Reflection.

English 112 was one of my favorite classes of the semester. As an English major with a specialization in creative writing, I enjoy writing a lot. It's something that I've done since I was a little girl, because telling a story always came natural to me as breathing. However, I was not (and still not) perfect. My writing is human like myself. I have trouble spots. This class has helped me improve on things such as writing a thesis, and improving my writing. Through the peer reviews, I learned how to read others works, and learn how they perceived mine. Overall, this class has taught me how to improve my writing to prepare me for what's ahead. 
Out of the many classes that I've taken this semester, I looked forward to this one everyday. This class helped improve my writing in many ways, in my opinion. For one thing, I really had no idea how to write a thesis. In my critical thinking class, my teacher said that it was okay to write 'this paper would be about...." In this class, I quickly learned that it was not the way that things worked. My ability to write a thesis is something that improved. Another thing that this class helped to improve was the fact that I really hated to write the conclusions. This class helped improve that because Professor Guarino helped me realize that the conclusion is something that leaves your reader with something to think about. I plan to take those lessons, in addition to all of the other ones with me to my future writing and english classes. 
An assignment that literally taught me the most was that Rhetoric Argument essay. It was by far the hardest essay in my opinion, because I've never written anything like that in my life. I tackled the assignment with great excitement. By reading through examples of others, and meeting with the professor, I was able to do a halfway decent job. I also believe I learned the most from this essay, because when you're exposed to something new, you learn from it. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I can safely say that this essay was something I learned A LOT from. 
Going into this class, I can say that I've done a lot of writing. I've written tons of blog entries, poems, and fictional pieces. Writing was always my strong suit. Exiting this class, I've changed the way I look at writing. I now attack pieces in drafts. Then, I go back, and edit like crazy. I never did that before, because I assumed that since I was a decent writer that it was a fairly decent piece. 
Leaving this class would not be easy. I've made some awesome friends who I hope to remain in contact with. I've had a great teacher, who really put herself out there for her students to be sure that they did things to the best of their ability. Most of all, I leave a better writer with more experience to lead me to my next English class. 

Peer Review Questions

Sorry these were a tad bit later then planned. Here's my questions!

1. Do my details help prove my thesis?
2. What are the things that you think I could improve on to make this essay a better one?
3. What are some things that you liked/disliked about my essay?
4. Can the transition sentences be improved?
 5. Grammar errors?
6. Additional feedback?

Essay 3 Rough Draft

One of the hot topics nowadays is gay rights. Gay rights has become an important issue. Most people can say that we’ve come a long way since our parents generation of being in the closet. However, there are still remains of homophobia, and there are people out there who think that homosexual people should not marry. One of the main reasons why people think this is because they claim that the Bible doesn’t condemn gay marriage. In a recent New York Times Article, titled “Reading God’s Mind”, Frank Bruni writes about these issues. His thesis was “Against God’s wishes. That notion — that argument — is probably the most stubborn barrier to the full acceptance of gay and lesbian Americans, a last bastion and engine of bigotry. It’s what many preachers still thunder. It’s what some politicians still maintain.” He showcases a homosexual male named Jeff Chu whose life has consisted of hiding who he truly is because of the religion that he’s grown up with did not agree with homosexuality. In the article, he discusses his struggles with accepting himself for who he truly is, in addition to his parents struggling with who their son really is. The argument that he makes, although its a good one about the subject relies too much on pathos, therefore becoming untrustworthy because it has a narrow scope with very little factual appeal.

I noticed that Bruni only mentions the South Baptist religion.  We all know that there is more than one sole religion in the world. Other than the multiple branches of Christianity, there is Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Muslims. Some Americans don't even believe in a single God, they believe in Gods or a Buddha. Therefore, this article doesn't give them justice because the homosexuals that have those sorts of beliefs can not relate to the talk of having one single God. If Bruni had talked about these other religions, then he would have presented a more valid point. However, since there is no information about these religions, this question is being raised. It would show that the topic is more personal, than a hot issue. However, since he made it solely about the Southern Baptists, it leaves the reader wondering, “what about the other religions?” The article is an example of hasty generalization, because it’s an argument that is made based on solely one person’s experiences. “And his parents, strict Southern Baptists, have always deemed such a love sinful, and against God’s wishes.” After this quote, one can say that it would be good to add some additional information about the other religions about there. This makes it lack credibility because if he had added more experiences of homosexual men and women of different religions, it would have been a more holistic approach. If a more hollistic approach was used for this piece, it would answer the audience's questions about what goes on in the other religions such as Judasim and the various other religions that are out there in today's modern world. With addressing the audience's questions about this particular issue the argument presented leaves the audience with out wonder. Meaning, that they have all of their questions answered by the time they reach the last sentence.

The piece has more emotional appeals than factual appeals which makes it biased because it has a narrow scope. While reading the article, one can say that it’s a very personal article. Some may even argue this is more of an testimonial piece then an editorial piece. This piece talks about Jeff Chu’s closeted experience with the church which didn’t approve his homosexual feelings. It was very personal, and you can tell that it was biased. “Jeff Chu was married last September, on the lawn of a house on Cape Cod, against the backdrop of an ivy-covered fence. About 80 people came. His mother and father weren’t among them”. This quote is a good example of pathos because Bruni is playing on the emotional heartstrings on the readers. You can’t help feeling sorry for someone whose parents don’t approve of their marriage, or the person that they want to get married too. Marriage appeals to the pathos of love, which is something that many audiences would like to read about. After all, everyone likes to read a good love story about people that are supposed to be together. The author probably clearly knew that the audience would go for a love story where the lover were meant to be together, so that could be a reason why he played so heavily on this part of the piece. More logos would have approved this article. It would have showed more credibly. Some good examples of logos that could have been used in this piece is statistics with gay couples and their parent's approvals of their union. With the usage of too much pathos, we tend to wonder if the person actually knows what they were talking about. Then, we roll our eyes, because there's a certain point when there is too much. Bruni has reached that point. Emotional appeals can be good to strengthen arguments. However with too much emotional appeals it can be over the top and weakens the argument altogether.

The argument presented is an issue that I do agree with. I do agree with Bruni and his views on homosexual marriage and the way religions perceive it as being against God’s word. However, Bruni could have done a better job presenting it because he plays on the heartstrings on his readers, in addition to providing a tunnel vision of solely the Southern Baptist religion. With presenting more logos, he would have been able to present the argument better, in addition to making the tunnel vision wider. Then, he would have had an even better article on his hands.

Reflection:

This essay thus far has been a huge improvement from the original essay. I have made quite a bit of changes, which I am proud. I have added more details to the piece, so it further proves my argument. The pieces that I have added and changed have made the essay sound better, in addition to making my argument be proven in a better format. There's still bits and pieces that I have to change, but I believe this to be a good start.

First, I had added more information about logos and the effects that the essay would have, in addition to how much better the article would be if there was more logos used instead of the overwelming amount of pathos that appeared in the article. With more logos, there's more proof of his fact. This way he can back up the information that he has presented from the very beginning.

Second, I also bought up the point that not all Americans believe in one single God. This brings up the question of what to the Americans who have a Buddha or believes in more then one God. What is their limits of love? Do they believe that love has a specific gender, such as being between a man or a woman, or do they allow homosexual couples to have a fighting chance to be happy.

Overall, this essay has more details about than my original essay that I've written for the class. There is still work to be done, mind you, but this is a huge improvement. 

Essay Plans.

After carefully reviewing both of my previously written essays that I've written for this class, I picked the Rhetorical Analysis essay is the one that can be taken a step further, because there is so much more that could have been done with the essay. I chose this essay because I felt this essay needs the most work out of the two. I could do many things with this essay. I plan to enhance the essay to discuss more about my thesis, perhaps even making my original thesis better. For example, in my first essay I lacked to include the benefits of a holistic approach of the subject that he had presented. In this essay, I plan to go back and use examples of diverse content on the subject to show the reader that having this sort of format can present the topic in a more reliable manner.
I have many aspirations for this upcoming essay. As I said earlier, I plan to talk more about the topic being presented in different ways. I also plan to go back and add a lot more about the effect of author's usage of pathos and lack of logos through out the entire article. After all, too much pathos can make the reader either get annoyed or bored, and without logos it lacks effect. Finally, I plan to take more quotes from Bruni's article and analyze them on whether or not it actually supports his own thesis. In my original essay, I forgot to do that, so it's going to make my essay a whole lot stronger.
This essay out of the two that I've written in this class is by far my weaker one. However, out of my two essays, I also figured out that it was the one that I could discuss more about using way more detail then I did previously to add meat to my body paragraphs. I have my work cut out for me, but at the end of the day I should have a bigger and better analysis.

Essay 2

Natalie Barletta

3/12/13

Professor Guarino

Church VS. Homosexuals

One of the hot topics nowadays is gay rights. Gay rights has become an important issue. Most people can say that we’ve come a long way since our parents generation of being in the closet. However, there are still remains of homophobia, and there are people out there who think that homosexual people should not marry. One of the main reasons why people think this is because they claim that the Bible doesn’t condemn gay marriage. In a recent New York Times Article, titled “Reading God’s Mind”,  Frank Bruni writes about these issues. He showcases a homosexual male named Jeff Chu whose life has consisted of hiding who he truly is because of the religion that he’s grown up with did not agree with homosexuality. In the article, he discusses his struggles with accepting himself for who he truly is, in addition to his parents struggling with who their son really is. The argument that he makes, although its a good one about the subject relies too much on pathos, therefore becoming untrustworthy because it has a narrow scope with very little factual appeal.

I noticed that Bruni only mentions the South Baptist religion.  We all know that there is more than one sole religion in the world. Other than the multiple branches of Christianity, there is Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Muslims. If Bruni had talked about these other religions, then he would have presented a more valid point. It would show that the topic is more personal, than a hot issue. However, since he made it solely about the Southern Baptists, it leaves the reader wondering, “what about the other religions?” The article is an example of hasty generalization, because it’s an argument that is made based on solely one person’s experiences. “And his parents, strict Southern Baptists, have always deemed such a love sinful, and against God’s wishes.” After this quote, one can say that it would be good to add some additional information about the other religions about there. This makes it lack credibility because if he had added more experiences of homosexual men and women of different religions, it would have been a more holistic approach.

The piece has more emotional appeals than factual appeals which makes it biased because it has a narrow scope. While reading the article, one can say that it’s a very personal article. This piece talks about Jeff Chu’s closeted experience with the church which didn’t approve his homosexual feelings. It was very personal, and you can tell that it was biased. “Jeff Chu was married last September, on the lawn of a house on Cape Cod, against the backdrop of an ivy-covered fence. About 80 people came. His mother and father weren’t among them”. This quote is a good example of pathos because Bruni is playing on the emotional heartstrings on the readers. You can’t help feeling sorry for someone whose parents don’t approve of their marriage. More logos would have approved this article. It would have showed more credibly. With too much ethos, we tend to wonder if the person actually knows what they were talking about. Emotional appeals can be good to strengthen arguments. However with too much emotional appeals it can be over the top and weakens the argument altogether.

The argument presented is an issue that I do agree with. I do agree with Bruni and his views on homosexual marriage and the way religions perceive it as being against God’s word. However, Bruni could have done a better job presenting it because he plays on the heartstrings on his readers, in addition to providing a tunnel vision of the Southern Baptist religion. With presenting more logos, he would have been able to present the argument better, in addition to making the tunnel vison wider. Then, he would have had an even better article on his hands.

The Highs of Grade Inflation.

Alfie Kohn is an author, and a lecturer. He's a very controversial figure in American culture, and attacks many social science issues such as parenting and education. Alfie recently wrote an article called "The Dangers of Grade Inflation". In this article, Alfie uses fallacies to support his argument that grade inflation is a good thing. He uses fallacies to pull on the heartstrings of anyone who was or is a student. Two examples of him using fallacies to support the argument is when he says that good grades motivate students to study harder, and when he begins to talk about standardized tests not being a good enough source to measure intelligence. 
In the article, Kohn mentions that receiving higher grades is motivation to work and study harder. In his article, he says "With the exception of orthodox behaviorists, psychologists have come to realize that people can exhibit qualitatively different kinds of motivation: intrinsic, in which the task itself is seen as valuable, and extrinsic, in which the task is just a means to the end of gaining a reward or escaping a punishment. " In this quote from the article, Kohn is simply saying that when someone gets a good grade then they would be movitvated to work harder and get an even better grade. If someone doesn't do well, then they would quickly lose interest in doing well. As a student, I can agree with him. Last year, I took a very challenging AP course, and quickly lost the motivation to do well. I didn't study quite as hard as I should, and my grades showed it. However, in my classes that I did do well in, I had the motivation to do better. This uses fallacies because the author using sentimental appeals to present his argument because he uses emotions to distract the reader away from the facts. 
Another example is when Kohn mentions how standardized tests aren't a good source for getting measuring intelligence. Kohn says "Third, a decline in overall SAT scores is hardly the right benchmark against which to measure the grades earned at Harvard or other elite institutions." This shows fallacies because he is using an Ad hominem argument, because he is attacking the Harvard University system, rather then the argument that is presented.
Overall, Kohn presents a really excellent argument using emotional fallacies. He uses them in the two examples that I've presented; when he talks about the motivation to study harder, and when he attacks Harvard's system of admissions. 

Final Essay from an Essay!

Love in A Bottle?
    Coco Chanel is basically an icon. Even though she died in 1971, her legacy is something that perhaps will outlive us all who are alive today. Her collection ranges from purses to cosmetics. Her products are for all ages, teens to elderly women. There is an advertisement for Chanel perfume in Seventeen magazine, a very widely known publication amongst teenagers. This advertisement is a two page ad located at the front of the magazine. The ad is a  fair skinned young girl who is wearing nothing but a vine of pink flowers, with a pink ribbon at her feet, and is hugging a giant bottle of Chance by Chanel. The giant bottle is full of baby pink liquid, and is overspilling to the second page. The girl’s facial expression is one of being in love with the bottle of perfume, as if it was something that she can’t resist, and could not enough of. This image is selling love in a bottle, so it can be attainable for everyone. The girl being drawn to the giant bottle of perfume symbolizes the perfume being a magnet to anyone who is in it’s powerful path, the pink colors symbolize love, and he blank backdrop symbolizes the reasons why people want to fall in love, because love is something that has endless opportunity.

The main focus in this advertisement is the young girl being drawn into the perfume as if she can’t resist, like a magnet’s opposite poles coming together. She is embracing the perfume as if she’s in love with it, and can not live with out it. It’s overflowing, and looks like a perfume explosion. This part of the picture is showing that the perfume is so irresistible, that one can be drawn to the plain bottle itself. Therefore, anyone who wears this perfume will be irresistible, and whoever comes into the wearer’s path will be drawn to them. This is going back to the love in a bottle concept because if someone likes your scent, then they will be drawn to you due to it. If they like you, then they would ask you out on a date, and you go through the dating cycle with them.

    A second key factor in this ad is the coloring, especially the dominate color pink. There is not much color to be scene in the ad. The background is basically a pure snow white. The only color in this picture is pink. The flowers are a baby pink, and the ribbon on the girl’s calves is pink. The perfume itself is a shade of pink. The color pink is often associated with love. After all, one of the main colors of Valentine’s Day is pink. When you go down the grocery store candy aisle, all you see is an ocean of pink hearts. Ask the Hallmark Card company, they can vouch for you. Therefore, this perfume can be sold as love in a bottle,  because the color pink is often credited to being one of the main colors for love, the other color being red.
    The blank background is the blank story pages that represent a love story, and the life of two people coming as one. That is the desire of why people want to fall in love. When you’re in love, there is no limit on what can you do. “The limit does not exist!” says Lindsay Lohan, from Mean Girls. That also applies here, when you are in love. There is nothing that can stand in your way, and the two of you can do whatever your heart desires. A true relationship, such as the one that is true love, is something that can equal just about anything. The blank slate background symbolizes the number of chances and stories that need to be written when love happens, the life that is shared together. Whether it may be living together, or the kids and marriage route, there is a bunch of endless opportunities This further supports this picture’s message, because this shows what the love itself can entail, a sea of endless opportunities that two people can travel on together. Sometimes, people want the feeling and opportunity of love so much that they are willing to do anything to reach that goal. Chanel plays on this pathos, because they know that love is something that pretty much everyone wants.
    Overall, one can safely say that this image is selling the idea of falling love, and the perfume helps aid us to find love. The color pink symbolizes the color of love itself. A girl that is infatuated with the perfume bottle is showing how irresistible that the perfume is. The blank background is the symbol of the blank slate or story that one has when love reaches their path. Falling in love is something that is everyone’s reach. This makes love easier to obtain, all thanks to our friends at CoCo Chanel.