R.A.

I'm just going to quickly analyze a government study done about marriage and statistics based on age and race. It's not so much taking one side as it is presenting just a lot of numbers about marriage.
1. There are a lot of arguments presented, but the one I think is most interesting that I'd like to focus on is the issue of age. The argument is that women 25 or older when they get married are less likely to have marriage problems than women who are younger than 25 when they get married.

2. The audience is not really specificed. I guess it would be educated people who are likely to read a government study in the first place.

3. The logos is definitely there. A lot of people were studied over an extensive period of time. In addition to age they also looked at race and other factors that could possibly play a role. Their conclusions are very methodical and they don't draw conclusions where they shouldn't. Ethos is important, because the government is obviously a very credible source. They don't publish things that are too wacky. Pathos isn't really a big deal here, because above anything else they just have a lot of statistics. It's hard to tie in emotion with numbers. I think their argument is sufficient, because they definitely have the data to back it up. If their audience is well-educated people numbers are a good way to make an argument. And they have a lot. As such, their argument is quite typical as well. It's completely accepted to present data in the form of graphs and tables. It's actually very convenient. Their argument is accurate, because you can tell a lot of effort was put into making sure the data was as accurate as possible. They studied this for years before they published anything, so we know they didn't draw any hasty conclusions. And their argument was definitely relevant. They wanted to prove something and they did just that by using diferent studies.

4. I think they made a very good argument and I will probably use their data in my paper. It is very straightforward and completely believable.

F.W.

So I'm really tired and not feeling like I can come up with anything super witty, so I thought I would just write about how amazing this week is going to be. First of all, as of Monday, when we turned in our papers and I finished my presentation, I am done with major school things for the next week and a half. All of my midterms are over, all of my papers are turned in, all of my group projects have been done...school-wise I can just relax and catch up on all the reading I putt off while I was stressing out about school. I am definitely really excited about that. Plus I have the whole week off of work. I coach gymnastics and our session ended last week, so we have a week off, which is really nice. Then...Thursday is a special day. It's February 28 and my birthday is August 28, so Thursday is my half birthday! People always look at me like I'm insane when I say this, but in my family we celebrate half birthdays. It's not anything too big; just a present or two and you get to pick what you want for dinner. My parents say it was a good way to break up the year when you have little kids, because time goes so much slower when you're little then and your birthday always seems so far away. A half birthday is nice, because it's another day celebrating you! So even though I'm all grown up, I still celebrate my half birthday. My mom is sending me a present, my brother is taking me out to lunch, and my best friend is making me a cake. And on top of all of those good things, I'm going to Maryland this weekend. My older sister had a baby, my first niece! We get to go for the baby blessing and I am so excited. All of the pictures I've seen of her are adorable and I just love babies anyway. Plus I'll get to see my sister, my brother in law, and my parents and little sister. Best week ever!

R.A. Music

I'm going to evaluate the argument put forth in Cheap Trick's "I want you to want me"

1. The argument is basically that they want the person they are singing to to want to be with them.

2. The audience is someone that the singer really wants to be with.

3. The argument is very straightforward. In terms of logos, they first talk about what it would be like if they could be together. The singer would be willing to shine his shoes, put on a brand-new shirt, and come home early from work if this girl would love him. The he points out that she's already lonely. He saw her crying because she was without a friend, so she might as well be with him. Ethos is pretty easy too. He just keeps repeating it. We are definitely sure halfway through the song that he loves her and then he even keeps going. "I need you to need me" is a pretty strong statement. He can't go on without her in his life. I would be touched if someone said that to me. Ethos is kind of lacking, because we don't know the background of the singer. How reliable is he? Does he say these kinds of things to a lot of girls or is it a rare occurence for him? Is he someone who keeps his emotions inside or someone who says whatever he feels, whenever he feels it? I think his argument isn't sufficient, because he doesn't say much. He just keeps repeating himself. But I actually think that the repetition works in his favor. Sometimes it works to just say things over and over and over again, which is exactly what he does. I think his argument is typical, because he doesn't say anything too out of the ordinary. He is a typical guy, in the fact that he makes promises of what he'll do if she'll just agree. He also is typical because saying how much you like someone isn't a crazy occurence. I think his argument is accurate, because he does really like her. What else is more accurate than just saying what you feel? The argument is relevant, because he talks about loving her, which is exactly the point he's trying to make.

4. I think this argument is pretty effective (I may be a little biased because I love the song, though!). Repetition is a very valuable tool to use and his upfront honestly is also very appealing.

T.A.

Here's some ideas for my paper:
Virginia Tech. The University of Texas. Columbine High School. Red Lake High School. Far beyond a random listing of schools, these top a list compiled by US News and World Report last April. Unfortunately, unlike many lists, earning a position at the top of this one is not a prize any school desires to win. Of the ten deadliest U.S. school shootings included in this list, six occurred during the last ten years and five took place in elementary, middle, and high schools. Violence in American public schools is an epidemic, with fights, gangs, and weapons at school becoming much more commonplace. School administrators are left with the responsibility of keeping students safe, but no foolproof way to curb school violence has been found. However, this does not mean that numerous solutions have not been suggested, including the idea of requiring school uniforms in public schools. What are the consequences of requiring students to wear uniforms on levels of school violence?
Let’s first try to understand what causes violence in schools or even violence in general. People committing violent acts are angry at someone or something. So what do kids in public schools have to be angry about? As much as students complain about mean or unfair teachers, school violence usually involves students hurting other students. Why would a kid be angry at a fellow classmate? A lot of it seems to stem from jealousy. Never is the desperate desire to fit in with peers as evident as it is with young students, especially during their middle and high school years. For many kids, being accepted and having lots of friends is as important, if not more important, than learning things in school. It makes sense that feeling alienated may make a student angry. And who do they direct that anger towards? Inevitably it is often the students whom they hold responsible for leaving them out.

F.W.

I like to think I know myself pretty well. And I know that despite my many other redeeming qualities, I unfortunately do not have a lot of common sense. I have "blond moments" all the time and I usually do not make the smartest on-the-spot decisions. I was surprised to find out this weekend that people actually exist who have less common sense than I do! I really did not think such a thing was possible.
On Friday night I went to Salt Lake with my best friend Lindsey, her roommate Megan, and her Megan's sister Nicole for a concert. Nicole, who just recently got married, drove us there. About a block from where we were to park we got hit by a young girl. She blatantly ran a red light and smashed right into the hood of Nicole's car. We pulled over and so did the other driver and the police were called. Megan and Nicole told Lindsey and I to go on ahead to the concert, because there was nothing we could really do, and that they would meet us there later.
Not needing to be told twice, we left and after about an hour they met us there, carrying the entire contents of Nicole's car with them. They had decided to have the car towed, so they emptied everything out just in case they never saw the car again. Nicole had called her husband Ty and he was going to meet us after the concert was over and take us home.
The concert was amazing and around 9:45 the band finished their last song. We started to meander our way outside and along the way we walked right past the amazing opening act. Lindsey was dying to get a picture and was about to get one when Nicole grabbed her purse and started pulling her toward the door. I had no choice but to follow, but I figured that this meant that Ty was here and she did not want to keep him waiting. When we got outside Megan took out her phone and texted Ty, only to find that he was still in Provo. No one had notified him of when the concert was to be over and he had not even left yet. What's more, he didn't think his car would make it to Salt Lake with the way the road conditions were (clean and dry, by the way), so he was going to stop at his parents' house in Lindon to exchange cars.
Lindsey and I followed Nicole and Megan , still walking as fast as they could, and we were completely confused. What were we in such a hurry for if he had not even left yet? After walking a few blocks we made it to the Gateway Mall, where we proceeded to sit in the hallway outside the bathroom (the only building still open at 10:00). Around 10:45 Ty called to say that he was about to get off the exit. Nicold said that was cue for us to go out in the Arctic again (even though he was still a good five minutes away still) and we hurried outside after her. Twenty minutes later Ty found us.
Cold and tired and really confused as to why we had to make a mad dash out of the concert for no reason, I finally got to go home.

R.A.

For my rhetorical analysis this week I actually looked at an opposing view to my argument about school uniforms. This study done by researchers at Notre Dame said that uniforms do not lead to an improvement in attendance, behavior, drug use, or academic achievement.

1. The argument is obviously the fact that uniforms don't improve student behavior and scores. In fact they say that wearing uniforms has a negative effect on these things.

2. The audience is a little bit harder to pinpoint. Only people really interested in this topic would even read this abstract report. Probably well-educated people who might have some sort of say in the uniforms issue would be their target audience.

3. They used a lot of logos, because they tried to go about it as scientifically as possible, looking at kids in a high school in Long Beach, California. They tried to use correlation coefficients to relate wearing uniforms to these variables. Pathos wasn't used a lot, because this abstract isn't so much of an argument as it is a straight presentation of facts, or at least what the researchers consider to be facts. I took one Statistics class and I already know that their study and on top of that, the way they interpreted their data is not very statistically significant or accurate. Ethos was used, because being from a major university such as Notre Dame is pretty credible. People think university researchers know it all. I don't think this argument was remotely sufficient. They leave a lot of things out and much is assumed throughout. The argument was kind of typical, but I felt they could have used other research techniques and been more effective. Although I also think that by using other research techniques they would have proven their opposition's point. Their data wasn't particularly accurate, because their sampling techniques leave much to be desired. The same goes for relevance. They're almost comparing apples to oranges here.'

4. I think their argument was not a very good one at all, which helps my case a lot. All they had going for them was scientific data, which wasn't even gathered very scientifically at all. Much was left out.

T.A. Audience

Ok, I'm not sure exactly what she's looking for here, so I'm just going to discuss my audience I guess and talk about how I would go about targeting them. Right now I'm planning to write about school uniforms and why they increase productivity among students.
Obviously conservative people would not really have a problem with school uniforms. A lot of private schools already have them. So I would probably want to target more liberal people. I guess I could either target school administrators (like school boards) or parents in these areas, because it seems that PTAs actually do have somewhat of a say in what goes on in schools. In order to target these people effectively I would have to stress the fact that even with uniforms students would be able to have some sort of originality. That seems to be a common concern. I even thought that about school uniforms before. I figured they would take away my individuality. But I really do think that the pros outweigh that con. Plus it is still possible to have your own style and personality even with a school uniform.
With this audience I would also have to stress the fact that I think uniforms will definitely increase productivity among students. By that I mean better grades, and therefore higher test scores, and thus more money for the school district. I would talk about test scores and money especially if I were targeting the school administration. If I were targeting the parents I would focus more on the kids' grades and what that would mean for their futures. If their kids' schools had uniforms it would increase the general productivity of all the students, which would include their own children. And isn't success in college and career what parents want the most for their kids?

F.W.

I've just been talking to my best friend about a date she went on tonight and it was kind of interesting so I thought I would talk about it here. It was a blind date with a guy in her ward. In order to encourage people to go to Institute, the Institute committee arranged dates and then afterward they played the Newlywed Game. This was to help them find out all about their date so that they could answer all the questions and win the game. Throughout the course of their date they found out that they have a ridiculous amount of things in common. They are practically the same person. They are both from Florida, they have the same favorite color, the same favorite music, and the same favorite ice cream. They are even majoring in the same thing. In fact, they found out that they actually have a class together. They quote the same movies, love the same Saturday Night Live skits, and tell all the same jokes. She was trying to figure out if that was a good thing or a bad thing, because dating him would almost be like dating herself. Is it good to date someone who is that identical to you? Maybe, because it is nice to have things in common, but then again, maybe not, because are there any surprises that way? The other person knows exactly what you're going to say all the time, not because they know you really well, but because they know themselves really well.

They say that opposites attract, but then people talk all the time about how important it is to have things in common with the people you date. So where do we draw the line? Does the fact that she is even analyzing this mean that they're not right to be with each other?

R.A. Art as Argument

1. The argument is obviously to buy Chesterfield cigarettes.

2. The audience would be American men.

3. The company is using art to target their audience in many ways. As most advertisements do, this one appeals a lot to ethos. The picture is of a pretty, smiling girl who is offering the audience cigarettes on a platter. She looks so friendly and happy holding them that the audience can only assume these cigarettes will make them happy too. The clincher is the slogan "Do you smoke the cigarette that satisfies." It seems as though they are trying to make the point that not only will these cigarettes satisfy you, but so will this woman (or one who looks like her) if you buy these cigarettes. The woman is leaning toward the audience, as if to say 'come and get these cigarettes AND me.' Ethos could be a factor, depending on if this brand was well known during this time period. Logos is not utilized very much. For its' audience I think this argument is sufficient. They know they will be satisfied if they buy these cigarettes and that is what they want. The argument is definitely typical, because it is simple. Nothing is too crazy, it's all about the cigarettes and the woman. Men are often targeted using women, so it is obviously an effective strategy. As for accuracy, who knows if what they're saying is true? Will this cigarette really satisfy the people who buy it? That's quite a claim that is never really addressed (although that is hard to do in a simple picture). I am not sure if the argument is too relevant, since a lot of it hinges on this girl, but we have already seen that having girls in the picture is an effective strategy, so it doesn't really matter if her being there is relevant or not. It works for what they want to do. The advertisers knew their audience well.

4. I think this argument is pretty effective. It is very simple, but the audience is probably satisifed with the information they are given. These cigarettes=satisfaction+women.

F.W.

I might later regret recounting this story on here later, but it is pretty funny, so I'll just hope I don't embarass myself too much. This Saturday I had an interesting experience. I was hanging out with a few of my friends and we decided to go back to my friend Mike's apartment to watch a movie. He lives in King Henry, so the parking is all on the side of the street. Bad news for someone like me who was never taught to parallel park. In Florida our driver's test is a joke. First of all, it's given in a parking lot. Second of all, we don't learn useful skills like parallel parking! Basically they make sure we can accelerate, do a three-point turn, and park in a parking space. This was great when I was sixteen, but now that I need to parallel park all the time I really wish things would have been different.
Anyway, on Saturday night we drove up and down the street looking for parking and there was absolutely nothing open. The only small space was currently being occupied by a motor scooter. After five minutes of searching we decided the best thing to do would be to temporarily move the scooter while I parked and then move it back after. So my roommate Brindi and my friend Mike got out of the car to do that and then I began parking. It was an extremely tight spot, though, and soon Brindi came to take over for me. I got out of the car and we were about to switch places when suddenly we noticed the car was reversing itself! Apparently I had never taken it out of reverse! (Yes, I know. I'm an idiot.) Instead of thinking rationally we both panicked. Neither of us knew who was going to get inside and put it in park, so we both tried to, but that obviously didn't work. Meanwhile, Mike stood helplessly in front of the car behind me, which happened to be his. At the last possible moment I pushed Brindi out of the way and slammed on the brakes.
We surveyed the damage. Both of the cars were fine, but my pride was not. Five cars had driven by during this episode and they had all seen the whole thing happen. I do hope that watching this happen made their nights, because they definitely laughed enough! Of course, after Brindi stopped laughing and parked the car we moved the motor scooter back in between our cars. It was the considerate thing to do, after all!

T.A. Style

First paragraph:
I was five years old and about to start kindergarten when Hurricane Andrew hit Miami, Florida. I still remember the day before the hurricane was going to come, as my parents tried to make all of the preparations they could, as quickly as they could. This was a big one, unlike anything they had ever experienced since moving there, and they were scared. But I don't really remember that fear, because they hid it really well. They had three small children to take care of, so what choice did they have?
The night the hurricane hit I spent the night huddled in a bedroom with my mom, older sister, and little brother, as my dad held the door shut against the wind and water that soon engulfed our house. The next morning we went outside to take a look at the damage. Everything was gone. My house did not even really look like a house anymore, fallen trees covered the street, and the remains of roofs were strewn across the lawns that had looked so pretty the day before.
I don't really remember much of the rebuilding process, other than the fact that because of all the damage, kindergarten was postponed for a month (probably the most devastating news I have ever received). We celebrated my birthday with food storage, pretend candles, and no presents, but it was probably one of the ones I remember best, because my parents tried their hardest to make it a happy one for me. It was a difficult time for my family, but not as miserable as it could have been.


Revision for style:
My fifth birthday and my first day of kindergarten were just around the corner when Hurricane Andrew hit Miami, Florida. I still remember the day before the hurricane hit, as my parents tried to make all of the preparations they could, as quickly as they could. This big hurricane, unlike anything they had ever experienced since moving there, terrified them. But I don't really remember that fear, because they hid it really well. They had three small children to take care of, so what choice did they have?
The night the hurricane hit I spent the night huddled in a bedroom with my mom, older sister, and little brother, as my dad held the door shut against the wind and water that soon engulfed our house. The next morning we went outside to take a look at the damage. Damage doesnt give the storm enough credit. Fallen trees covered the street, the remains of roofs were strewn across the lawns that had looked so pretty the day before, and my house did not even really look like a house anymore.
I don't really remember much of the rebuilding process, other than the fact that because of all the damage, kindergarten was postponed for a month (probably the most devastating news I have ever received). We celebrated my birthday with food storage, pretend candles, and no presents, but I never forgot that birthday, because my parents tried their hardest to make it a happy one for me.

T.A. Style

Miscommunication. It happens. Especially in our frantic, crazed world full of different ways to talk to the people we know. In one day alone I had conversations with my brother in four different ways: on the phone, through texting, via email, and oh, I almost forgot: in person. I almost don't even think about that last one sometimes, but I definitely would have benefited from a face-to-face conversation yesterday.
It was a traumatizing day for me. I was on the phone with one of my best friends from home and she was talking about a doctor's appointment she had had earlier that day. Over the many years I have known her she has had more than her fair share of health problems: her back, her knee, her wrist, and even a slight heart condition that she found about last year. So when she said she went to the doctor I had no idea which of those things it could be. I figured she had probably told me earlier, but I was walking home from school, so I was a little distracted. She'd most likely mention which ailment it was later in our conversation, so I decided not to ask. I pride myself on being a good listener and I didn't want to taint my reputation.

"Kylie," she said, "The doctor said that he can't really see what's going on, but the fact that it's been bothering me for so long isn't good. So he's going to do (at this point there was a lot of static)-ory surgery."

Oh my gosh, I thought. Did she just say coronary?? That is NOT good, she's so young!
"Are you ok?" I asked her. "This must have been the worst afternoon of your life."

"Not really," she said. "I don't really think it's that big of a deal."

"WHAT are you talking about?? It's a HUGE deal. How many people can say that they've had heart surgery at the age of 21?"

Now she was the one to explode. "WHAT?? Heart surgery? Kylie. Exploratory surgery. On my knee. I don't even know what you're talking about."

I didn't say anything. How could I when I was laughing so hard? When I finally got ahold of myself I told her, "Next time you're having any sort of knife cutting into you let me know in person. This conversation almost gave ME a heart attack!"