Find an article that relates in some way to the things we have been talking about in class. Summarize the article, then respond to it. Explain the argument you believe they are making? Why did you pick it? How does it connect to our class?
- One paragraph summary of source.
- One paragraph response to source.
Include a link to the text. Should be about 250 words in length. Comment below with your response.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
https://www.livescience.com/60748-bizarre-monsters-around-the-world.html
Since we were introducing the monster theory in class this week and next week, I wanted to research into some of the different monsters around the world. There are so many different cultures, and I wanted to look into not only what monsters are in American culture but other monsters.
This website covers fifteen of some of the most famous monsters in different cultures. The first monster they discuss is the adlet, which is a mix between a dog and a human (human body and dog legs). This is from Inuit folklore, and tells that the Adlet will come and eat people.
The second monster they discuss is the Acheri, monster from both India and Native America. The Acheri is the ghost of a girl who died of tragedy, and she comes to haunt children and bring respiratory disease.
Another monster that was covered in this article was the Rompo, an animal who eats human corpses. This is a monster from India and Africa, and has been spoken of in their legends.
In Australia there is a legend of the Bunyip, an animal that prowls through rivers and swamps. Australians warned their children from going too close to the edge of the swamps, lest the Bunyip drag them under to drown.
In Bali, the Leyak is a creature that looks like a normal person, but at night will find people to kill and eat. It seems to be inspired by a vampire.
All of these monsters were very interesting to look into, and I am looking forward to writing an essay on one of them.
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This article reviews the tweets that were made by President Donald Trump. The article demonstrates when he claimed to be making some of the best decisions for the country. Also, Trump makes statements about former President Obama making deals with Iran; which was used to take the heat off of him when the media claimed that he was making deals with Putin. In addition, trump calls out the news and media by stating that their news is fake news because he did not make any deals with Putin. Then, Trump claims that if you listen to Carly Fiorina for ten minutes straight, you will start to conceive a headache from listening to her. I introduced this article because in class we reviewed different kinds of fallacies that exist. There was the strawman, false authority, scare tactics, and etc. In this case, President Trump was using fallacies throughout his tweets because some of his statements were not completely true. For the examples above, Trump uses the strawman fallacy; the strawman fallacy is when an individual offends another person or thing by making statements about something that was not said or done by someone or something other than the person who is making the statement. In this case, President Trump attacks the New York Times by using the strawman fallacy; this was used to attack those who are a threat to his reputation and status. I used this topic for this week’s journal because we were reviewing fallacies and how there is a fallacy for different categories; in this case, the strawman fallacy was used in this article.
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https://asunow.asu.edu/20160224-global-engagement-united-states-fallacies
In “United States of fallacies” Emma Greguska asserts that fallacies in advertisements are used all the time to manipulate the consumer into buying unnecessary goods. Furthermore, she observes that the Unites States government is fond of using the fear tactics fallacy into getting people to vote for a certain party. This tactic works really well. It makes people afraid by appealing to emotion in a negative way. Bertha Alvarez Manninen, an associate professor of philosophy, argues that fallacies work really well because, “we are not a society that is taught from an early age to use reason and logic as much as we are taught to go with our gut and use our initial reactions or emotions” (Greguska and Manninen). She also concludes that Americans have a moral duty to used logic, reason and evidence, rather than fear or prejudice when voting comes around. Falling prey to fallacies just causes for a wrongful leader to lead the country.
We are in a time where voting to elect a new president is just around the corner. As we near that time, many of these politicians use fallacies to put fear in people to get them to vote for them. However, as the interview in the article says, “it is the rational thinkers of society that can battle the governments manipulation” (Greguska and Manninen). It is very important that everyone learns how to think for him or herself. By everyone being able to think critically, a rightful leader can push the country to greatness because, said leader was chosen by people who did not blindly follow someone’s else ideas without research.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/pragyaagarwaleurope/2018/12/03/unconscious-bias-how-it-affects-us-more-than-we-know/#2be73d4c6e13
This week in class we discussed bias, so I chose to do this article called Unconscious Bias it Affects us More Than we Know by Dr. Agarwal. The article starts with giving an example of how common stereotypes are and how that leads to people propagating an unconscious biased. It states that there is unconscious bias everywhere, from the neighborhood we choose to live in, to the friends we have. The article also uses research to back up this theory. For example, neuroscience shows that many biases are developed throughout life. This is mostly due to societal and parental conditioning. Even AI algorithm learned to associate women with kitchens from viewing over 100,000 photos on the internet. Therefore, we need to identify our biases and check ourselves because the unconscious biases can arise in everyday words and actions.
I thought this article was well said, I liked that it identifies that we all have an unconscious bias. It was appealing, had plenty of research, and the writer used stats from credible sources to back up their perspective. I do believe that all people have an unconscious bias, and not all these biases are the same. Just like Americans may have different unconscious biases when compared to people who grew up in other countries because of the different cultures we were brought up in, and the things that we see around us that shape that bias. I can see how people can easily get caught up in an unconscious bias, and how hard it could be to not fall victim to these in certain situations.
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“anonymous questions 6th grade boys asks their sex education teacher” this short film poem is about a teacher that is open to answering any questions these young men have. one asks her if he could use a plastic bag if no condom is available, another asks what another term for balls. while some of these questions are that of simple humor, one asks if him liking the color pink makes him gay and if so is he a bad person. the teacher responds in the most appropriate way telling him how liking the color pink is not in any way bad. liking the color is allowing him to be human and connect with things on a different emotional level, as long as his heart is beating he will never be in the wrong.
this short film connects with class because we’ve continuously spoken on education the processes and the outcomes. the authority and persuasion teachers hold over the students is a great one that should be used in the utmost respectful way. she went about answering his question holding him to a high standard and never showing him any different reaction than that of a child who is seeking validation that he is still himself even though he feels different from the rest. i connected this article with the discussion about the gay marriage and the different types of teaching. holding a professional manner but speaking with love and compassion i believe this teacher saved this young boy from his own emotion and worry.
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In light of our soon to be due essay, I thought I’d do some research on what the internet thinks it takes to write an “A” paper. However, I feel like it’s always the simplest things that cause grades to go down such as grammar, spelling, and veering off on tangents. Therefore, instead of looking up websites that explain how to format, organize, and write your paper, I looked up simple way to improve your college essay and came across Thomas Frank’s, “6 Writing Tips To Make Your Papers 300% Better”. His first tip starts simply with spell check. Franks explains how if you’re using words like they’re, their, and, there, spell check won’t be able to find an error if used incorrectly because ultimately it’s spelled right, however may be misused. Frank’s second tip corresponds to better grammar usage in regards to apostrophes when using “contracted” versus “possessive” words such as “it’s” and “its”. His third tip suggests that by using and sticking to the third person in an essay can be less distracting to the reader and appear more formal overall. Frank explains his fourth tip by using two example sentences of a corgi playing with its ball . In the first, he is very plain and doesn’t say much other than the corgi likes its ball. He then follows up with the second sentence by saying “the corgi chased her new ball with relish”, which he further asserts that being specific and describing things more thoroughly can help your paper out. Frank’s fifth tip is the one that I think is by far the most important, its point being, USE YOUR SCHOOLS WRITING CENTER!! Having a peer review is crucial to writing a paper for several reasons, one being that they can spot errors way easier than you can because they’ve never seen it before, along with many more. Finally, Frank wraps it up with his final point ensuring us that sticking to your point or even having one in general is important. Nobody wants to read a paper that goes absolutely nowhere. After reading this article, I will definitely be more aware of his points in my writing, as they are all very valid.
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Click to access RHETORIC%20OF%20FILM.pdf
This article is written by professor Fernandez of California State University, Bakersfield. It acts as a deconstruction of the content explored in his class regarding film’s use of rhetoric. It breaks down how the rhetorical devices of pathos, logos, and ethos are employed to elicit a certain type of emotional reaction in audiences. It essentially breaks down how to “read” film. The article begins by discussing the facets of film, such as the genre, ideology, viewpoint, and tone. It talks about how films, at the least the good ones, are constructed around themes and ethical statements routed in the DNA of the project. The lighting, camera angles, movement, blocking, dialogue, locations, framing, and more are all constructed in relation to those themes. Film is argued to be an extension of literature, translating what’s on the page, but forming it’s own language along the way. This can be examined in the use of camera angles and different types of shots. The establishing shot is usually a wide, aerial view shot of the location the story takes place. This establishes logos so the audience knows where the story takes place. A close up acts a shot eliciting pathos, making the audience connect with the character through a sense of intimacy. Low shots and high shots act as ethos. Low shots can make a character look more powerful and in control. A high angle shot does the opposite, making the character look smaller and out of control. There are countless other shots that could be discussed and used to demonstrate film’s’ way of conveying rhetoric. This article is very prevalent to what we’re learning in class. It discusses the way we can better understand and analyze rhetoric in texts such as film as video.
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The coronavirus has scared a to of people around the world but it really should only scare a portion of the population. The mortality rate of the coronavirus is really low at 3.4 percent and everyone is scared of that. I am definitely not scared of since I have a good immune system. 80 percent of the people that die from the coronavirus are above sixty years old. The others are people with weak immune systems that are caused by other diseases. My brother even told me he is scared of it. Why are people so scared if this is the case. Only the people that in this range should be scared of it.
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https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_work_with_the_bias_in_your_brain
As we discussed in class bias is un-avoidable because it is in our human nature to judge. The article “How to Work With the Bias in Your Brain” by Jill Suttie discusses some of the main points about bias made in Jennifer Eberhardt’s novel, “Biased”. The article states that the book intends to “uncover the neurological roots of bias and the ways to combat its effect on society”. The article opens with a brief personal account from the novel’s author about how her black son made a comment, that a man was a going to steal something because he was black. She then questions her son who has no explanation for his comment. This opens up the thought of how our brains naturally gravitate toward biases. From even as a small child, our minds are forming perceptions of those who look like us racially and ethnically. That information is then categorized in our minds about which people are good and bad. Even as we get older these biases still linger in our mind and cloud our judgements without even meaning too. The article then goes on to discuss implicit bias in society particularly in police interactions and in classrooms as more often than not police and teachers often jump to conclusions when dealing with minorities. The article concludes by discussing the good news about bias in society which are to do our research on them, to be aware of how they impact our life’s. If we understand how they work it’s easier to tackle the problem.
I thought the article was interesting and insightful on the topic of biases. It gave a broader view of their effect in society and our daily life’s. The argument that is being made is that although we all know racial biases are wrong we still have them, and until we become knowledgeable on the how and why of them we will never be able to overcome them. I picked this article because it continued to harp on the topic of biases that we discussed in class and depicts not only the mental aspect of them but the social implications as well.
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scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3049121/biased-western-reporting-coronavirus-may-have-nasty-side-effect-new
According to this article written by Hans-Georg Moeller, it talks about how European countries are falsely reporting news on the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus targeting China as the reason why this outbreak occurred. He states how this type of reporting can cause a negative effect worldwide making people target one specific race or country as a cause of something like this. People are being scared to believe everything they hear or read from these news articles. Chinese people have stated how upset they are for being targeted and becoming victims of racism. Because of false reporting China is given a negative image on their country and of its people.
I chose this article because all you see on the news lately are reports of the Coronavirus outbreak and for me this article relates to bias which we have been going over in class. The news media is over reporting and causing people to be scared by reporting only the negatives of the virus. News isn’t reporting from people who have the virus and are surviving it. The implications of falsely reporting can be detrimental to society as we are now seeing people of Asian decent losing business and also becoming victims of racism. A virus shouldn’t contain a national label.
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Jon Miltimore wrote an article published on February 27, 2018, where he points out what they believe to be 6 fallacies from the debate about guns in the US. In the article Miltimore explains which fallacies he believes have been used as well as the definition and explains of the fallacy being used. The first fallacy that the writer brings attention to is a tweet overdramatizing guns as well as a particular party they are most often associated with. The article gives many different examples of when fallacies are issued favoring one particular stance being argued and backs up why the writer believes each point counts as a fallacy.
I find this to be a particularly fascinating article because not only does it draw attention to misinformation in a non-threating way but, it also teaches people why we should put more thought into what is posted. The writer manages to argue their point in a less argumentative way it also is able to discredit their debtors. The author was able to address their points while debunking the opposing views which was done by pointing out fallacies such as; non sequitur, false dilemma/false dichotomy, appeal to emotion, straw man, bandwagon fallacy (appeal to popularity), and faulty analogy. After mentioning many of these he gave his opinion on why he believes the person using the fallacy is mistaken. An argument strategy that helped me stay interested in his work is before jumping to why he disagreed with the arguments he was able to talk about anything he liked from the person he was pointing out their fallacy.
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/logical-fallacies-gun-debate
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Dustin Pettit
Professor Ramos
English-102
08 March 2020
Biased Reading Summary/Response
Summary:
Bias is, “a tendency, inclination, or a prejudice toward or against something or someone” (Psychology Today). Some biases can be positive while some can also be negative. Most of the time, biases are based on stereotypes. These decisions can lead to prejudgment or rash decisions that one may make to be discriminatory. These biases are tied to race and sexuality. Implicit bias is referred to societal inputs. These biases are important to pay really close attention to because they can cause people to become prejudice. Keeping a balance of self-protection and empathy for others is important to be the most unbiased and respectable. Cognitive biases are when you are thinking in a repeated style leading too consistent unreasonable conclusions. A cognitive bias can lead to a quick decision, although it may be completely inaccurate.
Response:
I believe that bias is important in many different aspects. One aspect being the credibility that one has when sounding educated. It is also important to try to sound unbiased when you are dealing with academic or professional work. Staying away from bias can help one open up their mind and be able to begin to see things from many other perspectives. I feel that knowledge cannot just come from having a close mind and being biased towards ideas that you believe to have all the answers for. Remaining unbiased and staying aware of those who are biased can greatly benefit those seeking to become more knowledgeable.https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bias
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For the past couple weeks we have been working on our rhetorical analysis papers. We also started going in depth of what a rhetorical analysis is and how you must. It was mentioned that in every analysis you have to identify ethos, logos and pathos. In the article by the University Writing Center (UWC), they go into more depth of a rhetorical analysis. They said “A rhetorical analysis is an essay that breaks a work of non-fiction into parts and then explains how the parts work together to create a certain effect—whether to persuade, entertain or inform. You can also conduct a rhetorical analysis of a primarily visual argument such as a cartoon or advertisement, or an oral performance such as a speech”. It talks about appeals in attempt to get the audience in some type of approval. When writing a rhetorical analysis, you must build a thesis, body and conclusion as you would any other paper. You have to build some kind of prewriting analysis as it is stated in UWC. While reading the article, it mentioned how for the introduction you have led into an argument. For the body, each paragraph should have its own topic. You must make sure that any and every sentence connects to the topic of the paragraph. For the “Building Analysis by Prewriting” you have to discuss the purpose or “the piece” as the say “the appeals, evidence, and techniques used and why; examples of those appeals, evidence, and techniques; and your explanation of why they did or didn’t work” (UWC). Finally for the conclusion, you need to summarize and briefly state what your main argument was.
https://writingcenter.tamu.edu/Students/Writing-Speaking-Guides/Alphabetical-List-of-Guides/Academic-Writing/Analysis/Rhetorical-Analysis
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This week while reviewing what we did the past week. All I had was fallacies on my mind just to see how many people use it to their daily lives. One example I saw is when I go play ultimate Frisbee every thursday and many people were using an hasty generalization on one particular person saying he can’t throw so scoot up! But the funny part he was able to throw farther than anyone there and they were impressed by him. Another example I saw this week was my dad using a slippery slope effect to teach us something. Even though it was useful because it was about the coronavirus, it helped us all to be clean and healthy. He said something along the lines of if we dont wash our hands and take our vitamins then everyone in the house will get sick, then we will be contained and have no contact with our families or friends. It definitely worked with me even though I wash my hands everyday but worked for my brothers. The last fallacy I saw was when I was arguing with my friends about working out or it was something stupid but one of my friends, we’ll call him steve. He just why are you attacking me and as soon as I heard it I laughed and explained to him what an ad hominem effect was and then I won the argument because he admitted that he was doing that. Those are the fallacies I saw this week
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https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-05/recycling-center-business-replanet-shuts-down
Since we have been talking about going green, I wanted to talk about why they have closed so many recycle places down. California has the lagest recycling centers and the shutdown and laid off seven hundred and fifty people. The Mercury news reported on Monday that the company, Ontario-based RePlanet, has closed 284 of its centers. The President of RePlanet David Lawrence said the company stopped operating because of the increased business costs and failing prices of recycling aluminum and PET plastic. This happen right after the RePlanet closed 191 of itrs recycling centers and lay of almost 300 employees. This means that it gives us less place to do our recycling and it specially hurts the people do the recycling as there day to day job and need the recycling income. California recycling industry estimates that more than 40% of redemption centers have closed in the last five years because consumers only getting back half of their nickel and dime deposits on bottles or cans, it wasn’t making an profit. China whos has bought much of United States recyclable material has become stricter about what kind of items can be recycled. Advocates want reformats to bring back some recycle centers because they are worried that the recycle will end up in landfills. Earlier this year California Lawmakers proposed legislation that would require plastic and other single use materials sold in the state to be either reusable, fully recyclable or compostable by 2030. The bill, AB 1080,passed the state Assembly and is under consideration in the senate. Its important to know about this that way next time your wondering what happen to our recycling centers this is why.
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Because the understanding of fallacies has been emphasized and stressed during week 8 lecture, as well as the importance of analysis, I found analyzing a political campaign in search of fallacies to be relevant. Political campaigns, and their politicians, have been proven to be notorious for misinformation and appealing to the public despite the absence evidence and proof. Donald Trump, current president of the United States who represents the republican party, was filmed launching a 2020 campaign 8 months ago making a speech at his “Make America Great Again” themed rally. President Trump began his speech by addressing all news outlets as “Fake news”, as they would for example “report the 4 empty seats out of the extremely obviously filled arena where the rally was taking place headlined as ‘Trump did not fill the arena’”. He then continued to emphasize fake news a.k.a misinformation, and defined the opposing Democratic party as radical opponents driven by hatred, prejudice and rage whose goal is to destroy “you”, the American public, and destroy “our” country.
The lines provided were just a mere two-minute glimpse of Trumps entire speech and has provided enough information to analyze. Trumps speech was guilty of the fallacies fear tactics, hasty generalizations, and slippery slope. It’s essential to note how addressing the audience as “We, you, our, us” creates a sense of unity with the speaker. Informing the audience that the Democratic party is fueled by hatred, and their goal is to destroy “you” projects Democrats to be dangerous party that must be avoided and feared. Furthermore, radical has a negative connotation often associated with extreme social reform- defining Democrats as radical because of their political positions falls into slippery slope. That is to assume that because Democrats do not share political opinions with Republicans, they must intend to destroy “our” country, including the citizens. Though the tip of the iceberg, Trump certainly is not the only politician guilty of using fallacies to gain victory and support.
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https://heavy.com/entertainment/2019/09/the-prodigal-son-meaning-plot/
Since we are talking about monsters this week in class i want to write about this monster who is in the show prodigal son where this man who is named Malcolm Whitley and his fathers name is Dr. Whitley and his father is a serial killer who is charged with 23 murders. But his father is a surgeon and he claims to never have killed any patients because he wont let his work get into his hobby. but through out the show killers that worked with Malcolm father taunts Dr. Whitley’s family. The monster that his dad is makes Malcolm not able to sleep. He has vivid night terrors and hallucinations during the day. Because his father is such a monster it effects everyone around him. The father also is locked in a psych ward and he has phone privileges and it effects Malcolm because his father is constantly coming in and out of his life and it makes his dreams and hallucinations worse.
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In class we went over fallacies in which we looked at different types ,one that stuck out was scare tactics. The article Weld: Trump using the border wall as a ‘scare tactic’ shows how before Trump was brought to office he used scare tactics in his benefits. His challenger Bill Weld talked about Trump using the wall to create a type of economic panic by saying that aliens would replace other people’s jobs. It then goes into how he has stuck to what he said and has his son in charge of building more walls to help better secure the border to prevent people from coming over. Although Weld agreed with what Trump was saying he felt the way he brought up the issue was wrong and that it should have been presented in a better way .
In my opinion it was horrible to use the public’s fear as a way to get into office especially putting blame on a certain race. This creates separation and paints a picture on latino’s that others can view and now associate it with what he said. Just in general minorities get so much criticism as is that using them as a scare tactic is just truly sad. This could hurt the people that are trying to find work or people who have come over to the United States in hope of a better future . In all America is known to be a melting pot meaning we are a blend of different races & ethnicities and the people that come here should feel welcomed. Not used as a political scare tactic to gain an advantage in a political campaign.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/hilltv/rising/472182-weld-trump-using-border-wall-as-a-scare-tactic%3famp
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https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)32267-0/fulltext
This week we discussed the topic bias and how it could affect our critical thinking. This article, The good, the bad, and the ugly of implicit bias, by Clara Juando Prats. This Discusses the concept of implicit bias or unconscious bias and how that people act on the bias of internalised schemas of which they are unaware and can engage in discriminatory behaviours without conscious intent. It is also discussed that bias can have good and bad features but as well as an “ugliness”, an example provided, a limited focus on individuals engaged in paid work overlooks the inequitable division of unpaid domestic and care work that women do in the home and community and the resultant conflicts that can arise for women in the employment sphere, this affecting gender inequity cannot be separated from the wider context of class, race, ethnicity, geographical location, immigration status, sexuality, and countless intersections etc. By focusing on the subconscious and unintentional nature of gender bias, implicit bias can overshadow explicit and intentional forms of bias that persist in academic institutions or workplaces for example. It is important to understand bias to avoid it, of course it is in human nature to be biased over certain things, however this could affect critical thinking and coming to a solution for potential problems.
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https://www.wheninmanila.com/top-10-scariest-monsters-creepers-and-creatures-in-the-philippines/
This week, you mentioned that we will be starting our Monster project and to look and delve in the realm of monsters to do a project on. I chose this article to go into the world on monsters at least in the aspect of the world of the Philippines. The only monster I know from Filipino folklore is the aswang and the bruha. These 2 monsters are ironically and jokingly (hopefully) used as insults when making fun of other Filipinos. This may also be used in an extremely insulting manner towards other people. ‘Aswang’ means ghost/evil spirit and ‘bruha’ means a witch. I never really knew about the other monsters about the article. It is crazy to just see how the culture of the Philippines influences the monster’s abilities, how they act, and what places that they are hanging around. It is also surprising and shocking to see that monsters across every country/area is usually similar, and it really makes you think what kind of monsters are actually true and what monsters are fake beings that are simply brought on by our own imagination that has no limits. Seeing the monsters that have deformed figures and sometimes, even faces, it really makes you think what was the original inspiration for the design of the monsters.
I chose this article because we are going into the introduction of the monster portion of the class. I hopefully want to choose one I’m interested in. I’d like to learn how it came to be. What’s cool is I’d also like to learn the abilities, and any real known cases of the actual monsters. Our imagination can sometimes be so imaginative that it makes us think that things are real.
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