Issue Paper Ideas

1. TV shows, politics, music, movies, sports, hunting, sleeping, global warming, abortion, tests (finals), hair, makeup, toothpaste, food, beverages, guns, toys, money, government, guitar, etc...
2. a) My friends and I like to argue about...nothing.
b) I think it's wrong when...our government tries to take over our rights, people commit suicide or murder.
c) I wish I could convince someone that...chickens can fly?
d) I'm definitely opposed to...our government taking away rights and forcing the states to accept bills like the health care bill.
e) Someone believes...abortion is not a problem; however, I believe... it is.
f) I wish this university would address the problem of...
g) I think we should pass a law so that...gets rid of the health care bill.
4. Abortion: wrong, shouldn't be done in the majority of circumstances, should be illegal, people find their own ways to abort babies, in some cases may be necessary for the mother's health or in cases of rape or incest, shouldn't be legalized, we shouldn't be the ones in charge of ending life, shouldn't be used as birth control, sad, surgery or a pill.
5. I couldn't find much in the library on abortion.
6. It is on Wikipedia.com, http://www.abortionfacts.com/, http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.htm, http://www.emedicinehealth.com/abortion/article_em.htm, http://www.religioustolerance.org/abortion.htm.

Analyzing the Rhetorical Analysis

In this student's rhetorical analysis about Bush's speech about children's online safety, he does many things that I noticed were well written. He has a clear and effective thesis statement so that the reader knows exactly what his paper is about and why he is writing it. He uses good transitions such as "The diction used..." instead of something like "First tool he uses..." which helps you know that he is a more advanced writer than someone that would word it as the latter. The student ramps up to every quote he uses to prepare the reader for the quotation that he uses. He also explains after the quote why he used it and provides the proper citations for it. He explains the different ways that Bush appeals to his audience and makes it clear the techniques used. Their conclusion restated the thesis almost word for word which might not be the best way to close their rhetorical analysis but it does reiterate what they were saying. It would be better for them to maybe re-word it. They also brought up that not everyone might agree with Bush but that they are more aware which is a good solid statement that gives them as a writer more credibility.

My Writing Style

In comparison with what I read on writing by Sharon Williams, I've found many things that I could improve on in my writing. One thing that stood out to me the most was probably when she said that you need to make sure that you're not repeating the same point in your paper. Along with that, I found that I don't organize my papers all that well. I need to make sure that I keep all of my papers well organized. It is important to make sure that your papers that you write have a good structure and it is clear where your paper is going and why you are writing it. That is one thing that I really need to work on because I find myself just rambling about things and jumping from point to point to at least get the required length down. I'm always trying to get all different types of points and ideas on whatever it is that I'm writing that I forget to organize it in a way in which the reader would be able to follow what I'm reading. In my future papers I'm going to work on mostly organization and making sure that I don't repeat the same points in the paper.

Does College Matter?

In the blog "Does College Matter", there are many different ways the author Kathy Sierra uses in order to convince the readers that it is not necessary for everyone to attend college. The first example she uses is pathos. By putting the reader into a scenario. She says that you have a son who wants to be in a band but but you want him to be an engineer. And then it states that you are a bioinformatics major because thats what your parents said would be a good field to go into but you hate it. This is an example of using the pathos method of convincing which is tied to your emotions. You are doing something that you hate and so that was the way she used it in order to grab your attention and keep you interested in what else she had to say and keeps you emotionally tied to her argument. One example of the ethos strategy she uses is she talks about the Moore's Law which basically says that the specifics you learn are not as important as learning the fundamentals and learning to learn. She then relates it to the reader and says that no college age person ever says that or thinks that. That is one way she used to find common ground between someone who may oppose her idea of college not being important to everyone and her belief and argument. One example of logos that she uses is by quoting from a PBS documentary called "Declining by Degrees" which says that "The decline in the quality of American undergraduate education has not yet become a major public issue. Americans may be cynical about their public institutions and leaders, but their skepticism does not extend to the nature and content of a college education..." This was stated by a credible source and gives the reader some hard evidence of what she is saying. Another example of Pathos is when she talks about how little Suzie's parents are willing to pay 80,000 dollars for her to be able to obtain a better education and be able to live independently. That example could also be seen as ethos because that could be something the reader has gone through or is going through paying for their kids college experience and education. The third example of ethos is when she tells about her friend and how in order to gain a sense of independence decided to go on a bike trip across Turkey where she learned many necessary skills of being independent. The third example of pathos is when she talks about what her daughter says to her about how what she learned in her cooking class instead of college will help her throughout her entire life and says that she thinks not many other people could say the same about their education they have. The second example of logos is that she mentions that the world is changing and things don't have to be the same as they used to be. And the third example of logos is that educations costs are rising and making it more difficult to get a good education. She used all of the types of rhetoric to convince others of her viewpoint on the matter and it is very effective to do that so more people believe what she has to say.

Bangladesh Online Blogging

It is important that they have established an online blogging spot for the women in Bangladesh because during the interview Katheryn said that the women there are able to write what they think and what they may be going through in their lives to not only help them improve their writing and English skills but also to allow all their readers to understand what it may be like for them living in Bangladesh. They had discovered that the English classes there were not very good and didn't really help these women in Bangladesh to improve their English skills such as spelling and writing etc. By helping them set up this computer course, it helped them to improve their writing, reading and grammatical skills. Online readers were able to read what they had to say and to comment on them and let them know what they are thinking on those subjects as well. Also by setting up this blogging program for these women, it helped them to learn necessary computer skills that could be used in an occupation that they may receive and make them better applicants for jobs and even employment online. They also had them write in their native language as well because Katheryn said that there has been many good writers that had originally started their writing careers in Bangle and had become very successful. It was also very beneficial to these Bangladesh women because they ended up receiving one of five grants across the world because of what they had done and what they had written.