Blog Reflection

My experience as a blogger has been interesting. I haven't been too enthusiastic about blogging and I've had trouble posting certain assignments. I had difficulty responding to chapters in the book. I found it difficult to say anything about the forms and strategies we were supposed to use according to the textbook and that is why I'm missing a few posts. I preferred the assignments where we were responding to a work or article that expressed an idea that we could argue or agree with. I appreciated the free-flowing form of these blogs as opposed to strict writing that we might have had to type up and print out in the correct forms. Blogging helped gather ideas and served as preliminary writing for some of my papers. I was helped by looking at other student's blogs to see their ideas and the ways they were approaching certain prompts. I found commenting on others' blogs could be an interesting place for an exchange of ideas and opinions. Overall, I didn't jump into blogging as whole-heartedly as I could have, but I still found it interesting.

Hardest of the Hardcore

“The Hardest of the Hardcore,” certainly opens the eyes of anyone who reads it and isn’t aware of the current situation in Iraq with the US government contracting out military jobs to private civilians. The writer, student Dylan Fujitani, does a great job of persuading, at least myself, that this is a real problem. These ‘mercenaries,’ the he calls them, are terrible for several reasons including that they don’t have to answer to anyone. Their only potential repercussions for misconduct are financial. He gives numerous reasons why these hired guns are bad for the country, the government, and our mission in Iraq. One major problem I see with his entire argument is he is painting with too broad a brush. Fujitani is basically accusing every civilian contractor in battle of being a rogue ‘cowboy’ out to do harm to the people of Iraq. Apparently they do this only because either they were discharged from the military before or simply seek monetary gains by playing shoot-em-up with innocent people. Every civilian contractor in battle is a blood-thirsty, money hungry cavalier with a shady past according to Fujitani. He pays almost no attention to the good they may doing in Iraq or possibly their necessity or the fact that they may actually be good people. I for one have a little more, potentially misplaced but still steadfast, confidence in the intention in Iraq and the heart of the men fighting there.

Rhetorical Analysis of Persuasive Paragraph

John McCain has a strong record of working across the aisle to reform how business is done in Washington. Throughout his career of public service, John McCain has worked across party aisles with Republicans and Democrats alike to reform our campaign finance system, confirm qualified judges like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito, and enhance our homeland security. He spoke out against his own party's out-of-control spending, against the Administration to change a failing strategy in Iraq, and against an energy bill that was full of giveaways to Big Oil companies. To keep our nation prosperous, strong and growing we have to rethink, reform and reinvent: the way we educate our children; train our workers; deliver health care services; support retirees; fuel our transportation network; stimulate research and development; and harness new technologies.

I found this on johnmccain.com. I looked there because I was sure they would try to persuade you to vote for him. This paragraph tries to convince you that John McCain is willing to work with people not of his party. This is done to try to convince Democrats that they will not be left out if McCain is elected, therefore they should vote for him. It says he spoke out against his own party. This tries to appeal to everyone. They’re saying that John McCain searches for the right solution, regardless of partisan politics. It’s presented that he’s spoken out against Big Oil. This draws on everyone’s emotions because oil prices affect everyone’s lives, and big oil is often painted as evil. This is meant to make us feel as if McCain is on our side against this enemy. The next paragraph presents the broad plan for the future. It includes everyone (children, workers, retirees) so that everyone feels like their issue is going to be significant and addressed by the new administration. It associates positive words like prosperous, strong, and growing with McCain. There is a bit of a fallacy with words like qualified judge because that certainly is an opinion. Also that he has enhanced our homeland security is an opinion. Overall it makes it seem like he has done all of this by himself with is definitely false.

Pre-Writing of Summary

Mark Edmundson concludes that this generation of college students is cheerless and dispirited in his article “As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” found in Harper’s Magazine. Edmundson believes that university culture is, much like American culture at large, is obsessed with consumerism. He feels that students are “sleepwalking” through their education (through their lives for that matter) and lack passion. We are all desperate to look cool or fit in according to Edmundson. He blames several factors for this attitude in today’s youth. Starting with blaming TV, preceding generations, and the university’s themselves. “[His] generation,” he says, “let the counterculture search for pleasure devolve into a quest for commodities.” The universities’ have transformed to mirror the aim of the entire culture, that of big business. These schools are now marketed to attract the brightest and richest kids. Edmundson says it’s different than when he was younger, when schools were sold on the merit of their faculty, and the description of the courses, not the best football team or best gym. The pandering to students and their parents wants doesn’t end once their admitted.

As Lite Entertainment For Bored College Students

Edmundson writes a compelling description of a problem he sees and describes in detail what he views as the cause of the problem. He begins this long essay with a personal anecdote that captures his view of the problem and then follows with a flowing diatribe in which he takes on the many causes. He says that liberal arts have taken a back seat in education because America is obsessed with consumerism. Edmundson says that no one takes liberal arts classes anymore because they’re afraid of losing their shot at success. He says kids have pressure to major in something financially lucrative as opposed to intellectually challenging. I’ve had personal experience with this since I am a finance major. Although I don’t necessarily know what I would major in otherwise, I do certainly feel pressure to major in something that has a career behind it. He goes on to blame part of the problem on TV, which everyone seems to do. He says that we are sleep walking and sleep deprived which I have certainly seen and felt. Edmundson’s diction is elevated because this article is scholarly and is geared towards educated people with experience in the educational system. Edmundson at the very least wants the reader to analyze their own opinion on education and how it should be valued.

Contrasting Descriptions of the Same Place

I sit in my dorm room slaving over seemingly endless work. One math problem is consistently followed by another until the very end when the dreaded finale is a study session of music which could be better described as torture. The sound of my tone-def roommate butchering his favorite songs as loud as he can drowns my ears. This is interrupted by the door repeatedly opening with the arrival of nuisances mooching one thing or another. My phone rings which can mean only one thing: a dreadful conversation with someone I don’t really even want to talk to. All of this is with the slow, steady rumble of a dribbling basketball heard from the room next door. My patience is wearing thin.

After a relatively easy day I returned to my room to finish a few math problems and study for a music test. I’m greeted by my lively roommate whose infectious spirit can’t help but be imitated. My hall-mates continually visit my room to joke and talk about the game last night. They occasionally ask to borrow certain things, but I don’t hesitate to oblige them because I’ve probably borrowed twice as much from them as they have me. One of my friends from home calls and we catch up. My friend next door is dribbling a basketball which means he must be about to go to UREC. He’ll probably invite me and I’ll happily tag along because I’m better at basketball than he is anyway. Today is one of those days where you really see how lucky you are.

With this assignment I was purposefully exaggerative. I was melodramatic in the first paragraph and too rosy in the second. This was done, however, to show how I can change how I can change my angle of vision even while describing the same events. By using different adjectives and a different attitude I can change how my writing is perceived. By using words like slaving, endless, dreaded, and torture I paint my experience as horrible. In the second paragraph I am much more hopeful with words like easy, lively, and joke. My first paragraph is almost melancholy with one dreadful thing happening after another. This changes in the second because everything is much more positive.

Chapter 3

I have a question about the UR Riddle letter. Why did the professor have to lean one way or the other in his letter? Why couldn't he present the facts explicitly and not frame or emphasize certain points? Why did he have to choose a side? He could have just stated his observations and opinions of Riddle and left it up to the bank to decide which decision was best.
Also, the rhetoric of clothing and other consumer items is clearly visible around campus. Whether it be wearing Polo, The North Face, or talking a certain way, we all send out symbols and messages about who we are, or who we think we are.
My only other question is about what the Indian villagers see in commercials for soap and shampoo. They repeatedly reference noticing motorbikes in these commercials and I just don't understand why there are motorbikes in commercials for soap and shampoo. Maybe when the villagers see motorbike commercials they only notice the soap and shampoo in the background.