Katy Hanratty Blog #9

Is marketing to younger kids more effective for a sports team?  By doing this will the kids, support that team throughout the years?  Should companies be marketing sports products to young children?  Do they benefit?

Are US businesses declining because the Chinese economy is increasing?  What does this mean for the US economy?  How will this effect US jobs?

Katy Hanratty Blog #8

After watching “First Writing Since” it was clear that there were several points when she used logos, ethos and pathos.  I saw how she used logos because she really got her point across to the audience.  She was very emotional and passionate when she was speaking and from looking at the audience, you can tell that she connected with them.  The main point of her poem is how unfair America can be when it comes to people of color and how horrible the stereotypes are.  A quote that proves this is when she said “One more person ask me if I knew the hijackers, one more mother f***** asks me what Navy my brother is in..”  This quote suggests that just because she is Palestinian she knows everything about terrorism.  I saw how she used ethos because she made several points about the war going on today.  Her credibility was never doubted throughout her poem because she was presenting facts within her argument.  “Bush has waged war on a man once openly funded by the CIA, I’ve read too many books to believe what I’m told.”  This quote shows that she has a valid argument because she has done her research on what her poem is talking about.  I saw how she used pathos when the camera showed the audience.  You saw how moved the audience was, especially the woman who was so touched by this poem she cried.  She also used pathos by giving the audience a visual image of the war going on and when she was talking about when the twin towers were hit.
I do believe that she uses poetry to make an argument of how stereotypical people can be.  I definitely find her to be persuasive because she not only speaks with so much emotion but what she is saying I agree with.  I believe that in America we do stereotype people way too much.  If a girl is raped, we automatically assume that the attacker was African American, if something goes wrong at an air port we assume the person is Islamic or Palestinian.  I think she presents a great argument because she gives several examples of personal experiences to back up her argument.

Katy Hanratty Blog #7

The first element of an exploratory essay that I think is important is “The essential move for exploratory thinking and writing is to keep a problem alive through consideration of multiple solutions or point of view” (Pearson 107).  I think that this is an important element in exploratory writing because in order to keep your essay going you need to think of several different views in order to keep writing.  You need to think of several outside opinions to the problem in order to write about solutions.
The second element of an exploratory essay I think is important is “The key to effective exploratory writing is to create a tension between alternate views” (Pearson 108).  I think that this in an important element in exploratory writing because creating tension between alternate views allows the writer to provide different angles to the problem.  By showing two different angles of a problem, you are giving the reader two sides of the story instead of only one. When the reader is given two sides of the story, there are more ideas, opinions, and points that the reader can now think about.
The third element of an exploratory essay I think is important is “In either case, the goal when writing with an exploratory aim is to reproduce the research and thinking process, taking the readers on the same emotional journey you have just traveled” (Pearson 113).  I think that this is important when writing an exploratory essay because you need to connect with the readers.  If you don’t connect with the readers your essay will not intrigue the reader and they will not be able to relate to your essay.  I think this is an important part in writing an exploratory essay because the whole point in presenting your argument or problem is for the reader to read about and understand the point.

Katy Hanratty Blog #6

While reading this article it made me think how hard it is for guys to show emotion.  If a guy shows emotion such as crying he gets called gay, sissy, wuss and several other names.  It almost seems unfair that girls are able to show any kind of emotion but guys are expected to be strong all the time.  I understand that some guys like to be to “that guy.”  The type of guy who never cries and acts strong 100% of the time.  I agree with the author when he says “Masculinity is a constant test- always up for grabs, always needing to be proved” (Kimmel 51).  I fully believe this statement because I feel like guys are always needing to prove how masculine they are.  It’s almost like if they don’t show masculinity they are afraid that other males or females with think that they are gay.  I think that guys care just as much as girls about how they present themselves to others.  Guys never want people to think that they aren’t masculine.
The second hot spot I found while reading this article was “Boys learn that their connection to mother will emasculate them, turn them into Mama’s Boys” (Kimmel 52).  After reading this statement, I realized that if I were a mother reading that I would have been offended.  I would have gotten offended because I feel like when little boys are at such a young age they need their mothers around to nurture them.  When I was reading the story about the little boy who was getting his haircut and some of the chemicals burned him so he started to cry and the barber began to call him a wussy and that he needed to stay away from his mother I thought that was horrible.  This little boy was only three and a half years old when this happened.  How can you say that he is not being man enough at the age of three.  I feel like that has no connection to how much time he was spending with his mother.  A little kid as young as three will cry at anything that hurts them, I don’t feel like a mother has anything to do with that.  A mother simply nurtures her child when the child is in pain.  I think its horrible that males have to live up to this expectation of always having to feel “manly.”

Katy Hanratty Blog #5

Watching the video from Sarah Haskins was I thought funny but very stereotypical.  I agree with a couple statements she says such as “Being a woman isn’t easy.  We work, take care of the house, we raise children…”  I agree that woman do this, however I also believe that men can do this too.  Men are just as capable as women to work, raise children and take care of a household.  This video was very biased towards men.  Sarah made men seem stupid and are no help at all except for simple activities such as yard work and cooking.  Men do this in addition to taking care of children and working.  One of the statements that I disagree with is “This commercials proof to us husbands just can’t do stuff.”  I disagree with this statement because men do a lot of things such as doing the lawn, cleaning gutters, fixing appliances and maybe improving the house.  This video shows the stereotype that men are worthless when it comes to doing work that women usually do.
Watching the Tropes vs. Women video, I thought that she was a little harsh on the writers of Hollywood.  I understand where she is coming from thinking that women are always the ones who are fixing the problems when the guy thinks that his world is coming to an end.  However, there are so many other movies out there where the man is helping the woman get through a problem.  Women are the ones who always want to fix their personal problems not avoid them and I think this is why a woman is always cast as the problem fixer versus a man.  Personally, whenever I have a problem I always go to my girl friends to help me because they always say the right thing and give me the best advice possible.  I never really go to my guy friends because they typically don’t know what the best advice to give is.  One point I do not agree with is when she says “Women are not here for men’s inspiration or celebration or whatever else.”  I don’t believe this because I believe that men and women are inspiration for each other.  There are so many musicians out there who right songs about past relationships or current ones that inspire them enough to write a song about it.  One point I do agree with her on is “Women are musicians, artists, and writers with our own brilliant and creative endeavors.”  I agree with this statement because it is presenting women as an equal to men and that we can just be as equally talented and creative as men can be.

Katy Hanratty Homework #5

The essay by August was very hard for me to understand because I felt as if he was playing the victim card for all males.  An example from the essay Real Men Don’t by August that I think any female can resonate with personal experiences is when August explains “..gender-exclusive usage that omits males from certain kinds of consideration” (August 130).  This statement is especially biased against women because it is usually women who are the ones being omitted for wanting to do something.  For example, there were a lot of people who got very angry when Hillary Clinton wanted to run for President.  Many people on talk shows and just regular add companies would jeer at her and make female biased comments towards her.  The point was to make her look like a joke to be running for President.  Have we ever seen add companies do this to a male running for President?  August continues to explain that “American males are almost twice as likely as females to be victims of violent crimes (even when rape is included in the tally) and three times more likely to be victims of murder (August 130).  This statement seems as if August is trying to say that there are more male victims of violent crime then there are women.  I agree that there are men who are sexually abused or have been a victim of a violent crime, however, the numbers for women in these statistics are probably significantly higher.
The essay by Tannen was I think more equal to men and women.  The author never intentionally bashed men in this essay.  Rather she was observing the differences between men and women.  “If a woman’s clothing is tight or revealing (in other words, sexy), it sends a message-an intended one of wanting to be attractive,  but also a possibly unintended one of availability” (Tannen 143).  I agree with this statement because it shows how a lot of women simply want to look good and feel good about themselves.  However to a male, it is sending the message that we are available, which is not always the case.  Out of the two essays that we read, I am only convinced by Tannen’s essay because she presented two sides of how men and women are perceived and observed and didn’t simply bash men.  As opposed to August, I felt that he was just bashing women.

Katy Hanratty Homework #3

The first “hot spot” I noticed when reading Everything’s a Text was “Writing is a complex, multi-layered process that can include both the personal and the academic.” (Melzer Coxwell-Teague 64).  I related to this passage because I agree with it a lot.  Writing can be so versatile.  You can write a research paper for a class about the genocide in Sudan, you can write a personal narrative on your family, or you can write a fiction story for fun.  Writing can simply be for personal enjoyment or for a grade in your English class.  This statement explains that writing does not only have to be about writing a research paper, or writing a paper for school, but writing for yourself.
The second “hot spot” I saw when reading Everything’s a Text was “I have found when students begin by writing about their lives and language use, they begin to see and understand themselves and their place within culture in new and interesting ways” (Melzer Coxwell-Teague 66).  I believe this statement because I think that when people start to write about themselves they come to get to know themselves better.  Anytime I write about myself I understand my life more.  Numerous amounts of people come into their own self in a way.  When you write about yourself, you might start to realize more of who you are as a person.  Many people might feel more comfortable with themselves after writing about themselves because writing is a form of expressing yourself.  I feel that when you express yourself you learn more about yourself.  

Katy Hanratty Homework #2

While reading chapter one in Everything’s a Text, I came across this “hot spot“ “When you compose in college and beyond, your audience with always influence the way you compose and what you say” (Melzer Coxwell-Teague 13).  I fully believe in this statement, especially after reading the speeches by Malcolm X to the different groups of people.  Malcolm X proves this statement to be true because when he speaks to the Detroit Civil Rights Group his language use is different than how he spoke to the people of Harvard.  When Malcolm X spoke to the people of Detroit it was a more relaxed tone and more casual.  When Malcolm X spoke to the people of Harvard he spoke very polite and prim.  The second passage I found interesting in Everything’s a Text was “Composers always have both a purpose for composing and an audience or audiences to receive their message” (Melzer Coxwell Teague 10).  I found this passage interesting because the composer can speak to an entire audience and that audience will receive the message but can interpret that message in several different ways.
While reading the text in Person Custom Library a “hot spot” I came across was “In a narrower sense, rhetoric is the art of making messages persuasive” (Bean, Johnson and Ramage 12).  I found this to passage to be very true because without using rhetoric to spread a message, the message will probably not get a lot of attention or focus.  Rhetoric helps to send out a message in an interesting way.  The second “hot spot” I found was “For college professors, “a good, interesting question” is at the heart of good writing” (Bean, Johnson and Ramage 8).  I believe this statement is true because without asking yourself a question before you write, you have no good basis to the essay.  The question provides how much thought you will put into the essay.

Homework #4

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan shows examples of open form prose.  I believe that “Mother Tongue” uses examples of open form prose because the story expresses the authors feelings about her mother’s native language in her personal narrative.  For instance, “Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says.  Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent.  Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese” (Tan 114).  This statement is an example of open form prose because it expresses the authors partial embarrassment of her mother’s English.  Another example of open form prose is “Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks.  Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English…It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed” (Tan 114).  The author is expressing her mood about how the English language affects her life.
I believe the audience for this short story is anybody going through a transition period in their life.  In addition, anyone who is going through a significant transitional stage in there life.  The author is stuck between valuing her native language and wanting to “fit in” to the American lifestyle.  “I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal:  her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts” (Tan 117).  This quote shows the author may be embarrassed of her mother’s “broken” English, however, the author is proud of her mother and her Chinese heritage.
This essay does conform to the genre conventions of an essay.  This coincides to the genre conventions of an essay because it is gives the reader an idea of everyday life conditions that the reader can relate to.