Final BlogPost: What is a Blog and How did my Perceptions of a Blog change over the semester??

What is a Blog and How did my Perception of a Blog change over the Semester??

Now after one semester of intensive blogging in the context of our English class, I have to say my experience about blogs is less limited and I actually feel I have widened my horizon with respect to the virtual world.

My opinion on blogging and the reasons why people blog, however, have not considerably changed. I still consider a blog a communication platform, either with a personal or private agenda or with a more specific agenda, such as the political blogs you find everywhere on the net. On these blogs people share and discuss matters of relevance, express emotions and opinions as well as they are a method of self-display. There are also various ways of self-display – you can upload pictures and songs, and sometimes these sites even let you create slideshows and video clips. Apart from the more trivial blogs I have mentioned prior to my advanced knowledge of blogging, such as myspace.com and facebook.com, I have found more sophisticated blogging forums. While I was doing research for my argument paper, for instance, I came across numerous blogs where homeschooling families shared their thoughts, ideas and concerns with other homeschooling parents. I thought that was pretty interesting. Although these blogs provided me with valuable insight, their information was not very valuable to me and my paper but it helped me to approach the issue from different angles.

Additionally, I still believe a blog can even be a great tool to stay in touch with friends and family, granted they are knowledgeable to use a blog. I really liked what one of my friends did. She created a travel blog, which she is using to continuously update her friends and family about her latest travel adventures, the various trips she is taking and the internships she took abroad. Since I liked her idea so much, I am really thinking about creating a blog for myself where I put information about me and what I am doing while I am over here in order to keep them posted and to stay in touch with my friends and family. Therefore, this blog could be beneficial for both, me and my folks.

One major issue about blogging, I believe is critically important and should not be overseen – the problem of hate-speech and hate-crime. Since anyone can publish and express anything online, people subscribing to certain blogs MUST be very careful about their choice of blog. Hate-speech and discriminatory language is a very wide spread issue among blogging and bloggers themselves and needs to be carefully monitored since hate-speech can manipulate certain people and can motivate all sorts of criminal acts and felonies.

Summarizing my thoughts on web blogs, I can honestly say that I know a lot more about them and that this class made me more aware of them. Our class blog, although sometimes I really did NOT feel like blogging was quite beneficial to the communication in and for the class but it will never and should never replace the real exchange of thoughts and information, i.e. the actual communication.

Discrimination and the Democratic presidential nomination race

The essay “Discrimination is a Virtue“by Robert K. Miller deals with the very sensitive subject of discrimination. Generally, the term discrimination is used in a negative way – namely to point out racial or social discrepancies among people. However, when looking up the term in a dictionary or thesaurus, the actual meaning of discrimination has a positive connotation, for instance meaning to differentiate, to compare or to distinguish. Over the years, unfortunately, the word has been constantly misused and thus, everybody associates something negative with it.
The Democratic presidential nomination race has sound the death knell for the word discrimination. Both candidates, Clinton and Obama, have very unique personalities and promote slightly different concepts; however, they both represent one party. Through this unique combination of 2 Democratic presidential hopefuls, a “white female” and a “black male”, the word discrimination has become more fashionable than ever. Additionally, I believe, the media providers, such as CNN or CBS News fuels these flames, thus contributing largely to this unnecessary discussion of voting for a black male or a white female. People’s sensitivity to this word has been over-exhausted and when they talk about who to vote for, it seems that skin color and sex are the key criteria for their decisions. Especially in this presidential nomination race, racial and gender differences have been over-emphasized and it is really disturbing for me that no one seems to care about the political content and agendas they stand for!!!

Visual Blogpost and Interpretation

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/Homeschool/table4.asp

To further illustrate the positive aspects of homeschooling the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has created a matrix in order to graphically analyze the preferences for homeschooling. This matrix is retrieved from a publication of education matters for the years of 1999 to 2003 indicating the reasons for homeschooling, the respective number, in thousands, of home schooled students and the equivalent percentage. One can identify from the matrix that the main reason for homeschooling is the notion of parents being more capable of providing their offspring with a better education compared to public schools. Astonishingly enough, the development of a child’s character and morality ranks number five among possible reasons for homeschooling, although it is seemingly considered as the most important criteria for homeschooling.

Prospectus on Plagiarism

Listing 3 negative aspects:

• the author's standpoint/position on the topic is not clearly outlined
• various different aspects of plagiarism are not clearly defined
• what are possible solutions for instructors to detect and to effectively punish students using plagiarism to get by

If Black English Isn't A Language, What is?

What exactly amounts to language? The author James Baldwin, an African-American writer has a very reasonable stand on what language is all about. Being part of the Civil Rights Movement and having lived in other parts of the world, where languages can have a far more divisive instead of unifying role he gives a very logical argument about language. “Language, incontestably, reveals the speaker” is his key aspect around which he has structured his argument.
His example about France and the French language, spoken in various parts of the globe, logically supports his argument of people being defined by and defining a language. In this example he breaks language down in its many parts, such as control, means of confronting life, political instrument and as a “crucial key to identity”. With that, he points out that language can be a uniting or divorcing force among the people who seem to speak this language. When he says language reveals private identity, I totally have to agree with him, since it feels like I am in the exact situation day-in and day-out. I cannot open my mouth and speak English WITHOUT people recognizing that I am not a native speaker. Like Baldwin puts it, I confess my parents, my youth and my social background right away.
Additionally, he describes Black English as a language separately from White English being developed during the earlier American history of slavery. In his mind Black English is to be seen as a monoculture existing apart from White English which was being out of the WHITE ignorance.
After all, he argues his point very consistently avoiding logical fallacies and providing the reader with lots of descriptive examples to support his claim.

MLA Citation and Evaluation

Romanowski, Michael H. "Common Arguments about the Strengths and Limitations of
Home Schooling." Clearing House 75.2 (Nov. 2001): 79. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 7 Mar. 2008 http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=6514595&site=ehost-live.

Evaluation
I have selected an article issued in the Clearing House Education 75 from November 2001. This article, written by Michael H. Romanowski, Associate Professor of Education at the Ohio Northern University describes very detailed the negative and positive aspects of home schooling “put forth by advocates and critics of home schooling regarding the perceived strengths and limitations of this unique form of education”. (Romanowski 2001)
The author, Michael H. Romanowski, is a very knowledgeable person in the field of education of adolescents and young adults since he has not only taught a variety of different students from different social and ethnic backgrounds but has also published several articles about numerous issues and topics in this field. Although the article I have chosen is from the year of 2001, the content still has a considerable purpose for the topic of my short argument paper about home schooling in the context of higher education. The explicit purpose of this source is to demonstrate the argument of home schooling by itself and to point out possible advantages and challenges home-schooled students may have to face. Personally, Romanowski’s article added information in support of my counterarguments against home schooling as an educational foundation of proficiency in higher education. For instance, he made some very useful claims about the socialization issue of home-schooled students.
Particularly with regard to further research, I should find out more about Michael H. Romanowski and his publications since he has a lot to say about educational matters and movements in our society.

The Right to Fail from William Zinsser

Initially I would like to state that I agree with Zinsser on the fact that the word “drop-out” is only used for people under 21 which I believe is a little discriminating because people beyond this age can fail as well and as bad as we young people can.
A very important question everyone has to ask him or herself at some point in his life is “what is success and what success means individually”. For me, success has a lot to do with happiness, freedom and personal and professional fulfillment. However, there is always the fear of failing. This fear is created by the ONE right our society does not grant us, “the right to fail” without severe social and personal consequences since society solely refers success to material wealth and well-being.
With regards to my personal experiences, I am quite familiar with the fear to fail. A good example happened right after high-school. Since I did not go to college right after high-school as I did not feel emotionally and physically ready, I felt like being a total “let-down” for my parents, having them pointing out, they even do it to this day, that “it would have been better to enter college right away”. When Zinsser says “Who is to say, then, if there is any right path to the top, or even to say what the top consists of?” he points out that there are many possibilities to reach one’s individual goals and everybody should have the right to determine their path in order to achieve them. The socially-accepted path is not necessarily the right one for one person since we are all unique individuals. Additionally, I like the fact that he raises the question about “the top” and what the top should be. For me, the “top” is to graduate from NAU and have a assistant management position at a major business hotel and keep my relationship with my boyfriend of 3 years. My parents, however, have much bigger plans for me. They want me to be the GM of a leading hotel, traveling the world not having any emotional ties to anyone. Consequently, I am constantly trying to do the “right” thing, trying to please them, not to appear as a failure, and simultaneously trying to achieve what I consider the right thing to be. I guess, this illustrates pretty good 2 entirely different definitions of the “top”. I know my parents would never openly classify me as a failure, should I “fail” and not do what’s right in their eyes, but I would intuitively know, that I did something wrong. Another aspect of his essay is that success and failure are very close knit and both lie in the eye of the beholder. I totally agree with him, but I also have to say that it is sometimes quite hard to realize this truth and then, even more difficult, having to face your parents or other people close to you who most of the time totally DISAGREE with your decisions and actions.
The very last statement he makes “Maybe we are learning again to cherish the right of every person to succeed on his own terms and to fail as often as necessary along the way” is very powerful, as he points out that every person should have the freedom and the right to fail as often as necessary on their individual way to success. Personally, I think it can be particularly healthy to fail since you learn to cherish success even more.

CRAAP Test Analysis

The CRAAP test stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose. These 5 criteria are highly important when looking for reliable and reasonable sources to base your argument on. However, this test can also be utilized for any kind of research paper.
“Currency” asks about the “timeliness” of the information, i.e. how recent the information is as it is critical to have up-to-date information relevant to your topic or issue.
“Relevancy” is a criterion questioning if the information is applicable in the context you would like to use it
“Authority” is another important aspect of researching information. Since nowadays, almost anyone can publish information, in particular on the Internet, it is essential to know the source of information. Talking about the Internet, you have to keep an eye on the URL. If it says .org, .edu or .gov, these sites are more reliable than the .com-sites since the facts given are usually verified and only members and authors of this site are allowed to publish there.
In addition, there is “Accuracy”, meaning the reliability, correctness and truthfulness of the information distributed. This criterion focuses on the source of information, the language and whether or not it contains certain biases and spelling mistakes. And it is fair to say that “Accuracy” and “Authority” are pretty similar.
“Purpose” – the final principle when selecting information from other sources concentrates on the question “why was the information published?” for instance was the information published to entertain, to teach or to persuade the audience.
Finally, when writing an argument paper or any kind of research paper, it is extremely critical to screen the information available properly and not to be distracted by biased and improperly researched information. Additionally, be very careful when using the internet for your research as anyone can use it as a personal platform to spread nonsense.

Article retrieved from Time Magazine (www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1717926.html)

Does experience Matter in a President?
This article is about the argument whether or not experience on the job, i.e. experience as a governor or state legislator and time on the job really makes a better president. The main question the article revolves around is the question of whether or not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton is the better president to lead this nation. Illustrating this many references to former presidents, such as J.F. Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson are made.
Although this article is well researched and tries to avoid logical fallacies I have discovered at least three which I will point out and explain in the following:
Arguing about the sufficient or insufficient experience of a president, the author makes a very slippery statement “Unfortunately, when a president gets an education, we all pay the tuition”. This statement is characteristic for a “Slippery Slope” fallacy saying that one first step, here the election of a obviously less experienced president, will result automatically in failure and that we all have to suffer from the consequences. In my mind this is not necessarily a very profound way to argue that someone is not capable to be president because most of the time people grow into their responsibilities and thus do a very good job in doing so.
Another logical fallacy I have recognized in this article is in the very last paragraph. This fallacy is the generalization on how “all Americans” cast their vote. It says that they all follow their guts and their heart when casting their vote and so might pass over the “best-credentialed candidates”. I consider this as a very hasty generalization in the way that all Americans are seen as people not capable of critical thinking just following their hearts and guts when casting their vote. This statement mainly denies all Americans the ability to make critical and reasonable decisions.
The final logical fallacy is not that easy to discover in this text as it is consistently pursued throughout the whole text itself – namely the “Either/Or” fallacy. It seems like that there is only one criterion being the sole determinant, i.e. experience. The text basically argues that people have to make a decision if they want to have an experienced or a non-experience president. This observation is too clean-cut and simple for such a complex office as the one of the President of the United States. To make this argument less “Either/Or” – there is only one right answer to this question and all others are wrong, you have to define what experience really is and whether sometimes too much experiences leaves a person with occupational blindness or organizational blindness.

Middle Schoolers reveive the Pill

Whether or not middle school children should be able to receive pills and patches is a very delecate question. The article supports this idea in saying that some children already have and had sex no matter what their parents say or do and that the only way to improve this situation is to safe what is left to safe giving them the opportunity to receive various birthcontrols. Another claim made in support of the distribution of birthcontrol explained in this article is that these services are beneficial mainly for children from lower income families. Since these kids of this Portland middle school mainly come from lower income classes - a societal group being more prone to teen pregnancies, these health services provide them with the kind of gynecological services they otherwise could not afford.

The counter-argument is that NO 11year old should have sex in the first place. This is commonly agreed upon in the article and therefore the counter-argument for middle schoolers being issued contraceptives and patches. It takes a lot more maturity to have sex and deal with the physical and emotional consequences involved instead of just taking one little pill at a certain time every day. However, reality seems to look different with regards to rising teen pregnancy and the need of even having to discuss the fact of 11-14year old children having sex.

The perspective overlooked is the role parents should play in the whole discussion. The article totally leaves out the parents. Whether or not a girl has or has not sex or should take any kind of birth control or not should be dealt with in the family environment. The article does not take parents into the obligation to "give their kids THE TALK" although it is part of their duties of being responsible parents. Additionally, not involving parents in this important discussion is undermining their authority and they need to be a part of their female kids growing up.

Reflection on RA Paper

The rhetorical analysis paper assignment did not really pose that much of a problem to me in the first place. I just thought I was going to take a closer look at an essay or short story and analyze the way the author uses words. However, there is a significant difference between scratching on the surface and going deep into the material to be analyzed. What helped me a lot were the various orally done rhetorical analyses in class and especially our blog assignments on this topic helped me considerably. At first, I thought it to be a little odd to analyze a movie, but after I had watched “Roger&Me” and after our discussions in class about this, I had a really good grasp on what my task was in writing a rhetorical analyses. Additionally, I believe that the way our class writing process is organized is very helpful to me. The rough draft provided my with the opportunity to write down my initial thoughts and ideas of how I wanted to structure my assignment. The one-on-one meetings following the rough draft were considerably helpful to me in order to get a better grasp on my ideas and I got additional input and support about where and how to improve. Taking a closer look at my graded rhetorical analysis, there is definitely room for improvement. One area of improvement to be identified on the RA rubric is the “Organization" of my thoughts and ideas. A way to improve in this category would be to focus on better and more explicit transition sentences in between differing ideas and thoughts as well as structuring my text using more paragraphs separating ideas from one another. Besides the above-mentioned category, I should work on developing a better sense of language use and the mechanics that come with it. The use of language, i.e. using the right words in the appropriate setting and context can be enhanced by reading various English essays and short stories by different authors. On the one hand, this would increase my vocabulary of the English language and on the other hand, it would make me aware of certain word choices in different contexts making me sound more professional. With regards to the mechanics of writing, such as spelling and punctuation, I should have just printed out the FD to proof-read it and since I did not do that, some “slips of the pen” creped in. An example of where and how I could have avoided some of my spelling mistakes takes place on the first page in the very first line:
“It is common in Western societies for the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn BY Muslim females….” – I did not notice that the “by” was missing, which I could have, if I would have printed out my FD to proof-read it.
In conclusion, I really liked writing the rhetorical analysis paper and it was really interesting to look for specific meaning of words and paragraphs the authors had put in there.

Synthesis on “The Banking Concept of Education” and Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” drawn from “The Republic, Book VII”

Education – what exactly is education and how can education be defined and achieved? Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills and acquiring tangible and intangible knowledge of the world. Both texts focus on the concept of education – namely discussing different approaches to effectively educating people and the respective effects.

The texts to be synthesized are Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and an extract of Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” titled “The Banking Concept of Education”. Paulo Freire’s argument about education is that it is very one-sided and narrative. The teacher in his concept solely deposits information and facts and the students are simply required to receive, memorize and recall the information. His argument is that dialogue and communication is non-existent. Plato’s work approaches the same argument in a different way. According to Plato, the students already know everything; the teacher is seen as a facilitator asking questions promoting the right answers. He says education is the product of dialectic reasoning and being open-minded to the world around you. Additionally, both texts prompt us to use critical thinking, i.e. challenging us to question the information received from our teachers. According to Freire education and knowledge emerge through invention and reinvention and through a restless and continuous inquiry about the world. Furthermore, the described system of education does not make the students more aware or knowledgeable about this world – it rather promotes the adaption to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited on the students. Plato is saying that humans are all prisoners and that the tangible world is our cave. The things which we perceive as real are actually just shadows on a wall. Just as the escaped prisoner ascends into the light of the sun, we acquire knowledge and ascend into the light of true reality.

In conclusion, education is what educators make out of it and it is a question of individual taste how information is distributed to students. However, it is essential for educators to find ways to teach students effectively which can be done by encouraging dialog and communication between the teaching body and the students.

Response to 2 Articles from Class

Today we read two articles in class. One was about General Motors and the other one was about the World Trade Organization. As different the articles were dealing with two separate matters, they had lot of similarities with regards to economic matters, as far as outsourcing of valuable jobs to low-wage countries, such as to China. On the other hand, the low-wage countries are dealing with the counter-problem as they have to deal with punitive taxes imposed by their governments to discourage purchases from international companies and encourage the purchase of domestic products. Since there are as you can see at least two sides of the coin, the US and Europe have to find ways to stop massive lay-offs and company buyouts. In fact, both governments should work on incentive plans for prosperous domestic companies, like GM to keep and even to create new jobs for their people. But this can only be done if the US and the European government finds a healthy balance between imports and exports.

Unemployment: Different Countries - Same problem

The key problem both economies, the German and the US, are struggling is unemployment. However, these two countries have completely different ways of dealing with this phenomenon “unemployment” and therefore it is essential to look at both countries separately. Michael Moore’s movie will represent the American side and the article “Odd Couple” issued in the Economist will serve as the German counter-example.
The movie “Roger&Me” by Michael Moore illustrates the problem of unemployment by means of showing the peoples’ misery and final demise. This gives unemployment a personal face, namely the face of the laid off autoworkers with no perspective for their future. The article “Odd Couple”, on the other hand, tackles the same problem in a sophisticated and scientific way, totally avoiding appealing to the readers’ emotions. In fact, they talk about possible tools and measures to approach the situation in order to eventually get the soaring unemployment rates under control. Since the German employment system is different to the US system it is not as simple to compare the situation portrayed in the movie with Germany’s unemployment problem. But the key similarity is the outsourcing or closure of prosperous domestic corporation and plants to countries with low wages and labor costs leaving their employees in despair. Both countries practice this and will probably continue to until our governments find ways to keep domestic corporations in their home country. The difference among both is that Germans have a so-called safety net – the government – to fall back on that will provide them with reliable unemployment benefits, for instance a guarantee of at least 1 ½ year of unemployment payments. The US workers, particularly the autoworkers from Flint, could not rely on this kind of government assistance as there is not such safety net, like the one in Germany.
The movie and the article, as different as they might seem, provide the reader/viewer with the general concept of the phenomenon “unemployment” and the consequences this has on ordinary people who are trying to make ends meet.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The article “Odd Couple” issued in the Economist talks about the German government and the Grand Coalition’s progress toward unemployment rates in Germany. The Grand Coalition is a joined government of the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) which is seen to be odd couples as both parties have different traditional and political backgrounds. The SPD pursues socially acceptable policies; the CDU is a conservative party.
Both parties try to find ways to boost Germany’s labor market by reducing unemployment rates. The SPD calls for economy-wide minimum wages of € 7.50 ($...) to make work profitable for workers again and to shrink unemployment and the costs associated with it. Additionally the SPD wants to extend the payment period of unemployment compensation from 12 to 15 months for jobless people over 45 years and to 24 months for those over 50 years. However, extended welfare needs to be financed resulting in less money for investments and tax cuts. Angela Merkel opposes this extension as visible statistics have shown that the shortening of the payment period considerable decreased unemployment rates. She also opposes economy-wide minimum wages as these potentially destroy jobs. Since the Coalition needs to find some common ground there are still opportunities to reach a consensus on other matters, such as cutting pay-roll taxes to stimulate employment and to be more competitive or reforming the inheritance tax.
I have chosen this article about German unemployment issues to offer a different perspective on this explosive subject. At first glance, it is not that simple to compare the situation of the laid off Flint autoworkers with Germany’s unemployment problem as we have different organizations playing a part in this problem. I do, however, see some similarities. One for instance, is the closure or outsourcing of rather prosperous domestic corporations and plants to countries with low wages and labor costs leaving their employees in despair. Yet, there is a significant difference in terms of government support in both countries. Germans being laid off receive higher government welfare – unemployment benefits than US workers and the payment period of 12 to 24 months is longer in addition to keeping health insurance and retirement benefits paid by the state. American workers don’t receive that kind of government assistance in order to bridge the gap between unemployment and a new job.
On the other hand, in the US it seems much easier for people of all ages to find new jobs. Here, even people beyond their 50s find a job whereas in Germany, once you hit a certain age, particularly if you are between 40 and 50 years it is almost impossible to find a well-paying job in any field. Employers either regard you as overqualified and too expensive or simply too old.
In conclusion, it is hard to say which employees have it better – Germans or US employees, but I believe that both governments should encourage domestic corporations and offer incentives to keep the jobs in our countries.

ARTICLE LINK

"The odd couple." Economist 385.8553 (03 Nov. 2007): 59-60. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 8 February 2008. .

Movie "Roger&Me"

“Roger & Me” is a documentary by Michael Moore about his hometown Flint, MI. Flint, MI is an automobile town where the existence of the inhabitants depended on the General Motors plants. Logos plays a great role in this movie. Michael Moore and his film crew took a camera trying to shed light to the developments in his hometown after the GM plants closed and consequently laying off the majority of Flint inhabitants. Mainly people left Flint looking for jobs elsewhere. However, there were some people desperately trying to make a living, either of fast food jobs or, like the one lady interviewed, by raising rabbits and dogs she later sold to afford food and to pay bills. Some of the former automobile workers even got sick and ended up in mental health facilities. To get a grasp on why the Flint plants were closed, Moore tried to talk to the responsible people, in particular to Roger Smith. He followed Smith around the country to finally receive his thoughts and more importantly to receive an answer of why the GM plants were closed and so many workers got laid off. But every time Moore came close to Roger Smith, Moore is held back by security protecting Smith from so-called intruders like Roger Moore. Even the governor of Michigan, seemed quite helpless when interviewed about the situation in Flint and appealed to their spirit to not give up. One might think that he as the governor must come up with a feasible solution but far wrong! While the gap between the rich and the poor begins to widen in Flint, MI, and no one seems to really care the crime rate and the rate of evictions skyrocketed. This created a need for a new prison which was soon to be constructed and referred to as a success story with regards to the creation of new and desperately needed jobs. The last straw Flint attempts to catch is the “Tourism”. Consequently, millions of dollars were spent in this naïve dream which was seen as being the looked-for help. Hotels and amusement parks were built which were doomed to go out of business soon.
GM’s justification to the developments in Flint and elsewhere where they were forced to close plants and lay off workers, is that the company does not owe anything to a particular town which happens to depend on their plants and that economic premises can force corporations to act in an irreconcilable way.

How does Wolfgang use visual and linguistic pathos?

Since I am analyzing a cartoon in which the pictures overlap the use of language, there is at least the same amount of linguistic and visual pathos.
The story is about a boy whose mother dies and is on her way to heaven. On her way to heaven her life passes by her very eyes, such as the title is. In the pictures, this way to heaven is portrayed in visual pathos. There are pictures on which she flies through the town like if she was an angel recalling various episodes of her life. Visual pathos implemented by showing the reader how she flies as she is pulling a white tail with her. When she finally arrives in heaven, see page 226-227, the background colors change from white to black. This could represent the desolation associated with the death and the place you go to once you are dead. The quote “…our heart stopped, the first “stop” on our road to “dead”” illustrates very well what it is meant by being dead – not breathing no more. “The road to dead…” is a description of the death as being a journey from the earth to the heavens. On this journey many things happen and you can almost say that Wolfgang considers this journey as very nice and useful to adjust between these two worlds. Another use of pathos in a visual sense is how they travel to heaven. The mode of travel is a kind of space vehicle and the quote “…light at the end of the tunnel…” is very common expression for dieing.
In conclusion this cartoon pictures a very sad part of life in a very funny way using a lot of linguistic and visual pathos.

THE SOUTHLAND by Henry Miller

The text „Southland“ by Henry Miller is indeed a very intense text dealing with the fundamental discrepancies between the South and the North of the U.S. originating from the American Civil War.
Henry Miller describes Southerners as being of a different culture having their own rhythms and attitude towards life. (Miller, p.1) But all Southerners have one thing in common – their sheer contempt for the North. Additionally, Miller uses metaphorical language to describe the South with its numerous cities and places of remembrance, i.e. Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Fredericksburg as places where “the horror of war assails [him] with desolating poignancy” (Miller, p. 2, left column) meaning that the South is still struggling with these historic but painful events in American history. Besides his metaphorical wordplays he pictures the socio-economic problems of the South using pathos in its most meaningful way – employing a variety of sensory descriptions characterizing this situation. Pointing out the large social gap “some you find living in the pomp and splendor….; some live like animals, in a condition comparable only to that of the primitive beings in Africa and other remote parts of the world…” (Miller, p.2 right column), he makes reference to slaves and slavery on which the white people imposed their notion of civilization.
As far as personal traits of character go, the Southerner is portrayed as “charming, gracious, courteous, dignified,” (Miller, p.2 right column) as opposed to the Northerner who is perceived as the seed of all evil.
In conclusion, I think that this text was very interesting to read as it contained many colorful expressions. However, I had to read the text multiple times and had to look up several words to fully grasp the whole idea of the text.

Homework Assignment

Inspired by the BBC website we looked at during class today, I have chosen to analyze the homepage of the New York Times. The New York Times is a very well-established and reputable newspaper not only in the US but also in Europe and in the rest of the world.
The newspaper itself is owned by the New York Times Company (www.nytco.com) and their board of executive officers and publishing directors. The news articles, editorials, and comments are written by various newspaper journalists around the world. As the New York Times is a high-quality paper, they boost the finest global news coverage presented by a set of articulate journalists.
Furthermore, the webpage is very well-structured and organized featuring not only American news but also providing the globally aware reading public with news coverage from the EU, Asia, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Another thing I have noticed from browsing around the website is that readers get constantly updated on the latest news and that journalists affiliated with the New York Times, from all over the globe publish articles and comments on this site.
Besides the traditional topics, such as business and technology news and updates on politics the site offers many other interesting categories. Among other things, the New York Times gives the reader a sound variety of featured pages containing information on travel, art, real estate, health and style. Additionally, there are also customer services, for instance “Direct Delivery” meaning you can order your own issue of the New York Times to your house.
Talking about potential audiences, the New York Times particularly targets business people and a well-educated public with a sound interest in global affairs. People reading this newspaper actually have to read the respective articles to be informed as there are hardly no eye-catching, tabloid-like headlines. As the New York Times is an extremely reputable newspaper the tone and language used on the website and in the printed version is very sophisticated. Words are properly chosen in order to inform the reader in a precise manner.
Considering the rhetorical appeals discussed in class, the webpage focuses more on logos and logos, i.e. the exhibition of good and valid reasoning and well-researched news coverage. The use of pathos is very limited with only a few selected pictures and videos and pod casts made available.

Blog Analysis

I have chosen Justin's blog. He seems to like visual effects and different colors on a black background which is on the one hand pretty unique idea and at the same time very good to read. He is also consistently using the same colors red,blue, and green, each representing a different category on his blog. I like his idea of using a solid color background, however, the font could be a little bigger to stand out from the black background AND it is easier to read too. Likewise Justin's blog is very organized and his blog posts on various topics are very interesting and insightful at the same time. What I liked the most, was the posting of song lyrics on his blog and posting a picture of a band he likes. Interested in the song and the band, I googled it and listened to the song myself. He obviously likes the song and wants to share his favorite music with the class which I think is cool.

Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue"

The rhetorical triangle talks about the interconnection between the author/writer, the respective target audiences and the purpose he or she is writing for.
Amy Tan, a first generation Asian-American is the author of the essay “Mother Tongue”. In her essay she writes about her mother’s limited command of English, the way this is perceived by outsiders and the impact it had on her growing up. The audience she addresses is her mother who has been reading all her drafts in the past. However, I believe she addresses a far broader audience with this particular essay – all first generation-Americans with emigrant parents. Why – because she illustrates many examples in which children of these parents, like her, have to handle certain daily situations. With her essay Amy Tan wants to serve two purposes. First, she tries to make people aware of the daily struggles emigrants have to face. Due to their apparent lack of expressive command of English, they are not taken seriously, people pretend not to understand them or they simply ignore them. Secondly, she says it is ok to have and speak certain “Englishes” with different people. Namely that the English that you speak with your instructor differs from the English you speak with your friends.

Weekend - FINALLY

Oh Man, thank God it's Friday and the weekend is here.....
Y'all have a great Weekend!!!!!!!

What is a blog for me?

My experience with blogs is very limited. I have heard this expression before but I did not really know what it meant. After reading through the given material I was able to get a better grasp on the subject.
Personally, I thing a blog is a kind of bulletin board in the traditional meaning, just applied to the virtual world of the Internet. Thus, I consider a blog to be a personal platform to share and discuss matters of relevance, express your emotions and opinions on certain topics and finally it seems to be also a handy method to self-display yourself. There are various ways to self-display you. For instance you can upload pictures and songs, and sometimes even create your own slideshows and videos. Some potential examples of more trivial or common blogs would be facebook.com or myspace.com. Additionally, a blog can also feature discussion forums on different topics ranging from general topics to more controversial ones. Finally, I believe a blog can even be a great tool to stay in touch with friends and family. One of my female friends in Germany created her own travel blog which she is using while traveling around the world to continuously update her friends and family about the latest news and adventures on her various trips. While for her this blog is more of a personal journal in order to keep precious traveling memories alive and visual, we, her friends always receive the latest news and can comment on her entries.
Summarizing my thoughts on web blogs, I must say that when used appropriately they can be a very beneficial tool for communication and exchange of dialog.

test 1

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test post

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