Author: sscha

Brainstorm Ideas:

• Should students be required to learn an instrument in school?
• Can introverts become good leaders?
• Should tipping in restaurants be mandatory?
• Importance of higher education?

Volume: Ideas and speech must be coherent as their purpose is to be heard by the audience. Not too quiet and not too loud, rather a comfortable conversational volume.

Variety of tone: Varying tone according to the different ideas being discussed disallows a monotone speech. Tone can also help emphasize specific points to help the audience remember important details.

Eye contact with audience members: Eye contact is a way to keep your audience’s attention. If my eyes wander, theirs might too.

Gestures and body movements that flow naturally and expressively: Gestures are also a way to emphasize specific points in a speech. In some cases, they can also enhance a description in the speech.

Peer response:

For this activity, I read Ryan’s response, in which he discusses how as a child, Gregory had no way to control or change the circumstances he was living in. Ryan also explained that they feelings of shame were created about of embarrassment of his socioeconomic status being recognized by others. I also talked about this in my response, as it wasn’t so much his status that he was unhappy about, but more so the recognition of his status to others. Ryan also talked about the intense shame that’s felt when you get embarrassed in front of your crush, while I saw Helene in more of a symbolic way, where she represents what Gregory dreams of being and Gregory likes her because of envy.

Individual Writing:

Over the summer, I watched a Korean historical drama depicting Korea’s struggle for independence in the early 1900s and the beginning of the Japanese control of Korea. At the time, Korea as a country was really weak after isolating itself from the rest of the world and not being current with the technological advancements of the rest of the world. Because of this, they were super vulnerable to occupation of other countries. The Japanese end up colonizing the Korean peninsula and because Korea was so weak as a country, they could barely fight back. However, resistance fighters, calling themselves the Righteous Army, made informal attempts to fight back against the Japanese, but they were unsuccessful as they were no match against the powerful Japanese forces. During this time under Japanese rule, Koreans were severely mistreated by the Japanese, with the men being deported into forced labor or conscription into the Japanese army and the women forced to become comfort women for the Japanese military. Korea remained a Japanese colony for 35 years, until Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces in WWII. Though they were no longer under Japanese rule, Korea had become a divided peninsula, which is still divided today. Because of this era in Korean history, many Koreans still have deep rooted negative feelings towards the Japanese, who never formally apologized.

Group: Sabrina, Lillah, Valyntina

Y. William Ellis (2012) asserts that world problems such as poverty, pollution, war, and hunger are inherent in the current system of world order based on nation-states and economic competition (p. 23).

Y. Global tensions and inequities can be solved if people begin to help one another on a grass-roots basis, moving beyond the current world order of economic competition (p. 23).

N. Ellis (2011) argues that global problems are often a result of exploitation inherent in economic competition. He contends that “grass roots….people-to people linkages irrespective of national borders” can do much to ease global tensions (p. 23).

Y. Economic competition is at the basis of many of the world’s problems (Ellis, 2012, p. 23). Only by seeing ourselves as a single family without the separation of national boundaries can world tensions begin to be eased.

N. Ellis (2011) argues that world problems are caused by overpopulation and that the only possible solution is an enforced tax on families who have more than one child (p. 23).

Alaskan wetlands offer advantages such as erosion and flood control, homes and food for wildlife, and natural beauty and products for humans’ benefit (Hall et al, 2011).

Because they are not readily influenced, assertive people gain respect from others, and they experience success in guiding their own lives, nurturing good relationships, and achieving their goals (Hargie et al, 2000, p. 271).

A Popular Mechanics article notes that University of Georgia researchers have found a new use for worn tires: instead of having them on trees as swings, they’re using them as mulch (“Tires Return”, 2000).

For this activity, I read Sahara’s response, in which she discussed the importance of recognizing the audience. She explains that knowing the audience you have will allow you to build an argument that caters towards them. She included a good example of this from the textbook in which the audience is bored from listening to a presentation they obviously have no interest in. In my own response, I also chose to discuss the importance of understanding the people that constitute your audience, however, I explained that it’s better to assume that now everyone in your audience has the same level of knowledge on a certain topic. This way you can fully explain your points to make sure everyone follows your presentation.

Sahara also included the importance of counter arguments in her response. I think this is a good way to increase credibility in your argument.

For this activity, I read Emily’s response and saw that we both talked about the differences in written arguments and oral arguments. We both agreed that written arguments are pretty standard in using a lot of details when presenting an argument, while in an oral argument, language is more concise and to the point to allow for better understanding in the audience. In Emily’s response, she used the same example in different contexts to describe the differences between the two modes of arguments, while both of my examples were more focused on how a written argument is transformed into an oral one.

Reading Response

I was in a group with Bryanna and Sahara. We all connected the argument to our lives, explaining that we have had difficulties connecting ourselves to certain cultures we’re a part of. For both Sahara and me, we had the difficulty of not being able to speak a certain language our family spoke because it wasn’t spoken to us growing up. For Bryanna, it was not being exposed to the culture at all and not having any sort of connection to it. We all also talked about being divided among the cultures and not truly belonging to any of them.

Essay 2 Feedback

After reading the feedback, there were a few things I could improve upon to strengthen my writing. Though I’ve explained the author’s use of rhetorical arguments in their article, I could also include examples of how effective these arguments are in persuasion. When analyzing counterarguments, I could also include expert opinions that might oppose the argument at hand, showing that some people do argue against it.

As a strength, I think that I’m able to effectively communicate my main ideas. However, I do struggle with expanding upon them and explaining them in detail. I could use more specific examples that relate directly to my main points.

For this activity, I read Ailin’s response.

I saw that we both discussed the differences in the way Grandma Wong communicated with specific friends. She also has a language barrier between herself and all her friends but she doesn’t allow it to intimidate her and has her granddaughter translate for her.

Ailin later talks about the mutual respect that is shown between Grandma Wong and her friends and includes an example of this from her own life. I also talked about this respect and how Grandma Wong is able to sympathize with her friends after understanding the different struggles they went through as a result of their different cultures and backgrounds.

As a multilingual writing piece, I noticed that the piece was written in the voice of Grandma Wong. The author takes into consideration that Grandma Wong isn’t fluent in English and writes it in her broken English.

For this activity, I read Ryan and Katie’s responses. In both of their responses, they focused more on how visual images are useful in creating a concise argument. Katie said that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and this shows that visual media may sometimes be more effective than written arguments because no one wants to sit there and read a thousand words when an image exists that shows the same thing. Ryan also discussed this same point in his opinion, saying “nobody wants to read an entire page that is explaining statistics.” Viewers would rather you show them the statistics. A concise argument is often more effective than a lengthy one.

In my own response, I discussed more about the different aspects of visual arguments. Katie and I both included the color aspect of these arguments, using the Zelda cover art example from the textbook. We both agreed that colors play a more emotional role in arguments. Ryan and I also included the ethics and authority aspect of images, explaining the significance of well-known logos. He took a more emotional approach to these logos, explaining that some logos might anger some people and some might bring pride to others.

A celebrity that came to mind was BTS member RM, who uses a shared Twitter account with the other members. When looking through the posts on BTS’s Twitter page, which has 30 million followers, I noticed that RM seemed to always post photos of nature or himself enjoying the outdoors on his time off of work. Sometimes, he would post photos from his hike in the mountains or photos of himself taking a bike ride by the Han River in Seoul.

His photos seem to try to encourage his fans to also enjoy nature like he does and to cherish the world they have around them. Especially, during this time in the coronavirus pandemic, he seems to be trying to tell people that there are other ways to enjoy being outside while staying safe and away from other people. His posts also seem to encourage people to seek a healthy work and life balance. As someone who is always busy and works very hard for his achievements, he wants to promote that there is more in life than just work, and he shows this by sharing his love for nature.

With such a huge social following, RM seems to have found success in this purpose as many fans around the globe have assumed some social responsibility in caring for the world around them. Last year, for his birthday, his fans hosted an event, named #RMforest, where they planted a mini forest of trees in a park in Seoul.

Catching Clouds 🌧 #RM pic.twitter.com/YufWmDd0o6

— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) July 25, 2020

이러고 삽니다 🌱 pic.twitter.com/Vo0cTcXfFG

— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) August 25, 2019

Analyze or look for uses of pathos, ethos, and logos. Pathos can be found as the tone of the passage or imagery. What kind of emotion does it convey? What emotion does it intend the audience to feel? Ethos is the credibility of the speaker. How is the author qualified to talk about this? What experience does the author have in this topic? Logos is the use of evidence and facts. Is the evidence credible or does it come from a credible source? Sometimes evidence doesn’t explicitly support the argument and the writer must make a connection between what he or she already know and what new information the evidence provides. Kairos is an argument made at a specific time. What occasion is the author writing this in? Is the occasion important to the argument being made?

Visual images can also be a vital portion of an argument. The image may be included for the better understanding of the author’s claims. A sad image may evoke a certain emotion (pathos). An image of a graph or data may suggest evidence that supports the argument.

Essay 2 outline:

P1: Intro – introduce the argument being analyzed

P2: First use of rhetorical device (pathos, ethos, or logos)

P3: Second use of rhetorical device (pathos, ethos or logos)

P4 (if applicable): Third use of rhetorical device (pathos, ethos, or logos)

(for analysis of rhetorical devices, answer above questions)

P5: Conclusion – Was this argument effective? What did I learn from their argument?

• research should be done to build credibility and gather evidence