Advertisement Campaign Showdown

The last assignment in English 1105 class is a group project on advertisement campaign showdown. This assignment is mainly about the advertisement of G-Ma’s Salty Potato Chips. It consists of the production of packaging layout, print advertisement, and a short commercial of the G-Ma’s Salty Potato Chips. To be successful with this assignment, we have to first identify the rhetorical situations that could be made in this assignment. The rhetorical situation has three main elements: exigence (purpose), audience, and constraints. The exigence or the purpose in this advertising assignment is to draw people’s attention towards the G-Ma’s Salty Potato Chips using its long tradition of 70 years and its original tastes and therefore increase the sales of goods. The intended audience is the elder people and some people who would prefer potato chips to be basic and keep its traditional taste. The possible constraints in this deliverance of advertisements would be the ability to make the “professional” advertisement such as designing logos and potato chips packaging. To persuade the audience, there are fundamental three means of persuasion which are usage of the appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos. In this assignment, we could appeal to ethos by the long tradition of the product implying the trust and credibility of the product to the audience. To appeal the pathos in the product, we could use an image of a person or a group of people who seemed to enjoy the product in our print advertisement or in our commercial implying the audience that consumers of our products are happy, healthy, and joyful. For the last appeal, appealing to the logos really depends on the logic of the audience. However, it is our job to make the audience to have a logical conclusion that our product is better than others and therefore has worth to buy. We can appeal to logos by the simple designs, warm colors, and maybe some pictures of unpeeled potatoes implying the naturalness and healthiness of our G-Ma’s Potato Chips are. Also to have strong emphasis on our advertisement on the G-Ma’s Potato Chips, we could use confident voices in our taglines or use humorous voices in our taglines. 

How did the potato chips so beloved?

How did the potato chips so beloved? In the article “The Best Chip? The First One Out of the Bag” found in The New York Times, Kim Severson writes about the ‘best chip’ and how did those best potato chips are originated and be mass produced. Severson has interviewed and wrote about several people’s stories and thoughts on their ‘best’ chips. The one of the person whom the Severson had mentioned in the article was Jack Pretre who had become a huge fan of Cape Cods, after eating sample bags of Cape Cods that he could use his vacation for touring the Cape Cod Potato Chips factory in Hyannis. Like Pretre, there are many chip-lovers among Americans. According to the polls from NPD Group, a market research firm, nearly half of the Americans will eat potato chips in next two weeks. As seen in the poll, potato chips are consumed very often since it is very easily accessible, and be lightly consumed. Because of these intimate qualities that the potato chips have, the potato chips are popular and loved from a lot of people. Then, how these beloved chips originated and be mass produced and be ubiquitous? There are many oral histories and myths about the creation of the potato chips; however the most possible oral story is that the complaints of the customer that the fired potatoes of Carey B. Moon’s Lake House was too plain and tasteless, made the cook, George Speck Crum, mad which eventually made the cook to make the potato into chips with extra salt on it. As the industry has developed, the potato chips could be mass produced. Then in the 30s, Herman Lay, the founder of the Global Chip Company, Frito-Lay, had produced the chips in mass scale and marketed the potato chips with television commercials. From its deep and long tradition, Frito-Lay now has contracted new potato growers who grow 3.2 billion potatoes a year in 40 different countries and placed the high position in the chip market. Looking at the success of the Frito-Lay, it seems that the tradition of the chips could greatly affect in the product’s marketing. The value of the chip could be evaluated not only with long tradition and intimate characteristics, but also with the unique qualities of the chips. In the 80s, the Kettle-Brand of the Cape Cod was born with the original style of potato chips: low moisture, low sugar, thicker, and more starch on the surface, giving the chip crunch and hard-bite. By considering various tastes and textures of the chips that people prefer, Cape Cod chips has not failed in their marketing or production and has made huge fans of their chips, like Pretre. Reading this article and relating to the project, I have thought that when making the print advertisements and taglines for our G-Mas Potato Chips, our group could consider for major three criteria: its unique characteristic, tradition, and quality.

Potato

The first potato chip advertisement I chose was from the worldwide brand “Lay’s”. In this advertisement, there is a girl sitting on the swing smiling big eating the Lay’s classic potato chips. Behind the girl, there is a green grass field and a clear blue sky. Then on the top of the advertisement, there is a big tag line that says “It takes 12 muscles to smile or 3 simple ingredients”; “Just potatoes, all natural oil & a dash of salt”. This Lay’s advertisement implies the audience that Lay’s classic potato chips makes smile on their faces and brings happiness and joy. By showing the green field and blue sky, the advertisement implies the audience that Lay’s classical potato chip is a natural, healthy snack that everyone can enjoy. The second potato chip advertisement was from the “SunChips”. This advertisement is similar to the first advertisement from Lay’s since both of the advertisements put nature as the background to emphasize the healthy and greener characteristics of the products. Also both of the advertisements put forth the smiling girl or woman as their main model is to connect happiness and delight to their brand image. However, the first and the second advertisement were different in that the one of the major marketing point in the first advertisement from Lay’s had the simple ingredients that would relate to the healthy, natural potato chips; the second advertisement from SunChips also targeted on the healthy, natural potato chips, but it did not emphasize its ingredients characteristics in its advertisement. The third advertisement was from the classical brand, “Pringles”. The advertisement promotes the sales of the new cheese flavor of Pringles chips. However, it only shows one slice of Pringle’s chips and the word “say” on the top of the left endpoint of the chip and the word “cheese” on the top of the right endpoint of the chip. The advertisement had illustrated just one slice of chips and put the words “say cheese” above the endpoints of the chip to implicit the image of smile in the shape of one slice of chip. Overall this advertisement emphasized that having Pringles will bring joy and happiness as the first and second advertisement had already targeted. However the advertisement was different from the prior advertisements in its simplicity of the advertisement structure and format. The last advertisement was from “Tostitos”. This advertisement shows a bag of tostitos full of corns, and at the bottom of the advertisement, there is few tag lines that say “The time you found out corn was a grain. You thought corn was a vegetable, didn’t you? ... Your favorite Tostitos Tortilla Chips are naturally made with whole grain corn; who knew corn’s secret life could be delicious. This Tostitos advertisement is similar to those of other potato advertisements discussed above in that it promotes that natural, healthy, and green qualities of the products. However, it is different in that it doesn’t have marketing point on the happiness or joy, since it only focuses on being the healthy natural snack.

Argument Peer Review - Rory

In Rory’s introduction of the argumentative essay, Rory has caught and compelled the attentions and interests of the readers by listing the few common stereotypes that people have when they think about college athletes. Then, he introduces his argument: whether college athletes should get paid to play their games. As a college athlete in Virginia Tech, Rory argues that the college athletes should not get paid to play their games, but rather should be given adequate time to focus on academics and sufficient stipend beyond tuition and dorm. He provides the necessary background and contextual information using his experiences as a college athlete. To break down the boiler plates of the image of the college athletes, Rory build his argument logically and lead to his thesis smoothly and directly with his supporting experiences. He mentions the controversial, opposing viewpoints and the problems that surround the issue; however, they are not fully described or explained in his main essay. The possible solution or suggestion of the issue given by Rory is that adopting the stipend allowance policy that NCAA has authorized could help college athletes to reduce their pressure and to manage their time more wisely. This issue is very fresh, interesting, and contestable. The main body of Rory’s essay fleshes out the main points with justifiable and fair logic. Although Rory’s experiences as a college athlete is not common, Rory has effectively support his main points with his experiences. Overall for his conclusion, Rory has reiterated his thesis and his main points without directly copying from the introduction, and the relativity of the supporting experiences were shown clear. Rory has used distinct number of word and phrases were used and has used smooth and logical transition overall in the essay.

Argument Peer Review - Puyush

In Puyush’s introduction of the argumentative essay, Puyush catches the reader’s attention and compels the reader’s interest in his issue by stating his thesis directly in front of the readers which is that computers are best device for education and learning. Puyush’s introduction lacks in providing necessary background; however, since we could not use outside source, it is considerable. Other than that, the introduction of Puyush’s argumentative essay sufficiently describes what the controversy or problems surrounding the issue which would be computer’s harmful effect on human’s health for a long term and people’s lack of socialness due to long term usage of computers. In general, his essay is lead logically, smoothly, and directly to the thesis. Puyush does not clearly map out the solution in the introduction; however, there is some type of solution in the conclusion part. Upon reading Puyush’s introduction, the issue found out to be both interesting and contestable. The main body of Puyush’s essay flesh out its main points with reasonable logic such as the convenience of our modern technology, various application of modern technology in almost every aspect of lives. Puyush uses his personal experience to support his claim on main points; his experiences were more easily related to the wide audience and not felt overly subjective. Puyush also mentions the possible counter arguments for his issue in his introduction; however, he does not refute the possible opposing claims in his essay. Overall Puyush restates his thesis with more details without directly rewriting the thesis, and his essay contained variety of word and phrase choices and have negligible grammar and spelling issues with good transitions. 

Argument Peer Review - Brandon

In Brandon’s argumentative essay introduction, Brandon catches the reader’s attention and compels the reader’s interest to his issue by short anecdote of his mom and himself in the car, singing their favorite song. Since Brandon’s issue does not quite contain controversial and opposing views, there are no contentious problems surrounding the issue. Using his own personal experiences, Brandon has built his thesis: music has a great but inexplicable power to heal and save people from despair. His thesis is led smoothly and directly with good transition from personal experience. As I have mentioned above, Brandon’s argument is not a type of argument that has a problem and a probable or practical solution. Thus, there is no solution to the issue that clearly map out the proposal; however, in his essay, Brandon writes interesting issue in his essay and concisely articulate his thesis by his hard experiences in life. Throughout the body part of the essay, Brandon flesh out his main points with his personal experiences from when he was young to the recent. In general, Brandon’s personal experiences are used effectively to support his main points. His experiences use the pathos of people. And some people might relate to his experience, but not everyone could easily relate to his experiences. Because his experiences are not so common and relatable, it might seem subjective, so Brandon could improve his essay by providing someone else’s experiences or providing light, easily relatable experiences. Brandon has mentioned an opposing viewpoint quite thoroughly and fairly considered and accordingly refuted by supporting with his mom’s experience that he has seen. As Brandon wrap up his essay, he emphasizes his thesis without any repetition and shows that evidences for his points are clear. Overall, Brandon’s essay exhibits a variety of word choices and phrase choices. There were some spelling errors, but it was negligible.

Necessary Groundwork

As a freshman in Virginia Tech majoring general engineering, I definitely agree to Meredith’s argument on the doubtful productivity or importance of the freshman engineering mandatory class, Foundation of Engineering 1215. Although, many engineering major students are skeptical with this mandatory ineffective class, the Foundation of Engineering class sets the basic and essential knowledge and useful information for future engineering classes and careers. As an education of “foundation” of Engineering, this class focuses on mainly the infrastructures of engineering skills: analytical approach to problem, problem solving skills, ground works for programming a flowchart and algorithms using special programs like MATLAB, CMAP, and Arduino etc., and importance of group work when writing technical papers such as reports and researches, and when making fair presentations. By learning these skills, the Foundation of Engineering class prepares engineering major students for their upcoming engineering major claim and gives clue to their various fields of engineering curriculums and careers. For instance, when I first attended to the Engineering class, I was also frustrated for what we are taught in class, since what the instructor assigned for the class was simple math problem and some surveys. The only main difference to mention was that students should use the proper form or format to solve the problem. When the problem was assigned, I was bewildered and confused about the assignment, and it was not only me who was puzzled; most of the students who were in the class was murmuring and talking back about the inefficiency, disorganization, and unproductiveness of the curriculum of the class. However doing the assignment, I thought that this assignment would make me and the other engineering students to be familiar with using analytical formats when solving the problem. Not only that, when I came to the second class, I was learned how to install and use a program called MATLAB, which helped me to do numerical computations and analyses by inputting commands and conditions. Before I have come to this class, I had no skill in programming and computing problems using computer software packages. Learning how to facilitate this software, I was able to program simple mathematical equations, to calculate simple numerical problems, and to plot the graphs that correspond to the mathematical equations. Currently in this class, I am learning how to work coordinately as single group. I was grouped to one team, and we, as a team, should work on one single project that is composed of three major reports and one presentation and evaluation. At first, I was skeptical of group projects, because cooperation of all team members is hard to achieve due to contrasting opinions and different class schedules. However, working on the group projects, I learned how important the effect of group meeting and cooperation is. The more we worked on together as a team, the more our report would seem more logical and feasible. Although, some assignments that are given in this class might seem worthless and waste of time, this class surely sets the ground works of basic engineering skills for future engineers. 

Trick or Treat

Since I became a college student, many people around me have given didactic messages to me such as: “do not be too playful”, “first do what you should do,” and “do not stay up late or go to the party”. Unfortunately, living as a college freshman for three months, I felt these “charges” against the college freshman are mostly right. Although it would be a use of generalization that all of the college freshman would go to party all night long and pass out on the main streets, but the college freshmen of these days, would make a huge difference. As he has written in his essay, Jin has said that the media has depicted the images of college freshmen as trouble makers, having bad drinking habits, being arrested for noise etc., Jin has argued that the media has shown only a small part of the whole, and that the small parts of the college freshmen blow off the images of the rest of the college freshmen who studies hard and tries hard. However, the opposite is the fact, most of the college freshmen go to party almost every weekend, causes troubles, get arrested by noise or other immature or immoral behaviors, and only small parts of the college freshmen would study hard and don’t give up. As Jin has said in his essay, since our generations of college freshmen are widely and deeply exposed to social media such as Facebook, tweeter, instagram, snapchat, and yik-yak etc., students have now more access to the information on where the party is at, who is coming tonight, and what time would be a peak time etc. Since now they have an information, they have no reason not to go the party especially to college freshmen who would live on the school campus. It is a shame to be listed, compared, and be evaluated by a professor with the seven sins of the Christians, sloth, greed, anger, lust, gluttony, envy, and pride; however we have to recognized the fact that all college students commits these sins at least once, before they graduate. So then why not enjoy? As Jin has said in his conclusion, experiencing the immaturity is not bad. It is, in fact, the privilege that only college freshman can have. If one represses his stresses and desires to rest too much and when these overloaded stresses explodes, it would be too late to use this advantage of college freshman, the youth. Although not every experience is good, beneficial, and recommendable, we can learn lessons from every single experience we will have. I am not trying to say to give up on the academic work and just let go of everything. But rather, give oneself a weekly reward or a treat to release the stress and pressure for doing the home works, doing the group projects, and writing the essays etc. so start making choices for yourselves: A trick or a treat? Then I will see you guys at the Halloween party tomorrow. Remember life is short and YOLO!

Rebuttal to "Dirty Jersey"

Anthony Smith’s “Dirty Jersey” is an argumentative essay about how the state New Jersey, the greatest of fifty, has been misunderstood and underrated by many people, and Smith describes some of the interesting and enjoyable facts about New Jersey that could change people’s prejudice about the “Dirty Jersey”. In spite of Smith’s effort to persuade the readers to break their prejudices down and alternate their thoughts about the “Dirty Jersey”, his weak evidences and overwhelming generalizations to prove his thesis in his essay have eventually made the readers to feel discomfort and to firm their prejudices of the “Dirty Jersey” as the facts.

According to Smith, the people of New Jersey are not guidos who go to club all day long and swear all day long; however, they like to drive dangerously in the risky roads, think they are the best in foods such as Italian cuisines and the Taylor ham, which is considered as the native breakfast dish in New Jersey, and these boastful New Jersey people think they are the only ones who have the “best” gas pumping laws.

The “best” New Jersey gas pumping law makes consumers not to get out of their cars and offers the full services for the consumers. But, as an international student from Korea, I have not been surprised since these kinds of situation were common and natural. Back in my country, Korea, it is expected for workers or employees to do the gas pumping for the consumers without receiving the tips. The other generalization that Smith made in his argument was New Jersey’s enormous strength in Italian cuisines and its native New Jersey Soul Food. Although the Taylor Ham is a unique breakfast dish in New Jersey, this doesn’t make New Jersey livable or enjoyable place. Every country, every state, every place has its own special or main foods. For instance, California, where I lived for 3 years to attend high school, was famous for its fusion food, California roll, a combination of sushi and roll of rice; this unique food of one’s state might draw people’s attention, but it doesn’t change the pre-set image or the prejudice on the state. Lastly, Smith has written about the how the cracks and other dangerous roadways of New Jersey has affected people to have a positive mindset of driving attitude. Smith’s last point even do not really relate to how having this difficult roadways would impact on people to change their prejudices and negative evaluations of the New Jersey State. Overall, Smith’s argument has an interesting topic; however it has quite weak points to build firm arguments and persuasion. In his conclusion or the last paragraph, Smith, himself, admits that there is a fact in the rumors or the prejudices of New Jersey State. Using generalization once again, Smith writes that since there are “guidos” in every place, there must be some of the “guidos” in New Jersey. Furthermore, Smith blames the violence or slum-ness of New Jersey to the neighboring city, Camden, which is the murder capital of U.S. Before reading the “Dirty Jersey”, I was excited to read the essay about the new state that I have never been to. However after reading the essay, I had a feeling of insecure and discomfort with New Jersey. New Jersey State might be an enjoyable place for some of people who might feel comfort or fun with speed driving and dangerous roadways, but it would not change the people’s unfavorable perceptions toward the New Jersey State.

Ye Park

Prof. Conaway

ENGL 1105

26 October 2015

Outline

 Is English Class Necessary for Engineering Students?

Thesis: Many engineering major students regard their first college English classes as trivial and worthless and classes, which are insufficient and irrelevant to their major; however, in fact, these college English classes are considered as a significant element in an education in the field of engineering, providing engineering students with fundamental communication skill, technical writing ability, and a primitive groundwork as global engineers

I.                  Introduction: My friends and I thought English classes were unnecessary to the science or engineering major students.

A.    Common stereotype that people have in their minds: Engineering students do not have to learn English or do English well.

B.    Realization of an importance of learning English: Anecdote of what I faced and struggled in Engineering class and how it had made me re-think about the value of learning English as a future engineer.

II.                  Main Points 

A.    English classes help engineering students build strong communication skills.

                                      i.     Communication skills are built by group activities which require teamwork and cooperation.

                                    ii.     Strong communication skills make engineering students more prepared engineers.

B.    Technical writing technique plays an essential role in engineering studies.

                                      i.     Every problem solving formats, every report of product designs, and every project that are given in the Engineering class, should be written based on technical writing.

C.    Accepted as most widespread language in the world, learning English is very significant to the engineering students, who are looking forward to become global engineers.

                                      i.     The use of English became so common that the education of English provides basic foundations to engineering students who want to be global engineers.

III.                  Counter Arguments.

A.    Most of the engineering curriculum contain problem development and calculation both which are not related to English.

B.    Writing skills that are required for the engineering curriculum are already taught in the high school English classes.

IV.            Conclusion: Conclude overall contents stated above.

A.    Restate the thesis.

B.    Emphasize the main points.

Boo! Legalization of Marijuana

Nowadays, marijuana is utilized so deeply in the American society. From teenagers to adults, they all use marijuana with various reasons; teens use marijuana to get “high” and elders, the adults, use marijuana to cure their sickness.  Over 30 states out of all 50 states in America, which is the 60 percent of the United States, have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.  However, some states such as Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Washington D.C. etc., have legalized the use of marijuana not only for the medicinal use, but also for the recreational use.  Yes, there are no doubts that marijuana, for reasons such as getting one who is ill to eat and helping relieve the pain in cancer patients, is helpful.  But, does that mean that it isn’t harming one’s body as well?  The main problem argued in this essay is that marijuana, whether it is practiced as a medicinal purpose or for recreational purpose, causes problems both physically and mentally such as, memory disorder in brain and strong mental reliance.  Of course, the severity of these problems differentiates with the users’ body health conditions, the quantity of marijuana used, and the amount of time they used marijuana.  However, that does not mean the usage of marijuana is healthier to human body or the legalization of public use of marijuana is beneficial to the whole society definitely clear that there is going to be a problem of usage of marijuana, which makes the legalization of the usage of marijuana seem so skeptical. 

Marijuanaless Society

         It has been approximately two years ago since I went to the community service for the drug addiction rehab clinic; however, I still remember it so clearly and vividly as if I went there just last night. To earn my community service hours, I have helped these people out controlling themselves from relying on the marijuana by searching for their hobbies, doing other productive activities like playing basketball or other sports, and giving adequate knowledge and information about the general effects of marijuana on human body.

As I entered into the addiction clinic, I could smell the poignant scent of the medicine that is spread all over the place, and I saw the addicted people struggling themselves with their reliance and dependence toward the marijuana. There were various people in the clinic; some of them seemed younger than me, some were teenagers around my age, and the others were fully grown adults. However, they all shared a common problem, the addiction of marijuana.

Although these people in the clinic regret their choice and try hard to recover from the problems caused by the addiction of marijuana, still some people raises their voices to legalize the public use of marijuana, not thinking about the outcomes of what would this legalization of marijuana would bring: increase in teenager addiction of marijuana, greater abuse of marijuana, and the financial cost to provide the legalized marijuana. The legalization of marijuana should be prohibited and should be banned due to its great negative impacts that would leave on the communities, on the society, and on the nation.

Against Work

In Christopher Clausen’s “Against Work”, Clausen argues about the unhealthy relationship of Americans and their work in comparison to the healthy relationship of the European countries and their work. He also addresses the questions that make the readers think about the essence of the work and the purpose of the work –why is the people over working so hard for? Clausen begins his essay with his dream jobs when he was a kid –at six, a cowboy and at twelve, a professional football player, and in high school, a writer. When he was young like 6 and 12, he wanted to have those professions because he wanted to be, and because he had passion toward those professions. But when he entered in high school, he wanted to be a writer not because he was interested in writing, but because the writing seemed to have no work involved in it. Then in a second paragraph, Clausen takes further step to support this “against work” idea by taking out a rhetorical quote from the George Bernard Shaw’s play, “Man and Superman”: “What is the use of having money if you have to work for it?” Nowadays, the word, work, is described as a mandatory thing that we should do for living for surviving the life, like breathing the air; it is not a thing that one do because of one’s interest, curiosity, or passion. In today’s busy world, the work is the duty that one should do to get paid. People only do work when they are getting paid. As Clausen says, “Today those of us with full-time employment typically put in several hundred more hours per year than western Europe. Our disposable income is correspondingly higher, though when asked whether we would prefer more leisure to greater wealth, most of us opt for leisure.” Although people prefer to have free time and relax in their home, they know that long American tradition has lead them define themselves not only by their work but also by the amount of time they put in to their labor or work, which makes them to become forced workaholic, an addiction, the compulsion. However, in today’s American society, the term workaholic is a compliment and considered as the expected attitude of the workers. 

Seven Deadly Sins

In Thomas H. Benton’s “The Seven Deadly Sins,” Benton analyzes the common, but troubling attitude and behavior of the college undergraduate students in classes and compares these seven calamitous and devastating attitudes to the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins in Christian tradition which is used to aware and educate young Christians that man has sinful nature and has been always fallen into these sins. These “Seven Deadly Sins” are: sloth, greed, anger, lust, gluttony, envy, and pride. In his essay, Benton relates these “sins” to the problematic attitudes of college students. However, Benton makes his argument based solely on the generalization, which makes the reader to have an indication of that every college students would be slothful and indolent in one’s duties and tasks, would pursue their college degree only to get higher payments, would have anger problem, would always wear “inappropriate” clothes, would always eat during one’s every single class, would envy one’s friends and classmates, and would have awful pride that doesn’t reflect the merciless realities. However, does these “Seven Deadly Sins” only applicable to college undergraduate students? How about the college associates or professors? Do they not “commit” these “sins”? To compare some of these sins between students and professors, according to Benton, college students are so slothful and lazy to do the assigned preparations and home works in time and postpone them to the last minute, which makes them feel the class more unenthusiastic and insufficient for them to attend and listen to the lectures, and makes them eventually to skip the classes; however, not only college students are “slothful”, as Benton describes, but also some college professors are also slothful, perhaps more slothful than their students. Some college professors dismiss classes and skip classes early for their private schedules and appointments, which is considered very good for slothful students; however, this attitudes of professors should also be considered problematic and considered as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” of the college professor. Benton also had said that the students have greed in their heart that they pursue a college degree to get higher pays than to learn higher level of education. However, don’t college professors have earned their degree to get a higher payment? Not to offense any liberal arts college professors, how could a student who has studied a major in music history could get paid enough without being a college professor? There are so many job limitations to those whose major are in liberal arts major, which makes them no choice but to become teachers and professors. These are some of the “sins” that college professors also “commit”. I could have write some more about these “Seven Deadly Sins” of college professors, but since, I am an idle and indolent college student, I would go back to my bed and take a nap.

The True Multinational Society

In Ishmael Reed’s “America: The Multinational Society”, Reed argues about that American society fails to embrace its multinational cultures, despite the fact that America and its “system of government” was founded on the propositions and regulations adopted by other countries. Although Reed had set his argument well and provided a good examples or evidences to support his argument, Reed’s argument which is based on the failure of American society does not still hold up as true to the present, since Reed had wrought this piece of writing approximately 30 years ago.

          Reed begins his argument with a quote from the “New York Times”, which was: “At the annual Lower East Side Jewish Festival yesterday, a Chinese woman ate a pizza slice in front of Ty Thuan Duc’s Vietnamese grocery store. Beside her a Spanish-speaking family patronized a cart with two signs: “Italian Ices” and “Kosher by Rabbi Alper”. And after the pastrami ran out, everybody ate knishes.” To the American with a single cultural perspective would describe this quote as completely ironic illustrations of scenes; however, realizing that America is a melting pot composed of people, foods, cultures, and lifestyles from multiple nations. Then Reed writes few experiences that were deeply related to the monocultural Americans’ mistreatment of people that were from multiple backgrounds and cultures. The first mistreatment that Reed wrote was the Yale professor’s experience of being ostracized from some monocultural intellectual circles in the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee for working on the influence of African cultures upon those of the Americas. Another critical mistreatment that Reed had written was his personal encounter with an Afro-American artist whose paintings included African and Afro-American mythological symbols and imagery. The painting of the Afro-American artist, which Reed has described as so majestic and beautiful to ”grace the walls of any of the country’s leading museums”, was instead hanging in the wall of local McDonald’s restaurant. This encounter illustrates the major flaw of the American society to fully embrace the diverse, multiple people and cultures from different countries. The Afro-American artist and his painting were much underestimated and belittled only because the artist has come from different countries and has different values and does not fit into the ideal image of artist that the American society wants, which makes him not to have the same opportunities that “white” American artists are granted.

           However, as time passes, the Reed’s argument has lost its power. In today’s world, American society is now very widely open and acknowledge and accept the difference that comes from the various, diverse people, countries, and their unique cultures and lifestyles through making protectable laws for the multinational people and giving them more than the same opportunities compared to the original “white” Americans, making America a true multinational society.

GO HERBIES!!!

In Taylor Clark’s essay, “Meatless Like Me”, Clark writes about the “omnivores”’ typical misconceptions toward vegetarians through reflecting to his experiences and thoughts about being a vegetarian and about enduring the “look of confused horror” that “normal” omnivores give. Clark begins his essay with his funny episode of how he was first acknowledged as a vegetarian publicly to all other people around him in the scholarship luncheon when he was just 18. Ever since then, Clark became used to the “look” that most “omnivore” people give to him. However, Clark strongly asserts that vegetarians are also “normal” people who desire and yearn for delicious foods and “normal” foods by comparing to the common misunderstanding that most people have toward vegetarians: “loopy, self-satisfied health fanatic, hellbent on draining all the joy out of life.” Vegetarians refuse to eat a meat for various reasons, such as religious reasons, ethical reasons, environmental reasons, and health reasons etc. In case of Clark, he became a vegetarian for ethical reasons of treating the animals. Clark feels pity of the animals that were put to death because of human’s need. However, these diverse reasons of rejections of ingesting meat don’t make the vegetarians abnormal or strange. It is the appetite; it is the matter of preference, not a matter of right or wrong. In the middle of the essay, Clark clearly states that his purpose of the essay is not persuading the “omnivores”, but rather it is to debunk the misconceptions and misunderstandings toward vegetarians, to draw out a peace and understanding toward vegetarians from “normal omnivores”, and to build friendly relations between omnivores and herbivores. Throughout the essay, Clark uses a light and humorous tone to develop his thesis and provides adequate examples and experiences to support his thesis. Clark’s essay might not look formal and neat, but it has strong message that is expressed and conveyed overall the paper by using humors and somewhat sarcasm. Clark has reached his aim of his essay, the co-existence of omnivores and herbivores in perfect harmony without any conflicts, through whimsical and playful structures, illustrations, and descriptions of his experiences. 

Nature - a magic bullet to the stresses of everyday life

In Deb Aronson’s essay, “The Nurture of Nature”, Aronson writes about the stresses of everyday life in the modern world and the magic bullet solution that relieves all stresses –nature. Aronson begins her essay with a rhetorical question, “Can contact with nature relieve anxiety and stress, aid healing, and increase concentration?” This wordy question in the introduction implies her thesis or the main point of her essay, which is that nature can relieve anxiety and stress, aid healing, and also increase concentration. To build her claim or thesis firm and persuasive, Aronson appeals to ethos by citing various studies of authorities. For instance, Aronson uses the ethos of Andrea Faber Taylor, who is an environmental psychologist and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois, to explain the two types of attentions: directed attention and involuntary attention, which were compared in the text. Then, Aronson refers to the research of Roger Ulrich and his colleagues at Texas A&M University to support her claim that nature is actually “nurturing” and curing people: according to the studies of Ulrich and his colleagues, people who are exposed more to nature are showed much calmer response to the stress or stressful situation than those who are less exposed to nature by what they call, inoculation effect. In keeping with the results of the researches, Aronson asserts her point by writing that what we need to relieve and resolve stress are not exercise or artificial stuffs, such as yoga, aerobics, coffee, and anti-anxiety pills etc., but rather it is just a little piece of green environment, the nature. She strengthens her points by using the quotes of Kathleen Wolf of the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington: “But now we are seeing that our daily lives have constant small stressors….Consequently, even small, incremental contacts with nature in our daily lives are beneficial.” Finally, Aronson concludes her argument with Andrea Faber Taylor’s study of the great effect of small green environment shown in Robert Taylor Homes housing project. Strongly appealing to ethos, Aronson has well established her argument with strong thesis supported by credulous researches and studies of authorities; however, Aronson’s essay lacks her own thoughts and lacks details about the studies and researches that were used in her essay. 

Advertisement Analysis Peer Review

     The first analysis that I read was Brandon Proffitt’s analysis on the “Silva Thins” cigarette of the American Tobacco Company. Brandon started his analysis providing the background information of the magazine where he found his advertisement. The background information that is explained in the introduction of Brandon’s analysis adequately informs the reader about what kind of the product that the advertisement is trying to promote and whom does the advertisement aimed toward to. The thesis or the main analysis point of this paper is the following lines: “Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich,” Silva Thins Cigarettes promotes a very materialistic and stereotypical view towards women that diminishes their importance and devalues them as people in a variety of ways. Throughout his paper, Brandon addresses some of the major points that should be discussed in analysis, such as who is the intended audience of the advertisement, what is the specific images that are depicted in the advertisement, and what are the messages, both explicit and implicit, which the advertisement is trying to convey to its audience etc. Overall, Brandon’s paper is well-organized and well-focused analysis paper that sufficiently describes the advertisement and discusses the purpose of the advertisement.

     The second analysis that I read was Rory Slevin’s analysis on the campaign advertisement that confers on the jeopardy of the childhood obese. Unlike other advertisements, Rory’s advertisement aims not on selling a specific product, but on “selling” the idea of awareness of danger in the childhood obese and its consequences. In his analysis, Rory gives a description of images in his advertisement, such as the children with a sad and gloomy face. Also, the advertisement is appealing to pathos to the parents by demonstrating its image with children who has shadows in their face, implying that the obese children are not happy, and that the parents should be aware of this danger. Rory had displayed few major points that should be mentioned in the analysis. He has explained the message that the advertisement delivers to “consumers”, has figured out the intended audience, and has indicated the purpose of the advertisement. However, Rory’s explanation and analysis was insufficient to inform the readers.

     For Tina, since I haven’t read her rough draft, I couldn’t review Tina’s draft.

Did Girls Really Gone Wild? or Is It The World?

In her book, “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”, Ariel Levy strongly stresses how the contemporary American culture has been jammed with the excessively sexual representations of women. For instance, when you walk down the street, you may see quite a lot of girls or “women” dressed up overly sexual and perversely. Also, when you turn on televisions or read magazines, you may see women celebrities dancing or posing perversely wearing only few clothes. In this excerpt, the author greatly remarks that people especially women should notice and recognize this rise of the “new” phenomenon of the culture in America.

According to Levy, this “Raunch Culture” came slowly and naturally without any disharmony or friction, and people became so familiar with this “modern” culture and view toward women by the media. Through films, TV shows, and magazines like “Charlie’s Angels”, “Girl Gone Wild”, and “Maxim”, people started to perceive the ideal image of good women as glamorous, sensual, and sexy, rather than smart, wise, and intelligent. The author puts this blame on the “Female Chauvinist Pigs”, which is the term that the author uses to describe the women who regard themselves and other women as sex objects just to appeal to males. Levy argues that this sudden change of representation of femininity or beauty of women brought by the “Female Chauvinist Pigs” makes young teen girls and other women feel pressured to fit into this “Raunch Culture” and look like the “Female Chauvinist Pigs”. Throughout this book, Levy firmly asserts that this “Raunch Culture” made America to adopt wrong ideal of sexuality from the “Female Chauvinist Pigs”.

Since this new “Raunch Culture” has incredibly changed the trend of sexual representations of women in America, it has also affected the images of women depicted in advertisements. Even the body wash advertisement that I chose for the analysis paper had shown some aspects of this whole new “Raunch Culture”. For instance, my body wash advertisement had three women standing in front of some panel boards; however, these three women, who should supposedly to show the benefits of the product after using it, are just wearing bath towels around them. The company, Dove, who made this advertisement, must have intended the effect of the new sexual representations of women, which is the rise of the product sales. 

Got a Maker's Eye?

The essay, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts”, is written by Donald Murray, who is an accredited author. In his essay, Murray strongly asserts how necessary and essential it is to rewrite and revise one’s writing and that one should be his own editor and critic.

Probably, all of the students would agree that when they finish writing the rough drafts, the act of writing is done. Then, we just read few more times to correct some spelling and grammatical errors, and that is the complete revising process we go through after the writing rough drafts. However, according to Murray, the completion of the writing rough drafts is not the completion of the writing process, but rather it is the start or the beginning of the writing process. This writing process is not just re-reading of the rough draft, but it is process of producing and yielding the most refined and polished work. Murray strongly emphasizes that when writers go through the process of revision, “[they] must learn to be their own enemy” and detach themselves from their works, so that they could be objective and critical to their works. Later on in his essay, Murray introduces the eight categories or parts where the maker’s eye should carefully look at. These eight categories include information, meaning in the information, awareness of the audience, form or genre, structure, development, dimension, and the voice of the writer.

After reading Donald Murray’s “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts”, I have re-read my 2-page brainstorm advertisement analysis and looked for the eight categories that Murray emphasized. Of course, I found information in my paper, since about 55% of the paper is about the advertisement information. I also found meanings in the information, which is the analysis of the advertisement. Then I questioned myself if I was aware of the audience by putting myself in reader’s shoes, whether this information and analysis is clear to understand or not. Next thing, I checked was the form and structure of my paper in general which I thought the overall structure and form was not bad; however I felt that it would be better if I had used smoother transition word to make the structure flow better. For developing and considering dimension in the paper, I thought that I was developing my idea and theme well enough for the readers to understand, but I still need to add and subtract some parts that need to be further explained. Finally, when I looked for my overall voice throughout the paper, it was hard to find my voice, so I thought that maybe my voice in this paper is too weak to find, and I felt the need to strengthen my voice when expressing my theme and my thoughts to the audience.

Overall I had applied Murray’s eight considerable categories, and I realized how important it is to re-read and revise the writing with the maker’s eye. 

Analysis of the Cosmopolitan Magazine

As you know, the national magazine, Cosmopolitan, is very well known fashion magazine for women. When it started publishing in 1886, it was mainly about women’s fashion, beauty, cooking, and health. However, nowadays Cosmopolitan Magazine has several articles not only of fashion, beauty, and health, but also of celebrities, entertainment, beauty, college, career, and politics. The expected audience of this magazine is 20-35 years old of women, who are young and are interested in fashion and beauty. Reading through the magazine, we can see many aspects where producers and editors of this magazine have considered the audience’s age and interest. Looking at the cover page of the magazine, there is a big colorful title, Cosmopolitan, written in the upper top of the cover. The main image or picture of the cover page, which appeals very first to the audience, is a popular celebrity who has been a hot issue in that month. Since this magazine is written for women, the primary color used throughout this entire magazine is “girlish” color such as pink, violet, yellow, etc. And, of course, the celebrity that made the cover page is mostly women celebrity. The major purpose of this magazine is to inform its audience new beauty facts, fashion trends or styles, and articles about celebrities, love, and relationships. However, Cosmopolitan also has articles about politics, college, and career. Because this magazine is targeted toward the young women, the types of advertisements that are contained in this magazine are mostly perfume advertisements, cosmetic advertisements, jewelry advertisements, and clothes advertisements. One of the advertisements found in Cosmopolitan, that I chose to talk about, is the perfume advertisement from Gucci. The main image depicted in this advertisement is man hugging woman. This Gucci Guilty advertisement tries to convey that man is attracted and allured by the woman because of her Gucci perfume scent. The font that this advertisement uses is very classic and sophisticated, and the color of the advertisement is very uniformly “nude” and dark, which makes the advertisement look more glamorous and elegant and the brand image more luxurious and chic. This advertisement of Gucci perfume relates to Cosmopolitan Magazine, because both the advertisement and the magazine are aimed towards women who want to be more elegant and stylish.

Coke Ads

Both of these two soft drink beverage advertisements are from 2010. One is from the Pepsi, and the other is from the Coca-Cola Company. These two brands, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been fighting each other for at least 50 years. However, in spite of this rivalry, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are the main two tops of the soft drink beverage market.

The first print advertisement is from Pepsi. This advertisement shows a young, beautiful, and skinny woman drinking a thin-shaped diet Pepsi can. On the side of the advertisement is the text “the new skinny can”. The main thesis that Pepsi clearly delivers to the consumers is that consumers also can look like the appealing woman in the advertisement, if they drink or consume Pepsi product. The Pepsi appeals to pathos of the women consumers; therefore, the intended audiences of this advertisement are, of course, mostly women consumers regardless of age who would always want to have attractive characteristics of woman: youth, charm, and beauty. In a same sense, this advertisement was also appealed to the younger generation consumers, such as teens, because contemporary teenagers do greatly care about their appearance or outfit of themselves. In short, Pepsi advertisement theme conveys that since only young and alluring women drink Pepsi, if you drink Pepsi, you can be one of the enchanting women in the advertisement.

The second print advertisement is from Coca-Cola Company. In this second print advertisement, there is a Coca-Cola bottle flooding and gushing forth its content. This content of a Coca-Cola is described as full of energetic and vigorous activities such as skydiving, riding bikes, and playing basketball etc. On the bottom of the advertisement, there is also a text that says “live on the Coke side of life”. The Coca-Cola Company uses the word “coke side” to represent the dynamic and lively life. The primary theme or the thesis of this advertisement is that people who live “cool”, active life drinks Coca-Cola. The intended audiences of this advertisement are those who live on the “coke side” of life and the young people who wants to live on the “coke side” of life, the more active life. The Coca-Cola Company is appealing to the younger generations who are craving for freedom and liveliness in their life. By this advertisement, the Coca-Cola Company depicts the brand image as energetic, enjoyable, dynamic, and full of life.

The paradox that lies in these both advertisements is that the diet Pepsi doesn’t make one skinny, rather it makes one crave more food because of few chemicals in diet Pepsi. Similar to this, the Coca-Cola doesn’t make one have active and enjoyable life. However, people still buy these soft drinks, thinking that it may affect their lives. 

Narrative Review

     The first narrative that I read was the story of Heath Hardiman’s “Built for Speed”. In his story, Heath mainly talks about how running has changed himself throughout his life. He starts off his story with a strong hook rather than a simple fact or statement: “While running, do you ever just take the time to admire the wind in your hair or that awkward bead of sweat that just trickled down your back? Is this what you consider running or is it something more? For me running is more than just a sport, it is a lifestyle.” Through this opening sentence, Heath implies his theme of the story, and interests readers to follow along his story. Then he writes some descriptive scenes that shows how he started to get interested in running, how he overcame his sickness through running, and what he have learned from running etc. Heath not only uses very descriptive words and sentences to let the audience not get lost in his story, but also uses ethos and pathos in his writing. Heath appeals to ethos when he put some details of his scene, such as the description of the track coach with Philadelphia accent or the name of the school that he went. Heath appeals to pathos, when he talks about his grandfather who had loved him so much. However, throughout the whole story, Heath is pretty successful at drawing readers into his story with intriguing opening sentence and expressing his theme through the vivid scenes in his life.

     The second narrative that I read was the story of Tina Cui’s “Telephone”. In case of Tina’s narrative, she starts her story with the situation of her talking on the telephone with her mom. Using good imageries, Tina puts a lot of details to make her story look more vivid and picturesque: “Now, nervously scratching off the red paint on this ancient school payphone…” In her essay, Tina writes about her relationship with her mom and her connected by the telephone or old red payphone. Reading Tina’s essay, I felt great empathy toward the situation of phone call with mom. As a student who study abroad and leave the parents behind, I enormously reflected Tina’s experience to mine. While the tone or the voice of the author is quite indifferent toward her mother in the first half of the story; however, as Tina notices how her mom has sacrificed her lives when she was young to send Tina to U.S. and how lonely her mom was in China alone, Tina’s tone and voice becomes lighter and loving than before. Of course, Tina uses the 3 appeals to make her writings to be seemed more elaborate and emotional. Among the 3 appeals, Tina uses pathos a lot such as when she had felt homesick, or when she described her mother’s feelings left alone. Tina develops her theme as she writes up the story: to “love” her mother in a way that her mother could like. Overall, Tina’s essay is so rich and deep when illustrating the issues with her mom. Until now, it is the most reflective essay to me. It has greatly influenced my thoughts about the relationships with my families.

     The third narrative that I read was Matt Donaldson’s “Sports”. In his essay, Matt primarily writes about the lessons that he learned from various sports that he had played throughout his life. As like the other group members, Matt also has an absorbing and compelling hook at the introductory paragraph. In the main body paragraphs, Matt introduces many different kinds of sports he played and many life-long lessons he learned from those sports. Matt had played soccer, swimming, baseball, and golf. And through these sports, Matt had learned how important it is to work with others cooperatively, to be competitive in his area, to manage time wisely, and to be patient, etc. When Matt tries to explain the feeling or the situation directly to the audience, he uses very good comparisons. For instance, In his narrative, Matt says, “I did not swim because I thought it was fun but more for the ribbons we got if we won, it’s like going to McDonald’s, kids don’t actually like the food but they do want the toy that comes with it.” Matt also uses vivid and alive comparison when he describes himself at the swimming training club where going to the restroom was never allowed. He says, “Have you ever been on a long car ride and you are stuck in traffic but you have to go to the bathroom, this is how it was but I could not get out.” With these usages of comparisons and analogies, Matt draws the attentions of the audience and makes his voice and tone more like of humorous tone. In general, Matt’s narrative is well written; however I agree to Heath’s comment on the last paragraph. I think it would be better if the transition from the former paragraph and the last paragraph was smoother.

     The final personal narrative that I read was Brandy Bateman’s “Your Senior Class President.” In her essay, Bateman focuses on the leadership that she learned through her experience of being a senior class president in high school. She begins her essay with the scene of senior class president announcement. Before submitting the class president application form to the office, she started to think if she could handle all the jobs, charges, and responsibilities that she had to have in order to be a class president. After being elected, Bateman lists few things that she has to plan as a class president and shows the audience few scenes or happenings when preparing for these events: t-shirt designing contest, spirit week event, senior trip, fundraising, prom, and the graduation speech. While she explains this fun but overwhelming events, she uses some interjections within her description such as: “PHEW! A sigh of relief.” and “Oh lord, I knew that would be a good time, and probably lead to more people coming to watch the show, so why not?” and “WOW, I cannot even put into words how amazing everything that I had pieced together turned out.” These interjections or expressions make her overall voice or tone quite light and maybe funny. Bateman’s theme is explicit in the last paragraph, where she realized her hidden abilities of leadership. In conclusion, Bateman’s essay had various scenes that had drawn audience’s attention, or at least mine, and with the adequate usage of interjections or expressions, her essay seemed friendlier.