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for rarely ever picking up Everything is an Argument. If I take another writing course, I believe I might actually try to use it because at times it was very helpful. At the beginning of the semester I read the chapters we were supposed to, but eventually as the semester wore down so did my tolerance of that damn book. Either way, reading the chapters or not, I probably would not have discussed what I had learned in class. I am shy as everyone probably knows since no one probably can even remember me a couple weeks after our last class :) 

So right now I’m feeling a little crappy about my last paper. I’m already home and of course the first day was completely lazy, but the next I worked really hard on just finishing the revision so it could be done. Last assignment of the semester come on!! Unfortunately, my whole computer decided to just flip shit on itself and wouldn’t even turn on. I’m pretty sure each and everyone of you could hear the explosion of my brain. Fun story though because the next morning I have to go to my old High School to redo my revisions for the paper and the one positive out of this mess was that I got to tell my old English teacher (In kind words) how a Harry Potter class has helped me so much more than any writing class I’ve ever been in. BTW this lady was not too sweet back in the day.. you know a few years ago. :) 

So it is by far my favorite to wake up at 7 for my only class because I need to answer damn clicker questions. Then my good ol trusty clicker decides to oversleep. So while everyone else is boosting up their participation grade, I’m venting on Tumblr. 

I also am disgusting because I was running so late and my professor likes to start the first second of the class with a clicker question. I think I might have actually stiff-armed someone on the drag. Hope it wasn’t you. : /  For some reason half-asleep me thought that by thinking about getting dressed that this actually meant that I was getting dressed. Only to find out that no.. I do not have any special powers to magically get dressed just by thinking about it. Awesome. 

Also, I really wish I could give all of you a visual of my old professor trying to give us an example of using certain  muscles and continually referring to a “wrist snap” while doing some sort of throwing/weird robot move. Seriously he has been going at it for a good five minutes. Everyone in the class is either a) on Facebook b) asleep c) looking at their crotches and smiling… aka texting…

Foley I just wanted to say that I am a little concerned with your fake illness. I just completed a presentation for my epidemiology class on meningitis and I would really hate for you to have to deal with the possibility of brain damage/coma. 

Although…. some symptoms include irritability and drowsiness….. so maybe we all have it  :) 

Still not 100% on my subject, but I wanted to write about something that I haven’t yet.

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/4145376 

-independence of young adults and the rise of interracial and same-sex unions

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/4145378

-“burden of acting white”

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/4145383

-gender stereotypes

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/684979?seq=2&Search=yes&term=issues&term=class&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dclass%2Bissues%26f0%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&item=22&ttl=457097&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null

-Life in the working class

No

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/20709398?&Search=yes&term=issues&term=class&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dclass%2Bissues%26f0%3Dti%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&item=4&ttl=75&returnArticleService=showFullText

-Pictures and shit. 

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/648990?&Search=yes&term=issues&term=class&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dclass%2Bissues%26f0%3Dti%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&item=22&ttl=75&returnArticleService=showFullText

*http://www.jstor.org/stable/20330949?&Search=yes&term=journalism&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Djournalism%26f0%3Dti%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&item=14&ttl=910&returnArticleService=showFullText

-not very serious

Find a partner.

Tell  your partner what you want to write about. If you don’t know, write down 2-3 topics that interest you.

-I think it is silly that adults believe Harry Potter is too dangerous or evil for children to read. Harry Potter books should not be taken out of the school curriculum or libraries. 

Tell your partner how you want to write what you want to write—do you want to be informative, snarky, funny, serious?

-Not Serious. 

Together—

Look at blogs. You don’t have to agree with each other, but find a variety of blogs that you think are worthy or not worthy of imitation based on how you want to sound.

Find 5 blogs whose style you would like to imitate.

-http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/12/22/130-ray-ban-wayfarers/

It’s really sarcastic and makes me laugh because a lot of the points are valid. 

-http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/17/68-standing-still-at-concerts/

Just another style like the first blog that is sarcastic which is my fave. 

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-rich-people-who-_b_737429.html

Very snarky. 

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-molitor/jessica-albas-12-favorite_b_779829.html

Making fun of Jessica Alba’s quote on movie quotes… Has a made up top ten list of her favorite quotes that make her look silly. 

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-c-miller/religious-right-insists-a_b_776398.html

Shows how ridiculous some issues are by making an extreme made up law about animals having to be married before having sex. (Idk if that made sense) 

Explain what you like about each one.

Find 5 blogs whose style you do not want to imitate.

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanza/is-death-the-end-new-expe_b_774814.html

Just kind of boring and serious.

-http://jezebel.com/5684350/los-angeles-doesnt-want-jamie-olivers-revolution

Didn’t really care for the topic and once again was too serious for my taste. 

Explain what you do not like about each one.

Put an account of your work on tumblr.

Some blogs:

•http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ (of course!) •http://jezebel.com/•http://www.seriouseats.com/ •http://www.wired.com/blogs/ •http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/ •http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-blog/•http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

1. What are the different “sides” of your controversy? Why do they disagree? what’s the big deal? (wikipedia or similar.) 

-media violence effects are exaggerated. That violence can be biological/genetic. Critics argue that about half find some link between media and subsequent aggression (but not violent crime), whereas the other half do not find a link between consuming violent media and subsequent aggression of any kind. Basically they say that statistics are incorrect or not performed accurately to find the data. 

-I believe that children learn from what they see. Today television, movies, video games and the internet are a huge part of children’s lives. I see the criticism about the lack of hard evidence that link media and violence but there is no lack of evidence to display that observational learning influences children. So with the amount of time children spend in front of a television screen it’s easy to say that media is influential. 

2.     Find three articles on your topic using CrossSearch, JSTOR, and/or Academic Search Complete. List them here. How will they help you provide evidence for your argument? What specific words, phrases, numbers, etc., would you like to use in your paper?

-http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/soccog/soclrn.html ; this page discusses observational learning and has statistics for imitative behavior. A chart of “Frequency of Aggressive Responses by Control Children and by Children Exposed to Aggressive and Inhibited Models.”

- http://metalib.lib.utexas.edu:80/V/BA42BY5XI6VJJHNEM7L377PGKKSXLGSJLST99LFB9MQ52DNIE4-01040?func=meta-3&short-format=002&set_number=002088&set_entry=000001&format=999

-http://metalib.lib.utexas.edu:80/V/BA42BY5XI6VJJHNEM7L377PGKKSXLGSJLST99LFB9MQ52DNIE4-00472?func=meta-3&short-format=002&set_number=002146&set_entry=000005&format=999

3.     Find at least one article on your topic in Google Scholar. Record the link to it here. How/why will this article help you make your argument to your audience?

4.     Find a book in Google Books that argues for or against your topic. Record the link here. How can you make use of this book as evidence? http://books.google.com/books?id=GP5-MfGZOcgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=gun+culture&hl=en&ei=_CzGTOf7Dcmr8AbI3J0u&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

It would be a good source to help me show all sides of my argument. 

5.     Polling the Nations is the best tool ever. Find as many questions as you can that relate to your topic. What do these numbers tell you? How will you use them as evidence?

6.     What images could you use to back up your argument? How will they help you? Record the links here.

7.     Do you plan to interview anyone or use expert testimony from any of these sources? If so, record your thoughts on who you are going to interview or whose testimony you are going to use. If not, brainstorm ideas for who you could interview.

8.     Who is your audience? Where will this be published? Use an advertising pack, Census Fact Finder, or similar tool to describe your audience. Which of the above sources of information will they be most likely to believe? Why? QUANTCAST

I am going to have to agree with passthebutterbeer…Thank you for sending an email. Foley I also promise I am not still hungover from my birthday festivities but luckily seem to have gotten strep throat! yay. Everyone seems to be talking about clarity so it seems I will as well. From the response to my paper after the first revision I definitely knew I liked to write a little more on the WORDY side. Most likely from all my english teachers who did not want to see simple sentences. Simple concise sentences were not the way to their hearts or to a better GPA. This is only my second writing class at UT but I agree with adsmoot 100%. I have been following what the particular teacher wants not necessarily how I like to write but also I am not an english major like her so I don’t give my writing style a lot of credit. :) Long story short.. I usually am too wordy.. My clarity is lost somewhere in my rambling.. I have a hard time getting a strong clear point across… and did I mention that I ramble? oh right. I guess I will leave you with the words of Foley on my paper to prove my point…  “This is where you go off on a tangent for a page and a half”  

-Oh and fyi It’s not easy to delete a page and a half even if it is complete trash. 

I really enjoyed reading about the controversies of Harry Potter on wikipedia. I hate to admit that I actually was pleased about homework for once but the Everything’s an Argument  chapter balanced the enjoyment out a bit. I’m not too fond of reading chapter upon chapter of textbook material but even in Everything’s an Argument I found some interesting points that intrigued me. Like we talked about in class today the way certain images can portray different emotions and persuasions without text being involved shows the power of argument. Also in the passage it stated how everything from the simple statement “Hi, how’s it going?” can be a argument that your hello needs a response. This opened my eyes to how deep argumentation goes. I’d never really thought of how even something that conversational could be interpreted as an argument and that in my everyday conversation with a friend we probably give quite substantial persuasive arguments on which restaurant we would like to eat at without much thought. Back on the wikipedia readings, the religious debates definitely caught my attention the most. I am a Christian that in no way is perfect or even close, but I try my best not to cast the first stone at others. I feel that sometimes people consume their time on persecuting others because they feel the need to be showy of their faith or because they are lacking something themselves. It was even stated in the passage that the Wiccan’s, which is a religion that is a main target to the critics, have very different beliefs and have little in common with the “magic” of Harry Potter. That alone makes me feel that people who are starting major problems and putting labels on the Harry Potter series have little true knowledge to what they are even fighting about. In the words of Cross Canadian Ragweed they “Don’t even know what it is that they’re fighting for!” (I like Texas Country music :)) I could go deeper into my thoughts on the subject but I’ll save that for one of my papers and plus I don’t want to lose my two followers for being boring.