TOW #25 Alfred M. Green Speech

Reading Goals
-Pick something that will help me on the exam

Writing Goals
-Solid evidence (use quotes from the text)

      With the time before our exam winding down I decided that I would focus more on the type of texts that will be on the exam. Alfred M. Green's speech, which was on the 2003 exam, was said during the first months of the civil war when African-Americans were not allowed to enlist. Green purpose of the speech was to convince fellow African-Africans to work towards and prepare to be enlisted. It is not the easiest task to convince a group of people who are being oppressed to fight alongside their oppressors, by relating to religious affiliation. Green encourages the audience to "...take up the sword, trusting in God" the way it is phrased makes it seem that he wants the people to put God above all else. He is not requesting that the people take arms with faith that the white people will have their backs, but rather that they place their faith in God, thus the focus is shifted to making this situation into a religious one. Green also offers a counter argument, he brings up the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, which both ended in no better living situations for the blacks. Green knows that the audience will be thinking about how they shouldn't get involved in this war either, because it will end with the same result. Green says that they should not "cavil over past grievances" and ends with talking about how it will dishonor their ancestors, which ultimately ends gets rid of the notion of not going to fight because if past events.  It is always so amazing to look at documents such as this , because you can really see what the people back then were living for. I believe that the speech was effective in convincing African Americans to enlist. I think that by reading this speech I will be more prepared to handle the documents on the exam.



      

IRB Intro Post #4: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

         When I was growing up there 9 planets, and whenever asked which was my favorite I would always say Pluto. It was the smallest planet in the solar system as well as the coldest, and to make it better it was blue. It was a sad day when I learned that my favorite planet was no longer considered a planet. To be honest astronomy is not one my interests I love looking at the stars and all, but I have never studied the details of space. For my last IRB I have decided to read the book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Deserved It by Mike Brown. Brown spent years of countless years researching space only to be bombarded by angry civilians, such as myself, for discovering the cold truth about Pluto. This book is his way to explain his journey in finding one of the most important solar system fact of the 21st century. Getting to hear the story of how my favorite planet was murdered by the man who discovered it should be interesting. I have no doubt that this book will be incredibly awesome and teach me things about space that I could have never known before hand.

TOW #24 FDR's "Day in Infamy" speech

 Reading Goal
        - A text with substance

Writing Goals
        - A solid thesis
        - Flow


         Telling a nation they're going to war is not a message one can send lightly. After the attack on Pearl Harbor it was the duty of the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt to address the people of The United States about the impeding situation. The famous "Day in Infamy" speech was given in order to lead Congress as well as the American people into war. When giving a speech as important as this one was it was necessary that words be chosen carefully, which is why repetition was used throughout the piece. The word deliberately shows up frequently, when explaining the United States was "deliberately" attacked, or that the Japanese "deliberately" planned its actions. Roosevelt also utilized a technique similar to repetition which is an anaphora by repeating the phrase "last night the Japanese attacked..." several times. The words he uses are leading the American people towards his conclusion at the end that he has declared war on the Japanese. He empathizes how the Japanese deliberately attacked not only the United States, but other locations as well, which overall makes his declaration seem warranted. The whole speech was quite short , but left an impact on the American people forever and results in one of the most famous lines of the 20th century "a day which will live in infamy" When FDR addressed Congress with these words he spoke both calm and collected, but with a strong tone, which assisted with giving people the trust that he knew what he was doing and that he was someone who could be trusted. Although FDR did have credibility coming into this situation, declaring war on another nation requires a new level of trust. We are learning about WWII in history right now, but we did not spend much time on this speech in particular. The speech in and of itself gives a clear insight into the war on the American front. While FDR did not specifically mention the war going on in Europe at the time it was almost assumed that he also meant that the United States would finally be entering into WWII. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor there was not much resistance about going to war, but this speech was needed in order to reassure Congress and the United States that The United States had to take the measures needed.

TWO #23 Political Cartoon by Chan Lowe

     

Visual Goals

-Pick a visual that requires thought 

-Pick a topic outside of my comfort zone

Writing goals

-Strong thesis

-Direct evidence from text  

       Political Cartoonists have the power to point out problems in the world, which many others would never dare to say out loud. In a political cartoon in the Tribune of Two nameless company bosses done by Chan Lowe is a powerful statement on religion in cooperate America. Chan Lowe has been the only editorial cartoonist at the Sun Sentimental for the past 24 years, and he was won numerous awards for his political cartoons. In this particular cartoon there is a newspaper in the background with the headline “Can corporations have religious beliefs?” The cartoon aims to answer this question through the depiction of two nonreligious bosses. Lowe uses an allusion to bible to assist in proving the purpose. The two bosses in the cartoon each have a speech bubble that split up the quote “blessed are the under compensated for we shall inherit the earth!” The dialogue is a manipulation of the many bible verses that begin with “blessed are the...” only in this cartoon it is obvious they are going against the common structure of the verse. It shows that the men hold their cutthroat business philosophy as their religion. The people who can really understand the article are those who have the background knowledge that these two men are speaking in a distorted form of religious exchange. Lowe supports his own opinion on the topic with exactly how the two men are depicted in his cartoon. These two men are both the stereotypical image of large corporate bosses. Both of the men appear to be white, middle aged, smiley blokes who are in a high rise office building overlooking a city. The unnamed men in this cartoon do not look like the most trust worthy of fellows, even the way Lowe drew their curling mouths resembles the way an evil Disney character would be drawn. Although Lowe never writes anywhere on the actual cartoon Corporations do not hold religious beliefs he makes it very obvious where he stands on the situation. He made an allusion to a text that a majority of people would be able to be able to pick up on and depicted the men as bad guys. I believe that Lowe was able to capture the message he was going for, and achieved what most political cartoonist aim to do: make the audience think about the situation. 

TWO #22 Crying Wolf on Religious Liberty by The Editorial Board of the New York Times

              The decisions that the Supreme Court makes has a large effect on our American Society, and there have been cases in history where the Court has made some poor decisions. Recently two owners of large companies  have come forward with cases to not follow the newly implanted Health Care Laws for they

feel that that the laws infringe their established religious rights. These large companies, with no-religious affiliations, feel as if they should not have to cover their employees for their birth control medication. The Editorial Board from the New York Times took on this situation to argue why the Supreme Court should knock down the case. The combination of these 18 well-respected journalists, who represent the Editorial Board, all speaking through one voice creates a powerful argument. The purpose of this collective article is to argue why the Supreme Court should strike down the new case that is going before them. The structure of this article was incredibly effective in the way that it was simple. The introduction includes background knowledge that informs the audience as to what the situation was then is followed by a firm thesis that the Supreme Court should not allow this case. All of the evidence is strong and located in the body of the article, much like is commonly taught in schools. The writers source out the actual laws that the two companies are trying to work in their favor and present them in a different way then the companies are trying to. The conclusion leaves the audience thinking about the effects that this verdict will have on society including future cases that may come down the line. While the article has a simple structure it still manages to be a sophisticated article that effectively argues their opinions. The actual argument for this article was deductive, it started with the argument and then had evidence to support the claim. I found this article to be exquisite. Even though there were 18 authors it really felt that there was only one voice. The article was informative without going to overboard. The audience would have to be people who knew enough about how the Supreme Court worked, but had little to no knowledge on the particular case the article was discussing. By the end of the article I was convinced that if the Supreme Court made this decision America would be in a whole lot of trouble. 

TOW #21 IRB Post 2: Stiff by Mary Roach

            Stiff By Mary Roach was a fantastic read that I enjoyed immensely. She was able to capture a morbid topic and make it into a fascinating book.  It is easy to tell that Roach did extensive research before writing this book and underwent the usual journalist undercover approach in certain situations. Roach set out

to educate and entertain her audience with her knowledge of the little known world of human cadavers, and she most definitely succeeded. She was able to achieve her purpose through the use of her own anecdotes on the topics. Roach immersed herself in the world of the dead, which allowed her to tell stories about the subject ultimately making the whole topic more relatable. In one case, in her chapter about cannibalism, Roach traveled to a small town in China that reportedly had a case of brothers who were adding dead body parts into the food of a local restaurant. Roach traveled all around the town and will the help of a translator was able to debunk the article about the forced cannibalism. By including this story she was not only able to entertain the audience with her unusual trip but also educate the audience with her investigative information that she found on her journey. Another thing she was able to accomplish with the addition of this anecdote was increasing her credibility. It would have been incredibly easy to just include the article she found in the book and present it to the audience as fact, but instead she flew to a foreign nation to get to the bottom of the information. This book appealed to me for the same reason that it probably appealed to the rest of her audience, because it was different. Never before have I seen someone tackle a difficult topic such as this with the grace that Roach was able to. The book was able to satisfy the audience’s interest in the world of the dead without crossing the line of being insensitive or vulgar. I loved this book with all my pumping heart, and I firmly believe that I left this book feeling completely entertained as well as educated on a new topic. I don’t think I will ever find a book quite like this ever again

TOW #20 Thin Mints Box

                It’s Girl Scout cookie season! That means that little girls in vests dazzled with badges will be out in full force selling boxes of cookies. Girl Scouts have been around for over one hundred years, and have grown into an organization that is most famous for their cookies. In reality out of the four dollars that a box of cookies cost each troop on makes 25 cents for themselves. Thin Mints are the fan favorite that are usually guaranteed to sell out at any booth. The box itself, which protects the delicious crispy chocolate

wafers dipped in a mint chocolaty coating, has its own purposes. The Thin Mints box is designed to draw in potential customers and also encourage girls to join the Girl Scouts. It is hard to not a Thin Mints box, with its bright green that screams at people passing by a cookie booth. The color of the box itself is what really can sell people. Green is a color that evokes a calm soothing serene emotion. For the select few who are not already familiar with the Girl Scout brand it is a box that is easy to gravitate towards. Once people buy a box it is the visual images that can convince people to join the Girl Scouts. On the cover of the box there is an image of three girls doing a community service project and they are all smiling appearing to have a good time. While people are eating their delicious Thin Mints and feeling good they see the cover of the box and want to join the organization. The Girl Scouts on a whole have to rely on the Girl Scout cookie sale to market their brand.  By having happy images on the box the Girl Scouts can kill two birds with one stone they can make money on the cookies and also entice more girls to join and thus make more money. In my own opinion the Thin Mints box achieves its purpose. I feel like the Girl Scouts know what they are doing and have their strategy down. The Girl Scouts aren’t going away any time soon