Peer reviews

Response to Shelby Jackson:

I also did my essay on “Where have all the good Men gone?” I guess we both had a different understanding of the prompt. I thought of it as put the different arguments in either of the two chapters not just classify the whole essay. But your understanding makes sense too. Using your way I think you could put more evidence into it. Because this is a rough draft I feel you are going into the right direction and your final project will be excellent. I think this is the best line in your whole essay, “…Next time you ask for the perfect man realize that he probably doesn’t exist.” This statement can play as the devil’s advocate because yes every woman knows the perfect man does not exist… at first, But what happens when you find the one is not that the perfect man you have always wanted?

 

Response to Alexis Aldana:

You and I wrote on the same subject. Although we saw different points I still see where you are coming from. You did a really good job using the writing aspects we learned in class. I felt most of your essay pointed out the good arguments and how they use logos, ethos, or pathos and had evidence. There was only one piece of evidence I did not agree with; you said, “Another statistic that she uses is that girls mature faster than boys and never has that statement been truer than it is in today’s modern world.” I find this false after being in college and living on campus you can see most girls are bitches (excuse my language). Guy’s tend to get along with other guys and I see that as a sign of maturity. Other than that I agree with everything else you said.

Essay 1 rough draft

Ashley Currie

Robert LaBarge

ENG 102

25 January 2013

 

            In the new college textbook coming out the first two chapters are about arguments. Chapter one is “Well-made Arguments” and chapter two is titled “Poorly made Arguments”. One of the articles chosen for this book is “Where have all the good Men gone?” In helping the editor I will place the arguments within the article into one of these two chapters. This article is from a reliable research. It is believe that this article has well-made arguments and poorly made arguments.

            Starting with the first chapter of well-made arguments pre-adulthood will be in there. “Pre-adults don't know what is supposed to come next” (Hymowitz). There is nothing to argue about in this statement because it is the truth. This argument is well put together. Yes, adolescents know what to expect next whether it be college, get a job, and move out there parents or any of those in combination. But what about the stage after that and before one is considered an adult; Pre-adult. After college, starting your career is usually next. What if one does not know what his career path is? What is he to do? There is no guidance for this. So, yes pre-adults don’t know what’s coming next.

            Also in the same chapter would go what makes men so childish. The answer along with evidence is media. It offers no help when grown men are in movies acting like teenager. One movie that proves it is ‘Ted’ how many grown men does one knows that sit and talks to a teddy bear likes is their best friend and dink and smoking/doing drugs all day at a dead end job; not many. Talking let alone having a best friend that is a teddy bear is childish. And there are much better choices than doing drugs one choice would to find a job with growth potential. This would be a step in the right direction to becoming a man. This argument is well made and provides no fallacies.

            On the contrary there are some arguments in this article that should be put in the poorly made argument chapter.  A perfect night for a guy in his 20s is said to be “hang around the PlayStation with his bandmates, or a trip to Vegas with his college friends.” Considering the author of this article is a women she has made an over generalization of the guy population. Most guys in their 20s would not see this as a perfect night but as a downtime activity (guy floor mate). A guy might say the perfect night is going out to pick up girls. As a women author she can offer very little insight into the men culture. It also comes off as a little bias.

            Another argument in this chapter could be focused on women to not just men. One of the most bias arguments in here would be that women get tired of having to deal with men and having children so they just go to the sperm bank. This argument seems harsh and a waste of space. As if the author ran out of reasons why men suck. It also lacks fair appeal to logic. I would not consider this a good argument.

             In General one could say most of this article belongs in chapter two: Poorly made arguments but for the books sake a few good ones were spotted. A way to improve these arguments would to provide more evidence why guys are yet to be in the men category on life rather than picking at the useless and debatable facts. A little less use of abrasive and dismissive tone would be helpful and to not fall into the fallacies of arguments to prove a point.  Altogether a couple of good arguments were made against men but the question was never answered. Where have all the good Men gone?

Homework 2

          In my English 101 class our last essay was an argumentative research paper. This paper was to help us use ethos, pathos, and logos so we would be prepared for English 102. My topic was funding for fine arts programs in schools. I used a lot of pathos appeals because you have to find like a soft spot in the reader. I used examples of children with no art teacher and just their homeroom teacher who maybe did not know how to draw and how horrible their projects were. Who wants to see a child sad because their art project isn’t as good as someone else’s: nobody? In the ethos category I had interviewed some teachers that do not have art or music teachers in there school. They stated how hard it was to incorporate it into the daily schedule and about the cost of supplies and that sometimes it had to come out of their pocket without any reimbursement. I also put in information of an art teacher’s salary and showed what they could do with the money since they are not going to pay someone else to do that job. Logos was kind of easy for this essay because it is an argumentative essay so everything I say has to have logic behind it or who is going to believe me. If an essay does not flow most people will not listen. I think this essay really helped me get an understanding of ethos, pathos, and logos since I had not been introduced to it in high school.

Homework 1

Homework 1

The first “Not just words” image that gets my attention is on page 43. It’s a picture of the American flag with company logos/symbols as stars. The first thing I think when I see this picture is that it’s cool. Also there are 50 stars not 30.  I first respond to seeing a flag then to the logos. They have used American companies to put in the American flag. That is clever. But on the other hand why choose these symbols. Some of the logos on here bring up mixed emotions like the camel in the top row. The only thing I can think of for a camel is the cigarettes. Yes, a ton of Americans do it but is it the right message. On the cigarette package there is a warning. I don’t think the American flag represents a warning. The other logo that would present mixed emotions is the playboy bunny. Think of it as instead of 30 logos on the flag; picture it as 30 different flags each with a different logo. I’m pretty sure the only images for playboy are half-naked or fully naked girls. That’s not what America stands for as a country. I think if a picture of a flag with different logos is presented it should have positive messages.  If I were to give this image a title I would call it ‘Functioning America’. Because every one of those images represents something Americans use in their everyday life even if it is promoting a bad message.  

 

 

The other “Not just words” that got my wheels turning was on page 71. It is a poster of Quality. With a quoted as followed; the race for quality has no finish line. So technically it’s more like a death march. The picture is of a boy running down a road that has no end.  Yes this picture shows irony because what is the point of running down a road that doesn’t end its pointless and a waste of time. But then you look at the picture after reading the quote and you can tell the boy is determined. When I interpret this I think of it as to get to quality (perfection) you almost kill yourself to get it that perfect. Overall I think this poster is genius it has so many different messages depending on your outlook on life. If you are negative about life you see it as why bother trying. If you have a positive outlook on life you think going the extra mile is worth it even if it kills you. If you are just neutral about life just living day to day one might say I might try but if it gets to hard I’m turning around. I think the intended audience for this poster is someone who needs a little motivation in their life. A little kick in the butt. Logic and reason are present in this poster because yes hard work does take time but it might be worth it: the logic part. The reason part: What are the possible outcomes of putting a little more time into something? As you think of these outcomes they are going to be positive ones.