Article of the Week Eight

Column: Wedding days are losing their way

see website here

I initially chose this editorial because of something a Korean friend of mine mentioned last year. She said that Americans don't value marriage as much as other countries do. She said that divorce was something you would be ashamed about in Korea, but in America it seems to be very common and no big deal... In contrast to the concern about the large divorce rates, the author of this editorial is concerned about the method of marriage. The author establishes himself as a credible source because he was in the ministry for 25 years. Although, I don't know how far credibility really goes in Editorials when much of the information is presented in a biased manner. In this case the author was focusing on marriages initiated by a clergy as opposed to mariages performed by nonreligious or unauthorized people. The author argues that marriages not only need to be based on love, but need to be based around the promise. When the clergy is who the vows are made to, it makes the promise much more meaningful and solid. It would be alot more difficult to break a vow you made infront of grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends than it would be to break one made in confidence just to the spouse. The author first applies to both logos and ethos, mentioning how a bad marriage effects people and their children and then bringing in actual facts and examples. Then he tries to establish himself as someone who would be an authority when discussing who ties your knot when he explains "I've done this before". Then he creates an analogy when trying to place the audience in the situation and questioning how they would act. I suppose the audience would be any American who has an interest in getting married. For me the author did not succeed in his purpose, I did not find his arguments to be concrete, and I don't think that the church is the only group that can create an environment that amplifys the importance of wedding vows.

Article of The Week Seven

IRB: A Walk in the Woods

So far Bryson and Katz have nearly been swept off of a cliff during a snow storm and had their ears talked off by one insane Mary-Ellen and fellow hikers who force conversations about equipment. Their awful lodging experiences are better left unmentioned when the rodents have absolutely no fear of hikers. Bryson does a great job of tieing in how his personal experiences were effected by the environmental crisis and deteriating financial aid for the park service. Among the interesting points he made, were how we have gone between two extremes. First we were causing vast destruction to the environment, and now we are neglecting it. If a park ranger were asked what was being done about the high number of trees dieing, they would reply, we are monitoring its progress. The way Bryson puts it "they're watching the trees die". He draws in readers with his sarcastic tone, and humorous observations. When he switches from narration to background information on the hard boring facts, he presents them like a conversation rather than an informational essay or article. When reading his book, its shocking to finish and realize you have actually learned something, and it was entertaining.

Argument Prompt

Read the following article on books bound in human skin. The idea implied in the article is that when considering the context of the situation, binding books in human skin is not a bad idea. In a well written essay, develop a position on the ethics of binding books with human skin. Support your position with evidence from your reading, observation, or experience.

Article of the Week Six

In California, Going All Out to Bid Adieu to Foie Gras

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            Foie Gras is the fattened liver of a goose or a duck, a French delicacy. The method of fattening the liver though has to do with force-feeding, which does not make animal rights activists very happy. In 8 months foie gras will be banned in California. So a restaurant known as Animal bid farewell to the delicacy by serving an 8-course dinner Friday night featuring foie gras in every course. Animal rights protesters of course gathered outside. For the most part, Adam Nagourney, writer for the New York Times, gave the facts for both sides. I think though, that he was leaning towards the side of the restaurant, he paints a much more positive picture for them by describing all of the yummy foods they served, and including comments like “I want people to have the freedom to eat what they want”. I agree with the restaurant, animal rights people seem to want to turn everybody vegan; I have experienced a vegan diet (unwillingly). I did not enjoy it. I think that Nagourney’s purpose was to, like the restaurant, bid farewell to Foie Gras. His audience then would be anyone with an interest in food, or anyone who has an issue food, such as animal rights activists. Nagourney took a narrative approach to his article. He began by illustrating the scene where the event took place. Then he followed with describing all of the yummy and almost overwhelming foods. He drew the audience in by evoking a reaction, in this case it was anger. Either someone would be angry over the method a fattening duck liver, or they would become angry over the fact that its being banned. By weaving a web of these two very different opinions of the matter, Nagourney left the audience to decide for themselves what they will think. So Nagourney did succeed in his goal, he said good bye to Forie Gras by telling the world the story of its last stand.

Essential Question Reflection

How do speakers & writers use Rhetorical devices to communicate their ideas?

Rhetorical devices give writings emotion, personality, and intellegence. When writers use the appeals they are able to promote themselves as educated and perhaps "likeable" people. It makes all the difference when the speaker is aware that they are also a character in their stories and need to create a tone and personality just as much around themselves as around the speech. Speakers and writers use rhetorical devices to make their ideas worth hearing. Just having the idea isn't enough, there needs to be the cushoning around the idea that draws readers and listeners in. Rhetorical devices are like replacing synthetic cushoning around the ideas with down pillows and silk blankets. Writers use rhetorical devices to build a mask for themselves, establishing their credibility as both an educated and moral character. This is the first step writers take when presenting their ideas to new readers. After establishing their credibility, writers use stylistic approaches to their writing that keep readers engaged. (tone, dictation, imagery, humor, etc) While doing all of this, writers consider the organization of their piece. A very important component to their writing is how they are directing you to their main idea, their goal. Writers use rhetoric to lay down a road that guides your thoughts and emotions.

The most helpful assignment for me during Unit 1 was reading How to Tell a True War Story. I felt like it was the first time that instead of reading instructional writings on how to use rhetoric, we were given a chance to apply rhetoric to a reading. I would have liked to have had more oportunitys to apply each of the rhetoric devices we were learning about, there were some methods that I felt we never addressed again after we read about them.

Article of the Week 5

Cat crazy! I've got that lovin' feline

See Article here

In Cat crazy! I’ve got that lovin’ feline Philippa Stockley describes and supposedly celebrates the nation’s love affair with cats. Personally, I thought that she made me a little bit freaked out about how many crazy cat people there are rather than get me excited about all of the adorable and loveable creatures in the world. Stockley used lots of logos, popping in tons of names of famous people who were cat lovers and lots of cat lover statistics; this made me believe her to be a more credible source. She also used pathos effectively; she had plenty of humor and included many of her own cat loving experiences. The actual context of the article was something to do with a recent issue with some war over a cat called Maya or something, but that wasn’t really explained. It seems that the article was directed towards a cat loving audience that would be up to date on the latest kitten news. Since I do not fall into that category I could not relate to the article as much as I would have liked. So it is that her purpose is probably along the lines of congratulating fellow cat lovers on a job well done of expanding their reach in the world. She established herself as a cat lover but in a humorous way. “In the United States, cats are officially recognized as trip hazards. Any cat owner who has tried getting downstairs in the morning with a hangover knows the way Fluffy picks this moment for a determined bout of twined intimacy with one's legs.” In this section, she made herself seem more credible with the words “Any cat owner”, which implies that she is a cat owner herself and speaks from experience. I suppose that she did succeed in celebrating cat lovers around the world, but she didn’t exactly convert anyone else into a cat lover. As I said earlier, I was a little freaked out by her cat obsessions.

Article of the Week 4

IR Book:

A Walk in the Woods

By: Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is just a funny guy who has done a lot of traveling. His book subjects are mostly about his travels, as well as the English language, and science. So far in A Walk in the Woods, Bryson has had the insanity to even decide to walk the Appalachian trail, and even more insane is that he is walking it with an old college friend who he hasn’t talked to in years and who is not the most fit person. Throughout the book as Bryson narrates his own adventures, he mentions a lot about the history of the Appalachian trails; things along the lines of how it came to be and the amount of forests that have been cut down to make roads so that it will be even easier for loggers to cut down more forests. I suppose his goal is supposed to be to evoke an appreciation of America’s vast and quickly disappearing wilderness in his readers. I suppose the audience he is gearing his story toward then is the average American who doesn’t always realize the great expanse of adventure that waits in their very own back yards. Bryson’s story has a huge amount of humor; he mocks himself as well as the ridiculous people and events he comes across. The fact that he laughs at himself seems to draw me to be on his side, trusting him to give more true accounts, since he doesn’t seem to leave things out to try to make him look like a better person. Overall I think that Bryson did a good job of informing his readers about the Appalachian trail without sounding like a text book.