Daniel Cohen


Section 1:

For the peer review section, I am critiquing Daniel Fermin’s advertisement which attacks the issue of illiteracy in America. I believe his ad would apply to the Ad Populum fallacy, speaking to the issue at hand and critiquing it, category because in this example he is displaying why the issue of why illiteracy is key issue in American sociology, he also gets into explaining that there are advantages and disadvantages to the issue. The reason I believe this ad would go under the Ad Populum category is because Daniel is attacking the reality of a concept, illiteracy, the overriding issue however is income inequality so this fits the Ad Populum structure quite well.

The overall message of this ad is “Don’t Take Literacy for Granted”, in my opinion this is a great way to serve this issue up because we as a society truly do take the ability to read and write for granted. This class is titled “Language as Power”, this ad surely coincides with that because it shows that being able to communicate on an academic and intellectual is not only a skill but a tool, a tool to being successful. Unfortunately, this issue is something that according to this ad affects 32 million Americans. That is an outrage, this country is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of privatized wealth and we still are not on top in the education spectrum. This has a lot to do with the fact that there is a great division between socio-economic levels and people simply do not have access to same educational institutions that people of wealth do.

Daniel examines the disadvantages that illiteracy has presented out country on economic, and social levels and it is true that illiteracy leads to individuals having much harder lives. People who are illiterate are not able to understand simple concepts or read simple things like menus and street signs, this is not only a tremendous social issue but a potential danger to people on the road who cannot read. He also points out that those affected by illiteracy are also a lot more prone to becoming impoverished, if you cannot read or write what kind of job can you work? The truth is, you are going to limited to mostly manual labor. Working jobs that require a lot of labor and hours and limited pay leads to a lower quality of life. By having a lower quality of life, people’s self-esteems are degenerated over time and the issue is becoming intergenerational as it is affecting the children of these illiterate individuals.

Lastly, Daniel examines the causes of illiteracy in America. Firstly, it begins with parents who are not educated themselves. Secondly, it has to do with a lack of books at home and the limited resources provided in low income school districts. Thirdly, it has to do with students becoming discouraged by their below average grades and dropping out of school altogether, this is a tragic reality meanwhile no one is really doing anything about it outside the social activism spectrum.

I think that this ad can be best analyzed by using the Toulmin method, Daniel presents his hypothesis: “Don’t Take Literacy for Granted” (Evidence). His warrant for this is that “32 million Americans are qualified as illiterate”. His claim is that there are disadvantages to this reality, that people are unable to receive access to high paying jobs and capital. The backing is the cause for this which he clearly articulates as being children born to parents with limited schooling and a lack of access to educational resources. The strength of the claim is backed by the Warrant which states that 32 million Americans are affected by income inequality. The rebuttal here is tricky because there is not really an exception to the claim except one; many individuals are illiterate because of criminal backgrounds and such, but this all usually stems from the sociological issue of income inequality. Overall, Daniel did a great job of breaking down the argument through the ad.

Section 2:

For this section I wanted to critique the writing that I had written in September titled: Literacy Narrative Project- Second Draft, this was a writing piece about understanding the concept of academic writing, I discussed how I learned how to write in an academic fashion by learning how to write creatively. Before my sophomore year of high school, I had no interest in writing, I simply wanted to be like every other kid and play video games after school and go to house parties on the weekends. I learned fairly quickly that in high school the people I was surrounding myself were not trying to be themselves. This vicarious endeavor that I was witnessing across many instances was what made me take a great interest in J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye. I read this book through, it was the first time in high school I did not Spark Note the summary of the book. I felt a great connection to the main character Holden. This existentialism that I took from the book made me read more and more.

This piece was good for me, it allowed me to feel more comfortable with my direction in the class and what I wanted to take out of it, which was to improve my overall writing skills. This happened and I feel a lot better about the way I write. But what this piece did for me back in September is it set a distinction between what is academic writing and what is creative/free. I think this piece made me see academic writing as less of a boring exercise and more of an adventure. I think it is a quest made by the writer to convince the reader that what you are saying has relevance to not only what you’re talking about, but to their lives as well.

I think it terms of writing I learned a lot more about myself as a writer, in terms of what I am able to academically as a writer. I think that this class showed me that academic writing when applied to an argumentative perspective for instance can show a lot to the reader about intent. I liked the way I was able to improve my rhetoric, I do not think my rhetoric was sloppy coming into this semester but I certainly thing learning the different methodologies I am in a place where my argumentative skills are more effective.

Section 3:

For this section of the assignment I am using three terms to discuss how they apply to my sociology report on code-switching. Code-Switching- is the action of changing the discourse of the language you are speaking with. James Paul-Gee has great concern with how people perceive the “discourses” around language, he says that discourse are the variables that go into shaping our rhetoric. In short, I think he means to show that language is more of an “art than a science” meaning there is no specific methodology to it, it is more of a representation of feeling. This piece by Gee is an example of a primary source as he conducted independent research and formulated his hypothesis of the various human discourses by gathering extensive information on the topic. This analysis by Gee is crucial to understanding code switching because it shows that code-switching is a valid way of explaining social practices of people. This gets into the purpose aspect, the purpose of Code Switching and why people talk in different discourses. Another author who discusses Code-Switching, Jamali Lysicott, she is trying to show how she speaks different forms of English, some formal, some broken, because she talks a wide range of people who do not all speak the same way. I found it important that she showed why she spoke the broken English: because the English version people want her to speak is the same language that was forced upon her ancestors during slavery in America.

Section 4:

When it comes to conducting a research project there are many elements that go into bringing it from a one-page blank canvas to a substantiate piece of academic writing. The first element is identifying the key aspects of the question, factors that lead you to an independent and dependent variable from there you as the writer need to take a side. Taking a side means forming an argument to go off in proving what it is you are trying to convince the audience of. After you have taken a side, the next step is to find credible sources that will back up your argument correctly so that there are no factual errors in constructing arguments. Once you have done this research it is important to find facts within the sources, peer-reviewed is best, that are going to back up the argument being made. Following the insertion of each fact, there needs to be commentary that supports the overall argument. The final and most important aspect of constructing an argument is assuring that the organization is structured in a way that does not confuse the reader and displays a clear sense of direction in explaining the argument. The best way is to have an introduction, including a thesis. Then body paragraphs that support the overall argument being made with facts and analysis, in an argumentative paper it is best to include a rebuttal paragraph that is then refuted to further support the claim. Finally, a conclusion that summarizes the thesis with the argument and shows the reader other ways in which the argument can be supported. This semester through conducting the “Code-Switching Research Assignment” I was able to grasp the task of formulating an efficient research paper that has argumentative qualities.

 

 

Section 5:

 

Academic Writing is a language, that like any other, is to be mastered?

Academic writing is the writing form that is used to argue various topics that convey a certain topic. I think it can be said that Academic writing is more of a discourse of language then necessarily a language itself. The reason I say this is because there are many different types of writing which make up the overall discourse of writing, academic writing is a subgenre of the overall scope. Academic writing is not like creative writing which is usually a memoir like account of thought, or a story of fiction. Academic writing is the act of identifying a topic, taking a side (although not always) and once a side is taken providing the facts that prove that topic to your argument. Mastering academic writing is a difficult thing to do because mastering something means that you are able to do it perfectly every time. While I don’t refute that this is not achievable by holding yourself to high standards of writing, at this undergraduate level I think it is less common to see mastery of this topic. There are many intricacies to academic writing that make it difficult to master.

How does audience affect what we write (content) and how we write it?

Audience plays a huge role in shaping how we as individual writers act and formulate direction portraying what is to be shown in context. I think that the mock ad assignment really furthered my hindsight to how and in what ways an audience can be influenced by rhetoric. In this case we drew up ads based on the message we wanted to convey to illiteracy in America. There are other ways, as a writer you have to have your audience in mind constantly, writers are very conscience of not making the mistake of triggering their audience. This is a way that content and rhetoric are affected by audience, further, the person writing could be looking to appease his audience so he or she will write things that they know their supporters will enjoy. For example, with Sports, beat writers have a team they follow. Their articles are read directly by the fans of those teams, in many instances the writers will write things that will excite fans of the team whether they are true or not. This is done so this beat writer is more favorable to the fan and as a result he will get more article viewers than other writers in his field. Drawing from this example specifically is why I believe that the content we write about is constructed by how we, as writers, think the audience will respond to it. In other words, a writer will write things based on his relationship to the audience.

Explain how a person can be rhetorically manipulated, and describe some consequences of being rhetorically manipulated.

            Anyone is vulnerable to being rhetorically manipulated by someone, as a result of being manipulated people can be “coerced” into believing in something that is not true. When a person thinks about what it is to be manipulated the thought is usually along the lines of deception, and in so there is an antagonistic feeling to the notion. This is not always the case however, sometimes there are fallacies and emotional triggers that influence us to be manipulated such as a government propaganda. An example of being manipulated can be directed at the idea of logical fallacies, Americans for example is one of the largest market consuming countries in the world. What this means is that Americans buy a lot of “stuff”, now this “stuff” can be things they do not need, insurance, cars etc. Commercials are usually the most direct way of advertising because Americans also watch a lot of television. People are often lead to believe things about the products they are buying through commercials. Commercials describe how the product will benefit your life and why you should buy it, for example cheap airline tickets. You’re at home watching television and an airline commercial comes on, there is a great reduction on the price of tickets. You go ahead and buy them, then the day of your flight when you go to check your bag at the airport the clerk tells you that there are baggage fees. The airline commercial not disclosing these fees is an example of a way people can be manipulated by logical fallacies. This is a logical fallacy because the advertisement was not as cheap as it was lead on to be because of the undisclosed fees.

Bonus:

I thought that this class was especially interactive compared to the other classes I have taken that have covered writing and literature. At of all the activities that have been done this semester, I felt like the peer-review was very helpful and felt that creating a blog really helped too. I felt like the peer review work was great because it gave me a raw, and honest perspective from a person doing the same work. Additionally, it showed me where I make the most mistakes in my writing, for instance grammar needs to improve for me. If my grammar gets to the point of perfection I will be a lot clearer to the audience. I think in addition to that my arguing skills have also improved greatly as I have no issue providing commentary after quotes for example:

“School districts in Greenwich spend about $6,000 more per student on education (Semuels, 2016)”. This shows just how large the gap is between sectors of the social economic scales. Many of these parents in these rich communities do not even bother sending their kids to the public schools receiving the benefits of their wealth.”

This is an excerpt from my Project 3 about illiteracy in America. Here I displayed a fact, then backed it up with credible analysis that is based on a trustworthy source. This fueled my argument that the reason behind illiteracy is income inequality in America. I found the class to also be engaging in general. I felt that a lot of the topics we discussed changed my perspective, like the girl with the YouTube series or the logical fallacy reports. Another assignment I really engaged in was the Podcast assignment. Another aspect of the class that I benefited from was having a personal blog. Having a personal blog allowed me to not only have a more organized array of projects and reflections, but it gave me the chance to reference back on them in order to improve my assignments as the semester went on. Overall, I am really glad I took this class, I was not sure whether or not I would like the class given how early it is and I had never taken a hybrid. However, I found myself not thinking about the clock in class and able to engage past points previously imaginable.

The rules of Education are changing.

It used to be free for all.

If you don’t think your bank account balance effects your communities reading levels, you’re behind.

21 percent of adults in the U.S.  read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can’t read.

Time for a Change.

   The root of this statistic is one of the major issues that puts our nation’s youth into a precarious situation, the overwhelming inequity in our country which directly plagues public education. Graduation rates have more to do with unequal education opportunities than anything else. The purpose of these ads is to garner support in pressuring law makers to close the “gap” that creates inequality in the education system. The town I went to high school in Long Island has a very large budget annually. The reason for this, taxpayer’s money only goes to this one education district. What if these school districts that have a lot of money already, gave a fraction to a fund that dispersed money to school districts nationwide in need. These districts in need, need money in order to support programs that benefit their students. This issue is not only in my specific town, it stretches nationally: “Students in Greenwich and Darien, Connecticut have easy access to guidance counselors, school psychologists, personal laptops, up-to date textbooks etc. Meanwhile, in towns like New Britain and Bridgeport which are much poorer, facilities are dilapidated, teachers are paid less and there are not extra help centers and guidance counselors” (Semuels, 2016). This clearly highlights the gap between the rich and the poor and how it directly affects education, it is honestly as clear as segregation. Whether it is after school tutoring or sports teams, these extracurricular activities are vital in keeping a young person’s mind focused on their respective priorities. The purpose of the advertisement is to bring hindsight to the fact that people are not able to achieve their full potential without an education. The way to end this issue is by expanding access and resources towards education to low income communities because they’re most vulnerable to this reality. My stance is that I believe that all people deserve the chance to have an education and I do not believe the federal government is doing enough to help on the local level in order to improve education.

 

I think the intended audience of the ad is not only those people who are disenfranchised by not having the means necessary as a community to have equal education but also those at the top paying the highest taxes in areas that are favored in this dilemma. In a process like such, improving literacy rates start with dispersing funding across all levels of income, budgets should not be voted on by members of the community, they should be set by the median income of that district, that way those parents, who send their kids to private schools, that would normally vote for a lower budget since they do not send their kids to public school. “School districts in Greenwich spend about $6,000 more per student on education (Semuels, 2016)”. This shows just how large the gap is between sectors of the social economic scales. Many of these parents in these rich communities do not even bother sending their kids to the public schools receiving the benefits of their wealth. This exposes another reality; public schools are losing money to private schools in a big way. For example, last year in my hometown there was a vote to increase the Great Neck Public Schools 2018 budget. In an attempt to suppress the success of this initiative, religious members of the community who send their kids to private schools took action. They went around the towns stores, deli’s even bagel stores, any place that sold a local newspaper they went in and bought them all. This was all in an effort to block the budget from passing so they would not face the project 1% tax increase that was due to come in as a result. This attempt failed and the budget passed, but this is a prime example of how the private school community is prying students and money away from public education in the name of profit and superiority. Moreover, Senate needs to do its part in suppressing the efforts of President Trumps agenda to cut taxes placed on charter schools. This tax is aimed to alleviate the federal taxing of private schools in order for them to lower their tuition rate in order to increase enrollment. Rolling these taxes back will only take more money from the funding that goes into the public (education) sector. “Our system does not distribute opportunity equitably,” a landmark 2013 report from a group convened by the former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the Equity and Excellence Commission, reported (Semuels, 2016)”. The reality is that this issue between Trump and Private Schools, is in the hands of rich people and the ultimate losers are those are that poor.

 

If I had to have this ad be displayed in a place it would be Forbes or Bloomberg, yes, the obvious choice would be Scholastic magazine or some educational platform, however, as much as we want to believe that this is an issue of people not wanting to learn how to read, it is more of an issue of children not having an issue to books. A child could have a book and choose to not read it, this is much different than a child sitting with no book unable to read the writing on the wall in front of him. Forbes or Bloomberg would be ideal places because they’re financial magazines, because of this more people connected to money and politics will come across this ad, my belief is that the businessmen of the world do not realize how bad this issue is, and politicians simply do not care. A final reason why this would be a great ad for a financial magazine is due to its unconventionality, you would be more likely to catch an Both realities are the reason so many low income public school students are disenfranchised and unable to read or graduate high school.

 

Bibliography:

Semeuls, Alana . “Good School, Rich School; Bad School, Poor School.” The Atlantic Daily , Atlantic Business Forum, 25 Aug. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/property-taxes-and-unequal-schools/497333/.

I think that through listening to what Anastasia had to say I came to the conclusion that I am not nearly done with this assignment, there are still several things I need to do. First off, I need to change my ad picture to my high school graduation photo the one that I had in there originally. Secondly, I am missing my citations (whether in text or paraphrases) I need to go back and add these in if I want to get my audience to see my argument in as most credible form possible. Thirdly, I need to improve my grammar, just going back and checking for things like: run-ons, comma splice etc. Lastly, I think that any research type paper could always use extra facts to support my general argument.

Project 3 was a pretty cool project in my opinion because it exposed me to a concept I was not so familiar with, the allocation of resources through the public school system nationally. The thing with this exposition is that something was revealed, the notion that through income inequality in America there is also inequality in education. More and more people are becoming disenfranchised by the system and are graduating high school at a 5th grade reading level or lower (1) if they even graduate. This in comparison to the town where I am from there is a high graduation rate and it can be said (2) that there is a correlation between socio-economic level and education level. Lastly this project showed me that America is not really improving (3) and were not even in the top 10 international countries regarding reading levels. To say that people who cannot read are to blame is ignorant, this is a system perpetuated by income inequality, how is a child supposed to learn to read without a book?

21 percent of adults in the U.S.  read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can’t read.

Time for a Change.

 The reality is that this statistic is one of the major issues that puts our nations youth into a risky situation. Graduation rates have more to do with unequal education opportunities than anything else. These ads in my opinion are made to garner support in pressuring law makers to close the “gap” that creates inequality in the education system. The town I went to high school in Long Island has a very large budget annually. The reason for this is because taxpayers money from the town I am from only goes to this one education district. What if these school districts that have a lot of money anyway, gave a mere fraction to a fund that dispersed money to school districts nationwide in need. These districts in need, need money in order to support programs that benefit their students. Whether it is after school tutoring or sports teams, these extracurricular activities are vital in keeping a teens mind focused on their respective priorities. I think the intended audience of the ad are those people who are disenfranchised by the fact they do not have the means necessary as a community to improve literacy and graduation rates. The purpose of the advertisement is to bring hindsight to the fact that people are not able to achieve their full potential without an education. The way to end this issue is by expanding access and resources towards education especially in low income communities because their the most vulnerable to this reality. My stance is that I believe that all people deserve the chance to have an education and I do not believe the federal government is doing enough to help on the local level in order to improve education.

The people that this ad is intended for is not only the ones who are disenfranchised by being born into a low income situation, but those with money. In a process like such, improving literacy rates start with dispersing funding across all levels of income, budgets should not be voted on by members of the community, they should be set by the median income of that district, that way those parents, who send their kids to private schools, that would normally vote for a lower budget since they do not send their kids to public school. This exposes another reality, public schools are losing money to private schools in a big way. For example, last year in my hometown there was a vote to increase the Great Neck Public Schools 2018 budget. In an attempt to suppress the success of this initiative, religious members of the community who send their kids to private schools took action. They went around the towns stores, deli’s even bagel stores, any place that sold a local newspaper they went in and bought them all. This was all in an effort to block the budget from passing so they would not face the project 1% tax increase that was due to come in as a result. This attempt failed and the budget passed, but this is a prime example of how the private school community is prying students and money away from public education in the name of profit. Moreover, Senate need to do there part in suppressing the efforts of President Trumps agenda to cut taxes placed on charter schools. This tax is aimed to alleviate the federal taxing of private schools in order for them to lower their tuition rate in order to increase enrollment. Rolling these taxes back will only take more money from the funding that goes into the public (education) sector. The reality is that this issue between Trump and Private Schools, is in the hands of rich people and the ultimate losers are those are that poor.

If I had to have this ad be displayed in a place it would be Forbes or Bloomberg, yes the obvious choice would be Scholastic magazine or some educational platform, however, as much as we want to believe that this is an issue of people not wanting to learn how to read, it is more of an issue of children not having an issue to books. A child could have a book and choose to not read it, this is much different than a child sitting with no book unable to read the writing on the wall in front of him. Forbes or Bloomberg would be ideal places because they’re financial magazines, because of this more people connected to money and politics will come across this ad, my belief is that the businessmen of the world do not realize how bad this issue is, and politicians simply do not care. Both realities are the reason so many low income public school students are disenfranchised and unable to read or graduate high school.

Throughout this web show we are able to see just how important language is in the role of communication between not only people, but how we communicate with objects through “Words”.

1. I felt as if the genre of the podcast was self-discovery, I say this because the theme of the segment was “Words”, however it goes further than that because it aims to display how language influences the way we perceive the world. The features of the show are that the hosts bring in several different guests to talk about their knowledge and experience with language. It serves to show how through their independent research and experiments they have formulated a way to perceive language. Research comes into play in most of the examples in breaking down the functions of the brain in making connections to language, more specifically with the Shapiro example, this professor shows how Shakespeare was able to connect words into phrases we use every day such as “Knock, knock, who’s there?”.
2. I feel like a science based podcast like such is comparable to an advertisement in a few different ways. First off, the basis of an advertisement is to communicate a certain thing to a certain person. The aim of communicating that idea is to show how it can be applied to their life in a better way. For example, an ad for a cooking device is usually going to be advertised on some sort of home cooking channel instead of sports channel. It will be advertised to show its benefits in making cooking easier to the consumer. Similarly, a science advertisement is used to show how a certain theory about science can be applied to someone’s knowledge and applied to their everyday. Susan Schallers example showed how she was able to teach that 27-year old deaf man language through linking objects with their names via sign language. This example can be applied as a teaching method for anyone struggling to communicate with a deaf person.
3. The facts in this show are instrumental in making the connection in describing the importance of language in communicating. The first anecdote shows how a teacher, Schaller, goes through the process of teaching her student how to learn sign language because he did not have a language he knew so he was not able to communicate. After several trial and error methods are attempted she finally is able to teach him by acting out a teaching skit, the facts here are that this method was able to show the student how people use objects and titles to communicate. The student then had a breakthrough and understood it. The next anecdote was done by Charles Fernyough who set up an experiment where he tested a rats ability to find a biscuit in a room where all the walls were painted white, then the rat was picked up and spun around. This was done to see if the rat would remember which direction it was running in, fifty percent of the time the rat was able to find the biscuit again. This is an example of how the facts were instrumental because it proved infants were on the same level as rats because they were asked which way was left right or blue or white. The study found infants couldn’t distinguish between color or left and right until the age of around 6. These facts help demonstrate how the infant is able to make these connections once it reaches this point of maturation at 6 on describing the ability to connect ideas as islands that come together to make 6 year-olds talk. Fernyough then experimented by having adults listen to an audio recording, he would then have them repeat everything they heard on the audio, they were asked to explain what they were just repeating and they could not. This showed how the human brain relates to the rat in another way because they could not comprehend what was being blasted in their brain. The third example was done by James Shapiro, a professor on Shakespearian language, he described Shakespeare as more of an experimenter of language than a writer. He said that Shakespeare brought terms together and used them more loosely in communication. He brought words that were not used in the way he used them, and would use them together to form phrases that described action and imagery, Shapiro says Shakespeare invented the term “Knock, knock, who’s there?”. These facts collectively show how language is a vital form of communication because it connects the things we identify as objects or actions and helps us explain and communicate them.
4. In the segment there are a lot of audio effects played over the speaker when certain things are said. I thought this was a key element in engaging the listener, if they were speaking with no sounds coming on behind them it would sound less interesting, for me it would lose my attention quickly and often. When they bring in Fernyough to talk about the babies they play a sort of ambient type of music to bring the listener in to more of an intimate experience, it truly made imagining the situation different. Then when talking about the rats there was less music, I felt to make it more of an explicit tone. Another example came when Jill Bolte Taylor described not having a voice in her head after she had a stroke, even though she was in a bad state of health she felt as if it were liberating and in order to bring the listener more closely to understanding the feeling she had they played that ambient noise again over her dialect. I feel like this method of playing soft music behind the speaker is beneficial to the comprehension of the listener because there is more substance brought into the conversation.
5. If required to write a radio ad on bringing attention to poor literacy rates in the nation I would make the ad in a similar way to how this radio segment was done. The panel of hosts for the radio show did not just present facts, they brought in people with great experience involving language and communication. I would run an ad where I spoke about the importance of funding being better allocated and I would bring on either athletes or other well-known celebrities to bring more attention to the listener. The ad will engage more people if I am not the only one talking about, if people recognize people from popular culture they will likely retain the message more. That is one thing that was beneficial from listening to the segment it showed me how they were successful in presenting their theme of Words and how words affect the way we live our everyday lives and how they essentially change the way we see things.
6. The NPR segment, “Words” was very informative in displaying a connection behind the assignment of words to phrases. I did not realize how rats and infant humans were on similar levels of IQ in the sense that babies could not solve certain tasks any better than a rat could. Another thing I did not realize was how humans could not multi task in focusing on repeating what they were listening while also retaining that information. But perhaps the most striking to me was how genius Shakespeare was in putting words that were not commonly seen in the form of phrases. These were things I did not realize or appreciate because these are thing that first off humans are limited by, and second I did not appreciate the method behind the formation of phrases that we use every day.
7. I really liked analyzing this segment because it gave me a much different perspective to how our brain makes connections when it comes to communicating with others and objects. I did not appreciate the brains ability to make connections and I found the different stories and demonstrations to be informative to the overall connection to how words effect everyday life. Further I felt that the hosts were credible through their years of experience so I felt I was learning something that was factually proven and based off. That was more with the Fernyough and Schaller methods that I felt the facts really set up my understanding of these connections. With Shapiro I was just straight up amazed with his description of Shakespeare’s methods, it is truly inspiring to see how Shakespeare was doing something nobody had done before him yet he has become critically acclaimed for eternity.

I felt as if this ad was strong in displaying a simple yet riveting statistic. The reality is that this statistic is one of the major issues that puts our nations youth into a risky situation. Graduation rates have more to do with unequal education opportunities than anything else. These ads in my opinion are made to garner support in pressuring law makers to close the “gap” that creates inequality in the education system. The town I went to high school in Long Island has a very large budget annually. The reason for this is because taxpayers money from the town I am from only goes to this one education district. What if these school districts that have a lot of money anyway, gave a mere fraction to a fund that dispersed money to school districts nationwide in need. These districts in need, need money in order to support programs that benefit their students. Whether it is after school tutoring or sports teams, these extracurricular activities are vital in keeping a teens mind focused on their respective priorities. I think the intended audience of the ad are those people who are disenfranchised by the fact they do not have the means necessary as a community to improve literacy and graduation rates. The purpose of the advertisement is to bring hindsight to the fact that people are not able to achieve their full potential without an education. The way to end this issue is by expanding access and resources towards education especially in low income communities because their the most vulnerable to this reality. My stance is that I believe that all people deserve the chance to have an education and I do not believe the federal government is doing enough to help on the local level in order to improve education.

Explicit: The explicit message of this ad is that there is a major issue when it comes to graduation rate in the United States, every year more and more students are dropping out of college and limiting what they can across all the realms of opportunity in life.

Implicit: Combined with the statistic and the picture the goal of the ad is to show how the subjects in the picture are very proud of the work they put into graduating. The goal is to emulate the fulfillment that is achieved through working for something and not quitting. I think that as technology makes our daily tasks more and more easy, the necessity to work hard like our parents and grandparents is not as urgent.

Extended Meaning: The reality is that because we are all born with ambition this issue is fixable. Because there are so many kids that want to do well, but they look at school as a hinder on their potential, the issue becomes gearing their focus towards staying in school. The way to do this is by giving kids more of an opportunity and the way to do that is by equalizing the funding, at least to an amicable level that helps resolve the drop out issue.

Rhetorical Analysis of Linh Le: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/lle04/?p=157

Explicit: The ad shows a girl sitting on a chair with a bulletin behind her that displays a statistic relating literacy levels to to the random person.

Implicit: The implied message here is that there are a lot of random strangers who make up the statistic of those who are illiterate. I like the way Linh used the picture of this random girl to display her message I found the usage to be very effective.

Extended Meaning: I think that the goal of this ad is to try and shed light on the fact that reading is the basic necessity that people need to function in our society, meanwhile it has become a luxury to be literate. I found this ad to be very effective in displaying the overall correlation between literacy levels on a broader scale, and to narrow it in on a particular issue within this realm of issue.

1. Make it more relating to the whole nation, not just me and my friends.
2. Since I am using a statistic and an image that correlates the relationship between graduation rate and drop out rate, make sure there are no better statistics to help fulfill my message.
3. Make the advertisement more eye catching, from a marketing perspective an ad will jump out more of people through color and font usage (bold font and italicized).

1. “You’re Using Fallacies and You Don’t Even Know It.” CopyPressed. April 07, 2016. Accessed November 14, 2017. http://www.copypress.com/blog/youre-using-fallacies-and-you-dont-even-know-it/.

Summary: This article is a very simple article about how fallacies affect the way people interpret the meaning of certain advertisements. People watch ads and do not know the true intent behind the creator of the ad until it is revealed at the very end because then the ad revelaed itself. This is the case of commercials.

Analyze: This article is very important to my research into fallacies within advertisements as I go and create my own ad. This article breaks down several key fallacies used by people in determining what kind of fallacy an advertisement is, it can be slippery slope, appeal to authority, post hoc fallacy, or Ad Populum.

2. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/identifying-understanding-fallacies-used-785.html?tab=4

Summary: This article is an informative on the ways fallacies come up in everyday life, it starts by briefly defining each of roughly 10 different fallacies that appear not only in advertisements but in popular culture as well.

Analyze: This article will be very helpful to my research into fallacies as I need more than the 4 examples given in the first article to choose from when deciding which fallacy will play into my advertisement. All of these articles are very similar in direction and message so it is hard to differentiate the message as it applies to my research.

3. Fallacies In Commercials. Performed by Edevaldo Contreras. TEDEd.

Summary: In this video, the demonstration shows how fallacies in commercials affect the way we think towards not only the people advertising in the commercial, but also in the sense of how/if these fallacies play into our everyday lives. Contreras clearly has a lot of experience when it comes to solving fallacies and breaking down their meaning both in literal terms and broader terms when applying it to society.

Analyze: I think this video has helped me a lot more in understanding how fallacies make people think in terms of them being impressed by the abstractness of a certain ad or by how it does not make sense. It takes a certain person to appreciate these types of things according to Contreras and it is not super shocking because he shows how people are more receptive based on their personality and relationship to not only society but the ad as well, helps determine the ultimate target market of an ad as well.

4. Danziger, Pamela. “Facebooks Advertising Fallacy: The Fact it Works!” Forbes, August 2017.

Summary: This article is filled with facts that give a rhetorical analysis behind how Facebooks mere existence is an advertising fallacy. Facebook brought in 26 billion dollars in revenue in 2016 meanwhile over 60% of users said the thing they hate most about “FB” are the constant stream of advertisements between posts. They are everywhere, if you thought Hulu or youtube was bad try scrolling through 20 facebook posts and see how many ads are cramped between them, if I would have to guess betwen 4-6 ads per 20 posts.

Analyze: This article was key in showing me how to apply various forms of advertising to the common person, in this article Danziger describes the intent of facebook to bring communities together through the internet and then describes their actual intent, to profit off our ignorance to the amount of ads they play. This in itself is a fallacy because while people believe they are being further immersed into society, they are actually being plighted into a consumer situation that happens to also have a bunch of posts from your friends and families profiles in between.