Lightning Talk Presentation

Here is a link to my lightning talk slideshow: https://docs.google.com/a/email.arizona.edu/presentation/d/1m8oQBz_DOJRAJgA-L25Zlj3FxdDL6D0IsJcsaYNtCuw/edit?usp=sharing

Blog Post 30: Analysis of Sample Public Argument

Letter to Government Official:

The letter has a very formal yet passionate tone. This is a very intelligent decision by the author, as it is important to be very respectful and eloquent in the face of a political superior. Especially for the case of trying to persuade. The ethos of the author, however, is quite lacking. She only states that she is a University of Arizona freshman, something unlikely to establish any major credibility. Under this, she claims that the medicare budget should remain at the same amount rather than be cut. This is done by pointing out alternatives and the negative externalities from cutting spending. I would like to see a better building of credibility from her, as well as some statistical evidence to back her claims. We are dealing with numbers in money, so numbers in the solution would be effective.

Initial Thoughts about the Audience for my Argument

Can a writing apply to everyone? Unfortunately that question cannot be answered because it is up to the reader to decide whether or not something applies to him or her. Now can a writing be created with everyone as the audience in mind? Certainly no. Was my writing? Definitely not. My writing is already immediately limited to mostly to Americans by the fact that it is on the topic of American education. Furthermore, it must narrowed to those who are stakeholders in American education. This includes students, those that students are dependent upon (parents, guardians, friends), those involved in the american education system (teachers, deans, etc.), and those involved in the american political system (policymakers that can affect education). To many, especially those already in the education system, this may be quite hostile, as it is attacking their livelihood and practice. To those who are students and some of the policymakers, this may be motivation for a solution. My audience will most likely not need to know too much, as I will be explaining as much as possible. This, however, may change as I write more of my argument.

My Proposed Public Argument

I have always admired public speaking. But not just public speaking per say, but public speaking that is trying to convey something of meaning and importance. That is why I did speech and debate in high school, and why I gave the graduation speech at the end of my four years. So from the get go when I heard about this project, I knew I wanted to give a speech of some kind. Though I do not always agree with TED and the talks that they give, I do admire the style in which they do them. And that is why I think I will give mine in a youtube video, TED talk style. And now for the actual important part, what I would like to do it on.

Seeing as how I have spent almost my entire life in the American education system and now find myself a freshman at a somewhat average state-funded university, I have decided to make my argument a statement on public education. Moreover, it will be an analysis of the current state of American public education and what its flaws are when compared to countries more successful in that area. The purpose will be to spread awareness of what the problems are and a call to action for a solution, aimed mostly at students, parents of students, and those involved in the american education system as well as the american political system.

Reflection of Rhetorical Analysis Unit

As compared with many of my previous works, this paper had a significant impact upon me. Rhetorical analysis and most of introductory English seems to be characterized so predominantly by structure. Five paragraph this, three main ideas that. And while the structure of an essay is quite important, many times it appears to be forgotten that with rigid structure comes rigid transitioning. An essay needs to be able to ebb and flow as well as follow a set path. I feel as if this essay did a fantastic job of trying to express that idea. By steering away from the conventional ethos, pathos, logos paragraph structure, it allowed the essay to carry a more streamlined feel to it. In the previous essay, the ideas that it conveyed felt so choppy and disconnected, it the essay appeared to jump from one area to the next. This essay certainly performed better in that aspect. If I could have, perhaps I would have researched more for the essay. Though I do feel that looking at the HONY website alone should and did suffice, it definitely would have been beneficial to look at outside analysis for further information.

Disregarding the essay itself, I still learned at lot from the actual Humans of New York. I am not immune to the effects I described it to carry in my analysis. Humans of New York certainly taught me more about the diversity among me and furthermore the power that pictures and social media can hold. And after seeing how powerful of an argument one can make, I am quite excited to make one of my own in the next essay - the public argument.

Seeking Help For My Draft

With my first draft in the books, I quickly looked for help, as I know my papers to be a bit wordy and ramble on. Rather than just small issues with my writing, these are bad habits that I have been long trying to break, but unfortunately am more often than not plagued by tunnel-vision. Thus, I had my good friend Kazi take a look. His analysis was not quite as detailed as I would have liked, but he did help cut down on unnecessary words. He also gave me some good ideas on how to explain the compliment between the stories and the pictures. Though this improved my essay, I will definitely still be looking for more peer review.

HONY Thesis and Preliminary Outline

Hello all (or just Dr. Bell, not sure who actually reads this). For my Humans of New York essay, the thesis I decided on was ”In his photo blog, Brandon Stanton effectively conveys the idea of diversity within unity through his genuine yet playful backstory, his photographic techniques, and the stories which accompany each photo." and the outline can be found here.

Pre-Writing Activities for HONY

Sometimes it feels as if planning is even more difficult that the actual writing of an essay. And quite right too. Of course writing an essay would be difficult without some sort of idea, just as trying to get to London would be difficult without a map. But if you take time to carefully structure and outline what you want to do, well then the writing will flow of your fingers. Luckily for me, some of this planning had already been completed. My essay is to be centered around Humans of New York, and looking a couple posts back it can be seen that some of the track have already been laid down for me. Due to a previous assignment, a SOAPSTONE and observations/inferences chart had already been completed. All that was left for me was to find a direction I wanted to take and outline it, which can be found here. Now all that is left is to write.

Personal Response: HONY

For my topic I chose the photographic blog Humans of New York. I did this due to a small passion I hold for photography, but further more a somewhat vested interest in what HONY has to say. Something I have always found intriguing is the way in which people connect. I believe that empathy is not only one of the most important things in humanity, but one of the most complex. In many ways it is what sets humans apart from the rest of life on Earth. HONY attempts to play upon those strings, and that is why I think further analysis of it would be exciting for me.