Quiz 3

In comparing the two paragraphs while they both have merits i believe on the whole the second paragraph is more successful in convincing me as the audience. So the first passage starts with the describing of the personal importance of the topic to the author. This could be an attempt to elicit sympathy(pathos) especially since he describes the urge to be constantly coming to him. Moving forward he mentions the new testament and how his message is being derived in part by its scripture. This could elicit a response from a devout believer (pathos) and make the author's message seem to have a religious bend to it. The rest of the article involves explaining  chronos and kairos and doesn't seem to mention and solutions or way to combat climate change and as such i believe this to be the weaker article.

In contrast the second article focuses on the use of evidence and actually argues points to combat climate change. These appeals and plans to combat climate change in the structure of political and business platforms leaves the article with a logos based appeal. To further backup my statement the author of the second paragraph lays plans for financial assistance the growing of alternative energy sources and urges federal authorities to cooperate. Based on the more detailed info and plans on how to accomplish their plans i support the second article as the more effective one.

(Draft 1) Paper #2 Rhetorical Analysis

Paper #2 Rhetorical Analysis

            Rhetoric by definition means “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques”. Inherent in the definition the goal of the author is to persuade. Ways to accomplish persuasion are to appeal to human values. While these very values are subject to individuals bias there are overarching approaches that are more or less effective based on the individual. Ethos is an appeal to ethics, and it is a means of convincing someone that they can be trusted based on their character and reputation. Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience through raising an emotional response while Logos is an appeal to logic. These tools are used in literary settings to argue a point.

            I have chosen a post from the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Based on his personal preferences Trump chooses to utilize the social media site “Twitter” for both personal and political posts. The platform Twitter has a character limit of 140 per post. The character limit effects the way the platform is used. Being limited to 140 characters means that this platform doesn’t have the utility that a book or a blog provides due to the limiting of space. This limit its safe to say forces the user to condense their posts and makes the focus on diction even greater if they are attempting to argue a point that would require more that the allotted space. This point is exceedingly valid by pointing out that while a book or other non-character restricted platform allows the benefit of infinite space to the author in which they could use to construct an effective Ethos, Pathos or Logos oriented argument.

            The post is as follows ““One of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen!" says Rush Limbaugh. Many agree. Yet FAKE MEDIA calls it differently! Dishonest”. This post by President Donald Trump came in response to public and media testimonies that his speech on 17 Feb 2017 was for lack of a better term “bad”. There are multiple levels on which this particular post can be dissected and due to Trumps Emphasis on the “FAKE MEDIA” I will also have to provide context to this accusation, while the context is still on his twitter account it is however on a separate twitter post which I will also provide a link to. To begin Donald Trump Quotes Rush Limbaugh and his opinion on his speech in response to the accusations. In the sphere of politics Rush Limbaugh summarized is a conservative political commentator who works on Fox News (also known to be of conservative leaning) and who’s party alignment coincides with Trump’s own. This is telling in who the audience of this tweet. Rush Limbaugh is a very well-known and respected figure in republican media and as such his opinion would hold significant weight with those who agree with him and have developed a following so the target audience is republicans. This is a tactical move on Trumps part, by actively including Rush Limbaugh he is using his reputation to solidify his own while appealing to their Republican audience! This is a direct example of ethos use.

Donald Trump in the first half of his point defends his speech and himself as I’ve argued and for the second half he employs an Ad Hominem attack on the “FAKE MEDIA”. To build on that first we must look at what an Ad Hominem attacks is. An ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy in which an argument is diverted or ignored by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the “person” making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the meat of the argument itself. President Donald Trump employs this attack to discredit the news outlets involved in covering the negative response to his speech. By employing ad hominem, he discredits them by attempting to call into question their bias and truthfulness. By doing this he can if his argument is accepted invalidate the criticism towards him while turning the tables and being the attacker himself.

Quote Analyzed

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832730328108134402

Context to “FAKE NEWS”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065

In-Class Mini Rhetorical Analyses

In-Class Mini Rhetorical Analyses
Personally i was interested in this post because it shows how Melania Trump as the first lady is taking on her role. Melania's posted her meeting with Israel's prime ministers wife apparently discussing matters between our country's. I would assume that this post is supposed to signify that the relationship between the United States and Israel is still strong and ongoing based on the general friendly cooperative tone of the tweet. In this case since the post is in relation to global politics i feel this post's audience is the world and its governments. Melania's choice of diction seems to me to indicate the use of logos to reinforce her role as first lady and thus her political power. For example their "friendship" is a sign of cooperation between not just two people but two countries thus raising the significance of the statement.

"Thank you Mrs. Netanyahu for your friendship and dedication #PowerOfTheFirstLady" Via Twitter
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/832082505528442881

Reflection #3

So while writing my final draft I referred to my notes from the optional class quite a lot. I feel like it’s a good thing I followed the suggestions from the teacher but on the other hand I can’t help but feel that I could have done better. I’m so used to writing a certain way that changing it may actually make me get a worse score. By that I’m referring to the conclusion, I incorporated the whole “so what?” thought process and instead of restating my thesis I provided a sort of dialog that was intended to defend and further prove the thesis. Other than that I fixed my quotation, the fact that I’ve been implementing quotes for so long and sometimes have been doing it wring bother me but I’m glad I’ve acquired this skill.  So in continuing to polish my paper I added another “topic” to my paper. While I had focused on privacy and its effect on the self-writing capabilities as a whole I added “Identity” to the mix as I felt it has a lot of overlay into my arguments. I hope it doesn’t feel tacked on but I used the topic to solidify my argument in the conclusion, as to whether this was a good decision I have yet to receive a second opinion.

(Final Draft) Facebook: History and culture

Facebook: History and culture

Facebook from its inception as a social media platform has evolved beyond that singular purpose and is now a fluid multipurpose platform from which self-writing capabilities have arisen. However, with the rise in claims of vast data archiving the value of the medium is effected in various regards.

            The history of Facebook began in February of 2004 as Mark Zuckerberg and a group of others created a simple messaging platform aimed at friend to friend communication. However, as time passed it began to encompass “more than 800 college networks” and from there Spread to a global phenomenon. Following this incremental changes such as the inclusion of individual posts that serve to inform other of their activities or just information in general began. These among other changes would continue to manifest until the Facebook we know today emerged. The platform today is a behemoth with 1.86 billion monthly active users and has also expanded the available features. No longer just a message board it is now a tool for companies to advertise, governments to collect data en masse, and people to express they’re likes and dislikes as well as opinions and themselves. This possibility of personal expression is allowed through a Facebook “page” introduced as early as 2004 and expanding uses continually as far up as 2011 with the introduction of “timelines” which in literary terms provide a clear value. In addition to timelines groups of like minded individuals or with shared interests can join a “group” and use this space to create narratives or even by limiting the audience use that space as a public journal akin to a stage and thus makes us the actors.

            So has this platform with its features been used in terms of self-writing and has it had an effect on self-writing culture? Absolutely Facebook is inherently different from a journal or diary in the sense that for a vast majority of users it is used as a platform to network as opposed to keeping a log of information. By this unless an individual takes advantage of the security and privacy features the post is more often than not going to be public. It is safe to say that a closed diary tucked away in the darkness of a room is more secure than a very platform that has “social” in the tagline. So because of this even if one is to keep a, log of their life as some do it is still going to be subject to outward public opinions and the holdings of the super ego. Due to this difference in security and the very nature of the medium Facebook cannot emulate the diary in terms of security and content and therefore comparisons of the two are limited.

            As discussed the matter of privacy and what one may or may not post is relevant in its effect on self-writing. Whether this effect is conscious of unconscious it is still relevant. Rethlefsen states that “Regular people have also started seriously to weigh the benefits of Facebook against the potentially high cost of loss of privacy.” This quote and the journal it is attached to is telling how far Facebook has come from its roots as a simple “board based” platform in which all comments were stacked in one space and accessed together instead of fragmented posts. It is because of this information and the understanding that once it’s on the internet its “there forever” lead to an effect on the validity or at least honesty of the content posted on Facebook. This feeling of potentially being watched and recorded actively changes all forms of self-writing. From stories that may be edited to be less accurate or detailed for fear of potential archiving to the very rhetoric in which the “posts” are constructed the changes exist. In some cases, this online “persona” that an individual creates can actually harm themselves. It is regarded by some as common knowledge but businesses and organizations tend to look at social media to determine whether or not a candidate is good to hire. This possibility of losing out on a job is just another example that while Facebook is a self-writing platform you can’t always believe what you read online.

Work cited:

Mat Honan, Gizmodo, 2/01/12 5:16pm, UTRGV Library, http://gizmodo.com/5881431/view-facebooks-entire-history-as-a-timeline, Accessed February 1^st 2006

Rethlefsen, Melissa L, search.proquest.com, Library Journal; New York, (Jul 01, 2010), http://search.proquest.com.ezhost.utrgv.edu:2048/docview/818699761?pq-origsite=summon,  Accessed February 1^st 2006

Statista, Number of Facebook users worldwide 2008-2016 | Statistic, http://www.easybib.com/cite/eval?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statista.com%2Fstatistics%2F264810%2Fnumber-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide%2F /. Accessed February 14, 2017

Reflection #2

Reflection

The biggest help in my comprehension in the task of writing a good paper was by far my decision to attend the optional Friday class wherein I received a lot of good tips. For one grammatical or diction based confusions were cleared up. While the message was there the one on one allowed for the rephrasing while keeping sentiments the same, a second opinion really helped in my realization that there was even a problem in the first place. Another point was how to better my conclusion. Before I had held other notions of what really constituted an ending paragraph, aka rephrasing the thesis and concluding well. However, with the introduction of the question “So what?” I began to see that maybe a good conclusion consists of the preemptive answering of that question. I’ll work on refining that point as it falls out of my comfort zone of how I’ve always written. While those aren’t the only things I learned (incorporating quotes correctly) I feel that I’ve gained a minor hold on some new valuable literary techniques. 

(Rough Draft#2) Facebook: History and culture

Facebook: History and culture

Facebook from its inception as a social media platform has evolved beyond that singular purpose and is now a fluid multipurpose platform from which self-writing capabilities have arisen.  Because Facebook has the capability to archive users' posts, people wouldn't want to write something that may have a permanent averse effect on their lives.

            The history of Facebook began in February of 2004 and began as a simple messaging platform aimed at friend to friend communication. However, as time passed it began to encompass “more than 800 college networks” and from there began to see incremental changes such as the inclusion of posts that serve to inform other of their activities, these changes would continue to manifest until the Facebook we know today emerged. The platform today is a behemoth and has expanded the available features in turn. No longer just a message board it is now a tool for companies to advertise, governments to collect data en masse, and people to express they’re likes and dislikes as well as opinions and themselves. This possibility of personal expression is allowed through a Facebook “page” introduced as early as 2004 and expanding uses continually as far up as 2011 with the introduction of “timelines” which in literary terms provide a clear value. In addition to timelines groups of likeminded individuals or with shared interests can join a “group” and use this space to create narratives or even by limiting the audience use that space as a public journal akin to a stage.

            So how is this platform with its features used in terms of self-writing and has it had an effect on self-writing culture? Absolutely Facebook is inherently different from a journal or diary in the sense that for a vast majority of users it is used as a platform to network as opposed to keeping a log of information. By this unless an individual takes advantage of the security and privacy features the post is more often than not going to be public. It is safe to say that a closed diary tucked away in the darkness of a room is more secure than a very platform that has “social” in the tagline. So because of this even if one is to keep a, log of their life as some do it is still going to be subject to outward public opinions and the holdings of the super ego. Due to this difference in security and the very nature of the medium Facebook cannot emulate the diary in terms of security and content and therefore comparisons of the two are limited.

            As discussed the matter of privacy and what one may or may not post is relevant in its effect on self-writing. Whether this effect is conscious of unconscious it is still relevant. “Regular people have also started seriously to weigh the benefits of Facebook against the potentially high cost of loss of privacy.” This quote and the journal it is attached to is telling how far Facebook has come from its roots as a simple “board based” platform in which all comments were stacked in one space and accessed together instead of fragmented posts. It is because of this information and the understanding that once it’s on the internet its “there forever” lead to an effect on the validity or at least honesty of the content posted on Facebook. This feeling of potentially being watched and recorded changes all forms of self-writing. From stories that may be edited to be less accurate or detailed for fear of potential archiving to the very rhetoric in which the “posts” are constructed the underlying potential of Facebook's policies have an effect on those who are aware of said policies.

Work cited:

Mat Honan, Gizmodo, 2/01/12 5:16pm, UTRGV Library, http://gizmodo.com/5881431/view-facebooks-entire-history-as-a-timeline, Accessed February 1^st 2006

Rethlefsen, Melissa L, search.proquest.com, Library Journal; New York, (Jul 01, 2010), http://search.proquest.com.ezhost.utrgv.edu:2048/docview/818699761?pq-origsite=summon,  Accessed February 1^st 2006

(Rough Draft#1) Facebook: History and culture

Facebook: History and culture

Facebook from its inception as a social media platform has evolved beyond that singular purpose and is now a fluid multipurpose platform from which self-writing capabilities have arisen.

            The history of Facebook began in February of 2004 and began as a simple messaging platform aimed at friend to friend communication. However, as time passed it began to encompass “more than 800 college networks” and from there began to see incremental changes that would continue to manifest until the Facebook we know today emerged. The platform today is a behemoth and has expanded the available features in turn. No longer just a message board it is a tool for companies to advertise, governments to collect data en masse, and people to express they’re likes and dislikes as well as opinions and themselves. This possibility of personal expression is allowed through a Facebook “page” introduced as early as 2004 and expanding uses continually as far up as 2011 with the introduction of “timelines” which in literary terms provide a clear value. In addition to timelines groups of like minded individuals or with shared interests can join a “group” and use this space to create narratives or even by limiting the audience use that space as a public journal akin to a stage.

            So how is this platform with its features used in terms of self-writing and has it had an effect on self-writing culture? Absolutely Facebook is inherently different from a journal or diary in the sense that for a vast majority of users it is used as a platform to network as opposed to keeping a log of information. By this unless an individual takes advantage of the security and privacy features the post is more often than not going to be public. It is safe to say that a closed diary tucked away in the darkness of a room is more secure than a very platform that has “social” in the tagline. So because of this even if one is to keep a, log of their life as some do it is still going to be subject to outward public opinions and the holdings of the super ego.

            As discussed the matter of privacy and what one may or may not post is there. “Regular people have also started seriously to weigh the benefits of Facebook against the potentially high cost of loss of privacy.” This quote and the journal it is attached to is telling how far Facebook has come from its roots as a simple “board based” platform. It is because of this information and the understanding that once it’s on the internet its “there forever” lead to an effect on the validity or at least honesty of the content posted on Facebook. This feeling of potentially being watched and recorded changes all forms of self-writing. From stories that may be edited to be less accurate or detailed for fear of potential archiving to the very rhetoric in which the “posts” are constructed the underlying potential of Facebook's policies have an effect on those who are aware of said policies. In conclusion Facebook is a platform which has evolved since its conception in many ways and in a negative way arguably.

Work cited:

Mat Honan, Gizmodo, 2/01/12 5:16pm, UTRGV Library, http://gizmodo.com/5881431/view-facebooks-entire-history-as-a-timeline, Accessed February 1^st 2006

Rethlefsen, Melissa L, search.proquest.com, Library Journal; New York, (Jul 01, 2010), http://search.proquest.com.ezhost.utrgv.edu:2048/docview/818699761?pq-origsite=summon,  Accessed February 1^st 2006