Courtney Adams Blog #15

I read a blog named “Funeral protesters may be headed back to high court” by Brent Kendall about the Westboro Baptist Church.  The summary of his argument is that courts are not taking a strong stance against the protesting of funerals.  As I reader I enjoyed his logos to back up his argument.  Brent mentions, “Two nearly identical laws, one in Ohio and another in Manchester, Mo., met opposing fates” (Kendall 1).  He makes claims that make the reader think deeper into their ethical background as to what is right and what is wrong.  This article is different from other blogs I have read because I gives more information and data rather than opinion on the topic.

            Another blog I read unfortunately did not have an author listed but was named Media Boycott of Westboro Baptist Church Spurs Controversy.  This article explains what is happening at the funeral boycotts in such a way that any human with a soul would become upset. Along with the previously mentioned blog this blog argued the side that this boycotting is something that should be brought to court. This did not appeal to me as the previous one did but it does have some ethos in it just because of the basis of the argument.  The article uses examples of, “Anti-gay crusade by picketing soldiers’ funerals with signs reading, “God Hates Fags” and “Pray for More Dead Soldiers” among others” (Media 1).  This is particularly different from other articles because it gives me another reference to further explore this topic.

            My next blog was found on a website named Extremists in America. This argument was also against the idea of the Westboro Baptists Church.  This article appeals to me through ethics such as, “The DVD also attacks President Obama, describing him as the anti-Christ, and is filled with anti-gay and anti-Catholic vitriol” (Westboro 1).  This quote takes a figure as worth as our president and shows how out of touch this Church is with reality.  Another use of ethic appeal is using the quote, “God’s hatred is one of His holy attributes” and that their picketing is a form of preaching to a “doomed”” from the Westboro Baptists Church member (Westboro 1).  This article uses a picture of someone protesting to further their argument which is different than other articles.

            The last blog I read was by Rebekah Kuschmider. The summary of this article is the complete lost of reality these boycotts have so that parents cannot find the words to explain to their children what is happening.  This expcially appealed to my pathos because of the innocents of the children.  She explains, “I just wish they would stop because their flavor of hatred is so hard to explain to children” (Kuschmider 1).  The one thing different of this article is that she takes a passive stand in asking them to please stop with her words.

Courtney Adams Blog #14

One hot spot I found in the reading was the format of blogging.  Within the format, the idea of a commenting to form conversations or an open-ended topic in general is vital in blogging.  Unlike most essay formats and other pieces of writing, “A blog post is often an opening to a discussion, rather than a full-fledged argument already arrived at” (Melzer 295).   The writer can choose to accommodate this feature or leave his opinion close-ended.  Although not all blogs have an option to comment, the majority does.  This is important because, “We allow our readers to join the conversation” (Melzer 295).  I feel this is especially significant to recognize because this is what makes blogging significantly different than other writings.  Along with that, this gives the reader and writers a chance to discuss the topic and points made.  I also believe that through this way of communicating, topic can be bettered explored and analyzed.  A better, well-rounded conclusion can be formed if this type of blogging and commenting is used.

Other than that I found another hot spot also surrounding the general format of blogs.  An important format feature of blogging is the, “Reverse-chronological order in which posts appear” (Melzer 296).  In general, this helps the reader to more easily read blogs without having to search through the web page.  Readers no longer have to, “Scan the page, looking for what’s new or what’s been changed” (Melzer 296).  This is much different than other news sites that have all of the articles mixed together.  Also this is important because it gives the reader the sense of immediacy.  It is also important to mention that with this format, if a reader reads something that has just been posted, it is looked at that they were both “there” at the same time.  This forms a connecting between the two individuals and usually starts conversations about the blog topic.

Courtney Adams Blog #13

Chapter 5 covers material surrounding the concept of writing an exploratory essay or annotated bibliography.  As I was reading I found a very important rule for writing exploratory essays, “Asserting a thesis too soon can prevent writers from acknowledging an issue’s complexity” (Reader 105).  I have had personal experience with this as I wrote my essay for class and I find it somewhat difficult.  As you are writing and analyzing sources it would be so much easier just to say yes that author is correct and that’s what I believe.  But exploratory essays do not allow for such closure to happen early on in the researching process.  I think this is almost a type of literacy because it takes some getting used to explaining a thinking process like that.  “The essential move for exploratory thinking and writing is to keep a problem alive” (Reader 107).  By prolonging a conclusion and making tension between sources, the thesis question becomes much more interesting.  This can keep the paper alive by making somewhat of a fight or argument.

            Another hot spot I found in chapter 5 was the idea of double-entry research notes.  Before this class I had never heard about this idea.  While reading a source you always take notes but these notes are special that you make, “One column for taking notes on a source and another column for recording your own think about the source” (Reader 111).  I think this is very helpful in remembering the ideas of sources and also making relations to the source.  This also stood out to me because I feel it is something that most people do not use. If it were taught to more people, say in high school, I feel it would be a huge help in writing research essays.

Chapter 8 is titled “Incorporating Sources Into Your Own Writing”.  One of the main points I found here was the use of sources.  Reader states, “Your own argument should govern your use of source” (199).  I think this is important to mention because sources used in an essay should always back up the position of the writer on a topic.

Another thing to remember about sources is how to most effectively incorporate them into an essay.  “Depending on your purpose you might (1) summarize all or part of a source author’s argument, (2) paraphrase a relevant portion of a source, or (3) quote small passages from the source directly” (Reader 202).  These different ways of citation can be used to better explain a certain topic.  For example I usually summarize specific dates and data because I feel that is the best way to reveal that type of information.

Chapter 9 gives more information about citing and documenting sources.

The first hot spot I found in this chapter was that, “It is often difficult to determine when a given piece of information falls into the “common knowledge” column” (Reader 220).  I struggled with this in the part of my exploratory essay where I state Barbie’s dimensions are humanly impossible for a girl to have.  I feel like this is common knowledge but maybe to a guy it wouldn’t be.  The way I have been taught is if you can find the same information on more than 5 sources, it is common knowledge.

Writing works cited pages is always a dread for me.  Keeping everything straight with sources and making sure nothing is plagiarized is very important.  Something to keep in mind is that in works cited, “The list includes all the sources that you mention in your paper.  However, it does not include works you read but did not use” (Reader 225).  This seems confusing to me because everything I read for a paper kind of goes into a research paper folder in my head.  So at the end of the paper I am tempted to list all of the sources I have read but in fact that is incorrect.

Courtney Adams Blog #12

http://www.scribd.com/doc/67903204/Girls-and-Media

Everything that is in bold i realize i need to fix.  I also need to fix the font.  Im adding one more paragraph where it says blue source.  Other than that let me know what you think!

Courtney Adams Blog #9

My double-sided journal entry

            I know that I have now changed my topic but to begin with my topic was What are the harms of Industrialized farming?  I did my journal entry on this topic before I realized how complex the issue was.  The source title is The Vital Statistics of Meat. This information here in bold and in italics is how I felt about it.

Vegetarian/vegan food is usually imported

I did not realize this, makes sense because veggies and fruit can be grown year-round locally

“Environmentalist’s diet is based on the principle that grains and pulses have on aver, a lower environmental impact than meat or dairy products”

I agree, but when put to the test being a vegetarian doesn’t seem to help the environment much

When moving to the country from the city, vegetarian makes less sense

Important point, never thought about this.. a family can sustain themselves

By eating meat people are consuming a disproportionate amount of the worlds nutrients (800 million people don’t have enough to eat)

Harsh to think about for meat eaters but there must be a better way to even out the nutrients in the world

Plant food yields 10 times as much protein per acre as meat

Plants are a better use of space but this number is doubted later in this paper

What humans don’t eat can be fed to livestock

This has never dawned on my but in the UK this has been banned

“Consumers throw away 44% of available food”

could be recycled into the livestock

Worldwide “Animals consumed 74 million tonnes of human edible protein and provided 54 million tonnes”

Waste of nutrients that could have been fed to humans

Many different percentages but livestock emission account for greenhouse gas emission

Harmful to our environment to produce too much meat, some people have to be vegetarian

“Most energy-intensive food include some mainstays of vegetarian eating”

if this is proven to be true vegetarian doesn’t make sense

Courtney Adams Blog #10

I know it's a huge cliche but when I think of good rhetoric I think of Martin Luther King's speech I Have a Dream.  Below is a link to the speech, picture and audio all on one website.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

The use of repetition is especially good rhetoric for the message that King was trying to get across.  He repetitive uses  “I have a dream” along with pathos to convince and relate to a large audience of people from all different backgrounds and races.  His persistent use of pathos shows good rhetoric alone.  With his simple diction King is also able to broaden his audience to different levels of education.  It seems that King would only be speaking to blacks in a speech but in actuality, shown in the picture, his speech is attempting to desegregate races.  There is a white man standing behind him which shows the physical togetherness of black and whites at this assembly.

Courtney Adams Exploratory Essay

my essay question will be:
Is being a vegetarian more beneficial or detrimental to the human body?