Closing Argument

Today we have argued that the true message behind Christmas is of altruism by talking about how people generously give to those in their communities during the holiday, how people spend as much money as they have to in order to reach their families, how there would be no need to give gifts if there were no focus on altruism and lastly how there are more donations to institutionalized charities to assist those in need during the holiday season.

Paraphrase-
According to the article there is an increase in the amount of people that are making donations on the behalf of others (NY Times, 2006).

Summarize- More people around Christmas time are making donations to charity organizations on the behalf of others. The significant increase in donations to charities around Christmas has prompted the group, Oxfam America to start an online giving website, that allows people to make donations on the behalf of others, as a gift, on the internet. This website since it's creation has made over $400,000 (Ny Times, 2006).

Direct Quote- “Heifer International, which provides livestock to needy families worldwide, took in $1.25 million in gift donations on Dec. 23 and Dec. 24 last year” (NY Times, 2006).

Ideas for class debate

Topic: Christmas Brings Family Together

According to the United States Bureau of Transportation

Monday, December 22, 2003 - During the Christmas/New Year's travel period, long-distance travel grows as much as 23 percent compared to the rest of the year, according to a new National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) report from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

During the 2001 Christmas-New Year's season, travelers made 16.5 million daily one-way long-distance trips, compared to 13.3 million daily during the rest of the year.

Forty-three percent of Christmas/New Year's long-distance trips are for visits to family, while visits make up only 24 percent of long-distance travel during the remainder of the year.

Research Questions

How do television shows that promote cosmetic surgery affect how society views cosmetic procedures?

How do television shows that promote cosmetic surgery affect the self-esteem of young girls and women?

Does society view cosmetic surgery as an easy route of escape from emotional hardships?

How does cosmetic surgery enhance our culture's idea of the perfect body?

Thesis Statement CC

Thesis-

The television program "Extreme Makeover" has made our culture view cosmetic surgery as an easy way to achieve an idealized "perfection" and a way to eliminate emotional suffering.

-It's not a very good thesis, I'm working on it!-

Napoleon Dynamite

SVR

1. To what extent is the character playing a particular role and how do you know? In what ways are they buying into cultural expectations and in what way are they resisting them?

I believe that Kip is playing the role of a person that is searching for true love. One big expectation of our culture is to find love and get married. Kip plays into that role by searching for the love of his life. By the end of the movie he falls in love with Lafawnda. When he meets her, he decides that he wants to marry her. Kip is a short, dorky white guy and Lafawnda is a tall, African American women. There are people in the world that would not expect a guy like Kip to fall and love and marry a woman like Lafawnda. That is how he is resisting his role, because he is looking past skin color and marrying the woman he loves for who she is. That is something that is not a cultural expectation for many people in this world.

2. Who is the most self-actualized character in the movie? Why?

I believe that Pedro is the most self-actualized character in the movie. In the movie he had just enrolled in a new school, yet he had enough confidence to run for class president against a very popular girl. Most people that have just moved to a new town would probably not feel confident enough to do that. When the school dance came along, Pedro decided that he wanted to have a date and he believed in himself enough to be able to ask Summer, the most popular girl in school, and Deb. Even when Summer turned him down, he didn't let that get to him. He knows his full potential, knows what he wants out of life and knows how to get it.

Topic For Paper!

I have chosen to write about how the media negatively effects the body images of women.

Thesis Statement!

Claim: Cultural blindness will always exist in society and affect everyone as long as we all have differences in perception and people that are unwilling to understand or accept the differences of beliefs of those around them.

Reason: Members of society gain perceptions of the world through the beliefs and values that their families have instilled in them from birth. Every family has a different system of beliefs and values that makes their world perceptions unique.

Qualifying Statement: Although cultural blindness will always exist in society, there are ways in which you can learn to accept and embrace the differences of members in society.

My Experience With Cultural Blindness

I come from a small town in Southern Ohio. My town is the kind of town where many men still have the belief from the Stone Age, that a woman's place is in the home and that is all a woman is good for. There are a lot of men in my hometown that think that women can't excel academically and be an athlete. Those are beliefs that I have tried to prove wrong my entire life. At my high school one of the things that girls were expected to do was to become a cheerleader. I was never interested in cheer leading, I was always interested in playing sports such as basketball, soccer, and softball. From fourth grade until I graduated I played softball and basketball. I also played soccer from my freshman year through senior year. There would always be guys in my class that would tease me and say that "girls are inadequate at sports" and it's pointless for us to play sports because we would never be successful. Those types of comments would upset me and just fuel my determination to keep working hard and prove them wrong. I would also get teased for studying so much for school, and always having the highest grades in my classes.
When I played soccer the girls had to practice with the boys because our teams were so small. The boys would always complain about having to practice with us because we were considered "wimps" and they didn't think we could keep up with them. I proved a lot of guys wrong at soccer practices because I could always keep up and there were several times when I outran, or knocked down some of the biggest guys on the team. They were so embarrassed that I, a girl, could beat them and even take them down to the ground. There were quite a few guys that were scared to go up against me on defense because I could be so aggressive. I really surprised a lot of them because they didn't think that a girl could be so brutal at sports. I gained a lot of respect with the guys at my school for being able to keep up with them and show that women shouldn't be considered inadequate at sports.
Even though most of the teams I played on in high school weren't the best teams in the league, I still had some successes playing for them. My junior and senior year I made the Southern Hills League All-Star team for soccer. Senior year my school nominated me to be their representative for the Wendy's Heisman which was a great honor. Also I received an award from the Ohio Athletic Association for my perfect grade point average. Those awards made me feel proud to be a woman and helped shut up the guys that teased me throughout school that a woman couldn't possibly accomplish those things. I was also ranked number one in my senior class. I showed a lot of men and also women that a woman can succeed academically and athletically. I like to think that I am an inspiration to younger girls back home that face some of the same adversity that I faced in school.

ETHOS

PATHOS

Philip Morris: Anti-Smoking 2 - Phillip Morris

Posted Jan 30, 2002

Even if you don't think that your kids are listening, they are.

This anti- smoking commercial appeals to the pathos. They show the kids frowning, sighing and eye rolling to show parents that they need to not worry about how their kids feel about the subject of smoking and that it is still important to talk about it no matter how frustrated or irritated it makes their children feel. It appeals to the emotions of the parents that worry about upsetting their children and worry about what their children think of them. It shows parents that they really must talk to their kids about smoking because even if at the moment when you tell them not to smoke, they resent you, the only moment that counts is when they say no to a cigarette. That appeals greatly to emotions because if the parent succeeds in preventing their kid from smoking, they are going to have feelings of joy and relief that their kid doesn't smoke. I think that this commercial is effective because I know a lot of parents that are scared to talk to their kids because they don't want to make their kids resent them or be angry with them because of telling them how important it is not to smoke. I think it is effective in getting those parents to have the courage to talk.

LOGOS

I believe that Logos is most prominent in the Subway Commercial. In the beginning of the commercial they have the man and woman ordering "love handles", a "double chin", things that are usually the result of eating unhealthy food over a period of time. They do this to appeal to people that are tired of having "love handles" and a "double chin", but still want to be able to eat fast food when they want it or don't have time to cook. They have the people ordering in that manner to put down other fast food restaurants that have "greasy food" and make their restaurant look more appealing by advertising that they have more health side dishes and drinks. They are trying to appeal to the people by inferring that it is more "logical" to eat at their restaurant because they have more healthy options than other fast food chains because it seems logical that people would want to be fit and healthy, and not want "love handles" and "thunder thighs". This commercial doesn't have me convinced because I know that if I don't want to be overweight then I am not going to eat fast food of any kind, and that includes Subway.

Ethos,Pathos, Logos

Ethos is how an author sways or convinces the reader of their reputation, authority, and credibility.

Pathos is how the author uses emotions to connect with the reader and keep them interested in the material.

Logos is how the author uses reason, evidence and logic to establish their point and support their argument.

Things That Define Me

There are many people who throughout my life have greatly influence my decisions and who I have become today. It is difficult to narrow it down to just one person that has greatly influenced my life. I have had many coaches and teachers that helped make me the strong, independent, and determined person that I am now. I would talk about everyone but that would make this a super long blog and I know no one wants to read that much! The person that I will talk about is my softball coach, Troy Fields. He was my softball coach from the time I was eight years old through my senior year of high school. He even coached me for two years of varsity basketball. Troy means a great deal to me because he played a big role as a father figure to me. My own father was not very involved in my life and Troy helped fill in that gap. He was always there for me when I had a problem. He helped shape me into the determined person that I am today. When I first started playing softball I was not very good, but Troy told me to keep trying and not give up, so by the end of my first season I was in the starting line up. Since then if I am not good at something I stay determined and focus on my goal and in the end I succeed.
An experience that I hold very close to me would have to been all of the years that I played sports. Throughout school I played softball, track, soccer, and basketball. Those experiences helped shape who I am today. Participating in athletics made me a more determined person, they made me want to succeed not only in my sport but in all of the activities that I participated in. I believe that if I had not played sports I would not be as goal oriented as I am now. I would not be able to focus on academics which are also important to me. Also being a part of teams taught me that sometimes you won't get along with everyone but you have to just get over it and work with them anyway. On most of my teams there were girls that liked to fight so I became a mediator and was the one that tried to make everything better. I am still like that today. Whenever my friends argue I always try to make everything better.
Most of my memories are related to sports in some way. That is what I spent the vast majority of my time doing throughout my childhood until I graduated high school. So it would make sense that my favorite place would be sports oriented. When I came home from school for winter break I went to a basketball game at my old high school. As soon as I got back into the gymnasium, memories from my high school and junior high games just poured into me, every game that we lost and the few that we won. The place that I carry with me would have to be the place where I spent most of my time up until now and that would be the gym at West Union High School. I spent days and nights there practicing not just basketball but also softball on the days the field was too wet to play on. That place holds so many fond memories with my friends and coaches. I always had a good time there doing what I love to do which is playing sports. All of those memories are things that I am going to carry with me throughout my lifetime.

The Peyton Manning pep talk commercials are now not as awesome!!

I just witnessed the Indianapolis Colts led by the awesome, Peyton Manning, lose to the San Diego Chargers! I am very upset. I am not a huge fan of the Colts or anything. I like them well enough, better than the other teams that prior to their loss this afternoon were still in the playoffs. The Steelers who I am a fan of lost last week which was just awful! So i looked toward the Colts to win it all, but they lost! I really would like to see someone beat the Patriots. I thought that the Colts were the team to get it done. Now I don't know who could possibly defeat the Patriots. Maybe Green Bay because I like them better than Dallas. I just can't believe that the Colts couldn't beat the Chargers! I guess it just goes to show that anything can happen in playoff season.

My Writing Process

The way I usually begin writing research papers or speeches when I am in a communications class is by first narrowing down topics. I brainstorm about topics that I am interested in and things that are important to me because I usually have more fun writing about something that is relevant to me or something that I personally enjoy. Once I have narrowed down my topics, usually I narrow it down to two or three topics, I then choose the one that I think I will enjoy writing about more. I always try to get assignments completed ahead of deadlines so I can make sure that I have what I need and that I will have plenty of time to revise as much as needed. I try my best not to procrastinate when writing because it is not my best subject.
Once I have chosen my topic I then begin to research the topic and find as many credible sources as I can so I can have enough information to develop a good research paper. Once I have my sources I start to organize my information and then I begin my first rough draft. I usually go through two or three drafts before a final paper. I have some of my reliable friends read my paper so I can catch any mistakes before turning it in. I am also very picky about what I turn in, I am the kind of person that likes things to be as close to perfection as I can get. I read through my paper several times and I always make sure I have all of my citations included and that everything makes sense and reads well. That pretty much summarizes what I do when I write. Sorry if this was really boring to read!