ in that explicit arguments directly address an issue and express its position on that issue clearly, with organized arguments, while an implicit argument forces the reader to figure out for him or herself what the argument means, guiding the reader to the desired position. A common explicit argument would be a persuasive essay. Essays clearly define positions and defend those positions with solid and clear points. Political ads and speeches are also explicit arguments. An common implicit argument, on the other hand, would be a picture or a poem. Poems and pictures do not clearly point out what their meanings are. Poems often must be searched for the meaning by readers, and pictures contain no words whatsoever; however, these arguments can be equally effective. While an explicit argument can easily be completely ignored by the audience, implicit arguments often depict vivid and touching images, and force the reader to pay attention to their meanings by forcing them to draw the meanings themselves. On page 5 of Writing Arguments there is a photograph and a poem, arguing for different sides of a controversial issue, war. The picture depicts a soldier being greatly honored on veterans day, persuading the reader toward patriotism. The poem depicts a vivid image of soldier dying from a mustard gas attack, implying that there is no reason that a soldier should be forced to undergo such a thing as war, and conveying to the reader that dying for one's country is meaningless. While neither one of these arguments directly stated their meanings, they both were able to use the reader to get their point across, separating them from explicit arguments. 

purpose story

When I was about six or seven years old, I was staying with my grandparents in Florida. I was having a great time running around outside and enjoying the warm climate foreign to Indiana. My grandparents then invited me to go throw bread to the seagulls. For a short time, I was content and entertained, standing on the dock watching the seagulls fight over the breadcrumbs. Then, I looked to my left to find a blue herin, which stood up to be about my entire height if not taller. I was scared and I did not know what to do. I carefully started backing towards my house where my grandparents were when the beastly bird let out a hideous noise and charged directly toward me, its long pointed beak leading the way. I was absolutely terrified of what this bird would do to me and was overwhelmed by the helplessness of having nowhere to run. I let out a yell as what I felt was my last chance of survival. It was then that my sleeping father, who had been previously fishing on the dock, awoke started and hit the gargantuan bird with his fishing rod. The startled bird left, and I again felt a sense of safety, but the sense of being overwhelmed by fear and helplessness remained with me for days, as I had never before realized my safety could ever be an issue and that even with my parents around me I could still be threatened. 

Anything in the class so far

Of all the things we have done in this class so far, my favorite was reading and discussing workings of the brain and emotional bankruptcy by Scott Fitzgerald. I found this particularly interesting and entertaining because I could relate to its generalizations on human nature and discussions of the workings of the brain. This enhanced interest gave me a much clearer and more accurate understanding of the reading, making it significantly more enjoyable. 

The connections I could make with real life helped my understanding because, I felt, they gave the complex ideas an essence of tangibility. While ideas about matters I had never heard of or discussed before would usually elude my comprehension, seeing the explanations in myself and others locked in the precise meaning, which would have otherwise blurred over, providing me with only a vague idea of the reading's purpose.

I generally liked this reading because it, unlike most other readings I am given, seemed to have one clear meaning that I could recognize. While experiences remain solid in the mind, words can only help describe those experiences so the fact that i could relate the words to a specific experience in my life helped immensely. 

Language evolution

It is clear just from everyday English that language is the product of evolution. While the changes in language may not occur every day, it is obvious that it happens. Every year words are added and removed from various dictionaries, spellings of words are modified, words such as "google" enter the language, and the English language further distances itself from similar languages such as Spanish or Latin. There is no question that language evolves. It can be seen everywhere.

There is no specific time when the language we speak changes, as it tends to slowly occur over time, but there are many specific ways in which the changes can occur. The only real necessity for language to change is that people commonly understand a new phrase or word to have the same meaning or set of meanings. By far, the easiest way for that to happen is to make the new word's meaning self-explanatory. For example; taking a known or commonly used noun and making it a verb by adding "ed." Ed "paintball-ed" the house. Because the meaning is clearly understood, others can easily follow the example set by the speaker and use it in their own sentences. Another way that language can quickly evolve is to have a large number of people of various cultures and languages enter society. New words are quickly adopted by those who consistently hear them to mean the same thing and use it on their own. 

Language evolves because it was never set in stone in the first place. Before rules such as spelling or sentence structure came into play, a word's only purpose was and still occasionally is that the listener understands it. New words inevitably develop as more people use them, and if the majority understands it, it becomes a word. Common era regulations such as dictionaries and grammar rules can only slow it down. 

story

The phone rang, and I was mildly annoyed that no one else was around to answer it, but in the end I think the call was for me. After I said, "Hello," the elderly male voice on the other end asked politely to speak to Jim. When I told him that he must have the wrong number, he told me that he was trying to get in touch with an old friend in Zionsville, and it had been a while since they had talked. He verified that he had dialed the correct number, and then he began to question me. He wanted to know if I lived in Zionsville, and how old I was.  I felt a bit nervous because I know that you should not talk to strangers, but he just did not seem to be a thief or a pedophile. He seemed nice and lonely. He told me about his children and his family with whom he was rarely able to have decent conversation anymore and his wife who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease a few years ago. After several minutes on the phone the man thanked me for talking to him and suggested that I might have been one of his "angels". "Angels?" I asked. He told me that there are a few angels that walk among us, and we never really know who they are. He explained that if you are sitting on a park bench and someone else sits beside you, you make the choice to talk to or ignore him or her. If you disregard the person, you just might miss talking to one of your angels. I thanked the man for sharing his stories, and we said good-bye. The conversation reminded me that sometimes I feel too busy to stop and talk to people, and there are many elderly people who have great stories to tell and no one to listen. I vowed to take the time to talk to older people. I think the man who called me just might have been my angel.

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