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

TOW Post #12- IRB: Me Talk Pretty One Day Part 1

            The most important and memorable moments of our lives take place between our late childhood and teenage years. It is usually the time where search to find out who we are and who we want to become; we take risks and do things that we don't want to, but that we have to hoping it has good better outcome than the situation. This is a main focus on then first part of the book Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. The book is split up into two parts, "Part One" and "Part Deux"meaning there could be two different purposes or one that applies to both parts, but there is a sole purpose for part one. Sedaris uses detailed personal anecdotes and situational humor to encourage his readers to do or try something when they are afraid to do so.
            As mentioned before Sedaris wrote the first part of the book ("Part One") about his late childhood and early teenager years. The reader finds out within the first few pages that Sedaris has a lisp and cannot pronounce S's. He starts off the book with an anecdote about the time he first started speech therapy. He recalls that he had no idea what was going on when his teacher said that he had to leave the classroom with the unfamiliar woman that was standing in the doorway. He then goes on to tell that the lady ended up being his speech therapist. Taking a look at this anecdote, Sedaris being a quiet an shy boy at the time must have been scared when he was asked to leave the room with a stranger, but it demonstrated that he went with the flow and left the classroom even when he was afraid to do so.
             Besides using anecdotes Sedaris also uses situational humor in order to achieve his purpose. For example he adds a humorous aspect to the anecdote mentioned above by recalling that he tried to speak without having to pronounce and "s" sounding words. It was funny because he said ridiculous phrases just in order to avoid his speech impediment. There were many other situational humor incorporated by Sedaris similar to this one. This shows that although he was timid and scared of his speech flaw he still continued to talk and found his way around his fear and also embarrassment. By using these two strategies Sedaris was able to achieve his purpose, for the first half at least.

TOW Post #11- Article: "The Real Humanities Crisis"

            Humanities is a term that not many people discuss or think about. The general definition that most people would refer to would be simple the human race. But in most cases humanities is discussed in the terms of  learning or literature concerned with human culture, esp. literature, history, art, music, and philosophy. Today the most top secure jobs are in the realm of business and medicine/science and the humanities realm in jobs are decreasing. In the article "The Real Humanities Crisis" author Gary Gutting, and opinion writing for the New York Times newspaper wrote about how humanities jobs are losing importance and losing peoples interests. Gutting makes a this statement a claim of fact and supports this up with statistics and a claim of policies in the end. These two rhetorical strategies together help the Gutting achieve his overall purpose which was to call attention to this "humanities crisis"
            Gutting first supports his claim in the beginning by state some basic statistics about humanities jobs vs business jobs. He make a clear point that more people are reaching for jobs in the business and medical area because that is where the better pay is. Although people who work in the humanities real of occupations get more satisfaction out of what the are doing, they are not getting good satisfactory economically because of the lower pay compared to business jobs, Gutting states that "Humanities majors on average start earning $31,000 per year and move to an average of $50,000 in their middle years. (The figures for writers and performing artists are much lower.) By contrast, business majors start with salaries 26 percent higher than humanities majors and move to salaries 51 percent higher" Stating this fact supports his claim of fact helping him achieve his overall purpose.
            Relating to his use of facts, he ends his article with claims of policies to announce solutions to these down grading facts. For example he states that humanities jobs should get paid more so more people can feel economically safe and doing what they love. By ending with claims of policy, Gutting wraps up his claim of fact, supporting his overall purpose.


Source:http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/the-real-humanities-crisis/?ref=opinion&_r=0

TOW Post #10- Visual Text: "Apple Technology Advertisement"

              Today, technology has become a huge part of our lives. One popular item from the technology field are the Apple products. These products have swept across the United States grabbing the attention of almost every American. Products such as the iPhone, Mac, iPad, iPod,etc. have been bought by thousands of people almost every year. Although these products are fascinating and advanced in the technology field many people, in the U.S. and around the world, have forgotten more important and serious situations around the world such as poverty, disease, and starvation. Advertisements like the one above help remind people about these problems through text and simple image juxtaposition.

               The first rhetorical device that the advertisement uses in order to achieve its purpose is text. Looking closely to the text, the text on the left under the Apply sign states that "One dies, millions cry." while the text under the Africa image states that "Millions die, no one cries." With such simply texts, the image appeals to audience in an emotional way, reminding them how we have lost the importances of a serious social problem. This helps the advertisement creators achiever their purpose.

               Another rhetorical device tat the advertisement uses is image juxtaposition. Setting up the two image of the Apple product sign and Africa really draws the attention of the audience. It shows how technology has really distracted our soil values. The fascination of technology has blinded us from problems such as poverty. With this rhetorical device it reminds the audience that we need to re-focus on social issues around the world, successfully achieving the adervtisement's purpose.


Image Source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/khmerican/6297818691/

TOW Post #9- Article: "You're So Self-Controlling"

           Many people might think that the greater reward requires the most patience, which is logically true. On the other hand people also believe that in general people will wait longer in order to achieve this goal. According to Maria Konnikova that statement is proven false.
           Newspaper and magazine opinion writer, Konnikova writes about the false general idea that people will wait longer in order to achieve the goal with the bigger reward in her article "You're So Self-Controllig" published in the New York Times October issue. She proves the general statement wrong through the rhetorical devices of supportive examples, accurate data, and referencing to psychologists's experiments.
            The first rhetorical device that Konnikova uses in order to achieve her purpose is supportive examples. In the beginning of the article she is able to provide a general example and or situation. The situation was that "WHAT do you do if, when you get to a subway platform, you see that it is already packed with people? Do you join the throngs to wait for the train, or do you shake your head and seek an alternative way to get where you’re going?" She later goes on to explain the result of each option if chosen to show which option would be the popular one; the one that doesn't include waiting longer to achieve a goal. Using this general and supportive example helps him achieve his purpose.
             Another rhetorical device that Konnikova uses is accurate data. Throughout her article she provides many facts and general proven statements that supports her claim. For example she notes that in "psychological terms, the difference is typically seen as a dual-system trade-off: On one hand, you have the deliberative, reflective, cool system; on the other, the intuitive, reflexive, hot system," when talking about decision making. She uses general proven statements like this throughout her article. This rhetorical device does not only help her achieve her purpose but it also  establishes ethos.
            Lastly, she refers to psychologists's experiments that have been done that help her achieve her purpose. She explains one of the psychologists experiment where the psychologists were giving people money but the longer they waited the more money they could possibly get. There experiment supported Konnikova's claim about how people don't always strive to wait longer to achiever= the goal with the greater reward. Overall I don't believe that Konnikova achieved her purpose because I still believe that some people do work/ wait for the goal with the bigger reward.


Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/opinion/sunday/youre-so-self-controlling.html

IRB Intro Post: Marking Period 2

            The non-fiction book that I chose to read for the second marking period is Me Talk Pretty One Day written by David.  This book consists of many essays that are separated into two parts. The first part is about his life in North Carolina before he moved to Normandy, France. The second section of essays is about his experience with moving to France and his humorous efforts to speak the romantic language of french. I chose this book because I take french and I believe that there will be some jokes or silly comments in french that I will enjoy and be able to understand. By reading this book I  hope that I will learn what it will be like if I one day go to France. 

TOW Post #8- IRB: Outliers Part 2

            

            When discussing success no one really considers other factors, such as other people or aspects, that contributed to making someone successful. In the story about someone's success it's always about what "he/she did" to be successful. The story should contain more of what "what/who helped he/she do" to be successful. Really without other aspects and the small things that they did to contribute, that successful person would most likely not have become as successful as they are now. Malcolm Gladwell brings this truth out to everyone who reads his book Outliers.

            In his #1 National Bestseller book, Outliers, Gladwell tries to clear up some misconceptions and reasoning for success. He wants people to understand that those who are successful did not do it on their own, and that it is certainly not just luck. Throughout his book Gladwell specific and sometimes personal examples and historical research.

            One personal example that he uses in order to make people to understand that those who are successful did not do it on their own is his mom. His mom had become successful, not billionaire successful, but enough to have a family and a well paying job. Gladwell explains that she didn't become successful  only because of her hard studying and work but because of her twin sister and her mother. Her twin sister had gotten a scholarship to a good school allowing her self to get in, and her mother was educated enough to send her and her sister to college. Because of her sister and her mom was she able to get a quality education and be successful later on. This example that Gladwell uses helps him achieve his purpose.

           Besides his personal examples he uses historical research in order to achieve his purpose. In his book he mentions why Asians seem to be smarter in math than most races. He explains through his historical research how the Asians had a legacy of hard work, do to their history of growing rice patties. Because they mainly lived off of rice rather then wheat, the daily care is more difficult and involved mathematical techniques. Through this example, that is supported with historical research, Gladwell shows his readers that the cultural aspect of growing rice patties have allowed Asians to become more successful in math. Because Gladwell used the rhetorical devices of personal examples and historical research he is able to successfully achieve his purpose.