After reading several editorials an opinion pieces, I realized that they attempt to persuade very specific audiences with either ethos or pathos. Such texts do not include a lot of logos, and most of these texts only defend one side and heavily criticize that which they disagree with.
For instance, a clear example of these opinion pieces being very supportive of their argument while criticizing opposing points of view is the text called Liberals are the Sort of People Who..., in which the author, John Hawkins appeals to his intended audience's pathos and lacks statistics and facts that actually proof his perspective on liberals. As I am not very familiar with politics, I do not want to project a sort of pro-liberal perspective, however, the way this author establishes his claims is extremely biased, moreover, it does not use solid evidence to back up many of his claims.
In addition to noticing that editorials and opinion pieces lack logos, the language that it is used is not too formal, it is a bit casual and appeal mostly to audience's feelings.
Authors make themselves look believable by pointing out observations that may predict a certain outcome.
These genres are different from other genres I have previously been exposed in academia since they utilize less facts and logos. It almost feels as if these genres were a blog, except they are a little bit more formal.
The opinion pieces that I just read, as I stated in the beginning, only consider one point of view, which may appear as not too credible by those who oppose the author's ideas.
The JSTOR Daily is different since it uses a lot of academic citations but nonetheless is not extremely formal, and it also uses a lot of pathos. This genre reinforces relevant occurrences and I think it is only offered online, ad opposed to newspapers and other types of genres.
Overall, I notices that most opinion pieces and JSTOR Daily works focus on one single ideology while criticizing points of view that contradict their ideas, which in my opinion, allows audiences to discuss their own ideas.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Monday, September 5, 2016
Blog #3: Memes!
"In just a few hours you'll be sitting around a campfire with Andy making delicious hot Schmoes." "They're called s'mores, Buzz." - Toy Story
I chose this particular meme because it is one that I feel its unique as it is very relevant to most millennials since most of us grew up watching Disney movies and many of us love all of Toy Story films. As posted above, the original quote is nothing like the popular meme that this image has been transformed into, it never includes the word "everywhere". In the film, Buzz Light year was just imagining a scenario that would have occurred in the future, nonetheless, internet users did it again and modified a meme and included the word "everywhere", which in my opinion, actually does fit Buzz Light Year's facial expression.
I picked these first two memes as most college students will agree with the ideas that the images are trying to convey. But the last two images serve as an example of what Knobel and Lankshear expect of a meme.
As mentioned in Knobel and Lankshear's analysis, memes are a form of social literacy that has been recently recognized, and its practice has become more widely used by the digital community, and regardless of how old a concept is or if the original image was modified, such as in the image above, it is an efficient form of communication that can be recognized by a large audience. This previous image reflect longevity and is also susceptible as one of the characters is juxtaposed with an old viral sensation, which is presented in a similar outfit, but still manages to convey the concept of how a trend is taking place "everywhere".
I picked these first two memes as most college students will agree with the ideas that the images are trying to convey. But the last two images serve as an example of what Knobel and Lankshear expect of a meme.
After reading Knobel and Lankshear's analysis on memes, I realized that memes have been around for a long time. I thought memes were just a recent popular trend, however, the analysis was very eye-opening as the authors included trending examples that took place more than a decade ago through different online websites, and that were popular during that time. The three most important characteristics that a meme can include, according to Knobel and Lankshear, are fidelity, fecundity, and longevity.
Moreover, I agree with the idea that a meme's purpose is not to be useful or extremely important, but to be memorable, which is why I chose this particular one, as I am sure many of my classmates can remember these popular Disney characters. I also mention this since I grew up in Mexico and even though I celebrate different holidays and have a different culture than most of my class mates, I can identify this image. This is where the longevity aspect of the meme comes into play as Toy Story 2 was released in 1999, yet 17 years later people can still identify it. In my opinion, memes are a great humorous way to relate ideas with different groups of people, and can work socially or even in a literary context as it is an easy and simple form of communication.
This last meme is one that may appeal to a large audience as many items say "made in china", and it can be seen throughout the world. This is a perfect example of a meme as it includes all three aspects, fecundity, longevity and fidelity, as it is presented in a modified way, yet, it manages to convey an idea, and it is relevant and will be for a very long time. Lastly I, analyzing memes has made me realize that memes are a form of social interaction, as certain audiences will find some memes to be more humorous than others, and some concepts to be more relevant than others as well, although they can utilized easily as the usage of an image makes it more appealing, it depends on the audience's point of view of what is humorous, relevant and memorable.
Finally, I would like to mention that I find it interesting how the dialogue between the Disney characters does never include the word "everywhere" yet the meme managed to be widely used, it makes me realize that not everything that is believed by many people is actually true. In the future I will research and look for evidence before I make assumptions.
Blog #2: Writing Genres
After reading Devitt's research article, I have never thought of genres as being something more than just poems, fictional stories, etc, but now I realized they can be any form of communication. Moreover, the article made me realize that a genre can influence not only an intended audience but the author of a specific text itself.
I agree with Devitt's idea of how teachers may expect a certain genre and most students will write a five paragraph but the instructors themselves would like to see something more than just a five paragraph format, which is why it is important to teach students more than just a five paragraph essay format. However, I do think that for very simple purposes, the five paragraph essay results efficient as it can convey an idea in a short amount of text, nonetheless, students should explore other genres as they may express different and more creatively.
As Devitt explains, "genres are social and rhetorical actions: they develop their languages and forms out of rhetorical out of rhetorical aims and contexts shared by groups of users" (342), genres will change depending on the audience. For instance, I use different kind of genres at SDSU, for this class I make use of blogs, for my other classes I will mostly use a five paragraph format, and at my internship I often write invitations, and thank you letters and many types of flyers. In some genres I tend to try to be more academic such as the papers that I write for school, while at my internship I communicate formally but in a casual way simultaneously. The papers that I write for school are intended to be very academic so that professors notice that research and a lot of effort was put into them so that I can receive a high grade. In contrast to an invitation that I often have to write in my internship, I have to seem friendly, more casual, otherwise if I used the same language and format that I utilize at school my intended audience will think that I am out of context and that my forms of communication were not intended for them.
In addition, when I am writing, I adopt the ideology that it I am to communicate to my audience as I have to be clear to certain groups of people, for instance, when I am writing a history research paper, I have to inform myself of past events in order to appeal to my intended audience, and while I do so I learn new content that influences the content of my project, which is what Devitt is referring to when she says that a writer can adopt an ideology. Moreover, following a genre such as a five paragraph essay is taking up an ideology as certain groups of people have utilized that format before and usually is easy to identify the argument and the evidence in specific areas of said genre as they follow a pattern, a structure that has been established even before one writes it.
Ultimately, I agree with Devitt as she explains that different genres are intended for different groups of people and that exploring different genres allows us to understand people with different ideas, and lastly, I think the whole purpose of understanding a variety of genres is to be able to communicate with people that think differently than us, and to be able to persuade different audiences. In my personal life for instance, I do not communicate formally with most of my friends, in contrast, when I am work, I approach all my customers very professionally and respectfully.
I agree with Devitt's idea of how teachers may expect a certain genre and most students will write a five paragraph but the instructors themselves would like to see something more than just a five paragraph format, which is why it is important to teach students more than just a five paragraph essay format. However, I do think that for very simple purposes, the five paragraph essay results efficient as it can convey an idea in a short amount of text, nonetheless, students should explore other genres as they may express different and more creatively.
As Devitt explains, "genres are social and rhetorical actions: they develop their languages and forms out of rhetorical out of rhetorical aims and contexts shared by groups of users" (342), genres will change depending on the audience. For instance, I use different kind of genres at SDSU, for this class I make use of blogs, for my other classes I will mostly use a five paragraph format, and at my internship I often write invitations, and thank you letters and many types of flyers. In some genres I tend to try to be more academic such as the papers that I write for school, while at my internship I communicate formally but in a casual way simultaneously. The papers that I write for school are intended to be very academic so that professors notice that research and a lot of effort was put into them so that I can receive a high grade. In contrast to an invitation that I often have to write in my internship, I have to seem friendly, more casual, otherwise if I used the same language and format that I utilize at school my intended audience will think that I am out of context and that my forms of communication were not intended for them.
In addition, when I am writing, I adopt the ideology that it I am to communicate to my audience as I have to be clear to certain groups of people, for instance, when I am writing a history research paper, I have to inform myself of past events in order to appeal to my intended audience, and while I do so I learn new content that influences the content of my project, which is what Devitt is referring to when she says that a writer can adopt an ideology. Moreover, following a genre such as a five paragraph essay is taking up an ideology as certain groups of people have utilized that format before and usually is easy to identify the argument and the evidence in specific areas of said genre as they follow a pattern, a structure that has been established even before one writes it.
Ultimately, I agree with Devitt as she explains that different genres are intended for different groups of people and that exploring different genres allows us to understand people with different ideas, and lastly, I think the whole purpose of understanding a variety of genres is to be able to communicate with people that think differently than us, and to be able to persuade different audiences. In my personal life for instance, I do not communicate formally with most of my friends, in contrast, when I am work, I approach all my customers very professionally and respectfully.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Marco Venegas
Hello RWS305W class,
My name is Marco Venegas, and I am an International Business major student with an emphasis in Latin America. I am currently a junior at San Diego State University and personally, my college experience seems to be a little bit different than those of other students. I would love to have more time to socialize just as my college friends do by being in fraternities and overall just being more involved in school's activities/events, however, I have had to sustain myself by having to work ever since I started my college career and I really have to improve on managing my time so that I can make time to enjoy myself a little bit.
I come from a very small Mexican town located about an hour away from San Diego, it is called Tecate, although you may have never heard about such town, I am pretty certain that most of you are familiar with the beer...
Tecate is the small town in which I resided for 17 years, and currently as a 20 year old, I still miss living with my parents as I did not have to worry about cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, paying rent, paying for insurance nor any other kind of bill, but for the past two years, that has not been the case anymore. In addition to having to work, since Tecate is not too far away, I feel the need to go visit my parents at least twice a week as I am the youngest of three, and I know that it is difficult for my parents accepting the fact that I am now an independent person. Visiting them also takes a lot of my free time away as its not too close to my apartment, speaking of apartment, I live with three of my roommates and I see them as my second family they make me feel at home even though I am not around much.
I currently work as a jeweler in JCPenney at Plaza Bonita and although I do not love my job I am content with it as if allows me to understand sales techniques, and besides, I just have to interact with customers which most of the time is very interesting as they can get very personal. I would like to know how to manage my time more efficiently as I know of some students that work full time while being enrolled full time in school, and I work about 29 hours a week and I also am an intern at the National City Chamber of Commerce which I also dedicate around 10 hours a week. Although I do not really need to work that many hours, I am trying to save enough money so that in Spring 2018 semester I can focus mainly on school and not having to worry about any expenses for my last semester.
My name is Marco Venegas, and I am an International Business major student with an emphasis in Latin America. I am currently a junior at San Diego State University and personally, my college experience seems to be a little bit different than those of other students. I would love to have more time to socialize just as my college friends do by being in fraternities and overall just being more involved in school's activities/events, however, I have had to sustain myself by having to work ever since I started my college career and I really have to improve on managing my time so that I can make time to enjoy myself a little bit.
I come from a very small Mexican town located about an hour away from San Diego, it is called Tecate, although you may have never heard about such town, I am pretty certain that most of you are familiar with the beer...
Tecate is the small town in which I resided for 17 years, and currently as a 20 year old, I still miss living with my parents as I did not have to worry about cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, paying rent, paying for insurance nor any other kind of bill, but for the past two years, that has not been the case anymore. In addition to having to work, since Tecate is not too far away, I feel the need to go visit my parents at least twice a week as I am the youngest of three, and I know that it is difficult for my parents accepting the fact that I am now an independent person. Visiting them also takes a lot of my free time away as its not too close to my apartment, speaking of apartment, I live with three of my roommates and I see them as my second family they make me feel at home even though I am not around much.
I currently work as a jeweler in JCPenney at Plaza Bonita and although I do not love my job I am content with it as if allows me to understand sales techniques, and besides, I just have to interact with customers which most of the time is very interesting as they can get very personal. I would like to know how to manage my time more efficiently as I know of some students that work full time while being enrolled full time in school, and I work about 29 hours a week and I also am an intern at the National City Chamber of Commerce which I also dedicate around 10 hours a week. Although I do not really need to work that many hours, I am trying to save enough money so that in Spring 2018 semester I can focus mainly on school and not having to worry about any expenses for my last semester.
Something personal that I like is pretty much anything that can go fast, whether it be cars, motorcycles, jets, planes, etc, I love speed. Fun fact, about three years ago, I had a car accident and I have to admit that it was my fault, but it was raining and since I learn until I actually experience it, my car flipped and luckily no one was injured but my car was totaled, however, I learned my lesson and I do not speed when the road is wet. I still love speed and having that rush of adrenaline flow through my body. Moreover, lately I have been wanting to buy a street bike or getting a pilot license as recently a friend of mine gave me an introductory session on how to fly a jet and I realized that flying is something that I am very passionate about, hopefully my schedule allows me to begin reading the pilot's license manuals.
This semester I really hope I can raise my GPA, and I look forward to getting to know everyone in the class and even though I may seem quiet, I am a very friendly person, I am just quiet because English is my second language and some days are way more fluent than other days. This semester I will also become more involved in school activities because I know that I will only have this experience once, besides, time goes by so fast.
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