English 2150 Blog

Iahidur Mohammed

Final Exam

Section 1: The advertisement I am viewing is an advertisement created by Pedro De La Cruz. The ad shows a little girl and her mother reading a story and they are both very engaged with the story. On the left side of the ad in red font it says that “2/3 of students that are not able to read by 4^th grade will end up in jail or poverty”. On the very bottom of the ad it writes “Be the change in your child’s future”. The subject of the ad is children’s literacy and how important it is for children to have literacy, so that they can be successful. The ad seems like it is intended for parents and children. It is created to persuade parents to be more engaged in their children’s literacy so that they can have a better future.

The creator of the ad, Pedro, uses the three different appeals to persuade the viewer to follow his stance on the issue or to get the viewer to do something. The ethics appeal is used because Pedro has done some extensive research on the topic and he knows better than most viewers of children’s literacy. This ad mostly uses the logos appeal because it gives us an interesting fact about child literacy. The fact shows reasoning behind his cause and it is providing the viewer a statistic that is appealing. The author uses pathos by making the viewer sad about the reality of child literacy. He states that 2/3 of children not being able to read proficiently will end up in jail or poverty, which is a sad reality that we are facing right now. Being in jail or living in poverty are probably the two worst things that can happen to somebody in their lifetime.

Section 2: For Project 3 rationale I used different kinds of appeals to persuade my audience, who is the American Council for Literacy, to stress the importance of a low adult literacy and to spread my message through the ad to all adults so that they can seek the help they need. Though I didn’t have direct quotes from professors or social workers about the topic, I did have an ethical appeal by including many of the important facts I gathered from reliable sources. Doing a lot of the research I have done and adding information from reliable sources gives the reader a notion that I am credible when it comes to this specific topic. My rationale uses mostly the logos appeal because I am trying to persuade my audience with reasoning. I state that 1 in 7 American adults are not functionally literate and why this must change in our society. My advertisement provides the other facts that support this crisis. Even though functionally illiterate adults can live a middle class life, it is important for them to be literate so they can help their communities and flourish. Those were some of my main points to get across along with other supporting details. The rational gave the viewer mostly a reason behind the importance of adult literacy. For project 3 I didn’t use much of a pathos appeal, but I feel like through my ad I gave those adults that are functionally illiterate some cushion by showing them that they are not alone, and as many of these adults may feel ashamed about it through the ad I tried to bring them together.

Before this semester I didn’t know what a rhetorical analysis was. Throughout the semester we looked at different methods for creating a rhetorical analysis. I know the steps to many different kinds of rhetoric. I have been successful in using logos, pathos, and ethos in some of my writing throughout the semester. For arguments I believe the Toulmin method is great because it finds an opposition to one’s own opinion and makes an argument against that opinion. The Toulmin method is a little challenging to me because finding the argument that can bring down an opposition to my stance is challenging. Ethos, pathos, and logos to me is a great way for analyzation because its clearer than the other methods and I think I’ve used it effectively throughout my writing this semester.

Section 3: Logos is the term that is used to get an audience to be appealed through logic or reasoning. Using logos would mean to use facts or statistics, analogies, or citing certain authorities. It gives an audience “real” evidence behind the stance or the issue. I chose this appeal because for me personally statistics or facts are the best ways to convince me to do something. For Project 3, I used logos appeal by listing the unusual and interesting facts and statistics about adult illiteracy. My classmate Pedro used logos as his main appeal by stating an important statistic on child literacy in America.

Code switching is the practice of alternating between two or more languages during a conversation. Code switching is very important to society, especially in New York, as a lot of us speak multiple languages on a daily basis. Personally code switching resonates with the way I speak because I am multilingual and it is an important aspect of my language. As I was collecting data for my Project 2 data I noticed that I did a lot of code switching when I spoke to friends, family, or strangers. I spoke Bengali and English when I spoke to my parents or I would speak formal than informal with people at my workplace.

Genre is a category for a literary composition. I think genre is very important because every type of literary work has some type of category that it falls into. It gives the audience an idea of what to expect when they are reading the composition. I used a genre in all of my writing projects for the class, but the most obvious used it is when I created an advertisement for project 3. When the reader sees my advertisement hell know it is trying to get him/her to do something.

Section 4: A good research and writing process includes a step by step plan to reach the final draft. Those steps could include brainstorming ideas, freewriting about the ideas and choosing one of them, gathering data and research on the topic, analyzing other similar literary compositions, creating a draft, reading the draft over with several other people, making necessary changes or edits, finally composing the final draft. Throughout the semester I did a lot of these steps to complete each project. Each step had important roles of contributing to the final piece. For different pieces of writing, I took different steps, for example doing research for Project 3 helped me choose my topic and also think of ways to compose my advertisement. I learned that it’s a long process to get to the final piece of writing, and for me personally the peer reviews helped a lot because it’s hard for me to see what is wrong with my own writing. Analyzing similar writing or well written literary compositions of some of the ideas to include in my own writing was also important, because it helped me understand how to include these in my writing. Throughout the semester I’ve learned a lot about the different approaches and steps to compose a piece of writing.

Section 5: Throughout the semester I have done three projects and all of them were from different in the ways they were composed. For my first project the genre was to write a literacy narrative and for this essay I analyzed secondary sources and my own piece of writing to answer how successful I am as an academic writer. I also did some research on what academic writing is and how I have used academic writing throughout my educational life. For project 2 I did a social science report on my own language and I also looked at different sources that discuss some of the terms that are important to my research. I conducted an experiment with myself which I later organized into a graph. With this research I created a report that explains my research and analysis of the sources. For Project 3 a rationale and a print ad that had to do with the subject of literacy. The rationale gives an explanation of my ad, and why it should be part of the American Literacy Council. This was more of a paper done to give us students an idea of how to write business related compositions. Doing this project taught me about different ways marketers can get you to feel or do something. We saw many examples of fallacies which is a big practice used by marketers to bring in consumers.

This semester I wrote three different genres which are literacy narrative, social science report, and advertisement. There were different approaches and steps to writing the three compositions. The literacy narrative didn’t require a lot of research but instead I used a lot of my own experiences to create writing. This is the type of writing I have been doing for much of my educational life and it was something I was familiar with even before the class. It was academic writing so the audience was my peers and faculty at Baruch college. My purpose for writing was to give an explanation to how successful I am as a writer. For project 2 my approach was different because I had to do a kind of experiment and I had to collect data. With the data I created a report to explain my data. The audience for this type of work would be researchers, scientist, or even students interested in language. My purpose for writing this was to inform my audience of a certain practice and how it is used by me. For the third project I created an advertisement to get my audience to seek help. The audience for my ad were adults and maybe social workers helping adults. For advertisements in general they are targeting one or several group to get them to believe or do something. The purpose for an advertisement is to persuade the audience to take a stance or action.

Academic writing could be a language and it is always trying to be mastered by professors and students. Academic writing is a language because it is shared by mostly by people in educational institutions. In some cases, academic writing could only be really understood by a student his peers and professor. Throughout everybody’s academic life, we are always trying to make our writing perfect and we follow these long processes to make our writing as best as possible. It’s similar to a language because it takes a lot of practice to be a great academic writer. All students do some kind of writing everyday similar to speaking a language. Academic writing is always being done by students and professors and the steps help us towards mastering the art of academic writing.

Bonus: Changes in my writing process is major thing that has changed for me during this semester. We did three different genres and for each genre I learned about the necessary steps to start writing on the genre. Before this semester it was really hard for me to start writing about a topic and to just brainstorm ideas. To create an ad I had to do research first to find out what part of literacy I wanted to target with my ad. For Project 2, I had to do a experiment on my language use and also analyze sources on code switching, multilingualism, etc. I do not recall doing a social science report, so learning the necessary steps definitely helped me as a writer. The writing processes I have learned over the semester has made me a better writer has given me knowledge of the different ways to compose a literary piece.

Adult Illiteracy in the United States

In the United States, today nearly 32 million or 1 in 7 adults are considered functionally illiterate. According to UNESCO, “A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community’s development.” Many adults in the United States who live a middle class life aren’t functionally literate. That is to say, that they have good jobs and a home, but they don’t have the right reading or writing skills to help him/her function in the community or elsewhere beyond his/her job. Their skills are basic and it does not help them flourish their societies. Another study has shown that many college athletes are functionally illiterate, in fact 19% of high school graduates are not functionally literate.

Literacy can be achieved by doing more reading and writing, so basic skills can be enhanced. Going to an educational institution or doing literate work as a hobby can be a great way to improve these skills. Some workplaces, like Ford and Motorola, are even sponsoring remedial reading programs so that their employees can benefit with an enhanced functional literacy. The target audience for my advertisement is adults in the United States. The target audience is adults because this is an advertisement that is directed towards them, and hopefully this ad can target those 32 million adults that are functionally illiterate.

My advertisement is trying to solve this crisis that is ongoing in America that is effecting millions of adults in the United States. My advertisement is trying to get adults that are not fully literate to gain some confidence and get some help, so that they too can be functionally literate. My ad gives those adults that are too ashamed or scared some cushion, because it states that there are 32 million adults in the same situation. My ad will be effective because it informs the audience of the problem that is ongoing and that there are solutions to fix this problem.

I think a great newspaper to publish my advertisement on would be Easy English Times. Easy English Times is a newspaper that is nationwide and it is specifically made for adults and teenagers, who have low English literacy. It is distributed in high schools, prisons, and readers can also read it online. Another good newspaper to publish my advertisement is The Times in Plain English. This newspaper is another one that is specifically created for adults with low literacy and is also available at no cost. It is a New York based newspaper but the paper discusses national and international events.

Link to advertisement: Attention_ All Adults (1)

References:

1. 32 Million U.S. Adults are “Functionally Illiterate”… What Does That Even Mean? (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2017, from http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/32-million-us-adults-are-functionally-illiterate-what-does-even-mean
2. Adult Literacy Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2017, from https://proliteracy.org/Resources/Adult-Literacy-Facts
3. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2017, from http://www.easyenglishtimes.com/about.html
4. About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2017, from http://www.thetimesinplainenglish.com/about-us/

Compose as a process: Composing a draft or even an idea to write about was a hard process for me before this class. I still have some trouble brainstorming ideas and developing my writing, but i definitely believe I have improved these thing over the course. I think the peer reviews and the step by step goals to create the draft has given me ideas of how to start a good draft when I am writing on my own. The step by step process to look at similar writings or even analyze them to incorporate some of the strategies to my own writing was a great way to get me started for all of my projects. The peer reviews were also very beneficial because it helps me realize ways of how I can improve my writing, which is hard for me to realize because I really try to make my writing the best possible in the first draft. The peer reviews also enhanced my skills as a writer as some of the suggestions that were given to me, I was able to incorporate them into my future drafts for projects.

Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose: The importance of having a different style of writing based on the genre, audience, and purpose is also something I believe I improved on and gained some more knowledge. I learned to write my projects based on the audience it will be read by. Its important to distinguish audience because it makes it stand out to the reader and it can help connect the reader and the writer. In Project 3, I stressed the importance of spelling and grammar because my writing was intended to make adults more functionally literate. I also learned the different ways to articulate my language when speaking to different people. These things are ideas I kind of knew about but I have learned why they are so important when speaking or writing to different audiences.

I think this class has taught me a lot about myself and as a writer. I learned about myself through project 2, because noting down the different languages I use helped me realize that my way of speaking is unique and it changes so much in the course of one day. I learned about the articulation of English, and that everybody has their own ways of speaking their languages and having lifestyles to put them in their own groups. Another thing I learned which I never really payed close attention to was the importance of fallacies. I learned about the different ways advertisers can persuade or get your attention. This class has been, generally a very beneficial class for me, because I learned different ways to do rhetorical analysis. The different methods helped me stay focused on my main point and also elaborate, something that I knew I could improve at the start of the class.

I learned a lot from the work that I have done for project 3. I learned how fallacies are used in ads to make them more effective and appealing to the audience. I also learned about some statistics about Americas literacy and literacy among adults. I also learned that rhetorical concepts are used in ads to help make them more persuasive and appealing.

I can structure the ad so that it looks more visually appealing, I can also make the rationale into separate paragraphs so my ideas and solutions are well organized. I could also use more rhetorical concepts on my ad. I have to also find a publication where I can post my ad, so that the audience who are functionally illiterate can see my ad.

Adult Illiteracy in the United States

In the United States, today nearly 32 million or 1 in 7 adults are considered functionally illiterate. According to UNESCO, “A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community’s development.” Many adults in the United States who live a middle class life aren’t functionally literate. That is to say, that they have have good jobs and a home, but they don’t have the right reading or writing skills to help he/she function in the community or elsewhere beyond his/her job. Their skills are basic and it does not help them flourish with society. Another study has shown that many college athletes are functionally illiterate, in fact 19% of high school graduates are not functionally literate. Literacy can be achieved by doing more reading and writing, so basic skills can be enhanced. Going to an educational institution or doing literate work as a hobby can be a great way to improve these skills. Some workplaces, like Ford and Motorola, are even sponsoring remedial reading programs so that their employees can benefit with an enhanced functional literacy. The target audience for my advertisement is adults in the United States. The target audience is adults because this is an advertisement that is directed towards them, and hopefully this ad can target those 32 million adults that are functionally illiterate. My advertisement is trying to solve this crisis that is ongoing in America, that is effecting millions of adults in the United States. My advertisement is trying to get adults that are not fully literate to gain some confidence and get some help, so that they too can be functionally literate. My ad gives those adults that are too ashamed or scared some cushion, because it states that there are 32 million adults in the same situation. My ad will be effective because it informs the audience of the problem that is ongoing and that there are solutions to fix this problem. I think my ad can go as a post on social media like Facebook, because social media is the second highest news platform that adults read news on. I also think social media is mixed when it comes to its user’s literacy rates for example, an illiterate person would be more likely to use Facebook, than buy a newspaper or magazine to read.

Link to ad —–>  Attention_ All Adults

Rhetorical Analysis:

This podcasts genre is an interview because it interviews different people based on knowledge and experience. The podcast had interviews with doctors, professors, and people that experienced the idea of interpreting and learning a language when disabled. For this podcast the audience can be anybody that has an interest in learning about interpretation and learning of languages. The podcast is used to definitely inform readers of language and how the disabled use different techniques to learn the language. It informs by interviewing people with a lot of knowledge and experience on the topic. The podcast is very conversation like, which helps me as a listener be more engaged.

Questions:

1. Describe the science-based podcast as a genre (based on this example). What are its features? How does it function? How does research come into play? This podcast is a podcast that talks about language and how language is for disabled people or babies. The podcast has different stories and each story is unique because it talks about a different experience and also the psychology behind the use of the languages.  Alot of the podcast features interviews with people with experiences and professors. The research here would be from professors, experiments, and even experiences.
2. In what ways might a science-based podcast be said to be similar to an advertisement? This science based podcast could be similar to an advertisement because it can inform readers with real information and less persuasion. Some people are more lured with factual information which isn’t really obvious.
3. What is the function of facts in the show? What is the function of anecdotes? For each of the show’s three separate segments, which is more persuasive, fact or anecdote? Why? The function of facts on this show is to inform the readers of language for people with disabilities. The function of the anecdotes I would say is to also inform and to also provide a connection with the listener of the podcast. To me personally, i really liked the podcast of the women that had a stroke, because her anecdote made me feel and think about language the way she did with her descriptions. She mentioned how she forgot everything and she would have to see pictures to remember words. She was learning the language just the way baby learns a language.
4. How do audio-only elements (music, sound effects) enhance the way the information is presented? Be specific and provide examples. Is there any way in which the audio-only elements detract from the presentation of information (or from the stories being told)? If so, how? The sound effects enhance the information because it gives us an example of what exactly they are talking about. For instance when they were talking about going to a NYC club, and it just so crowded, you can hear all of the little conversations in the background. The sound effect made me feel like or helped me remember a time, where I was in a tight space with a lot of people.
5. If Project 3 required you to write a radio ad (or podcast ad) for improving literacy, rather than a print ad, how would you do it? How would you make a persuasive impact with that ad, knowing that you can’t use visual elements? Describe what the ad would consist of, what some of the language would be, how it would have an impact on its audience. I would try to use factual evidence stated from reliable sources and also i would try to get some personal experience on literacy from people so that i can connect with my podcast listeners and also persuade them on my ideas.
6. What are three things you learned from the show that you hadn’t known before? I didn’t know rats and even human babies didn’t know how to connect two things together to remember one thing. I also learned what a stroke really is and kind of how it feels to remember things after a stroke. I also learned the different ways that deaf people interpret language and the ways they communicate.
7. Write a brief paragraph describing your reaction to the show: Did you like it, dislike it, find it interesting, find it boring? Why? Provide a detailed response. For the most part I enjoyed the podcast. It really opened up my mind about language with disabled people, as well as learning many new things. For some of the stories I thought it was a little boring because I wasn’t able to connect with the story teller. One of the stories I really enjoyed was the lady with the stroke and how she interpreted language after the incident. The podcast did a good job overall of kind of teaching and informing the listeners about this topic.

1. Think of a good attention grabber heading which will make target audience want to know more.
2. Try to think of an image that would relate to the rationale.
3. Since I will be using statistics of literacy in America, just put them in a way that would keep the reader interested.

The ad that i found effective was an ad from Baruch Colleges club Women in Business. First off it shows a women at the center of the table and she is dictating a business meeting. The thing i found most effective was the heading which reads, The Secret to Success: Being Assertive, its a very catchy heading because if you look at the intended audience it is Baruch College students. Its a heading that would grab a lot of students attention and it would want them to attend the program. I think the purpose of this ad is to persuade students to attend the workshop so that they can learn to be assertive and be successful. For the explicit part of this ad i think its just to bring in a large audience to their workshop. The implicit would be to teach people to be assertive.

The ineffective ad I found was the Baruch College Republicans ad. I felt like the ad itself would not grab many students attention because of the color it was printed in and there isn’t much detail of exactly what would be discussed in the workshop. The intended audience would be for Baruch College students. The purpose of this ad is persuade students to come to the workshop.