Self-Eval. Blog

When i wrote my third essay, I felt that I did a pretty good job this time around. However, when I got my essay back, the score was not what I was hoping for. I see where the work needs to be done to improve my essay for my final portfolio, so hopefully I get a score closer to what I had originally planned for.

Pre-write blog

So for my fourth (and final) essay, I will be using the first prompt. I feel that there is at least one, if not two, movements that affects the youth of today. For my essay, I will be speaking of at least one of these movements, and what affect is has on the youth of today. The two movements that stick out in my mind both have at least one propostion that helps support, or deny, their claims, and I will be using the props for sources.

Reading Blog

The 1960s youth culture left "a lasting anti-intellectual imprint on the culture" from many things from the music and movies to the education system to even how politics had been run. All of these different aspects have made a great impact on how people viewed society, and how these aspects still affect people and how they view society today.

I see my youth culture to be fairly similar to the culture that Jacoby describes in her book. They are different however, in the respect that the youth culture described by Jacoby seemed to be more involved in social movements, and taking a stand for (or against) them. One aspect where the two generations seem to be very similar is that both the youth of the sixties, and the youth of today seem to be fairly rebelious. Although, it seemed that the youth of the sixties seemed to more have free spirits, while today's youth seem to be more rebelious. There are two "movements" that I see as important to the youth of my generation, and they are the green movement, and allowing gay rights. I feel that these two movements are very important among today's youth in that for "turning green", today's youth is seeing how the environment is, and how unhealthy we are living, and they want that to change in order for them, and the future generations to be able to live healthier longer. As for allowing gay marriage, much of the youth today are either in a homosexual relationship themselves, or they have many friends who are involved in those relationships. With that, the youth population is seeing how the homosexuals are, and have been, treated and are seeing that those behaviors against homosexuals is not right. And they know, that in order for changes to be made, they need to take a stand and voice what they feel is right as well as what is not right.

Post-writting blog #2

So essay number two did not turn out as well as I had hoped. I know where my two main issues are; the length of my essay and the thesis paragrah. I need to do a better job of figuring out a claim so I can use that to help support a thesis. Once I get the thesis taken care of, I think that will just about solve my essay length problem as well. I also need to do a better job of not having my paper be so broad or ramble so much. I feel tend to that so I can help myself in reaching the word count goal. Essay number three seems to be coming along better, so hopefully I can save myself with this one. But only time can really tell!

Pre-writting blog Essay #3

For my third essay, I will be using the first prompt. This prompt appeals to me more in the sense that, I found that in watch the political debates, there were many uses of logical fallacies, as well as the candidates using pathos, ethos and logos to better reach out to the viewers. Having previously watched some of the debates, I feel that it will be easier to view them again to pick up on what fallacies are used, because I know in advance what some of the responses will be.

In my essay, I will be discussing different sides of the rhetoric used, and which side is more informable over the other. I will be using both chapters four and five from Jacoby's book, as well as the political debates to help support my findings that I will be including in my essay. Any of the logical fallacies that I mention, and/or any use of pathos, ethos and/or logos, will include a defintion so that any reader can better follow and understand what I am saying, and how each of those terms is used.

Reading Blog

In the early 20th century, Americans were very much against the ideas of communism, as it was seen to be against the American philosophy. In fact, according to Jacoby in the beginning of the fourth chapter, "...the Soviet Union, became a superpower and America's chief international rival" (82). Over the years, however, it appeared that many more Americans were taking to the ideas of communism, and after a time, no one really knew who was a communist and who was not. During this time in American history, the Great Depression had taken place, and many people were looking for changes to make life better. In looking for changes, some people became communists, hoping that they would find the changes they were looking for. When it comes to the words "liberalism" and "intellectualism", it appears that if a person is a liberal, they are also an intellectual. On the bottom of page 91 in her book, Jacoby seems to imply that any person who gave up on liberalism were clearly not intellectuals because it could not be possible.