Unit One- Common Read Synthesis:
Unit Two- Rhetorical Analysis of Op-Ed:
Unit There- Argument:
Lol I can literally write a rhetorical analysis with an ease of some sort, but can’t use the right font for my header… that sums up about my whole life.
so sorry …….
Anywho, super happy with the grade and happy that you viewed the paper and column the same way I did. I worked really hard on this paper making sure the “commentary” part of claim -> evidence -> commentary was sound and so I am happy to see “strong commentary” written in multiple places.
I have really really loved writing these last two papers actually. I enjoyed this one a lot because of how much I enjoyed Friedman’s column.
As far as errors I haven’t seen much of a pattern. My sister did some major grammar editing for me on this paper though which helped me to eliminate my bad habit of having 51604854 line sentences.
Lastly, I am glad “[my] paper gives [you] hope in humanity.” <3 You give me hope in the education system; you’re the best and I have much love for you and really appreciate everything you do for me.
We Can’t All Be Winners In the Real World:
An Argument Piece on the Dangers of Participation Trophies
Do participation trophies show signs of danger for today’s youth? Are levels of narcissism increased in children who receive participation trophies? Is this a bigger issue than just parenting style? Are rewards for just showing up enabling our youth or harming them? In today’s society, we can’t all be winners, therefore we shouldn’t teach our kids this. Participation trophies should become a thing of the past because of increase in undesirable traits, dreaded lesson that winning is everything, and little room that allows for failure and mistakes that ultimately drive improvement.
It’s the end of the season, your team didn’t win a single game, but you still all line up on the field and wait for your name to be called. Your name is shouted, you run up to our coach with joy as he hands you a gold piece of plastic labeled “Participation Award.” You go home and put it on the shelf next to the 10 other pieces of plastic that all say the same thing. Shouldn’t awards symbolize accomplishment? Is showing up something to be celebrated? Do participation trophies show signs of danger for today’s youth? Is this a bigger issue than just difference in parenting style? Are participation trophies enabling our youth or harming them? In the real world, you don’t get a promotion for just showing up to the office, why should we teach our children that simply breathing is enough for an award? In a capitalist society we can’t all be winners, isn’t it wise to prepare our kids for that now? Shouldn’t the value of hard work be taught over the ability to do the bare minimum? It is time for those “trophies” on the shelf to be thrown in the attic to do the only thing they’re good for: collect dust. Participation trophies cause an increase in traits such as narcissism in today’s youth as well as teach the dreaded lesson that winning is everything. These fake awards also leave little room for failure and mistakes in our little one’s lives and it is those very things that ultimately drive change, improvement, and advances. What if Edison has received an award for his first attempt of the light bulb? Perhaps we would still be sitting in the dark.
What even is a rhetorical analysis? Why are we doing this? Can I just not? All are thoughts I was thinking with the introduction of this unit. We did rhetorical papers in high school, but all I remember is that a “writer does not use ethos/pathos/logos, the writer appeals to ethos/pathos/logos” (random AP teacher junior year). Can I write a paper on uses vs. appeals to? How do I even choice a column? What the heck Mrs. B.
Picking an article was the hardest part. To find something you were interested in, written in a way that you could critique, and somewhat enjoyed was not an easy task. I really did not want to do anything on the election so that narrowed my choices down quite a bit. Once I picked my article I become somewhat immersed into it. My article was about what the human population was doing to our Earth. Friedman argued that without drastic action, and soon, the world as we know it will cease to exist. I started pointing out things in my everyday life that related to the article: the gas you see come out of the exhaust of the OUT busses, plastic in the trash can instead of the recycle bin, and news about another endangered species getting closer to extinction. Unfortunately, the analysis had to be on “rhetoric”… whatever that is.
Rhetoric. The more you say it, the weirder it sounds. Regardless, I still had no idea what it meant. Ethos, pathos, and logos are words I have heard time and time again, but it is so hard to remember which one is which. I finally got it drilled into my head that ethos is credibility, logos is logic, and pathos is emotions. I always thought my problem was mixing them up, but even when I knew which was which, it was sometimes still hard to distinguish if the writer was using ethos or logos. Even after distinguishing between different rhetoric techniques it still became difficult to add in the commentary part of the paper. What do I say? Comment on what? He’s the writer, not me. I was not feeling confident at all in the paper, but the post review email made me feel much better and give me the strength to finish strong. Or at least I hope it was strong…
I think the two most helpful parts of the unit were the introduction gallery walk and an in depth editing session with my sister. I did not get too much feedback from peers, but reading other students’ papers really helped me. I saw a lot of techniques that I liked and would not have thought of. The weekend before the paper was due, I went to my sister’s house and she ripped it apart. I figured the process would be discouraging, but instead it was uplifting because I felt the progress we were making.
All in all I actually really enjoyed the unit. I feel now when I read articles I can look at it in a more academic way and critique it in a more profession and scholarly manner. And I feel like “claim -> evidence -> commentary “ will be forever imprinted into my brain.
How is life?
LOL.
I went to McDonald’s last night at 1 in the morning for ice cream and chicken nuggets. This is the point I’ve reached in my life.
I woke up this morning and opened my computer to continue to work on my paper and cried tears of joy when I saw that I must have slept wrote a whole paragraph last night because here there it was, done, but I had no recollection of doing it.
I am also super sad because I got a 94 on my math test which made my grade in the class drop from 102 to 99 …. this is what college has done .. I am upset I no longer have a 100 in college algebra.
But here’s the video that prevents me from jumping off a bridge :