Project 5 topic/media

*Was absent during this class period*

My essay talked about whether or not it is worth the time and money to send children to college. I argued that it was beneficial to work towards receiving a college degree because of the numerous benefits and advantages you receive after college. For this project I am either going to create a cartoon that exaggerates the student debt that students receive after college or create a website that will include arguments from different experts that are for a college education and against it. I'll also add pictures of cartoons that satirize college debt and add in graphs that show different percentages on employment and student debt. Lastly, I am going to look for any videos from the news that discuss college price rises and if it is still worth getting a degree.

We Robots

While I agree with Turkle's thoughts about how we are a technology driven society now, I disagree with her reasoning for why we are and what this has turned us into. For example, I agree that instead of writing letters we send emails or update social media, but I disagree that we do these things to ignore socializing. I think the reason we chose technology over original means of conversation is because it is simply more convenient and faster in a sense. Why send a letter that will take a few days to arrive when you can just send a text or email that gets there in seconds. This is also why I agree with her point about how society either views technology as a Utopia or Dystopia, there is never a in between perspective that just views it as a new asset in our life. My generation has grown up in a very technologically advanced world, and I personally don't view it as a Utopia or Dystopia but just as a new tool available to me, which is what Turkle points out in the final paragraph.

comics

Political comics are often found in the newspaper week after week discussing the weekly events that are going on in the political world. Authors often use comics to express their political ideas but in a more secretive manner. I found a few examples of political comics that were published several years ago during election time. I also found a more recent example of a comic artist trying to convey a message about how much President Obama borrows from the treasury and how much debt he is putting us in. The comic features Obama carry several metal buckets labeled "Insurance, Health Care, Banks, Autos" and he is running towards a cow that is deathly skinny looking and the cow has a label on its stomach saying U.S treasury. This comic is expressing the rising debt our country is gaining from too much borrowing with Obama's policies.
Many political comics express ideas that either support or mock the political leaders such as the President, senate, and House of Representatives. Comics were also used in the World War days to express patriotism and to get people to support their country in the war.
Comics have many uses and can often be a comical way of expressing a serious subject

The Importance of Every Single Sentence- Chapter 29

Chapter 29 covers everything from sentence structure to common sentence patterns, it explains how each sentence is important and plays a major role in your writing. Making a sentence memorable is important, but it's not always easy to craft a well written sentence after every period. My favorite example they used was the sentence that opened up a chapter in a dissertation, "Hazel Hernandez struck me as a honest thief". The book emphasizes what a great opening this is and how captivating it is. I couldn't agree more, the author contradicts himself by saying that a thief is "honest". This makes the reader want to continue reading to understand what exactly a "honest" thief is.
Chapter 29 taught me that each sentence matters or else you wouldn't have it in your writing. The hardest part is making the reader understand the point you are emphasizing in that sentence and this chapter lays out a few ways to emphasize that idea. There really is no such thing as a buffer sentence, because every sentence gets read by the reader, so every sentence is important to presenting your argument. After elementary school, the focus in english class switches more over to the overall paper and paragraphs rather than breaking it down sentence by sentence. This chapter reminded me how important every sentence is and how to set up every sentence properly. Also that just because it is a simple sentence, doesn't mean it isn't a great sentence and this is a problem I tend to have. I always think my sentences have to be more complex and that leads me to have more run on sentences in my papers.

Thesis for Research paper

A higher education is worth the time and money because it helps create connections for future jobs, it increases your chances of finding employment, and on average college graduates have a higher salary than people with only a high school diploma.

By going to college students widen the opportunities of jobs available to them, create connections for future careers and gain more experience in their desired career, which is why it is worth paying for a higher education.

However, in case I find more evidence leading me to change my opinion on college education:

A higher education is not worth thousands of dollars because of the poor job market limiting opportunities , it puts families in thousands of dollars of debt and students graduate in debt that they must pay off.

Chapter 26,27

It's important to "create your own look" as outlined in chapters 26 and 27. There are all different forms of writing, each piece should be unique or else it would just get boring to read. Without any differences in every authors writing, reading would just become repetitive and boring. Throughout high school i noticed that I would tend to write in a style that would impress my teachers and fit their requirements because I wanted that "A" paper. The problem with this is that my writing became to robotic and boring, I didn't express any of my thoughts in my own creative style. The article points out an important point that all writers should take note of; It says that, "It is not always better to be 'correct' than it is to be 'appropriate'". This means that you don't always have to follow the book word by word, you can take risks that don't exactly follow the rules and as long as they're appropriate, it works.

A stronger arguement

Arguing is human nature, everyday we get into disputes with peers, parents, siblings and maybe even teachers or bosses. There's vocal arguments that involve conversing back and forth, maybe yelling at some points and then there are written arguments, like the ones we write for school, work or maybe a newspaper. I've always considered myself a good arguer, but until reading this chapter I never focused on the strategies that make a good argument. In chapter 14, the book outlines specific strategies that can help strengthen an argument.
The three most important tools for arguing I found in this chapter were providing examples, reiterating your point and identifying a problem and delivering a solution. Examples help back up your argument, they give the other person evidence and show the audience that you have researched what you are arguing and know what you're talking about. Sometimes you can even provide an example with visuals, graphs, statistic charts and pictures can all contribute to your argument.
The chapter also talks about reiterating your point to provide emphasis on your argument. Lastly, stating the problem that you are arguing about is only one step of the process. Giving possible solutions is the next step, it helps show the audience that you have processed your argument and taken the time to come up with an idea on how to fix the problem.