"If I were a.... poor man?"

The argument I have chosen is entitled "No, it is not more stressful to be rich than poor.", published in Slate magazine. Does this sound like a double negative? Indeed, is written from an interesting perspective: it is based not on a direct quote, but on a quote of a quote.... with a twist. Due to the fact that the statement is not taken in the original form intended, the reader is forced to sift through the bias of the 'quoter'.
The article is quite strange; while one can glean that the writer is not in agreement with the 'quotee', he does reference and acknowledge the tools used to present the original report.
There is much still to learn from this article about strategy and viewpoint - this writer hopes to convey the message and effectively respond in a complete, concise manner.
Thank you.

Viewing American class divisions thorugh Facebook and MySpace

Danah Boyd's article suggests that social class dictates many aspects of our lives, even our lives on the web. She argues that Facebook and MySpace appeal to two distinctively different socio-economic classes. The argument is that MySpace appeals to users who feel as though they are outsiders, whereas Facebook draws in people with higher academic aspirations. The author supports her argument by researching and presenting results that illustrate the backgrounds of the various users of each network. The flaw in Boyd's argument is that the evidence, though not necessarily inaccurate, is insufficient to draw the conclusion that it is primarily socioeconomic class that dictates a users choice. There are potentially many factors that could play a role in either networks user base that Boyd doesn't address.

Class Struggles.....

It is found to be very interesting especially during this time in the world, that people struggle more so to be in the same class as people even though they do not have the same sort of income. The fact that so long as your in the same class as someone wealthy or not should not be the issue that matters; it should be your income! This is stated other wise in the article "Scenes from the class struggle on Fox". This article talks about not only America's obsession with the whole concept of wealthy prince charming comes to sweep the middle class princess off her feet because she loves the prince for who he is; but of the fact that the concept between this and reality is so far off. The "Joe Millionaire's" out there and the shows that are on support the false advertisement of gaining a certain class by watching it on television. People now think after watching shows like this that their "princes" need to be won over not by love, but by competing in games and winning...making the winner the "true love". In reading this, there is a strong agreement that this article is completely true and that it was well supported. There could not be a greater example than this; since this is how television makes many people perceive things differently in the world from how they really are. What happens when these poor people expect this one response, but get another...one not shown on television.

Cornered in one end of the spectrum!

“Stress and Class” was written by Timothy Noah, a man who does not feel that rich people are more prone to stress than poor people. He writes in response to another article that stated that it is now the rich who are more stressed out and the most likely to be working longer hours. It is an article that easily attracts attention from a wide spectrum of readers, for most people consider themselves rich or poor, or at least more one than the other. He backs up his position with comparative evidence and testimonial evidence. I agree with Noah’s stance, and while he makes some excellent points in his argument, I do not believe his article was written effectively.

His primary source is hardly convincing, for it is a study of a single day in two individuals’ lives. The personalities and mental stability of these two people is completely unknown. In addition, he leaves out a very key argument; the rich man is able to abandon a portion of his “excessive responsibilities” and live as a middle class man. The poor man, on the other hand, usually does not have the option or ability to just move to the other end of the spectrum at his desire. 

The Triumph of Hope over Self- intrest

I read the Triumph of hope over self- interest written by David Brooks, it was in our text. In reading the article it is all based on social classes. There is a very distinct theme social classes. It is funny how it says most of us are not poor "just pre-rich". What was most interesting was that most people are more offended not being in the same social class rather than inequality of income. So in having the elite rich we don't envy their big bank account as much as we do their social class and privileges. The article also goes on to say if a person suddenly become "rich" if that person "stays real" we admire them. The social class your in is determined at birth. No one gets to chose what class they are born into. Tax debates fair into this subject, for it is the elite rich who are "getting" the tax breaks. We live in a "culture of abundance" , which leads to debt to keep up with the Jones. Maybe that is partly what has lead to the economic slup we are in.

Scenes from the class struggle on Fox

In "Scenes from the class struggle on Fox," Carina Chocano makes her point that Hollywood paints a distorted picture of marriage and money. She points out that America has this fantasy that rich and powerful men want to marry simple middle/working class girls, but that fantasy is unrealistic. Chocano uses the example of Joe Millionaire, a T.V. game show much like the Bachelor, where women compete for the heart of who they think is a millionaire hunk. In reality he earns $19,000 a year as a construction worker. The idea was to see if the American woman marries for love or money. This example is used to show how the media makes marrying rich look easy and plausible.
I agree with Chocano's argument that a " working-class woman is about as likely to marry into the American aristocracy as she is to win the Lotto." While reading this article I thought of a recent controversy involving a goldigging New York woman and Craigslist. The 25 year old posted an ad on Craigslist asking why men who make over $500,000 a year don't want to settle down (with her) and get married, but just want to date. A stockbroker replied saying that wealthy men think of everything in investment terms. He basically said that women are a poor investment because their beauty will fade while the man will continue to get richer.

Scenes from the class struggle on Fox

Author: Carina Chocano
Anaylsis:
So I chose this one because like everyone in america I love hollywood and all of its delites and rainpours. I would have to agree with Mrs. Caryn James, when she states that all the modern cinderella stories make belief in our society that its seems classless and that holloywood makes major money off an idea that really doesnt exsit. Last I checked our economy is horrible and we are all working our butts of to support ourselves and others. And as to the rest of the article on finding love, we as a society shouldnt be going on thees ridiculous television programs such as " joe millionaire" or " the bachelor" to find mr. right. Because I dont care how much you say you're in it for love, to america you're in it for the money. Love shouldnt be based on someones career or how much their salary is, its supposed to be about who and what that person does for you. And men dont classify all of us women as "golddiggers" we just want to make sure you can support us. Though in todays society women should be the breadwinners according to a recent article in the newest edition of people magazine. When it comes down to it the hollywood outlook on life isnt the one to be going by, and all those reality tv shows are a crock, dont think that because you win a show like that, you're actually going to be happy. True happiness doesnt come from money.

Stress and Class

Author Timothy Noah argues rich people aren’t the only ones stressed out. Noah uses the phrases “haves” to describe the rich and “have- nots” to describe the low-earners. In the second paragraph Noah quotes Dalton Conley a chairman of sociology at NYU. The paragraph that was quoted states that: rich people are more stressed and work longer hours, which many of the so called “have- nots” may disagree with, myself included. One part of evidence that can be agreed upon is how the work week of the “have-nots” are described; Noah describes it as entailing dangerous physical labor and a higher risk for getting fired because of the simplicity of replacing a low-earner (have-not). That seems stressful to me. The article supports “have-nots” when the evidenced form John Tierney’s experiment with blood pressure is utilized. Two women are used in the experiment. One average single mom and a Park Avenue Stockbroker, their blood pressures are recorded throughout their daily routines. The stockbroker faced black Monday and the Average single mom went on with her normal work day and still experienced more stress supported by the high blood pressure reading, and continued when she went home to care for her children. The experiment supports the fact that the have-nots also have stressful jobs too. I can totally relate to this experiment because I once faced high blood pressure when working for a busy family practice doctor. Noah supports the have-nots and disagrees with Dalton Conley’s remark that rich people are more stressed and does a good job at convincing the audience with his supporting evidence.

Stay Tuned . . .

For more content, including sample papers and a grading rubric for the argument response paper. New schedule, too -- I can provide a longer one at this point as we're right on target, time-wise, so I think we can stay on track.

As most of you are now aware, having read the prompt, this paper is the "progressive" paper -- moving you from analysis of someone else's work to analysis of your own.

I'll also be returning the drafts of your rhetorical analysis papers tomorrow, and perhaps Wednesday, if I don't finish them. I spend quite a bit of time commenting on them, and I'd rather you have thorough comments than papers back a day or two earlier with limited and incomplete feedback.

Race and Class

Article: “On Being Black and Middle Class”
Author: Shelby Steele
Analysis: After carefully reading the articles available to write on, I decide to write my paper on Shelby Steele’s, “On Being Black and Middle Class”. In this paper Steele argues that a person can be both Black and middle class. He is arguing against the accepted idea that a Black person is Black, nothing else. He uses many specific arguments to defend his position. He uses lots of personal experience and analysis of those experiments to attack this common belief. He also goes deeper by stating how this thought is not only wrong but damaging to the very cause that the Black people are fighting against. This article was interesting, because this attitude is seen a lot in the Hispanic-American community. It is seen as something admirable to finish college in this community, but also something that makes you less Hispanic. I am looking forward to delving deeper into this article and analyzing it.

The social significance of Barack Obama

Joe Feagan's argument looks at Barack Obama's nomination in a positive and a negative light. The positive being that Obama running brought out a lot more voters of color and liberal whites. Also the use of the internet in a positive way for his campaign which brought out our younger tech friendly generation of voters as well.
The negative being that it brought out the still present racism in America. His argument is hard to argue against, especially now that we have gone through the whole process and Obama is now president. He uses the polls that were taken during the primaries as well as tells us about the many racist internet sites against Obama.
After watching the entire campaign, both sides, and seeing what happened at the rallies and even getting emails regarding Obama, I am inclined to agree with what he is saying. I am glad to see that those people did not have to much of an impact on voters. I think that it sad that in the year 2009 we still have people out there that would go to those lengths to try and stop someone from becoming president just because of the color of their skin. I forget that it is whats on the outside that really matters.

Stress and Class

In this article Timothy Noah has a good amount of evidence, but he also used logic to support his argument. Opinion is always in an argument response, but Timothy was especially convincing. As a member of the "have-nots" I am very aware of how the chain of command spreads its level of stress. Timothy falsifies the opposing evidence fairly easily. He explains that the measure in which the evidence supporting the idea that higher paying people have higher levels of stress is based on the subject’s ability to complain about their work. This doesn't seem to be a sample of actually stress levels. In fact, Timothy mentions that people with higher rankings would complain more because they feel more entitled to. From personal experience, I would have to completely agree. If you are at the bottom of the chain and you continuously complain you either get reprimanded or terminated. Timothy's best logical evidence was when he stated that even if higher paying jobs did work more, that did not mean they would have more stress. Hours worked doesn't not equal amount of stress. It does matter what you do in your job. Timothy also supports an older experiment that was drastically more specific and scientific in terms of measuring stress levels. It was based off of blood pressure and a few other medical measurements. In this experiment they compared the blood pressure of an African-American single mother's day with a stock broker. Oh, and the day that they do this experiment just so happens to be "Black Monday", the day the stock market plummeted. This really shed light on the subject.

"The Alpha Effect"

In reading all of these different articles, the one that most appealed to me was "The Alpha Effect" because it had me giggling and very interested at the same time. Actually, I had hoped that more had been written on the topic at hand: how girls are influenced by boys and vice versa. Having a brother myself, I understand the intended purpose of girls being influenced by certain qualities that boys seem to carry. It has kept me constantly competing every day for the past sixteen to seventeen years. The article written by Evan Thomas was meant for boys as much as it was girls and sparks interests in habits and qualities of both genders. At a certain point, he goes more specifically into the psychology of a girls mind and that takes over the rest of the article. There was appeal to authority in regards to research. The research was more open than anything clinical; it was more based off of psychologists and teachers at top schools taking notice and keeping interest in how students are adapting each others habits, both good and bad. While he compares girls and boys that carry such habits as being more aggressive and asserting individuality, which are considered good, strong traits; there is a shown cause for concern that it is being applied a little too generally in terms of not having relationships. Initially girls were allowed to go to schools that were only attended by boys at one time in a move made to introduce "softer" habits to the boys. There was hope that the boys would learn from the girls and take on what they said were softer and kinder qualities. Needless to say it went the other way and us girls are taking on the strong characteristics that guys have! The conclusion of all this is that both genders have progressed; just the girls have progressed a little more. It seems that the author, from seeing this himself, feels that the girls need to assert themselves and "insist" more to the boys about their change of habits so that one gender does not outweigh the other.

"To many women in college" Blog 2

I chose this article because it kinda hit home. My mother went to college at 40 to become a teacher and I am a low income student. This article was published in 2005 by Ms. Magazine. The author is Phyllis Rosser. The article was geared toward both genders but based on the magazine it was published in, as well as article content it was mostly geared toward the feminist minded woman. She uses a few different stratagies but not too many. She used irony, a little bit of sarcasm, and a lot of statistics to show her point. She used irony when she explained how in the past no one really worried that 2/3 of college grads were men but now that women are the majority in college, all of a sudden its a problem. Her sarcasm didn't really show through until the very end when she says that maybe its time for men to try to catch up with the women for a change. She brings statistics into this entire article. She tells us exactly how many men and women were in college at certain years as well as breaking it down into wealth of student and their etnicity.

We’re Here . . . We’re uh . . . Straight?”

I decided to write my paper on this article because I think it brings up a good argument. I was suprised to find that it was written in 1998. Some of the stragedies the auther uses are counterexamples, irony, logic, and most of all sarcasm. She uses examples of a group of people claiming to save people from homosexuality, then informing you of the failed results. She also uses irony when presenting the gay communities stand that you cannot be bisexual. You can only be confused and must choose. Logic is also used to simplify the overall dilemma of whether you are gay or straight. A description does not define a person. A person defines themselves creating the definition. There's no logic in trying to fit someone in a box that was defined by someone other then themselves. The auther uses sarcasm throughout the entire article, partly to keep it from getting too harsh, and also to show how funny our societies ethical presumptions can be.

We're Here, We're...Uh...Straight?

I chose this article because it was the most intriguing to me. We usually hear one side or the other; gay or straight. It isn't very often that we hear from an out spoken bisexual. The most effective strategies the author, Sallie Tisdale, uses are first person narration, flashbacks, and comparison between two opposites. First person narration and flashbacks go together I think. It helps the readers see that the author knows what she is talking about and has first hand experience with her topic. If the article was written by a straight or gay person then the tone and opinion would be different. The article wouldn't be as persuasive if I knew the author had no experience with the subject. Comparison between two opposites paints a better picture for the readers. Sally uses these stark comparisons to show us that there can be an in between and that it doesn't make sense for there to only be one or the other.

Inaugural Address Blog #2

Like many people, I watched President Obama's Inaugural Address. After reading through it, and focusing on analyzing the message, I found a greater understanding of its purpose. I decided to write my paper on his speech, not only for its great example of rhetoric, but for its wide range of topics.

President Obama has come into office in a time where almost everything needs to be fixed; arguably. This speech not only has to address all of these issues, but bring a sense of hope and confidence to fix them. Obama chose to remind us of our history. He reminded us of all the things we’ve overcome as a nation. This approach may have seemed like Obama was talking up America, but its real purpose was to remind us of our ability to overcome. As Obama explained “we must choose our better history”. In doing so Obama gave a message of faith. As necessary as it was, many of these plans are open-ended and difficult. Even if some of these things are too far of a reach, as some fear, I think Obama would rather inspire the nation and be inaccurate, then have the nation continue to sink with a realistic mindset. By analyzing this approach, I will almost strip it of its power. I will give an objective view of his speech. In that process I have to expose some aspects of the speech that may not be well supported. I’m not going to do research per say, but use critical thinking and logic.

Abbie E Blog 1

We're Here, We're...Uh...Straight?

I chose this article because it was the most intriguing to me. We usually hear one side or the other; gay or straight. It isn't very often that we hear from an out spoken bisexual.

The most effective strategies the author, Sallie Tisdale, uses are first person narration, flashbacks, and comparison between two opposites.

First person narration and flashbacks go together I think. It helps the readers see that the author knows what she is talking about and has first hand experience with her topic. If the article was written by a straight or gay person then the tone and opinion would be different. The article wouldn't be as persuasive if I knew the author had no experience with the subject.

Comparison between two opposites paints a better picture for the readers. Sally uses these stark comparisons to show us that there can be an in between and that it doesn't make sense for there to only be one or the other.

Abbie E: Blog 2

We're Here, We're...Uh...Straight?

I chose this article because it was the most intriguing to me. We usually hear one side or the other; gay or straight. It isn't very often that we hear from an out spoken bisexual.

The most effective strategies the author, Sallie Tisdale, uses are first person narration, flashbacks, and comparison between two opposites.

First person narration and flashbacks go together I think. It helps the readers see that the author knows what she is talking about and has first hand experience with her topic. If the article was written by a straight or gay person then the tone and opinion would be different. The article wouldn't be as persuasive if I knew the author had no experience with the subject.

Comparison between two opposites paints a better picture for the readers. Sally uses these stark comparisons to show us that there can be an in between and that it doesn't make sense for there to only be one or the other.

Still Needing the F Word . . .

So Anna Quindlen says. She wrote an essay with this intriguing title, and it's in the back of your Field Guide. I put together a PowerPoint that analyzes some of it -- see what you think. If you don't have your book, don't forget that the internet's a powerful thing ... click here to read it online.

This isn't "assigned", but it's a quick read, and the PowerPoint might give you some ideas about talking about/approaching the audience question. Go here to access the PP.

Analysis strategies....

I have decided to write my Rhetorical Analysis on the article entitled "Singing the Pink Blues", an article about gender inequality when it comes to childrens' toys. This was an exciting, though daunting, choice for me, but found it to be quite thought-provoking.

Given the author's audience (feministic mothers, on a whole), she utilizes a few effective strategies, including appealing to logos. Ms. Mifflin (the author) appeals both to readers' logical sides and their emotional sides, writing about the bliss that comes with the territory - as well as the frustration. She doesn't attack others - not even the toy companies. She simply muses about the importance that society places on girls and boys growing up to be the way they 'should be'.

All in all, I found it to be an pointed, interesting article, written by a woman who cares very much about her topic, but does not let such interfere with her ability to compose and reason.

Thank you.