Project 2 Draft

There is a lot of effort and controversy in getting people the knowledge and skills needed to combat the battle with drug and alcohol addictions. The specific argument that this campaign supports, is the belief that drug abuse and addiction of any substance is an illness that is comparable to any other illness that needs to be treated or that already receives treatment. The argument not only supports the belief that an addiction is an illness, but for the continuing support to get the proper treatments for those people who are abusing substances.

In order to understand what the visual argument is trying to support, one needs to first understand the who the rhetor is. The rhetor in this instance is the Partnership for A Drug Free America.  A rhetor is responsible for the discourse and its voice. This means that they are the ones who need to get a specific group of people, or their audience to follow and understand their argument. Carroll claims, “another part of the rhetorical context is audience, those who are the (intended or unintended) recipients of the rhetorical message. The audience should be able to respond to the exigence. In other words, the audience should be able to help address the problem” (49). The audiences that The Partnership for a Drug Free America I believe is targeting are two different groups. First, I believe they are targeting those people who believe that addicts should get the help that they need, instead of letting the addicts continue to abuse drugs and alcohol and continue to get worse. Then the second audience, are those people who believe that drug users should not get the help that they need by using tax payers money, and instead use their own money to get help. Carroll points out, “audience can determine the type of language used, the formality of the discourse, the medium or delivery of the rhetoric, and even the types of reasons used the make the rhetor’s argument” (49). Since there is a possibility that there is more than one audience the argument is targeting, the delivery has to cut across many different beliefs and values.  The rhetor wants the audience after “reading” this argument to feel that those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol to deserve the treatment that they need in order to overcome their illness and get better.

Another goals of the rhetor, is the exigence or an obstacle that the rhetor is trying to overcome. “Exigence is the circumstance or condition that invites a response,” Carrol states ““you can begin to understand a piece’s exigence by asking, “What is this rhetoric responding to?” “What might have happened to make the rhetor respond in this way”” (48-49). For example, in this anti-drug campaign for The Partnership for a Drug Free America, the problem, or exigence that the campaign is trying to eliminate, is the usage of drugs and alcohol. Carroll acknowledges, “understanding the exigence is important because it helps you begin to discover the purpose of the rhetoric. It helps you understand what the discourse is trying to accomplish”(49). The purpose of the campaign is also letting the audience know that addictions are illnesses, and those people who have addictions to drugs and alcohol need to get proper care in order to overcome the illness. This to the rhetor, is just like someone who has a brain tumor.

The final goal of the rhetor, is the beliefs and attitudes, or the constraints of the argument.

Carroll implies ““constraints have a lot to do with how the rhetoric is presented. Constraints can be “beliefs, attitudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives,” constraints limit the way the discourse is delivered or communicated”” (49). The constraint of this rhetorical situation is that there are people who do not believe that being addicted to drugs or alcohol is a problem, and that those who are addicted can easily stop using the substance that they are addicted to. These people believe that they should not have to use their hard earned money to help fund programs for those people who are already addicted, or even help fund alcohol and drug prevention programs. These people also believe that the addicts should use their own money to get the help that they need. This campaign delivers the message to the people who do not believe that addicts should get help, by using a disease that causes a lot of damage to the person who is diagnosed with it and the pain that it causes their families. This is hard hitting, because many people know others who have had cancer who have had to struggle with the pain that this disease causes. This campaign tries to connect these emotions people feel about cancer to others who know the pain addiction has caused themselves, as well as their families. 

The rhetor uses the three artistic appeals, logos, pathos, and ethos to get a reaction out of the audience and to try and get their message across. Carroll states, “logos is commonly defined as argument from reason, and it usually appeals to an audience’s intellectual side”(52). We can see logos being used in this anti-drug campaign, because it appeals to the scientific aspect that we already know after many experiments, that drugs and alcohol are harmful to the body and can cause many problems. Pathos deals with emotion, and according to Carroll, “appeals (as rhetoric that draws on pathos is called) used alone without logos and ethos can come across as emotionally manipulative or overly sentimental, but are very powerful when used in conjunction with the other two appeals”(52). The emotional aspect of this campaign is using having a brain tumor would be better than being addicted to drugs, because then the person who has a tumor could get the help that they need. People feel sad or guilty when someone is sick, but they do not feel the same way when someone is addicted to drugs, because those people who are addicts brought the addiction upon themselves.

Finally, Carroll refers to ethos as the

credibility of the rhetor—which can be a person or an organization. A rhetor can develop credibility in many ways. The tone of the writing and whether that tone is appropriate for the context helps build a writer’s ethos, as does the accuracy of the information or the visual presentation of the rhetoric (54).

The Partnership for a Drug Free America is a credible source, because they are a group of professional scientists and communication professionals who devote their time to helping parents prevent, intervene, or find treatment for their children who are suffering from abusing drugs or alcohol.

After reading Backpack vs. Briefcase and analyzing this visual argument, I believe that this piece is very effective in communicating that drug and alcohol addictions should be treated like any other disease. I believe that this is effective, because it targets something that most people have had to deal with, which is knowing someone who has had cancer, or targeting someone who has had cancer themselves. This targets our emotions and wanting to take a deeper look into things that we do not necessarily think about every day, because these things typically do not affect us. 

Post 6

I felt like Grant-Davies article was very similar to the Backpack v. Briefcase article, because he also discussed who the audience is, talks about exigence, and constraints on rhetorical situations. Besides talking about the audience, exigence, and constraints, he goes on to describe discourse and how it ties in with these ways to analyze rhetorical situations, as well as how a rhetor is involved in different analyzing situations. According to Grant-Davies, discourse asks three questions, which are what is the discourse about, why is it needed, and what it is trying to accomplish. 

Discourse presents fundamental issues that evoke an emotional response from people on specific issues, values or principles. This can be tied in to constraints, because for example in this Guinness ad, not everyone can drink, whether it is because it is illegal, for a religious belief or because of personal reasons. Constrains and exigence are very similar because they are both trying to overcome specific goals, whether it is because of a belief or legal issues. He also questions what the goals are for discourse, or why it is needed. For example what is Guinness trying to achieve with their poster? To me Guinness is trying to get those who are too young to drink to get to know the product so that when they are able to begin to drink they will already have a brand name on their mind. This could be considered targeting the audience, because they want a broader audience besides the people who already are able to buy alcohol. Another audience that Guinness is trying to get to drink are those people who drink another type of alcohol. If those people see this ad and are drawn to it, they are going to be more likely to purchase the drink. Grant-Davies believes that the rhetor can be a volunteer role, as a parent, or in some other role that may be less readily defined and the rhetor can play several roles at once. The rhetor in this situation can either be someone who does or does not drink, and because of values or principles can judge it differently. 

Post 5

A type of rhetoric that I see almost on a daily basis, are advertisements for alcohol. Whether I am just watching a show on television, at a sporting event, driving on the highway or just walking around campus, everywhere I go I can see an advertisement for alcohol. I feel that the alcohol industry has a lot of potential constraints that could be analyzed that affect the capability of the advertisements to work.  

The Alcohol industry pours millions of dollars every year in to advertisements in the hopes of gaining new customers and to expand their sales to those who already buy their products. After watching some Youtube videos and from personal knowledge, the audiences that the alcohol companies are trying to target are those people who want to look cool, feel accepted, have a good time, want to look attractive, and those who already are drinking. I also think that the alcohol companies are trying to target those who do not drink, because they already know that once someone buys their product, they will most likely continue to be loyal customers. The exigence factor that affects alcohol companies and their attempts at advertising are those people who do not drink alcohol, those who cannot drink due to personal or religious beliefs, or to the people who cannot drink alcohol because their bodies cannot handle the alcohol. There is also the exigence factor that companies are trying to get those who already drink alcohol to switch to their brand, because the alcohol companies each view their products as better. I feel like the exigence factor and the constraints are somewhat similar.  For constraints I came up with that not everyone can drink, whether it is because of personal or religious beliefs, their age, or because their bodies cannot handle alcohol. I feel that these constraints are still why alcohol companies still pour millions of dollars in to their advertisements, just so they can gain a few new customers and to prove that their product is the best. 

Post 4

Porter’s article revolves around the idea that all text is intertextual, which means that the text has been used before. His example for this was Thomas Jefferson and the writing of the Declaration of Independence. He states that Jefferson had used information that was previously written by Locke in his social contract theory as well as other famous writers of that time period. Jefferson’s ability to borrow traces effectively and to find appropriate contexts for them are what Porter believes made him a good writer. Intertextual writings revolve around discourse and because of this, being a writer is just being a part of a discourse community and writing for their specific rules and regulations. He states that intertextuality supports writing across the curriculum as a mechanism for introducing students to the regulating system of discourse communities. He also believes that students need to be taught to be pre-socialized writers and wont be sufficiently immersed in their discourse community to produce a proper report, unless taught this information before they begin to write.

According to Porter, the harm in writing as an individual, as isolated, and as heroic is because if a student is not properly immersed in their discourse community, this can cause students to learn to overlook vital facts of discourse production. Porter feels that this can lead to plagiarism and not being in the confines of a discourse community. I feel like this could also lead to unrealistic expectations from teachers or professors when they are assigning projects, because I feel that there is not always a discourse community that a paper or an assignment can be placed. There are original ideas out there and that does not necessarily mean that someone has plagiarized.

Post 3

The type of research method that Greene describes in his article is inquiry. Greene believes that writing is a form of inquiry, and that inquiry, research, and arguments are all related. Inquiring is not just a way to ask questions for your own benefit, but also to understand other people’s points of view. Greene also believes that research can be related to arguments. As human beings we have arguments all of the time, and to Greene, one can see research as a way to make a conversation more in-depth and can make the research process seem more real. Arguing can be seen as a form of research, because one needs to support their claims with information they have found, in order to get others to agree with you. By describing research in these two states, the reader gets a feeling that Greene leans more towards wanting the reader to discover information, instead of being taught how to find it. When Kleine describes the two types of research, he describes it as strategic and heuristic. He then further distinguishing them as the hunter and gatherer type. In the hunter type, or findings, he states that “a hunter finds what he’s looking for, and a gatherer discovers what might be of use” (25). After reading both articles, I believe that both authors preferred the reader to discover their research and to ask questions, instead of trying to force yourself to find information.

While reading the articles, it was hard for me to distinguish who the authors were trying to address. In Greene’s article it seemed like he was trying to capture the attention of just the reader, mainly someone who is interested in learning to become a better researcher. Then in Kleine’s article, I felt as though he was writing to a large audience and not directly to the reader. Because the two authors are writing to different audiences, Greene’s article is more informative on the subject of researching, while Kleine’s story was just that, a story. I felt that it did not convey any important information and it was rather difficult for me to finish the article and understand what he was trying to say. 

Post 2

I have always believed that Wikipedia is a very useful source. While there are mistakes and some false information on Wikipedia, it has always been my go to site to find all sorts of information. Since I use Wikipedia so much, I could never quite understand why professors and teachers would not allow us as students to use Wikipedia in research papers, projects, and other various activities that needed outside sources. After reading this article I have a better understanding as to why teachers are so weary to allow us students to use Wikipedia. I still believe that Wikipedia can be a useful tool for finding information, but because Wikipedia has open participation and can be easily changed, I now feel that it is not necessarily the best place to find information.

After reading Purdy’s article, I believe that there is a lot to learn from the academic research process that happens on Wikipedia. Authors on Wikipedia must review what other people have written on their topic so that they do not write information that is not related to the topic or put information on the page that is already there. Purdy states that to avoid repetition, one must do a literature review, which “entails summarizing main points from your sources, identifying their insights and/or limitations, and situating these texts in relation to one another and your writing” (214). Conducting a literature review is helpful when beginning the process of writing or editing a Wikipedia page, because if there are repetitions the work that is done will most likely be deleted from the page. It is also necessary not to copy from sources or take credit from others’ information, because that will make the writer seem unqualified. Also, while revising the paper or article, one should revise frequently and should receive feedback from peers, teachers, family, and friends. Receiving feedback should also happen before finalizing the paper so that the article is clear and has no repetition. I believe that all of these steps are relevant and can be extremely helpful for writing both a successful research paper, and writing our own Wikipedia pages. 

Post 1

Hi, my name is Annie Connors and I am from Medina, Ohio. I am a junior at Ohio University, and I am studying  Health Services Administration. I have an older brother, who also attends Ohio University, and a younger sister who has Down Syndrome. Once I graduate from college, I would like to be able to volunteer more time with the Special Olympics, because I have seen first hand how the Special Olympics has changed the lives of individuals with special needs. I am a member of Tau Beta Sigma, which is a music service sorority and a former member of the Ohio University Marching 110. I enjoy running, music, Irish dancing, volunteering, spending time with my family, and hanging out with my friends.

In ENG 151, I enjoyed that the professor would have a daily video that would pertain to that days discussion. The least rewarding aspect of ENG 151, was that it wasn't anything more than a high school english class. We did not get an opportunity to write about topics that we felt were interesting and instead wrote about topics that the professor thought was interesting. I think that the class would have been more interesting if the professor would have let us pick our own topics for our papers instead of learning about something that a majority of the class did not want to learn about.

For 308J Composting in the Digital Age, I feel that the layout is very straight forward and wont drift too much from the planned class context. This class differs from my previous classes, because I have never been able to blog, write wikipedia pages, or do other things related to new media.

By the end of winter quarter, I hope to gain the knowledge to successfully create, edit, and write a Wikipedia page and become a better researcher and writer. I am worried that I wont find a topic where I can find enough information for my projects and I am also worried that the projects will be too hard to handle with my course load this quarter.