visual arguments

Pg. 908
#1—

I think the last picture on page 907, Embrace Diversity by Megan Stampfli is the most effective of these visual arguments.  I like how it uses different pieces of paper and magazines to make the face that consists of many different colors.  I also like how they have random words stuck onto the face and around the picture.  All of these words relate to diversity and what diversity can mean to some people.  It shows us that we are all the same even though we look different and have different ideas.  We all come together in unity in America.  Each person is different in their own way, but by being unique we are all similar because we are ourselves.

Pg. 920

#1—

1.       In the first cartoon the boy is wearing platform shoes to be the height required to enter college.  The shoes say “racial references.”  This implies that colleges use the quota system when accepting people into college based on their race.

2.       The second cartoon is showing that people try to base diversity on the race of people.  There is only one black man in the Supreme Court seating in this image and he is saying “the irony escapes me.”  If you want to promote diversity you should not be looking at what race people are, but who those people are.

3.       The third cartoon is showing what life is like for the kids who live in a city like “Detroit’s east side.”  It shows how they can get into college with the help of affirmative action.  And then it shows an older white lady who obviously grew up in poverty and a city similar but wasn’t able to get into college because she is not a minority.

4.       The fourth cartoon is showing the typical type of people admitted into a college based on their diversity or their connections.  The white guy at the end blames the minority for him not being accepted, which in some cases is probably true.

5.       The fifth cartoon shows all the expenses that students spend to even prepare for applying to college and then says that getting into college is quite pricey.  Everything takes money when it comes to education.

I think the third cartoon is most effective because it shows what kids all around the country go through and why it is so hard for some people to get into college while it is so much easier for others.  It also shows how hard work can pay off when trying to get into college.  It shows that affirmative action will help those less fortunate get into college.

visual advertisement

This FedEx advertisement uses an image to portray a message.  The only words on the image are “FedEx Express.”  This is because they don’t want to distract from the overall message of the image by using words.  They want you to focus on who they are trying to endorse through the advertisement.  When I first saw this image, it definitely caught my attention because it is different than something I would normally see.  I believe that is why they decided to make the image look this way.  The ad shows a fragile vase going from the hands of the shipper (on top) to those of the shipped (on bottom).  The ad is implying that FedEx will take good care of fragile packages and get them quickly to their destination.  It is as if the package is going straight into the hands of the person at its destination.  This ad gives a feeling of safety associated with FedEx Express shipping.  The hands are closed tightly around the vase and all seems well in the photo.  They use very neutral colors on the vase because they want to draw your attention to the side of the box where the words “FedEx Express” are written.  These are the only bright colors in the whole image.  They want you to keep your focus on the company in which they are advertising.   The rest of the image is in white, off-white, tan, and black.  This definitely helps the reader see what the ad is trying to sell.

essay #4 outline

 Thesis: To solve the problem that UNCW is currently without a football team, I propose that we create one.  It would benefit the school by uniting the students with school spirit, providing more extracurricular activities, bringing in more money for funding, and attracting more diverse students to this school.

I.              Introduction

a.    Scenario of college football game

b.    Explain how a soccer/basketball game at UNCW compares to that event—prove that not having a football team is a problem

c.    Show that bringing a football team would unite the school with school spirit and bring everyone together for a meaningful social experience

d.    Thesis statement.

II.            Bring the school together in Unity—school spirit

a.    “Students can also gather around and unite in support of their teams.  Not only do the games themselves provide an excellent social event, but there are also additional ways that sports can bring the campus together.  Many teams head up charitable campaigns and take an active lead in campus social life.”

III.           Providing more extracurricular activities for students

a.    Football team

b.    Managers

c.    Marching band

d.    Flag team

e.    Other campus jobs

IV.          Bring in money

a.    Revenue from the game (ie. $40 a ticket)

                                          i.    “None of the funding for athletics comes from tax dollars. So where does the money come from? The largest single source—$9.1 million this year—comes from the activity fees that all students pay as part of their tuition. The second-largest source of revenue is the sale of football tickets, which will amount to about $5 million this year. The two other major sources of revenue are donations from the Pirate Club, which reached a record $3.6 million this year, and distributions from the NCAA and Conference USA, at $2.3 million”

b.    Bring back alumni—donations

c.    Rebut the argument against budget and land constraints

V.            Attract more students to this university—diversity!

a.    Many people I personally know did not come to this school for the exact reason of not having a football team.

b.    Many career seeking athletes will consider this school over others

                                          i.    “Many professional sports millionaires got their start on campus, and becoming well-known before hitting the big leagues can drastically improve an individual’s chance of getting play time on the field in the big game.”

c.    It could provide them with a future in football after school—which in turn would probably turn into more donations by future alumni.

                                          i.    “that may sound perfectly worth it if you’re also interesting in pursuing a career related to sports, broadcasting, or sports medicine & physical therapy!”

Space Exploration Proposal

Humanity has been exploring space for many years now.  It’s been a long time since the first man landed on the moon.  In fact, we know more about outer space than we know about the oceans on Earth.  The fact that we have such a large aircraft doing absolutely nothing is ridiculous.  They spent billions of dollars for something that is pretty much constituting as another satellite.  Although they are trying to build more rockets to explore further out into space, they should take advantage of what they already have.  Modify the ISS so that it will be able to navigate to different planets.  I propose that they try to take it to the newly discovered planet outside our solar system.  This planet is thought to support life because it is known to have water on it, which means that it can have oxygen.  It also is located closely enough to the sun to be able to support life.  If all of these things are true, why are we not trying to explore out there?   It is true that the ISS would need a lot of work for such a long trip and it would require a lot of fuel and time. However, it is currently taking up fuel and time of scientists for no reason.  They are currently doing nothing productive in the field of science on the ISS aircraft.  Their laboratories are not being used to their full potential.  If they would take it out of Earth’s low orbit and explore the places we need to know more about, the aircraft and the money used to make it would be put to much better use.

3rd essay Source credibility

The source that I am evaluating deals with the “American Dream” and what exactly constitutes this dream.  One of the websites I found that deals with this topic is http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/American_Dream.htm.  Just by looking at the URL I can already figure out where this information came from.  The ending “.org” tells me that it is a nonprofit organization.  The “.uk” also tells me it came from the United Kingdom.  By going to the website you learn that the author of this article is Matthew Warshauer, and it is part of American Studies Today Online, which is published by American Studies Resources Centre.  Doing a little bit of research tells me that Warshauer is a history professor at Central Connecticut State University and has a PhD in American Studies.  This gives him a lot of credibility to be writing about the topic of the “American Dream.”  Also, the site does an excellent job in citing its own sources, which are many.  The article was posted in 2002, which isn’t too recent but also not too old to be considered valid information.  The article is long and has many different sections to it.  It shows different sides to the argument and gives many examples of what they call “rags to riches” stories.  Overall I feel that this source is a good one to use.  It comes from an educational origin and is written by an intelligent professor who has completed many years of school dealing with American studies.

Essay #3 topic

I am choosing to write my definitional argument about Victorianism.  Which, by Wikipedia definition, is referred to as “the name given to the attitudes, art, and culture of the latter two-thirds of the 19th century, especially with reference to English-speaking peoples and the British Empire.”  I feel that this topic will be easy to write about because it has certain characteristics associated with Victorianism and how the people were supposed to act during that time.  The era that Queen Victoria reined was from 1837 to 1901.  Everything changed in the 20s when the flappers came along.  Some of the characteristics associated with Victorianism are prudery, bigotry, and hypocrisy. 

Depending on how easily I can find research to back up my topic, I may decide to change it to the Flappers.  They came along in the 1920s and changed everyone’s way of thinking.  These were pretty much the opposite of the Victorian people.  They drank, flaunted their bodies, smoked, danced, listened to jazz, and completely changed the way American women thought.  I also think this will be an easy topic to write about because there is so much information available about the “Roaring Twenties” and the flappers. 

Either one of these topics will be relatively easy to find information about.  I think that hardest part is going to be writing a new type of paper.  I have never done a definitional paper and it was very difficult for me to even think of these ideas.  The credibility of the sources I find will help me narrow down my choice to one.

Essay #2 ideas

For my second essay I am considering writing an evaluative comparison on the movie Schindler’s List and an essay about the Holocaust.  Both of these deal with the Holocaust, but approach it in different ways.  Essays usually deal more with statistical information than anything else.  This means it will take a logical approach to the issue.  The arguments here are to inform the readers about the injustices done to the Jewish population many years ago. 
There is now nothing we can do about what happened, but it is a good way to warn against future instances like this.  Schindler’s list will appeal to me in a more emotional way because they make it very personal.  The whole movie is filmed in black and white except for a red dress that one little girl is wearing.  When you see her at the beginning of the movie you know she will have some significant role.  It is not until the end of the movie that you realize she is one of the dead people on top of a heaping pile of human beings who are being treated like dirt. 
Being able to have the two medias appeal in different ways but still show the same argument will help me a lot in this essay.  I have not yet found the written piece that I will be using to write my essay because many of the ones I’ve tried to use are not free.  But, hopefully I will be able to find one with statistical information about the Holocaust and compare that to the movie, which I believe will be the better argument since it hits home with our emotions.