Lesson #8

Journal

Respond to each of the prompts below.

1. Preview, read, and annotate a package of food. What is its strongest argument? Why? Would its packaging prompt you to buy it again? Why?

2. Read any article pertaining to your research topic that contains a visual element (a graphic). Explain why the visual is effective or ineffective in swaying your view on the topic. Make it interesting for the reader who does not already know your thesis.

3. Is your thesis weak? Hacker can help you figure out what is wrong with your thesis. Is it too broad or too narrow in focus? is it grounded or too speculative to be researched? For practice recognizing good thesis statements, go to http://www.dianahacker.com. Choose student sites, click on the icon representing our textbook, click on Writing Exercises. You can click Cancel when the login prompt appears. Complete the 10 Thesis Exercises, click Score, save the page, and attach it to lesson for 10 extra lesson points. BE SURE to mention the extra credit points in the message box on the transmittal page when you attach the Thesis Exercise. [According to my calculation there should be 24 separate entries in your blog by now.

1) I am currently looking at a container of shake mix. The label goes like this:

Nature's Plus. The Energy Supplements
Vegetarian
FRUITEIN
High Protein Energy Shake
BANANA ORANGE CREME
Incredibly Delicious

The can is an attractive orange, yellow, and white one with pictures of oranges and bananas decorating it. When I first opened it there was a little certificate inside saying:

Your Guarantee of Quality
~
From an Independent FDA Approved Testing Laboratory

It's supposed to be a healthy energy shake full of protein to sustain you and help you lose weight along the way. On the side is a logo saying Healthy Heart and above that is another logo saying Non-GMO (Natural Soy). There are only 99 calories per serving, and it only takes one or two servings to feel full.
I think that it's strongest argument is that it is a healthy shake, healthy for your digestive system, heart, metabolism, and mind.

2) My thesis is that the media has a negative effect on the body image of its viewers. Every time a "regular sized person" looks at a fashion magazine, watches a TV add or movie, they feel dissatisfied with themselves. On the link below there are plenty of visual images backing up the statistics that are listed. I think the images are effective because they show what the media shows, but the pictures are shown in a different light so to speak, they're pretty "weighty" once they're taken into perspective.

http://momgrind.com/2009/01/28/women-body-image/


3) I do believe I have a strong thesis that I will be able to do research on and back up with what I find.

Lesson #7

On your blog, respond to all of the prompts below:

• Who is the audience for your essay? What is the thesis of essay?
• Can the audience be swayed by your claim and reasons? Why or why not?
• What value do your sources have to your audience?

Read another student's blog. Indicate whose you read. Did you make any comments on that blog?

1) My audience (other than my professor) is an undecided one. I presented more facts supporting my thesis rather than listing and refuting the opposition's position on my topic.

2) I think that the audience could be swayed by my claim and reasons, assuming that they have the same underlying values as I do. If we have no common values than the argument is worthless.

3) I think my audience would value my sources because some of the appear on the news (such as CBS).

I read Katie Baldwin's blog and have been following it for a few weeks. I left a comment saying I enjoyed her writings and thought they were well done. She seems like a nice person.

Lesson 5

Respond to either photo of President Bush on p. 145 of Writing Arguments by telling what the argument is. Write a thesis statement for the photograph's argument. How did you figure out the claim being made?





On page 145 of Writing Arguments there are two pictures of President Bush. One is a picture of him clearing brush from a Texas ranch, and the other is one of him greeting a crowd. I will respond to the one of him in Figure 9.2.


The argument being made is that President Bush isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty. In the picture he's wearing a dirty and stained t-shirt and jeans, and he's wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses to protect him from the sun. His hands are gloved because what he's carrying has the potential to hurt him. The set of his mouth gives the impression that the physical labor is difficult. The thesis of this picture is that President Bush is human and is a hard worker.


It seems that we forget that famous people are still human. They brush their teeth, they need at least 8 hours of sleep, they have "blonde moments" (and I'm allowed to say that because I am a blonde, so don't take offense if you're blonde), and like the picture states, they can perform difficult tasks.





Find another graphic, commercial, or video to analyze. Report on the argument being made. Attach a copy of the graphic element or explain how to find or view the graphic. Write a strong thesis statement for this argument.



In this photo, an anorexic is looking at her reflection in the mirror. The girl is quite thin, in fact she's malnourished and her bones are protruding, and yet she still sees herself as overweight. The picture may seem silly, but unfortunately it's not an uncommon conception.
Recent statistics show that

• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents.
  
• 40 – 60% of high school girls diet.
  
• 50% of girls between the ages of 13 and 15 believe they are overweight.
  
• 80% of 13 year old girls have dieted.
  
• 40% of 9 year old girls dieted.
  

The thesis for this photo is that anorexics have a skewed image of themselves. Instead of seeing themselves as unique and beautiful, when they look in the mirror they see something they hate. People should focus more on being healthy than being thin. That's not to say that trying to lose weight is always a bad thing, being too heavy puts a lot of stress on the heart and joints. But people who are trying to lose weight should look at a reasonable, healthy weight level, and should develop a health plan including proper nutrition and excercise.

Lesson 5

1) Which of the techniques for generating ideas for essays has been most valuable to you? Why? Give an example.

Of the techniques I used, I preferred the Pro and Con "because" clauses because it made me think about the negative and positive of a stated thesis. It was fast, it put a lot of facts down in an organized fashion, and looked nice.

2) Which technique would you choose not to use again? Why?

I didn't like the idea mapping because it's not something that's easy to put on paper and I like writing in full and explaining sentences, not short, choppy ideas.

3) What have you learned about the writing process and/or about yourself during this lesson?

I have learned an awful lot from the writing process. In the past I wasn't much into writing rough drafts or sifting through things and thinking them out, I would just bolt head first into a project and usually become pretty frustrated. Now I know how useful pre-writing is.

4) What questions do you have about anything that other students might respond to?

Hmmmm.... Is there any way to make idea clustering simpler, or less confusing? That's pretty redundant isn't it?

5) What have you learned about the textbooks we are using for this course?

The textbooks. There are three of them: A Writer's Reference (Hacker), Rereading America, and Writing Arguments.
A Writer's Reference is basically a book stuffed full of information about proper writing, listing, formatting, and basically anything you would ever need to look up about proper writing. Great book!
Rereading America looks to be a book full of essays and stories to challenge thinking, it's a melding pot of different ideas, theories, and view points. Certain essays are selected for assignments and some of them are pretty interesting. I don't always agree with what some of the authors are saying, but I don't have to agree with something to learn from it.
Writing Arguments is very detailed about how to write out a proper and effective argument. Sometimes it's pretty heavy reading and I have to go back over passages, but once I see how it applies it's much easier to understand.

Lesson 4

The thesis of my revised essay is that people have to be willing to challenge themselves in order to grow in character and to discover things about themselves. To back this thesis up with evidence I talked to the head teacher of the school I attend. I asked him why students should challenge themselves and what happens when they do not. He asked me how else would a student reach their potential and then went on to say, "When a students does not challenge himself he becomes mentally lazy. His mind stagnates and he does not advance."
I then looked up some sources on line to take a look into what actually goes on in the brain when a person is challenged and I used their examples in my paper.


1) Which of the suggested Tasks from Writing Arguments did you find most helpful in pre-writing your revision? Why?

Task #3 Choose several areas of controversy for exploration - I was able to practice hitting different problems from different points of view.

2) Which genre of argument would you most likely write on your own? Why?

I would most likely choose Scholarly Journals. I would do this because my opinion would have a greater chance of being heard even though only to a smaller number of readers.

3) Did you ask anyone else to make recommendations about your revising process? Why or why not?

Yes, I asked two or three of my school teachers for help on how to revise my paper because I felt very unsure of what the assignment was really asking for.

4) Why and how is argument both a process and a product?

An argument is both a process and a product because there is an exchange of information, ideas, and opinions. That is the process. Also in an argument someone is usually persuaded to see differently, and that is the product.

5) What is the goal of argument?

The goal of an argument is to persuade someone to your way of thinking (hopefully) in order to benefit society.

Assignment #3 Why and how is argument both a process and a product?

An argument is a process because two or more people are contrasting ideas, opinions, and beliefs about something they disagree on. Well, I suppose one person can argue with themselves as well...
And an argument is a product because ideally there is a solution reached at the end of it, hopefully a solution that both sides can consent to.

What is truth?

So, what is truth? There are so many different explanations from so many different perspectives, cultures, and beliefs that we could make a mountain out of them.

The Word Net Web defines truth as conformity to reality or actuality.
Buddha said The gift of truth excels all other gifts.
Muslims believe that Allah will lead his followers into truth.
Christ said I am the Way the Truth and the Life.

I'm sure there will be many points of truth that I will touch base on, but right now I am going to start with only a few key concepts.
Today there is a "new concept" of truth that makes me roll my eyes. This statement right here, "What's truth to you is truth for you and what's true to me is truth for me." There are several reasons why I have totally thrown this concept out.

It totally annihilates what has been proven by science. An orange is an orange, and an apple is an apple. If you plant an apple seed, an apple tree will grow. Even if you paint the apples orange, or wrap them up in orange peels, or dump citric juice on them, they are still apples. If someone said, "Well it may be an apple to you but it's an orange to me," I would dismiss that comment as an ignorant assumption or denial. Your personal opinion does not change truth! I may not believe in gravity, saying that it runs against my religious views or personal opinions, but that doesn't mean gravity doesn't exist!
So people would say to this, "Give me a break, I would never try to convince myself to mix up my fruits. This applies to science, but can spiritual things really be proven by science? What about feelings and thoughts? Science can't test those things because they're not physical." True, science cannot test thoughts, feelings, or the soul; they are not tangible. So how do we dictate what is truth about those sort of things?
This is where people start the whole, "If it feels right to me than it must be true for me. And if this feels right to you it must be true for you." And this is where my eyes start to roll. Here's why... You can't dictate truth by feelings because feelings are so misleading! Examples- 1) The murderer felt like killing that person at the time. 2) It felt right to date that person at the time. 3) Today I felt like yelling at my younger brother. See what I'm saying? We can all agree that murder is wrong, most of us would dismiss the murderer as a crooked minded freak that isn't worth considering. So what about example #2? How many people have "gone out" with a significant other, gotten physical, later broken up, and then felt regret or disgust about ever doing that with that person. And then example #3... Yes, my own feelings are also misleading, I was wrong to yell at my brother, in that particular circumstance I could have spoken to him in a regular tone and been much kinder about the issue.
My point is, we all make mistakes, our feelings are not a very good moral compass, everyone makes mistakes based on how they felt at the time. So, if a person believes a particular something for 50 years, lives their life accordingly, and accepts it as truth, is it truth? What if that person suddenly changes their mind and believes something else as truth? What is truth? The first belief? The second? Both? I have an example dialogue below, it's kind of abstract, but work with me here:

Linda: "I believe that when it rains, it means the gods are sad. So when it rains I will stay inside, burn incense, and cry with them. I feel that that must be the explanation for rain, so it must be true."

(And for twenty years Linda follows this practice)

Betsy (Linda's friend) : "Linda, what are you doing inside? Why don't you come puddle jumping with me? Lets play in the rain and have fun!"

Linda: (horrified) "But Betsy! Don't you know that when it rains it's because the gods are sad. They would be angry if we took pleasure in their tears!"

Betsy: "Linda, that's not true at all! I feel that when it rains it is because the gods are happy. They are watering mother earth and causing things to grow bright and beautiful, it's like they're cleaning and gardening their masterpiece! They would be disappointed if we missed out on it! I have felt this way for years, so it must be true!"

Linda: "Why, I believe you're right, what you're saying must be true!"

OK so here's a question, was Linda wrong about her first belief? Or was she wrong about her second belief? They can't have both been right. And both beliefs were dictated by how she felt! Either the gods will take wrath on her for delighting in their tears or be disappointed by her lack of enjoying their work if she switches sides or views.
Time and time again, it has been shown that human feeling cannot always be trusted for suitable guidance. So what are we to dictate truth be? More on that later...