Mark Twain

I remember reading Mark Twain's book Huckleberry Finn a long time ago. It did surprise me that the book had mention the word nigger 219 times and when I read the book I didn't realize that it had said that word that many times, I realized it did say that word a lot but not that much. When I head that they wanted to replace nigger with slave I had the same reaction as Larry Wilmore had mention what he thought. Is slave an actual upgrade from the word nigger. In today's society that word isn't as negative as it was. Slave is still had a bad connotation to it. I do agree with Larry that Mark Twain and put that word in there for a reason. Mark Twain was a great author and Huckleberry Finn is a classical for a reason. Saying that word does give a certain atmosphere about the book and gives the book a feeling of what it was like. I also agree with Larry that it was part of the African American's culture. They shouldn't be ashamed of what they had to endure. We should be ashamed of what we did but from this learning experience we can learn and grow from it. That one word reminds us of what it was like, I think that reminder is a great way to remember from what you came from and how you are now. There has been many of races and colors of skin that were frowned upon but they are history, they are culture, they are a lesson, they are a reminder of what people have done to them and they can take pride and that they have moved past and gained the respect to which the deserve.

Intro

What does this great country that we live in stand for? United States is the home of the brave and the land of the free. This statement is about how he have stood up for what believed in and fought for what we believed in.  This country is about how we are free to choose and to make opportunities.  This country is built on equality.  Then why do we have a say that a certain group of people can’t get married? Same-sex marriage is a very controversial topic. This topic is coming up more and more in the political world and we have to answer it. Same-sex marriage should be allowed. By not allowing same-sex marriage we our hindering our rights as American citizens and equality and everything for which the United States of America stands for.

What the Article is about

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the title of the column. This column was about gay people and their right on same-sex marriage. Some details that grabbed my attention were how he always felt insecure and not accepted. To me this is very sad that people can’t be tolerating about this. This country is supposed to be the land of the free and home of the brave, this country is supposed to be built on equality. There is saying on my fraternity’s crest that’s say vir quesqe vir, which is Latin for every man a man. To me this means that every human being deserves a base amount of respect.  Equality is very important to me and same-sex marriage is a fight for equality.  This man that is mentioned in the column, Chuck Bennett had live for 80 years and has seen many amazing this including the famous moon landing and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was an English professor and later on he had become a dean. Maine is one of four states that have same-sex marriage on the ballot this election. They hope to join the six states that already allow same-sex marriage. If Maine passes this vote on same-sex marriage than this will be the first state to do so by popular vote.  Bennett states that he never thought that this was possible. He had grown up being an outcast. He was forced out of the Navy. His parents had died not knowing that he was gay. The end of the article states that everyone could have been happier if only.

ethos pathos logos

Ethos: Lived for 80 years

Seen A man land on the moon

Seen the Soviet Union disintegrate

Pathos: Maine may pass a referendum for same-sex marriage by popular vote which no state has done before

He was forced out of the Navy for being gay

Bennett has been an English professor and the later on a College dean

His parents died not knowing he is gay

He never thought that same-sex marriage was even possible

Bennett than says that he doesn’t care if anyone winds up getting married but cares that they can get married

Everyone can be happier everyone can have been more fulfilled

Logos: Maine is one in four states that had same-sex marriage on the Election ballot this year

Six states already have same-sex marriage

At Long Last, Dignity?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/opinion/bruni-at-long-last-dignity.html?ref=columnists

Why men fail?

In David Brooks article "Why Men Fail", it is mainly about how men are slowing down in the world as far as careers go. Brooks does states facts about how the percentage of work done by man has fallen over the past 40 years and how woman have increased in the job market. Brooks points out about another author, Rosin, and how her point of view is that woman are better at adapting.  Rosin than goes on and states that men are stuck in the old ways and waiting while woman are adapting and going back to school and changing careers. The very last sentence in this article was about how men have to acknowledge they are strangers in this world. To me this is very interesting. I do agree with this article to some extent but I don’t think that men have failed. I do believe that women have been taking over the job market and that the older generation of men do have this concept of an old world but I think that is rapidly changing. Women have adapted to this world and the job market that it has to offer but does that mean that men are doomed. I don’t think so; I think that gender is not really going to be considered in the future. I think that it is in that process already.  Rosin was right about how modern woman have ditched the idea of feminism and how they are adaptably but I think that the younger generation is becoming adaptably and not falling in this role of masculinity. One example of this is how the public thinks on gays. Most people that are offended are the older generation, there still is some of the younger generation that disapproves but they are way more tolerant of it. I think that the younger generation is not going to care if men are supposed to act masculine or if girls are supposed to act feminine but they are going to be tolerant of it. I think that the younger generation will adapt together. In the future it will just come down to work ethic of the individual.

New Rules

In Thomas Friedman’s article “New Rules” is about how we need more education in the future and how the entry skill level is going up. Friedman’s Article appears in the New York Times which gives ethos. Some other things that can give the article ethos on why the article was written are how Estonia establishing a program for teaching kids how to do computer programming. Another thing is when the Guardian Newspaper of London published an online poll asking: “Should the U.K. school children be taught programming as part of their school day.” One of the things that were said in this article that can be related to pathos is “Work hard and Play by the Rules.” However, as things are changing so fast that technology and globalization are wiping out lower-skilled jobs faster. The new mantra that Clinton has said – one that Obama has tried to adopt and fund- “We have to prepare more Americans for the new jobs that are being created in a world fueled by new technology. That way our investments in our people are more important than ever.” There is one quote by Alvin Toffler that captured the reality of the situation we are in and that is “Illiteracy will be defined by those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn and relearn.” Unemployment has been on the rise. Unemployment rate for those with 4 years of College experience is 4.1%, for those with 2 years of College is 6.6%, those that are high school graduates it is 8.8% and those that are dropouts is 12%.

Chapter 6 Precis

In his chapter 6 in his book "Choices 2.0", Joe Harden suggests that we have to make choics about to write when it comes to culture and the media. He point out how much media is around our everyday lives. Hardin also points out how cultural myths and how they are recognized in movies, news reports and popular songs. Hardin gives us all these things about cultural and the media in order that we may properly critque them and how to do so in a writer's manner. His audience is for college freshmen.

Plagiarism Precis

In his article “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in the Digital Age” (2010), Trip Gabriel persuades that the plagiarism is happening more and more since there so much information at the fingertips and people don’t realize that they are doing it. We could easily just type a topic and there will be things all over the internet about the topic they want. The author shows that through many examples of how plagiarism has been happening at campus around the United States. Gabriel has written this article in order to show that plagiarism is occurring more and to raise awareness of this problem. The author’s audience is for college freshmen since it is about writing and you usually start writing your freshmen year in college and is a good basis on all writing for you college career.

The first thing that had grabbed my attetion was that the image itself but then I looked at the caption of what it had said. Just the style and how the image is portrayed is all very important. The color scheme of the image is a not very bright and is used to show how serious the image is.The caption of the image meant a great deal to me. To me the text of the image was to show the general public that we ourselves are our own prisoners and only we can set our selves free. We are accountable for our actions and if we don't hold ourselves accountable of our actions and wait for someone else to be held accountable than we will never be truly free. We will always ask ourselves questions instead of getting over them and trying to figure out a solution. This image and the message that it shows is an important value to me and I love what the message means.

Speeches on Ann Romney and Michelle Obama

When I saw the two videos of the speeches in English class, I really wasn’t biased. It is easy for me to not choose sides and look at the videos in an analytical sense. Both the speeches by Ann Romney and Michelle Obama were both passionate about what they believe in and for the country that we serve. They should be since they are by the president’s side and they only want what is best for the country. To me though both of them have pathos and some ethos when telling the general public about how much passion they have for the president they are behind. There wasn’t that much logos in both of the speeches, in my opinion. I don’t know if this was supposed to be a speech about passion or for a political point of view. Both these speeches really didn’t talk about the problems we have in the United States, like the financial situation and the health care system. Both of them just talked about passion and I think that is great but to me almost any person running for president is going to have passion for family and the United States. They would not be running for president if they weren’t passionate about it. To me it really doesn’t matter where you grow up and how your background is but what you are going to do for this country and how you aim to try an achieve this and yes passion does help but you need to be able to go through with what you say or at least try.  I think both speeches lost some ethos just because they weren’t the presidents themselves and they weren’t really didn’t talk about the political party itself either. If the point of the speeches were to see how passionate the presidents are than the speeches done their job.  If the speeches were supposed to influence their political view than it really didn’t do that for me. 

In his third chapter in "Choices 2.0 Situations for college writing" (2010), Joe Marshall Hardin portrays that you need a strong structure in your writings. He portrays this by suggesting you could have supporting material include relevant experiences fact, figures statistics, original analysis, explanations, arguments and photographic images. His purpose in this chapter is show that there are ways to make a great structure in your writings and it gives you ideas on how to do that or improve your structure in your own writings. The audience is for college freshmen or people just learning how to write to show them how to have a good structure for your writings.

"Web Means the End of Forgiving"

What I think about the article that Jeffrey Rosen wrote is that I agree with him. The internet was a safe haven but now has turned into something that people fear to post things or being tagged in photos. I do think that it violates our first amendment. I don’t think that companies would have that much power to see what our personal lives are. I think that everybody does things that might now be viewed as smart but we are only human. I believe that sometimes it is okay to go drink and go out with friends to have a fun time. If we didn’t do this we would be more stressed and be just mindless zombies just going through every day. Companies should want us to have fun and not worry what we do with our free time. I think that we would be more productive and as long as we are professional at work, why should companies care.  There were some great ideas in that article like ReputationDefender or the idea that data has an expiration date. The expiration data, I think, is an amazing idea. I think teenagers and young adults don’t realize how much they can hurt their reputations. I don’t think that we should be reprimanded for the way that almost every teenager and young adult act. I don’t think that companies can make an assumption how we act in our private lives and how we act in our personal lives. The expiration date thing is at least a step forward. Teenagers and young adults don’t really want to spend all their time doing researches on themselves trying to find and delete embarrassing photos or comments on themselves. Also they are not trained to do background researches but companies hire certain people like that. That Is what I think about this article.

precis on Kent Haruf article on writing

In his article " Writers on Writing"(2000), Kent Haruf implies that every writer has there way of writing. Kent  first states how famous writers had written some of there work. The author than explains where he does all his work and how it is important to him. Haruf then goes on to explain how his writing process is. I think that the authors purpose is to raise awareness that a writer has their own certain place and ritual in the writing process in order to inform the general public about the writing process. The general public is the audience since this article was about the writing process and it didn't mention anything about the age group, ethnicity, gender, or any form of group.

Intro Rhetorical Summary

In the intro,"Talent, Hard Work, and Correctness." (2010), Joe Marshall Hardin implies that we make choices while we write and that writing takes time and effort and anyone can become a better writer. Hardin points out that people use to think that some people naturally have talent or it is in their genes to become a great writer but that is untrue. There have been no evidence that there is a specific gene for talent. Hardin states that it takes hard work to improve your writing skills. To become a better writer you need other people to look at your work to improve your writing. There always going to be mistakes that you don't see that other people do. This intro is about how Hardin states that writing takes work and in order to become a better writer we need to work hard and a willingness to work at it in order to improve as writers. This intro was probably intended for college freshmen. This intro was saying that anyone can do it and it just takes practice.