Issue in the US- Brainstorming 10/15

This actually took me a very long time to think of a current issue in the US that I would be interested in writing about. At first I thought of abortion, or the election, then I moved on to crime and, yes, fishing. Then, when I was flipping through a magazine I realized that I'm quite interested in learning about eating disorders- eating too much, eating too little, exercising too much, exercising too little. It's all really quite interesting. It also sort of hits home a bit because I've seen a lot of my close friends and relatives go through troubles with their weight and it will be interesting to learn about the effects of magazines and TV shows have on people, while at the same time 60 million Americans are considered obese. There's plenty of information on this topic and I'm interested in it, so I hope that I'm on the right track. 

Angle of Vision- 10/13

First of all, let me get it out there that I am not a smoker. I think that it's bad for you and in no way pleasures you at all. However, my dad's a smoker so I see the "I'm just really stressed side"; I have friends who say they have a cigarette "only when I'm drinking," etc. For this assignment I chose an image of a smokers lung. The image is a poster of a disintegrated, discolored lung with the words "Smoker's Lung" in white capital letters across the top. This image shows only what happens to a smoker's lung when they smoke- it never brings up the idea that they were stressed, and at the time it made them feel happier or more relieved. The angle of vision is telling you that smoking is bad because it destroys your lungs, it's telling you what happens on the inside, rather than addressing the reasons why you smoked that cigarette. This photo appeals to logos because the point that this image is trying to make is quite clear- smoking is bad for you. The image itself may not be totally credible because no where on the poster do you see the source cited; however, it came from the Boston University website, making it more credible to the viewer. If the viewer is a non smoker than it will most likely appeal to them; however, if they are a smoker they probably won't appreciate it and they'll reject, or on the other hand they may appreciate the awareness and stop smoking. The image of the destroyed lung shows what happens to smokers, but it never addresses what led the person to smoke. 

Classical Arguments- 10/8

This chapter was especially interesting to me because in my Gcom class we are getting really close to the date that our presentations are due. I thought that it was a neat concept that there are two parts of an argument: the truth seeking part and the persuasion part. Once the book tells us these two different parts of an argument it is easy to think of examples of each; however, if this chapter had not brought that to my attention I wouldn't have ever thought of it. Argument, they say, is both a process and a product- gathering information and contributing to that debate. An argument isn't just stating your claim, as many students think, but its collecting data to back up that claim and then presenting it in a way which will persuade the audience through clear, calm evidence. Later on in the chapter the STAR criteria is introduced to us: seeing that there is sufficient evidence, representative and relevant examples, and accurate and up to date data and evidence. I think that the STAR criteria is also useful in developing a speech as well as an argumentative paper. All in all I liked what the chapter said and think it will be useful for not only future papers but future speeches as well.