Proposal Topic Proposal 11/9

• Topic: Much of the trash at Orange Leaf could easily be recycled rather than thrown away.
• Audience: Manager, Owners of Orange Leaf
• Problem: There is too much trash being thrown out at Orange Leaf every day.  
• Solution: We use some reusable containers, but perhaps we could promote the use of them more, give discounts/coupons for bringing them back in to use. Also, rather than simply throwing away all of our bowls, provide customers with recycling receptacles to place their bowls when finished. Also, promoting that our product is recyclable (or perhaps we could aim for made from recycled materials too) would bring business and encourage recycling in our community.
• Opposition: If we provide recycling receptacles, that would mean more work to sort through and make sure it was all correctly recycled. Also a recycling bin/truck to pick it up would have to be organized which would cost.
• What kind of research is needed (What kind of qualitative info and how will you gather it): Research companies that have moved towards recycling and how it has affected their business and community. Costs of adding recycling to a business (pick up, bins, etc.)

11/9/14

 The purpose of this assignment is to give us practice with writing proposals, introduce us to new things in our writing such as using tables and graphs, as well as to continue our practice with respectfully responding to those with different view points. 
If you could possibly give us some examples of what you are expecting from us regarding a cover letter that would clarify any confusions I have. I don't often use cover letters in my writing, and so further explanation and examples would be helpful. 

11/6

• Practical Proposals are more narrow typically. They are more exact and focused on getting something done. Policy proposals are often more broad, concerned with outlining rather than focusing, They also have are focused at a level higher than local usually. If someone wanted to improve Louisville's recycling system, that would be a Practical Proposal, whereas improving the recycling system of the entire United States would involve a Policy Proposal. 
• Three Stages of a proposal Argument: 
1. The problem is described 
2. Solution is proposed 
3. solution must be justified 
• Recycling Bins: 
1. Incorrect items are being placed in the blue recycling bins around campus. 
2. Send out emails and put out fliers promoting theproper information on what is to be placed into these bins. Make sure that all of the information is clear and easy to skim. Clear pictures should be included. 
3. Often times people don't think about what they are throwing away and where they throw it. If the information is readily available and in their face, some or more likely to catch on. And while not all will benefit from this solution, hopefully it would stir enough students to promote them to instruct some of their students on the information. 

I could not find the link for the assignment outline that you mentioned. 

Reflection 11/5

Personally, I am mostly content with the comments I receive through email on my papers, but I know that conferences can really help others. So, if we were to continue with conferences I would prefer group conferences. I feel that this would save your time and allows us to all receive feedback from multiple sources. And while some may feel uncomfortable having someone other than the professor reading their papers, I feel that learning to deal with peer review can really boost people's confidence in writing and sharing, at least it has for me in the past. So, personally I don't really mind either way, so whatever is best for others is fine.
Some changes that I made to my paper include citing a new source and incorporating it into my paper, as well as trying to clarify some areas, including my thesis. I also tried to balance the narrative and argumentative aspects of my paper more.

Causal Essay Outline 10/27

Erin Kurtz

Issue: Students do not feel that Foreign Language courses are necessary.

Claim: Our world is growing smaller and ever more interconnected. Language study is needed in order for us to branch out and broaden our horizons and understand the world around us and the role we play with in it.

Introduction:

In High School I took three foreign languages: German, Chinese, and Japanese. And in each class I dealt with complaints from other students regarding the two year language requirement at our school. I graduated from High School with eight language credits, four times the honors requirement. Besides this, I was friends with students from all over the world (Bosnia, Germany, China, Korea, etc.) leading me to learn more in depth about so many more countries, cultures, and languages. At first I didn't recognize how much all of this was changing my views, but now as I look back I can see the effect that such a variety of culture had on my outlook. And so, while so many of my fellow students found the requirement to be pointless, I felt that there should be more required in this department.

Now, obviously language is not everyone’s forte, but if only my fellow students could have at least realized the importance of sitting through their compulsory two years. Through these classes, whether they realized it or not, they (hopefully) became more culturally informed, more aware of the world around them and their place in the world, and how important cooperation and diversity is. But often I would still hear complaints about these classes on the grounds that they have no use for a foreign language, they don’t plan on traveling, or their career of choice doesn’t involve language. And while I respect their career choices, I don’t think they realize just how small and connected our world has grown.

Causes/Consequences:

·         No matter your career, language and cultural understanding is needed to do well.

o   Language proficiency is a major plus on a resume.

§  No matter what profession someone chooses to pursue, they are sure to encounter and need to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, in some cases they may not even speak in the same language. On an even more extreme level, if they choose to work for a company, there may come a day where they want to send them overseas for some reason. What is one to do it a situation like this? Sure, even with two years in a language, anyone would be uncomfortable and unable to really speak a language well, but this acts as a great platform in case additional language study is required as well as providing some previous cultural understanding.

·         Promotes cultural understanding in a shrinking world. This is needed in order to communicate and compete.

·         You don’t have to travel to need these skills/knowledge.

·         So much of the world is ahead of us in this aspect already.

o   "All but two countries (Ireland and Scotland) in the European Union mandate the study of a foreign language, which usually begins in primary school. With the exception of Italy and Wales, all European students must learn a foreign language throughout their compulsory education." (Eurydice 2005)

·         Helps in other areas of study

o   • Applying current standard practices of foreign language instruction ("Five Cs of Communication, Culture, and Connections with other disciplines, Comparisons with students' native languages and cultures, and use of the foreign language in Communities outside the classroom") reinforces English language course content of other coursework. (Curtain & Dahlberg 2004)

• Learning another language can enhance knowledge of English structure and vocabulary (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004).

Conclusion:

Reminder to audience of claim in introduction. Reiterate points and make a final statement to persuade audience of overall claim. 

10/24

The purpose of assignment 3 is to improve our argumentative writing, especially the ability to prove and persuade using causality. There is also a focus again on incorporating outside sources and disagreeing or conceding a point made respectfully.
 I find the assignment quite clear and find nothing confusing.

10/22

Both articles use sufficient evidence from statistics and research. I feel that there could have been more evidence provided for each, but it was sufficient for their purposes. Of the two, the article about marriage provided the best evidences to support their claim.

I found the first article about marriage more persuasive because it was more formally written and I felt it provided more relevant evidence. Also, due to the extensive information about the author at the end of the article I felt that I could trust her more as an author. I also felt that this argument was simply more thought out.

Reflection 10/15

1.      How were they structurally similar and different?

2.       What do you think were the three major aspects of rhetorical analysis essay (ad analysis)?

3.       What do you think are the three major aspects of evaluation argument?

4.       What did you learn from the two major assignments?

1.       Both papers had the same basic structure beginning with a thesis and expanding from there, hitting on each criteria mentioned in the thesis and providing evidence to support (classical structure). Both use analysis and argument (both evaluation). Different: Had to use information from other sources in the second paper, used citation.

2.        Making a logical argument, becoming familiar with new terms such as ethos, logos, pathos, and Kairos, and using precision and clarity in our argument.

3.        Evaluating an artifact without bias, citing information from other sources, and narrowing our category and criteria down well.

4.       I learned the term Kairos and became more familiar with ethos, pathos, and logos. 

Evaluation Argument Works Cited 10/1

Works Cited

Lemire, Christy. "The Fault in Our Stars Movie Review (2014)." All Content. Roger Ebert, 6 June 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-fault-in-our-stars-2014>.

Stevens, Dana. "The Fault In Our Stars Didn’t Make Me Cry—Am I a Bad Person?" Slate Magazine. Slate, 6 June 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2014/06/the_fault_in_our_stars_starring_shailene_woodley_reviewed.html>.

Morris, Wesley. "Die Another Day." Grantland. N.p., 6 June 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://grantland.com/features/tom-cruise-edge-of-tomorrow-review/>.

Evaluation Argument Introduction 10/1

The Fault in Our Stars came out in early June of 2014 and was based off of the bestselling young adult novel by John Green. The Fault in Our Stars is about a girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster who was diagnosed with cancer. She’s young, cynical, and broken, afraid of connecting with others for fear she’ll hurt them in the end too. She keeps this up until Augustus Waters is able to break through the barriers that she put up around herself. Augustus is now cancer free, but understands the pain and struggle that Hazel feels. The story revolves around their relationship as it starts as friendship and turns into something more. From first glance, this film has all of the criteria to be a typical cheesy teenage “sick flick”, but this film manages to be more than that. Through phenomenal acting, and a wonderful script this film is able to touch the hearts of its audience as it delves into the struggles of cancer, the brevity of life, and love. 

Proposal 9/25

For my essay I have chosen to write about the movie The Fault in Our Stars. This movie came out in early June of 2014 and was based off of a bestselling young adult book. The Fault in Our Stars is about a girl named Hazel with cancer. She’s young, cynical, and broken, afraid of connecting with others for fear she’ll hurt them in the end too. She keeps this up until Augustus Waters is able to break through the barriers that she put up around herself. Augustus is now cancer free, but understands the pain and struggle that Hazel feels. The story revolves around their relationship as it starts as friendship and turns into something more. But this is not meant to just be some cheesy teenage romance, it’s about the brevity of life, the struggles of cancer, and love.

This movie did very well this summer in the box office and just recently came out on DVD as well. This movie did have mixed reviews, much due to the intended audience. Some people were unable to look past the teenaged romance aspects, but those who did were able to get so much more out of the plot. Something noted in negative reviews was that the filming was awkward at times. This is something that I noticed myself when watching the movie, and it did affect my viewing of the movie to a degree, but other aspects such as the acting and script made up for the filming aspects. Some positive reviews state that while the script may lack in places or simply come out awkward in the movie (screenwriters attempted to keep the movie as true to the book as possible) while they didn’t in the book, but the phenomenal acting made up for it. 

9-24

The purpose of assignment 2 is to improve our argumentative writing, especially in the sense of making it more thoughtful and respectful towards differing views. This assignment will also give us practice with citing outside sources in order to use this in our argument. I feel that it is all quite clear and have no questions regarding the assignment. 

9/8 - Possible Ads

Ad 1

•  Appeals to male's sense of masculinity by challenging societal views because nursing is viewed as a female dominated career field. 
•  Uses a logical appeal by providing photos and information of male nurses because it provides a connection and reliability as a reader. 
•   Uses "masculine" hobbies that readers can connect to such as surfing and rock climbing because it showcases to readers that nurses can be masculine men too. 
•  Uses emotional appeal in the statement "Are you man enough to be a nurse" because it challenges a man's masculinity. 

Ad 2 

•  Uses emotional appeal by using an image of a tie as a noose because it creates a more realistic image and situation to the viewer, increasing the sense of urgency. 
• Appeals to audiences emotions because it showcases difference in views of a child and adult, allowing the audience a glimpse into the viewpoint of a child and how they see things differently. 
•  Appeal to logic through the use of statistics in the ad because this gives the viewer more background and sense of reliability. 
•  Creates a connection with the viewer through the use of something so common as a school tie because most people will have some connection to a student, increasing their concern for the subject of the ad. 

Ad 3 

•  Uses emotional appeal because it suggests activities women cannot do, prompting an presumably angry response from its target audience. 
•  Appeals to an audience's humanity through the image because the woman in the photo is positioned so that she stares straight at the reader, creating a connection with the reader. 
•  Uses logical appeal because it states that the information in the search engine was indeed taken from an actual Google search. 
•   Uses an emotional appeal because it draws upon women's personal experiences, providing realistic examples for the viewer to connect with. 

9/3 - Sample Rhetorical Analyses

The first essay titled What Would You do to Live has many lacking qualities. Even from just viewing the title, the reader begins to see some of these aspects. The title is not properly capitalized, which is just the first of other spelling and grammatical errors to follow. In only the second line of the essay "David Holcberg" is even spelled incorrectly. This severely diminishes the credibility of the author already, and the reader has only just begun to read the essay. Moving beyond the grammatical aspects, the author of this essay addresses most of the criteria, but does not really go into depth. For example, when giving background, the author barely skims the information, not giving the reader enough information to really understand. In contrast, the author of the second essay gives much better background. They actually give their reader some information, introducing Ayn Rand's philosophy and other relevant information.

Moving on to the second essay, I found this one to be much better, although it could also still use some improvement. The thesis in this essay was better than the previous, but still was not very clear. They allow examination from multiple angles by stating the values of the expected audience and diplomatically suggesting an audience that may not agree with the philosophies suggested. This author clearly addresses Holcberg's use of ethos pathos, and logos. This essay also uses evidence from Holcburg's essay well, even bringing in some outside evidence, while I found that the first essay almost uses too many quotations, not allowing for much individual thought within the essay. So, overall, I would give the second essay a better grade than the first, but both essays have areas in which they can improve.

Assignment 1 - 9/4

The purpose of this assignment is to put our knowledge of arguments into practice. Through this assignment our understanding of a well thought out argument and its components should be displayed. Some such characteristics include the use of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos. This assignment should also familiarize students more with these terms, some of which may be completely new concepts. To do this assignment, the chosen ad must be understood from multiple angles in order to give a well thought out argument and show an understanding of the image and assignment.

I find Assignment 1 to be quite straight forward and do not feel that anything is needed to make it clearer. However, there is one thing I do find somewhat confusing at this time. This is the mention of federal disclaimers. It says that the federally mandated copy of ads should not be used in the analysis. Since I’m not completely sure I know what this is referring too, I am a bit confused as to what is meant. Once that is clarified that would probably answer any other questions that this prompted for me. 

8/27 - Gordon Adam's Petition

Gordon Adam’s case is unique and rather difficult. Many people have been in a similar situation in which they must take a class that they believe is unnecessary. However, Mr. Adam’s situation is unique, considering his age and life experience.

This man is not an ordinary student. Typically, University students graduate high school and go straight into college. There are some outliers, whether they wait a few years to begin college, they drop out of high school and get their GED, or some other occurrence, but very few leave school after the ninth grade and return with their GED in their 30’s. The idea of having required courses are for the purpose of a well-rounded education and enabling students to experience new areas of study. This is in order for students to be able to better make big decisions regarding their future with more knowledge and understanding of some of their options, as well as varying other reasons.

However, this is intended for the vast majority of students who are at an age where they are possibly just leaving home, gaining independence, and just beginning to really experience the world. This man is already 34 and has already worked for quite a long time (where he frequently used math while working, showing that he does have an understanding of the subject), entering college with far more world experience and knowledge. Now, I do not believe that he should be totally exempt from required courses, whether they be math or other. In place, I feel that he should be offered an opportunity to earn the credit some other way (through a test or some other option), or perhaps it could be considered that his requirement be reduced from the two math courses, to only one.

While his argument may be weak at points and holds some gaps, that doesn't mean that his argument cannot be considered. Taking into consideration his atypical student status and all of the life experience he has, I do feel that his situation should be addressed. In my view of this, it is not the path he is following now and whether or not he will use math that concerns me, but what he has already proven to know and experience. If he was able to prove his knowledge and competency, he would not need the class. The best solution for the situation would be to grant his petition, under the stipulation that he demonstrates his knowledge and understanding of the given subject.