Documentation Quiz

1. MLA Format
2. In this system there are two parts which are in-text citations and Parenthetical Citations
3. For a Web Source you need: Author/Editor, the name of the database that you used, title of the project, the article or book used, the date of the revision, and any version numbers that are available to you.

Prewriting Essay 2

Amy's article seems to be farfetched and too broad in how she tries to compare herself with the entire chinese mother population. Obviously not every single family is like that, so for her to make everything seem black and white for westerners and her is an unsupportive argument. It seems to me that she is ranting about her beliefs more than actually providing a strong argument with support. The lack of support includes not saying how her children feel about how they are treated and how she does not acknowledge a common medium between the two cultures. Something I would like to research on this topic is how much of a childhood is taken away from the child, and how it will affect them later on in life. Also, it would be interesting to see if any of the children break their parent's beliefs when they become older and have children themselves. Things that shocked me in this article include how her children never saw friends, never had sleepovers, and that an A- on a test would cause the parent to buy practice tests for their children.   This article has many stereotypes that I would like to look at more closely.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Government should create stricter gun laws

Gun Violence Becoming Uncontrollable?

On January 26^th, 2011, Megan Weintraut wrote the article, Government should create stricter gun laws for the Ithacan, explaining her thoughts on why the government needs to create stricter gun laws throughout the United States. Weintraut makes multiple points that are strongly incorporated throughout her essay in order to achieve a specific goal of awareness.  She does this through the usage of rhetorical appeals, rhetiorical situation, and the ability to cover all parts that are needed in an argument.

            Rhetorical appeals are constantly being used throughout this editorial. Most Americans believe that guns and violence are problems to being with, so stating we need change is appealing to logos, or the logical sense. Another way she manages to incorporate rhetorical appeals is by mentioning events such as the Virginia Tech shooting or Columbine High School (paragraph 6). By doing this, she is making her readers reach down into their feelings as their emotions come out, remembering loses that occurred on those days. What hit me the most as a reader is looking at all of the statistics she gives in her essay, creating ethos. At one point, Megan states, “ In 2006 alone, firearms were involved in 68% of murders, and more than 90% of today’s gang-related homicides involve guns” (paragraph 3). These three appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos are powerfully used in Megan’s article to obtain reasoning. 

            Not only does Megan use appeals to reach her point, but she uses rhetorical situation as well. Rhetorical Situation focuses on her audience, occasion, and the purpose of the argument. The audiences of this article are readers of the Ithacan newspaper.  It effectively reaches it’s audience because a typical college student would like to know that he or she is safe from gun violence and that their country is trying to do something about it. Being made obvious by previous usage in my essay, the type of argument this is, or its occasion, is an editorial submission. Also, It seems to have been written solely because of the school shootings that have taken place in the past. Being an article, Megan had to make sure that her purpose was clearly stated, knowing many people would be reading it. In my opinion, the purpose of this article is to solely demand that our government regulates the number of guns and ammo that can be purchased at one time. Of course covering appeals and rhetorical situation is always important, but having all parts of an argument is crucial to a strong argument.

            To have all of the parts of an argument included, Megan had to make sure that she stated a claim, gave reasons, provided evidence to support those reasons, and acknowledge other views at the same time. Her claim was stated in the second paragraph of the argument when she says, “ American citizens can live their daily lives easily and securely without the use of arms” (paragraph 2). Weintraut provided dominant reasons such as video games and the availability of guns and ammo to support her theory. Of course, she made sure to provide evidence for each of these reasons including the game Grand Theft Auto, being how kids are rewarded for killing police offers, and that in every state except four, there is no limit to how many guns or how much ammunition can be bought at a single time. The most essential part of an argument that really makes the reader appreciate Megan’s argument is how she acknowledges that the country has made some efforts to help in the past,  but just not enough. This is shown in her evidence when she states, “ Only four states (California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia) limit their citizens to one gun purchase per 30 days” (paragraph 5). By showing respect for what the government has already done to stop gun violence in the past, readers of the article might be more inclined to being open to her thoughts as well. All of the parts of an argument that are used by Weintraut are a huge factor as to why this is such a strong article.

            In all, the article on the need for stricter gun laws by Megan Weintraut is insightful and full of everything that is necessary for an impactful argument. By using appeals, rhetorical situations, and the parts of an argument, Weintraut achieved the capability to intrigue her audience to listen to her opinion on the subject given.

             

            

Reflection 1.1

Some of the things that I am happy with about my first draft is that I have a lot of detail and examples to back up what I have to say. Another thing that I am content with is that the analysis seems to flow and does not lose the reader, staying on subject. The things I would like to work on with my draft are making sure I am using the right wording and lingo that a rhetorical analysis needs in correct spots. Also, I want to make sure that the reader knows when I am talking about the rhetorical appeals without actually mentioning them directly while also making sure the examples of rhetorical appeals actually fit with the right one.

Essay 1.1: A Rhetorical Analysis on of Megan Weintraut's " Government should create stricter gun laws"

            On January 26^th, 2011, Megan Weintraut wrote an article for the Ithaca Newspaper explaining her thoughts on why the government needs to create stricter gun laws throughout the United States. In this article, Megan makes multiple points that are strongly incorporated throughout her essay in order to achieve a specific goal of awareness.  She does this through the intense usage of rhetorical appeals, rhetorical situations, and the ability to cover all parts that are needed in an argument.

            Textual Analysis, which deals with the text itself and the rhetorical appeals, is constantly being used throughout this article. Most Americans believe that guns and violence are problems to begin with, so by her stating we need change is appealing to logos, or the logical sense. Another way she manages to incorporate rhetorical appeals is by mentioning events such as the Virginia Tech shooting or Columbine High School. By doing this, she is making her readers reach down into their feelings as their emotions come out remembering loses that occurred on those horrific days. What hit me as a reader the most is looking at all of the credible statistics she gives in her essay, creating credibility. At one point, Megan states, “ In 2006 alone, firearms were involved in 68% of murders, and more than 90% of today’s gang-related homicides involve guns.” These three appeals of logos, pathos, and credibility are powerfully used in Megan’s article to obtain contextual reasoning. 

            Not only does Megan use rhetorical appeals to reach her point, but she goes onto using rhetorical situation as well. Rhetorical Situation focuses on the audience, occasion, and the purpose of her argument. The audiences of this article are readers of The Ithacan newspaper and other students.  It effectively reaches it’s audience because a typical college student would like to know that he or she is safe from gun violence and that their country is trying to do something about it. Being made obvious by previous usage in my essay, the type of argument this is, or its occasion, is an article submission. Being an article, Megan had to make sure that her purpose was clearly stated, in that many people would be reading it. In my opinion, the purpose of this article is to solely demand that our government regulates the number of guns and ammo that can be purchased at one time. Of course covering appeals and rhetorical situations are always important, but having all of the parts of an argument is crucial to a strong argument.

            To have all of the parts of an argument included, Megan had to make sure that she stated a claim, gave reasons, provided evidence to support those reasons, and acknowledged other views at the same time. Her claim was clearly stated in the second paragraph of the argument when she says, “ American citizens can live their daily lives easily and securely without the use of arms.” To support this theory, Megan provided dominant reasons to why this is true; reasons such as video games in the media, and the availability of guns and ammo. Of course, she made sure to provide evidence for each of these reasons including the video game Grand Theft Auto, being how kids are rewarded for killing police offers, and that in every state except four, there is no limit to how many guns or how much ammunition can be bought at a single time. The most essential part of an argument that really makes the reader appreciate Megan’s argument is how she acknowledges that the country has made some efforts to help in the past,  but just not enough. This is shown in her evidence when she states, “ Only four states (California, Maryland, New Jersey,  and Virginia) limit their citizens to one gun purchase per 30 days.” By showing respect for what the government has already done to stop gun violence in the past, the readers of the article might be more inclined to being open to her thoughts as well. All of the parts of an argument that are used by Megan are a huge factor as to why this is such a strong article.

            In all, the article on the need for stricter gun laws by Megan Weintraut was very insightful and full of everything that is necessary for a powerful and impactful argument. By using rhetorical appeals, rhetorical situations, and the parts of an argument, Megan achieved the capability to intrigue her audience to listen to her opinion on the subject given.

            

Prewriting Essay One

1st PARAGRAPH INTRODUCTION: Introduce who the speaker was and what they were talking about.
Introduce whether or not you thought it was a strong argument.
Introduce how she went into textual and contextual analysis details.
Introduce how along with that she also covered the parts of an arguments.

2nd PARAGRAPH: Talk about how she covered contextual analysis and what detail she went into.
Talk about the 5 W's she went into
Talk about her rhetorical situations including her audience, occasion, and purpose

3rd PARAGRAPH: Talk about how she covered textual analysis and what she said about it

The Text Itself

Talk about her voice style and the rhetorical appeals

4th PARAGRAPH: Go into how she covered each step of the parts of an argument 

State her claim, Reasons, Evidence, Acknowledgment and Respsonse

Rhetorical Analysis Quiz

The two types of rhetorical appeals used in writing are textual and contextual analysis. Textual analysis is an analysis that focuses on the words and the text itself. It deals with language, voice, and style which can deal with things such as the tone in the speakers voice or writing. Textual Analysis is mainly used when describing the three rhetorical appeals such as pathos, ethos, and logos. On the other hand, Contextual analysis is an analysis that places the argument within a larger argument. It deals with the 5 know W's such as who, what, when, where, and why. A contextual Analysis also uses the rhetorical situation which incorporates audience, occasion, and Purpose. The Occasion is the type of argument being produced, while the purpose the the central aim of the argument.