Anytime that a person is dealing with persuasion they are dealing with some sort of argument, they may not appear to be arguing but persuasion in my opinion is an “argumentative” form of language. I think when dealing with manipulation there is an element of deceitfulness in that one individual is attempting to misrepresent their intent at that moment. I think that when an ad starts to describe elements of their advertisement that aren’t true this is a lie, a fallacy is more of a joke to me (except when its cigarette ads). A fallacy is more of something that is demonstrated but holds no substantive fact to it, a lie I think is more geared to misrepresent a claimed fact. An example in pop culture, is this show a fallacy or a lie? I think technically it is a lie but they were trying to represent the life of a 16 year old girl and they did not cross the situational boundaries in that regard, so I think its just a real life example of realistic fiction. I think that in pop culture there are many instances when people are being persuaded through manipulation. It may be that manipulation is a vide of persuasion since again, its a misrepresentation of intent. I do not think that the point of the Lonely Girl series was to deceive peoples sense of awareness to the truth, I think it was a genuine attempt to entertain people and connect with them on some sort of real level.

 

I think that there are other ways that people are persuaded other than advertising, to name one main one, motivation (whether by money, power, sex etc.). People are the way the way that they are through motivation, I also believe that most of all life is centered around how were motivated, by the things that we expect to relish in the future. In order to achieve things there must be motivation. So in a general sense along with the advertising example, motivation certainly plays into the way people interact through the persuasion of pop culture. I think something that stems from within this that is a significant aspect of persuasion and motivation would be religion, even though society is becoming more and more secular in the Western world, there is still a lot of people that lead their lives based off the ideologies that their respective religions advocate on behalf of.

Adult Literacy in America:

Claim: Literacy in America is lacking and a potential cause to economic and social problems.

Data: Twenty-one to 23 percent — or some 40 to 44 million of the 191 million

adults in this country — demonstrated skills in the lowest level of prose,

document, and quantitative proficiencies (Level 1 proficient), (Kirsch, 2002).

Warrant: The reason for this is due to an insufficient distribution of public funds to lower income public school institutions and the result is an uneven distribution in literacy rates between socio-economic classes.

Backing: Nearly two-thirds of those in Level 1 (62 percent) had terminated their education before completing high school. This is a trend seen much more frequently in lower income areas as there is not as much funding in programs that incentivize education, (Kirsch, 2002)

Counterclaim: Twenty-five percent of the respondents who performed in this level were immigrants who may have been just learning to speak English. While this does affect the integration of immigrants into American society it does not directly affect the literacy issue in America because all countries with immigrant populations face this issue.

Rebuttal: Nearly half (41 to 44 percent) of all adults in the lowest level on each literacy scale were living in poverty, compared with only 4 to 8 percent of those in the two highest proficiency levels. The fact that nearly half of the impoverished population shows a Level 1 literacy rate shows how there is a direct correlation between literacy rate and economic class in the United States.

 

 

 

Annotated Bibliography:

Kirsch, I. S. (2002). Adult Literacy in America. NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93275.pdf.

Summary/Description: This article summarizes the ways in which people in America are affected by their literacy rates. The result of the article showed a direct correlation between literacy rates and socio-economic position. Those who did not have high literacy levels were the citizens most likely to be impoverished, it also showed how little the National Literacy Act of 1991 did to actually make change within the realm of this issue.

Evaluation: If I were tasked to show how literacy rates effect the success of people in a capitalistic society I would definitely use America as the prime example of this issue. America is one of, if not the most, rich countries in the world so for the illiteracy in adults to be more than 15% of the adult population is very alarming. America is supposed to be a poster country for success and achieving success, but the institutions set up to protect the welfare of the nation’s future generations. Welfare is clearly created by earning capital and shown by this article it is almost impossible to do this without being literate.

 

Claim about Literacy:

Literacy in America is a big issue because citizens who are socio-economically positioned to not learn how to correctly read are generally inflicted by a life of poverty. Twenty-one to 23 percent — or some 40 to 44 million of the 191 million adults in this country — demonstrated skills in the lowest level of prose of reading skill (Kirsch, 2002). This twenty percent of the population is positioned in this area because of several reasons, firstly the government has done an insufficient job in distributing funds equally among public education boards nationwide. This has created a significant gap between the education received by the rich and that of the impoverished. The result of this gap is a disenfranchisement of the lower income community from the opportunities received and cherished by the richer community. Literacy in America is therefore a more economic issue that has turned into a social issue, the government and upper class need to step up to increase funding in lower income areas so that the benefits of the education system are met by more than just the upper class.

 

This advertisement is known as an “appeal to popularity” which gives people the false impression that by going along with a popular activity, or buying Axe, those who buy Axe will be much more able to attract girls.

This is a “slippery-slope” fallacy, the idea in this ad is that if you are an atheist then you’re also against American beliefs. Next, being anti-american makes you a traitor which leads to Civil War. Meanwhile, the US Civil War was caused over the issue of whether or not it was fair to abolish slavery. This ad makes no sense because if it did then it would call any person who believed in abolishing slavery a traitor as well.

 

Appeal to emotion- this fallacy is an appeal to emotion, the context of the advertisement in this case is that by donating to ASPCA there will be less animal abuse. This is not true because animal abuse is an independent variable. While the effectiveness of the ad should be based on the idea of animal abuse, the effectiveness is achieved by playing sad music and showing videos of sad dogs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Code-Switching: Quantitative Data Analysis

English 215

November 3, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning about language is a self-reflective process, it requires humans to go back to realizing how they are able to communicate with one and other. Personally, I do not think about language all that much, however, language impacts all our actions and the way we practice those actions. This can be known as discourses; a discourse is the thing in our rhetoric that has an effect on the way we ultimately communicate. Discourse can be seen as the intricacies of language, such as tone, mood, body language, environment etc. (Swales, 1990). In learning about the ways, I spoke I discovered how I am a code switcher, code switching is when we go from different forms of tone without even consciously realizing that we are making a switch. I thought that I was able to see this by just simply thinking of how I speak with my sister and how I speak with my friends. In examining the differences in the way, I speak in both of those situations, I knew there was a big difference. It not only showed me how I speak and how different my tones can become, it showed me how I am also subconsciously reserved around certain people when it comes to personal details. The same can be said for anyone, but I never made the connection to language and setting, which makes a lot more sense now. My goal is to show how setting impacts the way I speak to others. The data collection revealed I have 4 main discourses (types of speech) that I use daily, first is the formal English I use around family. Second is the slang English I use around my friends. Thirdly, a more formal but not totally formal form of English in school. Lastly, I am introspective when on the train as I do not feel the need to reach out and introduce myself to “strangers”. The thing that separates my form of speech is the formality that I exercise depending on the environment and that is my main hypothesis from my data collection.

Figure 1: Languages of a Discourse Community: The bar graph shows the difference between the frequency of the 4 codes I use to communicate based on setting and who I am talking to.

Methodology:

Over a period of four days, I recorded the instances where I was socializing with other people in order to further understand the various discourses of my personal rhetoric (Garcia, 1992). This was done in order to see whether I spoke the same when around different people, ex. is my rhetoric the same around my friends and my family. The four days in which I recorded my conversations were Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and Friday. When I was having conversations, I would look for things in my train of thought that dictated the way I spoke. For instance, when I was with my friends my rhetoric was a lot more “slang” and my cussing was more frequent. However, in school and around my family my rhetoric was a lot more conservative and reserved. I found that my awareness of my own code switching without this project was very limited, however since paying attention to these types of things I see what makes me speak the way I do, and setting are mostly to point to. I told my family about the project as I was recording the conversations. They felt that they too did not notice their own code switching, however they agreed that it could play a bigger role in their life than they thought previously.

 

I think that my research revealed a lot to me about code-switching, while I felt that at times it was difficult to be in a situation where I was not talking or around people I was not comfortable with, those moments made it easier to reflect on why I was silent. There were times when I was traveling on the train and when I was surrounded by people I did not know, I found myself totally silent in these times, I would have reflections about how attached I am to my phone like everyone else on the train. Next, I felt that my findings were important to showing me how I formulate decisions on my language choice based on who I am around. The data showed me that I do not care about how I talk in front of my cousins, but that in front of immediate and elderly family discretion is present. I think that individualistically it’s important to keep different facets of life in different levels of “code” in order to have the best possible reciprocation of respect. Meaning if you do not code switch and have one form of speech around everyone, then how will you know the difference between the value of people to your life? The third point I learned is that discretion shows how much you care about a person. If you use language that is deemed disrespectful by most of society around your family do you truly respect yourself? The answer is no, and respect is something I think is tied to family relationships.

 

 

Bibliography:

 

1. Lowi, R. (2005). Code Switching: An Examination of Naturally Occurring Conversation. University of California Berkley. Retrieved 2017

 

2. Lysicott, J. (Writer). (2017). I am Articulate. Live performance in New York, New York.

 

3. Gee, James P. “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. “Journal of Education” 171.1 (1989): 5-17. Print.

When I think of body paragraphs I think of two things, obviously the first thing is that it is one of the core elements to essay writing. A body paragraph serves as a vice for expressing what the subtopic or main topic of the essay is in detail. I feel like the introductory and conclusion paragraphs are meant to generalize the whole paper, while the body breaks down the important details in how they support that “generalization”. The core elements of body paragraphs are evidence that backs up the narrative being expressed and commentary that relates the evidence back to the main idea of the paper.

 

The Dialogue Method

1. What is your point?
2. I do not get it.
3. Prove it.
4. So what?

A body paragraph is a paragraph that is needed in the completion of an essay, both structurally and idealistically. Body paragraphs are meant to support the thesis and show the reader the way in which, you the writer, are aiming to express the point made. Body paragraphs do this by allowing the writer to systemically plant evidence throughout the paragraph and support that evidence’s relevance to the thesis through commentary. A body paragraph is significant because its an instrumental tool in organizing an essay in a way that makes the idea conveyed more clear.

Daniel Cohen

English 2150

Professor Rosenberg

 

 

Code Switching Analysis

Learning about language is an interesting endeavor, it requires humans to go back to realizing how they are able to communicate with one and other. Personally, I do not think about language all that much as I go about my day, but the reality is that language impacts everything we do and the way we practice that goes along with it. This can be known as a discourse, a discourse is as described by Swales as the things that go into our writing that have an effect on the way we ultimately communicate. Discourse can be seen as the intricacies of language, such as tone, mood, body language, environment etc. In learning about the way I spoke I discovered how I am a code switcher, code switching is when we go from different forms of tone without even realizing that we are making a switch. I thought that I was able to see this by just simply thinking of how I speak with my sister and how I speak with my friends. Right there I knew there was a big difference. It not only showed me how I speak and how different my tones can get, it showed me how I am also subconsciously reserved around certain people when it comes to personal details. The same can be said for anyone, but I never made the connection to language and it makes a lot more sense now.

I did my data collection so far over 4 days. In those 4 days I had class, was with friends, and family. The first two days were a Saturday and Sunday. The first day was interesting because it was the day I went to sell my car, I found myself talking with my friend as we drove out to the guy who was buying my car. Then I went on to code switch from the speech used in talking with my friend to the guy buying my car. After that I went out that night with my mom and sister, I noticed I code switched again for discretion purposes. Then that night I went out with friends in the city, I code switched again. The next day was a Sunday and I went out with my dad to a sports bar in Bayside, NY to watch the Dolphins game. Then the next two days were over my trip to Buffalo to visit my family. Those days were full of travel and spending time with family, however I noticed that my discourse with family did not change much from my friends. The data collection showed me that I have 3 main discourses (types of speech) that I use daily depending on the situation. The thing that separates my form of speech is the formality that I exercise depending on the environment and that is my main hypothesis from my data collection.

Methodology:

Over a period of four days, I recorded the instances where I was socializing with other people in order to further understand the various discourses of my personal rhetoric. This was done in order to see whether I spoke the same when around different people, ex. is my rhetoric the same around my friends and my family. The four days in which I recorded my conversations were Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and Friday. When I was having conversations I would look for things in my train of thought that dictated the way I spoke. For instance when I was with my friends my rhetoric was a lot more “slang” and my cussing was more frequent. However, in school and around my family my rhetoric was a lot more conservative and reserved. I found that my awareness of my own code switching without this project was very limited, however since paying attention to these types of things I see what makes me speak the way I do, and setting and audience have more than a little do with it. I told my family about the project as I was recording the conversations.They felt that they too did not notice their own code switching, however they agreed that it could play a bigger role in their life than they thought previously.

 

I think that my research revealed a lot to me about code-switching, while I felt that at times it was difficult to be in a situation where I was not speaking I figured it out. There were times when I was traveling on the train and when I was surrounded by people I did not know, I found myself totally silent in these times, I would have reflections about how attached I am to my phone like everyone else on the train. Next, I felt that my findings were important to showing me how I formulate decisions on my language choice based on who I am around. The data showed me that I do not care about how I talk in front of my cousins and friends but how I am around family is different. I think that individualistically its important to keep different facets of life in different levels of formality in order to have the best possible reciprocation of respect. The thing that limited my research the most was the times where I was with family and not really talking because I was not exactly comfortable in the situation, my Uncles were around at times and are very strict and conservative so its hard to say the right things in those situations. I think my silence however, was my way of communicating my relationship to the topic being discussed. The topic itself isn’t significant its the fact that I chose to be silent instead of engaging. In this respect I see how my data shows me about my language choice as a person.

 

 

Annotated Bibliography:

 

1. Lowi, R. (2005). CodeSwitching: An Examination of Naturally Occuring Conversation. University of California Berkley . Retrieved 2017

Summary: This article evaluates the process of code-switching. It describes code switching as a process where an individual goes back and forward using different languages and tones to communicate. He shows that the “bi-lingual” notion of actually knowing two languages is not necessary to fulfill this case study. She also looks at tone and ambition, as in what is this person trying to show me through her language, is something being said in a certain way to show me how severe it was? Things like tone show significance and she proves this through her study.

 

Evaluate: This article is a useful tool to in preparing my own research, however, I do not speak two languages. Although there are practices that the author shows, like for instance when a person is speaking to you in a certain tone they could be revealing the value they apply to that situation. Every human being is different which makes this case interesting. How is the information which is based on language, subject to change based on the individual? That would be my own challenge to her research model. I could apply some of her practices to my paper, but it seems she based it heavily on the bi-lingual element.

 

2. Lysicott, J. (Writer). (2017). I am Articulate. Live performance in New York, New York.

 

Summary: This is a poem about a woman who talks in different forms of tone based on the people she is around at a certain time. She says she has a tone for school, when she hangs around her neighborhood, and for her family. She talks about how she faces adversity in the form of critique when she speaks in forms of broken English, she is of African American descent and talks about how she was forced to speak English and that she doesn’t care how “society” wants her to speak. She talks further about how she loves the way she speaks because she is able to be articulate on every level she talks to people on, IQ level does not matter to her, the accomplishment is being able to articulate to every level on intellect.

 

Evaluate: I learned a lot from this piece, even though at first I found it to be hard to follow and informal. After reading the transcript, it flows a lot better and its much easier for me to see what she was going after. 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 can use a lot of the examples she gives when talking about how naturally she “code-switches” and shows how she really does face adversity when people point out how she talks. I found it important that she showed why she spoke the broken English: because the English, people want her to speak is the same language that was forced upon her ancestors during slavery in Africa.

 

 

3. Gee, James P. “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. “Journal of Education”  171.1 (1989): 5-17. Print.

 

Evaluation: This article was really engaging in my perspective. I did not know about the many “intricacies” go into language and how humans go back and forward between language types without even realizing. I feel like this article is useful to my project because I will use the examples he shows in explaining primary and secondary discourses as primary tools for language. The examples will further show how language is more of an expression of belief or passion than anything else, which is my goal. Even though it may seem like humans communicate almost systematically these days, I think that our overall language is shaped by those who surround us.

 

Summary: Gee points out that language is much more than the common label of “grammar”, after reading this it seems as if his definition is passion-related. Further he has great concern with how people perceive the “discourses” around language, he says that discourse are the variables that go into shaping our rhetoric. The choices we use with words, that can also be dependent on the people we are surrounded by at that moment. I think it is true that our discourses are associated with our identity as they are the variables that represent the choices we make in speech. 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, its more of a representation of feeling. He also shapes discourses as situations; when he says that language does not have to be fluent between two people for them to talk, just the discourse is fluent between them. This means both people may not know what each is saying exactly, but they could have an idea through variables such as emotion or body language.

Graph Draft:

Methodology:

Over a period of four days, I recorded the instances where I was socializing with other people in order to further understand the various discourses of my personal rhetoric. This was done in order to see whether I spoke the same when around different people, ex. is my rhetoric the same around my friends and my family. The four days in which I recorded my conversations were Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and Friday. When I was having conversations I would look for things in my train of thought that dictated the way I spoke. For instance when I was with my friends my rhetoric was a lot more “slang” and my cussing was more frequent. However, in school and around my family my rhetoric was a lot more conservative and reserved. I found that my awareness of my own code switching without this project was very limited, however since paying attention to these types of things I see what makes me speak the way I do, and setting and audience have more than a little do with it. I told my family about the project as I was recording the conversations.They felt that they too did not notice their own code switching, however they agreed that it could play a bigger role in their life than they thought previously.

Learning about language is an interesting endeavor, it requires humans to go back to realizing how they are able to communicate with one and other. Personally, I do not think about language all that much as I go about my day, but the reality is that language impacts everything we do and the way we practice that goes along with it. This can be known as a discourse, a discourse is as described by Swales as the things that go into our writing that have an effect on the way we ultimately communicate. Discourse can be seen as the intricacies of language, such as tone, mood, body language, environment etc. In learning about the way I spoke I discovered how I am a code switcher, code switching is when we go from different forms of tone without even realizing that we are making a switch. I thought that I was able to see this by just simply thinking of how I speak with my sister and how I speak with my friends. Right there I knew there was a big difference. It not only showed me how I speak and how different my tones can get, it showed me how I am also subconsciously reserved around certain people when it comes to personal details. The same can be said for anyone, but I never made the connection to language and it makes a lot more sense now.

I did my data collection so far over 4 days. In those 4 days I had class, was with friends, and family. The first two days were a Saturday and Sunday. The first day was interesting because it was the day I went to sell my car, I found myself talking with my friend as we drove out to the guy who was buying my car. Then I went on to code switch from the speech used in talking with my friend to the guy buying my car. After that I went out that night with my mom and sister, I noticed I code switched again for discretion purposes. Then that night I went out with friends in the city, I code switched again. The next day was a Sunday and I went out with my dad to a sports bar in Bayside, NY to watch the Dolphins game. Then the next two days were over my trip to Buffalo to visit my family. Those days were full of travel and spending time with family, however I noticed that my discourse with family did not change much from my friends. The data collection showed me that I have 3 main discourses (types of speech) that I use daily depending on the situation. The thing that separates my form of speech is the formality that I exercise depending on the environment and that is my main hypothesis from my data collection.

I think that my research revealed a lot to me about code-switching, while I felt that at times it was difficult to be in a situation where I was not speaking I figured it out. There were times when I was traveling on the train and when I was surrounded by people I did not know, I found myself totally silent in these times, I would have reflections about how attached I am to my phone like everyone else on the train. Next, I felt that my findings were important to showing me how I formulate decisions on my language choice based on who I am around. The data showed me that I do not care about how I talk in front of my cousins and friends but how I am around family is different. I think that individualistically its important to keep different facets of life in different levels of formality in order to have the best possible reciprocation of respect. The thing that limited my research the most was the times where I was with family and not really talking because I was not exactly comfortable in the situation, my Uncles were around at times and are very strict and conservative so its hard to say the right things in those situations. I think my silence however, was my way of communicating my relationship to the topic being discussed. The topic itself isn’t significant its the fact that I chose to be silent instead of engaging. In this respect I see how my data shows me about my language choice as a person.

Annotated Bibliography:

1. Lowi, R. (2005). CodeSwitching: An Examination of Naturally Occuring Conversation. University of California Berkley . Retrieved 2017

Summary: This article evaluates the process of code-switching. It describes code switching as a process where an individual goes back and forward using different languages and tones to communicate. He shows that the “bi-lingual” notion of actually knowing two languages is not necessary to fulfill this case study. She also looks at tone and ambition, as in what is this person trying to show me through her language, is something being said in a certain way to show me how severe it was? Things like tone show significance and she proves this through her study.

Evaluate: This article is a useful tool to in preparing my own research, however, I do not speak two languages. Although there are practices that the author shows, like for instance when a person is speaking to you in a certain tone they could be revealing the value they apply to that situation. Every human being is different which makes this case interesting. How is the information which is based on language, subject to change based on the individual? That would be my own challenge to her research model. I could apply some of her practices to my paper, but it seems she based it heavily on the bi-lingual element.

2. Lysicott, J. (Writer). (2017). I am Articulate. Live performance in New York, New York.

Summary: This is a poem about a woman who talks in different forms of tone based on the people she is around at a certain time. She says she has a tone for school, when she hangs around her neighborhood, and for her family. She talks about how she faces adversity in the form of critique when she speaks in forms of broken English, she is of African American descent and talks about how she was forced to speak English and that she doesn’t care how “society” wants her to speak. She talks further about how she loves the way she speaks because she is able to be articulate on every level she talks to people on, IQ level does not matter to her, the accomplishment is being able to articulate to every level on intellect.

Evaluate: I learned a lot from this piece, even though at first I found it to be hard to follow and informal. After reading the transcript, it flows a lot better and its much easier for me to see what she was going after. 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 can use a lot of the examples she gives when talking about how naturally she “code-switches” and shows how she really does face adversity when people point out how she talks. I found it important that she showed why she spoke the broken English: because the English, people want her to speak is the same language that was forced upon her ancestors during slavery in Africa.