Assignment #8: Thinking About Arguments

I think I want to write an argumentation essay about whether our generation, and every generation before and after us, is simply a product of our environment OR do we have full control over our destiny and mindset. I choose this topic to argue about because I think it's an issue that is effecting my generation, specifically in the black community. I want to try to be careful not to generalize, exclude or offend anyone but I am an African American and I feel that I can speak only  for what I've been exposed to my entire life. One particular issue could be the nonchalant attitude of my generation towards school, work, advancement, and life in general. I think that we have an extremely careless generation. For example, females constantly have babies without any way to support them or the tools to take care of them properly. One could argue that is her choice to do what she wants and regardless of what life she was brought into, she should know right from wrong. I would argue the point of how acceptable it is to be pregnant while in school and broken foundation of the home. This broken family most likely has a hard-working, strong, independent mother. This mother probably says things like "I'm your mother and your father" or "I don't need a man to make me happy." I think these ideals devalue the man, an essential key to a productive seed, in the household. The downward spiral continues, women growing up without respect that, I believe, only a father figure can provide. If this isn't a setup for failure, I don't know what is, but this does not mean failure is the only option but I think it takes an extraordinary person to break the cycle. I think it will be hard to argue because it's a very personal matter and people have different expriences and stories. However, I think it's impossible to ignore the repeating cycle that is currently going (definitely in the Black community as far as I know).

Assignment #4: Thinking Critically about Revisions

My rough draft and my final draft differ mostly in it being more personal. In my first rough draft, I talked a lot about the topics but not enough about how I feel and how it effects me. I also focused on too many points. Although they were all good points, it made it difficult to go into depth about one specific one. I decided to expand on one idea, such as my values and view on life changing due to reading Ishmael and it's major connection being tied directly to literacy. I added the idea that the broadening of literacy makes individuals become more creative and expressive. An example would be Malcolm X, he felt like not being literate caged him because he was not able to follow certain arguments and participate. But reading, writing, and speaking opened his horizons to see and have a better understanding of life in general. It's like a deaf person, not ever being taught a language, that person would have a very hard time expressing themselves, interacting with others, and being self-aware. The meeting with Ms. Spencer helped me guide my essay in the right direction because I honestly didn't know what I was doing wrong. Even though the meeting was brief, I feel like a clarified what exactly I was supposed to aim for in my literacy narrative. I think the strongest aspect of my essay would be my sources and knowledge on my topics. I can talk for days on out about the major themes, ideas, and motifs, but I think my weak point arises when I tried to tie it into a personal matter.

Assignment #6- Responding to Peers and Considering Rhetorical Situations

I posted on Arnela Alekic's Blog with: "I think that the is trying to pull in artist, specifically men with the impression that he will live some luxurious life painting beautiful, half-naked (or fully naked) women for tons of cash by attending their art institutions. If you know anything about art, this is not necessarily the case. I like this ad because it's easy to bring up the problem with advertisement, it's completely unrealistic and misleading to sway viewers.
My peer could use more detail, like how this beautiful women posing and she's enjoying herself and it's almost kind of sexual. They're selling a fantasy."

The rhetorical issue in my literacy narrative parallels perfectly with that of the advertisement analysis because they both contain the theme of reading between the lines and finding the underlying message that can sometimes be masked or hard to find the real goal in the message. In my literacy narrative, I'm focusing on a novel I read a few years ago of how it distracts the reader with one idea, but when you go deeper into the illusion, you find meaning. For example, In the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, the professor or teacher is a gorilla and the student is a man. When I first read it, I thought it was absurd and, for lack of a better word, stupid. But the message was the stance of human beings and the rest of the animal kingdom. It was stance of whether you felt like evolution ended with humans, or God created the world for man and man is the center of the universe, if you will OR if you feel that humans are on the same level as animals and we're in this together.  The dove add is seeming an innovative push for women to be comfortable in their own skin, but what I found is that it's no different from any other advertisement because they focus on alienating certain people. This alienation occurs by campaign slogans like, "Real women have curves", saying that if you're a very thin female, you don't qualify as a woman. It fights the conflict of the thicker women being downplayed throughout the media by creating another conflict of doing the same exact thing against the opposite.