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.