Self Reflection- Christen Roper

We have submitted our essay on our rhetorical analysis and have been asked to do a self-reflection. I feel like I am always too full of myself when I do these reflections because it is my own paper. But I digress.  My reflection would be that I have done well on it. I feel like I have made my point and showed it well in the essay.  I have done many essays in English 101 and I am always hoping to do better each time I write a new essay. I think I have done well on this essay and I hope that I have done well. I was really into my essay and had started it early because I was so into it. So I am hoping that I have done my best and my essay will be good. I had a really good time writing it and I hope the results are good.

Neither Agreeing Or Disagreeing- Christen Roper

In Mike Rose’s essay, “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” he explains the thought of people who work blue-collar jobs are often seen as less intelligent and not able to keep a job, when they are not. I am not able to agree or disagree with this statement. I am in a way agreeing and disagreeing.

I agree that blue-collar jobs and workers are not seen as less intelligent because they work it. There are so many things that part time worker, whether in retail or as a waiter/waitress, have to do. They have to solve problems and figure things out. Even if they don’t finish school or anything, that doesn’t mean that they are less intelligent than people who finish school and go on to college. In blue-collar jobs, you have to be able to solve problems and figure things out that no one could figure out. You have to take a step up. You may not have finished school and work in a diner, but that doesn’t mean you’re not smart.

I also disagree because even though there are many things that people who don’t have full time jobs or don’t work for a business are still smart, that doesn’t mean the people who finished school and kept going on through college deserve what they have. If you had finished school through everything and went on through school with a determination to get into a white collar job, you deserve it.

There are many ways to see this. People that are determined to get a good paying job should go after it, but that doesn’t meant that people who work blue-collar jobs don’t deserve it or aren’t smart enough to earn it.

I neither agree or disagree to his proposition. I am more indifferent to the idea.

Rhetorical Essay Questions- Christen Roper

Basic Questions For Rhetorical Analysis:

Who is the author/speaker?:

The author and speaker in this would be Emily Balcetis, who wrote this and decided to talk through it during a TED talk.

What is his/her intention ?

 

I would say her intentions were to be to show us and persuade us that for some people, the prize is farther away than we think, but for others it is as close as we can get.

 

What is the message? 

 

Her message is that each and every person sees things differently. That we all see it in our own way and not the same as everyone thinks we do.

 

Who make up the audience?

 

I think the target audience could be anybody. It mainly focuses on people that like want to exercise but can't see the prize, people that do see the prize to exercising, and just mainly anybody who sees everything a different way. The audience makes up an idea about that we see things differently.

What is the form/structure/medium in which it is conveyed?

 

She starts out showing a picture and wanting us to think about what this person in the picture is feeling. We all get mixed emotions, so she is trying to show us the point, that not everyone thinks the same way. That's when she goes into the exercise, that there is a waist-hip ratio that shows who doesn't like to exercise and who does. And then explains about see the prize. Keeping your eye on the prize. She keeps the sentences very open but with plenty of examples to show us what she is talking about.

Which persuasive and rhetorical devices are used to accomplish the purpose?

 

She uses a lot of examples in the talk and in her transcript, about how we think of everything. She also uses pathos and logos also, relying on our emotions and our own logic to put her point across to everyone in the audience and whomever is watching.

Does the message/speech/text succeed in fulfilling the author's or speaker's intentions? 

 

I think it does. It proves a point to the exercise, that we have to keep our eye on the prize to get to what and where we want. And that people see everything differently and not at all the same.

Rhetorical Essay Topic- Christen Roper

I realized that I had really enjoyed the TED talks after we had to create our own for my senior year project. TED talks were very interesting because the topics could range from gaming, to eating, to exercise, and so forth. The topics are always very broad, but they are very interesting to listen and to read about.

So, knowing that I could choose a TED talk for my essay topic, I immediately jumped to it. I started browsing through the talks and not long after, I had discovered the topic "Why some people find exercise harder than other," by Emily Balcetis.I decided to dive into this one because I had my own problem of finding the time and even the strength to exercise, so I clicked on the fifteen minute video and then pulled the transcript up.

She talks about how every single person may see an object in a very different way, or if they see a picture of a person, they could pick different emotions that you wouldn't have thought about. Not all of us see eye to eye, and that is what she is explaining.

Once she is done, she explains the whole idea about finding a goal when you are exercising and that some people find it farther away while others who are motivated find it closer than you think.

The idea had me rather intrigued, so I decided to use it as my essay topic. She easily uses elements of all ethos, pathos, and logos to pull us all in and directs it toward a certain audience and I was really interested in this.

So I decided to choose this TED talk as my Essay Topic for our first essay!

Are Too Many People Going To College? Essay question and answer- Christen Roper

I would like to answer question number three on the essay we have just read. It is about the paragraph of whether the man should be an electrician or a manager and why was this narrative placed here? It was placed here because it is beneficial. It shows us what we may have been thinking. Should we go to college to be a manager, or should we just head on to work and become an electrician. It is all the thoughts we go through. We have to balance out these thoughts by which would pay more money or which would be a better job for us or so on and so on. The argument needs this narrative because it plays a key factor into our part. 

We have two ideas. Should we go to college, go through four years or more of schooling to get a better paying job that most of the time we don’t like? Or should we just skip school and head on into the work force, get us a job that may not pay much but we have fun being in. It’s one of those thoughts you really have to go through to figure out, and Murray puts it in the right perspective. Are too many people going to college or not enough? Are we picking the jobs we want or not? It’s a major thought about what college means to each one of us.

This essay was really interesting because it is a key thought. Many of us go to college to get a better job, go for four or more years and may not even pass, or we do, get a job, and even though it pays better, we may not to be happy. It is up to a certain person and what they want. Are too many people going to college? That is an idea that we need to figure out on our own.

If I Could Change One Thing. . . . By: Christen Roper

If I could change one thing, it would be to find more homes for homeless or abused animals. There are so many animals out there that don't have home and have been living on the streets for almost their entire life. There are animals in shelters that have never had homes and have lived in a shelter since they were born to old age, or even died in the shelter. There are animals in abused homes that need homes that are needing loving and amazing homes. Not every animal gets a loving home that they deserve, and just like people, they need homes as well.

 I would build larger, no-kill shelters that would take in more animals and keep them from running the streets. I would send pets overseas to places that need animals. I would even do the simplest of spaying and neutering animals to keep from having overcrowding of dogs and cats in the shelters now. Even the simplest actions could help out every animal that has never had a home or needed a new home.

 I have grown up with animals all my life and most of mine came from the streets or shelters. Right now I have two dogs, two cats, and three birds and they all came from shelters or they came from the streets. They make the best pets and they always put a smile on my face. They will always put a smile on your face also. You don’t need a purebred dog or cat from an expensive puppy mill to have a great animal. Dogs and cats can come from shelters and be good pets, even better than a purebred! They all need homes, but the shelter animals and homeless animals need more help.

I hope to one day be able to help out animals one day and keep them from being killed or stuck in a shelter for the rest of their lives.