Here is a link to my background research.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Blog 32: Initial Thoughts on the Audience
There is no such thing as a general audience. Events will always affect one group more than others. The event or issue may affect multiple groups of people, but there is always one group that is affected more than others.
The main group that is impacted by this issue is minor league baseball players, college players, and high school players. Minor league players are affected because it is their pay. It is the amount of money they are getting payed for working. College and high school players are affected cause they may be considering going pro and forfeiting college scholarships to go pursue their chances of making it to major league baseball. Most of the groups don't know much about the pay until they get to the minor leagues. On sports networks such as ESPN, the only salaries ever reported are those of the highest paid players, the record deals worth hundreds of millions. Young players see these numbers and think everyone gets paid, so their knowledge is very limited on the topic. Some other people who are in the audience are owners of the teams and the fans. The fans support everything that is going on probably because they have no idea what is going on. Their knowledge is also limited to what they see on television. The owners are involved because they have control over everything that is going on. They own the teams and the money that is used to pay the players. The owners fully know what is going on but it is not important to them unless there is a wide spread call for change. The owners could be against any change because it will cost them more money.
In order to understand the situation, the audience will need to know about minimum wage, how baseball contracts work, and then the costs that players have after they do get their contracts.
The main group that is impacted by this issue is minor league baseball players, college players, and high school players. Minor league players are affected because it is their pay. It is the amount of money they are getting payed for working. College and high school players are affected cause they may be considering going pro and forfeiting college scholarships to go pursue their chances of making it to major league baseball. Most of the groups don't know much about the pay until they get to the minor leagues. On sports networks such as ESPN, the only salaries ever reported are those of the highest paid players, the record deals worth hundreds of millions. Young players see these numbers and think everyone gets paid, so their knowledge is very limited on the topic. Some other people who are in the audience are owners of the teams and the fans. The fans support everything that is going on probably because they have no idea what is going on. Their knowledge is also limited to what they see on television. The owners are involved because they have control over everything that is going on. They own the teams and the money that is used to pay the players. The owners fully know what is going on but it is not important to them unless there is a wide spread call for change. The owners could be against any change because it will cost them more money.
In order to understand the situation, the audience will need to know about minimum wage, how baseball contracts work, and then the costs that players have after they do get their contracts.
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| https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/12/18/17/52/baseball-player-572620_640.jpg |
Blog Post 31: My Proposed Public Argument
An idea that I have for my public argument is the wage inequality between minor league and major league baseball players. I think this should be changed and the wealth should be more evenly distributed. The situation is that the way money is handled in baseball organizations needs to be changed. There needs to be a minimum salary for minor leaguers that is at least at minimum wage. The message I will have is there needs to be higher salaries for these men. The audience is baseball fans, baseball players, and the owners of the baseball teams. The purpose of this argument would be to get fair wages. They don't have to be the same as major leaguers but they need to be at a level where they aren't below minimum wage.
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| http://throughthefencebaseball.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/money-baseball.jpg |
Blog Post 30: Analysis of Public Argument
In her letter to Governor Brewer, Kassandra Diaz uses a professional and respectful tone. One of her first phrases, "in the hopes of discussing", conveys a respectful tone. Kassandra isn't demanding anything. She is just putting the idea out there and showing her desire to talk. Other places that show her professional tone are around the transitions. One example is "another area of concern". Kassandra isn't just saying there is a problem. By saying area of concern it makes it so it is something that can be discussed. This tone is very fitting considering she is writing a formal letter. A formal letter is supposed to be very professional. It is often written about serious topics and must therefore be taken very seriously. By using a professional and respectful tone Kassandra can make her formal letter more successful.
Kassandra never really establishes her ethos. She says she is a freshman at the University of Arizona which gives her some credibility since she is a student pursuing higher education. However at the end she states that she is in Biology Department in the College of Science. This doesn't get her any credibility because biology isn't related to healthcare funding. Biology is related to healthcare but not the funding. This isn't effective because there is no proof that she knows what she is talking about. She could have done outside research to form her points but no one knows the sources or how she got the ideas. Studying biology doesn't give her the credibility needed.
The main claim of Kassandra's letter is that the governor should reconsider the budget cuts. To support her argument Kassandra focuses on the negative consequences of the budget cuts. One of her points is that the cuts will have the strongest negative effects on the elderly, disabled, and impoverished. For her evidence she uses a few statistics but mostly explains the effects that the cut would cause. However it is not clear what Kassandra wants from this letter. Does she just care about the well being of all of the people it would effect, does she have familial connections, or does it have another meaning for her.
My recommendation for how to make this letter stronger is to include some statistics about who depends on medicaid programs and also statistics about medical costs with and without medicaid assistance. This would more effectively explain the negative effects that the budget cut would have on the people who are dependent on medicaid. These statistics would give Kassandra solid evidence that the budget cut will have negative effects on these people.
Kassandra never really establishes her ethos. She says she is a freshman at the University of Arizona which gives her some credibility since she is a student pursuing higher education. However at the end she states that she is in Biology Department in the College of Science. This doesn't get her any credibility because biology isn't related to healthcare funding. Biology is related to healthcare but not the funding. This isn't effective because there is no proof that she knows what she is talking about. She could have done outside research to form her points but no one knows the sources or how she got the ideas. Studying biology doesn't give her the credibility needed.
The main claim of Kassandra's letter is that the governor should reconsider the budget cuts. To support her argument Kassandra focuses on the negative consequences of the budget cuts. One of her points is that the cuts will have the strongest negative effects on the elderly, disabled, and impoverished. For her evidence she uses a few statistics but mostly explains the effects that the cut would cause. However it is not clear what Kassandra wants from this letter. Does she just care about the well being of all of the people it would effect, does she have familial connections, or does it have another meaning for her.
My recommendation for how to make this letter stronger is to include some statistics about who depends on medicaid programs and also statistics about medical costs with and without medicaid assistance. This would more effectively explain the negative effects that the budget cut would have on the people who are dependent on medicaid. These statistics would give Kassandra solid evidence that the budget cut will have negative effects on these people.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Blog 29: Rhetorical Analysis Reflection
After writing my rhetorical analysis and reflecting on the process, I learned that drafting is very important for my writing process. When I wrote my analysis, I started out with a broad thesis. As I moved from my first draft to my next one, my thesis and my paper became more specific. A solution that would avoid this would be for me to do more specific pre-writing or outlining. That way I could catch it earlier. If I do that then I will be able to focus on changing other things when it comes to drafting. Overall I believe that this paper is more successful than my last paper. A reason why is that I used much more analysis. On the previous paper I had a lot of summary and I didn't try to persuade or analyze as much. For the rhetorical analysis I added multiple analysis points throughout each paragraph. Every idea I presented was analyzed.
From writing this rhetorical analysis, I learned that being able to rhetorically analyze a situation is essential for any successful argument. You can have the best evidence and data but if you present it to the wrong audience in the wrong context, then it will have the same affect as using made up data. They could not have any idea about what is going on or just not want to listen. This applies to my engineering class because at the end of the year we will be having to give a presentation. To have a successful presentation I will have to analyze who my audience is so that I can convey my information the proper way. It would not be smart to use acronyms if my audience doesn't have the same knowledge level on the topic. The acronyms won't mean anything to them. Rhetorical analysis of a situation goes beyond just writing papers for english class.
From writing this rhetorical analysis, I learned that being able to rhetorically analyze a situation is essential for any successful argument. You can have the best evidence and data but if you present it to the wrong audience in the wrong context, then it will have the same affect as using made up data. They could not have any idea about what is going on or just not want to listen. This applies to my engineering class because at the end of the year we will be having to give a presentation. To have a successful presentation I will have to analyze who my audience is so that I can convey my information the proper way. It would not be smart to use acronyms if my audience doesn't have the same knowledge level on the topic. The acronyms won't mean anything to them. Rhetorical analysis of a situation goes beyond just writing papers for english class.
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Kitten_and_partial_reflection_in_mirror.jpg/1014px-Kitten_and_partial_reflection_in_mirror.jpg |
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Blog Post 27: Thesis and Outline
My thesis is:
In Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton uses photographs and commentary to display the uniqueness of the average person and to generate support for humanitarian issues.
Here is a link to my outline.
In Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton uses photographs and commentary to display the uniqueness of the average person and to generate support for humanitarian issues.
Here is a link to my outline.
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