Video response

Claim: Sarah Haskins believes that when companies try to sell their products they are using situations in the commercials that are unrealistic and that would never happen in real life. She believes that a guy whos chewing a certaint type of gum isn't really going to grab the attetnion of a "good looking" girl.



Support:
She uses multiple commercials to try and support that everyone in this business uses the same tactic. They all try to find a way in which the consumer would want to buy their products, whether they use people that are just like their ownselves or they use people that are completely different from them.

In-Class Writing topics essay 4

Things in daily life I wish were different:
-listening to people chew
-waking up at 8am for class
-having my own bathroom
-recycling/going green on campus
-wide selection of food on campus/more than one cafeteria
-better transportation systems for kids that don't have cars on campus

Issues that provide disagreement:
-not doing well in a class
-studying inside the dorm room/staying up late
-who texts who first
-being punished while being away from home


*Recycling/Going Green on campus
I think people don't realize how much we don't recycle and without the awareness of recycling our world today can easily be gone within the next 70 years. It's hard for student's to recycle when there are no recycling bins. We have to realize as a community that some of the things we do aren't economically healthy and they need to be changed in order to help the people of our community. It doesn't just effect one person it effects our community as a whole.

People who would disagree are the people who don't think of the economy and instead of going green, would rather consume things that aren't economically helpful. Usually people who think this way have a lot of money and can afford bigger and better things therefore, they choose to buy these things without thinking about the effect it will have on our environment. Buying big cars that need a lot of gas and let out bad fumes, houses that are mcmansions that have been recently built in an area where a lot of trees had to be removed. People like this aren't necessarily bad people, they are just caught up with the idea that things need to be done their way and they need to get what they want no matter what.

Blogging Rhetorically #4

While the Second Amendment may state that the Constitution allows for an individual to lawfully posses a handgun, it continues to amaze me that such a law was passed. After multiple known gun shootings at schools, public places, and other unknown places, how can such a dangerous weapon be allowed a part of our daily life?

As it is stated in Robert A. Levy’s response “legislatures in all 50 states have rejected bans on private handgun ownership” but concealed carry of a weapon is permitted. This to me is surprising because having this rule of concealing a weapon seems just as dangerous as having one for everyone to see. Understanding the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms is a little confusing because although it clearly states that we as American citizens, have the right to bear arms, still have little freedom in having weapons. The disagreement that is brought up states that there is a collective right of the people to have a weapon such as for “state militia, or an individual right that guarantees a person’s right to own firearms” but later in the complete opposite is shown. “…even if the Second Amendment protects private ownership of firearms for non-militia purposes, D.C.’s Mayor stated that legislature can constitutionally ban all hand guns if it determines, for example, that rifles and shotguns in the home are a reasonable alternative means of self defense ” this argument was raised by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. This confused me because if the Second Amendment states that we have the individual right that guarantees a person’s right to own firearms, then how is that allowed to be taken away by the court.

I can directly relate our new topic of an argumentive research paper to this example because the writers are stating exact research and giving examples that help support the research given. As for arguing about gun control, it isn’t as strong and powerful of a fight as I thought it would be. I figured although you are not taking a side, rather stating the argument, its still a little confusing as to what the argument actually is. D.C. continues to go back and forth with the idea of guns and gun use. The Second Amendment clearly states that people have the right to bear arms for their protection, yet he continues to ban in while most of the rest of the country is all for personal gun use and the right to bear arms. Although it is clearly stated in the second amendment that an individual is lawfully allowed to posses a handgun, there is no detailed statement saying whether or not its people of the armed forces that can use weapons or if it’s for the general citizen’s of America.

I personally believe that guns are extremely dangerous weapons that should only be used in certain situations by certain people. Although people are worried about family and keeping them safe, I think they are more likely to have an accident happen such as a suicide, or an accidental shooting because of a lack of knowledge regarding the cautions of guns. Scalia wrote that the second amendment does not limit or expand the right to keep and bear arms expressly stated in the operative clause. It’s confusing to understand because one person is saying that people have the freedom to bear arms and to feel safe by owning a weapon while a different person says that although the second amendment states that people have the right to bear arms, there are certain rules behind it that prevent people from being able to keep weapons inside their homes.

These two articles are very different in many ways. Not only do they have different views on what the Second Amendment is trying to convey to people, but it also contains different opinions as to why they have decided to make such opinions.

Free Write

Reading Home Girl was kind of hard to keep focused on because it was all over the place going back and forth between the interview with Badu, and an explanation of her life told in the eyes of author Michael Hall. I really enjoyed how he made such a visual image with the objects, paintings and meaningful heirlooms that surrounded Badu's house. I also enjoyed reading the interview itself. He did an interesting way of weaving the interview into the story and the life of Erykah Badu.

Blogging Rhetorically #3

While reading about Erykah Badu, a singer and dancer, I noticed the way that the author designed the layout of his essay. He used a simple conversational interview with Badu and his own research as a way to portray an informational essay. I was able to directly relate it to our new essay topic. This essay requires us to incorporate an interview with someone and using the information that we find, to answer a specific question.

Hall uses Badu as a way of explaining her life in a “biography” format. We learned that she is more than just a singer and a dancer; she raises her children, grows herbs, helps in her old neighborhood in Dallas and continues to work on her album. It surprised me to see that Hall didn’t have to have such a specific question on Erykah Badu. With or without a specific question, the essay was well thought out and organized in a way that made it easy for the reader to understand. When I think about giving an interview I fail to think that talking to the interviewee more than once would be a good idea. With this essay in mind, it was a good idea for Hall to interview Badu for a long period of time. He was able to figure out what Badu was all about, not just simple background information that anyone could Google. Instead, he was able to find a deeper meaning in every single movement that Badu made throughout the interview.

“I had already learned something that morning about waiting for Badu. She had been in her home studio until five in the morning, so we had started our interview almost two hours late.”

As the interview continued, Hall’s idea of Badu being more than an artist was explained well with a visual of what Badu had lying around during the interview.

“A box of art supplies sat on a cluttered table next to a couple of palettes of dried orange and purple paint; on the wall were paintings of and by mom and her other child, nine-year-old son Seven. A piano and guitar sat next to the fireplace, and a hundred stalactites of colored candle wax descended from the mantel”

This detailed explanation of what lay around throughout the interview was a way in which Ballinger defined as “Reading” the visual. This visual gives us a language to talk about what we see, not just creating assumptions of what we see. But what continues to confuse me is how we are supposed to bring “reading” the visual into a paper like this.

Hall used the quotes from his interview in an interesting way. He was able to manipulate the paragraphs in his essay to fit with the things that Badu responded to. For example, Badu talked about the Maze that was painted on the floor of her house and the meaning behind it. The maze on the floor of her house was to symbolize a nourishing environment and a place “that I could retreat to when things got too busy for me” In the next paragraph, Hall wrote about Badu and her daughter sitting together as she did her daughters hair while she sucked on a bottle. This visual made it seem like it was a response to the paragraph prior to it, Badu talking about having a nourishing environment.

I continue to think about this essay and the idea behind it and after reading this essay/interview, it’s easier to understand what is required of this paper.

Image Freewrite

This image makes me feel strong and patriotic. The image of the two men with muscles that are larger than my head create a feeling of unity and power. We as a nation have a lot of power and nothing can bring us down. We as Americans, feel this power when we work together and unite as one. Seeing these two men work together really puts a feeling on their faces in the photo. They are working extremely hard to pull together and work together. This picture could fall under a couple of topics if I really had to write a full essay about it. It could be about teamwork and the way we unite as one to get something done, or it could be about America and our ability to be one team that fights off the rest. The fact that their are no real faces on these people also make it feel like its not focused on one individual which is good to see because America is not based on one individual, we are all different people and we all fight for our rights together. Although seeing that there are no women in the picture, it makes me wonder if there is a meaning behind the illustrators doing so.

I think the real story of this photo does have to do with Americans and their unity of people working together. Our ability to do this only happens when we are working together and int his photo, two men are striving to pull a rope, as a team, beat their battle. Bringing in the idea of no real faces and a dark shaded area on the eyes and feautres of the men, makes it something deeper than just two men because they don't want to be too specific about who they are labeling as "men". Every single person in America is a part of this team that is able to fight for their rights--together as one. It's telling a story of how and what we do in order to gain this strength. We have a strength and a bond that no one can break. The boldness of the word "strength" makes the story a stronger story.

There wasn't a lot of color in the picture so it made me feel solid and since it was mostly about patriotism, Americans work as one, sot he colors shouldn't be a rainbow of colors, it should be a select few. The fact taht its orange blue and black throws my emotions off track a little because I don't know how orange blue and black relate to being united as one, being american, and having a large amount of patriotism. Instead, I feel as if our nation's colors, red white and blue, does play a role in creating unity, patriotism and strength. But I think what makes this image so unique is that it ISN'T just using the colors that we associate America with. Since its not you average red, white and blue, we can make assumptions about why the illustrator chose orange blue and black.

The boldness of the word 'strength' makes the image itself, strong. It's the first thing that pops out of the picture and into my mind creating its very own story about America's strength and power. Without this boldness of the word 'strength' my eyes wander around, yeah the text underneath and above the word 'strength' are meaningful, but not as meaningful as the word itself because its type is different and not as bold. When I see the font type being bold, that itself makes me feel like there is a strength that America has and that no one can knock down.

Free Write: Generating Ideas

People I know whom I can't forget:
-my parents/grandparents
-Jessica and James
-Topher
-Coach Tracy/Coach Danny
-Elizabeth/Brooke
-old assistant principle
-Sammy

Controversies in the local community
-in school/out of school bullying
-littering/recycling
-underage drinking/drugs
-sexual assault