Everyday there are arguments and debates going on over the pro-life and pro-choice issue. If we do not put an end to this debate and pass a law very soon ending the option for abortion, more than 1000 unborn babies will be killed against, and we, as a population, will have to live with that burden on our shoulders forever. We will have to live knowing that every month thousands more innocent babies were killed from abortion. The choice is simple in this matter, people can both jump on the bandwagon and join the millions of other pro-lifers in the fight against abortion, or they can choose to be one of the thousands that support murder of babies.
Something that I still cannot seem to grasp in this whole argument is how some believe that there really is a choice. In all reality, murder is never okay, so it should be a simple decision. It really should not even be a choice, pro-life is the only way to go. Pro-choice supporters tend to get very angered in this matter because their argument is that in the early stages of pregnancy the baby is not yet alive. Ronald Reagan once said, “Simple morality dictates that unless and until someone can prove the unborn human is not alive, we must give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it is (alive). And, thus, it should be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Pro-Life Quotes). I once knew a friend of mine that had gotten pregnant at an early age and she decided to ultimately have an abortion and too this she has never been the same. This is just another reason, abortion should not be allowed because it put too much stress and tension on all families and individuals who have to go through them. It changes who they are as a person for sure.
Abortion is never the way to go. Let the baby live, and if that person cannot provide it a good life to grow up in, then there is always the option to put the child up for adoption. There are always better and much more safe options out there today.
Works Cited
“Pro-life Quotes by Famous People.” Pro-life Quotes by Famous People. Creighton Web Services, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
In the excerpt for Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, titled, “The Seventh Sense,” it is all about how the punctuation and how it is something that needs to be stressed more in the world today. Truss’s argument is that punctuation is just as vital to the English language as the actual arrangement of the words themselves. She claims that too many times today people do not have a problem if things are not punctuated properly. They just go about their daily business not worried about it at all, and from her point of view that drives her nuts (Truss, 3).
In my opinion, I’m one that is on the fence about the issue when it comes to punctuation. I personally think that punctuation is an issue that more people need to take responsibility for in their lives. After all, Truss is completely right that punctuation is just as important to writing and communication as the words themselves. The way that it is described in the excerpt was that punctuation marks are like the “traffic signals of language” (Truss, 7). I believe that this was like the perfect description for it because it is what dictates what sentences should mean, and when to stop, pause, and go on when reading a piece of writing. It really is important, however, I do think there is a point where some people like Truss can go overboard on the whole punctuation issue. I do not believe that it is something that we need to spend every waking moment of the day stressing over punctuation errors in writing, especially if it is so minor that the meaning of the writing is still clear. That is my opinion on the issue of punctuation.
Works Cited
Truss, Lynne. “The Seventh Sense.” Eats, Shoot, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. N.p.: Gotham, 2004. 1-34. Print.
Ever since the day that music, movies, and other digital media went digital and became available online, there has been the ongoing debate with file sharing programs. Personally in my opinion, I think the thought behind the idea of file and music sharing is a brilliant idea. In fact, I used to use file-sharing systems to get free music and movies called LimeWire and MP3 Rocket. These programs were awesome originally, but the more I used them the more I realized that these programs aren’t so great. My guilty conscience made me realize that this was essentially stealing from artists and directors. For that reason, I no longer support file-sharing systems unless they require a membership fee. Today, I use a musical database known as Spotify to listen to my music, and I pay ten bucks a month for its service. With this I am assured that the right people are getting paid for the music I listen to.
With that being said, I personally believe that more copyright laws and enforcement need to be placed on these types of systems because too many people are going without getting paid the money that most of them use to provide for themselves. The music and movies that are produced are a part of someone else’s ideas that is shared with us for our entertainment, however, I believe that we do need to provide those responsible with their due credit. I know if I were in some of these artists’ shoes I would want to get credit for all my work. This issue is just an expansion on plagiarism that is introduced in grade school when we were taught about academic integrity. To me, academic integrity is staying true to one’s ideas alone and not stealing others’ ideas and work and claiming for oneself, thus earning a grade that was not truly earned. This is an issue I feel very strongly about, and I hope that in the future more things can be done to help control copyright and academic integrity issues.
Evaluating is a simple verb that is a common occurrence in everyday life. While reading Chapter 10 on the subject of evaluating, it is something that I came to realize that I never really thought about before. As humans, we perform several evaluations before we even walk out of the door in the morning, which is something I thought was very intriguing once I thought about it. For example, we evaluate what to eat for breakfast, how to best manage time, what routes to work are best to take, and so on.
In every evaluation, there are always several questions that seem to arise from them. What makes one decision better than another? Why does someone choose to do this task and not another? The fact of the matter is the only way to answer these types of questions is by determining what criteria your evaluation is based on. In other words, the things that are taken into consideration to make a decision that one action needs to be taken here over another. This chapter has taught me that criteria differs for everyone, and when it comes to presenting or evaluating an argument, it is vitally important that criteria is mentioned. The criterion by which one formulates he or she’s opinion on has to be presented in an argument’s thesis early on. Something new to me was discovering just how necessary the criteria portion is to an argument. It is important and necessary because the audience needs to know how the opinion that is presented came about. For example, in my upcoming paper I need to make sure that I discuss all of the criteria of why I believe or don’t believe in social networking being used in the workforce. When presenting the criteria to an audience it is imperative that is not vague in any sense. Criteria has to be specific and detailed enough, so that an audience should have no question as to how the author has come to that he or she’s opinion. To conclude, be clear and never leave the audience guessing.
Many may know him as the author of the books titled 1984 and Animal Farm. George Orwell, a very iconic writer still to this day, wrote an essay know as “Politics and the English Language.” In this article, he presents some very interesting points about the modern English language and the ways people use it. He argues that the population as a whole has created many bad habits through its use of the English language. Also, he argues that through the continued use of these bad habits, it leads to very a very foolish thought process. It also works the other way around according to Orwell because he believes that once our minds have been engrained with the wrong, foolish thoughts, that that is what allows us to continue to butcher the English language.
As the paper continues, Orwell presents the bad habits that he recognizes to the reader, and then goes on to give all writers, not just writers on the professional level, a set of rules to follow to hopefully eliminate the foolish thinking. Some of the advice he gives entails using short, concise language rather than long, wordy passages, and to use the active voice much more than the passive voice.
Overall, he goes on the give writers a total of six rules to follow that he believes will solve the issue. I tend to agree with Orwell that over the years we have let ourselves become okay with using incorrect English and that it truly has clouded our thoughts. I agree that we all need to step up to plate and do our best to take Orwell’s advice because his whole argument is that the foolish thinking that arises from this issue is the reason for the lousy decisions in the political arena. If we come together and can follow these rules, I believe American and its citizens can be back on their way to better lifestyles and living the way the Founding Fathers intended for Americans to live.
After reading the excerpt from On-Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, it was piece of writing that I found very interesting. I think that Stephen King makes some very good points when he starts talking about how everyone should approach the act of writing and what the power of writing entails. Something that I never thought about when it comes to writing was that I, along with everyone else, has the power of telepathy or to connect minds with others. Because of the points presented in this excerpt, I believe now that writing and telepathy are basically the same thing. They are the same because when people get lost in a state of mind when they are engrossed in a book, they are actually connecting minds with the author. Through the writing in the book, the author is able to bring the reader into the same thought process as they once had when he or she put the writing on the blank page. When I think of it like that, it makes perfect sense to me just how telepathy and writing are equal.
Once Stephen King makes the case of how he can send telepathic messages to his readers through his writing, he tells us, “…you cannot come lightly to the blank page” (King, 106). When he makes this statement, he is telling us to approach the page in any other way than that, and just put all thoughts on the paper. Basically, if we come to a blank page like he says whatever thought we put on paper we have the power later to bring our readers to the same thoughts that we are thinking when we write the words on the paper. Next time anybody picks up a book to read, I hope they think about how he or she is connecting with the author’s mind just as was intended when the words were written in the book.
Works Cited
King, Stephen. On-Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Pocket Books, 2000. Print.
David L. Ulin, a book editor for The Times, brings up some very interesting points in his article titled, “Amazon’s troubling reach.” In this article, he talks about certain issues with Amazon that occurred back in 2009. He explains how they attempted to control certain user content by deleting e-books like 1984 and Animal Farm straight off of people’s Kindles and other electronic devices after finding out that the publisher did not have rights to them. He also reminds us of another time a few months earlier when Amazon experienced a glitch that de-ranked over a hundred gay and lesbian books (Ulin). In his own words he states the issue with Amazon’s actions by saying this, “The issue, in other words, isn’t that Amazon has erased material from people’s Kindles, or de-ranked gay and lesbian writers, but that it can.” (Ulin).
At first when I read this article and statement fully, I did not understand what issues Ulin was getting at, but then I read them both again, which is when I realized the problem Ulin was presenting. When he questions Amazon’s motives as a company possibly trying to control or censor specific literature from the people for its own self-interest at the end of the article, it really got me thinking (Ulin). Although I understand why Amazon had to delete those books and things happen with technology that caused the de-ranking of the gay and lesbian books, it still puzzles me to think that we are only exposed to knowledge that Amazon approves of us to see and that most of us do not think it is a big deal. As a human being, I believe we are entitled to learn about anything we want to learn about, and we should be allowed to gain as much knowledge as our brains can take in. Nobody should be allowed to tamper with that, and that is why I agree that others need to see Ulin’s point and action needs to be taken.
Works Cited
Ulin, David L. “Amazon’s troubling reach.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. 28 July 2009. Web. 13 February 2013.
Every year following the Super bowl there is always a debate for which company had the best and most effective commercial that everyone will remember. After this year’s big game the case for the best and most effective could be made for several. One of the commercials that stuck out this year was Samsung’s “The Next Big Thing” commercial featuring Seth Rogan, Paul Rodd, LeBron James. This commercial used several techniques to effectively appeal to its audience.
The obvious technique that Samsung used in this ad was celebrity endorsement. In the ad, they bring in Seth and Paul to be their “next big thing.” However, once the two guys get to the office they realize they were brought in to work together and give Samsung ideas for their Super bowl commercial. Then towards the end of the commercial when it seems that none of the ideas for working for the Samsung employee, LeBron James makes an appearance on the tablet giving his input on what he thinks they should do (Samsung). The whole idea of the commercial to bring in celebrities to basically give them ideas for their commercial was clever and effective in using ethos and pathos. When celebrities make an appearance on a commercial for a company, it almost automatically establishes ethos for a company. The reason this is so is because when people in the audience see that celebrities like LeBron, Seth, and Paul think that Samsung has a good enough product for them to use, that it is good enough for the audience to use as well.
Pathos is used several times throughout the ad as well like when Seth and Paul are arguing in the beginning who the real next big thing is is pretty funny and lightens the mood for the audience. Another instance is when Seth is taking a picture of Paul and shows how the phone can edit photos to make people look younger (Samsung). When people can associate themselves feeling younger, alive, and energetic with Samsung’s phone, it is a very effective appeal to emotions and will get consumers to buy the product for all its cool techniques. Using ethos and pathos through the use of celebrities was an ingenious and effective advertising technique that will ultimately bring in lots of cash for Samsung.
Works Cited
Samsungmobileusa. Samsung Mobile USA-The Next Big Thing. 3 February 2013. Youtube. Web. 8 February 2013.
When it comes to persuading a group of people, everyone responds differently to different types of evidence. Evidence gives an argument support. It is like the backbone to an argument.
According to who the audience is should dictate which forms of evidence are most appropriate to use in certain situations. For example, if someone was ever put in the situation where he or she had the chance to talk with all kinds of C.E.O.s of all businesses today to try to persuade them to place a ban on using monkeys and other primates in advertising, there are a couple forms of evidence that will hit hard in the eyes of a C.E.O. One form that would probably be most effective to them would be data and evidence collected from surveying a sample of large population or from performing experiments. A lot of times, numbers are typically easier to understand and see correlations than a group of words that would come from personal experience or testimony.
If the audience changes and the target audience becomes middle school kids, or a college newspaper, basically something a lot less formal, then best form of evidence to use would come from interviews, observations, and personal experience. These forms of evidence allow the speaker to connect and relate with the audience in a better way than giving out some results of a survey or any other experiments. By knowing which forms of evidence are best and most appropriate for your audience and telling them information that they value most, often times determines the effectiveness of your argument, therefore it should be wisely chosen.
After examining the interesting Apple ads and reading the rhetorical analyses on each of them, there were definitely some similarities and differences in the ways each of them analyzed the ads. One thing that each of the analyses had in common was that they each discussed in extreme detail the effectiveness of ads and the techniques Apple used to get their message across. In the analysis of the “1984” ad, it was extremely evident that the author focused on analyzing the meanings and associations behind minor aspect of the ad. She comments on the meanings behind the voice over, the girl with the sledge hammer, the background music, the voice on the screen, the army of Storm troopers, and the setting. Using her analysis, we understand how all of these minor techniques collectively work together to get Apple’s message across.
In the student essay, the author takes a similar, yet slightly different approach as the previous analysis. She analyzes all of the minor aspects in the commercial as well, but focuses on how they are used in brand advertising to depict an image that the audience can associate with a company and its product. In the final analysis of the “Mac vs. PC” ads, the author takes on more of an emotional response to them and grades the ads on its effectiveness. He reflects on how he doesn’t think they persuade him, someone who caught in the middle of the target audience of these ads, to buy their product. His strategies undermine Apple’s techniques to use the “cool kid vs. nerd” argument and the messages the cast members they chose are sending. These analyses take on similar views, but spin them in their own unique way to make us see the meanings that go beyond what is seen on screen.
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