CCM Blog Response

The short story I chose to read in College Composition at Miami, is called "Residence Halls" by Kelley McCormick. This story analyzes the effectiveness of the visual and textual rhetoric in a Miami University brochure to persuade people to living in residence halls. She talks about how the brochure uses ethos, pathos, and logos to sell the idea of on-campus living. Also, she examines the truths in the brochure as well as its fallacies. McCormick explains that the brochure makes living in a residence hall a "utopia" and that everything is perfect inside and outside of the hall. She uses her experience of three months to prove that the brochure is mostly false. 

My experience in dorm life is just like McCormick explains in this reading. I find that she is completely correct because my dorm is fifteen minutes away, the food is okay, and the rooms are overcrowded and sometimes stressful. Other than the fact that the residence halls are kept under police supervision and are very safe, the dorms are not that great of a place to live. I'm glad that it is only for one year. 

Staples' Public Space

It was shocking to read about how this very intelligent man, who happens to be African American can change how people act just by walking by. It is almost disgustful to me, to hear about how people can do such a thing when a person different from then strolls by. It is amazing how all black people are put into the stereotype as a harmful thug. I feel bad that Staples' and many others have to go through this every time they walk through the city at night. I can't imagine how this would feel every time you go out. 

Personally, I do not think there was ever a time I have been able to alter public space. Being a five foot seven inch, 140 pound white kid, it is tough to intimidate anyone. Yet, I think it would be a fun experience, but for only one time. Therefore, I cannot think of any time where I changed the actions of a group people, let alone one person in a public space. I think that society in general needs to do a better job with stereotypes and prejudices because no one needs to go through life being labeled so negatively. 

I think of myself as being a person who does not stereotype against certain people and I feel that I am rather accepting. Although, I still cannot say that if I was walking alone at night in the city, that my actions would not change if I noticed a "suspicious" character near. I also feel that most people would do the same, and put their guard up if in a similar situation. I know that reading this story, will help me to not stereotype people as thugs and I will try to act the same around every type of person. 

Sequence IV Project

1. Photo Essay 2. Graphic story 3. Webpage 4. Wiki 5. Movie

1. Hockey 2. music 3. movies 4. A fictional story 5. comics

1. I do not really understand what to write about. 2. how much detail is needed?

Baca's "Past, Present"

In this short story by Baca, he mixes two common styles of writing quite well; narrative and persuasive. The narrative side of the story is easily recognizable at the beginning, when he returned to his old prison,"... the enclosed walls, the barbed wire, and the guards in the towers shouldering their carbines made old feelings erupt in me" (221). The readers are able to know by his detailed writing, the pain and injustices that he and many other inmates suffered through. "... famewas nothing weighted against the suffering and brutality of prison life"(223). He then goes on by stating that he while he was being interviewed, he became worked up and angry and eventually told the interviewers to, "Just leave me alone!"(223). The persuasive side of Baca's story was able to make his audience dreadfully afraid of prison. The details and language he used in describing the prison, the life their, and all the suffering he and others have faced there, are persuasive enough to keep a person from going down the wrong path leading to jail. I greatly enjoyed reading this story and I think that he used the blend of narrative and persuasive in an effective way by keeping the story exciting and also guiding people away from prison.

Sanitized Reality

A large portion of America and the world has a great infatuation with the fantasy of Disney World. It is a "magical" place where parents can bring their children and share and pass on their memories of Disney with them. This fantasy land is a utopia for people who want to escape all of the tough pressures of the real world. For this is the reason why Salamone and Salamone dislike the amusement park and all that it represents. When people arrive through Main Street, "... psychological and cultural stings are carefully pulled; only on those rare occasions when they fail are they revealed for a brief time"(169). As they enter, the people absorb subliminal messages through the setting from the frontstage and the left. Salamone and Salamone believe that this messaging gives people the urge to always want to come back for another visit. This fantasy world is a great get away from work, and any stress in life and the authors do not like how it represents a fake world where everyone wants to live and people have much more freedom but for only one or two days.

Another example of a "sanitized reality" would when you are watching a sitcom on television. These shows also allow people to mentally escape from the real world for half an hour or an hour. They have real life situations and problems in which people can relate to but the problems are always humorous, which is not always the case for people in the real world. At the end of each episode, the problems are miraculously solved and this also does not happen in the real world. Television sitcoms are made to allow people to sit down, relax and escape from their troubles, which is much like Disney World.

Rhetorical Analysis on Bill Clinton's Oklahoma City Bombing Speech

In 1995, tragedy struck in the state of Oklahoma. In Oklahoma City, the federal building was bombed on April 19, where innocent American men, women and children were gruesomely murdered. President William Clinton then gave a powerful speech on April 23, that addressed the situation in all of the correct ways. Everything about this speech was done in the right way because the ethos, logos, pathos, and even the kairos were all appropriate for this speech.

He began this speech addressing the audience by talking about the people who were affected the most, and then about the people of the United States. He then established his credibility as a person who is not only the United States President but also a citizen who is a parent, husband, and a neighbor. The president then stated how he mourned and grieved with everyone who were injured and families who lost loved ones. Clinton used anaphora very well at the start of this speech by emphasizing on the phrase "who worked" many times in one sentence. 

The President then goes on to quote a meaningful letter from a woman who is a widowed mother of three. In this section from the letter that Clinton uses in his speech, she also uses anaphora effectively,"The anger you feel is valid, but you must not allow yourselves to be consumed by it. The hurt you feel must not be allowed to turn into hate, but instead into the search for justice. The loss you feel must not paralyze your own lives. Instead, you must try to pay tribute to your loved ones by continuing to do all the things they left undone, thus ensuring they did not die in vain"(Clinton,1995). The President used this because it could now have a warrant on his audience because the experience the widow went through could be similar for many in the audience. 

As Bill Clinton nears the end of the speech, he ties in the belief of God to get his point across that justice will

prevail and how America will stand up for its' people. At the very end he uses a trope that works very well because

he says, "My fellow Americans, a tree takes a long time to grow, and wounds take a long time to heal. But we must begin. Those who are lost now belong to God. Some day we will be with them. But until that happens, their legacy must be our lives" (Clinton, 1995). The diction in this speech is amazing because his word choice affects his audience greatly. This rhetoric was very successful because President William Clinton knew what to say that would bring American closer after this tragedy by his use of diction, anaphoras, kairos, and warrants. 

Click Here for the text of the speech

Blog Response 3- 9/3

1. Out of all four of the readings from Writing and Pace, Jamaica Kincaid's, "On Seeing England for the First Time" used thick description most effectively. The way she began her story by describing the first time she saw England on a map as little girl painted me a great mental picture of what exactly she experienced. "... it lay on bed of sky blue-the background of the map-its yellow form mysterious, because though it looked like a leg of mutton, it could not really look like anything so familiar as a leg of mutton because it was England..." This description made myself feel as if I were sitting next to her in that class. She thought of England as a perfect place, one place that she loves and can cherish when she saw the map of the country.  Although, when she actually visited the country, her entire perspective changed. She gave the audience descriptions that the people were mean and ugly, the weather was terrible and the food was even worse. The last sentence in the story can sum up how she views England as an adult, "...My views of England, starting with the map before me in my classroom and ending with the trip I had just taken, should jump and die and disappear forever." 

2. From the two readings in College Composition at Miami, I read "The Church Uptown" written by Ian McGuiness. I really enjoyed reading this short story because it wrote about the deep history and roots in Miami. I liked how he did his research on the church and gave accurate information but still kept me tied into the story. The way McGuiness described the church made me feel like I was looking at the church, "A tall, old, brick structure peers out of a cove of trees on High Street. Its well kept garden of bright flowers and out-of-place architecture alert the common passerby to its presence." He also gave good imagery about uptown and how new it is compared to the old church building that is sometimes perceived as "out of date."