Chapter 14

My position as a twenty-year old white female in upper middle class America absolutely shapes the way I look at everything, including society, identity, and culture.  For example, when I see the picture of the woman with the ten or twelve dirty children, unconscious on the floor, my first reaction is anger.  My second is wondering whether she has heard of birth control?  However, that opinion comes from a woman who believes that every child deserves to be cared for and loved.  I am also a woman who can easily gain access to a birth control, whereas in a third world country perhaps having ten children sleep on the floor is the norm?  "Every photo is accurate, but it is not truth."  I like this.  As someone who takes many pictures and is tagged in many on Facebook, every photo does tell the story of a moment.  This moment may not tell a correct story, but it was a moment.  As a naive girl, war also just turns me off.  I have never really been involved in discussions about it or watched the many news broadcasts about it.  I have been sheltered.  I know that it is necessary, but the thought of it makes me sick.

Chapter 6 Organizing and Writing Research Arguments

Bubble webs using colors and shapes can help to arrange your ideas into categories. Graphic flowcharts are also good ways to organize ideas.  An outline is extremely useful for arranging ideas and speeding up the drafting process.  A good outline basically writes the paper for you.  An outline essentially does the same thing as a film's trailer.  It provides a brief outline of the key scenes, conflict, characters, and the main idea of the movie.  A formal outline uses numbers and letters to indicate subsections of the argument.  An outline allows you to experiment with different organizational structures before actually writing the paper.  Subheads are great ways to show the progression of you argument.  Attention to transitions is important.  Integrating sources into a research paper can be done by summary, paraphrase, or direct quotation.  Paraphrasing focuses on one part of a text and restates it.  Quotations must be integrated into the paper, not just inserted. Peer review is a very useful tool.  Collaboration can  always help.  Not only do drafts need to be edited but revised as well.

Bigger, Faster, Stronger

The two different advertisements took two alternate approaches to saying essentially the same thing.  The first poster puts the emphasis on the message given by the words.  By only showing people's bodies and having a blank background, all you really see is the words.  What are the words saying exactly? Are they perhaps an illusion to steroids? Judging from the oversized athletes in both advertisements, I would think it is about steroids. The second advertisement has the same words, but there is a nice background and people complete with faces to draw attention away from the words.

Taking Notes

When taking notes for research, it is imortant to avoid plagiarism. I do this by first reading the article or portion of text I think will be relevant to my argument. I will read the paragraph, excerpt, or article and then paraphrase my reading. This way I can use ideas from my reading in my own paper in my own words, not the words of the author. When I plan to use a solid fact, such as a statistic or date, from my reading, it must be copied down immediately. I am always sure not to copy the syntax of the sentence and only the straight facts. It is so easy to accidentally plagiarize.

Comparing/Contrasting Interviews

"War, Live" describes Terrence Smith's interview about embedding in Iraq and covering wars.  Embedding involves having journalist actually among troops during war.  They are in real danger just like the soldiers are.  They discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and dangers of embedding.  There are essentially two separate interviews being documented, both are pretty blunt.  Curse words are used, and the answers seem to be short and to the point.  "Interview with George Ritzer", on the other hand, is simply a question and response interview concerned only with George Ritzer's opinions on McDonaldised society.  An interviewer asks a short question probing an extended response from George Ritzer, who published "McDonaldization Thesis".

Playing Against Stereotypes

There are many books and movies that fight stereotypes as  well as ones that create them.  Movies such as Shottas, Friday, and Friday After Next completely support the stereotypes people already have about African Americans.  These movies make people think that all African Americans are either drug dealers, gangsters, or just low life drug users.  However, movies like Man on Fire that have African Americans playing successful main characters and heroes fight these stereotypes.  As do movies like Obsessed with Beyonce, where an African American man plays a successful businessman.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 describes the process of researching and gives pointers on how to research effectively.  You are supposed to start by visualizing all of the information lumped together into a finished product, instead of worrying about learning random seemingly unconnected tidbits.  It makes the process seem less overwhelming.  Developing search terms that yield useful information is helpful.  Having a mixture of primary and secondary sources (not just the internet) gives the research more depth and variety.  Primary sources include books from the library.  A great place to look for secondary sources is also the library, in the reference section.  Encyclopedias and such can be useful.  It is very important to evaluate all sources, not just for validity but for respectability and whether the information is fact or opinion.  After an annotated bibliography, the next step is beginning the paper!

Gaming

Avatars allow gamers to be whoever they want to be for a certain amount of time in front of a certain audience.  It allows some people to make the only "friends" they have, while other people just enjoy a little video game in their free time.  For some, gaming is an escape from reality.  Personally, I find the whole thing pretty freaking weird.  However, I am biased since I am not a gamer and never have been.  I have watched my brothers waste countless hours on stupid video games when they could have  been out socializing or getting things done.

Finding a Topic

The passage was written to help students pick out a topic to write about and narrow it down.  The first step is to ask yourself questions.  Realize what is currently important to you and what current issues you don't understand. Ask friends and family what issues matter to them.  A little online research can help to give you a few topic ideas.  Narrowing these down can be done by writing a little bit about each of them.  Ask yourself why people will care, if they will care, and what they already know about the topic.  You know your topic is successfully narrowed when it is linked to an issue or controversy that will interest your audience.  For example, the general topic sports can b e narrowed to college sports training and men's body images.  Keep an open mind, and test the narrowness of your topic with a Google search.  Brainstorming is necessary. Think of everything that relates to your topic, and then put it on paper.  Organize these thoughts with a graphic organizer.  Guide your research with questions, and try to answer them all.

Visual Rhetoric Essay

My first thoughts on the assignment were along the lines of "WTF. How am i supposed to write that much about a single advertisement?"  However, as I was writing the paper it became easier.  I realized that 1500 words is not too ridiculously much and that there are many aspects of any ad that can be analyzed.

Fat Is an Advertising Issue

I love that Dove is making a campaign to promote women loving their bodies as they are.  However, it just all seems a little pointless.  I'm sorry, but when I am looking through my Cosmopolitan magazine I want to read about fashion and beauty.  I don't want to see a picture of a bunch of chubby moms in underwear, and I don't know that anyone does.  I absolutely LOVE the Dove video showing how the industry alters the model's look.  I find that video extremely effective, and more things like this would help.  The underwear pictures are honestly just weird and a waste of time in my opinion.  While I applaud the cause, I find this dumb.  Also, is Orbach from Scotland? She uses the word "mums" not moms.  I suppose it could be a typo.

Don't Smile for the Camera

I found this writing very interesting.  The first thing that struck me about this was the overuse of the phrase "Kodak moment".  Of course a way was found to make this excerpt into an advertisement.  Honestly, I found the whole passage to be pretty cheesy.  The message being delivered is that we should celebrate the mundane, goofy moments instead of only documenting the "perfect" ones.  However, who wants to send out a Christmas card of the family in pajamas or with unkempt hair? Noone.  Who wants to sell the house using pictures of cluttered rooms and muddy floors? Noone.  They want a put-together, happy looking family with good hygiene and style.  They want to brag using their Christmas card.  Who wants to take pictures of a filthy house? Noone.  They want to remember it spotless, whether it was or was not actually that way.The passage ends with "We have gained a Kodak moment and lost the story of our lives."  This is the dumbest statement I have ever read.

Paco Rabanne Advertisement

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QhuJAlv6CeQ/TcEt-tAdGQI/AAAAAAAAAzo/JuwDmtlodPU/s1600/paco-rabanne-lady-million-the-new-fragrance-for-women.jpg

·         The advertisement focuses on the model and her sex appeal in an attempt to sell the fragrance.  The page shows an image of a thin, blonde, beautiful woman in a scandalous black sequined dress against a dark grey background.  Her hair appears rather messy, and her dress features a deep V-neck.  The name of the perfume is displayed horizontally in sparkly, gold lettering across the picture.  In the bottom, right hand corner of the page, an image of the perfume bottle is shown.  The woman in the revealing black dress is used as a persuasive technique to make women think that they too will be attractive if they wear the perfume.

·         The advertisement focuses on a beautiful model and her sex appeal.

·         The model has sharp facial features and is not smiling, making her look more vixen-like than dainty.  The entire advertisement is dark, giving it an even more sensual feel.  Some women may not appreciate the advertisement for various reasons.  The model’s scandalous look might be too sleazy for some women, while other women may not appreciate her toothpick thin frame.

·         The advertisement for the fragrance Paco Rabanne, by Lady Million, that appeared in the January 2011 issue of Cosmopolitan uses a scantily clad beautiful model and her sex appeal to sell the perfume, but in a conservative woman’s eyes this advertisement could have the opposite effect.

·         The use of a thin, beautiful woman portrays women as objects to lust after, which may be found mildly offensive to some.

·         The advertisement for the fragrance Paco Rabanne, by Lady Million, that appeared in the January 2011 issue of Cosmopolitan uses a scantily clad beautiful model and her sex appeal to sell the perfume, but in a conservative woman’s eyes this advertisement could have the opposite effect by portraying women as objects of lust.

Hurricane Names

Hurricane Names 

 http://xkcd.com/944/

Topic- The cartoon is addressing an issue that all americans have been worrying about recently, hurricanes.

Story- Someone is saying that after so many hurricanes, no names are left.  He or she suggests an alternative way to name the storms and hopes for no more to come.  

audience - The cartoon was produced recently in America. The text is liberal and uses humor to get the audience's attention.

Argument- It seems that the cartoon is making fun of the system for naming hurricanes and of those predicting weather.

Composition- The cartoon is composed of one single frame with two text boxes and two pictures.

Word and image- Word and image are both used in this comic.  The words steal the show while the pictures provide support and a little sarcasm.  The picture of the hurricane adds humor to the comic by contradicting the narrator's last words.

Imagery- There  is a very simple drawing of the back of a stick figure and a storm map with numerous hurricanes off the coast.

Tone- The cartoon is definitely comic and is intended to make the reader laugh.  It is slightly serious just because of the nature of the storms being discussed.

Character and setting- There is only one character whom the audience knows nothing about, not even gender.  I assume male.

Cultural resonance- The cartoon refers to the hurricane that just recently hit the United States's east coast.

Rhetoric on my way to class...

While walking to my English 103 class this afternoon, I noticed numerous examples of rhetoric.  Girls sporting brightly colored shirts with Greek letters in pretty patterns are a perfect example.  The bright, springy colors persuade you to think that sorority girls are happy, carefree, and fun.  Another example of rhetoric is the display table inside the front of Schiletter dining hall.  The food looks so put together and delicious.  However, when you try and retrieve the food it does not quite live up to the expectations their advertisement gave you.  The table misleads you.