TOW Post #30- Letter to a New APELC Student

Tuesday June 5, 2014

        Dear New APELC Student,

                  Welcome to the hardest year of high school, and one of the hardest classes in the school! Nah I'm just kidding, although not about Junior year being pretty difficult...but don't worry, I'll at least be able to give you a few tips about APELC. Oh, let me just get this out of the way. I had many APUSH friends this year who were not taking AP English and would call this course "APENG" as in Advanced Placement English. It makes sense, yeah, but we don't call it that. It's actually called APELC, standing for Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition (the APUSH kids don't know any better). But anyway, say goodbye to fiction everything; you will be reading non-fiction 99.99% of the time during this course, even your IRB will need to be non-fiction. To tell you the truth I hated non-fiction books ever since elementary school, but now that I was older I got to explore more books of my interest, and I actually fell in love with reading non-fiction; that's all I read now! Not only will you be reading non-fiction, you will be reading a lot in general. I'm talking about pages of non-fiction pieces, sometimes they are boring but sometimes they aren't. The key thing here is to not wait until the last minute to read these assignments...because you won't be able to do it! Everyone says, "Oh AP English is so hard and just an unmanageable amount of work is given, I'm not taking that!" Whoever says that is wrong, and obviously you are not one of those people because you are here now reading my letter! But actually Mr. Yost gives you three meetings sometimes more (depending on the length) to read these assignments, so please break up the assignment into sections, leaving an extra day to re-read the assignment. Yes, RE-READ the assignment. Although this is not a requirement but it's a very important skill and suggestion. Considering that not all of the readings will be easy to get on the first read, you should re-read it so you have a better understanding and can contribute to class discussions. Also take meaningful notes. For everything you read, besides your IRB, you are going to be note-making. Note-making can be consisted of highlighting, underlining, and writing important things that come to mind while reading, such as the Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, and Tone....that's going to be your most important acronym and is the backbone throughout this course. You can also note-make on rhetorical devices. It was funny because in other classes whenever I was reading something I was note-making even though it wasn't a requirement; it becomes a very helpful skill.

                  Besides reading, you will be doing a lot of writing! If you don't like writing you better get used to it. On the APELC Exam you will be writing three essays: Analysis, Argument, and Synthesis. If you have no idea on how one of these or any of these essays work, don't fret Mr. Yost will be teaching a whole marking period for each kind of essay, and you do a lot of practices. Oh by the way these are timed essays; you must finish in 40 minutes! Honestly when I heard about these timed essay that we were going to do, I was so nervous. But after the third one it's a breeze, you will be well prepared and have had a lot of practice before the exam. Sometimes your timed essays will be graded; although it made me really nervous, Mr. Yost and Ms. Pronko give back great advice! Mr. Yost even has office hours (just like college professor) if you want to talk about your essay or any other classwork. And when Mr. Yost and Ms. Pronko tell you that they are available to talk about and make some suggestions about your T.H.E (Take Home Essay..self explanatory) do not hesitate nor waste time!!! I wish I took advantage of that I opportunity much more. Also another thing about hesitation... you will often have a lot of class discussion where you can raise your hand to participate...don't be the person to never raise your hand, because they will call on you eventually. Don't be afraid to share your thought or answer, the nice thing is that Mr. Yost is not like a lot of teachers where if you are wrong they will say a blunt "No." Mr. Yost will let you down easy and try to swerve you in the right direction or even sometimes tie in your answer... somehow. So don't be afraid!

                 So this letter was one of our last assignments for this class; a TOW Post writing a letter to next year's APELC student. TOW stands for Text Of the Week, and this is something you will be doing every week and needs to be up on your blog by Sunday night at 11:59pm. These post may seem like a drag, because they were often annoying throughout the year, but they allow you to practice your rhetorical analysis skills through out the year, so you wouldn't have lost that skill by the time the APELC Exam, considering Analysis is what you most likely will be focusing on now/beginning of the year. Since I have referred to it a couple of times I'll tell you a little about it. The APELC Exam is going to be in May and you will be answering about 50-60 isn questions on reading passages and then write three timed essays. That's it. It may seem like a lot but what prepares you the most for that day is this entire course and the MOCK Exam...what's that? Well it's what it sounds like. This exam "mocks" or copies the APELC Exam format, accept it is accounted towards your grade. I was more nervous for the MOCK than for the actual APELC Exam. It will be referenced to throughout this entire course and it will be here before you know it, yet both of them fly by pretty fast. 

                  Grades grades grades. I'm sure grades are, well have been, the most important thing to you especially if you are a student taking an advanced class. I will tell you this, on the first unit test you take, do not be upset if you get a C or even a low B. It's okay. I am sure you will end up with a B for the marking period because that test is one of the many grades that will be put into sapphire. I will be honest this is a challenging course, but as long as you are organized, manage your time will, and (this should even be a problem but..) complete your work, your grades will be fine! Two more things...projects and grammar. At the end of each unit you will be assigned a group project. And this is not your ordinary group project, you most likely will be analyzing and SOAPStoning a piece of writing as a group. Then you are responsible for presenting to the class with a powerpoint presentation on what you have read and analyzed. These are not so bad they have to be around 8 to 10 minute long, this will get easier as the year goes on. Lastly you will be doing grammar. Ms. Pronko is in charge of this. She will come to do grammar about every block day and you will have homework, but it won't be do until the next block day. That pretty much sums up this course. The most import things to remember is: manage your time, go for help when needed and when offered, re- read, everything you do in class is going to help you for the exam (it's not just busy work), and in the end your grade will be an A or a B...if you listened to all of what I just told you. I wish you luck, not only for this course, but for your junior year overall...you are almost done!!! Don't give up!

Sincerely Your Experienced Ex- APELC Student,

Jessica Thelemaque

TOW Post #29- Documentary Rhetorical Analysis

            There are many problems in the world today, including hunger, the middle class, debt, and many other problems. Yet luckily the United States is not suffering with many of these problems unlike third world countries. So one might think that the United States doesn't have many or close to any problems. Yet there is one problem that is lurking under the American soil, and this happens to be educations. It may seem like our education system is perfect, yet truth be told it certainly is not.  In the documentary Waiting for Superman the director explains just this problem; the education system in America is not the best that it can be. Hence the title "Waiting for Superman" it is as if the children and students of America are waiting for a hero and or a solution to fixing this education system, thus ultimately leading to graduating successful and prosperous students. The argument that the American education school system needs to be fixed is precise considering the many problems that have came up in the news, data shown in the documentary, and personal experience.
              On the news unfortunately, finding good new is rare, most of the time the news is bad or sad and just plain upsetting. Recently on the news there was a school where teachers were caught cheating. The were four female teachers that had changed many answers to many students tests and had kept this among themselves. the Education system regarding the hiring, needs to reevaluate how teachers are chosen and what should be looked for. Because these teachers were clearly not acceptable as a teacher, affected many students grades and perhaps even their process and confidence in learning. Teachers like those women need to be weeded out of schools in order for the students to receive and honest and quality education.
              Shocking data was used to support the director of the documentary's argument that the education system in America needs to be fixed. When talking about the actually benefits of charter schools and public schools they mentioned that “only 17% of charter schools have better test scores than traditional public schools, 46% had gains that were no different than their district counterparts, and 37% were significantly worse.” The fact that this statistic exists, it is ashamed. Not only is our education not broken up for what makes sense, many students are getting cheated. This can be the cause of lack of effort by an employee/teacher, not equal attention, and lack of supplies. Also the documentary brings to light that many of the children who go through “dropout factories” are more likely to drop out and head to a prison than graduate form high school. 

               Unfortunately I have experienced one of the flaws in the American education. No where near some of the bigger problems but it sure a contribution. In high school, one of the most critical stage of the education track before college, every class counts and every grade counts, especially if one wants to get in to a good college. I have witnessed some teachers though out my high school years who  do not care enough when they are teaching. In some cases teachers only care about those who are on track and give up on the one who might need an extra push. Teachers who don't go the extra mile is small problem in the system yet can lead to bad affects down the road, such as students going through the "dropout factory."

                Data has shown that America has begun to fall behind in the education process. Many countries are ahead of many of the students in America, one country being China. I such a competitive world that we live in today, where education is one of the most important keys to success, America needs to reevaluate and take the appropriate actions to fixing the education system.

TOW Post #28- Documentary Rhetorical Analysis

           

             The documentary that I watched is called Waiting for Superman. One might think that this documentary must be about either a love story about a women waiting for the man of her dreams, or a spin off of one of the greatest superhero movies Superman. Yet this documentary is actually about education. In today's world wide society, education has grown to be one of the most important aspect of life; it is the key to a successful life. In this documentary the speaker is a professor and also retired superintendent. Throughout the documentary the speaker changes often from this superintendent to a narrative voice of the documentary creator, to families included in the documentary. This documentary touches base on many issues today in the education system. Some of the issues discussed are bad schools because of bad low income neighbor hoods or vice versa, schools not being able to advance because of bad teachers, and the struggle of families trying to get their children into the best school near them, such as charter schools. After watching this documentary the creator of this documentary was bel to open my eyes about the flaws in the education system.

            One key strategy that the filmmaker included in order to make this film more interesting instead of a two hour talk about education was what the filmmakers decide to show when ever they were stating data. Throughout the entire documentary they used the same type of animation style to not only make the statistics more interesting but also to give a great illustration and picture of the actually statistic itself, using symbols and graphs. This strategy was clever and stands out from other documentaries considering it's a huge contrast to the rest of the documentary which is real and not cartoon style. By using this strategy, the filmmakers made the documentary more eye-catching, thus allowing them to directly expose that the education in hindsight needs to be reevaluated and changed for the better.

            To strengthen and improve the filmmakers purpose, the follow the struggles of four families slowly yet progressively throughout the documentary. The filmmakers were able to smoothly tie in these stories of the four families and their struggles and relate it back to the data they is often presented. This weaving in of the families stories is able to bring some life to these statistics and adda sentimental factor throughout the documentary. Unfortunately these families were the percents of the data that were bad and unfortunate, such as only 6% percent of a high school class in LA would graduate; thus one of students in one of family would be borderline of this 6%. In the end of the documentary most of the families being documented were not selected for their child to make it into a charter school, therefore certainly not supporting the assumption that the educations system over all is successful. 

            Unfortunately we as a nation especially have not reached our goals of providing the best education. Maybe we have for a small percentage of students in America but not for every student. Education should be everyone's first and major priority considering the fact that we students are the future of the United Sates. Although the audience of this documentary could be students like myself, teachers and families who are also struggle, the real audience might just be those who have the power to change the education system and make a difference.

TOW Post #27- TOW Reflection

           

            Through out the year of AP English, I have adjusted to the ongoing Text of the Week Posts that we had to do every week. At first I thought that having to do a blog post on a reading every week was a waste of time and not going to be beneficial for me in regards to the AP English Exam. I thought to myself, how is doing the same thing repetitively for months going to help me do well on the exam, since its not exactly how the exam will be like? But I have come to realized that the TOW posts have made me read many readings in a different and more analytical way. Also these TOWs help me strengthen a work on writing skills that I needed more practice with.
            Beginning with the first marking period there was a major difference between my second marking period posts and especially my third marking period posts. One of the characteristics of my first marking period trends seemed to be that I used new articles, in stead of writing that is easier to analyze rhetorically, such as opinionated essays. This trend quickly ended with in the next marking period. Besides the type of writing pieces I chose, another trend and difference compared to the other marking period posts was that I used a lot of quotes in my posts. This showed that I really didn't analyze much of the writing piece, instead I was just re-staing things in the writing piece. One last thing with in marking period one trends was that I did not have conclusion paragraphs, leaving my TOW post with no ending and just open. As the second marking period came around, my TOW post introductions were coming along, yet my posts seemed like lists when coming to explaining the rhetorical devices that were used. But as time passed i slowly began to integrate my rhetorical devices and connection them together, making a smoother TOW post. The third marking period posts are more detailed and began to get better with the "so what" aspect regarding the author's purpose. From the first marking period to the third marking period, my TOW post have changed for the better.
            Although I have made progress with my TOW posts, i believe there are still some things that I need to work on improving; one of them being the ultimate message of the author purpose. In other words the "so what" is a key aspect in writing that I need more practice with. But I have made progress considering I did not attempt to address a so what with my earlier TOW post. I also need to improve on connecting my rhetorical devices/reasonings a little bit more. Yet I do believe that I have mastered introductions. Coming into AP English writing introductions was a concern of mine, and shown through the TOW post, I have gotten a lot better with them.
           The TOW posts initially sounded like a bunch of work, just to keep us AP students busy, but I benefited from these TOW assignments each week, even though they might have been a bit of an annoyance. When the AP Exam came around last two weeks ago, I do believe that being prepared for the writing (and also reading) part of the exam was partially because of these TOW assignments. Not only have the TOWs may have helped me with my AP Exam, they have also allowed me to look at readings more analytically and become more interested in non-fiction reading.

TOW Post #26- Visual Text: "Cigarette Advertisment"

           Years ago when the first cigaret came out on the market four the public, it was a big hit. There many poster and television ads that advertised the new product. Celebrities anreven doctors were used as strategies to get the public to buy cigarettes. But many years down the road doctors began to discover how unhealthy and dangerous that cigarettes can be. Today there are barely any advertisements for the use of cigarettes, but there are now advertisements for the stopping of smoking cigarettes. In the advertisement above, the author of the image is clearly trying to advertise that smoking is overall a poor choice that needs to be stopped. The author is able to achieve his purpose through the use of color and symbolism.
             Color is known to represent and have an effect many things; yet in the advertisement above the color plays a key role into creating a certain feeling and mood. In oder to convey the message that smoking is bad, the author used dull and dark colors such as grey and black. Usually when something or someone is colorless it indicates a negative mood. By creating a negative tone and mood through these colors the advertisement is  affecting the viewers; the viewers realizing the negativeness of smoking and how serious the situation is.
            Communicating with the viewers of the advertisement is key to successfully convey the message and purpose of the advertisement. Symbolism is a great tool used to communicate a message. In the advertisement above the ashes from the cigarette symbolizes the person who is smoke the cigarette, and how its bringing them down. Cigarettes are health hazardous and can count one's life short: slowly bringing the person down.
           The creator of this advertisement successfully conveyed his message on the fact that smoking is bad and should be minimized and ultimately stopped. By incorporating rhetorical devices into the advertisement the creator is not only to get out his message but also to guide people in the right direction, saving more lives.

TOW# 25- Article: "The Pointlessness of Unplugging"

Reading Goal: Interesting, can take part in

Writing Goal: Finding the author's purpose/deeper meaning

            In today's world technology has become a huge part of our everyday life. From our daily routine to even our social aspect of life, technology has tied itself into these things. although technology has been a good and huge advancement in society, has it become too much? It clearly has been concluded as too much considering there is a National Day of Unplugging, where one does not use any type of technology for and entire twenty-four hours. 

            In the March issue of The New Yorker, author Casey N. Cep wrote an article about the National Day of Unplugging and how technology has made us rely on it. Cep studied at Yale University and has written many articles in the The New York Times and the Boston Globe. Cep discusses how many people participate in the N.D.U. (National Day of Unplugging) and their reasons for it. The slogan or theme sentence for this day is "I unplug to _______" and participators would fill in the blank with what they are doing instead of using technology. by simply unplugging for a day, it allows people to "to reset, to spend more time with family, to bring back the beauty of life," etc.  Cep's purpose in writing this article is to see if the N.D.U. is actually beneficial. She brings forth her purpose through examples and irony.

              Throughout her entire article Cep incorporates quotes and examples of people that help her achieve her purpose and help the reader conclude to a so what at the end of her article. For example she use how she was surprised that Pope Benedict XVI used twitter to reach out to his followers, showing how technology is in everyone's lives, eve those of high ranking. Also she used quotes from people who participated in the N.D.U., saying their reason for unplugging was "so [their] eye will stop twitching" and "to be in the moment"and also "to be more connected"; showing the various reasons why people participate. With all of these benefits of this day you would think it's good. Irony comes into play when Cep makes concussion. She states that when we go twenty-four hours with out our technology, it only makes us crave the use of technology even more. In conclusion, although this day is beneficial for twenty-four hours, it technically worsens our addictions, thus making this day pointless; Cep successfully achieving her purpose.

IRB Intro Post: Marking Period 4

            The book that I decided to read for the fourth marking period is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother written by Amy Chua. Chua is a mom of two daughters trying to raise them in the mists of American culture and Chinese culture at the same time. She  recalls ho she was raised under strict Chinese culture by her own parents. Yet she is not so sure that she is raising her kids the right way. I chose to read this book because i am able to connect with Chua, being raised by parents who are from a different country other than America. Also I chose this book, because  from reading reviews, Chua incorporates some humor into her book, which I makes her telling g of her experiences more interesting and fun.

TOW Post #24- IRB: You Are Not So Smart

-Reading Goal: A more challenging text, requiring more thinking

-Writing Goal:Establishing the "so what?"

            In society today, many people don't accept a decision, situation, etc, very well when the result is not in their favor. Everyone just wants to be right all the time and not be confronted with something they might believe is outrageous and false.In general, basically everyone thinks high of themselves and believes that their so skater than everyone else. Unfortunately a writer has written a book on what we don't want to hear; to be told that we are wrong. Although readers we might pick up the book and disagree with the title You Are Not So Smart, because we all think that we are, essentially McRaney makes a good argument as for why he does not think, everyone is so smarts. He achieves this argument through claims of fact and claims of policy.

            Author David McRaney organized his book into mini chapters on topics that tell the reader why their way of rationalizing is wrong, and the explanation for it. McRaney include multiple facts in order to support his argument on why everyone is not so smart. Throughout one the point one point that he clarifies and writes about if accusations on why we chose and use the same brand name of product. McRaney writes that “We reach for the same brand not because we trust its quality but because we want to reassure ourselves that we made a smart choice the last time we bought it.” Then he continues on to explaining experiments and hypothetic situations to explain his claim thus overall supporting his argument.

             Besides incorporation multiple claims of fact McRaney also incorporates claims of policy throughout the entire book. After explaining why the readers way of thinking about something or coming to a conclusion, he gives advice for the readers in order to stop the false thinking/way of things from happening again. For example at the end of his 15th chapter he states that “To escape consumerism and conformity, you must turn your back and ignore the mainstream culture. The shackles when then fall away, the machines will grind to a halt, the filters will dissolve, and you will see the world for what it really is. The illusory nature of existence will end and we will all, finally, be real.” By incorporating this policy of change McRaney is able to support his argument. Overall McRaney is not only supporting his argument, he is also pushing his  readers to becoming the smartest that they can truly be.

TOW Post #23- Article: "Don't Help Your Kids With Their Homework"

         

           In today's society, students are pressured to do their best because one thinks one needs to get the best grades in order to be successful in life. Unfortunately parents are not toning down this mentality and are actually encouraging it. A parent thinks that the more involved they are with their children's academics the better the grades will turn out to be. This orthodox American mentality is challenged in the the article "Don't Help Your Kids With Their Homework", written by author Dana Goldstein.
            Published in the magazine The Atlantic, this article addresses parents role in their children's academic lives. Goldstein brings up the conversation of how much does it really help the students when their parents are in the parent committee, helping their child with homework, having parent-teacher conferences, etc. She comes to the conclusion that these efforts mad by parents do not make a huge difference. In writing this article Goldstein's purpose is to reach out to parents and show that their over involvement is a waste of time and ineffective. Goldstein is able to achieve this goal by uses research data and personal analysis.
           Throughout her entire article Goldstein was able to incorporate data from research done by professors from Duke and University of Texas at Austin. The data found by these professors showed that "Most measurable forms of parental involvement seem to yield few academic dividends for kids, or even to backfire—regardless of a parent’s race, class, or level of education." Not only does this research directly supports Goldstein's purpose, it also gives her credibility considering her sources are  reliable. She also uses information from a certified sociologist  who discovered similar findings in the 1990's. After implementing these research findings she does not leave them hanging in her article.
            Goldstein is able to successfully achieve her purpose by weaving in her own analysis after stating the research findings in her article. For example towards the end she develops her "so what." she ties her supporting data into an overall conclusion that parents are still helping with their involvement actions but not with their children, but with the community. By using these two strategies of research data and personal analysis she is able to open the eyes of many parents. 

TOW Post #22- Visual Text: "In Turkey, Renewed Anti-Government Protests"

            In the past recent weeks there has been trouble going on in eastern Europe, including the country of Turkey. Many people are standing up. uprising against the government that the people don't approve of. Unfortunately these protests are continuing and have in some cases turned out to be violent. In the caption below this picture, it mentions how a year ago, Turkey was experiencing violent protests and a young 15 year-old boy, uninvolved with the protest, was bombarded with tear gas; he died this past month. Although we hear about these horrible thing happening during the protests, not everyone understands how horrible it really is.

            The picture above demonstrates how bad things really are. Taken by Bulent Kilic and displayed in The Atlanic, this is one of the many photos in his gallery about he chaos in Turkey. Looking like a picture from a movie, this photo reveals the authors's purpose of truing to make people ware of what is going on. Kilic was able to achieve his purpose by appealing to pathos and the subject/person of the image, and the lighting.

            One of the first things that stands out in Kilic's image is the image overall appeals to pathos. One looks at the image and automatically feels sympathy for the subject of the image; the girl. In the caption below the image, it mentions how this is a picture of a young girl who was wounded by the clash of riot police and protestors. By hearing and seeing the horrible protests of the news, one already feels sad, but when seeing a specific innocent looking girl, looking straight at the viewer, really hits home. By appealing to pathos in his image, viewers are more likely going to want to raise awareness and help to stop the chaos.

             In addition to the subject of the image and appealing to pathos, Kilic captured and dealt the lighting of the image very well. The colors in the image are all variations of dark blues, blacks, and grays. These dark colors ultimately creates a dark feeling and a sense of seriousness. The emphasis on the graveness of the situation is key to making this image an effective one. With these few strategies in a simple image, Kilic strongly achieved his purpose, thus making people more aware of the dangerous situation in Turkey.

TOW Post #21- Article: "Your High School Transcript Could Haunt You Forever"

            Technology has become a huge part of the everyone's lives today in the 21st century. The benefits to the new technology advances are endless yet at the same time there are some iffy consequences that come with it. With such high tech devices data collecting has become very easy and useful over the past years. A lot of information is stored onto a computer personal, on a state level, and even on a government level. One of the most common data that is always being collected is a student's school record. It can trace back all the way from the first days of kindergarten. This can be a neat way to see on'e progress overtime but it can also be the loss of privacy.

            In his recent article "Your High School Transcript Could Haunt You Forever" Viktor Mayer-Schonberger brought up this controversial predicament. Viktor, a professor at Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, discusses how the data collecting of students and the how much is being collected can be a bad idea and also ave the capacity of preventing someone from being successful later down the road. Viktor uses hypothetical situations and facts in order to achieve his purpose.

            One of Viktor's main point was the fact that the data collected acts as a barrier and baggage that seems to lash on to someone for the rest of their lives. With today's technology, everything can be easily stored forever and will be easily accessed by people later in the future. These types of people could be employers, when one applies for a job. Viktor poses a hypothetical situation by say that if someone made a silly mistake in their educational history it will be easily accessed by the person hat will be interviewing them, thus posing a possible prevention of them getting the job. By using this strategy, the author is able to show the reader how directly data collecting can badly affect someone later down the road.

            Besides hypothetical situations, Viktor also includes data that supports his argument that data collecting (educational wise) may not be beneficial. For example he states that "we will have a 90% likelihood of getting a B or above if we review the material between 8:00pm and 9:00pm, but it drops down to 50% if we do so earlier in the evening, and so on." Viktor then goes on to mention how transcripts could possibly reveal one's good or bad sleeping habits, thus being an invasion of one's privacy. Also this could lead to assumptions of the person by who ever is looking at the data. By using facts, Viktor establishes his credibility to her readers. With choosing good strategies, the author is not only able to achieve his purpose, but also able to leave the reader with the questions and thoughts about data collecting as a whole.

TOW Post #20- IRB: You Are Not So Smart

-Reading Goal: A more challenging text, requiring more thinking

-Writing Goal: A clear "so what" conclusion and linking rhetorical devices together

            Have you ever wondered why things happened? Things such as it being a coincidence, so crazy that it is unbelievable, yet can not be explained? Well there are explanations for these "coincidences" and we actually don't see the simple reasons for them. We often clip out the important points and ideas when we come to a conclusion or a rational explanation on our own, that lead us think something is a coincidence when it is not. Why? It all has to do with the way our brain works. In the recent psychology book, You Are Not So Smart, author David McRaney talks about these mind bobbling situations and trends and gives a thorough explanation.

           McRaney is a journalist, blog writer, and now an author. He has a deep interest for psychology and technology which gave him the idea to combine the two and start his blog, You Are Not So Smart. With study psychology more he then decided to write his book, using the same tile of his blog. I believe that McRaney purpose in writing his book was to open the minds of his readers and hopefully be able to change the way his readers come to a conclusion. He is able to achieve his purpose through incorporating hypothetical situations and humor.

            One of the first and most important strategies that McRaney incorporates well through out his book is humor. His readers might think that psychology, since it has to do with brain and how the brain works/how people think, is a boring subject. But McRaney instantly got my interest within the few pages of his book with his sense of humor."...You watched an entire season of Battlestar Galactica in one sitting--what the hell? You are already home and have no recollection of the journey" (McRaney 1). Throughout his book McRaney added in little humorous comments as if he was trying to purposely make you laugh personally. This really is able to keep the attention of his readers thus them wanting to know more about what he has to say.

              Another strategy he incorporates throughout his book is putting the reader in a hypothetical situation. McRaney will tell the reader to do something at the the very moment his readers are reading it, to make a point and or to create a better understanding. "Take a moment to look around the room which you are reading this" (xii McRaney). In this part he then goes on to explain we completely ignore our surroundings. This puts the reader in a situation that allows them to understand, thus opening their eyes.

             McRaney overall is able to create a personal connection and tone with his readers by using the two strategies: humor and hypothetical situations. By using theses strategies in a smart and useful way McRaney is able to achieve his purpose and impact many people who read his book.

TOW Post #19- Article: "When Doctors Need to Lie"

            When going to the doctors, we all go hoping that there is nothing wrong, or life threatening news that'll ruin your day and possibly your life. With such a high respected degree, we would believe that doctors always tell you the truth even when the truth can be hurtful or something that we wouldn't want to hear. Unfortunately doctors may not be always a one hundred percent truthful according to a doctor who wrote in the opinion section of The Atlantic. 

             A regular writer for the NY Times and a cardiologist, Sandeepn Jauhar wrote about how doctors do lie sometimes in his article "When Doctors Need to Lie". Throughout the article Jauhar reveals the hard decisions that doctors faced when regarding their patients' health and on the other hand their feelings. By using anecdotes and example studies/research, Jauhar is able to achieve his purpose; that when doctors lie the overall intention is good thus protecting the patient.

            Jauhar opens up his article with an anecdote, starting with the few words "I ONCE had the unenviable task of informing a 22-year-old Jamaican man that he was suffering from severe heart failure and would probably need a heart transplant." Just with this first sentence Jauhar is able to establishes credibility, thus helping him achieve his purpose, because he has now shown his readers that he knows what he is talking about. He continues on with the story revealing that he told this patient of his a lie; by saying everything will be ok. But he then explained a within a few visits he gradually told his patient the bad news. By using this anecdote Jauhar achieves his purpose because if he didn't gradually tell  his patient the news, it could of affected his patients mental and overall health do to shock.

            Jauhar uses multiple anecdotes tat establish his credibility and also helps him achieve his purpose. But to stronger support his purpose, he incorporate research findings. He states that in the years between 1932-1972 a number of patients were treated for diseases due to the attitude of doctors called paternalism, aka protecting the feelings of their patients when it comes to bad news. Incorporating this experiment into his article, Jauhar is able to strongly achieve  support his purpose

TOW Post #18- Visual Text: "Gender Inequality Advertisement"

            For hundreds of years women have been persecuted and treated as if they were lower in ranking than men. Although the status of women have improved, women are still not treated a hundred percent as equally as men. To get to where women are today, women had to fight for every right that men had, such as voting, owning a house, being able to work in business/corporations, etceteras. Women have made a great amount of progress, some places better than others, but there is still more that could be done to achieve complete equality.
            Advertising has become an important realm of getting ideas and problems out to the public and the world. Gender inequality is cleverly shown in the advertisement above made by the organization United Nations Women. This organization focuses on gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the world. In the advertisement above, the background is a picture of a woman with her mouth covered with what appears to represent a google search bar. Demonstrating Google's autocomplete feature, which shows the most popular searches that people type in the search engine, shows the following most popular searches: "women cannot drive", "women cannot be bishops", women annoy be trusted", and "women cannot speak in church". The UN Women organization is posing an argument: there is not enough gender equality. They prove enhance their argument through picture placement and factual evidence.
          Through the advertisement the UN Women are able to enhance their argument by carefully placing objects o the picture in the right places. For example, they cleverly put the search engine bar right on top of the woman's mouth. This is quickly exposing some thing and also representing an issue with in the genes equality moment; women not having the right or the ability to speak up, against the things showing up in the autocomplete dropbox.Not only does this get the attention of viewers it also proves and supports that there isn't enough gender equality. Besides placement the autocomplete drop box acts as factual evidence. If  someone begins to type "women cannot" into a search engine the autocompletes will come up, therefore establishing ethos because the did not make up these autocomplete phrases. With the evidence and arrangement of the advertisement, the UN Women are successfully able to achieve their purpose by supporting their proposed argument.

Image Source:http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2013/10/21/these-un-ads-use-google-autocomplete-to-show-many-people-think-women-shouldnt-work-or-vote/#!vwh4C

IRB Intro Post: Marking Period 3

            

             For the duration of the third marking period, the non-fiction book that I chose to read is You Are Not So Smart written by David McRaney. David McRaney is not only a journalist/author but he has also studied psychology in order to have written this book. According to McRaney and his research, there are many lies that we have unintentionally tell ourselves.When it comes to making decisions, developing thoughts, and having emotions, our minds come up with a story or explanation to rationalize these decisions, thoughts, and emotions. I chose to read this book because I'm interested in how the brain and mind works and I plan to take a psychology class next year, diving deeper into my interests. Also this book has received great ratings and has said to change the way people think and give answers to many questions.

TOW Post #17- Article: "Daddy Track: The Case for Paternity Leave"

             Having a baby is sure to be a life changing experience, especially when it comes to the first few weeks and months of the baby and the parents adjusting to a new schedule and enhance the bond between each other. It is typical that the mother goes on maternity leave in order to rest after having the baby and also take some time off of work to be with her newborn. But a new trend is starting to become more popular within the United Sates; fathers also taking off from work, a.k.a paternity leave. Fathers are usually the ones to continue to work, and find ways to bond and help with the baby around his work schedule, but today more and more dads are taking paid paternity leave as Liza Mundy writes.

             In her most recent article, featured in The Atlantic magazine, Mundy talks about the popular trend that seems to be occurring throughout the United Sates. Mundy makes an argument that the paternity leave is a beneficial trend, not only for the man himself but also for the mother and the baby. She incorporates research findings and facts, and real-life examples in order to support her claim.

            Starting off her article she uses a real-life example of a man, Chris Renshaw, who decided to take a two week paternity leave. She incorporates how Chris told his co-workers and what was their reaction. "“It’s definitely looked at in a good light,” says Renshaw, 28, who lives in Northern California and was taking infant-care classes to hone his diapering and baby-bathing skills. “People have said, ‘That’s a great idea—take as much as you can. It’s time that you can be with your child.’ ”" The reaction that Chris's co-workers gave him was surprising, considering one might think his co-workers would ask why, since it's not the usual thing for a man/dad to do. But later on Chris goes on to mention how important it was for him to have time with his baby, the first few weeks of the baby's life.
            Not only does Mundy include this real-life example, she also incorporates facts and research in order to demonstrate the benefits of paternity leave. She states that, "Previous studies found that fathers who take paternity leave are more likely, a year or so down the road, to change diapers, bathe their children, read them bedtime stories, and get up at night to tend to them." This is extremely beneficial because it helps the mother down the road and also allows fathers not only to be known for providing for the family financially but now also emotionally earlier in their baby's life. Through incorporating life examples and research and facts, Mundy was able to successfully argue that paternity leave is rather beneficial and important.

Link:http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-daddy-track/355746/

TOW Post #16- IRB: Me Talk Pretty One Day Part 2

            One key important advice that should be given to everyone is to be who you are and do not try to change who you are. Teens and young adults can relate and benefit from this advice the most because that is the age and time where one tries to find out who one is, and may also try to change oneself if one is not satisfied with who one is. Everyone has flaws, and unfortunately these are flaws that we cannot get rid of because they are apart of who we are. I believe that this is the purpose of the book or collection of essays Me Talk Pretty One day by David Sedaris.
            Author David Sedaris is an excellent writer when it comes to non-fiction, specifically memoirs and anecdotes, he really makes the reader feel like he/she is there in the moment with him. Using this skill Sedaris is able to tell anecdotes that help him convey his purpose. not only does Sedaris use anecdotes but he also is able to convey his message through personal struggles.
Similarly to "Part One" of the book, in "Part Deux" Sedaris uses his sharp memory and recalling of details to accurately bring his past experiences to life. For example Sedaris recalls himself comparing himself to other students in college, how they were better looking and smarter than him. He even began to have a negative though before Sedaris even tried something; "The only crimp in my plan was that I seemed to have no talent whatsoever.” (178). Fortunately he later on Sedaris realized that he did have talent which was art; Sedaris learned self acceptance which was what he we was trying to get across to his readers.
            Besides anecdotes Sedaris also reveal personal struggles to let his readers know how important self acceptance is for getting through life. Once living in Paris, Sedaris wanted to be very good in French so he ended up taking a class. Similarly to his speech impediment that he struggle with back in grade school, he also struggled with pronunciation with certain french words. He recalls how the class was a struggle especially with the teacher picking on him. He would go home at night and study extra just so his instructor wouldn't pick on him; until he realized that didn't help. He accepted the fact that he could pronounce certain french words and began not to stress about it anymore. By using anecdotes and personal struggles Sedaris was able to prove that self-acceptance is an important skill in life.

TOW Post #15- Article: "Goodnight. Sleep Clean."

            On the news every so once in a while there is always a report or a story about how important it is for children and even adults to get enough sleep every night. The average expected healthy amount of sleep that an adult should get every night is eight to nine hours of sleep: for children and teens eight to nine hours as well. And as we all know that most of us do not get nearly nine hours of sleep every night. They continue to say that we need the maximum hours of sleep, but why if we can still get up early in the morning without passing out? Well an opinion writer of the New York Times looked into this common question.
           Author Maria Konnikova mostly known for her first book, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, which was a New York Times bestseller. She is now working on her first novel and second book. Her writing has not only appear in the New York Times but also The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review and many other well-known newspapers. In her most recent article "Goodnight. Sleep Clean." she talks about the importance of sleep. She establishes her argument by saying that sleep is important because it clears out "all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking." She makes her argument strong by presenting multiple counter arguments, using claim of fact, and claim of value.
            In the beginning of the article Konnikova starts off with multiple counter arguments. She states rhetorical questions such as "Why would our bodies evolve to spend close to one-third of our lives completely out of it, when we could instead be doing something useful or exciting? Something that would, as an added bonus, be less likely to get us killed back when we were sleeping on the savanna?" Right after she proves how these counter arguments aren't important, due to the compelling aspect of her argument. Besides presenting counter arguments Konnikova also uses a claim of fact by supporting the fact that there is a lymphatic system that empties out "trash" in the brain during sleeping. Konnikova supports her claim of fact by using research done by scientists like Dr. Nedergaard. 
           Lastly Konnikova ends with a claim of value by noting that this potential discovery is good, considering the positive affects. Overall Konnikova made very good points, and by using claims of fact and value and presenting counter arguments, she successfully creates a strong argument.
         
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/opinion/sunday/goodnight-sleep-clean.html?rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

TOW Post #14- Visual Text: "Abuse Advertisement"

            Abuse is a rather serious problem that as a whole that cannot be easily taken care of by authority. In most cases the one that is being abused doesn't venture out for help making it harder for that person to stop the abuse. Organizations are out there to help and make advertisements to let people know that what they're going through is wrong and that help is only a phone call away. The organization and also hotline, Aware Helpline, created the advertisement above not only to let people know that they can help by providing their number on the bottom right corner, but also to show that words are just as painful as actions; verbal abuse is equally as painful as physical abuse.

            One way that the organization supports their argument that verbal abuse is just as hurtful and physical abuse is by combining and replacing the two types of abuse. The advertisement shows a punch coming out of a man's mouth hitting the women's face. With this image that they are creating is supporting their argument; the punch is very painful from the reaction of the women, but the fact that the punch is coming out of the man's mouth like words do, it's saying that words hurt just as much.

            Not only does this advertisement present an argument but it also presents a message that this is a subject that must be taken seriously. The designers of the advertisement helped present this message by using dull colors. The color choice communicates a painful and depressing tone to the audience and successfully conveying the seriousness of this subject. Also the organization communicated their message by having the women express agonizing pain on her face. Viewers will see her face and  cringe at the pain she must be suffering from, supporting the advertisement's message. By presenting an argument and using key elements to convey a message, Aware Helpline successfully achieved its purpose.


Image Source:http://www.creativeadawards.com/verbal-abuse-3/

TOW Post #13- Article: "A Formula for Happiness"

            Happiness is defined as a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or   pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Many people go through their lives looking and searching everywhere for happiness; it's one of the most need things in life. When one finds happiness it is the greatest feeling to feel besides love. Happiness can be defined in many different ways depending on the person, and what happiness means to them. But has one ever thought that the resources and or what sparks happiness. One might think that there is no right answer because it it depends on the person, like I said before, but there has been discovery of reasons.

            Opinion writer Arthur C. Brooks of the New York Times Newspaper, discusses the resources of happiness. In his article, "A Formula for Happiness" he mentions that scientist have finally "caught the butterfly" of this situation; scientist have found the three resources of happiness through research: genes, events, and value. Author Brooks argues that this statement and or break through discovery is true. Although Brooks does not directly state that these findings are true, but they are certainly implied. In order to support Brooks's argument that the scientists' findings are correct he incorporates stories and metaphors. In the article Brooks he begins off with making a comparison between the scientists' discovery to someone trying to catch a butterfly. "It has been said that “happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Social scientists have caught the butterfly." By using this butterfly comparison, he demonstrates a positive a feeling about the scientists' discovery, thus supporting his argument that he supports the scientists' findings.

            Not only does Brooks use a metaphor to support his argument he uses a story as well. He mentions a story about twin who were separated at birth and were raised by different parents, both grew up to be very happy. Although the twins were raised by different parents they both grew up to find happiness because of genes and or a "genetic carbon copy." By using this story, he was able to convey a supporting feel concluding that his argument is that he supports the scientists' findings. By using these two strategy the audience is able to clearly understand Brooks's argument.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/opinion/sunday/a-formula-for-happiness.html?_r=0