Unit 2 Proposal

For my Unit 2 proposal I am going to research and write about the Steroid Era in baseball. This is something that has always interested me because I come from a family who loves baseball and  Instead of looking at a just the Steroid Era as a whole, I am going to look at a few players and how they tie into the Steroid Era and how they tie into the records of baseball. For example, when exactly Barry Bonds began using steroid and how many home runs he hit during the time of his use. This raises a good question, what would his statistics looked like if he had never used steroids. Other players that I am going to research because they caused so much controversy are Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada. Clemens reported lied to Congress about his steroid use and Tejada has already been indicted for lying to Congress about his use. I may also take a look at the Alex Rodriguez case but I believe that Rodriguez may not be a good topic of research because his use has surfaced so recently. The fact that his use has surfaced so recently leads me to believe that  there will be some sources that act whimsically in making judgments rather than gathering facts and statistics and writing reports with clear, thought-out research. I believe that researching this topic will be interesting because of how big the issue of steroids has gotten in baseball. I will look in baseball magazine, Sports Illustrated, and the Mitchell Report. This Mitchell Report is a paper written by a man named George Mitchell who has followed the issue of steroids since it first surfaced. In his paper he writes about specific players and their use of steroids. I believe that I will find a ton of great information in this paper because of how in-depth it goes. I am really looking forward to this because I am a baseball fan and would love to know the ins and outs of the Steroid Era in baseball.

3/3/09: Free Write

My main concern with this unit 2 topic is I do not understand the basis of a rhetorical analysis well enough to write an essay. This afternoon I am going to really crack down on what a rhetorical analysis is and then choose an essay topic. I think that I am going to choose something that has the do with a big issue in sports. Maybe I think choose the steroid era in sports or the boating accident that occured off of the coast of Florida with the two NFL players. I just need to get to a point where I fully understand this topic before I can actually begin to make a decision.

One thing that is not making me happy these days is my apartment and its management. There is early morning construction, cold water in the morning, and no cell phone service in my apartment. I can not wait until the end of school so I can move into the house that I am renting next semester. Not only does my apartment have all of these problems, it is over-priced and the management acts like it is not their position to help me out. At the going rate of this place, I should have a servant in my room.

You can not begin to think of how excited I am for spring break, I have been waiting on going on this fishing trip for months now. My dad and four other of his friends are heading down to Del Rio, Texas to go bass fishing at Lake Amistad. I love this area, it isn't exactly pretty but it is always fun.

Thinking Rhetorically: 2/26/09

For my rhetorical analysis of a primary text I chose a computer animated image of Tiger Woods with a Nike swoosh as his smile. This can be viewed as a very loaded argument and most likely one that the people at Nike or Tigers Woods does not agree with. This argues that Tiger Woods is happy because of his big Nike contract and the money that he makes off of Nike. In doing further research of this image I found that this was an image made by a blogger who did not agree with the fact that Nike is using Tiger's stardom to lure people to a dinner that has not gotten a lot of coverage in the past. I understand that Nike is advertising their star but I do not agree with this blogger who says that Tiger is only there to attract. Tiger Woods is a role model to children, Nike should be allowed to use him to attract attention. Going back to Tiger's smile, I believe that this blogger is making the argument that Tiger is only smiling and acting happy because he has to be. I believe that this is a valid argument except for the fact that it is simply a computer animated image, it is a fictional image. This image does not reflect the true views of Tiger Woods or of Nike. From a rhetorical standpoint with ethos, pathos, and logos in mind, I think this image is a pretty good argument. Ethically, this appeals to the ethos because people would question that Tiger is involved with Nike for the money, not for the fact that Nike is an organization of charitable giving. Logically, this image argues that Tiger Woods is only thinking about the money. It is arguing that Tiger cares more about the money than what the company of Nike actually does. I believe that this is a semi-effective argument because it does bring up the point that some pro athletes do only care about the money and consequently, it affects their performance. I do not agree with this argument but I do respect it in the sense that it is attempting to bring up issues in pro athletics.

In Class Free Write: Rhetorical Thinking Unit 2

Rhetorical thinking differs from just simply thinking in many ways. In chapter 5 of our book it looks at what it means to think rhetorically. Here is my view on thinking rhetorically. I believe that this way of thinking looks at and exposes ideas. There is no one right way to think rhetorically but there are some questions that you could ask about a subject or an idea to think about it rhetorically. You could ask some questions that were brought up in the book like; "What is the purpose of this argument?" or "How does it try to make the write or creator seem trustworthy?" I think that both of these questions make great arguments in exploring an idea or a subject. Thinking rhetorically with the first question I brought up would be simple in my opinion. Simply questioning the purpose of an argument would lead to a justification or an answer given by someone else or by yourself. Rhetorically, both of these questions lead to arguments of ethos, pathos, and logos. A pathos argument with rhetorical thinking in mind makes a reader or someone you are arguing with think about your argument from the heart because it contains strong emotional appeal.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos of a Public Space

Today I took my first trip to Starbucks for this assignment. After reading the responses to my post last week I found that many people thought that it was weird that I was a Starbucks "foreigner". It's not that I have never been there, it's the fact that I have never caught on to the big attraction of Starbucks. I believe that the people who really know me understand where I am coming from. I love the outdoors, golf, country music, classic rock, and being active. My personality and my hobbies keep me from enjoying the peaceful feeling that people get in Starbucks. I learned today that I never liked Starbucks because I really felt out of my element because I thought that I should have been playing golf or going fishing on a beautiful day like today, not sitting in a coffee shop like the people I observed. I also realized that there were not a lot of people like me in there. Most of the people were older, I'd say that the average age was around 50. I observed many interesting thing though. I feel like I really got a good idea of what Starbucks was like and why it attracts people. Obviously people like coffee but there's more there than coffee. Starbucks sells other things like food and coffee blend. I definitely found the ethical appeal of Starbucks. They were selling coffee mugs so people could be environmentally friendly, this shows a strong ethical appeal. As for logical appeal, they sell coffee blend. They are saying that it would be logical to make your own Starbucks coffee for convenience. I find this logical because it would save you money and during these tough times, who wouldn't benefit from saving a little cash? I definitely saw my things today that are worthy to talk about. I saw an old lady (65+) sitting by herself texting and talking on her new iPhone. Think about it, it really isn't everyday that you see something like that. For an emotional appeal, I found that the aroma appealed to people's emotions for liking coffee. I enjoyed the smell although I do not like coffee. All-in-all, I think I found a lot of good ideas. I really did find why people go to Starbucks, for the atmosphere. Although I was not crazy about the atmosphere I believe that I found some answers in why people are attracted to Starbucks. I am most likely going to go back for one more observation period to really get an idea of Starbucks at a different time of the day.

In Class: Analyzing Visuals

My initial attention is drawn to the young girl holding a cigarette. My first thought about this young girl is that she is too young to be smoking and too young to know the health risks associated with smoking and tobacco use. I immediately thought that she must be around 12 to 13 years of age. I feel like the young girl is possibly depressed because of the look on her face, the frown, and resorting to smoking. You never stopped to think that she my be doing a photoshoot for a child tobacco use campaign.

When I begin to look at the image as a whole I first see another little girl who is smaller in stature than the young girl smoking a cigarette. I believe that the other little girl may look up to the girl smoking and she looks disappointed. The second girl has her hands placed at her hips which could symbolize that the second girl is mad or in shock that her companion is resorting to smoking. As I try to look at the other parts of this image I find myself searching for another image to act as an answer as to why this picture is like it is. I can't seem to find an explanation.

I believe this image is about child tobacco use. I believe that this could be used at an ad campaign to stop child tobacco use. This image could have been taken to show to the public that there are children who are this young who smoke or use other tobacco products.

This image is intending to function as a message to inform. This is an argument to inform on the tobacco use in the world among children. This is a very effective image because the little girl looks young and people do not want to see their own children smoking or using tobacco products. This little girl serves as an example because she looks sad and this image could show how tobacco use could be a way out for some children.

In Class: Logos

After reading Chapter 4, I was very interested in the Surveys and Polls portion of the text. I was interested because it made me think about how a survey or a poll is normally hard evidence and can reflect a society or a whole group's opinion. But what if the poll is taken only in a certain part of the country or only taken by a certain ethnicity? What if the only people who took the poll were age 18-25? I believe that the results could be very misinterpreted. Many people would agree with me that a poll is hard evidence but it could be hard evidence that is very inaccurate. I believe that if you asked people age 18-25 in New York City what there political views were their views would be different than the political views of people age 45-55 living in rural east Texas. These two polls could be compared and could make a number of different arguments. The people who designed a political poll like this could say that 65% of people believe that Barack Obama will do a good job in Office but where are the people living? What are their political views? Who are they? I do believe that it is true that "Some of the most influential forms of statistics are those produced by surveys and polls" but they can also make an inaccurate argument in my opinion. I believe a poll or a survey can be a very valuable argument tool but could also be a persuasive technique.