My argument essay was about why there should be a college football playoff system over the current BCS strategy. The majority of my essay was based on logos because I think that is the easiest way to convince people via text.  The essay was mostly based on facts and opinions of prominent members of the sports community. I found that that was the best way to bring my point across through a paper. However, when thinking about the best way to do a visual explanation I have come to the conclusion that it is best if I maximize the pathos portion. I think that it is important to appeal emotionally because the time spent on the visual will be much less than the time spent reading my essay. I feel that during my paper I am attempting to guide the readers’ thoughts through many facts, quotes and statistics while my visual will more just thought provoking. I am going to strive to make something that the reader (see-er?) will think about after the quick glance. My plan as of right now is to create a billboard that will hopefully swing people to my side of the argument. My plan is to have pictures next to each other creating a side by side. On the left side I plan to have a very sterile picture of a computer. On the right side I plan to have picture of two of football players tackling each other. On the top the billboard I plan to have it say, “How should the National Championship be decided?” Under the picture of the computer I plan to have it say “in a lab” and under the football players I plan to have it say “on the field”. Obviously, the computer “Lab” picture represent the current system, the Bowl Champion Series, and the football player “Field” picture represents a playoff system which is something I advocated in my paper. I think this billboard will appeal on an emotional level because many people feel that having a national champion chosen by computers is totally stupid. I tend to agree with them. Why would there just not be a playoff like all the other college and professional sports. While in a billboard I cannot quite convey the facts I used in the paper I think this picture will still get the message across.

The three essays are all centered on the debate surrounding the fourth amendment. The fourth amendment stipulates that United States citizens have the right to no unwarranted search and seizures. “Is Privacy Overrated? The Merits, Drawback, and Inevitability of the Surveillance Nation” by Katherine Mangu-Ward is a look into the extensive use of surveillance cameras. She argues that the cameras are doing little to invade our privacy. She says that with all of the other way one can be tracked such as “credit cards, EZ passes, and bank records” (Mangu-Ward, 12) the cameras are not infringing on her privacy more than anything else already is. She also stipulated that the cameras have many positive benefits such as a checking system for police officers. The excerpt from “Reclaiming “Abandoned DNA: The Fourth Amendment and Genetic Privacy” by Elizabeth E. Joh is a cry to keep the collecting of DNA from starting. She fears that at some point down the road it might be used to “identify and segregate those who possess a ‘crime’ gene” (Joh 34). She is afraid that in the long run the advancement of science might be used for not its original intended purpose and could have long standing repercussions. The excerpt from “The Case for National DNA Identification Cards” by Ben Quarmby argues the exact opposite. He thinks a national DNA bank should be established to help with national security. In Mangu-Ward’s essay she uses both personal examples and facts. When she says “my credit card company has long known where I buy my underwear, but I do not lay awake nights worried that prosecutors might demand knowledge of my preferences in skivvies”, (Mangu- Ward, 12) she is using a personal example that help the reader understand her point of view. At the same time she references Sean Bell’s death and the London subway bombing, which provide examples of actual times when the security cameras have been able to help convict the culprits of their respective crime. It does not appear that Mangu-Ward has done any primary research; she relies on what she has learned from other and her prior thoughts to form her essay. She is still effective in proving her point though because she successfully incorporates enough facts to make it believable with a slight sense of humor that is engaging toward the reader. In Joh’s “Reclaiming Abandoned DNA” she uses all facts to back up her essay. There are no personal antidotes that accompany her essay. She does however use many specific examples such as Adolph Laudenberg and John Athan to prove her point. Like Mangu-Ward, Joh relies heavily on secondary research, it does not appear that she has gone and done work in the field, however she is a law professor so she most likely has had prior knowledge in the field. In Quarmby’s essay he also has no primary research he relies on research done by other people.

I think that a good essay much use both primary and secondary research and both personal experience and actual facts to make a good essay. Balance of both is needed to correctly persuade the reader. It can be done without all types; however, I think an essay that maximizes them all would be the best. The essays from today’s readings all lacked any evidence that they went out into the field and discovered something. I think if they have done this their respective essays all could have been a lot better. I think some times personal antidotes help the reader think on a less broad scale and think more about how it could effect them personally.

I think previous beliefs play a large role in argument essays. Before I started reading all of the fourth amendment essays I already had a definite opinion on where I think the line should be drawn. After reading Magnu-Ward’s essay, I defiantly agreed with her. I think that people spend far to much time worrying about being on camera like she said, even if you are not seen on camera, it is still pretty easy to trace. As far as the question on a DNA bank goes, I prior thoughts came in to play and I still believe what I originally thought. A DNA bank would only be for good. I don’t see a time when we will be using DNA to find a “crime marker’, that just seems to far fetched and straight out of a movie. However, I think that it would be a very strong deterrent against crime.

 Both “The Coffee Shop” by Andrea Casassa and “The Dope on Head Shops” by Mathew Dudley portray the techniques used to describe ethnographic essays as described by Bruce Ballenger in The Curious Writer. Ballenger assesses that the essays “must focus on groups of people who identify themselves as group members” (Ballenger, 373). In “The Coffee Shop” the author takes a look at a subculture of people who frequent a local coffee house she works at. Referred to as regulars, Casassa feels they make a community because “they create a sense of family” (Casassa, B35). I think the idea of a family is a very strong bond, and nothing marks an ethnographic group more than if they describe themselves as family. The ethnographic group in “The Dope on Head Shops” is a more “diverse range of consumers” leaning toward “high-school or college aged kids” (Dudley, B41). The community described in the essay is the pot smoking community. Both writers clearly employed a necessity that Ballenger describes a good essay, “depends on close observation over time” (Ballenger, 373). Clearly, Casassa has spent a considerable amount of time working at her local coffee shop. Her research has not always been research in the beginning it was simply things like learning Martha’s drink order or talking to Dennis every Sunday morning (B33-35) As these things took place over time, she gradually became part of the culture and in doing so learning the intricate details that can only be seized by living it. Dudley’s research is a little different. Dudley shows the time he had worked on his essay through quoted other works of literature on the subject and also thorough interviewing the owner of a hemp shop (B39-B43). While Dudley does not appear to be as physically apart of the culture as Casassa, his extensive research has granted him knowledge in the field. One interesting aspect of the ethnographic essay is that they typically “look closely at the few to get hints to the big picture” (Ballenger, 374). Obviously Casassa doesn’t have time to interview all of the regulars at her coffee shop, so she lets the reader “meet” a few of the diverse group. Dennis seems to almost speak for the group when he is asked why he comes to the coffee house all the time and he responds “Well the Camaraderie, of course” (Casassa, B35). The few blurbs the author provides give the reader an overview of the collective whole. Dudley does something similar in that his article is on head shops in general; however, the only one the readers ever see is The Hempest.  The reader is to believe that all head shops are similar to this particular one.

Casassa does an effective way of describing the culture she is studying by using lots of examples. Being that the first half of the essay is a “journal” and the second is merely an anecdotal story, the entire essay is just one example followed by another. Dudley is effective in that he uses other pieces of published literature to back up his claims.

Casassa appears to have affection for the little coffee shop. Her interpretations, although never does she truly express it, of the culture of the local coffee shop is a good one. The author gives away subtle hints of her feelings when she says things like “I almost laugh as Dennis swings open the door” or when she describes her daily routine as “Hectic, exhausting, comfortable, familiar… just right” (Ballenger, B35-36). The tone of Dudley’s paper is harder to pick up. The author does a pretty objective job of relaying the facts on Head Shops. That being said, I think the author must be someone who is in favor of them. He sometimes seems oddly proud of them like when he describes the head shops as “already skilled in the art of camouflage and metamorphosis” (Dudley, B43).

I plan to write my essay on the Southlake Carroll football team. We won the state championship three of the four years I attended high school, I did nothing but live and dream about the team. I can use plenty of examples because the team ran my life for so many years and I can get personal quotes from my high school friends that were either also on or around the team as much as I was. I have already spent the time Ballenger thinks one needs to create and effective ethnographic essay.

Ok so my tentative topic is the JFK assassination. Im alittle lost on what the question would be but I think its a cool topic that id like to know more about. I also think Im probably not the only one that is very curious about the worlds most famous conspiracy theory

Reading Response Two

Both “Why do People Tan?” by Amy Garrett-Brown and “An Experience in Acronyms” by Jay Holmquist are really more discovery essays than true traditional research papers because both don’t really reach the point the author is trying to make until the end of the essay. The traditional research paper has “an argument the writer wanted to make even before he started the research” (Ballenger, 430); however, in the two provided essays the reader is taken through a process of research done by the author, where the reader, and possibly even the author, is unclear on where the author is attempting to go with the subject. In “Why Do People Tan?” the author appears on the side of tanning is bad with quotes like “People still feel healthy with their bastardized tan” (Garrett-Brown, 460) and “People passively accepting a degenerating process”(Garrett-Brown 460). Clearly the reader is expecting the author to stand against tanning, but in the end author comes to a 180 when she establishes she still thinks that she disagrees with the critics because she too wishes to look good. This shows how it is a process because Garrett-Brown the author comes to a discovery that despite the research she still values tanning. In “An Experience in Acronyms” the author openly talks about his enjoyment in doing drugs “I like my drugs” (Holmquist, B29) but in the end his “discovery” is that he doesn’t want to do them because he has his “whole life in front of him”(Holmquist, B29) and he doesn’t want to ruin that. Both essays also diverge from the typical research paper because they are both written in first person. The classical paper is written in third.

            The controlling idea of “Why Do People Tan?” is a brief overview of the developing subculture of tanning. The essay is based around the question posed in the second sentence is it “why is it cool for white people to be tan” (Garrett-Brown 459) despite the fact that it is known to have poor long-term effects. The main idea of “An Experience in Acronyms” is a look into the “part drugs” LCD, GHB, and ecstasy. It is written from the perspective of someone who has both taken and seen the harmful effects of these drugs.  While the author’s stance on the subject doesn’t actually come out till the very end, he is tying to show how these supposedly “harmless”(Homlquist, B25) and “unaddictive” (Holmquist, B27) can and will cause problems eventually.

            Like mentioned earlier, both papers are written in first person which really helps the two authors true voice come out. While both are written in first person with both still provide a lot of outside information that helps get their point across. The mixture of the outside information and the personal stories does help get a very good job of getting their message across.

            Both essays are “driven by a central question” (Ballenger, 432). In “Why do People Tan?” the question that pushes the essay through out the paper is, why do people fake tan. “An Experience in Acronyms” is driven by the question; is it ok to do these drugs he sees all of his friends doing.

            Ballenger says that these types of essays will have a clearly stated thesis. While I think there is a thesis in “Why do People Tan?” I think Garrett-Brown gets away from the idea presented in the thesis. I view the thesis, as “It seems completely asinine on the surface to waste money and time on a prepaid tan that will only result in a prematurely leathered and wrinkled skin and a much higher risk of developing melanoma.” (Garrett-Brown, 459). The key part I see there is the “on the surface” portion because as the author seems to explore the topic more she comes to find that she also to desires the tan more than the possible after effects. The second portion of the thesis doesn’t come till the very end of the essay when the author says, “While I’m not condoning the 1976 ‘Savage Tan’...I think there must be some kind of middle ground”(Garnett-Brown, 460). The thesis statement in “An experience in Acronyms” isn’t actually a statement, but a question, “Is something that the government finds harmful, yet so many people say is harmless, is actually bad for you?” (Homlquist B24).

Reading Response 1

Both essays thesis’ does not develop until well into the paper. While it is hard to pin point the exact these statement in Charlotte Hogg’s “I’m a Believer” the concept of the paper doesn’t really come out until the ninth of eleven pages. When the author comes to the realization that while she could spend the night gambling with her childhood hero, she knows “it would ruin what little magic remains”. The late thesis is also used in the second essay “The Joy of Mud” by Catherine Black. The apparent thesis statement in that essay is in the second to last paragraph when Black says, “I’ll have to admit that I am only at the beginning of a path I never expected to travel.”

            Another characteristic of personal essays displayed in the two given examples is that the subjects of the essays are “commonplace” but “may catapult them beyond the ordinary, but the topic is often humble”. The subject in Black’s tale can easily be labeled as commonplace in that many if not all children have a crazy childhood obsession. Her affection for the Monkee’s lead singer Davy Jones is much like everyone’s childhood idol (personally mine was an unhealthy obsession with the then Texas Rangers left fielder Rust Greer). While by the end of the story she has taken in a little further than most. Attending the washed up Jones’ concert on the Indian reservation with only 40 fans in attendance does strike me as catapulting beyond the ordinary especially since she was 28 at the time well more than ten years after she was self proclaimed “more infatuated with Davey than ever”. However, by having the author go to this “concert” the reader is able to see what Hogg is trying to communicate; at some point one must let go of their childhood dreams. Black’s story is also a very common place tale of a child wanted so badly to get out from their childhood and only noticing how great it is till it is actually gone. This idea is well captured when she says, “After sixteen years of floating on the peripheries of an island I never cared for, I’ve snapped straight back into its cold green heart”. The idea of a childhood desire to get away from they home and wanted it back so badly when it is gone is quite a common theme of children.

            Black defiantly maximizes “shifting back and forth from then to now…[showing] the process that helped the writer compose it” The beginning of her tale starts in the present where she is driving to an unknown destination with an old friend. She then quickly recaps her childhood desire to leave the island and then returns to the present. This differs from Hogg who writes entirely chronologically.

            The apparent “reason for writing” in Hogg’s writing is for the reader to cherish their childhood dreams for what they were, not what they are.  Hogg comes to this feeling at the end of her story, “I accept finally, that this person I know so well, I do not know at all and I, a daydream believer, am just a fan”. Hogg is expressing that at some point one must let go of their childhood sensations because, like in her case, her perfect ideal of this man, Davey Jones, is just not the same. While the reader can tell Davey Jones will always hold that fond childhood memory in her heart she must at some point let go. He is no longer the same Davey Jones she once dreamed of falling in love with. I think Black’s controlling idea is much different. Black hopes one will enjoy the present, especially their childhood. Unlike Hogg, who basked in her childhood a little, to long, Black was unable to see the beauties of her adolescent until it was all gone. I think her personal essay is pleas with the readers to enjoy what they can while you still have the opportunity. I think both writers would strongly encourage anyone including their readers to enjoy the present. Clearly, the underlying message between the two is that while one enjoyed her childhood a little to long and one a little to short, I think they would both hope that any child would enjoy it during the present.