Author Archives: CHEYENNE MARTINEZ

The presidential election has always had me on edge since the beginning. I worked on election day and it wasn’t as wild as many people thought. There were many first time voters, especially young people, so that was nice to see. I voted for my first time as well. Ever since we closed the poll site, every few hours I would refresh my phone safari page that had the electoral college results of each party. I had my doubts that Republican Donald Trump would win since coronavirus first took place. It hit his presidential campaign hard, too hard for recovery, unfortunately. Therefore, I’m not really surprised Trump lost, just disappointed. Fake news won.. From the 2020 presidential election, I will remember the memories I made with my fellow co-workers on election day at the poll site but most importantly, how America has failed me.

The central idea of, “Here’s what to know about the dangers that go along with hosting Thanksgiving amid surging corona virus infections: What’s safe? What’s not?” Hartford Courant by Keith Grant is how you can have a safe Thanksgiving this year. He goes into detail on how you can celebrate thanksgiving with your loved ones despite the pandemic. Grant clearly is not against gathering on the holidays since he created an entire guide on how to do it with the least risk of exposure. Keith said who you should and should not allow to be around you on Thanksgiving celebrations and recommended what type of protocol you should do if you’re allowing non immediate family members to spend it with you.He was effective at expressing the options people are left with due to COVID-19 and what is suggested and what is not. He described what you can do to limit possible spreads of the virus so you can still enjoy the holiday with your friends and families. He was ineffective at using ethos. Hypothetically, as somebody looking into trying to spend the holiday with non family members, I would want real statistics or statements from professionals proving that it is okay or safe to do the things he said is. He had no proof behind what he was saying in the opinionated article. He failed at establishing credibility which is almost always necessary in order to persuade somebody.

After reading, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” by Donald M. Murray, I will be taking his advice into consideration while revising my own work, including my rhetorical analysis essay. He stated that, “Writers must learn to be their own best enemy. They must accept the criticism of others and be suspicious of it; they must accept the praise of others and be even more suspicious of it. Writers cannot depend on others. They must detach themselves from their own pages so that they can apply both their caring and their craft to their own work.” These words of advice resonated with me specifically because I tend to be stubborn when it comes to accepting criticism and always have a rebuttal. I can never be wrong. I must allow constructive criticism in for the sake of bettering my work instead of being prideful and feeding my ego.

A) While reading Laura Bolin Carol’s essay, “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis”, I learned a few things. I became educated on the meaning and purpose of the word, “exigence.” According to Google, exigence is an urgent need or demand. According to the text, “Exigence is the circumstance or condition that invites a response.” Exigence is one out of the three necessary parts that together, aid in understanding the context of a rhetorical moment. I just became aware of these three parts from Carol’s essay. Another part is the audience who are the receivers of the rhetorical message. They are meant to assist in solving the issue at hand. The last piece of comprehending rhetorical situations is constraints. Constraints are “beliefs, attitudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives” which “limit the way the discourse is delivered or communicated.

B) I quoted, “Each day we meet different people, encounter unfamiliar situations, and see media that asks us to do, think, buy, and act in all sorts of ways.” I chose this part of the text because the words really resonated with me. It opened my eyes to something I haven’t actually thought about. Social media completely affects our daily lives. I was always aware of this, but not to the extent that it truly is. The media decides what’s cool and what’s not. It decides where we spend our money. It completely creates people’s personalities. It makes us not like certain things and feel the need to own specific brands. Why? Why do we let other factors, other people, decide how we live our lives? Just because.

C) “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” as a whole gave me a better understanding of what rhetorical analysis means, the process necessary to understand, and the purpose of rhetorical analysis. I mainly learned the parts of the process- exigence, audience, and constraints. I will keep these in mind while I edit my essay.

I was scrolling on Instagram this weekend and I came across this meme. It relates to the second presidential debate. When I saw this post it made me chuckle. I found it funny mainly because of the photo they chose. I have seen that penguin in several other hilarious meme videos and photos. Trump claims Biden is too afraid to have another debate with him.  Biden agreed to a second debate but it’ll have to be online held over  Zoom because Trump has coronavirus. Then, the penguin (Trump) is being pouty like a child and says, “well now I am not doing it” which I find amusing because that’s literally how Trump acts. 

In the “Politics and the English Language” thesis, George Orwell starts it off by stating “the English language is in a bad way” and how people assume there’s nothing we can do about. So, therefore, our civilization and language as a whole is just going downhill and it’s inevitable, but later mentions it’s not incurable. This has all happened recently form the newer generations and it’s a serious problem we aren’t fully conscious about. He then proceeds to attempt to explain the causes of this decline and lists five quotes that are “bad” ways other writers think. He points out the correlation between the ugly use of the English language in today’s society in general and the horrible way it’s used to convey political messages.

“A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible.” This quote is significant to me because he refers to alcoholism or at the very least drinking to solve problems but it ends up causing them as an example in comparison to how the English language is failing because people previously have a foolish mindset and they just continue building off that same foolish mindset with more foolishness but in the end, it’s not completely destroyed. It can be fixed.

“Meaningless words” is something that disturbs both me and Orwell. Constantly, every day, I hear conversations or read messages with total utter uselessness thrown in it. Complete irrelevancy to the topic and people just keep moving forward with it. It bothers me because people tend to lay themselves up wrong and end up sounding foolish. I can’t say I never write meaningless words, but I try very hard not to do it in my writing because it’s just silly. I find his critique to be completely valid because it is a real serious problem when people are trying to make a point or just make sense overall. Using meaningless, useless, irrelevant words is just a fail.

The use of language and politics intersected with me today when I received messages and had conversations with people over the fact that Donald Trump was tested positive for coronavirus. People in response to this information were like, “Good he deserved it”, “I hope he dies”, and many other completely rude and more vial statements with curses in them I can’t say here. Their poor use of language and understanding plowed over Trump being a president and the good he has done. People focused on the bad and how he deserved corona for apparently letting others get it and therefore that made him a bad president. They now use this information about how he has corona in reflection on how he shouldn’t be president again since he has it, which makes no sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmXj613HPN8

This ad is targeted mainly for the supporters of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but also for potential voters (both Republican and Democratic). You can tell this ad is meant for both political parties because Trump posted this on his page knowing his Republican followers would see it, but at the same time, he wanted to notify Democratic supporters of Biden and Harris that this is what they are promoting. These are the type of people that are voting for them. This is their following. Trump posted this video with the intention of informing its viewers that the Democratic supporters of Biden and Harris are aggressive. Biden and Harris are even promoting and encouraging extreme violence towards the police department and other citizens. These horrific acts are being done in Democratic states. The ad is trying to get you fearful of a Democratic country. 

Watching this video can give you literal chills. At first glance, you would think it’s a horror movie trailer, but it’s the sad reality of what’s going on in Democratic states in America. This is real life. This evokes a feeling of distrust to know that Biden and Harris are publicly endorsing their followers to continue the violence being done and are even saying that they shouldn’t stop. Joe Biden is denouncing the violent protests claiming it’s “peaceful”. This may make some disappointed to know that these are the same people who will be voting in the presidential election and gear them towards picking Trump instead of Biden.

This is most definitely a negative ad. It’s evident because the video shows nothing but violence and aggression. This video resembles a movie trailer for a horror film but in actuality, it’s real footage of America, Democratic America. This compilation of short clips from the riots shows fire being set upon police vehicles and buildings, explosions, looting, violence between police and citizens, and complete and utter destruction in their own neighborhoods. There’s climactic music being played in the background. Dramatic transitions are installed between each video. The whole video just seems dark and terrifying.

This ad uses all three persuasive techniques. Logos, ethos, and pathos are implemented throughout the video. Logos is derived from the conclusion and the end goal of the video. The video assumes that anybody with reason would see that Biden and Kamala’s intentions are not good for our country and therefore vote for Trump. Biden, Kamala, and their followers are creating and/or promoting chaos and destruction, according to the video. Ethos is displayed in the ad by portraying Trump as a more reliable and efficient presidential candidate in comparison to Biden. Biden and Harris openly promote the violent riots being shown. A question the video producers think would go through your head while watching is, “Why would someone want a president who would support and allow this to go on?.” Trump makes it clear he doesn’t agree with the aggressive movement and wants to put an end to it. Pathos is exhibited during the entire video. Citizens are crying out in pain, brutally attacking other citizens and police, and destroying property with fire all with dramatic music playing in the background. The way the video is arranged is purposely like that to have people feeling a certain negative way towards Biden, Harris, and their followers. Watching it would make others feel upset and possibly fearful of how the entire country would be if Biden becomes in charge.

I believe that this ad is highly effective and successful in persuading viewers to vote for Donald J. Trump for the presidential election. This is because it’s shown that Biden and his following are detrimental to America.