Blogosphere Response

Even though I did not take immediate notice, the blog helped me flesh out many of my paper topics and ideas. I think in that sense, it served a really good purpose. The responses were also good feedback and helped me focus in on what to write about. It showed me a lot about what people find generally interesting. Even when it was not a surprise, people's responses elicited further affirmation in what the general public would also find intriguing about my opinions/ideas/topics. I'm not sure if it served as a personal outlet, and I think I would rather keep it that way. This is much more constructive than a personal blog would be. The blogs forced me to think more about my writing and how to tailor it not for content, but for a voice and cohesiveness. This may be the first time a class has successfully forced students into doing so.

Also, the evaluations about the blogs helped me gauge what level I was responding in. I enjoyed writing purposefully and the direction really led me to start to develop a style. For once, it seemed a class was focused on content more than quantity and effort. I think that telling us that everything had purpose and a goal had a real affect on the expectations of the class. It also might have been a rare moment when there was a rational meeting of the minds, since the goals were set out so clearly. All in all, I enjoyed this class. Scary, I know.

Human Rights and freedoms in China

I think I'll be writing about Chen Guangcheng, a political prisoner in China. He is a blind, self-taught lawyer that reported the local government of a town he lived nearby for infringing on women's rights. Because of the One-Child Policy, many of the women that had recently had children were not allowed to have children. The local government in Linyi held a town ultrasound, where women are subjected to an ultrasound to check for pregnancy. They enforced the One-Child Policy harshly and illegally, and subjected thousands of women to be sterilized or forced to abort the child. Some women who were there were well into their pregnancy. After women from Linyi went to Chen Guangcheng, he attempted to help them and reported this incident to a higher level in the government. Afterwards, he was kidnapped and beatten by Linyi's government personnel. Because of the lack of response, many citizens from Linyi and Chen Guangcheng marched in protest. Since then, Chen Guangcheng has been subjected to beatings, and is now in jail for intentional property damage, and for organizing people to block traffic. There are other lawyers that have tried to join the cause, and are also in the Linyi provence jail. He has been recognized by many organizations, including Time magazine as one of the top 100 people that will shape our world, and have been given awards. I believe that the US government and the UN could pay more attention to this area, because I feel this is a battle they can win. The Chinese government is currently under more scruitny than ever, and this could create very good PR for them, and I think they would take the effort to do so if nudged into that direction.

Please leave feedback!!!

Hardcore Article

Throughout this "War on Terror", and unofficial war with Iraq, the US has used mercenaries. It, essentially, is a battle the US has paid for under the table, since mercenaries do not count as US troops. It is very interesting, because much of the money that goes towards Iraq is counted as "International Charity and Aid" in official reports, so this just shows how much is hidden and misrepresented to US citizens. As our military shrinks, since people no longer want to sign up and end up in Iraq, these expensive contractors are called on more and more often. It is interesting that this article puts a spotlight on this issue, since there is very little known about them. Much of what they do or how they are paid are all classified information, but this article attempts to expose them. However, after reading the article, I'm not sure if the author is proposing a solution. He expresses that we should stop this, but I'm not sure if the article even addresses those that can do something about this situation. In the last class, we discussed how it may be a very critical part of a paper to address an audience that actually has powers to change and fix the problem. Since I can't discern that this is done in the paper, I'm not sure how convinced I am to make change, besides that I agree there is a problem.

Brainstorm

I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of a subject to argue for or against that won't be too cliche. Especially if it's something most people have already formed a opinion about. To think of something that is not already on the presidential debate is also very difficult.

I am very tempted to write about the American elementary/high school system, of course the public ones. Though I could bring in privates schools for comparison. A part of the education system I'd like to focus on is the No Child Left Behind Policy. What better to talk about for a school assignment than school?

American School Setup: Age 5/6: Kindergarten
Age 6/7-10/11: Elementary Grades 1-5
Age 11/12-13/14: Middle School Grades 6-8
Age 14/15-17/18: High School Grades 9-12

No Child Left Behind

I'm Convinced, Men are Pigs!

I first came across this piece during a scorching hot afternoon, which may have driven me to be more flustered than usual about this subject. This is an essay written by Judy Brady (a.k.a. Judy Syfers) titled "Why I Want a Wife". I will try to summarize it, but it's a short 5 paragraph-ish satirical, feminist paper.

link: http://www.cwluherstory.org/why-i-want-a-wife.html

To put this article into context, it was first published in Ms. (magazine), a feminist magazine started by Gloria Steinem, a popular movie star/playboy bunny in the 70's. The magazine is known for not containing any advertisement and for landmark issues, like presenting a published list of women who admitted to having abortions before they were legal in the Roe vs. Wade case which included many movie stars.

The essay Brady rights is a sarcastic description of the All-American Mom (a.k.a. Soccer Mom). This is to the very pinnacle of what a mother is expected to be in our culture. A mom is a : chauffeur, a nurse, a valet, a sexual partner, etc. Brady explains that wife is expected to guide and help their husbands regardless of their own needs, and she knows this because she is one. She mockingly describes all the jobs that a wife is expected to do and how it is a clear-cut double standard life she is expected to lead. A life, where all she does is sacrifices and gives, and realizes that she would like a wife too.

Brady's article, although has a sardonic tone, is a very convincing one. Sarcasm is not the typical strategy to convince someone, unless it is frighteningly true. Her rhetorical approach is to narrate as though she is proposing a scenario, like a vacation advertisement, of what it is like to have a wife. She appeals to mothers/wives with pathos when she brings up an endless list of tasks they are expected complete. To everyone else, Brady writes in respect to logos. She questions why one wouldn't want a wife, or essentially, an indentured servant.

The problem is that what she describes is the epitome of the perfect American wife/mother. Very rarely does one mom fit into all of these descriptions. Though, with a resounding agreement, my roommates and my own mother play most of these roles. One of my roommates, who identifies the closest to a Nuclear Family, said Brady's description was eerily familiar to her own description of her mother. Also, there's nowhere in the essay that mentions the rewards of being a mother. The fallacy in her logic is that she assumes mothers and wives do all of this without any benefits, but women would not do it if they did not find it rewarding to be a "good" mother/wife.

Chapter 14

Its seems to be the common trend, but the times a writing text helps me is far and wide, which is how much this text is able to explicitly show good writing rules. I have never figured out a way to: describe the Point of View of writer and reader, consider open and closed formats according to goal, account for audience, occasion, and subject. This chapter showed writing in a different light. Persuasion is definitely a different tone from truth-seeking. It's also interesting, because even with this highlighted, I'm not sure if it would make a huge difference with which one I choose. This will help me define what I am trying to accomplish more clearly, but I still would have based how far I leaned between these two depending on my audience.
Often, with a more liberal and educated mind, I feel the "truth-seeking" method is more efficient. These are people that are generally more open-minded and would not be pleased to find the author omitted certain things to sway them one way. With the general public, which is especially prevalent in propaganda, they seem to try much harder through persuasion. I just found that a thought provoking connection.

First Essay Ideas

In general, there are generalizations in this article that many students and professors can agree with (i.e. groggy students in classes), so I will keep that in mind. Although there are lots of points I agree with, I can't seem to help feeling like this piece offers no solid solution and may even be a dramatized grievance from a bad week at the office. There are many particulars that either we all wish were true or are over-generalizations we never question (i.e. TV medium is inhospitable to inspiration... Where's the studies? I was inspired by Bill Nye the Science Guy as a child to be mechanically creative and made lots of contraptions.)
This view is going to be very hard for me to present, since almost everyone in the course seemed to agree with Edmundson. I feel there are very few passionate students, but that passion for academics may not always be everything. There is more to life than academics and work, especially for each individual. Being happy may not include academics at all (i.e. farming), and in the end, it may be worthwhile to weigh out the options for ourselves.

Edmundson Response

I'm glad I have a chance to read this again. I first read this in one of my science/technology classes during freshman year of college. I remember agreeing with the overall message this article presented, but now that I read this again, with more college years under the belt, I'm rashly disappointed that a professor truly feels this way. His feelings should not only be extended to the general population, but even to those of his colleagues that drive around their new Lexus' and BMW's. We all add to the consumerist environment.
Not only do I find the argument a convoluted one, if he truly feels this issue is limited to our generation, but I find it very self serving. A big point he makes is how the abolition of tenure is going to add to the detriment of society and bolster our consumer behaviors. His tone is snobby, at best, mentioning his credentials and ability to satisfy his students. This, for me, was not an essay about the embarrassment he feels about our generation, but a reinforcement of his own abilities and an argument to prevent any end of his career.
I totally agree that we are in a very consumer based economy, but I do not believe that it's limited to our country or our time. As long humans are still set on preserving their own lives, it will be a challenge to prevent a consumer-based culture.

Rhetorical Reading (Chapter 6)

Talking about reading rhetorically really helps explicitly express a lot of what we all do naturally when we are reading. One always finds sections easy to agree with and other points that seem blatantly wrong when reading. Most of the time I spend reading, I am either contradicting or agreeing with points the author makes. The text gives a detailed explanation on how rebutting/agreeing and making note of that (sometimes in margins) can help form an opinion about an article.
If one didn't make notes in the margins, it might be easy to forget badly supported points, especially in dry, academic writing. Also, summarizing the article pretty much shows a good amount of a response essay, if that is the assignment. The clear steps shown in the text really structures that way I think about reading.
However, I also found it very vexing trying to figure out how many times I am suppose to read any writing. Often, it's not difficult to commit to noticing much of the details the text highlights through the first or second read. Some academic, scientific articles may need many more reads, since they are filled with jargon and dense. Most of the reading I am usually required to do for college is not cryptic enough for me to read more than two times through.

Contrast Assignment

Description of the same scene in two different POV.

Favorable

The wind blows my hair out of my eyes as the Wilson bell tower's percussion sings the JMU Duke song. The mint green grass I'm sitting on is fragrant with freshness. Puppies are leaping and hopping like bunnies through the thick grass. The sounds of students' bustling to their next classes sounds almost like bees buzzing around their hives. A frenzy of activity goes on around me as I leisurely peruse my People magazine and wait for my next class. Finally, I'm home. I am back at JMU reading on the quad for the first time since summer and it is a familiar comfort.

Unfavorable

Since I first started going to JMU, the school's population has only gotten bigger and bigger. It's the first time I've had, since returning from summer vacation, to sit out and read a little in between classes. I first tried the Commons, but all the tables were taken up by clubs or people sitting by themselves at lunch. I wish I could just ask to share a table with one of them, but I was too shy. Then I try to find seating on a bench or a swing, but they were all occupied too! Finally, I went over to the quad in a last attempt to find some seating for myself. I found a clear area under a tree, not realizing the many insects that fly around that area. As I start to read a really interesting article about Jamie Lynn Spear's comments on her older sister (Britney Spears), the JMU bell tower starts ringing. I can't even focus on a People magazine article with all the noise the students are making around me. I just wanted to enjoy an afternoon reading in the sun, only to find a cacophony of interruptions in wait for me.

Reflection

This chapter showed a great deal about how to present an argument. It is important, in general, to think about the audience's senses that are being appealed to. Although, to present something for an argument, one could show that through a logical(logos) progression, it seemed much more attractive to present it by appealing to pathos. However, when rebutting an argument, it seemed much easier to appeal to logic and facts. It may be that when rebutting, giving facts discredits the original argument much better than any other form of argument. Of course, throughout the book, writing is shown to be much better when appealing to logos, ethos, and pathos.
It is much easier to write a positive description of the scene in great detail. The details made it a lot easier to show what was pleasant about the event/scene. Mentioning sitting on the quad, with my intended audience to all be apart of the JMU community, is very easy to relate to . Most students at JMU have, at some time, had to at least waste time between classes by sitting on the quad. Also, describing fresh cut grass and the JMU Dukes song, it would conjure up memories of both childhood and good times in college.
The negative description was a lot easier to write, since it was not important to get in touch with very detail oriented memories. It simply described in a logical way, why the experience had not been good. Describing difficulties faced was simple. It made it easy to realize how leaving out different parts of the events drastically changes the audience's feeling.

Angle of Vision

I had never found a good way to consider both the audience and the writer's point-of-view, until the angle of vision was brought up. Although, it seems easy to understand why the writer feels a certain way about a problem, we typically still believe in our own views regardless of their arguments. Sadly, this has clearly showed me the difference between sympathy and empathy. Up until now, I feel my writing has only asked for sympathy from my audience. It will be challenging, knowing this now, to find a way to change someone's mind with writing. The pieces we write here on out cannot simply disclose only what the writer believes in. We must present an argument that shows why the reader's beliefs are wrong.

If that is the case, would it be better to simply write with a more open form? How could you tell a person they're wrong in a straightforward way? Although closed forms can work for some topics, it doesn't seem plausible to use it for purely subjective questions (i.e. What is morel?, Is love really all we need?). Also, would it be more beneficial to reveal the thesis later into the argument, rather than confront the reader's belief in the first paragraph (where the thesis usually is)?

Do I like Privatized Executions?

Arthur Miller says quite freely that we should profit off of executions, so that once people are bored and sick of seeing these, they will realize how pointless killing is.

Believe
It's difficult to imagine a country where the execution of a person would be watched from an arena. In America, it's not generally accepted and the idea of it is would be frowned upon by most upstanding citizens. However, there are many countries that have flogged and given capital punishment in public arena. Singapore, I had a friend that lived there, would beat their citizens in public if they were found chewing gum (and this is not that long ago). It is accepted in many countries that making an example out of those that have done wrong will teach others not to commit the same crimes, or at least not get caught. I find the idea of turning using an electric chair in front of people who are willing to pay for it despicable and perverse. Just for a second, we can conceptually imagine this scenario. We pass a law that will privatize executions and sales on Ticketmaster starts today, I imagine there would be a lot of excitement. Crowds of people will gather around, like it's a ring with two fighters, except one's strapped to a chair and the other is in a black-hooded robe. People would cheer as if it was a match to the death and not a slaughter. After a while, perhaps Americans would be numb to it. The only audience left would be fanatics, much like it is for "Pro-Wrestling" and UFC fans. Perhaps Americans, like some other countries have, will realize that this doesn't lower crime rates. Maybe then, it will be apparent that killing another person only adds to the problem, and solves very little.

Doubt
I find it very difficult to conceptualize what people will do without evidence. I don't believe in concepts or testimonies, since everyone can make those up. I can, however, believe in history's observations and track records. Evidence has only shown that keeping beatings and executions on stage will in a way idolize the act. It's seems very likely that people will get executed for less and less severe reasons. It will start out with only multiple murderers, then to people to commit a single murder. It wouldn't be too far of a jump to execute someone who killed a celebrity in a car accident after that. Not only that, but it idolizes violence. The electric chair, which is not used any more, is a gruesome contraption. If we were to watch an electric chair at work, it wouldn't be just watching but also smelling. The people killed in electric chairs suffer. We use lethal injections now, because the electric chair was so cruel. What happens when kids want to re-enact that out in the home when the youngest sibling does something bad? It shows everyone and teaches everyone that killing is a valid punishment for crime, when killing should never be taken lightly. We were all born the same way and we have all physically gotten here in the same manner. Taking away another person's life should never be easy, because it could be ourselves in their position the next time.
I do not believe the answer to show people how inhumane capital punishment is by making a show out of it. I also don't know if this theoretical senario really shows that capital punishment is unfair. There are certain people in the world that should not be here. Sociopaths that will always kill and act without remorse cannot be changed. Soldiers in Uganda that torture and rape school children shouldn't be on this earth. It is unfair to say that all capital punishment cases are not reasonable.

Change my vote, please!

In the article "You've Got My Vote" by Michael Larrick, the writer clearly criticizes our generation for voting bases on celebrity opinions, rather than political policy. He uses Madonna as an example because at a recent concert she shows pictures of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, Adolf Hitler, worldwide destruction, affects of global warming, and Republican President candidate John McCain. Part of the 18-24 age group's most distinguishing political characteristic is that we have the lowest voting percentage age group in the US. Currently, the best turnout rate seems to hover right under 20% of that population voting (US Census 2006). It's not a wonder Mr. Larrick is criticizing the following of celebrity votes like sheep.
For the population this article was intended for, this article seems almost insulting, or at least a brash criticism of this generation's ability to care about politics. "You've Got My Vote" is saying, you all are just following a dummy celebrity who "sings and dances for a living" (Larrick 31). It's true, the youngest voting-age population typically is more involved in school and celebrities. They are anthropologically, since they are at the age where independence is achieved or attempted to be achieved, more likely to listen to socially inappropriate music very loudly and drink alcohol. Most JMU students can attest to that. Thus, it makes sense that what our celebrity idol says would be important for us, even when it comes to voting. Since the age group already does not regard voting as a high priority, definitely not higher than music they listen to, it does not seem "wrong" to listen to our idols.
However, there is a point. Celebrities usually have not gone to school and learned about international affairs. Most of their opinions are as educated as our own. What they say should not carry too much weight, when and if we vote. They should carry as much weight as any other student making their argument to us at school, which seems to be a fair bottom line the author of "You've Got My Vote" is trying to make. At the end, he suggests that we "do the sensible thing and write in Will Smith" as a satirical suggestion.
It was definitely the intention of the author to change the reader's mind, if they every did vote based on what a celebrity say. Mr. Larrick has clear intentions to make the readers aware of what goes on in making a decision to vote and tells the reader that celebrities carry no credence in the realm of politics. At the end, it seems everyone should make their own votes and decisions based on our own reasons.


Larrick, Michael. "You've Got My Vote". The Breeze. September 2008. 49 Lines.
http://www.thebreeze.org/2008/09-2/op4.html
US Census. "Voting and Registration in the Election". US Census. November 2006. Table 4b.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting/cps2006.html