Final Reflection

The theme of culture, identity, and society was displayed throughout this course in our many different assignments.  Visual rhetoric was our first assignment.  We are so blind to all of the rhetoric around us.  We have adapted to the culture of today's society and this has made us incapable of recognizing the rhetoric all around us.  In our second assignment, we did a research paper.  My paper was on lowering the drinking age to 18.  Culture and society today have influenced teenagers and young adults today to make them believe that your "identity" needs to be a certain way.  You need to dress a certain way, look a certain way, act a certain way.  Well in my paper, I talked about the drinking age and how it would actually help society to lower the age because less people would be proned to wanting to break the law.  Society has taught teenagers that drinking is a fun and good thing and that if you want your "identity" to be a "somebody," you must do it.  In our third big assignment, we did a multimedia project on the cafeteria foods at Clemson University.  The foods here today are not very appetizing.  Being in the south, we love to eat.  We love some good old southern cooking.  This is our culture.  When we are fed unsatisfying, fake food over and over, our stomachs can't seem to continue taking much more of it.  Culture, identity, and society make each and every person exactly who they are today and through the many assignments in this class, I have been able to see how they are connected to our everyday lives.

Pg. 210

1.  The format of our presentation with be purely oral with videos and pictures that we will discuss.

2. Our audience is the students in our english class.  Pretty much all of them have been to the dining halls before so they are familiar with the taste and unhealthiness of the food served there.  I believe that the audience will agree with our opinions and the whole thesis of our presentation since it is directly affecting them.

3. The purpose of our presentation is to hopefully get a point across and stir up enough people that want to do something about changing the food in the cafeterias.

4. Our branch of oratory is deliberative or legislative discourse... it is designed to argue a position.

5. I want to convey somewhat of a concerned persona to my audience.  I visualize myself as a presenter speaking for the student body on how the food is unhealthy and bad and there needs to be something done.

6. I want to use a serious but somewhat funny tone.  It's on the unhealthiness of the food so we are trying to get our point across but it needs to be somewhat fun and we will use humor to keep the audience's attention.

7. I plan to use photographs and videos of interviews in my presentation to support my thesis.

Pg 219

1. For the format of our presentation, we will be using a mix between a photo essay and a video to show pictures and reactions of people as well as interviews with students and/or faculty in the cafeterias.

2. We will use windows movie maker to show the videos and interviews that we take with our digital video camera.

3.  Potential outline:

- Discuss the unhealthiness of certain foods

- Discuss how the dining hall food is unhealthy

- Talk about the students and faculty and their opinions on the food

- Talk about some things that can be changed to make the food better

At a glance pg 174 - Revising my research paper

When revising my research paper, the first thing i did was read it aloud.  This made it easier to pick out my mistakes because I could hear what I was saying rather than just reading it silently. As I was revising my paper, I was able to detect some run-on sentences that didn't sound as well and I also repeated myself a good bit throughout the paper.  I used feedback that some of my peers gave me to help better my paper.  My conclusion was definitely shortest in my paper just because I was tired and wrapping everything up but when revising, I was able to go back and make sure that the conclusion was one of my strongest paragraphs so that my paper ended on a high note.  I also caught a lot of silly mistakes that I had made when I was reviewing my paper.  Several times, I had left out commas or made silly grammatical errors that I didn't realize when writing the paper.  Altogether, after some of the feedback I have received and from self-editing my paper after a few days has passed, I already feel like my paper is much better.

Research paper Outline

Katie Sharpe

Research Paper Outline

March 3, 2009

Professor Amy Jessee

Lowering the Drinking Age to Eighteen

I.                    I.  Introduction

A.     “Hook” line

B.     Background

C.     Thesis:  The drinking age should be lowered to eighteen due to the fact that it would decrease the number of college-aged students who drink just in spite of the law.

II.             II.  Why is the drinking age 21?

     A.  What makes society see a 21-year-old as mature and an adult?

     B.  Other countries’ drinking ages

III.  Benefits of lowering the drinking age

            A.  Statistics on why drinking-age laws are ineffective

            B.  Help lower the crime level

IV.  How to go about changing the law

            A.  Reactions of other people to lowering the drinking age

            B.  Steps to take in order to lower the drinking age

V.  Conclusion

            A.  Restatement of thesis

            B.  Quick look back

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a crime.  It is the stealing of someone else's words and making them your own.  The reason this is wrong is because if it were legal, then we would have a society that used the words nothing but the words of other people in their speeches and papers.  The concept of originality and creativity would be almost non-existent.  I'll be honest here, if plagiarism were allowed, I probably wouldn't write half of my papers.  I would do a lot of copy and pasting.  Because this is a crime, it causes people to expand their thinking skills and rephrase citations in ways to make them their own.

TIME magazine cover freewrite

I chose to write about the cover of the polar bear standing on the little bit of ice that is left.  It appeals to all people because it makes you feel sad for the polar bear.  With all the ice melting, he will have no where to live and will die.  I feel this is a good cover to get across the point of global warming because it makes you want to stop and do something about it.  Inside the magazine, there are a bunch of articles on global warming and how we people can help prevent it.  

Source template and Searches

For my research assignment, there are many different ways I will find sources and the information I want for my paper.  In order to keep track of the info I use from other sources,  these are some of the things I will make note of:

-The title of the article/book

-The author - if it's published by a specific person/persons or if it's company-run

-The date it was published for bibliography purposes

-The publisher

-Summary of the article so when looking back at notes, I'll know exactly which article is which and where I found what

-any quotes that would help back up my research well

-URL for web searches

WEB SEARCHES

Alex Johnson –author

Title – “Debate on lower drinking age Bubbling up”

Date – August 14, 2007

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249460/

“Over the strong objection of federal safety officials, a quiet movement to lower the legal drinking age to 18 is taking root as advocates argue that teenagers who are allowed to vote and fight for their country should also be able to enjoy a beer or two.”

 

LIBRARY CATALOGUES

Title – “The effects of raising and lowering the minimum legal drinking age in Virginia, March 1984”

Author – Cheryl Lynn

Published - Charlottesville, Va. : The Council, [1984]

Date – 1984

URL - http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&ti=1,1&SEQ=20090212102521&Search%5FArg=Drinking%20age&Search%5FCode=GKEY%5E%2A&CNT=100&PID=T6n8nOlXsX7nUPkR67FHkP1-OWgAF7&SID=3

DK pg 35 questions, EIV pg 96 freewrite

Questions of Fact

Who is affected by lowering the drinking age?

Questions of Definition

What does lowering the drinking age really mean?

What are the pros and cons of lowering the drinking age?

Questions of Interpretation

Is lowering the drinking age really a good idea?

Questions of Consequence

What caused this topic to arouse?

What are the effects of lowering the drinking age?

Questions of Value

Is what is at stake worth making the change?

What audience will value the matter of changing the drinking age?

What do other people say about lowering the drinking age?

Questions of Policy

Do all other rules still apply as before if we change the drinking age?

Will there be other laws to come into play if and when we make this change?

Freewrite

My topic for this research paper is lowering the drinking age to 18.  The reason I chose this topic is because it is a very controversial topic and can be viewed in many different ways.  Some people feel really strongly

 about lowering it while others feel really strongly about not lowering it.  Then there are the ones who just don't care.  My thesis statement will be the drinking should be lowered from age 21 to age 18.

For my research, I will definitely use the internet a lot.  The internet contains facts about the subject as well as opinions of people.  It also contains debates on the subject which will be very helpful to use in my paper.  I also plan on using people in general for my research.  I will probably conduct somewhat of a survey to see what most people seem to prefer.  I will probably look up books on the subject and get sources from there or magazine and journal articles as well.

Because I believe that the drinking age should be lowered for many reasons, I may encounter many problems in dealing with people and opinions who don't think it should be lowered.  I need to make sure I have enough research to back up my stance on the topic so that I am ready to debate well on it.

Audience, purpose, context, and google! (pg 27 DK)

Audience:  My audience may care about this topic because it is a very controversial topic as well as a touchy subject to many people.  Normally it pertains to the teenagers and adults right under the age of 21 who feel strongly about lowering the drinking age to 18.  It also pertains to those who feel strongly against this idea (normally the older folks).

Purpose:  I believe I will learn a lot from this topic.  Drinking age is a huge deal to a lot of people in the United States and much can be learned about the debatable topic and the pros and cons that can come from it.  I think that this is a very interesting topic and will interest a large audience.

Context:  This topic is definitely rich enough to write a good, full paper about.  It can be viewed from many different angles and aspects.  Right now, as everyone knows, the drinking age is 21.  But there have been many bills on lowering the drinking age that were never passed.

Google:  Under the Google search, there is a lot of information on the topic as well as a lot of interest.  There are many debates on the issue.  The different webpages I visited suggested other related topics such as lowering it even more so than to age 18.  Or raising it higher than the age it is now...21.  There are many different views on the subject.

Research paper topic

I plan on writing my next research paper on lowering the drinking age.  The reason I choose to write about this topic is because I am very interested in it and I know it is very controversial and can be viewed from many different sides.  I can argue my position on this topic well.  I will be able to find enough research on this topic for like I said, it is very controversial and a touchy subject to many people.  This sort of research does appeal to me because I find it very interesting and love debatable subjects.  I personally believe that the drinking age should be lowered because I don't see how it is right for men (and women), especially back in the day when there was the draft, to be able to be drafted, and nowadays to volunteer to join the military where they can potentially lose their lives.  Yet they cannot have a sip of alcohol.  That doesn't seem right to me.  I have many more points to include about why the drinking age should be lowered as well.

Reflection

The first paper I read, by Brad Miller, was about the poster of Muhammad Ali and the Adidas phrase "Impossible is Nothing."  I learned a lot from reading this paper...not only more about the great Ali, but also about how if you put your mind to something, you can achieve anything.  I really admire Muhammad Ali, although I didn't know too much about him.  When my grandfather was sick in the hospital, Ali was sick with Parkinson's disease around the same time and actually stayed in the hospital room directly next to my grandfather's room.  He stopped by his room and talked to him and encouraged him.  This gave me a lot of respect for Ali.  Therefore when I see ads with him on it, I greatly appreciate them.  I enjoyed reading this paper because I learned more and felt more encouraged just as he had encouraged my grandfather.

The second paper I read, by Christopher Mckee, was about a chick-fil-a ad on an interstate near Florence, SC.  This paper was very entertaining because it was funny and kept my attention.  I am a huge animal lover so when Christopher was talking about how the cow was trying so hard to save himself by trying to get people to "Eat Mor Chicken," it made feel bad for the cow and I will probably actually go do that right after I finish this post.  His paper was well written, and made me hungry! I want some chick-fil-a....

Thesis for visual rhetoric assignment

Close observations:  This image focuses on how children are being allowed to watch too much television these days.  The image is a picture of a little girl with televisions as her eyes.  She's obviously hooked to the television.  Underneath her eyes is a quote "She's got your eyes."  This could symbolize that the parents are not being good influences on the child by not monitoring how much television she watches and what she watches.

Thesis statement: Parents are allowing their children to watch too much television these days.

Visual Rhetoric Image

I believe that this image does attempt to persuade the audience.  It's obviously trying to persuade the audience that children are watching too much television these days. 

There are sufficient elements to analyze in this image.  You could talk about why it is a little child and not a teenager or adult.  You could also talk about how she has a television as her eye and what that is supposed to symbolize.  You can then talk about what the phrase "She's got your eyes" means.

I believe that the intended audience is supposed to be parents of children.  This image is trying to persuade parents to be a better influence and to not let their children watch so much television.

My interpretation is that this image is trying to get across the point that parents are allowing their children to watch too much television these days.  The girl in the image has a television as her eye.  This may symbolize that watching television is part of her daily routine and obviously she's glued to it.  The quote "She's got your eyes," I think, symbolizes that the parents are watching too much television as well and not being a good influence on their children as far as how much they watch and more importantly, what they watch.  Children learn a lot from television and the shows and movies they watch.  If parents are allowing their children to watch violence, sexual behaviors, profanity, drug and alcohol use, etc., then their child is more likely going to grow up being more violent, sexually active, more likely to use profanity, and more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than a child who didn't grow up watching such behavior.  I also think that they chose a child for this particular image for a reason.  I believe that just like dogs are more easily trained when they are puppies, children are more likely going to learn habits when they are young.  It's like "monkey see, monkey do."  What a child sees and learns as a child, will have an impact on everything they do when they grow up and later on in their life.

Pg 46 Analyzing ad

We analyzed the ad on page 46 of our book, with Kermit the frog saying it is easy being green.  It is a picture of an Escape Hybrid SUV in the middle of the wilderness which shows that it is a very environment friendly car.  There are mountains in the background and pretty green plants all around it.  The text at the bottom is saying that it is the most fuel-efficient SUV on earth that gets 36 mpg.  This also shows that it is very environment friendly.

Rhetoric:

When I woke up the other morning, I opened my apartment door and saw that I had coupons wedged between my door promoting the tanning bed and Bilo.

Also walking around campus, I've seen different signs and shirts promoting the big basketball game coming up on Saturday against Wake Forest.