This Week's Summary/Reflection

This week's summary involves learning how to search for books, articles, and other useful information for our projects through the library’s website. We also covered logos, pathos and ethos. Logos involves rational argument that can deal with statistics, facts, definitions, and deductive reasoning. Pathos appeals to emotion that can involve sad stories. Ethos appeals to authority or character and can involve celebrities or well known experts.  I am familiar with ethos; brands are always trying to use famous celebrities to sell their brand. This week I learned that the best arguments have all three arguments: logos, pathos and ethos. I also got an idea of what social issue my project will be about; minority high school dropout rates.  

What I learned/Reflecting

I learned that writing is “a way of exploring ideas as well as communicating them.”  I never thought of writing in that aspect. I always thought it just a way of communicating our ideas. I also learned about rhetoric. Rhetoric is being able to persuade at any given time. I also learned about the rhetorical situation, which is audience, purpose, motivation, constraints, and knowing which strategies will work to convince the audience in any situation. I now look at things very differently. Instead of believing in everything (I know I sound naive), but I now stop and really question things.  

1. Describe yourself as a writer and as a reader.     What/When/How/Why do you usually write or read? (1-2 paragraphs)

I like to read magazines such as People, Us Weekly and magazines in that genre. I usually don’t get a chance to read until my 3yr old goes to bed. I also like to read the news such as headlines on yahoo and other websites. I read the magazines and headlines because they are interesting. Magazines keep me in touch with celebrities, fashion and trends while the news headlines keep me in touch with what is going on in the world that might affect us Americans.       

I considered myself a writer in high school. My friend and I came up with writing in a notebook. We would pass the notebook back and forth to each other after we wrote a page in it. We would write about our day, what happened and how it made us feel. It was a pretty good idea at the time, to express how we were feeling about certain situations.  Not much writing happens these days but since starting back in school, I am sure there will be plenty to come.

2. Find an image and try to write a rhetorical analysis of it on your blog. (Look at #2 on page 26 for guidance).        

http://ideas.time.com/category/cartoons-of-the-week/

On January 10th 2012, the New Hampshire Republican Presidential Primary was held. Massachusetts Former Governor, Mitt Romney, won with a total of 39 percent of the vote. Former Governor, Mitt Romney tied for 2nd place in  the Iowa caucus. The guy being chiseled in stone is Mitt Romney. 

This cartoon reminds me of Mt. Rushmore, a sculpture of former United States presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. After doing some research on the memorial sculpture, it turns out that the sculpture is actually carved in granite. The “Granite State” represents New Hampshire. The people that are working on the sculpture make me think that the people of New Hampshire feel that they are making their choice of the next President of the United States. However, the look that is depicted of Romney makes me think that the candidate may not be the right choice. America is facing serious problems that require the work and action of serious leaders. The jokey look that Romney has makes me feel that he may not be a serious candidate for President.