ellie's ENG101 blog

[justinblogg]

Writing Prompt #12

The letter to my younger self was definitely the hardest writing assignment for me. I didn’t know much about college level writing and I was very nervous. It made the paper turn out poorly in my opinion and could’ve been better. 

My writing has also improved since I’ve been in college. I’ve learned how to use better transition phrases and learn ho to make things flow a little better. I learned these things just from writing more and going over my paper with others.

[egcat-blog1]

I thought the personal letter was the most difficult too just because it was the first assignment and I wasn’t sure where to go with it. I think my writing has gotten better in college too! 

[egcat-blog1]

post 12

The personal letter was the most challenging just because I could have went in so many directions with it. Whereas the other projects were pretty self-explanatory. I think my writing has improved a bit this semester because I learned how to write a rhetorical analysis and relearning about passive voice was helpful. Also learning that introductions start broad and end specific, while conclusions start specific and end broad was helpful to know.

[rileymorse1]

Tumblr Post 11

College campuses should be safe enough is my claim. My two supporting claims are “ It should be common sense to respect others feelings while at the same time the freedom of speech needs to be protected.” and “ Safe spaces are beneficial for students to feel included and it helps diversify groups.” My argument diverges from the original by bringing in the first amendment surveys and to help with my argument. I think it adds to the argument because it goes against safe spaces from a new perspective. I refute the original argument by saying how safe spaces can be beneficial and implement diversity. I agree and disagree with the argument overall.

[egcat-blog1]

I think your arguments divergence is really helpful too for a different perspective. And I like how you didn’t just agree with the original article and you found your own viewpoint with it.

[egcat-blog1]

post 11

primary claim: Kindergarten is too strict. Here's why children need academic freedom...

supporting claim 1: The consequences of pushing kindergarteners into academic activities for many hours a day are that they believe it is the only way to learn and grow. Children are taught to act and think in a certain way when they are capable of much more. 

supporting claim 2: Due to the rigorous amount of material taught each year, children now only get a brief break for recess. This is problematic because non-academic activities help children develop not only academically, but also socially and emotionally.

My argument diverges from the original article because I went into creative minds and how the school system is pushing students to learn one way—through staring straight and taking tests. My argument expands on not only that kindergarteners need more time for non-academic activities, but why that can be harmful for their future. 

[katemegeagan33]

October 25, 2021

Tumblr Prompt 10

It is important to evaluate a source in order to have a factual and credible source of information. If your sources are not accurate, your entire argument is invalid. The most important thing I learned from evaluating sources is to look for bias in a text. If an article is too biased it can blur the arguments opinions from facts. 

Now that I know about looking for bias, I can be sure to carefully read my sources before I consider using them for a paper. By checking for bias I can tell if my source is able to help me back up my argument or if it is just going to be a slew of opinions that discredits my argument. 

Now while looking for information I intend to pay close attention to the credibility of my sources. I will look for publication date, author references, about us pages, factual information, bias, and credibility of a source before I use it. 

[egcat-blog1]

I agree that if the sources are not credible, the argument is not credible, and now I will be looking out for bias and for specific things like the reputation of the author as well.

[egcat-blog1]

post 10

It is important to evaluate a source because the source could be uncredible or biased without your knowledge. The most important thing I learned from this chapter’s reading is to check who published the source and what their reputation is. This knowledge might change the way I read, think, and look for an article online because I can use the media fact check website to see if it is reliable and I will look out for things like the author, publication, and simple things like if there are ads on the page.

[justinblogg]

Writing Prompt #9

My article was about how social media affects how historians write down history. They talk about fake news and memes which make it harder to tell what is real history or what is not. Their evidence is a fake Malcolm X quote and they give a story about how this has been happening through history.

The evidence listed gave just enough information to understand the topic which is all I felt was necessary. I found the fake Malcolm X quote intriguing because people were using it as if he actually said it. I couldn’t think of any other examples for their article.

They did not have a counterargument and I think it was hard to come up with one because it is a strange topic. A counterargument I thought of is that these quotes are real and that they were not recorded.

[egcat-blog1]

I agree that a counterargument for this topic would be hard. Perhaps you could talk about video evidence on social media? Not sure if it works but it could help!

[egcat-blog1]

post 9

My article, “Kindergartners get little time to play. Why does it matter?”, has the argument that these children should have less work time and more play time.  Their key evidence is that without play time, the children would be emotionally, socially, and even academically stumped. Also that 20 years ago classrooms were very different and kindergarteners had more freedom. Evidence that could be further explored on would be why 20 years ago schools were more lenient on schoolwork and why today teachers are pressured into giving rigorous amounts of work. The evidence I find most intriguing would be how children get stumped when they don’t get enough playtime, and I would like to read more about that. I would also like more evidence about his experiment of the classrooms, where he investigated what the school day look like. A potential counterargument would be that the kids have a lot of time at home for playtime, and they come to school for an education, not to hang out.

[justinblogg]

Writing Prompt #8

The image that I found showed which states had the fewest high school graduates. I found the image on the internet in a time article. The audience is people in the United States and the purpose is to inform people about how many people did or did not graduate high school. The image uses the rhetorical appeal, logos, as it appeals to logic. The image uses contrast as a big part of the image with the darker shades or red and blue. It uses repetition with the use of the same colors and proximity by showing the states are close to each other. This images is easy to understand and helps with my understanding of which states have the fewest high school graduates.

[egcat-blog1]

I agree that the image helps with my understanding of which states have more or less high school graduates. I think contrast is used really well in terms of shades of red and blue.

[egcat-blog1]

post 8

I found this image off of the article I have been using, “Kindergartners get little time to play. Why does it matter?” by Christopher P. Brown. The audience of this image would be teachers and parents because they deal with or have kids in kindergarten. The images purpose is to show how young these children are, which emphasizes the point of them not having enough playtime. Because of this purpose, the image employs the rhetoric appeal of pathos. This image utilizes contrast because the next image after this one is showing children playing, so there’s a contrast in between what the children are doing. There’s a repetition of students in the image down the line and for alignment, the image is big and in the middle of the article so the audience is forced to look at it. For proximity, the image after this one is a bit further down the page but not connected to this one, symbolizing different ideas. This image affects my understanding of my subject because of pathos and instead of simply reading about kindergarteners, I am seeing them as well.

[egcat-blog1]

post 7

The author included the quote from a teacher, introducing it by asking her why she had kindergarteners work so many hours. “There’s pressure on me and the kids to perform at a higher level academically.” The author, along with this quote, says that teachers have this pressure because of the sheer amount of material needed to cover. I feel the author successfully integrated this quote into their argument because it is a direct source of evidence for why kindergarteners have to do so much work, and it puts the blame on the school system and not the teacher. I could use this technique of supporting evidence and pushing the blame off teachers by doing this same thing.

[justinblogg]

Writing Prompt #6

When I’ve had papers peer reviewed in the past it helps for them to be critical of the paper and give me feedback. I know it’s not perfect, so someone telling me its good without any feedback doesn’t really help me. It’s better to be truthful and honest even though it can be a bit brutal at some times. I like peer review as it gives me another point of view on my paper. The extra eyes on my paper helps me see mistakes that I wouldn’t have caught myself. I wouldn’t change the process because I like helping and going over someone else’s paper as well. 

[egcat-blog1]

I totally agree, I think being brutally honest with someone can help them way more than playing nice. And extra eyes for finding mistakes can really help. I love reading and editing people’s papers too!

[egcat-blog1]

post 6

In the past, I’ve had a peer review about a paper for English. I wasn’t looking for grammar errors, but I was trying to see if it was confusing for other eyes and if the structure made sense. She didn’t make many suggestions, but she told me my second paragraph was in the wrong place which was helpful and I ended up moving it to after the third paragraph. Her least helpful suggestion was saying that my paper was good because it didn’t really help me and it felt like she was just trying to be nice when I told her to be blunt with me. Next time, I’d like to find someone more professional to help me peer review instead of a friend for some better advice, even if she did the best she could.

[rileymorse1]

Tumblr Post 5

My article was about how safe-spaces to talk limit what you can say because others might feel offended or upset. Having statues such as the “Silent Sam” Confederate memorial on campus would cause a lot of controversy and could even lead to violence. We can appeal emotionally with pathos by taking our own side on the matter, if we believe safe spaces should exist. We also have our feelings drawn out by relating to others’ opinions and stories about how they experience it. My article used logos by conducting interviews and gathering the thoughts of how people on campus felt. Ethos was used by having professors and high rated educators weigh in on the matter. Pathos was the most emphasized and was successful to me as a reader because having similar opinions to the people in the article made me feel the same way about these types of statues and if safe spaces should be a thing.

[egcat-blog1]

I had mostly pathos and logos too and both of our articles seemed to be light on ethos. I like how the literary and education articles both had interviews or quotes from students and their experiences.

[egcat-blog1]

post 5

The article "Kindergartners get little time to play. Why does it matter?" by Christopher P. Brown uses all the three types of rhetorical appeals to put his argument across. While discussing the sheer amount of work kindergartens have in a day and no time to play, the author uses logos to say that 20 years before today, teachers had less material to cover over one school year. Ethos is used where the author has some information about him and his education, his credentials being a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education. It is easy to see he’s educated on the topic. Last, they get a statement from a kindergartener saying that he doesn’t get enough recess, which can be used as pathos since it’s appealing to the reader's emotion. I would say logos are used most frequently because the author goes into how not getting enough playtime as kids can stump them socially and emotionally. As well as this, he compares classes from 20 years ago to those of today.

[maryabbotts101]

post #4

Rhetorical analysis’ are used when you want to make your views convincing and attractive to your readers or audience. These are useful because they are targeted for the people that it draws attention to. I associate rhetoric with school, therefore it has a negative connotation. Also, persuasion has the potential to lead to people being misled or deceived. A rhetorical analysis would be useful in determining whether the author of a book is misleading people or if the material is believable and reliable. It assists readers in determining the accuracy of the content they have just read. 

[egcat-blog1]

I agree with the negative connotation because of being associated in school and your example is very helpful.

[egcat-blog1]

post 4

Rhetoric is the practice of persuasion, and rhetorical analyses look at how effective arguments are. They're important because people use them all the time, not just in writing, when expressing an opinion or trying to persuade someone of something. In the past, rhetoric was viewed positively in schools and was used in a lighthearted manner, but it is now viewed more negatively. Dealing with disagreements about serious topics like politics in a civil manner is becoming increasingly difficult, as rhetoric appears to be unscrupulous and ineffective.