America: The Melting Pot?

The United States has always prided itself on being a melting pot. Immigrants form all different races, cultures and backgrounds all seeking new opportunities and freedoms that they haven't received before. In the beginning the melting pot mainly consisted of white people from different nations and religions in Europe. This notion that all these people of different cultures could work together under the same government was and still is very special thing. If you weren't a part of the King's church in England you could have been jailed or executed even. Even today some countries still persecute people for being different. Today people have more rights and freedoms then they have ever had. Slavery is illegal, racial discrimination is illegal, gay people can get married in some states. We are living in a very progressive time. Even though things may be against the law it doesn't mean people don't discriminate. Today there is a lot of racial discrimination and stereotypes against the Mexican people. Arizona made the "show me your papers" law and the stereotype going around is that Mexican people are here illegally and that they are cheap labor. What happened to the America that offered freedom and opportunity to anyone who has hope and works hard? Now not everything is black and white because there is a valid argument from the other side's point of view.  There is a large amount of illegal immigrants living in the country not paying taxes and just having children here so they become citizens. I'm not siding with any side of this argument I'm just saying things have changed and so has our "melting pot" philosphy.

Note Taking and Avoiding Plagiarism

When I take notes I usually find writing things in outline format helps me absorb the information the best. Like:
Main Topic
-Subtopic
        -Notes and points on subtopic
-Subtopic
        -Notes and points on subtopic
etc.
I find that this helps my stay organized and it is pretty easy to do. I know people who also take notes the same way but do it on their laptops which is essentially the the same thing. I usually try and take down most the important information on the teachers slides and some of the important things the teacher says. I know some people don't take notes like myself. Some people print out the teachers slides before class and just take like notes on what the teacher says . I like to write whats on the slide because I think it helps me commit it to memory a little bit easier. Some people don't even take notes they just listen to the teacher and absorb all of the information. I can't do that I don't have a photographic memory and I like to go back and use my notes as a study tool. Ways to avoid plagiarism when taking notes is not to just copy and paste all of the information because when you go back and look at your notes to write your paper your brain will be more likely to copy that information again on to your paper instead of paraphrasing and putting it into your own words. Another way is to properly quote sources and to also cite your sources.

Snapshot's of "Reality"

In Lenore Skenazy's Don't Smile for the Camera she talks about how we try to take pictures and videos of when   out lives conform and seem perfect and how that creates a false reality. Life isn't just perfect moments all of the time and although we can try and forget the bad memories they were our reality and we cannot change that. I myself don't like being in pictures and and videos because I never like the way they turn out but I'm missing out because in the future I know I going to regret not being able to look back. Skenazy isn't trying to tell us to only take pictures of the bad moments but of all the moments because if we only photograph the picture perfect moments we won't be able to remember all of the time that makes us who we are. In Pogue's article he talks about different places on the internet for sharing photos. The internet has so options for so many things and that could almost be a bad thing if you don't research and know what you are looking for. At first he assumed the largest and most popular website would make the task of sharing pictures with his mom and letting her buy prints of the pictures the easiest. He was wrong. He then did some research and then found the best site for the job. This story is really interesting because I just accept that Facebook and YouTube are the best sites for what they do but maybe with more research I could find sites that would work better for me and that could fit my preferences more. But there probably isn't anything better than Facebook.

AD v2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP2NRek7m6E&feature=related

This was an ad for a deal Domino's was having on specialty pizzas. The goal of this commercial is to get the viewer to want to buy their pizza. This commercial is targeted at parents because it shows that kids don't like specialty pizzas with a lot of toppings so Domino's is offering a low priced one topping pizza for the kids. This commercial uses pathos and logos. It uses humor and tries spark parents emotions when their kids get upset and throw tantrums. This commercial also uses logos because it informs us of this deal and shows the viewer the consequence if a parent doesn't get the deal.

Ads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvmoSJDWVws

I chose the ESPN fantasy football commercials. This commercial is trying to convince me to join fantasy football on ESPN. In the ad they show funny clips from previous drafts and what they've survived through. At the end they say that this year's fantasy football season won't be affected by the lockout. The commercial is entertaining and informative so I think it is effective. This ad is shown in the United States which is the country in the world where football is popular. This ad speaks to the male sports loving audience. It aired on the ESPN network. ESPN's commercial's are usually entertaining.

Daily Rhetoric

In my daily routine I see tons of rhetoric. When I open my web browser I see adds for angry birds links for Facebook and Ebay. When I walk through the hall to my shower I see flyers for clubs, bbq's and other events. All of these examples want something from me whether they want me to buy, participate or come and get a bite to eat. I don't mind any of these things, I actually find them helpful and informative. I am one of those people who  get persuaded by ads pretty easily. If not for the flyer on the wall I would have no idea that there is going to be a bbq and I would've missed out on  a good time. I feel that most people are capable enough to make their own decisions and I view rhetoric more as a suggestion that I can take or reject. Even Death Valley is a form of rhetoric. It says that Clemson takes a lot of pride in our football team and they deserve to play in stadium built for champions.

 http://www.allenscreations.com/images/tanitv.jpg
Even someone's clothing or appearance is rhetoric. When I were my gym shirt I'm saying "Hey look at me I belong to this gym and I work out" or if I dress up nice in khakis and a button down I'm saying that I care about my appearance and I think that wherever I'm going is important.