My perspective towards Eric Garner’s case is why. Why does this keep happening in the United States and more importantly New York? New York state is one of the most liberal states and yet it is still happening. Furthermore, I know that I go to school in New York City but it never really occurred to me until now that New York City would actually have such huge rallies and protests. History is happening right near me, and I wasn’t even a part of it. Regarding Eric Garner’s case, the trial should’ve went on. I don’t understand how the system can allow such a thing to happen in modern day. This relates to the Ferguson case, and the system isn’t changing and keeps making the same mistakes. While the Eric Garner case may be an issue of racism, I think it really has to do with how the system works in the United States. Relating to my immigration paper, there are illegal immigrants in states down south and towards the west in states such as Arizona and New Mexico that get accused for crime all the time based off their race. That’s utter injustice and the only way to stop these tragedies from reoccurring is to change the system.

I’m writing my paper on immigration, however I don’t exactly know what argument I’m going to take. I want to agree that illegal immigration shouldn’t be recognized as “illegal” and that the United States shouldn’t have strict policies towards it. I think I want to focus on the backgrounds of these illegal immigrants, and basically have a voice to stand up for them. I also want to include personal experiences of actual people.

In the article “Immigration Reform: An Issue We Can All Support,” Judith Browne explores how racism is prevalent in determining the fate of immigration in the United States. She believes that immigration policies and regulations aren’t changing, if not getting stricter as the years have went by. She pays a lot of attention to ethnic patterns regarding immigration, “According to 2010 consensus data, less than 2 percent of unauthorized immigrants are from Europe or Canada, while 87 percent are from Latin America, 3 percent from Africa, and 7 percent from Asia.” She essentially uses these numbers to determine how race has impacted immigrants on not gaining citizenship. Browne introduces the Advancement Project, and as an advocate, she and other members of the NAACP are “demanding a path to citizenship for immigrants.” One of the larger ideas she introduces is the moral issues regarding immigration. Browne says that immigrants in states such as Alabama and Arizona are more racially profiled. Essentially, she believes that this is wrong and is one of the main problems with the perception of immigration in the United States.

A co-director of the Advancement Project, Judith Browne explores how racism has influenced immigration policies in the United States. In the article, “Immigration Reform: An Issue We Can All Support,” Browne pays close attention to the underlying causes of how and why immigration policies have become stricter within the past few years. She believes that it is injustice being done to innocent people and uses numbers to support her ideas; “According to 2010 consensus data, less than 2 percent of unauthorized immigrants are from Europe or Canada, while 87 percent are from Latin America, 3 percent from Africa, and 7 percent from Asia” (Browne).

Dianis, Judith Browne. “Immigration Reform: An Issue We Can All Support.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-browne-dianis/immigration-reform-an-iss_b_4178580.html>.

Introduction:

In the introduction of “They Say, I Say,” the author provides effective templates as a way of structuring essays. The authors believe that not only should you (the writer) express your ideas and beliefs but you should say what other says as well. The authors also state that the best way to respond to an argument is to agree or disagree simultaneously. They think it’s the best way because it avoids the question of “yes” or “no” as to there is no simple answer. This section also addresses that these templates don’t reduce creativity, it actually allows for more creativity while organizing.

I think that these templates are very helpful in structuring essays. Having a clear argument in an essay is one of the more challenging aspects of writing a paper because you can’t use a simple word to justify an argument. The templates are helpful in that it allows the writer to have a clear argument and then furthermore interpret other’s opinions as well.

Chapter one:

In chapter one, the author focuses on the importance of what other’s are saying. Essentially, none of the important information should be left out. Every piece of information is required because the reader can’t assume that they know what the author is talking about.

“Remember that you are entering a conversation and therefore need to start with ‘what others are saying’ and introduce your own ideas as a response” (page 18).

“This little story illustrates an important lesson: that to give writing the most important thing of all namely, a point- a writer needs to indicate clearly not only his or her thesis but also what larger conversation that thesis is responding to” (page 18).

“Instead of opening with someone else’s views, you could start with an illustrative quotation, a revealing fact or statistic, or a relevant anecdote” (page 20).

After finishing the reading, I would like to know how to introduce an illustrative quotation, a revealing fact or statistic, or a relevant anecdote into an essay. I feel like that’s really tricky to do because it might seem like unnecessary information, and I wouldn’t know how to relate an argument to it effectively.

Graff, Gerald; Birkenstein, Cathy (2007-08-17). “They Say / I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing (p. 20). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

When I revise my work, I tend to overlook mistakes. I tend to think that most things I wrote were correct and therefore I don’t fix them. Sometimes, I tend to want to fix everything because I think everything I wrote was wrong. For my college paper, I spent a lot of time revising it because I had my teacher read it. I had to reach my word limit, and cutting things out and adding things in was difficult. From that process, I learned how to have useful information in my works. Revising is reconsidering or altering what you’ve already wrote. Editing is correcting and condensing what you’ve wrote. Proofreading is reading the work and marking it for errors. I agree with the points Dethier made about how revision can be pointless, and it can make things worse. Because when I revise my work, I start overdoing the assignment. I also agree with how sometimes we don’t even know how to revise.

For the paper right now,  I feel like I know what I’m supposed to write about but I don’t exactly know how I’m going to phrase everything. I understand the topic of rhetoric and how our assignment is to analyze the writing and interpret it. However, I think it’s better understood than written. I feel like this topic is very hard to write out. I feel like I might also have trouble with my sources, but hopefully it will all work out.

Lind, Dara. “How Is President Obama Planning to Reform Immigration Policy through Executive Action?” Vox. Vox Media, 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2014. <http://www.vox.com/cards/obama-immigration-executive-action-amnesty-congress/obama-immigration-reform-executive-order-amnesty>.

Reflections/Questions:

This piece is very relatable to me because my parents were both immigrants. Although they are legal, certain things that play into immigration action relates to my family as well. I’d like to get into personal case-by-case immigration stories about various people. Because although the government has set immigration policies, they sometimes implement different policies to people with unique cases.

Notes/Summary:

President Obama has essentially been shut down on his many efforts trying to implement immigration policy. Therefore, President Obama wants to use executive action to help out illegal immigrants. He wants to give relief illegal immigrants from deportation, work authorization, and unauthorized immigrants. President Obama previously tried to help out these people through the DACA, and the Dream Act. Under these programs, certain illegal immigrants were able to stay in the country and work and prevent from getting deported. However, President Obama wants to do more with his immigration policies and essentially wants to introduce many new ways or programs to help illegal immigrants.

Summary:

“The Rhetorical Situation” initially speaks about situations, or events in a person’s life that gives the audience a reaction as to what might occur. Any certain situation gives the audience to ask what is going on and other further questions. There are circumstances that can be recognized as ethical, dangerous, or embarrassing which introduces “the rhetorical situation.” The presence of rhetorical discourse obviously indicates the presence of a situation. Bitzer introduces six main ideas about rhetorical situation. Essentially, rhetoric is presented as a discipline that provides principles, concepts, and procedures about reality.

Response:

I think the article helpful in understanding rhetorical situations and discourse, however it was very repetitive. It kept talking about the same situations, and same ideas about rhetoric. I think it should’ve stopped talking so much about the details of rhetoric, and instead given more example situations of rhetoric.

Question:

Which discipline in rhetoric relates to reality the most?

Emma Watson’s speech:

Exigence: Emma Watson speaks about feminism and its attributes to society.

Audience: Everybody, she wants everyone to understand that feminism applies to everyday life

Constraints: Emma Watson appears nervous speaking in front of the UN, which may be holding her back. Emma Watson is also a celebrity so her word may not mean as much to the UN because she is constantly in the media.

Topic 1: Immigration

This article supports government immigration through executive action: http://www.vox.com/cards/obama-immigration-executive-action-amnesty-congress/obama-immigration-reform-executive-order-amnesty

This article is against immigration:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/againsti.htm

Topic 2: New Gun Laws in New York

The new gun laws as a result

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/29/tougher-n-y-gun-laws-results-in-1146-felony-charges/

Against the new gun laws

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/nyregion/federal-judge-upholds-majority-of-new-york-gun-law.html?_r=0

I think in order to be a persuasive writer you need to appeal to an audience emotionally (pathos) because then the audience can share the same feelings as the writer. A person needs to be logical and reason in the argument. Lastly, the audience has to be able to believe the writer. All of these things have to go hand in hand.