Lesson 7 Prompts: Essay Analysis

...Been a while...

This post is going to cover all the lesson 7 prompts, as they are easiest grouped together. Prompts will be:

Who is the audience for your essay? What is the thesis of essay?

Can the audience be swayed by your claim and reasons? Why or why not?

What value do your sources have to your audience?

Read another student's blog. Indicate whose you read. Did you make any comments on that blog?

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Who is the audience for your essay? What is the thesis of essay?

My thesis for this essay is: until large-scale tests are revised to include such factors as nervousness and educational background, alternative measures like recommendations, resumes, and interviews should be examined just as thoroughly, if not more so than test results.

My audience for this essay is made up of people who are either neutral or slightly in support of standardized testing. Thus they are slightly resistant to the ideas I am proposing in my essay. To facilitate both my audience and make my argument as effective as possible I chose to formate my essay in classical argument form.

Can the audience be swayed by your claim and reasons? Why or why not?

I believe that I could persuade an audience to at least see the reason in my arguments. If I can not persuade them to agree with what I am saying, I am confident the essay will lessen their hostility towards the thesis. They will be at least slightly swayed towards my point of view because the essay provides factual information, and what isn't taken from a source is defined with clear logic. My thesis does not propose to eliminate standardized test scores from the selection process of students, it merely states that alternatives should be valued just as much. For any supporter of test scores I am not advocating to do away with scores, so my thesis presents the issue from a very mild and neutral standpoint.  

What value do your sources have to your audience?

Three of four of the sources I name in my essay are individuals who have put time and effort into researching the issue of standardized testing's effects on students. One is an author who has written many books on the subject and has done lots of research both against and in support of testing, and another is an individual who presents valid arguments for both sides of the debate on his website. The last is a man who, like my first source, has written several books on education and testing. He writes from a philosophical and moralistic viewpoint, and his information is to the point and understandable to all readers.

My third source is probably one that a hostile audience will not appreciate, because it is called the Nation Center for Fair Testing. While they are biased against standardized testing because of it's possible unfairness, I selected comments and evidence from the articles that seemed the most factual and researched.

Read another student's blog. Indicate whose you read. Did you make any comments on that blog?

I read a student named Kathy's blog. I enjoyed reading it, and was very inspired by her progress and thorough comments. I could easily see that she was trying to learn as much from the class as she possibly could. It was great to read a blog that really outlined the course. Starting from the first post through the last I got a third-person perspective on the class. It was especially nice to be able to read the comments from lessons I have not completed yet. A resource for sure! I did not, however, comment on the blog.

-Ace

Lesson 6 Prompts: Graphic Argument Analysis

The prompts for this blog were:

On your blog, respond to either photo of President Bush on p. 145 of Writing Arguments by telling what the argument is. Write a thesis statement for the photograph's argument. How did you figure out the claim being made? 

Find another graphic, commercial, or video to analyze. Report on the argument being made. Attach a copy of the graphic element or explain how to find or view the graphic. Write a strong thesis statement for this argument.

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Analysis of Figure 9.2 on page 145 of Writing Arguments, by Ramage et al. 

Caption of photo: President Bush clearing brush from Texas ranch.

Thesis: President Bush is a hardworking, strong, and dutiful person, just like all Americans. 

This photograph emphasizes the non-presidential side of George Bush. It depicts him hard at work hauling brush from a ranch, while wearing typical Western work clothes: white cowboy hat, sunglasses, grungy shirt and pants, an work cloves. The photoshoot seems to try and connect Bush with the everyday working person by 'saying': President Bush works just as hard as you do! It is easy to picture any American in place of Bush in this picture, which works well for the argument being made. 

I arrived at my thesis for the picture by studying all the elements and undertones of it, many of which are mentioned in the above paragraph. I asked myself the questions: what is Bush doing in the picture? Why would he do this for a photoshoot? What about this picture can citizens relate to? Why would citizens instantly make a connection between Bush and themselves because of this picture? Why does the press, or the Bush Administration want people to be able to relate to Bush? Using those questions and the answers I came up with, which were made obvious by the picture/caption, and a bit of knowlede about arguments, I discovered the argument being made and the thesis. 

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Links to two references for the add analyzed in this blog:

Billboard version: [link]

Print version: [link]

Thesis: Converse All Star shoes make you look alternative, popular, and artistic.

Argument being made: this add for Converse All Star shoes uses its models and message to reach its target audience. The models are all alternative and wildly popular musical artists, especially with those who follow rock and alternative music, which are the largest music genres aside from pop. All three artists have a global and humanitarian message which Converse uses to its benefit by using the slogan “three artists, one song.” Converse is trying to convey the message to people that wearing converse shoes is popular and alternative, and many world-changing musician and artists wear them. By wearing Converse shoes, you are part of a large, humanitarian, alternative, and artist group of people.

The add has mainly been printed in music and pop culture magazines, such as Blender and Rolling Stone so the target  audience is people who are interested in music and probably know each of the three artists featured in the add. Converse is counting on their audience to be familiar with the artists in order to have a convincing argument towards buying their shoes. 

-Ace