In Class: Freewrite

Last full week of classes for spring 2009, summer will be nice except for the fact that i have to take physics 1 and 2... that definitely won't be fun. i suppose between that and working i won't have much of a summer but it'll still be nice to not have 5 classes to take care of all at once. and having classes and work kind of gives me reasons to get out of bed early. otherwise i'd probably just sleep in way too much and start to feel completely purposeless. im definitely ready for summer though, either way. its been getting increasingly harder to study for tests as these past couple weeks have come and gone but i still managed to keep grades so im still on track to med school. i cant believe i still will have 4 years of med school and then probably at least 6 years of residency for specializing... i'm gonna be so old when i finish everything but it'll be worth it! and hopefully i still feel that way throughout the rigorous years of medical work so that i can keep my goals in sight and not let them slip away or give up on them.

Unit 3 Group Proposal

For our Unit 3 Project, we have chosen to address the issue of the creation of a new Living Learning Center for LGBTQ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students and their supporters) and the impact it would have on our community. We will be discussing whether or not this additional housing is in the best interest of all students and our community as a whole. We will talk about new concerns it has generated such as advocating separatism and segregation as well as the discrimination and prejudice it has created towards the homosexual community. We will do this through visual mediums with minimal captions such as political cartoons and video commercials. We will also use written texts like petitions, conversations, newspaper articles, headlines, and flyers along with explanations of our intended audience and context.
Our main concerns revolved around the possibility of offending others with out in one way or another based on the arguments we create. We also are concerned about our schedules matching to one another with regards to meeting outside of class to generate arguments.

In Class: Chapter 14 Visual Arguments Analysis

The first question on page 418 is an extremely important one: Who created this visual text? This says almost everything about it's purpose and intent. It's very similar to the 'follow the money' concept we have extensively used in our analyses of different arguments. If the creator of a cigarette campaign is Marlboro, we are going to look at it much differently than if it were created by an anti smoking group (i forget the name of the one that always does the commercials). We would definitely be much more suspicious and less trusting of the advertisement's message.

Another question is: Is any particular information (such as name, face, or scene) highlighted or stressed in some way to attract your attention? The girl in the 'candy cigarette' photo immediately stood out in my mind. Along with the question of how light and color are used, this photo focused directly on a young girl holding a 'cigarette.' There was no color, and very little lighting. The girl was caught in solemn and desolate glance and seemed a bit more aged than appropriate for her group of children. the cigarette was held perfectly as if she really was a smoker, the only hint we had that it was fake was the title of the portrait...

In Class: Chapter 12 General

Chapter 12 talked about our ways to create texts and items that argue for something. It establishes the kinds of discourses one can use and the different aspects that are very important in conveying your purpose. They cover very direct arguments that can be shocking for effect such as the drunk driving picture we encountered early in the book (chapter 4 maybe?), logical arguments that appeal to the people who are somewhat educated about the specific topics, emotional arguments (again like the drunk driving ad) that play off peoples feelings toward the topic, and there can be a variety of undertoned messages that do not blatently stand out to the viewer/reader but if you notice the right things it becomes quite obvious what it is trying to convey.
After having read Chapter 12, we can collaborate as a group and decide the mediums we would like to use for each of our 3 arguments and how we want to convey our specific argument for each source. I imagine we are going to use a few different kinds within each argument to better layer our work with detail.

In Class: Past Group Work Problems

I can't really think of official group work projects that did not go so well. I remember in some class i had to initiate the process of assigning parts to work on and when to meet up and everyone emailed me their pieces of work and i had to put them all together but that really was only a job for one person. even in high school i would be the one loaning notes out to friends who didnt pay attention in class or i'd have to teach a little section near me what needed to be known on the test in 10 minutes but it all really didnt bother me because tutoring other people ends up helping you better understand the material anyway! It was not that i was any smarter than anyone, i just was more neurotic so i paid attention for fear of missing any important notes and i studied alot.

An ideal group work situation would be completely in class! That way everyone shows up on time and for the same purpose and with the same amount of time to work on it. This is all overseen by a professor so each member would actually show up and contribute, and furthermore, if the group had any questions or concerns, the professor would be right there in class to help!

A possible process of completely Unit 3 successfully in a group of 4 could be to meet together and discuss our topic we will aim for and do some group research in class. Because there are 4 people and 3 arguments needed, we could put 3 of the people in charge of each argument topic (1 for each person) and the 4th person could be in charge of keeping the overall purpose together and ultimately piecing together each argument into one representation so that it could be presented to the class.

In Class: Free Write

We really have done a lot of writing in this class. Probably moreso than any other composition class I have ever taken. I think the requirement to simply type without putting much thought into it every now and then was a very good idea. It made generating some content, however useless, pretty easy to do when a new assignment was due. I also really liked the informal details of the papers due. We focused more on the content and answering the right questions inthe right ways and not so much on the grammar, spelling, and syntax. It made the class really seem like a way to learn instead of just a way to fine-tune things we already know about how to write a paper. I think the basics of writing the intro, body paragraphs, and conclusion only gets you so far in your academic life. If that's all one knew about when it came to writing, you would get torn apart in graduate school or in higher level classes. It was kind of nice to be able to freewrite every now and then and simply vent any thoughts that were bouncing around in my head or to just let my brain take a break for 5 minutes and rehearse and reflect on things i have done recent to that free write, i remember one freewrite i wrote about watching forrest gump and how much i liked that movie because i had just watched it. done

In Class: Freewrite 3 Sources

How do my sources tie into one another? There's the image posted online and in neuroscience books that says "thanks to animal research, they'll be able to protest 20.8 years longer" referring to sign-wielding anti animal testing groups. The next one is a video on stopanimaltesting.com that goes behind the scenes through research labs to show the maltreatment and neglect going on with the defenseless animals. The last one i found is an article on PETA's website that explains how we should approach the issue of considering animal rights as a matter of whether or not they can suffer. Each of these sources all relate to animal testing on different sides of the fence. the first one appeals to logical senses that animal research has, in fact, greatly increased the medical field's abilities for helping humans and other animals. the second two sources appeal to our emotional and ethical senses. the video of abused animals shivering in the corners of their cages or bleeding, vomiting, or screaming without necessary help is appalling to most every normal human being. nobody likes to see, or wishes to know, that animals are being hurt and are in pain, especially for our own purposes. the article on PETA's website explains that we should not be considering animal's inability to perform higher functions as grounds for using them as experimental specimen but we should be considering the fact that they can suffer and feel emotions like joy, happiness, sadness, pain, and pleasure.

what are the unstated assumptions and values that are informing these arguments and allowing them to succeed or fail? the warranted underlying assumptions in each of my texts are that we do not like unjustified dying and certainly suffering to helpless creatures. the first text, for animal testing, asserts that we need it to live the lives that we know, animal research is necessary for us to thrive. without testing on animals, humans would have to undergo these experiments or we would simply not have any of the many outcomes that have resulted from animal research. it would, at a deeper level, end up scaring the audience into agreeing with the claim that animal testing is necessary. the second two texts, against animal testing, assume that we do not like suffering, pain, and unjustified death so we will agree with their claim taht we should not use helpless animals for our own purposes.

what conclusions can you draw about the state of argument in the U.S? the culture of having the ability to achieve anything you want ifyou work hard for it uses their underlying assumptions to say more than the actual words and content can. otherwise, we would see billboards saying 'animal testing is bad' or 'animal testing is good.' we need to have reasons in the fields of logic, emotion, and ethics to successfully convince others/ourselves to agree. people, for the most part, do not go around stating their opinions without inhibition because, without supporting evidence or purpose, it is useless or even harmful.

Unit 2 Proposal

I am going to analyze the Animal Welfare Act (passed in 1966 and many times since revived). There are multiple aspects surrounding the act that provide grounds for support and opposition. There are the ethics involved for the human treatment of living creatures, there is a social agenda involved, there is a priority factor (humans over animals), there is an endless list of possible viewpoints to describe. I have all kinds of Neuroscience books that have sections about animal testing. Through these texts, I will find sources to use for my research. I can also, obviously, just use the internet and google away but I've found my Neuroscience texts to have very appealing arguments so I would like to use those as guides to finding primary sources that are most likely going to be Pro-Animal Research. I will have to use the internet to find sources for the other side of the arguments (Anti-Animal Research). I am very interested in animal research because I am a Neuroscience major and it is the field I hope to work in after medical school. I am not biased so I will not favor a side more strongly going into the research. I imagine we all will choose a side, even if subconsciously, to our arguments after the amount of deep research we will be putting into the controversies but I will most definitely keep my influences out of my assignment as it carries on.

In Class: Undirected FreeWrite

so i'm getting pretty burnt out on school these days. good thing i only have like 12 more years til i can be done.... i think everyday about what medical field i want to go into. i wanted to do psychiatry initially, and i already have 3 years of psychology under my belt so i figured i would be good at that. but the more i think about it, i wonder what it would be like? i feel like it'll be people telling me their problems which i am always happy to help with! but the frustrating part will be that they will, half of the time, not listen to my advice and keep doing what they're doing and wonder why they're still getting treated horribly by their emotionally abusive husband.. i understand that it's hard to just get out of something like that ... but theres a limit to anyones patience. i really want to do some kind of neuroscience research. i think it would be amazing to find some new receptor pathway or some cause to specific cell death, as is the case for alzheimer's and parkinsons. i know there's tons of scientists much more capable than i am already doing this so who knows... we'll see what happens

Animal Testing: Rhetorical Analysis

At first I was not sure if my image was a primary source or not, but then i noticed the fine print at the bottom stating it's purpose. My focus is on a modified Covergirl ad. The character in the picture is a chihuahua with a photoshopped wig, pearl necklace, lipstick and full facial makeup. the text reads: easy, breazy....beautiful? COVERGIRL. In the lower right hand corner rests a set of make up products next to fine print that explains how Covergirl, of the corporation Proctor and Gamble, is one of the largest animal testing companies in the world. The purpose of this argument is to make it known that make up and lipstick companies, especially Covergirl by Proctor and Gamble, test their products on animals. They use the image of a little dog, a chihuahua, to show that these companies design their products based on research that entails the use of animal testing in order to discover problematic side effects. The ad aims at anyone who uses these products and those who use products by the same company to convey the facts they are stating. The image appears to be a poor argument, the dog is pretty ugly, and the outfit makes it look even uglier. They are attempting to appeal to the viewers pathos and ethos because it could raise the question of ethics into the issue of animal testing and the ad itself aims to appeal to the viewers emotions by showing an innocent animal dressed in product designed from possibly abusive testing on it's own kind. The ad does not have a listed sponsor or any supportive facts, so the viewer can only assume the source is from those who do not approve of animal testing simply as a matter of opinion. The image projects the claim that animal research is abusive and wrong and that companies we widely depend on in our culture and society are the ones responsible for harming these animals for insignificant reasons such as lipstick and facial rouge. The ad fundamentally serves the best interests of animals that suffer the proposed abusive testing because, if heeded, they could be spared. They also serve to gain support on their side of the ongoing debate of animal testing and research, although we do not know who the "side" is referring to because no evidence or creator trademark is listed. Overall I believe the emotional style of the argument was poorly presented and will not be effective. The dog is simply dressed up, even little girls dress up their pets for fun. The dog does not even look hurt or depressed due to its state. It is a little disturbing simply because a chihuahua has a wig and make up on... The argument is not very effective though. It does not convince the viewer strongly or effectively enough to have any lasting meaning. 

In Class: Rhetorical Thinking

To me, rhetorical thinking has always seemed to be something unspoken. similar to existentialism, one of those things that have no definition that is fully defining or understood. i believe i am wrong now and perhaps i just didn't understand what rhetorical concepts even were. silly me. so after having read the few chapters we've been assigned in our text, i think i have grasped it a little better. rhetoric is, simply put, another synonym for texts and literature, written or spoken, especially in attempt to persuade or convince. for the purpose of our class we are focusing on analysis, so we search to find who is the author, who is the intended audience, what is the purpose or motive for arguing, etc. the typical questions you ask of any argument. we aim to focus on ethos, pathos, and logos just like any argument. we are to focus on appealing to the audience in every aspect possible while still retaining our content and our persuasive ideas. ethically, we would want to move toward their morals and what they beleive is right and wrong, but it wouldnt be that simple. we would have to effectively aim for aggressive topics that we can safely assume that EVERYONE believes is right or wrong so that no one would have the courage to doubt it. when moving to logos, we would simply state ideas and concepts that seem logical and quite obvious to the reader so that they understand what we are saying is unquestionably true and sound. pathos would be the strongest part of our argument, appealing to their heart and emotions in order to pull them to our side of teh argument. perhaps we could do this by imposing feelings of guilt or responsibiilty upon them.

The Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Blue Mesa, as a public space, openly appeals to the ethos, pathos, and logos of our fundamental everyday life. Ethos is found in the restaurant by the type of message conveyed to the customer in comparison with the type of service and product given to the customer. Blue Mesa describes all kinds of recipes in its menu and boasts about how it is all fresh and handmade and is done so daily, no corners cut. If someone were to get a dish with dried out and old chicken, sauce, or beans, then it would be obvious that they were lied to. If it came out hot and looking pretty fresh, the customer would most likely assume that it was prepared as promised, or at least that the restaurant's quality of pre-made products was good enough for them. Either way, the customer's trust is instilled in the owners, cooks, managers, and servers of the restaurant they eat out at because they have already been drawn in by hunger or desire for a certain type of food and so they go to a location, a public space, where the employees have an ethical obligation to fulfill.

Pathos is found in the restaurant's atmosphere at any given time of day at any day of the week. If one were to attend happy hour on a friday, they would find the rooms filled with laughter and happy conversations. The waiters would be more relaxed because they are mainly just serving drinks so everyone would be comfortable. If it were a few hours later on a friday night, the mood in the air would shift to tenseness and seriousness in that the servers would be chaotically rushing through the restaurant with trays full of hot food. The front door would be filled with herds of hungry guests waiting to hear their name and party called next. Once they were taken to their seats, they would pass the serious couple having drinks and dinner and forcing conversation because of the rings they wear, or the four sorority girls having drinks with their fake i.d.'s before having to return to campus to study or the young mom and dad still learning how to control their 6 year olds behavioral fits while trying to ensure that their 3 year old does not poke himself in the eye with his fork and minutely developed motor skills. At any given time during the week, one could find a particular feeling throughout the restaurant, and probably most restaurants.

Logos emerges in Blue Mesa's setting by the fact that it's guests are hungry, and the purpose of this building they are in is to provide full service dining. Why cook at home if you are tired and can afford to pay someone else to provide food for you and your family so that you can relax and enjoy their company after 12 hours at the office without those you love most? It could be considered an unnecessary luxury to go out to eat for some people, but to others, it is just a once a week deal to relax and reward yourself for your hard work. It could also be considered logical to pay for better quality than you could prepare yourself, as well as the full service so that you can relax and enjoy dinner, without having to worry about the hour of preparation and the half-hour of cleaning all for only ten minutes of consuming.

In Class: Analyzing a Visual Argument

What about this image immediately draws your attention? (Candy Cigarette image)
The first thing i noticed was the girls seemingly sad stare past the camera. the picture's black and white effects make the atmosphere much more solemn and gloomy. my eyes scanned her sad expression and noticed the shadows above her eyes and her long messy, once pure and blonde, hair that looks dirty and a little bit frizzy.
After initial orientation toward her face, i noticed the cigarette in her young fingers and her other arm wrapped around her torso for warmth and comfort. her white dress gives a hint of purity ruined. it looks a bit dirty and her skin looks pretty dark and rough for someone so young, like she's already been through hard times. the only light in the whole photo is the sun creeping over the trees in the top left corner way off in the distance. the girl next to her is almost completely swallowed in shadow and looks equally melancholous. i can't really tell what the figure is in the back left corner, it takes on the shape of a taller man with no arms or head. it could be a distant parental figure that has forsaken the little girl, or even caused her anguish.
Emotions portrayed: The figure in the back left corner seems distant and out of sight and out of helpful reach of the girl suggesting a sense of abandonment and unhappiness. the girl appears lonely and sad but not too disturbed by her lonesomeness. it seems like she has adapted.
the purpose of the image is to show a lost little girl that was once pure and somebody's little baby. something went wrong along the way and she lost her chance to grow up in a threshold of happiness and a secure home and loving family. the purpose is to convey a sense of responsibility in the viewer, responsibility for your loved ones and for those weaker and more vulnerable than you, no one fits this description better than your own child. if you are a parent or will be someday, it is your inherited responsibility to care for and love your child and do everything in your power to ensure his/her well-being.

In Class: Logos

While reading chapter 4 in our text, something that stood out to me was the section about statistics and how these numbers can be abused or misinterpreted in many ways while being conveyed to the audience. i always thought that statistics were pretty solid figures to use to support an argument for or against anything. As a neuroscience major and hopefully future psychiatrist, i've taken multiple psychology classes and have learned the many faults of statistics. for instance, the data could be skewed or more focused on a certain aspect or on one side of the argument purely because of the researcher's confounding bias. also, statistics do not always fully consist of all the data truly involved. surveys and polls only make up the percentage of the people that actually took the survey, it does not account for those who did not take the poll, which would make the data inaccurate. today in class our professor brought up the theme of next week, V week i believe, and how it is focused on women abused by their husbands (as well as governmental neglect); these cases are highly difficult to extract a correct statistic from because, for one thing, many of these women that are abused do NOT report it because of fear or a feeling of learned helplessness. in any case, the book just pointed out the fact that cold hard 'facts' are not always what they are cracked up to be and that stood out to me because most people strongly rely on factual evidence when trying to argue their case

In Class: Ethically Appealing Object

Today, I brought in a Tumbler from Starbucks. It is green and says "recycle" and "made from 28% post-consumer recycled content" and has a long quip about the water cycle and how it pertains to you (especially the coffee in your hand). I saw it in Starbucks and realized that I go through about 10 cups a week and ultimately create a lot of trash. I usually make coffee at home in the morning but I have to drink it really fast and usually burn myself every morning. I thought that the tumbler would also come in hand in respect to my being able to make a lot more coffee and carry it with me for at least the whole first class of my day (while keeping it somewhat warm). I do, however, end up stopping my starbucks every once and a while when I'm having a long study night or just studying during the day or just need a quick pick-me-up during the day. I believe this tumbler is ethically appealing because it is not only made from recycled material, but it significantly reduces the waste I will produce from the many coffee cups. Imagine if it was a law to own a tumbler? or it was a law to bring your own bags to the grocery store when shopping? This microcosm of my tumbler being expanded to the U.S. or even the world would cut our trash down to a much healthier amount. It would create a cascade of beneficial events as well, like the taxes and money granted to garbage companies going to another, better, cause. I feel a company as prosperous as Starbucks would definitely have the credibility to ensure the customer that they really are using post-consumer recycled content and that the really are doing their part to control what they can in order to better our world.

Public Space Proposal

I am going to do my Unit 1 paper over Blue Mesa, the southwestern restaurant I mentioned earlier that I work at on the weekends. I feel that, because I am there quite often, I will have a good notion of how the crowds work and what is going on at all times. This space is appealing to the public because it is located in University Park Village, a big shopping center in a prime area of Fort Worth. Tons of people each day go shopping through the area and end up getting hungry in the middle of the day or at the end of a long day and come into Blue Mesa because it's within walking distance. 

Upon observation of the restaurant, I can take note of the initial features one notices when entering the front door. There are several things I have in mind: the smell of the food, the dim and calming lights, or the wide open windows during the daytime, or the spread out patio with the waterfall in the back. I know I will find these things for obvious reasons; but in any case they are expected at a public place. These features are expected because it is common in public spaces to create a warm, friendly, and inviting atmosphere in which most people would feel welcomed and comfortable.

I consider myself a part of the target audience. The restaurant targets people of all ages, statuses, and communities. I do work there so I am usually on the opposite end, but every now and then I meet my parents or friends up there for happy hour or dinner just to relax and catch up. 

The fact that I work there may have a strong influence on the things I notice while there. For instance, the smell of the food may not really affect me or the feeling of being there may make me tired and despondent because I am usually running around like crazy there and stressed and worn out so when I associate with work, I feel irritated and distant. I can overcome these observations by going up there with a cup of coffee (which always helps me in many ways) and in normal clothes so I'll feel clean and set aside from the chaos and busy work. 

In Class: Public Space Ideas

I think i am going to do my unit 1 paper over Blue Mesa, a southwestern restaurant that i work at as a server on the weekends. i spend enough time there so i already know the place very well. i will definitely still have to go up there while im not working so i can sit on my laptop and type up observations so i won't ahve to commit them to memory. i know there are 5 blue mesas in the DFW area and from our work meetings i've learned what the owner is concerned with (and what all owners are obviously concerned about). they want to make as much profit as they can while retaining the highest customer clientele as possible. they do so by using fresh products and fresh ingredients and by having a friendly and knowledgeable staff. physically, the restaurants fit the area they are in by appearing inviting and appealing to the kind of people that live in the same area. ours, in fort worth, has a very rustic wooden architecture to it, with darkly stained tile and minimal light- i suppose to relax the quickly paced businessmen that swing by for lunch and make the families that come at night feel more relaxed and at home and comfortable as a family, although they are out to eat and close to many other families doing the same. the first room you walk into is huge and wide open so i think that seems welcoming as well to the guests. i think i'll try and focus on the physical attributes first and then work my way down the list to the more detailed aspects of the restaurant like the food and the people....

In Class: Free Writing

Today i got up and went out on my back porch and it was pretty cold so i decided to check the weather because it looked sunny and it is texas so i figured it would get hot by noon and of course it said it would get up to about 85 degrees today so i'll have the joy of carrying my hoodie for the rest of the day.... today i feel weird because i do not have my coffee tumbler i carried around all week.... i broke it yesterday and it ruined my day... i suppose i can just go buy a new one today or something but it was quite disheartening for me. i thought it was really cool to watch the inauguration the other day because it was assigned, otherwise i probably would not have watched it. there were so many people outside the capital cheering, it was nice to see our country so united at a time like this. it also reminded me of that scene from Forrest Gump when he accidentally got in line for the peace rally during the Vietnam War. and he spoke to all of those people at the capital and Jenny ran across the lake to see him. Forrest Gump was a good movie. i actually got it for christmas and watched it with my girlfriend on New Years day. we just laid around in pajamas, recovering from the previous evening, and drank coffee and made popcorn and order pizza and were just worthless all day. it was a wonderful change of pace, considering i had to work almost everyday over the break and catch up on chores and errands that needed to be done but i never found time to because of school. now i feel pretty much caught up on everything, except maybe reading for classes but i think i'll be okay for now. im not sure if this semester will be rough or not.... i havent decided yet.... i have to take this precal class because i need calculus for the neuroscience degree and i pretty much hate it... it's 4 days a week and then calculus will be the same... 4days a week. but i guess it's better than writing long papers... :)

Inauguration Arguments

As President Obama was introduced, the already roaring crowd went ecstatic with praise and chanted 'O-bam-a' over and over again with a tone of excitement and joy. The live coverage captured a strongly emotional event in our nation. Before his speech, Obama took the Presidential Oath which instilled a sense of ethical credibility upon the crowd. Obama began his inaugural speech with an argument to explore and define our history, our roots in our nation's founding fathers and documents and what they stood for. He briefly mentioned the past 44 Americans who lead the nation through good and bad times. He moved up from the past to the present times and how we have all gone astray from our original precedents and standards we set long ago. He then informed us of our future plans and made a solemn promise that our needs will be met. He spoke with a heavily reassuring tone in order to plant an emotional and logical feeling inside of the community. 

He proposed that we, as a community, take responsibility for the nation's present turmoil and not place blame solely on a few individuals in power. He argued that we all need to make decisions as a whole community. Decisions have not been made in the past, and procrastination has made things worse. Obama reinstated the need for choices being made in order for the most logical and greater good to result. 

The basis for his entire speech was an argument of fact about what kind of state our country is in and the crises of the economy and the war abroad. He evaluated our problems and argued in attempt to convince our nation that, with him as the new leader, we will repair our broken country. 

He spoke with rises and falls in his inflection and it was extremely predictable when the crowd was about to go wild for him. Each time, you could pinpoint the sentence that would end in a loud cheer based on the emotion he buried within his words. He chose logical topics that concern us all and did not speak above the heads of his audience; he spoke as one of us. It seemed he was aiming to capture a sense of two-sided empathy between the audience and himself. Even to the end of his speech, he held the audience's emotions and attention until the cheered him off the stage and for who-knows how long after the speech ended.

In Class: Chapter 1 Reflection

After having read Chapter 1 of Everything's an Argument, I feel the definition of arguments and expressing opinions has turned to a more functional perspective. The chapter explains each and every different aspect of organizing argumentative ideas and concepts into ways that efficiently present one's idea and how to strongly appeal to a specific audience. The chapter was divided into many sections and each individual section heading was labelled with a different aspect of writing/presenting argumentatively. I, personally, would not have broken my ideas down into so many different categories and organized them into different sections with one overall idea. i probably would have just thrown out pros and cons in, at best, a disorderly fashion; maybe i would have at least split down the middle into pros first, then cons. or a single pro then a con to whatever opinion or concept was being debated. after reading the chapter, however, i believe it would be a wise idea to ask myself a few questions such as: who is the audience? or what do i really want to express? or what kind of argument am i going to attempt?
there are different kinds of arguments that the chapter outlined, many i didn't even really consider arguments. you can argue to explore, discuss, and discover, not just in effort to convince or persuade an opposing viewpoint to convert to your conceptualization of the idea or opinion at hand.

In Class: Argument Example

For today, I brought in a bundle of newspaper ads that all came in my front door at the exact same time. one is for CVS, one for Kroger, ...albertsons, walmart, tom thumbs. all in teh same bundled package. This is an attempt to convince shoppers and consumers to go to a particular store to get the best deals and best prices. and at an economic time like these days, these have a lot more pull and push on the community and the average citizen. why go to albertsons to pay 1.49 for a dozen eggs when you go to Sack n Save and spend .98c ? combining the full grocery list into the calculations of prices can end up saving more than just a half a dollar in the long run. and further irritating the problem is seeing the gas signs on the way to and from the store to remind you that they are going back up; slowly, but surely. everyone must have a high hopes or bitterly low expectations for the new president's plans for changing this economy's ruins for the better. there was a long and grueling debate against McCain and no one was certain which one would do the country any better than the other? i'm not going to go into any details about my beliefs because i honestly do not know anything about politics other than what i hear from my parents and friends parents so i dont think that gives me the right to put my ignorant opinion out into the world. i'm not a hippie or anything i just don't ever find the time to watch tv anymore what with school forcing me to spend hours on end in the basement of the library... done

Introduction

I'm Nick. I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. I went to Nolan Catholic High School and then came to TCU as a Neuroscience major. I am now a junior and my goal is to attend Medical School and become a Psychiatrist, although I have the feeling that I may discover another passion while in the field of neuroscience such as neurosurgery or neurology. I work at Blue Mesa Restaurant as a waiter on the weekends and I play guitar and banjo mainly, but I also play around with the harmonica, piano, and drums when I find the free time.


I chose to take this writing course, honestly, because it is required. I do, however, enjoy writing but I have found the coursework assigned in the past composition classes to be irritating because they are based on topics that do not interest me in any way and I never liked the awkward peer review sessions. So, that being said, I am hoping that this course will prove to be more interesting than my previous experiences with composition classes. Hopefully, the topics will be fun and I already like the people in the classroom, i think it was a good idea for us to talk and get to know each other on the first day.



The only writing I do these days is texting, facebook, and psychology-based research papers for classes. I feel that I am capable of becoming a good writer, but I seem to never put enough real effort into my work. I mainly focus on studying for tests all the time. I think that's just the way my brain works, i prefer to study facts and research to regurgitate it on exam days rather than create ongoing works of my own thoughts and feelings or opinions toward a specific topic.



I think my blog is a kind of argument about myself and my attitude because the layout, font, and content I am using is an indirect and direct expression of how my personality appears. Now that I have read the question I look back at my blog and realize that it is plain white with typical black font and it seems to be saying that I am not (or was not at the time) very interested in creating a blog so i chose the most conventional layout and color scheme for my account. With any hope, my interest will be uplifted a bit once the semester gets going because I find myself still a bit tired and relaxed from enjoying the (short) Winter Break. However, I've come to know myself as a very anxious and nervous person since college life began, so I am quite positive that I will start freaking out in the next couple of weeks and spend my every free minute that I'm not in class in the quiet basement of the library hyped up on redbull with my leg doing the little twitching up and down thing that almost everyone (hopefully) does while sitting down anxiously.

"I have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus"

-Nick